Title: Welcome Home

Author: Viggorrah

Disclaimer: If I owned CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, do you seriously think I would be writing this? I would be writing screenplays, not Fan Fiction and meeting with William Petersen and the rest of the stars of the show. Who the hell do you think I am?

Summary: Sharon and Grissom's mother prepare to leave Las Vegas.

A/N: Readers: I totally rewrote the part (the entire section in italics) of this chapter right after this first paragraph; now there's some implied...'stuff'...in there, so watch out.

Chapter XXI

After Grissom's last statement, he and Sara spent the rest of the day and the next day together. Things got intimate after the second day, though. Grissom had already had his shirt off, which was a step in the right direction. That was one less piece of clothing Sara had to remove. Unfortunately for Grissom, though, Sara was fully clothed. He had to do the most work by undressing her. Of course, he didn't mind; their clothes covered the floor in a matter of minutes anyway. Their intimate, love-filled timeframe might have caused any and everyone else who wasn't in the house (which was basically everyone since Sharon and Grissom's mother had gone shopping and Catherine and Jim were at work) to be locked out of the house for that amount of time, but Grissom and Sara didn't know that nor did they care. They got lost within each other and nothing on the outside of their world mattered. They heard the knocks on the door very faintly every now and then from their bedroom. Sara was tickled pink when Grissom just plainly and bluntly ignored Jim...

Sara had just gotten back home from a quick run to the corner store and Grissom had met her at the bottom of the stairs. He was dressed in the same slacks, but had changed into a dark green, button-up shirt. She went upstairs and he slowly followed her. Sara glanced back at him, taking note of the odd look in his eyes, one she knew all too well. Sara stopped a little ways into the hallway at the top of the staircase and faced Grissom fully. He stopped about a foot from her and she knew what he wanted immediately. She gently, but aggressively, sandwiched him between a nearby wall and herself before smiling at him. He gazed into her eyes, grinned back at her, and proceeded to put his hands around her body. Sara put threw her arms around his neck and he pulled her closer to him before they both leaned in closer and met the other's lips halfway. Somewhere along the way, they made their way over to the bed and started shedding the clothes they had on. Sara was on her back, laying on the bed and Grissom was standing near the edge of the bed, taking his shirt off.

"Hang on; are you up to this?" He seemed confused as finished unbuttoning and shrugging his shirt off his shoulders.

"What do you mean?" He took his arm out of one of the sleeves and took it off the other before throwing it over to the side of the bed.

"I don't want you to hurt yourself." He grinned at her.

"I'm not going to hurt myself, Sara." He answered with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm serious, Gil. Your wound still hasn't healed all the way yet."

"I'll be fine." He said in a dismissing tone.

"Gil-"

"Sara," He said with a smirk. "Trust me; I'll be fine." She gave him a disbelieving look. He climbed onto the bed, continued to position himself over her stomach, and put his hands on top of her wrists beside her head; he had her gently pinned down. Sara watched him as he did all of this, wondering what exactly he was planning to do, but, at the same time, trusting him every step of the way. She gazed up at him as his face hovered right over hers. He smiled at her, and she pushed her lips to his again. As the next few minutes passed, she could feel his penis on her stomach; it had become increasingly more and more erect as they continued to explore each other's mouth. A while later, Sara wiggled one of her wrists free and ran her hand through Grissom's hair. He parted his lips from hers, and he felt her other hand running down his chest, his abdomen, and finally stopped down at his crotch.

"Whoa, somebody's happy."

"Ohh, you have no idea. These pants are gonna have to come off. " He replied with a smirk. "Would you like to do the honors?" Sara began pulling down his pants and grinned devilishly up at Grissom.

"I thought you'd never ask."

About an hour later, Sara was still lying on her back on the bed and Grissom was still on top of her, but they had succeeded in getting the rest of their clothes off by this time. Although he was practically laying on her before, he had sat back between her legs and up on his knees to mess with the condom that seemed to be uncooperative. Sara didn't mind; it gave her the opportunity to please her eyes and slowly gaze up and down his body. Suddenly, he stopped what he was doing and whipped his head back around towards the bedroom door. Sara noticed his attention change almost immediately.

"Gil?" At first, she had thought something was wrong. What was bothering her the most was that he was just staring at the door; he wasn't moving at all. "Gil, what's wrong?"

"Did you hear that?" He asked her while continuing to stare at the bedroom door. "I thought I heard someone." She was silent for a moment and then she heard a faint "Sara? Gil? You in there? Open up; let me in.". Sara waited a few more seconds before asking,

"Is that Jim?"

"I think so." Grissom answered her with a nod and a sideways glance at her.

"I locked the door and he doesn't have a key to get in..." Grissom gave that signature half-shrug of his and had a look on his face that seemed to convey that he didn't really care. "Don't you think we should let him in?" He turned his head back to watch her while she started sitting up, but Grissom put his hand on her bare stomach and gently pushed her back down into the bed. He shook his head and then put his hands on the bed on either side of her.

"No, we have some-" He placed a light kiss on her chest. "-unfinished business-" He placed another on the side of her neck. "-to attend to." He smiled devilishly at her when he finally reached her lips and brought his down to hers. "He's just going to have to wait," Sara couldn't help but grin up at Grissom. "Now isn't he?"

A few days later, Catherine softly knocked on the front door of Grissom's townhouse. She had had a tough day at the lab. But she thought it would be good to stop by and see how Grissom was doing. She heard the locks being unlocked from inside and it eventually opened to reveal Sharon.

"Hi, Catherine." She greeted her. She smiled at her.

"Hey, Sharon. I thought you guys were leaving today?" She nodded while moving to the side to let her in.

"We are; our plane leaves in a couple of hours." Catherine walked in and sat on the couch.

"Yeah, but you guys should probably still leave here pretty soon to get to the airport. Don't you have to check in an hour early or something?" Sharon closed the door, walked to the couch and sat on it before she answered Catherine.

"Yes, we do, but we're waiting on Gil." She gave her a confused look.

"'Waiting on Gil?' What? He's going with you to the airport?" She shrugged and nodded.

"Is that bad?"

"No, I just wouldn't have thought he would be up to going anywhere."

"He's been up and walking around the house. It seems like it wouldn't be a problem to him."

"Oh, really? That's good!" She responded with a smile. "Mind if I tag along?"

"I think Catherine's here." Grissom opened his eyes and gazed at Sara, who was holding a razor with shaving cream all over it.

"How can you tell?" He asked her.

"I heard the front door open and close." She said while rinsing the razor in the sink. "I wonder if Jim's still mad at you." After spending a couple of hours waiting outside, Jim had decided to call Grissom. He tried calling five times before Grissom actually decided to answer his cell phone. Jim, of course, was pissed and cussed Grissom out over the phone. Sara laughed to herself as she had watched Grissom play it off as if it wasn't his fault that he hadn't opened the door for Jim.

"I don't know; he'll get over it eventually." Sara walked back over to him and slowly ran the razor over a section of Grissom's chin that still had shaving cream on it.

"He seemed pretty mad though. I mean, I've never heard Jim cuss anyone out before." Grissom smirked. "Hey, hold still or I'm going to accidentally knick you again." She finished that section and went to rinse the razor again. "What's so funny, anyway?"

"You haven't known Jim for as long as I have. Trust me, that wasn't his first time cussing someone out. And it wasn't the first time he cussed me out either."

"Wow. Really?" Sara asked while coming back to Grissom to finish shaving his beard. "What did you do to make him pissed off at you?" He smirked again.

"It was a long time ago..." Sara's expression told him that she wasn't satisfied with his answer. "Let's just say it involved me, Jim's girlfriend on the phone, and a blood alcohol content level of approximately point twenty-four." Sara turned her back to him and began rinsing the razor the last time.

"Point twenty-four? Damn; somebody was extremely drunk..." Grissom's silence prompted her to turn to face him; he had stood up and was wiping his chin with a towel. "Who was it?" He stopped wiping his chin and looked at her with an odd glint in his eyes. Sara stared at him, perplexed. "It was you?" He half-shrugged and gave her a grin.

"I'm not sure if I passed out or Jim knocked me out, but he was single when I woke up the next morning."

About twenty minutes later, Catherine had sat down on the couch and Sharon had gone to help Mrs. Grissom finish packing. Catherine heard faint footsteps behind the couch and turned to look in that direction. Soon after, Grissom appeared, padding slowly down the hallway. He still didn't have a shirt on, she noticed, but he had changed into a pair of dark blue jeans.

"Hi, Catherine." He said.

"Well, well, well. It's nice to see you're up out of bed and walking around. And you shaved, too? You're on a roll!" He smiled and nodded. She could tell he was happy not to be on bed-arrest, as he called it. "I'm glad you shaved. You were looking kind of hairy for a minute there."

"I know. I've been told it looked like it did when I got returned from my sabbatical."

"It did. Well, anyway, it's great that you're up and about. That means your body's healing."

"Yeah, I feel a lot better. Sara told you about that ointment, right?" Catherine remembered vaguely that Sara had told her about the Aquaphor.

"Yeah, she did. That was a good decision, apparently; it worked wonders." She looked over the top half of his body. "They're not as prominent either." He looked down and fingered around his wounds.

"Nope; I'm glad. Sara was worried about that." Out of nowhere, he stopped and looked back up. "Have you heard from Warrick, Nick, or Greg? They said they were coming by today."

"Oh, yeah, they were saying something about that, but they got caught up on cases. Nick and Warrick had a nasty double homicide-" She paused to think. "And Greg had an apparent suicide to work." Grissom nodded and he had a far-off look on his face.

"I miss work. I mean, sure, I'm getting to spend extra time with Sara when she's not at work, but that's not the problem." He shook his head again. "I'm going insane staying at home. I have nothing to keep me occupied…besides Sara." Catherine noticed how nonchalantly he talked about Sara; she liked how he had changed about talking about her. "I want to return to the lab. I don't care if I can't go into the field yet. I just need something to work on."

"Have you or Sara talked to your doctor?" He shook his head. "When we get back from dropping Sharon and your mother off at the airport, you should call him and see what he says." Grissom gave her a weird expression.

" 'We'?" He asked her.

"Oh, you don't know? I'm coming with you guys."

"When did this happen?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No.." He cocked his head to the side. "But when was this going to come to my attention?"

"I asked Sharon if I could come along. She didn't see a problem with it."

"That's not my question, Catherine." He said with a smile. Catherine took a minute to try and read what was going on in Grissom's mind, but, in the end, she didn't come up with anything. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Don't you need to finish getting dressed or something?" He laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so." He paused and watched her expressions flash on her face: exasperation and confusion. He smirked. "You still haven't answered my question." Grissom had to retreat a few feet because of the emotion that flashed across Catherine's face. He put his hands up in a surrendering fashion. "Hey, hey, whoa. Calm down; I was only kidding, Cath." Sara came walking down the same hallway Grissom came from, saw Grissom and Catherine turn towards her, and stopped cold turkey.

"What'd I do? And what's happening in here?" She asked. Grissom looked back at Catherine, put his hands down, turned around, and started to walk towards the hallway.

"I have to finish getting dressed." He said as he passed her with a smirk on his face. Sara looked at Grissom's back as he finished his statement and then looked back at Catherine, who had started to stalk off towards the kitchen, but with a smile on her face at the same time. Sara looked at both of them again, severely confused.

"Ok, hang on. I missed something."

Grissom slipped back into his and Sara's bedroom and went to his closet. He grabbed an old, red button-up shirt from a hanger and unbuttoned it. He slipped it on and, starting from the bottom, buttoned up the shirt. When he was about halfway through, he heard a knock on the bedroom door.

"Yeah?" He walked out of his closet just enough to see who had knocked.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sharon said from the doorway. He simply waved off her apology and continued buttoning his shirt.

"It's fine, Sharon. Did you need something?"

"Your mother wants to ask you something." Grissom nodded and followed her to the room where his mother was finishing up packing. Grissom went up to her and she turned to face him.

/Oh, Gil. You shaved./ He nodded.

/Yes, I did./

/When/

/About thirty minutes ago./

/Oh, ok. Well, I wanted to ask you: who's all coming with us to the airport/

/Me, Sara, and Catherine. Why/ He responded.

/I was just wondering if you all wanted to get a quick bite to eat before you drop us off/ Grissom shrugged.

/That's fine with me. Let me go ask Sara and Cath; Here.../ He picked up their suitcases and turned to Sharon. "Take her downstairs and wait for me by the door. I'll be right there." He walked out of the room, put their luggage down near the door, and then made his way to the kitchen.

Sara followed Catherine to the kitchen, where she had leaned up against the countertop.

"What happened between you two in there?" Catherine shook her head and smiled.

"Gil was just screwing around with me."

"Why did he have his hands up like you were holding him up?"

"I was about to shove my foot up his ass, that's why." Catherine looked at Sara as she continued. "He was trying to be the 'Alpha dog' over me just because Sharon and I made a decision by ourselves with letting him in on it."

"Oh.." Sara said and then started laughing; Catherine soon joined in with her. "And I thought something serious had happened."

"No, nothing serious. Grissom was just...being Grissom."

"It's good to have him back." Catherine nodded.

"Yeah, it is." She paused. "I thought we had lost him when he was in that coma."

"That was a close call." Sara agreed. "I'm really glad everything's almost back to normal, though."

"You and me both. When I was just talking to him, he stated that he wanted to go back to work."

"Really? He wants to go back to work? Already?" Catherine nodded.

"That's what he said. He told me he was going insane." Sara shrugged, but shook her head at the same time.

"Him going back to work means he's going to be dealing with Ecklie and the sheriff, though. I'm sure Ecklie's told the sheriff about me and Gil..."

"I'm not worried about them." Sara and Catherine's heads whipped around to find Grissom leaning against the wall, hands across his now-clothed chest. "And you shouldn't be either."

"How long have you been there?" Sara and Catherine asked in unison. They looked at each other and then back at Grissom.

"Long enough." He pushed himself off of the wall and walked deeper into the kitchen. "I'll take care of Ecklie and the sheriff. They can't do anything to us."

"They can fire me.." Sara said.

"No, they can't." He walked over to her and put his arm around her waist, an action that gave her goose bumps. "If they fire you, I'm quitting." Sara was about to retort, but he brought his free hand up to her mouth and put his pointer finger over her lips. "If they transfer you to either Swingshift or Dayshift, I'm going to be livid. The sheriff can't afford to have me pissed at him; problems are going to start arising if that happens. He knows that. There's going to be negotiations between us two parties; they'll have to keep me happy all the while getting at an agreement that they can live with." He shook his head and smirked. "We're fine."

"You thought of this on your own?" Catherine said incredulously. Grissom looked up at her.

"I practically had nothing else to do, Catherine. Sometimes when I was solving a crossword or reading a book, I would space out for a minute and just think about random things. And, more often than not, that's what came up."

"I'm glad you thought of something; I couldn't think of anything." Sara said; he shrugged and smiled.

"It's what I'm here for." Remembering what he initially went down there for, Grissom changed the subject. "Mom's wanting to know if you guys want to grab something to eat on the way to the airport."

"I'm good with that." Sara said. "Cath?"

"Sounds good to me." Grissom smiled at them.

"Great. Let's go."

TBC!