A/N: Punched this chapter out for drakien. Who really needs organic chem in the first place? Am I right? I'm supposed to be wrapping up a lab right now but hey, look at that, I'm not!

and moglo... I'm listening to that song RIGHT THIS SECOND, I swear. I love it. BNL are my boys. I've seen em 20 times and they've all been worth it.

-

It was strange, how quickly they fell back into their old routine once back in Vegas. Save for him bring her coffee from time to time and vice versa, it was as if nothing had changed.

The only person to ask about their vacation was Catherine, and she'd been incredibly nonchalant about it, slipping the question in over evidence retrieval. The only answer Sara gave her was"Interesting, fun." before she went back to collecting and bagging.

It was sufficient for Catherine, just to see them smiling, so she let the issue go and their days settled back into an old routine.

Cases came and went with little change, save for the time that Nick fell into Lake Mead and came out covered in weeds. That had been memorable, and Warrick, thinking fast, had luckily captured the moment of film, for everyone at the office to revel in.

There had been mornings when the team would go out to breakfast, as if nothing had changed in the past four years. Aside from brief hand holding and quick pecks on the lips, nothing had. Not really.

It was three weeks since they had come back from New Hampshire when he'd dropped the next bombshell. Sara was preparing herself for bed. He lay in bed, waiting for her, listening to the sounds she made. The dull swishing of her brushing her teeth, the way she sniffed after putting in her eye drops.

Padding slowly into his room, he grinned at the picture she presented: a wife beater, bright green pants, and disheveled hair. Truly a woman in need of some rest. He pulled the comforter back for her and she settled into his side as he moved to switch of the bedside lamp.

Gil leaned over and handed her a small card, but gave her no explanation as to what was inside. He turned over as if to go to sleep and she slipped her finger under the tape securing the card slowly, very slowly. Upon opening it, her face went blank, wondering just why the hell he was giving her a five hundred dollar gift certificate... to Home Depot.

Confused, utterly, she rolled over and hit him on the shoulder. 'Sleeping my ass.' She thought and hit him again, this time, succeeding in getting him to roll over and face her. "What's this"

He attempted to feign ignorance. "What is what"

"Don't be an idiot. This" She waved the card in front of his face for good measure and perched herself up on an elbow, staring intently at him.

"Well" He huffed, pretending to be irritated. "If you're going to live here, this place could use a woman's touch."

"I'm moving in"

"Go to sleep."

"I'm making over your place... and moving in"

"Go to sleep."

She flung herself at him and kissed his naked back. "You're kidding."

"No."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Now go to sleep."

-

Three days later, Grissom was regretting his 'then' brilliant idea. Greg, Nick and Warrick all stood in his living room, adorned in borrowed jumpsuits, goggles in place over their eyes. It had taken some cajoling on Sara's part to get them to give in and help out, but after they realized that they'd get to add to the new Gil Grissom project, they were sold.

Numerous cans of paint littered the floor, brushes scattered all over the place, waiting to be put to good use.

Sara had gone straight to the Home Depot the next day, much to Grissom's amusement, to pick out the colors that she intended to paint the rooms. Luckily, his floors didn't need remodeling, and his kitchen only needed minimal work. Plus, if she wanted, she had money to spare to pour into the remodeling project.

Sara decided she'd wait and see how the paint job turned out before she settled on any larger projects.

Sara slapped her hands together judiciously, and the three men spun to look at her. "Living room first." She smiled at Grissom and he simply raised a brow at her. "Cerulean." Picking up a canister, she displayed the appropriate color and set it back down on the floor.

She slid goggles onto her face and smiled broadly at the bunch. "What are you waiting for? Let's get started" She pried open a canister and poured it into the paint tray. She was giddy from the prospect of making half of his space hers and attack the wall with gusto.

Grissom cringed as the calming blue covered over the white of his walls. For just a brief moment, he was rethinking his little plan. Then he saw the look on Sara's face and forgot all about it. Nick laughed at her wide streak of color and dipped in as well, taking the wall opposite her.

Grissom watched for a few moments as Greg and Warrick attempted to work out a system, and retreated to his bedroom to get some work done. Laughter floated in from time to time, causing him to smile and shake his head.

Grissom worked as diligently as his friends in the living room were... until he heard a scream. A man's scream. It spurred him out of his seat and into his living room, only to find Greg, face covered in paint, standing in the middle of the room, his roller dripping onto the tarp on the floor.

He couldn't help it, he really couldn't. He should have been upset, but the sight of Greg, standing there, face all blue, looking forlorn, was just too much. Grissom's smile surfaced, soon followed by a laugh. Sara, Warrick and Nick all stood there, faces expressionless, none of them wishing to take the blame.

Grissom spoke. "Greg, if I may ask... how"

Greg's eye darted around to his compatriots and he turned back to his boss. "I uh... fell." Greg said and hung his head. That spurred Warrick to laugh, and in turn Nick. Soon, they were all laughing, including Greg, who swiped at his face with the arm of his jumpsuit.

"I feel so used." The young CSI muttered as they returned to their task, wanting to complete the room within the hour.

They resumed their painting with minimal interruptions and finished the room in forty-five minutes. When they were through, Grissom treated them all to Chinese take out and they pow-wowed on the tarps in the living room, all of them covered in red paint.

After lunch, Warrick had offered to take the bathroom and Sara and Nick took the bedroom. Grissom wasn't exactly comfortable having Nick in his bedroom, but the other man gave no signs of being uncomfortable, so he let it go and sat down at the breakfast bar to a new forensics journal.

Once inside the bedroom, they laid the tarps and stood back to survey the area. "So" Nick broke the silence"Why are you doing this for him"

Sara picked up her roller and dunked it in the paint that she'd poured. Attempting to shrug it off as if it were nothing, she answered. "I'm moving in, and he wants this place as much mine as it his."

Nick paused in his painterly preparations and gaped at her. "I uh, I..." Nick drawled on as Sara applied paint liberally to the walls, not particularly interested in his reaction.

"Congratulations." He said and turned his attention to the wall in front of him.

-

Hours later, Gil and Sara sat in the kitchen, sipping tea silently.

"You don't like the color." She piped up.

He shook his head and took a long gulp from his mug. "I like it."

She nodded and returned to her tea.

Minutes later, ten perhaps, he spoke. "Do you even want to be here"

Sara looked up at him startled, put down her tea, and slid from her stool. "Come with me." She directed quietly, walking towards his bedroom.

He loomed in the door as she reopened the can of scarlet paint. "C'mere." She ordered and he did, coming forward slowly. He stood above her, looking down. "Come, here." She instructed and pointed to the floor. He dropped down beside her and she grabbed his hand and plunged it into the paint.

"Sara" He started, but watched as she did the same. He took her right hand in her clean left and pulled it up to press against the wall. She did the same with her right hand, placing her indiscernible palm print over his, then she turned to him.

"Yes. I want to be here." Then she got up and walked from the room to wash the paint from her hand.

Grissom watched her go and then glanced at the camouflaged palms on the wall.

That's where their new bed would go, he decided.