Thank you all for your positive response to the first chapter! I'm having a great time with this story – I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

This chapter is a bit shorter than what I usually write, but I really liked where it ended, so I'm posting it. I hope that you agree that quality is better than quantity! I'll try to go back up to my usual standard in the next chapter.

I don't own CSI. Some lines in this chapter have been borrowed from episode 101, "Cool Change." As always, I will return them in a timely fashion.

Changes

"Hello?"

"Mary!" Sara was thrilled to hear her best friend's voice on the other end of the phone line. She had been worried that Mary would be in class, unable to answer her call. Sara knew that she wouldn't be able to sit on news like this for very long.

"Hi, Sara," Mary said cheerfully. "How are things going?"

"You are not going to believe what just happened!" Sara exclaimed. Forget answering any questions. For once in her life, she wanted to get to the point of a conversation.

"Try me," Mary replied.

"Grissom just called me."

"That's not so hard to believe," Mary laughed. "You are his friend. You do talk to him on occasion."

"Yeah, but the unbelievable part is what he said."

"Stop building suspense!" Mary laughed. "Just tell me what he said!"

Sara couldn't stop herself from pausing dramatically before spilling her news. So much for getting right to the point. "He asked me to move to Vegas to work with him."

"What?" Mary whispered.

"I know!" Sara shrieked. "Isn't it amazing?"

"He asked you to move to Vegas?" Mary asked.

"Yes!"

"What did you say?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

"You're moving to Vegas?" Mary exclaimed.

"Yes!"

"My God, Sara!" Mary exclaimed. "I can't believe it!"

Sara laughed. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to believe it."

"Well, you got that one right, crime scene investigator."

Sara giggled.

"Is that what you're going to do in Vegas? Work for the crime lab?"

"Yeah," Sara said. She sobered considerably. "Apparently, one of the girls on his team was shot yesterday."

"My God," Mary whispered. "Is she going to be all right?"

"When I talked to him, he said that they were taking her into surgery." She paused, and continued quietly, "It doesn't look good."

"Wow," Mary said softly.

"Yeah."

"And he wants you to replace her?"

"Sort of. She was shot on the job, so it's crucial that they find out what happened. He wants me to start by working part of the investigation into her shooting."

"Can he just hire you like that?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure of everything that happened, but apparently, this girl's shooting caused a shake-up that ended with Grissom running the graveyard shift. So, yes, he can make the hiring decisions at this point."

"Wow. That's a great promotion. He must be excited."

"I think he's still shocked, really," Sara said. "And, he's pretty upset about this girl."

"Well, I'd be upset if one of my coworkers had been shot, too."

Sara laughed, trying to snap them out of the darker side of the conversation. "You don't have coworkers, Miss PhD Candidate."

"I have a summer job," Mary smiled.

"Fair enough."

"So, you're really going to do this? You're really going to move to Las Vegas?"

"How can I turn him down?" Sara asked, her voice trembling slightly with emotion.

Mary paused. "Sara …"

"What?"

She paused again, trying to find the best way to phrase her thoughts. "Did he say anything that made you think this job offer is anything more than just that?"

Knowing exactly what she was getting at, Sara felt her face warming as she blushed, even though Mary wasn't there to see it. "He told me that he needs me."

"Needs you? Well, that's a bit ambiguous. In what sense does he need you?"

"I don't know," Sara moaned. "I don't even think that he knows."

"Okay. That could be a problem."

"Mary, do you always have to ruin my fun?"

"I'm just trying to be realistic," Mary replied. "I don't want you to go out there thinking that he's madly in love with you and hoping to marry you if that's not what he wants at all. If he just wants a coworker, then he just wants a coworker, Sara. You can't try to make this into more than it is."

Sara shook her head. "I won't."

"Sara …" Mary warned.

"I won't," Sara repeated, this time with conviction. She sighed. "You know what, Mary?"

"What?"

"When he left Berkley, he told me that he considered me a friend. We agreed to keep in touch because we didn't want to lose each other's friendship. And, right now, I can honestly say that that's what I'm most excited about – seeing my friend again." She smiled. "If I can't have you in town with me, at least I can have another friend."

"Sara, are you all right?"

Sara's eyes widened at the concern in Mary's voice. "I'm great," she said, a bit confused. "I'm moving to Las Vegas. I'm going to work with Grissom."

"I know, it's just …"

"Just what?"

"You sound lonely," Mary said simply.

Sara sighed. "I have been lonely for a very long time," she said. "But, for the first time since I moved back to San Francisco, I don't feel that way. This move is going to be good for me, Mar. I can feel it."

Grissom left Brass's office and walked slowly down the hall. His mind was still reeling with everything that had happened. Holly's shooting, his promotion, Sara coming to help out … it was too much to process in such a short stretch of time.

He looked into the break room, where Catherine, Warrick and Nick were talking. He could assume what they were discussing. Holly's shooting was all that anyone in the lab could talk about. He wasn't sure if what he had to say would add to their current conversation or create an entirely different discussion.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and entered the small room. It was time to face the music.

Their conversation ceased immediately as he walked into the room. Catherine looked at him for a moment, then turned away. Warrick's chin dropped to his chest. Nick looked at him as though searching for guidance. Without really realizing what he was doing, Grissom went to get a cup of coffee as he began recapping the information they already had. Warrick had left Holly alone at a crime scene, the suspect had returned, and she had been shot. Then, putting down the coffee pot, he began the hardest part of his monologue.

"The sheriff phone me early this morning," he said. "Brass has been moved back to homicide."

Catherine's head came up, her eyes wide. For the first time since he had walked into the break room, she looked at Grissom fully. Nick frowned at him.

"Who's going to run the unit?" he asked.

"For now," Grissom said, meeting Catherine's eyes, "me."

Catherine looked at him in complete shock. If they hadn't known each other for so long, if they hadn't been such good friends, he would have been offended by the look she gave him.

"I know," he said, still talking to Catherine. "We'll just play it by ear, okay?"

All of the horrible announcements over, he finally broke eye contact with Catherine. It was almost a relief to talk about the leaper whose body was lying in the morgue awaiting an autopsy.

Just when everything was going fine, he followed through with his plans to put Nick in charge of the investigation into Holly's shooting. Catherine finally broke out of her silence.

"Wait a minute. You can't give him the Holly case. All due respect, Nick … I want this one."

"Nicky is the only one who didn't have any personal contact with Holly. I don't want you on this, Catherine."

"Why?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

"Because you're emotionally involved."

All protests fell on deaf ears. Catherine snatched the assignment slip from Nick's hand, challenging Grissom to fire her if he didn't like it. Feeling disgusted and wondering where he had gone wrong, Grissom made a desperate attempt to calm tempers and smooth ruffled feathers. After begging his colleagues to stay calm and do their jobs, he dropped his final bombshell.

"As of now, we're short of help. So, I'm bringing in Sara Sidle to give us a hand."

"Sara Sidle?" Catherine asked. She gave him a look that said that she was searching her memory for where she had heard that name before.

"Who's that?" Warrick asked, finally finding his voice.

"She's a CSI out of San Francisco. She's a friend of mine, someone I trust. She's going to handle our internal investigation. I want to keep this in-house. I don't want IA involved."

"Great," Catherine said sarcastically. "That's just what we need – someone sniffing around."

She gave Grissom a pointed look, then left the break room. Knowing that it would take some time to win her over, Grissom asked Nick to work the leaper with him. Nick agreed, and followed Catherine out of the room.

Perhaps the hardest part of all was telling Warrick that he was still on leave. He begged to help, but didn't have the same conviction as Catherine. Maybe it was because he was still something of a newbie, maybe it was because he looked up to Grissom, or maybe it was because he knew that far too much of this was his fault. Whatever the reason, he didn't challenge Grissom's authority as Catherine had. He accepted his fate, and silently listened to Grissom's advice to get his story straight before Sara's arrival.

Thinking that the worst of his day was over, Grissom left the break room and went to his office. He needed to get his field kit before heading out with Nick.

He opened his office door to find Catherine standing inside, waiting for him.

"Sara Sidle?"

"What about her?"

"From the minute you said her name, I've been trying to remember where I've heard it before. It wasn't until I had left the room that I realized who she is. She's your student, isn't she? The one from your Berkley seminar? The one you email all the time? The one you helped get the job in San Francisco?"

"Yes," Grissom said simply. "This wasn't supposed to be a secret, Catherine. I told everyone that she's a friend of mine – she is. I said that she's someone I trust – she is. I said that I want her to handle our internal investigation – I do. I'm not trying to hide anything here."

"I beg to differ."

"Excuse me?"

She looked at him for a moment, then finally exploded with what she had been dying to say ever since he had walked into the office. "Have you lost your mind?"

"What?" Grissom asked defensively.

"Gil. You and Sara have a past. A history."

Grissom looked at Catherine as though she had lost her own mind. "She was my student during a seminar. We became friends, and we've kept in touch. What kind of a 'past' are you talking about?"

"Gil, please! We've talked about this before. You know where I stand on this."

"I know that I've told you that she's my friend."

"I know that I told you that you should be careful with her," Catherine replied.

"I have been," Grissom said. "I'm sure that she understands what our relationship is and where it ends." He looked at her in confusion. "You and I have worked together for years without anything other than collegiality and friendship between us. Why are you so determined to believe that there's anything other than that between Sara and me?"

She sighed. "I don't know. Honestly, I don't have a good answer for you. Call it years of reading people. Better yet, call it years of reading you. There's just something that's telling me that there's more to this than you're willing to admit – to me, or, more likely, to yourself."

"Well, this time, you're way off on your observation," he said. "Sara is just a friend, she's coming here for the internal investigation, and she's going to be a member of our team – at least for now. That's the end of the story. If you want more than that, start watching daytime tv."

Catherine shook her head. "If you say so … I don't have any reason not to believe you."

Grissom smiled. "Cath, she's not going to take your place. She's a CSI on my team; you're my second in command. She's been my friend for two years; you've been my best friend for fifteen." He smiled and touched her arm. "You're nosy and you love to meddle in my business, but you're an excellent CSI and an incredible friend. You're my best girl, and you always will be."

She laughed. "Well, that's completely untrue – at least that last part. But, thank you for saying it. I really needed to hear it."

He smiled. "I need to go meet Nicky. Are we okay?"

"Always," she smiled.

They walked out into the hall together and started to go in their separate directions. Grissom stopped and turned to look at her retreating back.

"Catherine?"

She stopped and turned to face him. "Yeah?"

He paused and licked his lips. "You should have been the one to get this promotion. Not me."

She shook her head. "You deserve it, Gil. And, I'll always be right here, ready to back you up."

He smiled. "Thank you."

She shook her head. "Thank you."

Five hundred miles away, Sara Sidle methodically packed her suitcase. She had a plane to catch. She had a new life to begin.