Disclaimer: I don't own them.

A/N: :) See? Didn't I tell you I'd post again soon to make up for the long delay? (...I think I said that.) Anyway, I am. Enjoy! Review?

Thanks again to Pati, for so much more than beta-ing.

Chapter Five:

"Hey."

She jumped, glancing up. For the first time, she had arrived in class before him. In truth, she'd gotten up and showered as soon as she heard Frank get out of the shower. She'd finished eating before the other kids even got out there, and her haste had apparently been contagious, as they'd parked a good two rows closer to the school than usual. Alfred complained, as it was further for him to walk, but smiled when Sara ruffled his hair, so she figured he couldn't have been too upset.

She had been anxious to see him, but now that he was here, in front of her, after the dream she'd had… She blushed. Bright red.

"…Hi."

His eyebrows twitched in surprise. "You okay?"

"Yeah, no, I… I'm fine." She squeaked, opening her lab book. "Um… so, good weekend?"

He shrugged, sliding into his seat. "Worked most of it. My mom got a whole new shipment of stuff in, though, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. She was telling me I'd be spending the weekend doing inventory and then the truck shows up, a whole day early… It was like a godsend."

Sara chuckled. Yeah, for her too. Apparently Gil didn't like paperwork any more than Grissom. "What about you?" He asked, mid-chuckle, and she stopped, also mid-chuckle, feeling the heat in her face again. I saw you loading things and it did such crazy things to me that I had a sex dream about you last night.

"Oh, um… Amanda took Tina and I shopping."

"Oh…" He looked like he was trying very hard to find something nice to say about her appallingly girly weekend activities. "…Fun."

Sara snorted. He was pretty bad. Maybe better than Grissom, if only because he was actually trying, but still. Playfully, she smacked his shoulder. "It wasn't like I wanted to go. I needed new jeans—I'm too tall."

"Oh." He blushed a little, but gave her a small smile. "Sorry."

She shook her head to dismiss it and pulled out her lab book. "So… do you know anywhere in town that's hiring? I saw that the movie theatre is, but it's not really close enough to walk and—"

"The movie theatre? On Panay?"

"Uh, I guess I didn't look at the street name. I saw it while I was waiting for Amanda and Tina to finish trying on everything in the store. …Some place called, 'Diana's', I think."

"Yeah! That's just down the street from my mom's gallery."

"Oh, cool. Do you live close enough to walk that, or do you just drive with your mom on the weekends?" She asked, trying to be nonchalant. Despite how little she'd seen of the town, she was fairly certain that if he didn't live on that end, he likely lived fairly close to the Wilson's and, therefore, her.

"My mom drives us." Sara nodded, but he was already scrambling to explain. "I mean, I… if I can fix up my dad's old car, my mom said I could have that. Once I get my license."

Sara smiled. He wanted her to know that he might have his own car soon. That had to be a good sign, right? He was showing off. She hoped. "Well, anyway, I don't have a ride so I can't even apply. I need something a little closer to home, but I don't know the town very well."

He opened his mouth, like he was going to say something, and then stopped, turning back to his book and eyeing it too closely. Sara found her hands shaking, a little, but clenched them and cleared her throat. "…What?"

He shook his head. "It was nothing. I was just… It's not important."

She swallowed. "…Tell me."

He sighed. "It was rude. You mentioned not knowing the town very well and I… I know that Tina and Ryan were both here last year, but you weren't, and neither of them have the same last names so…" Despite already having told Grissom this, in the future, Sara felt her head spinning with the prospect of reliving her past with Gil. He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You don't have to tell me anything."

He focused intently on his book again, and though Sara wanted to tell him—knew that Gil knew what it was like to be ostracized and wouldn't judge her the way others had—she couldn't force the words from her lips. She turned to her own book, and the rest of the class passed in silence.

At least, between the two of them. Mr. Friedman didn't seem to sense their discomfort, and asked the pair of them to explain their answers on an assignment that no one else in the class had understood. Gil looked down at the desk and read his answer quietly, with a perfunctory air, and refused to look up when he was done. Sara, for her part, noticed the open-mouthed stares of the rest of the class and gave a less scientific explanation, hoping to divert the attention from poor Gil, who was turning redder by the minute. She wasn't sure any of them really understood, but it at least had the effect of making them all turn back around to look at Mr. Friedman.

Sara thought that maybe she'd catch him after class and tell him the bare minimum—the part he must already know—that she was in foster care. Just to open up the lines of conversation again. But as soon as the bell rang he was up and out of his seat, first out the door despite being in the far back of the class, furthest away from it. She wasn't entirely sure if he was running from her or if he was running from the fact that he'd had to speak in class, but it upset her nonetheless.

It felt as if the classes in between Chem. and Lunch were a blur, taking forever and yet Sara could not for the life of her remember anything other than sitting down and then getting up, again, once the bell had rang. The way Gil had talked, on Friday, implied that he had every intention of sharing his lunch with her from now on. But Sara knew that she would have doubted whether she would find him there even if they hadn't had such a rocky morning. She went to the lunch room to buy her milk and thought very seriously about waiting a few minutes to see if he would appear down here, unwilling to maintain their friendship.

But she disregarded the thought almost immediately. She had to trust him.

If he was up there and she waited too long, he might come down and see her here… misinterpret. And if he didn't plan to meet her up there, he might change his mind when he didn't see her at Tina's table. …Either way, she couldn't lose the ground she'd gained.

With more confidence in her walk than she really felt, she climbed the stairs up to her Latin classroom. The light was on and, when she stepped inside, Gil was sitting in his seat, looking a little nervous. But there was already a sandwich and an orange resting on her usual desktop. Her heart swelled at the gesture—like a welcome that was above and beyond just sharing his meals. His ears turned red and he glanced at her only once, before locking his eyes on his food, but it was enough.

"Hi."

"Hi." He said, clearing his throat. "I hope you like oranges—it's all we had in the house this morning, so I've got two of them."

"I like all fruits." She said, moving to slide into her seat, happily. "You… you don't have to give me your food, you know, if you're going to be hungry…"

He smiled. "I'll eat your ham and cheese sandwich if I am, okay?"

She smiled too. "…Okay."

A comfortable silence slipped over them as Sara unwrapped her Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich with pleasure, and then glanced at him a little uncertainly. This set-up… not only coming here, but laying out the lunch for her, despite the uncertainty he had likely been feeling as well after this morning… it had taken courage. A leap of faith that she was fairly certain Gil did not make easily.

"Amanda and Frank are my foster parents." It came out in a rush, and she took a large bite of her sandwich immediately after, concentrating on the peanut butter stuck to the roof of her mouth, not looking at him. Despite her averted gaze, his was focused intently on her. She could feel it. After a long, long moment in which her entire face burned and his eyes never strayed, he put his plastic bag between them again, on the edge of her desk. Peas. Fresh from the garden, still in the pods.

She still didn't look at him, but reached up to take one, waiting for the question. Waiting for Gil to push her admission the way Grissom had. To force the truth and then… do what? Did she really expect sixteen year old Gil to handle it half as well as his middle-aged counterpart? How foolish to think that the closed-off boy would know what to do when the closed-off man had only barely managed to open up enough to make a gesture? She could feel the tension within her winding tighter and tighter. She should just run. Make a break for it. He might not think she was crazy now, but when he heard about her mother and her father and the path she'd taken up to this point…

"My dad died. Seven years ago." She turned to look at him, and he shrugged. A long moment, once again, passed between them, but this time neither of them looked away. It was a poignant few seconds of complete understanding, and then Gil gave her a half smile. "Do you think we'll be done with basketball in gym, or will he make us play it for another week?"

Sara exhaled in relief. Maybe she'd sold teenage Gil short, she thought, a smile slipping over her features. "I don't know. I hope we'll be done. It's so boring to play with the girls."

He shrugged. "It's kind of boring anyway, if you never get the ball."

Sara frowned, but when he passed her one of his two cookies with a shy smile, she couldn't maintain it. …Somehow, she was going to make Gil's life a better place for him, and not just where she was concerned.

Though it was not her intention, this effort started that very day, in gym class. Her intention was to run beside Gil when they ran laps at the beginning, but when Rick and his friends lapped the pair of them and made snide comments as they passed, Sara's temper could only be held in check for a few strides. Then she huffed, exchanged a glance with Gil, and took off again. They ignored her, each time she passed them, but clearly Halstead noticed, because he sneered at her when she dropped onto the bleachers ahead of everyone else, again.

"You think you've got something to prove, Sidle?"

Panting and hot, her temper just beneath the surface, she wanted to tell him exactly what was on her mind. That she was being sexually harassed daily while he listened to his radio and threw out sexist statements, occasionally just shy of harassment themselves. Instead, she grit her teeth. "Just that I'm not a piece of meat is all."

He snorted and shook his head, clearly not appreciating her sentiment.

She was more aggressive than usual today, playing with everything she had and knocking over several girls who stood in the middle of her path to the basket, talking. The third time this happened, Halstead blew his whistle and pulled her out of the game. "Apparently you're too rough for the girls, Sidle. So, you want equality? Jump into the boy's game. Looks like Grissom is just extra anyway. You guard him."

Everyone had stopped their games to watch, and Halstead's bark was loud enough to be heard clearly by all. She didn't look at Gil, but she knew that this was mortifying him. She had the overwhelming urge to kick this oversized bully right in the balls, but clenched her fists and refrained, moving into the boy's game. She got a few snide comments, but otherwise the game continued around her, and she was left to guard Gil. Who never got the ball. …Who clearly wanted the ball, didn't he? He had said it was boring when you didn't.

In a mad dash, she darted around him and through a pair of guys, snatching the ball from the one wearing the awful blue mesh vest, like Gil was. And then she'd broken through the group, and Gil was between her and the basket. He looked a little afraid, but when she faked right and ran left—and he saw through it, forcing them into a stand-off again—she was pretty sure he smiled, a little. Of course, a moment later she was rammed from behind (and quite possibly groped, though she couldn't be entirely sure how intentional it was) and the ball was snatched, the group of boys leaving her and Gil behind. No fantastic half-court shots or game-winning steals followed by a slam dunk… just a push that catapulted her forward, causing Gil to catch her to prevent her from slamming to the floor, and the game continuing without them.

Still, though… She was pretty sure he'd smiled.