Part Two

"You got a few minutes?" Greg was standing by his locker, sorting through the haphazard mess, searching for something.

Sara finished her changing her shoes and shot the former lab tech an intrigued glance. "Sure," she said, relaxing on the wooden bench. "What's the problem? Tough case?"

"Nah, nothing like that," he assured her. He concluded rootling about in the steel locker, then slammed the door shut and took a seat next to Sara. "Catherine and I have this thing going. Not in the way you think," he added, seeing that Sara had misinterpreted his words. "We're trying to ... analyse? ... the details of your relationship with Bugman. You know, what you two see in each other, that kind of stuff."

Sara raised an eyebrow. "Any particular reason?"

"It's been the stuff of the water cooler for ages. Now that you've actually resolved whatever it was that was going on, we wanna know what things are like now."

She looked sceptical. "Should I trust you? I know you're my friend, and that should account for something, but I ... I'm not sure."

"If you're not sure, ask Catherine, she'll back me up." He checked his watch. "Actually, she should be in with your significant other right ... about ... now."

That made Sara laugh. "What? You seriously think Grissom's going to be okay with just opening himself up like that? To Catherine? Are you guys nuts?" She stood up. "I'm going to rescue him," she stated.

"No, no, no," Greg iterated, leaping up and grabbing Sara's sleeve. "Can't permit you to do that, I'm afraid. Look, the sooner you answer my questions, the sooner you can go and be with lover boy," he joked.

Sara reluctantly resumed her seat on the uncomfortable bench. "Okay. And he's not my lover boy."

Greg grinned. "What do you refer to him as?"

One roll of the eyes later. "He's Gil. Or Grissom, if he's infuriating. Or Griss. Why?"

"You never call him 'lover' or 'partner' or 'paramour'?" This, Greg couldn't understand. Was she telling the truth, or was she hiding something? "I heard you called Hank 'baby.' You never use that with Grissom?"

The comment soured Sara's expression. "In case you hadn't noticed, Griss isn't exactly Hank, thank God. I would never call Gil 'baby.' The most we call each other is 'honey' or 'sweetheart,' but we wouldn't do that in public."

"So how does he introduce you?" This conversation was going nowhere fast.

"How do you think? You honestly believe he'd say to a suspect 'Yo, this is my gal Sara?' He introduces me as his partner, for the obvious reason that it's ambiguous. Although I do know that he occassionally refers to me as 'his Sara.' No, it doesn't bother me," she added upon seeing Greg's open in part-shock, part-question.

"Okay," he murmured once he'd gotten over that revelation. "Why do you fancy him?"

"Isn't that a bit reductionist? And ... immature? We're not high schoolers here. I'm attracted to him because he's quiet, shy - all the things I am. And he's intelligent and sexy."

Greg pulled a face. "TMI," he mock-protested.

"Don't blame me for answering the questions you wanted to ask me. I like what he has to offer - he's willing to teach me new things and doesn't mind the fact that I'm nowhere near as clever as he is."

"Why do you put yourself down like that?" Greg asked softly. "All of us here know that you're the only one who is anywhere near his level of intelligence - you're both pretty equal, and I know he enjoys teaching you as much as you enjoy learning from him."

Sara shrugged and smiled in self-deprecation. "Force of habit," she muttered. "Anyway," she uttered, falsely bright. "I don't ever have to explain myself to him - he understands me, my drives, my job - obviously because he shares the same sort of hobbies and past-times with me. I know a lot of people wouldn't think it, and I never used to, but he's actually very ... empathetic. He knows instinctively when there's a problem, even if he is a little slow in acting on it."

"What's your sex-life like?" This was blurted out, accompanied by a head-shake and red cheeks.

"Excuse me?" she murmured. "Did I hear you right? Did you just ask about our sex-life?" She received a nod in answer to the semi-outraged exclamation. She quickly calmed down, more shocked and caught off-guard than anything. "Good," she stated awkwardly.

"Just 'good'?"

"You want me to go into detail? 'Cause I will," came the retort. "Or do you just wanna know that it's satisfying?" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I don't believe you and Cath," she breathed. "I can just imagine how he's going to cope with getting cross-examined by El Blondie." She shot Greg an impatient glance. "Next question. Sex-free, please."

"Um ... does the age difference matter to you?"

His words were met with a scornful expression. "Greg, I love you dearly, but you are being so obtuse right now," she warned.

"Hey, I didn't come up with questions," he protested. "Just answer."

"Obviously it doesn't bother me, because I was the one who instigated the relationship, or at least made my interest known. When you think about it, fifteen years isn't actually that big a gap. It certainly bothered Gil, but I think he used that as an excuse to not do anything. I suppose ...". She thought back to his confession to Lurie, the one to which she had been unwittingly privy. She threatened him, more than she had ever imagined. There he had been, happy in his world of corpses and bugs, and in she had waltzed and spoilt it all for him. Granted, there had been that spark of attraction when they first met, but it had been long-repressed, their energies focused on forming a strong friendship, one that had been slowly eroded over time because of those repressed emotions.

"I won't ask you to go into that," Greg said considerately. "Certain things should just be left between certain people."

Sara smiled. "So you can ask about our sex-life, but the gritty details of why it took so long for us to get anywhere are sacred cows."

"Pretty much. But you can tell me how it finally came about, if you like."

"How very considerate of you I guess ... I think Grissom getting caught up physically in the whole Nick situation was scary. Made him realise how little time we all have here. Things gradually started getting back to normal, but he approached me with a 'proposal,' for want of a better word, shortly after that human experiments case. You know, the Nazi guy who performed eugenics experiments? The American Mengele," she explained.

Greg nodded. "Do you love him?"

A snort. "Course I do," she exclaimed. "Why else do you think I stayed around for so long, fawning about all over him like a puppy? 'Cause that's what it was. Either I'm desperate, or an eternal optimist, and after all I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised if it weren't the latter."

"You're not desperate. I gotta say, I have noticed certain things about him when he's around you. Or talking about you. The feelings have always been mutual It's just taken him a while to pull his head out of the microscope," he finished.

"Hey, you stole my line," came a disgruntled voice from the locker room entrance. Sara looked up to see Catherine. "I've finished with your boyfriend," Cath teased. "You can have him back now."

"I hope you didn't embarrass him," Sara scolded lightly, standing up. "Am I free to go?" she asked Greg.

"Sure. Catherine and I are going to compare data," he said, tapping the side of his nose. Sara just smiled and sashayed off to find Gil.