The past six months had been hell on Earth for the graveyard shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab; but they were finally getting back to their routine. Sara was reading the new issue of a forensics journal. Greg, Nick and Warrick were playing a video game in the corner and Catherine was flipping through a case file. Smiling to himself, Gil Grissom cleared his throat to get their attention as he entered the break room.
"Warrick, you and Greg have a 419 at a convenience store in Henderson. Looks like gang involvement, so watch your backs." So went the normal routine of the graveyard shift.
"Cath, you and I have a missing person at WLVU. An honor student didn't come back to the dorm after the long weekend and his roommate reported him missing. NO statements to the press on this one guys, apparently our vic is the nephew is of a senator from California." He continued handing out assignment slips to his team.
"Nicky, you and Sara have a smash and grab at the MGM Grand. Someone knocked over a collectibles table at a sci-fi convention. Everybody got it? Great, let's go."
Avoiding eye contact with any of his team, Grissom left the break room and made his way down the hall to the men's room to wash up before heading out with Catherine Willows to process a potential crime scene. Without warning, the men's room door flew open and there she was, the most beautiful, infuriating, confounding, intoxicating woman he'd ever known…Sara Sidle. For more than 12 years, she had been the cause of many, many sleepless nights (or in Grissom's case, days). Ever since they had become friends during his tenure as a guest lecturer at one of her college seminars, Grissom had been unable to keep her out of his mind.
She'd intrigued, fascinated and enthralled him, but he'd been too afraid of the potential consequences to act on his feelings. He had settled for being her mentor in order to maintain contact with her. Over time, their friendship had grown and he'd come to value her insights and opinions on cases. He'd asked her to come to Las Vegas for those insights and opinions but five years later, he still found it nearly impossible to admit there had been more to it.
"May I help you, Sara?" Grissom calmly intoned. He'd had infinite practice over the years, learning to keep his voice under control in her presence, even with the rest of him careening blindly into oblivion. Having her here, in the men's room wasn't helping that control any.
"Grissom, what the hell is this?" Sara fumed, waving her assignment slip in his face, completely oblivious to the fact that she was standing in the middle of the men's restroom.
"Sara, this is neither the time nor the place to discuss your assignment."
"Why not? I want to know what you think you're doing!"
Grissom could tell she was quickly building up to one of her legendary tirades. He swept his expressive blue eyes around the room, hoping to call Sara's attention to their surroundings without humiliating her and adding fuel to her fire.
"Oh my…oh….Oh MY God," Sara stammered, her face erupting to a rather impressive shade of crimson as she turned and fled from the room almost as quickly as she had burst in.
"That went well," Grissom silently chastised himself; although truth be told, he had enjoyed being witness to two things he didn't think were possible, Sara Sidle blushing and being rendered nearly speechless. He would have to worry about the situation later, as he'd already squandered enough time and needed to get to the scene with Catherine.