Disclaimer: not mine- more's the pity!

I didn't realise that my last chapter suggested any impending doom- sorry! it was all unintentional. Anyway...

Jim to the rescue! Ah Brass, could he be any cooler?

Here's the next thrilling instalment! Let me know what you think!

"What do you want, Brass?" Gil's tone was resigned: it was probably better to get it over with, rather than fighting him.

"I want to talk about your trip to San Francisco." he replied, seating himself on the chair across from the CSI, while he spoke.

"And how do you know I even went to San Francisco?" he asked expressionlessly.

The cop smiled faintly: "The same way I knew Sara was there. I don't know why everyone forgets that I used to have your job. Over the years I'm made more contacts than I care to remember- it's just a case of calling in a few favours."

Grissom silently acknowledged the truth of his statement.

"Anyway, I thought I'd ask you what you said- even though I already know how it went."

"I doubt that very much." Gil responded acidly.

His laugh was dry: "Wanna bet? You're back here, working more hours and in a worse mood than before you went on leave. Am I supposed to assume that you and Sara have worked everything out, decided to get married and have lots of geeky children?"

Grissom's rubbing of his tired eyes showed more clearly than anything that Brass had hit a sore spot.

"I asked her to come back to Vegas with me." he said tonelessly.

Jim sighed and shook his head wearily: "I thought it might have been that." There was a pause, "I suppose she threw you out?"

He looked at his friend sharply: "How did you guess that?"

It was too much for Brass: he threw back his head and gave way to his mirth.

Grissom's face darkened like a thunder cloud at the other man's laughter. He couldn't see anything remotely funny about the situation.

He started furiously: "Look, Jim, I'm busy and-"

"No, no. Don't be so touchy, Gil! Relax. Just let me ask you something: did you explain what you meant by all that stuff you said to Lurie?"

He shook his head.

"Did you tell her that you missed her like crazy?"

Again he shook his head.

"Did you tell her that you're in love with her?"

For a third time, he slowly shook his head: realisation was dawning.

"So, just to be clear: you showed up, out of the blue, to ask her to come back to work in Vegas?"

"Yes." he responded so quietly that Brass had to strain his ears to hear him.

"And what happened after you asked her?"

He sighed: "She got angry and asked me to leave. Then I got angry. And then she told me that she couldn't go back to Vegas for me, because she'd done it once before."

"Right. So why didn't you mention why you wanted her back?"

Grissom rubbed a hand tiredly across his face: "Because she said that she was happy for the first time in a long while."

"And you don't think she could be happy with you?"

He gave Brass a look that told him everything he needed to know.

"So, you decided to leave her alone. Why couldn't you just tell her the truth?"

There was a long silence, as for a while Brass didn't think he was going to answer.

But he did.

"Because I love her." he muttered almost inaudibly.

Jim groaned: "And why couldn't you just tell her that? That's usually what women in love like to hear from the object of their affections."

Looking into Brass' eyes, Dr. Gil Grissom suddenly began to feel very foolish.

AN: Well, was that ok? I know Brass seems to be doing all the leg-work, but Grissom is a bit oblivious when it comes to feelings and all that!

Please let me know what you thought!