A/N: I hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Turkey Day! I spent it working, but we did get a stomach full of food on the company's dime!

I want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed up to this point, it means the world to me. The journey for these two is really just beginning :)

Chapter Ten

We spent every hour of the next four days together. We visited all of her favorite spots in town, her favorite beach, her favorite sushi place and saw a movie at a drive-in theater that she loved. We spent an entire day at the California Academy of Sciences, a museum with an aquarium, planetarium and a natural history museum on its grounds. We talked a lot, held hands most all the time, but I didn't try to kiss her again. I did, every once in a while, touch her softly, and she never resisted. I kept my hand on the small of her back when we were in crowded places, sometimes stroked her fingers with my thumb as we held hands, and put a light hand on her knee as we dined together. We were getting to know each other, spending time in each other's company, and I loved every minute of it.

The only place we kept our guard up at was during our visit to the San Francisco lab. I tried my hardest to keep my promise to Sara to be unbiased, but it was difficult. The lab was tiny, not even 14,000 square feet, and was in a converted warehouse in the middle of nowhere. It was miles from the police headquarters, and lacked a lot of the technology we took for granted in Vegas. The employees of the lab were understaffed and underpaid, but overworked, and barely any of them looked happy when we passed by. We met with the lab director, who seemed eager to take Sara on board – who wouldn't, with her mind and qualifications? And to my surprise, Sara seemed just as eager.

When we left, she was nearly bouncing with excitement.

"So?" she asked. "What did you think? Honestly?"

I paused, reluctant.

"Honey, you don't want to work there," I said.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking a little deflated, but still defiant.

"I thought you said you'd be impartial," she said. "You promised… for me."

"I am, Sara, I promise," I said. "I'm looking out for you. You don't need to come to Vegas, especially not for me, but you deserve a lab with much better standards. Somewhere that can challenge you."

She stayed silent, chewing her lip in thought.

"Look, no pressure, no strings attached, but why don't you come back to Vegas with me?" I said. "I'll show you around the lab, and you can see what real opportunities exist out there for you. If not there, then at least somewhere else. Have you looked at Miami, or New York?"

"No," she admitted softly.

"There are great labs there, too," I encouraged. "Sara, as a professional, completely detached emotionally, my expert opinion is that you're too good for this lab. Go somewhere where your skills can be best utilized. Where you'll be valued, instead of taken advantage of."

She sighed.

"Okay. I'll think about it."

And we didn't mention it the rest of the trip. I never brought up her visiting Vegas with me again, but I knew it was on her mind. We went back to enjoying each other's company, and before we knew it, it was my last night in town. We spent it in her tiny apartment and I cooked a meal for her, a change from all the eating out we'd been doing, and put in another old movie. Yet again, we didn't end up watching a second of it, but for an entirely different reason.

We were sitting very close on her purple sofa, my arm around her shoulders and her hand resting delicately a few inches above my knee. The opening music had barely begun to play before she was turning towards me, leaning into me, and pressing close. Our foreheads touched, our noses touched, and I could feel her breath on my chin. Mere millimeters before our lips touched, I stopped her.

"Sara," I breathed. "Are you sure? I don't want to rush things, I don't want to hurt you."

"You could never hurt me."

That much was true, but I was still unsure, unconvinced that she was ready to take the next step with me.

"Just think about it Sara, I don't want—"

She silenced me by pushing her lips against mine. I felt explosions inside me. It had been a long time since I'd kissed a woman, but I was sure it had never felt like this. Kissing Sara felt like something I was born to do, and once we started, I never wanted to stop.

And we didn't stop, not for three more hours, long after the credits of the movie rolled and the television switched to a black screen. We kissed softly, we kissed with passion. We kissed with her in my lap, and with her stretched on the couch with me above her. Time melted as we kissed, and I never felt so sure of anything in my life.

When we finally did break apart, it was Sara who spoke.

"Come sleep with me tonight," she said, breathless.

"Sara…"

"Just sleep with me," she said. "Nothing has to happen. I just want you near me."

And so I followed her to her bedroom. She changed in the bathroom, and when she came out, in pajama pants and an oversized Harvard t-shirt, she went straight under the sheets to curl up beside me. I pulled her close and we both fell asleep that way, in each other's arms.

Nothing else happened, but it didn't need to. I didn't want it to, not yet. I wanted to do everything right with Sara. I didn't want to mess up what could turn out to be the most beautiful thing to happen to me in my entire life.

When I woke the next morning, Sara was already awake, still in my arms and looking at me softly. I kissed her, and told her 'good morning' in a voice still heavy with sleep.

She bid me good morning as well, but the next thing she said surprised me.

"I want to go to Vegas with you."

It was the start of a beautiful day.

If Sara held any apprehension about returning to Vegas, she hid it well. I asked her so many times if she was all right, that she resorted to threats if I asked any more. I myself had my doubts, I worried if this was too soon for her, and whether I was still thinking of myself before her, but Sara's ease seemed genuine. She acted no different from how she had my entire trip, and I felt that I finally knew her well enough to discern when she was putting on an act.

She was only staying for the night, so she was staying with me, and we went to the lab almost straight after we landed at McCarran. It was late afternoon, and therefore much too early for my team to be starting their shift, so we walked through the halls of the lab mostly uninterrupted. Sara didn't say much, but I could tell she was impressed. Our lab far outshone the one in San Francisco, and it took little more than a few walks around the halls to discover that there would be infinitely more resources available to her here. I showed her my office, each of the labs, introduced her to several techs and even pointed out the lab director as he walked by.

"And you've met some of my team," I said carefully, knowing what I was referencing. "They start in a few hours… do you want to wait around and meet the rest of them?"

Sara shifted from one foot to the other, her eyes on the DNA lab.

"I don't know."

Her voice was soft, and I allowed my fingers to find hers.

"If it's too much, being here—"

"Maybe just not right now," she said, smiling to reassure me. "But thanks for taking me here. I'm glad I came."

"What do you want to do now?"

"I wouldn't mind a little of your cooking," she teased, squeezing my fingers.

"I have just the thing."

We swung by the grocery store, my place being nearly bare of food after being out of town for almost a week, and I made Sara the best batch of stir-fry I'd ever cooked.

"Much better than take-out," she complimented as we ate.

We put on another movie, it was almost routine, even though we knew we wouldn't end up watching it, and we didn't. We spent the night kissing again, this time on my leather couch than on her purple one, then in my bed. I still didn't push anything, and she seemed grateful for it. In our haste to get her on my flight out of California, she'd forgotten to pack pajamas, so this time, she was clad in just an oversized t-shirt, one of mine, sans the pajama pants. Her long legs were smooth and soft against my skin, and she was curled close against me, her head on my chest.

"What are you thinking?" I whispered into her hair.

"How glad I am that we did this," she answered before propping her head up on her palm to look at me. "And how glad I am to have met you."

She leaned in to kiss me, then settled back down on my chest and fell asleep in my arms. As she slept, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to us, if she made the decision to not come to Vegas. Now that I had seen how happy I was with her in my life, I was in no way ready to let her go again.

But then again, I was in no position to relocate myself. Any transition to a new lab would certainly be a step down for me. Was I ready and willing to place her above my career? My job had never had such heated competition before. I wasn't used to making sacrifices, and worrying about the feelings of anyone but my own.

I realized that if I kept thinking, and therefore worrying, about it, I'd never sleep, so I eased my mind with the thought of whatever will be, will be. And joined Sara in slumber.

I drove her to the airport the next day for her flight back to Frisco. Uncertainty lingered in the air, just as it did when we parted a few months ago, but this time, we each had so much more at stake. We cared about each other, that much was certain. It was almost as if whichever decision Sara made regarding her career, would also determine what would happen between us. It was an ultimatum that neither of us cared to think too much about.

I kissed her when we parted, not long and slow like we kissed the night before, but it held the same meaning. She promised to call when she landed, and I knew she would. I watched her go, and told myself that grown men didn't cry at airports.