It had started simply enough.
"I need some help with some pictures."
How many times a week did they make statements like that at the lab. How often did they ask each other for help with evidence, with procedure, with recreations?
You never knew when you were going to find yourself freezing to the bone as you watched a pig in a blanket. Not a sausage in a pastry, an actual to God pig, slowly bloating, in a blanket. Or when you were going to be compressed with weights or spattered with blood or bound to Grissom-knows-what. It came with the job.
I could even be fun.
"What kind of pictures, Gris?"
"Sara." He'd looked at his shoes, as if they held all life's answers. Maybe they did. They sure as hell weren't in his eyes. She'd looked. Often.
"What sort of pictures, Grissom?"
"The Kincaid case. We're trying to undo the computer distortions from the emails, but we need a baseline picture series to measure from. Angles, skin tones for light refraction."
Suddenly her shoes were fascinating too. Bondage, rape, suspension, repeated sexual assault. Kincaid. The cops were already calling it "Kink-aid."
"You're kidding, right?"
He'd shaken his head, but muttered, "Never mind. Sorry."
"No," she'd said, full of the reckless, self-destructive bravado that overtook her whenever he wanted her. For anything. "I'll do it."