Fortunately the call Gil placed found Rusty still in his office, "Well, Hello, Gil, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon, but I hope this means you have some good news for me."

"Rusty, I honestly have been unable to think about anything else since you and Sara called. But, first, I must ask, is she still there with you?"

"No, but I can send someone to find her for you."

"No, no, I just wanted to know if you could speak freely."

Rusty was curious about that. What could he possibly want to hear from him that he couldn't say in front of Sara?

"I think this is one opportunity that I don't want to pass on, and I want to talk more about it. However, in the interest of full disclosure, you have to understand that this is a huge decision for me. I have had a long and successful career at this lab, but the truth is I was already considering moving on. I just didn't think I would need to pull the trigger this quickly."

Rusty laughed knowingly, "I understand that Gil. I've made a few career leaps in my day. It can be daunting, but awfully rewarding."

"As far as the timing goes, even if I handed in a notice today, I still have active cases that need to be cleared. Best case scenario, I can arrive in two weeks, but realistically, it may take three. Will that work for you?"

"Well, my best case scenario is that you'd already be here," he said jokingly. Rusty couldn't hide his excitement, "Let me put it this way. I can't tell you what Sara has brought to this venture. You CSI's have skills that lend themselves to this work like nothing I have ever seen. I can't believe my good fortune to get two of you! I'll keep the other parts of the study going until you can get here." While Gil was sighing with relief, Rusty added, "Besides, I got nobody else," and they shared a laugh.

"Glad to know I come so highly recommended," Gil offered back, tongue in cheek.

"Sara is very high on your abilities, and I am very high on hers. That's very important."

"On that subject, let me send on my CV. You can check out my publications and verify my work. I have actually done a lot of field work. Before I came to Vegas I started my own body farm; I got a lot of publications out of that enterprise."

"Body farm?"

"Oh, that's where we study human decomposition under different conditions. My expertise, obviously, was in documenting the insect activity. That way, you can establish an entomological time line for TOD."

"TOD?"

"Time of death."

The silence at the other end of the line told Gil that he might have just really repulsed his potential research partner. Rusty was just taken aback by Gil's fortitude. He and Sara had worked in a very unfamiliar world.

"I'm sorry to be so graphic, but that's the work we do. You'll find most everything I've published to be in forensic literature, but it's accessible on line."

"I would love to see it." After a pause, "I understand on your job you must see some really horrific things."

"That's an understatement."

"Sara is very reluctant to share anything about it; I take it she burned out."

"Sara is extremely private, but yes, she has feelings that run so deep. She stayed in this work longer than she probably should have. I think that's part of why she has embraced this new challenge so passionately. Now she can utilize her skills to study life instead of death, how refreshing."

"She has really taken to it. I've never seen a first time research assistant embrace the assignments and master everything so quickly."

"Ah, speaking of Sara, I have a bit more to disclose."

"I see." Rusty was apprehensive wondering what was coming next.

"I need to know, ah, how do I put this? Do you have any rules or policies or such, that would prevent Sara and me from working together, if we are, you know, together…. Ah, romantically."

Grissom's face was burning crimson, and he was thankful Rusty couldn't see it.

Rusty beamed, "Oh, no, this is wonderful news. I mean, I suspected something, but this is really great. There are a lot of couples who assist each other in research; I've even been known to drag my wife along with me into the field as an assistant. It makes those jungle nights much more productive you know," he added with a snicker. "We function much like a typical college campus, what would be acceptable in that setting is just fine here."

"What a relief, you wouldn't believe the problems we had here. There's a lab policy against it. We tried to stay secret, but, anyway, moving forward, I need to ask one more favor."

"Name it."

"Don't say anything to Sara, please. My leaving the lab means we can finally be together. I want to tell her in person. I can't tell you how important that is to me. But, that may take a little deception on your part, are you comfortable with that?"

"Normally I wouldn't be, but with what you are doing, I'm happy to help in anyway I can."

"If you can let her know that I was able to find someone, but get forgetful about the details."

"I think I can do that, acting forgetful comes naturally to me," he joked. "You are going to have the tough part."

"Well, Sara's used to me dodging questions, besides seeing her face will be well worth the trouble."

"Gil, I need to tell you something else."

Grissom held his breathe not sure what it would be, "Ok."

"When I mentioned to Sara that I needed to get an entomologist involved, I only wish I had a picture of her reaction."

His heartbeat quickened, "What was it?"

Rusty drew his words out for emphasis, "She….positively….lit….up!"

Gil Grissom was about to choke up. He didn't want to act emotional in front of his new research partner, "I…see." He could force out only a few words.

Rusty sensed as much, "Listen, Gil, I need a fax number, I'll send off some paperwork, applications, research protocols, and such. On the protocols, just put some general stuff down, we'll hammer out the specifics when you get here."

"You got it," he choked out.

"I am really looking forward to this collaboration, Gil, take care."

"You, too, thank you. For everything."

Gil breathed a sigh of relief; Rusty seemed like the perfect person to help him pull this off.

tbc....

a/n: I didn't have a lot of time, but wanted to get in a quick update to move it forward a bit more....

By the way, TPTB left it up to interpretation as to whether or not she knew Gil was coming. Does he pull off the surprise????