AUTHOR: Amanda Hawthorn

TITLE: CSIs in Oz

CATEGORY: Humour/romance

ARCHIVE: Grissomandsara.com and my site

FEEDBACK: Love it, but no flames please I'm fragile!!

EMAIL: [email protected]

SPOILERS: Tiny season 4 mentions

SUMMARY: At a CSI convention, G/S authors start disappearing. Grissom and the team come along to investigate and are transported to an Oz world.

DISCLAIMER: CSI belongs to CBS and Alliance-Atlantis Productions. No infringement intended.

AUTHORS' NOTES: This story came about when Anansay and myself had a bizarre conversation online and came up with this crazy idea. Hugs to Anansay for filling my head with this fic! Huge thanks to the following authors who gave their kind permission to be kidnapped: Mossley, Burked, IrishDachsie, Laredo Grissom, LSI, Xant, Anansay, Laura Katharine, Hazeleyes57, Gibby, Sara Grissom, Anya, TriplePirouette, Imagine Jorja, Jane Moss and Marlou.

Also thank you to the contributing authors who provided their own rescue lines, and to Rosa for allowing herself to be included in the story. Huge thanks also to Laura Katharine, Marlou and LSI for their positive reaction to the early chapters of this story.

Thanks as always to Marlou for her beta work and Mossley for her beta help too.

                                                         CSIs in Oz

                                                           

"Okay…" Grissom breathed out as he came striding into the break room, breaking the conversation that had been flowing through the room. "We have a mass disappearance at some kind of convention down town. It's all hands on tonight."

"A convention?" Sara asked slowly, pushing her chair back as she stood up.

"Yeah, I don't have much information other than that." Hovering in the doorway, Grissom waited for her to join him and looked at the others expectantly. "Bring Greg, he could be useful on this one."

"Sure," Nick grinned, "he'll flip out."

"Okay, we'll grab our stuff and meet you out front," Catherine told them, pulling Warrick out of the room alongside her.

Shaking his head, Grissom started walking along the corridor with Sara. "What was that about?"

"What?"

"Catherine and Warrick."

"Oh that…you know Grissom, you really should start paying attention around here." Flashing him a beaming smile, Sara fished the car keys from his hand and headed for the exit. "I'm driving!"

"Hey…" he protested, but she was already gone.

                                                                      ***

They arrived at the convention to find a sea of people gathered both inside and outside of the building. Grissom walked just a little in front of Sara, his eyes flitting from one face to another. "Is it my imagination or are they all watching us?" Sara whispered nervously when she leaned closer to him.

"Stop being paranoid," he told her softly as they walked, knowing that she was probably right; it did seem that they were both under surveillance.

Moving closer to the entrance they were surprised to see the crowd part before them allowing them to walk through with ease. Sara shot Grissom a suspicious glance and reached out to grab his jacket sleeve. "This is scary."

"Sara…" Coming to an abrupt stop, Sara crashed into him.

"Grissom," she protested. "That…Oh my!" Her eyes caught sight of what he was looking at and she suddenly felt very uncomfortable. There seemed to be hundreds of people gathered around, their chatter suddenly dying away to watch them.

"Mr. Grissom," a woman's voice called as she neared them. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Uh…we got a call about missing persons?" He asked cautiously, noting how the conversation around them resumed pretty quickly.

"Authors."

"Excuse me?" Sara asked.

"Authors have gone missing," the woman repeated. Holding out her hand she smiled, "Hi I'm Rosa, it's good to finally meet you."

Sara looked down at the hand and then to Grissom before tentatively reaching out to shake the woman's hand. "You said authors?"

"Yes, mostly G/S authors although a couple of G/C authors have been reported missing as well."

"G/S?" Sara asked, shaking her head slightly.

Before Rosa could respond the rest of the team made their way towards them.

"Hi guys," Nick grinned, "sorry we're late."

"Have you got a list of people who are missing?" Grissom asked quickly, his curiosity piqued.

"Oh yes. Sorry." Rosa nodded, "if you'd all like to follow me, I'll show you."

"So Rosa," Sara started as they started walking. "This is a convention right?"

"It is."

"What kind of convention?"

"Oh, it's a get-together for fans of the show," Rosa smiled.

Grissom shared Sara's confusion and asked, "What show?"

"Yours."

"Huh?" Sara looked around to the others, her eyes glancing to Nick who also shook his head. "Whose?"

"Yours."

"Mine?" Sara shook her head and reached out to stop Rosa before she could go any further.

"It's a CSI convention," she explained with a smile.

"Wow, I didn't know CSIs had conventions," Nick grinned, "cool."

"No no, it's a convention where all fans of the show come together and meet up," Rosa held up a hand to stop any more questions. "As I was explaining before, many G/S authors have disappeared and I doubt it's to get together and write one long fic."

"Okay…I'm confused," Catherine sighed. "First off…G/S…what is that?"

Greg gasped from behind the group and came closer, "Oh wow, this is cool…people write about us?" Waggling his eyebrows at Sara he winked in her direction.

"Yeah, G/S, G/C, N/S, W/C, S/C even some Gr/N in there too. There's actually a few more too."  Rosa smiled at the team and waited patiently until one of them figured it out.

"G/S," Greg beamed, "Greg/Sara…they write about us…"

"Grissom/Sara," Rosa corrected, bursting Greg's bubble as sudden realization dawned on Sara.

She glanced quickly at Grissom, noticing the rosy flush creeping up his face. "They…Uh…they write about us?"

"Wait a minute," Catherine asked, her mind swirling. "G/C?"

"Grissom/Catherine." Rosa provided.

Sara's eyes shot to Grissom's accusingly as she ground to a halt to pull him to a stop with her. He shook his head worriedly while he took a step back. "Uh…"

"What?" Catherine gasped, frantically catching Warrick's eyes before looking back at Grissom. "Uh… no offence Gil, but ewww."

"None taken," he nodded, relieved that the accusations had started to die from Sara's eyes.

Rosa opened her bag and pulled out a stack of A4 size paper that was held together by a plastic binder and handed it over to Grissom. "Anansay's Jazzy Lust," she winked, "thought you could use a few pointers."

Grissom opened the first few pages; his eyes tentatively reading a few lines and then slapped the booklet shut quickly, his face turning crimson. "Uh…thank you."

"No problem," Rosa smiled, her hands motioning the booklet he held against his chest rather possessively. "There's a good selection in there by some of the missing authors. IrishDachsie, Anya and Hazeleyes57.You might want to try some of Laura Katharine's, Burked's and Mossley's fics too "

"Do I really want to know?" Sara asked quickly, noting how Grissom's breathing had started to increase.

"Ask Grissom later," Rosa grinned. Turning around, she started to walk again, "This is the last place they were all seen."

Catherine and Warrick started to follow her, Nick and Greg towing behind. Sara glanced over at Grissom who had opened the pages again to sneak a quick peak inside until he realized Sara was watching him. Closing the booklet he opened his kit and shoved it inside. "Shall we go?"

"What's in those pages?" She asked curiously.

He coughed and loosened the button on his shirt, was it getting warm in here? He felt Sara come closer to his side and swallowed down his increasing heart rate. "Nothing."

"Grissssssom," she purred, her breath close to his ear as she touched his arm. She couldn't help herself, being here had given her some kind of buzz knowing now what she knew, that people actually wrote about them. Then the title hit her suddenly, Jazzy Lust? Oh my. Releasing his arm, she started to walk behind the others and cast him a luring smile. "Coming?"

"Uh…Yeah."

When they caught up with the others, they were all stunned to find what looked like a huge whirlpool in the floor at the basement of the building. "How did this get here?" Nick marvelled as he stepped a little closer to the edge.

"Nick, be care…" Catherine's words died on her lips when Nick suddenly toppled over the edge. Greg reached out to grab him and found himself being pulled into the whirlpool. Warrick lunged forward to hold onto Greg but the suction started to pull him down too until finally Catherine ran forward to grab his hand.

"Catherine," Sara yelled, reaching forward to catch the blonde woman's hand but the suction was too strong and she found herself being pulled into the void as well.

Rosa quickly shoved a list of missing persons into Grissom's pocket before he reached down for his kit and lunged into the void after Sara and the rest of his team.

                                                                           ***

When Grissom finally landed, he fell with a thump on top of his team mates who all groaned loudly until he started to move. "Sorry," he hissed as he tried to move off of them. Finding his feet, he reached down to pull on Sara's hand, yanking her to her feet beside him.

One by one the others started to move, groaning as they climbed to their feet. "Where is this place?" Greg asked with a groan as he tried to pat his hair down.

"Give it up Greg," Nick winced, but grinned to mask the pain in his arm. Stepping closer, he reached over to help pat his friend's hair down and was met with a sticky mass of hair gel. "Ewwwww, man this is bad."

"Well it's not my fault you touched my hair!"

Nick scowled and looked around him, wiping his hand on his jacket. "Oh man, this place is funky."

Warrick steadied Catherine who wobbled on her feet beside him, his warm smile causing a soft blush to creep up her cheeks.

"You okay?" He drawled, his voice soothing her aching body like velvet.

"I'm fine," she smiled, "thanks."

Grissom was ignoring all of this odd behaviour that had seemed to take over his team and started to look around the floor in search of any clues.

"Hey Boss," a voice bellowed behind them and they all turned to see Hodges clambering down the grass banks. "I heard about this place so I thought I'd come and check it out for you."

Shaking his head, Grissom sighed heavily and started to look around him.

"What's up?" Sara asked quietly, touching his arm as she spoke.

"Where's my kit?"

Hodges came to stand next to Grissom and forcefully pushed Sara away from his side. "See Boss, I thought I could help out in the field …"

Out of nowhere, Grissom's field kit came tumbling out of the sky to land heavily on Hodges head, knocking him onto the floor.

Everyone jumped back, stunned, when he didn't move.

"Man, that's gotta hurt," Nick commented, his eyes catching everyone else's whose had suddenly fell onto him. "Well it's gotta!"

"Grissom," Sara whispered, pulling on his arm as she stepped back. "That could've been me."

Her words filled him with sudden dread and he had to fight to stop himself reaching out for her. Instead, he chose to touch her cheek with the palm of his hand.

Sara smiled and leaned into his palm, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "Chalk," he told her with a tiny smile, his hand slowly dropping from her face.

"Thanks Grissom." She smiled before moving away from him to go and take a peek at the now still Hodges.

"Okay, no one touch the body until I've had a chance to release it." Another familiar voice came from behind them and they all turned to see Doc Robbins coming slowly towards them with David in tow.

"Uh Doc…what are you doing here?" Grissom asked quickly, his eyes flittering from each member of his team.

"I'm here to establish the cause of death," Al muttered, shaking his head.

"I think that's pretty obvious here doc," Nick told him, his Texas drawl enticing a small smirk from Greg who stood beside him.

David bent over Hodges' still form and carefully lifted the kit from his head. "Ouch," he muttered when he saw the huge gouge in his forehead. Reaching down to check for a pulse, David withdrew his hand quickly. "He's alive!"

"How?" Grissom asked, his eyes cast skyward as he tried to fathom how far his kit had fallen.

"We'll deal with Hodges," Al told him quickly, "Hadn't you better be finding those missing authors?"

"Uh…yeah…I'll see you back at the lab." Bending down to pick up his dented kit, Grissom slipped his arm through Sara's and started to walk towards the brightly coloured road that led into the distance.

TBC