See part one for the disclaimer and other important information.

"Hey what'd I miss, Warrick?" Nick asks as he enters the break room on his first day back.

"More than you could possibly believe."

"Woah, what happened?"

"You might want to sit down for this."

Nick finishes pouring his cup of coffee and sits on the couch, face contorted in confusion.

"Grissom's gone."

Nick spits out his coffee, "No way, man!"

"He put in for a leave of absence a few days ago—Sara's the only one who's seen him since."

"Sara?"

"I think they finally got together."

"Wow—so who's running the unit now and I swear if you say Ecklie…"

"No, I am," Sara answers as she finishes entering the room and heads straight for the coffee pot.

"Congratulation." He sounds sincere—underneath he doesn't feel ready for that type of responsibility.

Sara smiles when she turns around, "Thanks."

"Anything else I missed?"

"Greg changed his hair color again."

They all laugh.

"Learn anything good at the conference?"

"Oh yeah—there's a new product for lifting fingerprints that we should look into."

"Leave me the info and I'll see about it once I finish crunching the budget numbers. Grissom refused to do that before he left."

"Welcome back, Nick," Catherine offers as she enters the break room. She then pours herself a cup of coffee and sits removed from the group. She still hasn't gotten over it.

Sara's cell phone rings-- the rest of the team can hear vague instance of Brass's voice as she takes the call.

"We've got a major stabbing over in the west end. Catherine I need you to lead this since you're the blood spatter expert. Take Nick and Warrick with you. Call in the interns if you need extra hands."

"Greg?" Sara taps on the glass. A "do not disturb sign" has been taped onto the door, but Sara doesn't have time for that.

Greg waves her in pulling off his safety goggles, "Hey Sara, What can I do for you?"

"What are you doing?"

"Special tests for the swing shift."

Sara raises an eyebrow, "Don't they have their own lab tech?"

"But I'm the best remember?"

Sara smiles and then begins to cough, "How would the best like to get away from these solvents?"

"Away where?"

"8th street, Amsterdam Ave, Caldwell Street, armed robber, bold and sneaky."

Greg's face lights up, "I think I can find the time for that."

"Good—you've got ten minutes to get to the car."

TBC

Thank you to all my loyal readers!