"You're an ass!" The blonde woman at the door pushed her way through into the apartment.

"Good morning Catherine, it's nice to see you too." Grissom scowled as he shut the door.

"Good morning!" She said snidely. "And you're still an ass!" She removed her jacket and placed it over the back of a chair. Grissom looked at her, clueless as to what he had done. She sighed heavily.

"The lab needs you here? The lab needs you here!" She was starting to get really worked up now, her hands were moving all over the place gesturing while she talked. Grissom looked at her blankly, knowing now what she was talking about he knew it would be in his best interest to wait until she was finished ranting before he tried to defend himself; not that he could.

"Gil, one of the best criminalists to walk through the doors of the lab threatens to leave and the best you can come up with to make her stay is, the lab needs you here? My God you're dense! Even putting aside your feelings for her, even as a supervisor could you not have come up with something better?" He looked up at her remorsefully.

"What was I supposed to say Catherine? She surprised me with it...I didn't know what to say; you know how I am with situations like this." He attempted to defend himself.

"I know how you are with people. But Gil this is Sara we're talking about, how are you going to let her just walk away." Her tone was less angry now, she was calming down.

"I don't know!" He snapped back. He sighed. "I don't know. I don't want her to go, I just don't know what to do." She shook her head.

"You really are hopeless." She laughed slightly. He scowled again.

"Thanks that was very helpful."

"You have to fix this Gil, she's leaving because of your insensitivity that means it's up to you to get her to stay. You just have to lift your head up out of that microscope every once in a while, and soon...because if you don't the next time you look up she might not be there." Catherine sighed and looked him in the eyes, trying to see if her words had registered. He nodded slowly and she saw an idea come to him; she smiled knowing her words had not fallen on deaf ears and hoping that this would mean the start of a better time for the two.

He moved to the kitchen and looked for something in a drawer. Taking out a little black book of phone numbers, he flicked through the pages until he found the one he was looking for, then picked up the phone and dialled. Catherine looked over the back of the couch into the kitchen at him as he fumbled around awkwardly and smiled.

"Yeah, hi. I-I-I'd like to get some flowers for a girl. No, no. Not flowers, a plant, a living plant – she likes vegetation. Yeah, that'd be fine. To a Sara Sidle." He gave instructions on where to send the plant. Catherine smiled proudly.

"Atta boy!" She muttered to herself.

"The sentiment? Have it say... Have it say, from Grissom." He sighed and hung up the phone, hoping that this small effort could persuade her to stay.

-

Sara sat in the locker room with the plant sitting on the bench in front of her, studying it. It was a plant, it was pretty, it was thoughtful, it was from Grissom, but what did it mean. Did he really think that this plant would be enough to make her forget about everything else and stay? Who was she kidding, it was Grissom, and did he ever think anything through like a normal human being? She stared at the plant again, confusion written on her face as she tried in vain to figure it out.

"Hey." Catherine greeted her as she entered the locker room.

"Hey." Sara replied, sounding distracted.

"What's that?" Catherine nodded towards the plant sitting on the bench.

"It's...a plant." Sara shrugged. She was giving up. Catherine shut her locker door and sat down on the bench beside Sara, on the other side of the plant. She looked down awkwardly, knowing she probably shouldn't be saying what she was about to say, knowing that what she was about to say probably wasn't going to go down very well, but still she couldn't help herself.

"I uh... I heard about what happened...between you and Grissom." Sara looked down at the floor and pursed her lips together. "Look I know it's not my place and you probably don't want to hear this from me but Sara, don't leave. I know Grissom can be an ass, and look I don't know what happened between you two in the past, but I do know he has feelings for you. It's just he's been burned so badly in the past he just doesn't know how to act around people anymore. But...he's trying." Catherine looked down at the plant he had sent her. I was cute in a quirky sort of way, she knew Sara would appreciate it. Sara looked up at Catherine.

"Thanks." She forced a little half smile. Catherine smiled back and shrugged. "Why are you doing this?" Sara asked, curious because she had always thought the older CSI had seen her as a threat.

"You're too good to lose." She shrugged. "And I like having another woman around her to work with in this testosterone pool. And I don't want to see you hurt your career because Grissom can't get his head together. And because I think you make him happy, and we both know he could use a little bit more of that in his life." Catherine smiled, lifted her bag and walked towards the door.

"Thanks!" Sara smiled at her as she left. With a sigh she turned back and faced the plant again, this time with a smile on her face. She picked it up, grabbed her bag from her locker and left as well.

-

"I got your plant." Sara opened and stepped inside the door of Grissom's office closing it behind her. Grissom looked up from the mountain of paperwork on his desk at Sara.

"I uh...I hope you liked it." He stammered slightly, looking over his glasses at her.

"It was lovely. Thank you." She said sincerely making her way towards his desk and sitting down in a chair facing him. He smiled at her, almost boyishly.

"This doesn't fix things though, there's still a problem here and a plant can't make that go away." She looked him right in the eye as she spoke. He frowned, looking sad and remorseful.

"I see." He muttered so quietly she could barely hear him.

"But..." She smiled. "It is a start." He lifted his head immediately, his blue eyes looked hopeful.

"Does that mean...you're staying?"

"Yes...but there'll have to be some changes Grissom. If things just go back to the way they were I will leave." She warned him but still she smiled.

"That's great!" He grinned back at her. With a nod Sara stood and excused herself.

"I have to get back to work." She smiled.

"Of course. I'll see you later." He said as she walked out the door and down the hall. Grissom picked his phone up from the desk and flipped it open. Opening a new screen he typed a new message.

'She's staying!'

Send to Catherine Willows. He flipped the phone closed and smiled again to himself.

-

1 new message.

Catherine was at home lying in bed on her day off when she got the message. Rolling over she picked up her phone and pressed the button to read the message. She smiled when she read it.

"Way to go Gil." She mutter before rolling back over and going back to sleep.