Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Thanks: To Kristy for the challenge, thank you so much, I hope it became what you expected it to be. If not, I'm sorry. But I quite like it like this.

A/N: Alright, this is a short fic about Brass going to check up on Sara when Grissom is away from home. The one who can guess the movie I'm talking about in it gets a cookie! (with chocolate…) Also, this was beta-ed by me, so there will still be errors, sorry for that! Enjoy reading and let me know what you think.

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Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye

"You are everything you ought to be
So just let your heart reach out to me
Keep my life, in your eyes
Say goodnight, not goodbye"
- Chantal Kreviazuk

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She had a rough day to say the least. Grissom had left for his sabbatical and their goodbye had been rough. She hated saying goodbye, especially with her being pregnant now. He promised her he would come back as soon as he could, to be there for her and their child. She just prayed he would be back before it was born, she needed him there with her for that moment.

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Begin of flashback:

"I don't want to say goodbye, I'm not ready to," she whispered to him. She didn't want him to leave her, not like this. The sabbatical at one time had seemed like a good idea, but now she was having her doubts. It had taken him some months to arrange it all, but now they were at the airport and their goodbyes would now be more permanent.

He smiled sadly at her, his hands on her hips. "Then say goodnight, not goodbye," he said and chuckled lightly. "I promised you I'd come back, to you. So it's not a goodbye, it will never be," he whispered as he placed a kiss to her forehead. "You know I don't break my promises."

She'd smiled back at him and closed her eyes, enjoying the intense feeling of being so close to him. She could feel his heartbeat as he pulled her against him, also needing to have her close, at least one last time. "But what if you don't want to come back, what if you meet somebody there and forget about me," she rambled, knowing that what she was saying wasn't making any sense at all.

"Sara… look at me," he whispered when he raised her chin gently with his finger. He looked deep into her eyes as he cupped her cheeks. "Nobody will ever mean as much to me as you," he said, before capturing her lips with his own.

She nodded and reluctantly pulled back when it was time, she swallowed, willing her tears to stop falling as she watched him. "I will always love you," she said, her voice thick with emotion as they held hands.

"I love you too," he said, and released her hand, his eyes burning with tears. He slowly turned around and started walking to the gate. Slowly but steadily his tears started to fall down as he turned around one more time, blowing her a kiss.

It was then her knees gave in, sending her to the cold floor. She cried a fresh batch of tears as she brought herself to blow him a kiss back. She didn't notice the people looking at her, when she was sitting there on the floor. She only saw him, his eyes, looking at her, until he disappeared in the crowd.

End of flashback.

- - - - -

Sitting curled up on the couch she blew over the surface of her hot chocolate. The TV was turned on to some science channel, but she wasn't really looking. Just when she was about to grab a book, she heard a knock on the front door.

Hesitantly, she got to her feet. Nobody knew she was here right? ...Nobody she knew at least. She made her way over to the front door and looked through the peep-hole. 'Brass?' She asked herself. 'What is he doing here? There is no way I can open the door for him, he doesn't know about us. What if he finds out?' All thoughts flew through her head as she was deciding between opening the door and pretending nobody was home.

But her scientific side took over, telling her to open the door, because he had already saw the lights on. She put her hand on the handle and unlocked the door, pulling it open. She smiled at Brass and opened the door wider, pretending nothing was going on. "Come in," she said, stepping aside.

Brass grinned as he took off his coat, hanging it on the coat rack. He entered the living room and took his time analysing the situation. "So you're staying at Grissom's condo while he's gone, eh?" He asked, looking around a little and spotting some photos of them together. He pretended he didn't see them as he sat down on the couch.

Sara nodded, a slight blush on her face. She looked to her feet nervously, and decided to pretend she was only staying here while he was gone. "Yeah… he uh, needed someone to take care of his pets while he was gone. And well, my place is pretty small, so he offered me to stay here," she said, glad he wasn't suspecting anything. "So, can I get you anything?"

"Right," Brass nodded. "If he'd asked me, I'd probably use pesticides to get rid of them," he chuckled as he watched Sara scurry around in the kitchen. "But yeah, I'd say I would love some scotch, but since I'm driving I'll settle for Schweppes."

Sara chuckled. "That's very thoughtful of you," she said with a smile. She browsed through the fridge and came up with two different bottles. "American Ginger Ale or Bitter Lemon?" She asked, holding up the bottles for him to see.

"Bitter Lemon," he replied with a slight grin on his face. "Never liked the other one."

Sara smiled as she grabbed herself a Bitter Lemon and came back into the living room. She took a seat in the recliner and tried to relax. She took a long sip before she looked at Brass. "So why this visit?" She asked gently, hoping he wouldn't find out about her and Grissom, she didn't know if Grissom would want her to tell him.

Brass grinned and set his glass back down at the coffee table. "Gil called me and asked me to check up on you...Since you were in his house. So well, here I am," he said, thoroughly enjoying her reaction as she blushed slightly. She wasn't very good at hiding things from him, she never had been.

"Well I'm doing okay, most of the time I'm working anyways… I cleaned the house a bit this morning," she said, nervously chewing her nails as she looked around for any signs that might reveal her relationship with Grissom.

"I'm sure he'll be pleased with that," he said and smiled at her again. "So you'll be okay on your own? Or you need some company?"

After brushing a strand of hair out of her face, she answered him, "I'd love some company, thank you. You had any ideas in mind?"

Brass chuckled. "Well, there's a very good baseball match…"

"No way!" Sara chuckled out loud as she took another sip of her Bitter Lemon, subconsciously rubbing her belly. Brass noticed the gesture and smiled to himself, this was something he didn't know yet. Grissom had only told him about them being together, nothing more. He was quickly pulled out of his thoughts by Sara's question.

"We could watch a movie?"

He nodded, downing his glass and setting it on the table again. "Seems like a good idea, what one did you have in mind?"

"Uhm, well I'd love to see a romantic movie," she smiled, her eyes tearing up a small bit as she remembered she would be alone for a long time. She wished Grissom was there, she needed to feel him close, needed to have his arms around her at night, his hands up on her belly in the morning when she woke…

"Sara," Brass asked, seeing how she'd drifted off. "I hate romantic movies, but well... it's your decision," he offered, scrunching his face at the word 'romantic'.

Sara smiled and looked at the DVD's in the small cabinet. "Well there's not much here. The most romantic thing I can find is 'A Bug's Life'," she chuckled. "Maybe there's a good one on TV tonight," she said as she grabbed the TV guide, browsing to the right pages. "Well there's 'Brokeback Mountain' on tonight and 'Serendipity'. You choose."

He frowned a bit, as if in deep thought. "Well, 'Serendipity' sounds very sappy, let's settle for the other one, the 'Broken Mountain', or whatever," he offered.

"Great, I love that movie," she said, putting the TV on. "You want another one of that?" She asked as she picked up his glass from the table.

He nodded, "Thank you."

About thirty minutes into the movie, Brass was already hanging sideways on the couch with his eyes closed. The only thing that woke him was the ringing of the phone. Sara watched at how Brass groggily stirred awake and chuckled when he realized he was being watched.

"Good movie, eh?" Sara asked.

"Oh, yeah," he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Shouldn't you pick up that phone?"

Sara chuckled. "Probably," she said, grabbing it and going into the bedroom for some more privacy. She knew it was Grissom, he promised he'd call her around this hour.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey yourself," Grissom replied. "How are you?"

Sara let herself fall back on the bed with the phone clutched to her ear. "Missing you," she whispered as she pulled his pillow tight to her. "It's so quiet here without you around."

Grissom let out a deep sigh, "I miss you too honey, very much."

"Then why don't you come back to me?" She replied, asking like a child would ask for candy or a cookie.

"Sara I need to do this, you understand that right?" He asked her carefully.

"Of course I understand baby. So… what does Jim know?" She asked, needing to know what he had told him, and if he had told him anything.

Grissom chuckled. "He was obvious wasn't he? Well I told him about us, but he only knows we're together, nothing about the baby," he said.

"Hmmm," she hummed. "Good, but he pretended he didn't know anything," she said chuckling.

"Sounds like Jim," he replied as they chatted some more. By then it had died down to whispering how much they missed each other and how much they loved each other. Sara decided this was a good moment to hang up, before she would burst out in tears.

"Alright, you take care of yourself," he said.

"You take care of yourself as well," she whispered as she kissed the air. "I'll count the heartbeats until you return. Love you, bye," she said as they hung up.

When she came back into the living room, she saw Brass was watching the baseball match. "You sneaky…" She didn't finish her sentence because a grin broke through on her face. She went over to him, and poked him. "You knew!"

Brass chuckled loudly. "Yeah, he told me before he left. He also told me to make sure I kept an eye on you, that's why I'm here," he said, and stood up, giving her a big brotherly hug. "You won't believe how glad I am he actually pulled his head out of his ass."

Sara laughed with him as she hugged him back. "Me too," she said and couldn't help but be reminded of a movie she'd seen not too long ago. "Assssshoooooole," she giggled.

Brass just raised his eyebrow. "Uh, whatever."

- - - - -

A week later Brass was over at their place again, his feet propped up on the coffee table as if he was home. He was sipping a beer, awaiting the return of his friend. But he pretended nothing was going on, because if Sara didn't know yet, it would be a surprise.

When a knock on the door followed he grinned. Sara looked at him, confused. "You invited somebody?"

He shook his head, pretending he knew nothing. "I didn't do nothing."

Sara just went to open the door, finding Grissom on the other side. She let out a loud squeal and threw her arms around his neck, showering him with kisses. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she whispered as she held onto him tightly.

Brass decided to give them some privacy and slipped out through the back door, he didn't want to be an intruder on their happiness.

Grissom smiled as he kissed her softly, his arms around her waist. "If we had said goodbye there would be no turning back, but we said goodnight, so now we can say good morning."

The End

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