Sara leaned down and peered into the dead man's earway. She was listening to David tell her about the broken ear drum, momentarily feeling as if she had a pain in her own ear. She couldn't even imagine having that sort of thing happen inside her head. Once, when she was younger, she had stuck a Q-tip in too far and had quite the nasty sharp pain for a few moments, but this would have been a longer amount of abuse. And she knew it sure would have hurt worse.

She hardly looked up as Grissom came in behind her, "What do we have?"

Men. Her mind flashed back to Hank. Asshole. Girlfriend. Why the hell hadn't she seen it coming? She looked at evidence all damn day, but she couldn't put the facts together on Hank in order to see that he was just a pile of trash.

"Sara." she heard it said by one male voice and then softer by another.

She looked up from the ear, her eyes meeting with Grissom's, "Sorry." she said as both men exchanged glances.

"You okay?" David asked.

She smiled, "Sure." she said, avoiding Grissom's stare.

"Sorry about Hank." David said, causing Sara to falter a bit so that Grissom reached out to steady her.

"I'm fine." she said to both of them, offering Grissom a small smile as she pulled herself out of his soft grasp, "David was just telling me about the broken eardrums this poor kid sustained."

Sara watched as Grissom peered down into the ear. She was quietly happy that she didn't have to look either one of them in the eye right now.

And where in the hell had David found out the information on Hank and her breakup? God, word sure did travel fast.

Catherine! She felt sure it was her and no one else.

"Sara." again it was David's voice followed by Grissom's voice.

"I'm here." she said, but her mind truly was still on Hank. She was trying her best to stay in the moment, but all the moments she had spent with Hank kept popping up in her head. She was sorting through the evidence of Hank, trying to see what she might have missed.

"Do you need a moment?" Grissom was asking, a light furrow in his brow.

"No." she said as she straightened up quickly, her eyes avoiding Grissom's, "Go on with it David."

David began to go over the body with Grissom. Sara acted like she was listening, but her mind was far away.

"I'd love to take you to Hawaii." Hank had said one morning when Sara was pulling on her clothes, "I'd love to take you around the world."

Sara had taken him back into his bed. That is about the only place they really had been over the months of knowing him. And she had thought that she was falling in love. Falling for someone other than Gilbert Grissom.

Hawaii sounded wonderful.

So did a boyfriend without a girlfriend at home.

"Sara." this time it was only Grissom's voice.

She looked up, realizing that David was now gone from the room. It was now just Grissom and herself.

She smiled tightly, "Yeah."

"Are you here with me?" he was checking the mouth of the dead teenager, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." she grabbed for her camera, "I'm fine."

He stared at her for a moment, "Do we need to continue this after lunch?"

"Actually," she put her camera down, "that would be great."

Ten minutes later Sara found herself in the breakroom, leaned against the counter, drinking down a large cup of coffee.

"Hey." Nick appeared, grabbing the coffee pot, "You know me and Warrick have your back, right?"

Sara sipped more of the hot liquid down, "What does that mean?"

"That jerk Hank." Nick leaned on the counter, now pulling his arm up into a muscle shot, "These babies are meant to harm."

Catherine walked in, a gentle grin on her lips, "Put those guns away." she teased as she grabbed the coffee pot.

"Anyway," Nick said as he backed away from the two women, "you need us to take care of him, you just say the word."

Sara smiled as Nick left the breakroom.

"I had to tell them." Catherine said with an appologetic smile, "They were wondering why Hank avoided them at the scene the other day. It kind of pissed me off to hear his name, so I did some damage in telling the boys about what he did to you."

"Hence, them wanting to kick his butt." Sara said with a semi grin above the mug rim, "Just as long as you don't tell..."

"Just did." Catherine looked even more appologetic, "Sorry."

"Great." Sara said softly, now pouring the rest of the coffee into the sink drain.

"I had to." Catherine looked a bit desperate, "He was about to give you quite the talking to about last weeks case and now about how you acted in the autopsy room." she filled her cup again, "He seemed at his wits end."

"It's fine." Sara moved toward the door, "He was bound to find out about it at some time."

Sara walked quietly down the empty cooridor and out into the sunlight of the day. She pushed herself into the seat of her car, letting out a tired breath.

At about one thirty she saw Grissom re-entering the building.

She didn't really want to face him now that he knew. But, in all fairness to herself, what would he do about it? Probably act like he didn't even know.

She entered the autopsy room silently, her feet feeling like lead weights as she moved toward Grissom who was leaned over taking swabs of the feet, "You have a good lunch?" he asked without looking at her.

"Fine." she said as she picked her camera up, "You find anything yet?"

Silence met her question.

She clicked off a few pictures and then looked at him, he was eyeing her, "Did you eat?"

She placed her camera up to her eye again, snapping a few photo's of the ear, "I wasn't hungry."

"Sara." he said as if it were more of a command than just her name.

"I really wasn't hungry." she avoided his eyes as she snapped off about ten more pictures.

"Have dinner with me." he said.

Sara took the camera from her eyes, a furrow meeting her brow, "What?"

He looked back down at the swab, "If you have dinner with me I can be sure that you eat."

Sara lifted the camera back to her eye, taking a few shots of the knee he was swabbing, "This is a pity dinner." she said, her voice rising a bit, "I know Catherine told you about Hank."

"Just looking after my crew." he said with a slight nod of his head.

"Well, " she said as she placed her camera over her shoulder, "I don't need pity right now. Pity only makes me feel lonelier." she cleared her throat, "But...thanks."

He was eyeing her again, "What if I tell you you have to have dinner with me?"

"That would border on harassment, wouldn't it?" Sara almost smiled, but kept her feelings in check.

"I suppose." he said, curling his lips around the words, "It's free for you, so," he moved toward the door with his bagged swabs, "it's up to you."