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."
"We'll mask out your face, but... well, we can mask out your face."
That's when it had hit her. He meant to shoot her nude. Not nude, naked. Defenseless, powerless, bound. She'd had to bite her cheek to keep from moaning.
"I don't know," he'd said suddenly, pulling back from asking anything of her. Two steps forward. Two steps back. The Grissom-Sidle tango, not for the faint of heart.
"Sure. Let's do it. Come on. I trust you." She'd thrown that at him, dared him. For once, it had worked.
"We'll seal a lab. I'll have someone on the door, develop it all myself." He still couldn't face her.
"No, let's use your place. I trust you. These guys here, no." She'd turned and started down the hallway. She looked back. "You coming?"