And So it Goes...

By: Manigault

Spoilers: LLV and whatever else...I do hope there is no doom and gloom on the horizon for GSR but this is my way of taking my mind off the possible scary future.

...Enjoy...

Disclaimer: Not mine...All characters belong to CBS, etc...I'm just messing with them like they mess with me.

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He was gone. Just like that. Gone. Sara slammed her locker door shut and leaned her forehead against the cool metal door. She had seen the distracted look in his eyes over the past few weeks, recognized the mental wheel turning furiously inside his brillant mind, but she had chosen to pretend it was temporary and he would work it out. When she did approach him about what was wrong, he had shrugged and assured her that he would figure it out.

Moving back from the locker she found the bench press against the back of her knees and she slowly eased her numb body onto the hard surface. They had slowly built a relationship over the last two years that had given her such security in their relationship that in no part of her mind had she believed he would up and leave her for six weeks without dicussing the situation with her first. They lived together. They slept together. They made love. This felt like a surreal dream where the past two years were erased and they were back at square one. Why had he felt the need to keep her out of his decision? She wouldn't have tried to talk him out of it. She would have been there for him, supportive in what he felt he needed to do, assuring him that she would be waiting for him when he returned.

A new fear sprung to her mind and she felt her breath leave her chest in a rush. Maybe this was his way of letting her know that he didn't want things to be the same when he returned. If he returned. She had moved to Vegas for him and now he had left Vegas without asking her to go with him. Would he return?

Sara heard the door to the locker room open and she flinched, waiting for the person to speak. When there was no sound she risked a glance over and found Nick studying her with a concerned expression.

"Hey Sar, you okay?"

She should lie. Nick wasn't aware of her relationship with Grissom and couldn't possibly understand the implications of what his leaving so abruptly had done to her psyche. She should lie, but she didn't have it in her so she said crisply, "No."

Nick wasn't stupid, he knew like everyone else in the lab that Sara was hung up on Grissom and that his leaving would affect her on some level that it didn't the rest of the team. "Grissom will be back in a few short weeks and everything will be back to normal. You'll see."

Sara smirked. She couldn't help it. She loved Nick dearly as a friend, a good friend, but she couldn't help but think harshly about his naive comment. It wasn't his fault. It was a secret that she and Grissom had held close to their breast, a secret that could easily be balled up like a crumpled piece of paper and tossed in the trash can without a second look back. At least that was what she felt at that second.

"I'm tired, Nick, I'm going home." Sara stumbled over the last word and fought back the tears that had welled in her eyes. She wouldn't allow Grissom to do this to her, not like this. What was he a teenager who decided to break up with the girlfriend by not calling her and pretending that all would be fine and dandy. Shit. She wouldn't let him strip her of the confidence that she had nurtured over the past few years.

"Warrick and Greg want to grab breakfast and I was searching for you to see if you wanted to come with us?" Nick had been looking for Sara to ask her to join them so they could hash out the departure of Grissom and break apart the reasons for his leaving. Now he thought maybe it wouldn't be a good idea for Sara to be part of their discussion. He almost hoped she would turn him down and insist on going home.

An empty home or breakfast with friends. Sara weighed the options and decided to go with the breakfast with friends. "Count me in. I don't think that I could sleep right now."

"You know the subject of Grissom is bound to come up, Sara, don't you?" Nick felt inclined to warn her of the subject that he knew would be center to the conversation.

"Of course," Sara forced a smile to curl her lips. "We'll analyze his madness and try to break apart the reasons for his escape from Las Vegas."

Uncertainty settled in Nick's eyes as he watched Sara trying to put on a brave front, but maybe a morning out with friends would help ease her pain. This last thought put a frown on his face as he wondered at that sentiment and why it had popped into his mind. Pain. Sara was in pain and Grissom was the cause.

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"I wonder where he's gone on sabbatical," Greg said between mouthfuls of pancakes. Confusion washed over his face as he contemplated his own words, "who uses words like "sabbatical" anyways?"

"Grissom." Nick replied as he waved to someone on the other side of the diner.

Sara's eyes followed his motion and she inwardly groaned. Now they would be joined by Sophia and Brass who would add to the fervor of discussion about where Grissom went and why he left. She shouldn't have agreed to breakfast. She should have taken a long drive away from Vegas and spent the day contemplating what had gone wrong with herself and Grissom.

"Hey guys," Brass dragged a chair over to the table and took a seat as Sophia slid into the booth beside Nick. "So what's the word on Grissom?"

"I thought maybe you could tell us, Jim, seeing as you and Grissom are buds." Greg pulled another stack of pancakes towards him as he shot a quick look over towards the older man. He knew that Grissom told him that he and Brass didn't hang out after work, but everyone knew they shared a drink after heavy cases.

"I have no clue," Brass shook his head in bewilderment. "I know that seeing that poor bastard kill himself really shook him up, but he's seen worse than that over the years. I guess it was a multitude of cases building up over time that made him want to get away for awhile. I don't even know where he's gone."

Sara pushed her toast around on her plate and considered telling them the truth. What did it matter if they knew he had gone to Williams to teach for a few weeks. At least she knew that much. Apparently it was more than he had revealed to anyone else.

"Where do you think he went, Sara?"

The question was asked by Sophia who had zeroed in on Sara's distracted state.

With a light shrug, Sara bit her lip and held back the retort that sprung to her lips. "If he was smart then he went someplace tropical."

"I can't see Grissom going anyplace with snow, that's for sure," Greg joked as everyone with the exception of Sara joined in the laughter.

"Speaking of tropical," Warrick interjected, "the wife wants to make a trip to Florida to visit her grandparents. Anyone interested in picking up my shift for the next two nights?"

"I'll take them." Sara said quickly. Work would keep her mind off of him. She hoped. Although being in the lab without Grissom around some corner or other would be difficult it would have to be better than staring at an empty townhome. Anger tried to rise to the surface as she recalled Grissom's insistance that she let her apartment lease go and move in with him. That had been almost a year ago. She had no place to retreat that didn't involve Grissom.

"You do know that Florida isn't tropical, right War?" Nick teased his friend while spearing a piece of toast from Nick's plate.

"Close enough," Warrick replied with a grin.

"Where's Catherine?" Brass asked looking around the table and noticing one of the team missing.

"She's talking to lawyers about the casinos that Sam Braun left her," Warrick said without thinking. Whistling beneath his breath, Nick looked impressed.

"I should have figured that Braun would have left everything to Catherine but I didn't give it much thought. Wow, I wonder if this means she will leave the lab to become a big wig casino owner."

"She's not interested in that life style," Warrick said quietly, his confidence earning a few looks of interest from those seated at the table.

Sara was simply glad the conversation had drifted away from Grissom and onto someone else and speculation about what they were doing and why. Another thought entered her mind as she considered the possiblity of Catherine renting a hotel room to her at a decent price for the next few weeks. At least until she could come to some decision on what direction her life was going to take in the near future.

She decided to talk to her the first chance she got and with that decision made, she excused herself from the table. "I'm going home to crash. Good night everyone."

Watching her leave, Nick caught a look from Brass and knew that he, too, was concerned about Sara and her reaction to Grissom's leaving.

TBC