My Pilot project, it's a retelling of Living Doll/Dead Doll. Please enjoy and leave reviews. :)
Thanks to Miss Woozy for being my beta on this one.

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING :)

Chapter One

"Good job in there guys, I wouldn't have done it differently myself," Grissom said to his team.

"Why weren't you on the stand again Grissom?" Catherine Willows, the blonde, rebellious CSI asked.

He smiled, his blue eyes crinkling. "I had a murder-suicide to attend to, remember?"

"Yeah, thank God court didn't take too long," Nick Stokes stated, glancing at his watch. "Only 6 hours." He laughed, together with Sara Sidle, the tall brunette, Warrick Brown, the tall dark CSI with light green eyes and Greg Sanders, the young ex lab-tech with brown highlighted hair.

"Okay, time to get some rest. I'll let shift end early today because you were all in court. See you back here tomorrow." Grissom looked at Sara, "Sara, can I see you in my office?" He said, before walking towards his office. The others all automatically glanced at Sara to see if she was worried, but she just smiled.

"Catch you guys later." She practically skipped towards the locker room, leaving the four bewildered CSI in her wake.

A whole day, give or take a few hours, with Grissom was exactly what she wanted. It wasn't everyday that she got to spend time with him. 'And I even managed to rattle Catherine, score!' She thought to herself.

When she arrived at her lockers, the metallic smell, not unlike blood, brought her back to her senses. She opened the locker door and took out her slightly heavy kit, draping her jacket over her arm.

Arriving at Grissom's office, the first thing she noticed was the plaque on his desk that read 'Gil Grissom, Supervisor'. She felt a warm feeling in her stomach and a slight light-headedness that always seemed to plague her whenever she remembered he was her boss.

"Sara! What took you so long?" Grissom asked her, smiling. He emerged from a corner holding a thick book.

She smiled back, before adding, "The guys were kinda holding me back, plus I had to get my stuff." She lifted her kit to show him. "Hey, I want to try out that new restaurant down by the Strip, let's go out for dinner," she said, smiling at him.

He took in her sparkling eyes, and sighed. "I'll love to Sara, but this paperwork is killing me."

Her smile quickly disappeared, replaced instead with an unreadable look. "Well, okay then, I guess I'll get takeout then, for us?" She looked at him, daring him to say he was too busy. Grissom smiled, nodding.

"I'll get this done as soon as I can. I'll be back around 10, if that's okay." Sara nodded, giving him a tiny smile.

"Later," she called out, exiting the door.

He watched her fade into the darkness, not knowing it might be the last time he saw her.

The two boxes in her hand felt different, but in a good way as she spent most of her time with cold bodies. They were both filled: one with fried noodles with mushrooms; the other with rice and sweet and sour pork, from the newest Chinese restaurant on the strip.

Her environmentally friendly Toyota Prius was within her sight, parked in a corner. She pushed the button on her key to open the trunk. Before she could place the steaming containers in the trunk, someone called her name. Turning around, she dropped the containers, instinctively reaching for her gun.

Before she had time to react, she felt herself fall and everything went black.

An hour after Sara left him; Grissom was feeling tired – and hungry. He looked at his watch – 8pm. He thought about going to the department's cafeteria, but suddenly remembered a special late night meeting that was being held, and bumping into the Sheriff or Ecklie was not something he particularly wanted to do. In the end, he decided to just get a soda.

Getting up, he walked towards the vending machine, which was unfortunately at the other end of the floor to his office, and put in several coins. The can dropped, clinking loudly at the bottom of the machine. He jumped a little; finally noticing how quiet and empty the place was, despite the meeting. Well, if the Sheriff and Ecklie wanted to have a meeting without him, why should he complain?

The coldness of the drink brought him back to his senses, and he got back to his office in half the time it took him to walk there. It was then that he noticed it – the box.

It was sitting on his desk, looking as though it belonged there. He knew it wasn't there when he left his office a few minutes before, so he went closer to study it, inspecting it from all angles, hoping to find a clue as to its sender. 'That's what you get for sending something to an experienced CSI.' He thought to himself. All it read was 'Gil Grissom', with his office address.

As he carefully opened the box with a blade, his eyes grew wide. "This is not happening." He said loudly to himself, his voice echoing around the empty office, hand automatically reaching for his cellphone.