The Bet

Sara lay on her sofa, thinking about the day just gone by. It was a tough one and she felt physically and emotionally drained. She really had not been scared that Adam Trent would kill her, but she had been worried about getting hurt. She was very strong, but Trent's size and insanity could have easily overpowered her. But escaping from him, from the whole institution, had made her feel strong. She could overcome anything.

She knew today would be the day. She stepped up to Grissom's office, swallowed her pride and asked him.

She had taken a deep breath and asked him to dinner. He looked confused - that hurt more than his denial. Then he added insult to injury by waving her off and saying he "Didn't know what to do about this."

Frustrated, she thought of her response, "I do, and if you don't figure it out soon, it may be too late!".

Surely he could understand how much she needed him. Today more than ever. His steel blue eyes seemed to be trying to disguise how much he did care for her, but could not bring himself to admit.

As she waited at the traffic light, she briefly closed her eyes and thought about the conversation between her and Grissom. Reflections. Twenty twenty hindsight. Her eyes popped open. "This". He said "This" He just admitted out loud that there WAS something there! She smiled. Well, there's a start anyhow! Now to just convince him!

About an hour later, sound asleep on the sofa, Sara was awakened by a knock at the door.

"Strange hour for visitors" she thought.

She got up and went to the peephole to see who would be calling at such a strange hour. She was stunned to see Grissom standing there. She ran her fingers through her hair, straightened her shirt and checked her breath. "Yuck, need a toothbrush" she thought.

She opened the door and smiled, "Well, its not usually good news when you show up at my door!"

He smiled a coy smile back and replied, "No, this time, it's a social call".

Chills ran down her spine. "Well, in that case, come on in!" He entered and hung his jacket in the hall closet, leaving his shoes at the door by hers.

Grissom was clearly still dressed from work. He looked haggered and perhaps a little sad. She offered him a cup of tea and he accepted gladly. He walked around her living room and looked at photos and books on the shelf. He smiled when he saw the photo of them in San Francisco.

So long ago, so much water under the bridge. He chuckled at his little word play.

She brought him tea, and one for herself, and sat on the sofa. She tucked her feet under her long legs and got comfortable.

"OK I'm ready" she said, "What's up?"

Grissom looked at her with a very serious look. He took a deep breath, thinking to himself "its now or never" and opened his mouth to speak.

"Sara, I told you that I don't know what to do about "this", and you told me that you did."

Another deep breath, and he positioned himself on the footstool across from where she was seated on the sofa.

He picked up her hand in his and said, "What do you think the answer is?"

Her heart was racing a mile a minute. Finally, he was in her home, asking her to let him know what she wanted. She felt that she had already been pretty clear on more than on occasion, but he needed it to be crystal clear.

"Griss" she said softly, "I have always been in love with you. You know that. I am not afraid of risking my career to be with you. When I came to Vegas, you were not a supervisor, but things changed quickly. I know that this puts us in an awkward situation, but I know that my love for you is more valuable to me than anything else in my life."

He thought carefully about what she had said. He could see the tears welling up in her eyes. She was so sincere. And she was so beautiful. He could hardly think of any reason to resist her brown eyes. Why why why had he been so slow to see how important she was. Why did it take an outside force to cause him to realize that he was going to loose the most important thing in his life. He was scared. But after the incident with Adam Trent, he couldn't help but think to himself, "Tell her that you love her. You've got nothing to lose, and you'll always regret it if you don't."

Another deep breath.

"Sara, I have always loved you" he admitted "and I had hoped that your coming to Vegas would be a fresh start for both of us, but things did change, and I can't ignore that. I am a man who has trouble finding a balance. But I would like to try to find that with you."

She thought she was going to fall over, and pinched herself, to make sure it was not a dream.

"I feel a but coming" she said, trying hard to control her joy.

"Yes" he said, "There is a but. And this is where I need to know how you think we can resolve this issue"

She smiled and thought to herself, "If it means I get you in my bed, I will find a way!" but she said ,"OK, tell me what you need to know!"

She waited patiently while his brain processed his thoughts.

"We cannot be involved at work."

She grinned, "Oh Griss, that's not a BUT, there is no way that either of us would ever allow our personal and professional lives to clash. And to be very honest, I've never been the kind of person who likes to share that type of info with co-workers."

He smiled. They were on the same page for the first time in a very long time.

He pulled her in and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Agreed" he said.

She smiled, grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a much more passionate kiss. The sparks of electricity could have been felt in New York. The boundary had been broken and they sat there thinking of the endless possibilities that their love would allow them to explore. Together.

"Griss?" she said. "Gil", he replied, "When we are alone, please call me by my name."

Her heart melted.

"Gil, we work with smart people, we are going to have to make sure that we do not let any clues slip. You have taught us all to follow the evidence and they will pick up on any signs."

"Especially Catherine" he replied.

"So I have an idea! Why don't we pretend that we are fighting again like we did a year ago?"

He thought for a minute "Wow, that's a good plan!" he said "But I'm not sure I can keep my hands off you now that I know you are ok with us pursuing this relationship!"

"I'm willing to try if you are!" He moved over to sit by her on the sofa, wrapping his arms around her and pressing in for a real, passionate kiss.

And of course, just as it is getting really good, his phone rings.

"Grissom" he growls into the phone.

It was Brass. Triple homicide at Luxor all hands on deck. Day and swing shifts were both overwhelmed with a pileup on the 10, so help was needed. Grissom told Jim he would let Sara know if Jim could call Catherine. Warrick was off but Cath could call Nick and Greg.

"Duty calls" he said to Sara. But let's finish this off later ok?"

She grinned "You can't keep me away!"

He gave her the directions to the crime scene and told her to follow when she had dressed. Separate cars was going to have to be their rule of thumb to keep prying eyes out of their business. They arrived at the scene about 5 minutes apart. Brass was there waiting.

"20th floor of the Luxor. Suites" Brass began, "we have three dead people. Looks like a lover's quarrel and a hot tub, but who knows?"

Grissom and Sara proceeded to the incline elevator and they found their way to the crime scene tape. Entering the room, it appeared that they were the first ones on the team to arrive.

They both took a look around the room. There were indeed three bodies and much blood. The bodies were that of three people in their mid to late twenties. Two males and one female. The female appeared to have been drowned in the Jacuzzi tub and the men about appeared to have been shot. Each man had a small caliber hand gun at his side.

"Lover's quarrel I'll bet" said Sara. Grissom looked at her, and said, "Is that your first blush?"

Griss grinned at her. "Well" he said "I'd say it's a robbery gone bad!"

Sara was shocked. They were usually pretty in tune with each other's ideas about their crime scenes. She looked around to see what kind of evidence he was seeing that she was not. She saw nothing to change her perspective.

"Wow Griss, I hate to tell you this, but I think you are wrong!"

He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. Oooh those steel slate blue eyes made her crazy!

"Well then Ms. Sidle, perhaps we should place a small wager on this?" She looked at him and grinned.

"Oh and what exactly would you like to bet?" She was excited, thinking that this new relationship was going to be a lot of fun if it kept up like this.

"Well, why don't you think of something. As I am a gentleman, I will respect your wishes," he said, hoping she would think of breakfast in bed or some other romantic tryst to expand their relationship.

Sara thought for a few minutes and chuckled. She thought of her new friend Jen who was a tattoo artist for the new shop in the MGM and how she had been explaining that one of the biggest requests that she had was for couples to tattoo their names onto each other.

"Well," she thought to herself "Let's see how far he is really willing to go!"

She walked over very close to where Griss was pulling out his fingerprinting kit, so as not to be heard by Super Dave as he was coming in to pronounce the victims death.

"OK Griss, if you are serious, and you really want to prove to me that you are willing to take our relationship to the next level, then my wager is that the loser has to have the winner's name tattooed on their body by my friend Jen."

Her breath in his ear made his heart flip. The idea of getting her name tattooed on his body (or really even his on her) made him become very aroused. He'd always thought of having a tattoo, but really thought he had gotten to old for such nonsense. But if that was what Sara wanted, that was what she would get. Anyhow, he knew he wouldn't be at any risk, because he was clearly correct.

He Grinned and said, "Fine, you have a deal" and then added, "I hope you know that you are going to lose. And please don't think that that cute little pout of yours is going to let you off the hook."

She was floored at his response, but was able to muster a quick "We'll see" and then went about collecting the evidence.

As Nick walked in, he noticed that Sara and Griss were working quietly and asked where he should start. Grissom pointed to the bathroom and Nick joined in to the silent processing.

Nick stopped and looked out the window. He noticed that the mountains were being lit up by strikes of lightning. He pulled Sara up from her kneeling position near the bed and pointed at the mountains. She gasped as she saw the lightning hitting its target. It was beautiful.

Grissom looked up to see Sara, who was standing beside Nick, jump nervously. He got up to go see what the two of them were looking at and was also enthralled by the sight of the storm coming in. The three of them stood there, mesmerized.

But all three jumped as Catherine opened the door and joined them. "Well I'm glad to see that you guys are all so busy that I had to cancel my night off!" she glared at Griss. But Nick shushed her and pointed to what they had all been looking at.

"Yeah ok, its beautiful." She said "so now let's get to work so we can go back to enjoying the storm on our own time". She was right, as she usually was, so they all went back to work collecting evidence.

"I have a wallet!" said Grissom very excitedly, "and it is empty!"

"Well Griss, that's not too unusual for Vegas now is it?" said Nick.

"No" Grissom replied, "but it does suggest that someone has lost their money doesn't it?"

"Well" said Catherine "my vic has a pocketful of money, but no wallet and no id."

Grissom smiled in Sara's direction, thinking he had already won the bet. Greg walked in and caught the glance.

"Curious," Greg thought, "it looks like they are actually enjoying each other's company".

But he quickly thought "No way" but in the back of his mind, he thought that he was going to keep an eye on things and follow the evidence!

"Where do you want me Griss?' Greg asked. Grissom pointed at the female victim and asked Greg if he would please start processing the tub. Greg stuck in and began taking water samples. As the bodies were removed, the mood in the room became lighter and conversation began flowing again.

"Jeeez Sara" said Greg, "You look like the cat that swallowed the canary!"

She was grinning her world famous Sidle smile.

"No Greg, but I will be soon" she said as she began to pick up evidence such as a used condom and personal lubricant from the nightstand beside the bed.

To herself, Sara thought "Oh my, Grissom is going to look so hot totally nude with my name on his ass!" She smiled.

Catherine caught the smile too "Sara, what in the world are you grinning about?" she asked "and can I get in on the joke?"

Sara just shook her head and kept collecting evidence.

After the room had been processed, they all set off in their vehicles towards the office. It wasn't a long drive and they all arrived at about the same time.

"Sara, my office please, once you have your evidence checked in" he said using a stern, oh you are in so much trouble voice. She rolled her eyes at Catherine and said "Fine".

Catherine looked at her and said "What have you done now?" and Sara simply shrugged her shoulders. They finished cataloging the evidence and then Sara proceeded to Griss' office.

"Shut the door please," said Grissom.

She checked over her shoulder, carefully looking both directions to make sure the coast was clear and shut the door behind her.

As she did, he got from his desk, and in less than two seconds cleared the space between them, taking her into his arms and placing a passionate kiss on her lips. He could feel her shocked but willingly responding, even more passionately than he had expected. Clearly, they both wanted this!

They had to step back to breathe.

"Gil" she said "We can't do this here".

He nodded in agreement but said to her "I find you totally irresistible and I couldn't help but think about you and I in that Jacuzzi"

"Not dead I hope!" she replied with a chuckle.

"Of course not! I thought we would be proving how alive we feel with our love for each other!"

Wow, she thought, did he really say "love" out loud in the office?

She smiled and reached for his hand, "Sometimes, you really surprise me Bugman!" she said "but don't think that means that I will let you off this bet when I win." She spun on her heels and confidently strode out of his office.

Sara had passed Hodges area when she was that he was working on her evidence.

She stuck her head into the lab and said "Hey Hodges, will you page me the minute you get that trace from my vic's fingernails?".

He smiled and said "For you Sara, anything".

She then stepped over to the DNA lab and asked Wendy if she had been able to get any DNA from the SAE kit collected from the female victim. Wendy, always glad to help Sara in any way she could, said "Yes, I actually got a match in codis on her DNA as well as the DNA of the two male donors".

Sara grinned. Wendy caught the smile and said "What in the world?"

Sara looked at her and said "Well, ok, just don't say anything to anyone or I will never let you in on a secret again!"

Wendy was excited. She liked Sara and had hoped that they could become better friends, especially seeing that they had so much in common. Both from San Francisco, both victims of unrequited love, and both beautiful, smart, confident women.

"Wendy, I bet Grissom that I was right that this was a love triangle gone wrong, but he thinks it's a robbery. And you know how he can be about that stuff, so I made him a bet. I'm not telling what the winner gets, but suffice it to say, it will be a good one when I win!"

Wendy smiled. "I'll do what I can to help you, and I promise, this will be our little secret. But if you ever do feel like telling me what you won, I'd love to know!"

They shared a laugh.

Then Wendy snapped her fingers. "Sara, what do you say we play a little joke on Grissom and make him think that he was going to win?"

"Do you think we could pull that off without hurting the case?" Sara replied.

"Sure" said Wendy, "We will just feed him some information and until your present him your case file later today, he will think he is going to win!"

"Man Wendy, I knew I liked you for some reason!" and they chuckled a conspiratorial little chuckle.

"Girl power" said Wendy as she put her first out. "Girl power" agreed Sara.

"Now, what were those results?"

Wendy pointed out that the DNA of the woman was that of a Stephanie Barber. Stephanie was from Charlotte NC, apparently visiting. The two male donors, both matching the two other victims were from a Jeff Armstrong and David Markham. Both men had apparently had sex with Ms Barber within the last 12-24 hours. Sara thanked Wendy for the information and told her to keep her posted when she had criminal background records on any of the victims and headed down to the morgue.

Super Dave was there, waiting for Doc Robbins to come and finish the autopsy of the third victim.

"Where's the Doc?" she asked Dave.

"He's on his way back here, he just had to see Brass for a minute".

"Why?" she asked?

"I don't really know! But the other two bodies are done and I can fill you in on that!"

"Great!" she said.

Dave proceeded to the first, taller, thin man

"This is Mr. Armstrong and he apparently died of a gunshot wound to the head".

He pointed out where the victim had been shot through the head.

The second victim, Mr Markham, a shorter and slighter rounder man, was laying on the second table.

"Mr. Markham here had been shot, but that was not the cause of death. He apparently had a heart attack after being shot!"

Sara smiled, thinking to herself that things were starting to add up in her favor. Dave asked if she wanted a coffee while waiting for Doc Robbins and she declined.

At that moment, Doc Robbins walked in.

"Oh there you are Sara" he said "I just wanted to see if I could find you because I wanted to let you know that your vic was about 2 months pregnant AND she had sperm from two donors in the vaginal vault".

"HAH! She thought, "I got him!"

She smiled and said "Thanks Doc, I already spoke to Wendy and she confirmed that the sperm matched both of our two male vics, so I guess we know which way this is going!"

Doc grinned, he knew how smart Sara was and how good she was at her job. Nothing ever got by her! He admired her greatly for her resolve and her intelligence.

"But was the actual cause of death?" she inquired.

"Drowning" replied the Doc, "she had the typical four and one print on her neck so I'm assuming one of our vics was the culprit, so we will try and match the size of the hand to the four and one". Since Mr. Armstrong was a much taller man that Mr. Markham, it was easy to confirm that the person whose hand matched the print was Mr. Armstrong.

She thanked Dave and Doc Robbins for all their help and returned to the lab where Wendy and Greg were having a serious conversation. As she approached she heard Greg saying "… seems to be so happy, too happy almost!" and he stopped talking as she entered the room.

"Who?" she asked.

"Ah well, no one you would know" he replied (lying through his teeth),

"In that case, clear out" she said "because I need Wendy"

"Well" Greg said, sounding hurt, "I know when I'm not wanted" and left the room with his head hung.

The two women just laughed at the sight. "OK Wendy, I need the DNA results from the fetus in Ms Barber as soon as you possibly can run them."

Wendy said she had not received that yet from Doc Robbins but was expecting it at any time. She said she would call Sara the minute she had an answer.

Sara drifted down to the breakroom where Catherine, Nick and Greg were sitting. Warrick was on vacation.

"What's going on people?" asked Sara.

Greg looked at her, still pretending to be sad from getting kicked out of his DNA lab.

"Anyone want to run this crime scene?" she asked?

That perked Greg up. He loved listening to how the others mentally processed information and continued to learn a lot from them.

"Let me go get Gtrissom" Greg said.

Sara shook her head and said "No Greg, can you go down to your locker and get some of that REALLY good coffee? If you do that, I'll go get Grissom".

Greg grinned. He liked being appreciated, even if it was only for his choice in coffee!

"You got it Sara!" and off he went.

"What the heck was that?" asked Catherine. Sara glanced at Nick who was staring intently at the video game he was playing.

"I'll tell you later!" she whispered to Catherine and walked out towards Grissom's office.

She knocked on the door and he invited her in. Again, checking the coast to make sure it was clear, she stood behind his desk and kissed his neck.

"Oh my god, you are going to kill me with that!" he said.

"Just you wait until shift is over and we finish up our conversation!" he smiled.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Well if you must know, I have an assignment from Ecklie that is due before I leave in the morning, and as I wanted to spend the morning with you, I need to get this done before the shift is over. Why?"

"Well", she replied "we, that is the team and I, were just going to run through a case and see if we could make sense of it. But we can do it without you!" she said,

"Although I will miss you there, I'd rather have you all to myself in the morning." They stole a quick kiss and Grissom shooed her out of the office.

"Go before I can't help what I do" he whispered.

Mission accomplished, she thought.

As she got back to the break room, she found Greg making coffee, Catherine setting up the files and Nick still playing video games. She tapped Nick on the back of the head and said "Come on Nick, you gotta do some work over here!".

Nick looked at her with a puzzled look. "No Griss?" he asked.

"Nah, he has an Ecklie assignment so we'll just run this together and see where it goes".

He agreed, but Sara couldn't help but feel that Nicky might be in on this bet!

They ran through the case, reviewing all of the photos and the details that were collected from the Luxor.

As they were completing their review, Wendy popped in to the layout room.

"Sara, can I see you for a minute please?" she requested.

Sara stepped out and she and Wendy dropped their voices to a whisper.

"The baby was Mr. Markham's!" Wendy stated.

"Well" replied Sara, "The baby was Markham's but the fingers around her neck were Armstrong's."

They shared a knowing glance.

"You look like you have something else to say" Sara prompted Wendy.

"Yes, you were right, we found epithelials on Ms Barber's neck that confirm Mr. Armstrong was the killer" Wendy concluded. "And…" she added the pause for effect, "I happened to find Ms. Barber on Facebook and I can confirm that she was living with Mr. Markham!"

"So I went a step further and I got her text messaging records and I found that Mr. Armstrong was VERY unhappy with the news of her pregnancy and wanted her to terminate it and leave Mr. Markham for him!" Wendy explained.

"Wow," said Sara, "You've gone way above and beyond on this one!"

Wendy winked and said, "I know what's riding on this one!"

Sara thanked Wendy for her assistance and walked back into the layout room with the folder in her hand.

"Well" she said, "I have the rest of the evidence" and she proceeded to detail what Wendy had told her.

They all agreed that this was a lover's quarrel. The video obtained by Archie confirmed that Stephanie and Markham had checked into the hotel at about 3 that afternoon and Armstrong had come to the door, knocked, and when the door opened, he forced his way into the room.

Sara gathered the evidence and prepared the file. About two hours later, she knocked on Grissom's door.

"I have the case file prepared." she said. "And I think you are going to love the outcome."

Griss smiled, thinking that he had won the bet. He took the file from her hand, and began to read. Sara waited patiently and watched for his response.

"Oh shit," he cursed under his breath. He knew that she had won the bet. "Ok, you won, fair and square." Sara could barely control her giggle.

He signed off on the file, handed it back to Sara, and with a resigned look on his face said "If I pout can I get out of it?"

Sara laughed. "Nope" was her only response as she turned and left the office. She could not control her excitement. Griss was going to have to tattoo her name on his body and she was going to enjoy every moment of it!

Later that morning, Grissom and Sara are at Jen's tattoo parlor. They check out the art and meet with Jen.

"OK" Griss says, "Let's get this over with!" He selects his artwork and sits in the chair. Sara leans over to look at what is being done, but Griss pushes her away.

"You will have to wait for the finished product" he says. She noticed that he had a devilish look in his eyes. That smile was enough to make her heart melt!

As Jen began drawing the tattoo on Grissom's shoulder, he sat, totally focused on Sara. All he could think about was how good things had become between them, and how happy he was to have finally decided what to do "about this". He was never going to loose her and if having her name tattooed on him made her even happier with him, then it was a small price to pay.

She looked at his smiling blue eyes and mouthed "I'll make it up to you later!" and he felt a chill run down his spine.

When Jen was done, she showed the tattoo to Griss who nodded his approval. Sara came over to look at the finished product and smiled. She saw her name, but written in Mandarin.

Followed by the word love

爱

They would still have their secret! Oh how she loved this man!

They returned to the townhouse, anxious to celebrate. Neither got much sleep that night!

Upon return to work, Catherine noticed a bandage under Griss' shirt and asked "What did you do to yourself?"

"Ah, nothing" he replied.

"Yeah right" was her response, knowing full well that he was up to something but didn't want to share. Just like Grissom, she thought.

Returning from a crime scene later that night, Greg and Griss had to hit the showers to rid themselves of the smell of the decomp found floating in Lake Mead. Griss brought enough lemons for both of them.

"Hey Griss" called Greg from the next shower stall, "I think I need another lemon!"

Greg leaned around the shower wall and came face to face with Griss's new tattoo. He laughed.

Griss looked at him and demanded, "What in the world is so funny?"

Greg looked at his boss with an amused smile and said, "I have never been one for tattoos...but I have to admit, I find yours to be sexy as hell." Griss gave him a puzzled look. Greg simply grinned and added "Did I ever tell you that I took Mandarin as a third language in college?"

Griss hung his head. He was caught.

Greg smiled and said "Its ok boss-man, your secret is safe with me."

Greg truly loved Sara and knew how important this relationship was to her. He didn't mind, as long as he was the only one who knew, he'd protect both of them with his life. But he knew that he would have to be very careful around Catherine. He decided right then that he would make it his business to protect the romance until it had a chance to solidify. If his Sara and Griss were happy, that was more than he could hope for!

"But I get that extra lemon!" Greg added. Griss agreed. It was a fair price to pay!