Title: The Little Things

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I pleaded my case, but apparently watching CSI religiously does not mean you own it. :-(

Spoilers: None really, though a mild one for PWF.

Notes: I have no idea where this plotline came from, but I decided to see what would happen if Grissom and Sara were together, but kept it a secret from everyone. Would they be able to carry on as normal, or would they inadvertently give themselves away. They do, after all, work with professional investigators. ;-)

Part 1

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"I cannot believe you did that!"

"What?" said Sara innocently as Nick shook his head in amazement. "Oh, you mean doing the crossword before Grissom?" He nodded mutely. "Grissom never does this one here, it's always left lying around," she assured.

"It's not just that," said Nick. He had just watched her complete the NY Times crossword in record time and was still stunned. "You finished it in, like, ten minutes. That's incredible. Grissom's gonna be pissed."

Sara cocked her head at that statement, unwittingly mimicking Grissom's own usual expression of confusion. "Why?"

"I'm pretty sure he could never do that crossword as fast as you just did."

"Oh, that," she shrugged.

"Seriously, Sara, I knew you were smart, but didn't think you were quite that smart. I mean, damn, ten minutes?" Sara smiled at him, picking up a journal from the table and starting to flick through the pages. "Like I said, Grissom is gonna be pissed."

"About what?" asked a voice from the doorway. They both looked up to find Grissom eyeing them curiously, awaiting an answer.

Nick shared a look with Sara and let a smirk form on his face as he replied, "Sara did the Times crossword and she completed the whole thing in ten minutes." With his mischievous deed done, Nick rose and left the room, Sara's glare wearing a hole in his back.

"Actually, Nick," called Sara, causing him to stop in his tracks, "it was eight minutes. If you're gonna tattle, at least get your facts straight." With a laugh, Nick resumed walking.

"You finished the crossword?" said Grissom as he took a step towards the table, looking down at the finished article full of Sara's scribblings. "In eight minutes?" he queried when Sara didn't reply. She smirked at him challengingly as he picked up the paper to check her answers. "You know, it would take most people eight minutes just to read all the clues, never mind answer them."

"I'm not most people," she shrugged, her tone full of nonchalance.

"When are you going to tell him?" Sara looked blank so he elaborated, "Nick. When are you going to tell him you cheated?"

"Who says I cheated?" she replied, her tone neutral.

"I do." He took a seat at the table and looked at her mock-sternly. "You didn't solve this crossword puzzle, Sara, you memorized it."

"Really? How could I have done that?"

"Possibly when you watched me complete it first thing this morning, when we got off shift."

"Hmm, I don't really remember, I think you'll have to refresh my memory," she said playfully, her voice low and sultry.

"Let me set the scene," he said, playing along with her. "I was sitting on my couch, doing the Times crossword as I do every morning, part of my ritual. You decided that there weren't enough comfortable seats in my house, so opted for sitting on my lap instead of in a chair."

"Hmm," she murmured, running a finger along her lips, a thoughtful look on her face.

"You watched me complete the crossword which, I might add, took me twenty minutes longer to complete, mainly because of someone distracting me." Sara chuckled as he looked at her over the rim of his glasses. "You must have memorized the answers and then used them to play some sort of trick on Nick. Am I close?"

"I don't know, are you?" she said huskily. Grissom didn't miss the double-entendre and raised his eyebrows. "I didn't do it to play a trick," she said slowly, "that was just an added bonus." Her gap-toothed grin appeared and Grissom shifted in his seat, looking out into the hallway to make sure no-one was around. "I wanted to see how much I could remember. I did try to memorize it," she admitted, "but I didn't think it would be that much, since I was kinda distracted myself."

"You were distracted?" he said with mild incredulity. "I seem to remember differently." He was remembering how her hands had found their way into the hair at the nape of his neck and had started slowly rubbing.

"You were engrossed in your crossword," she defended, "and you had this gleam in your eyes, you always get it when you're figuring something out. There's nothing I find sexier than a man who knows what he's doing." The double meaning in her words was once again evident and Grissom couldn't prevent a smile forming.

"Are you going to tell Nick you cheated?" he finally asked, desperately hoping to change the subject.

Sara stood up and walked to the table, placing her hands down on top of it and looking at him intently. "If I do that, I might have to explain exactly how I cheated, how I knew all the answers when he knows I don't buy newspapers at home because they depress me further." Grissom met her gaze unflinchingly. "He's gonna ask why you're not bothered about me completing it so fast though. What should I tell him?" She stretched across the table, leaning impossibly close to him and he fought hard to raise his eyes to hers again, tearing himself away from her body parts that were at his eye level.

"Tell him I'm prepared to rise to the challenge," he said in a low voice, pushing away from the table and standing. Sara looked at him, trying to decide if there was a hidden meaning to his words. She received the answer as Grissom gave her a devilish wink as he left the room

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TBC…

Next up will be Warrick. What will he notice?