The doorbell rung just as Sara was falling to sleep. She groaned into the pillow and rolled over, hoping the sound would just disappear. Had it been anybody else on the other side of the door, it probably would have done. Because it was Courtney, it didn't.

At last she got up and pulled on Grissom's dressing gown which was hanging on the door. Courtney's eyes widened the minute a sleepy Sara pulled the door open. She hadn't thought about Courtney questioning the origin of that dressing gown.

"Are you seriously going to tell me that you haven't got a boyfriend hidden somewhere?" her friend asked when Sara denied it. Like it was any of her business.

She stepped in the living room and ran her finger along the titles sitting on the book shelf. "I mean, since when have you been interested in bugs?"

As Sara struggled to think of a fitting response, Courtney scanned the room taking in all the un-Sara-like things.

She might have been a CSI herself, but she had forgotten just how observant they can be.

"So, what's his name?" Courtney asked, taking the liberty of kicking off her shoes and flopping onto the couch.

There was no way out of this one.

When Sara still made no attempt at an answer she sighed and asked to use the bathroom. Sara pointed her in the right direction and then quickly set about removing Grissom's little touches. She was flicking absent-mindedly through a magazine when Courtney returned.

"Oh…my…god!" she heard the woman say and looked up to see what she had managed to dramatise now.

Whatever it was appeared to have left even Courtney a little bit lost for words and she just stood in front of Sara with a look of sheer horror painted on her face.

Sara took the advance of asking her what was wrong, but even that didn't prompt her to supply an answer.

When she was finally able to spit her words out, they horrified Sara too.

"G…Gil Grissom", she'd heard her say, dropping the magazine instantly "as in…Dr Gil Grissom, the guy who taught us in San Francisco?"

Sara didn't know what to say "He's my boss now, Courtney…" she tried to excuse herself but she knew before the sentence was out, she was just making it worse. How the hell did she know anyway?

The hysterical blonde was finally able to compose herself and ask in a tone of voice that meant she was very much back to her old self "So are you, like, sleeping with him?"

Sara shifted her hands awkwardly in her lap. "We're seeing each other", she mumbled.

"Oh my God Sara!" she shrieked "Why didn't you tell me?"

She stopped herself from replying with 'So many reasons' and told her it was because she knew how she'd react.

"Well, come on, how was I supposed to react?" she retorted.

"You weren't", Sara reminded her sharply "no-one knows yet".

This seemed to shock her even more and Sara just left her stood open-mouthed for a while before she came and joined her on the sofa. "I just can't believe it", she muttered, shaking her head.

She was really starting to irate Sara.

"How do you even know?" she asked aloud, suddenly quite annoyed that she had been snooping around the house.

Courtney gave this little shrug that meant she didn't want to admit that she had been snooping "I just sort of…accidentally…well I um…I…I walked into the wrong room and there was a bill or something on the floor. So I was just picking it up for you…and it was addressed to Grissom",

Sara exhaled deeply and announced that she was tired. Most people would take the hint and leave, but Courtney wasn't like most people.

"Oh! There was something I wanted to ask you, would you mind if I stayed at your…Grissom's place for a few days?" she smiled as though she was asking for a cup of sugar.

Annoying as she was, Sara realised that she could probably do with the company during Grissom's absence. Plus she did feel a bit guilty for not making an old friend feel welcome. Either that or she just wanted to keep her sweet so that she wouldn't tell anyone about her and Grissom.

"Ok", she said half yawning to reinforce that she really was tired "but I need to get some sleep. Will you be okay down here on your own?" her eyes nervously scanned the room as she checked there was no serious damage she could do.

"Oh, I'll probably just go out", she said casually, standing up and taking a few steps towards the door. When she reached it, she turned and blew Sara a kiss "Catch you later Sara sweetie. We're going to have so much fun!"

Rising to return to bed, Sara wondered just what exactly Courtney's idea of 'fun' was and what she'd let herself in for…