A/N: Okay, some fluff and a smidget of action (didn't want to go overboard with it), my fave combo. It's like dinner and a movie! It just fits! Love the reviews, guys, keep 'em comin! And also... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Belated, but hey, it's the thought that counts. Lol

Disclaimer: See past chapters. Pick a chapter, any chapter.

Chapter 25: Break-Ins, Gashes, & Realizations

Sara's POV:

There was, yet again, another knock at the door disturbing the residence. Rolling my eyes, I got up from the couch and made my way over to the door. Instead of being greeted with a familiar face however, I was greeted by a very unfamiliar face.

"Hello. May I help you?" I held a very defensive posture toward the man I faced now.

The man was silent for a moment, shifting his gaze from me to the inside of my house. I felt my pulse involuntarily increase, and all of my senses heightened. When the silence went on for too long, I backed up and tried to close the door as fast as I could. Regrettably, I wasn't quick enough to beat the man's leg that kicked the door open, banging against the wall it was attached to and barging in.

"Grissom!" I called out for Grissom while I tried my best to hold off the man from entering by shoving him back with my hands.

Shoving him only seemed to provoke him to raising his fist toward me. I blocked my face with one arm while I now tried to push this stranger by with my body, despite how much larger he was than me. But I was no longer needed as Grissom soon arrived and had the man pinned to the door by the collar of his shirt with his feet disconnected from the floor. I could sense the primal instinct to protect radiating off of him as he kept the stranger firmly pinned to the door while he struggled to get away.

But in just the blink of an eye, the silver object was withdrawn from the inside of the stranger's coat pocket. The sound of the blade retracting caused Grissom to look down just in time and jump back, barely getting touched on his left side by the tip of the razor sharp blade. That's the point where I rushed in, remaining circumspect of the blade's position and then subdued the man against the door just as Brass and my advanced self-defense classes taught me. The knife dropped to the ground, soundless because of the carpet, and while I had the man down on his knees with his hands behind his head, I kicked the knife further out of his reach and into the hall.

"Jim? I need you over at Sara's apartment to arrest an intruder. Don't ask questions, just get over here." Grissom's becalmed tone could've fooled anyone except for the semi-wild eyed gaze he was giving the perp.

Not being as barbaric as one could've been, I held the slightest bit of regard for him since his arm was in a splint and cast, but that still didn't help him much. When Grissom hung up with Brass and replaced his cellphone back in his pocket, he gently told me that he had this under control. I personally felt better when I left the perp in Grissom's hands, who forced him up to his feet to check him for any other weaponry. I saw that Grissom came up with nothing as I checked on the children back in my bedroom. In the far right corner of my room, I saw Alex standing guard in front of Kylie and Roxas; Kylie holding Roxas against her chest with her knees drawn up.

"Is everything a'ight now?" Alex questioned with the smallest of tremors in his voice.

"Yeah, everything is gonna be all right now." I nodded to emphasize my point, only slightly out of breath from the small struggle. "J-Just stay in here for now, okay?"

Alex simply assented with the unmistakable dip of his head, coaxing Kylie out of the corner and onto the bed where they all sat deathly still and silent. Meandering back into the living room where Grissom still had the perp against the wall, both of the stranger's hands pressed into the back of his neck, Grissom was inspecting the man's wallet that he'd found.

"You're from the court house." Grissom whispered to himself practically. "You followed me back."

"My hand to God, I will get your damn sister back for doing all of that to me and my crew!" These were the first words the guy had spoken, and I knew they were directed toward me. "I'm most likely doing time! Major time! And it's all her fault!"

"Hey! Shut up!" Brass's gruff voice sounded from out in the hallway.

Brass immediately took over the situation by handcuffing the intruder and shoving him in the direction of another cop that was accompanying him. As the other cop hauled the perp off, Brass stayed back to get into Grissom's face, forcing Brass to look up a tad bit for being slightly shorter than Grissom.

"You're lucky I was in the area. Next time, don't just give me a message like that and then hang up. Tryna give me a heart attack here?" Brass chided Grissom, though I knew there was at least some worry behind his admonishing tone. "An intruder could've meant anything! The least you could've said was that the intruder was already apprehended." Brass's lecture was cut short when he peered down and caught sight of something interesting. "Damn, he nicked you pretty well."

At that, I abruptly moved to get a better angle of what Brass had seen. And though I knew Grissom would be annoyed that we all were taking heed of his wounds, I felt the need to inspect what damage had been done. Unfortunately, most likely feeling exposed, Grissom covered the wound with his hand which was located on his stomach just above his right hip.

"It's fine. Just a cut." Grissom pushed it off to the side.

Already fed up with Grissom trying to put it out of sight and out of mind, I leaned in and pulled his hand away by his wrist. Brass had been right; The perp had nicked him pretty well with his knife. But Grissom was also right when he said that it was just a cut. A penetrating cut, nonetheless, but still just a cut that just needed to be washed and disinfected. And perhaps a new shirt was in order as well.

"I'll get him cleaned up Brass." I assured. "Thank you for arriving on short notice."

"Thank me? I was in the area going to a local diner and then I get that call." Brass backed off of Grissom, muddling through to put a semi-normal face back on now. "How couldn't I arrive on short notice?"

Smiling at his care for my safety, I dropped Grissom's wrist to envelope Brass in an embrace of appreciation. Parting our ways with promises to see each other later back at the lab for work, I led Grissom into my bathroom to clean him up a bit.

Shedding his shirt, Grissom tossed the shirt in a disheveled heap in the corner of the bathroom. Midst my searching for a soft washcloth in my closet, Grissom was washing off his smeared blood from his hands in the sink. When I'd finally produced a suitable candidate, I returned to Grissom to wet the washcloth under the warm water.

Amid my trance like method of cleaning the blood off and around the wound, I felt Grissom's stomach contract and relax from laughing. Well, I'd noticed the still present muscles that became even more noticeable when he laughed first, and then the fact that he was laughing second. What can I say? Female instinct.

"What's so funny?" I questioned, getting back up at eye level with him.

"Cleaning up a minor cut like this isn't a two person job, Sara." Blue eyes twinkled at me knowingly.

And despite all that had transgressed in just the past ten minutes, that peculiar look in his eyes had the power to make me smile notwithstanding the events. "You've caught me red-handed. I just love seeing you with your shirt off."

Narrowing his eyes at me impishly, the left side of Grissom's mouth pulled into one of his smiles, with holding a chuckle that flexed his stomach again. "There's something wrong with you, Miss Sidle. You like old men bodies."

"Ah, excuse me? I'll have you know, your body does not count as an 'old man body'. When I can still see some muscle when you laugh in your abs, that is not 'old man body'." I wasn't even sure who I was defending with the truth – him or me. "Now, when you start having more gut than muscle, then I'll taunt you about having an old man body and you can tease me back for still being in love with you."

Confirming that he was done bleeding and all of the blood had been washed off, while leaning against the sink counter, Grissom pulled me to him with his arms around my waist. I hadn't said Grissom had a nice body for anyone's reassurance, I quickly concluded with the solid fact of feeling his arms around my body securely. Of course, that wasn't to say that he had the perfect rock hard abs of professional body builders, but I wasn't complaining in any way. Resting my head against his bare chest, it was both comfortable and firm with healthy muscle.

He's a comfortable pillow and strong at the same time. My mind noted with mirth.

"Sounds fair to me." Grissom's chin now rested on top of my head.

I had both of my hands on either side of my head from where I had my head laying right above his heart. I closed my eyes as I listened to the rhythmic beat pounding inside his chest. Placing soft kisses over his heart, Grissom tilted my head up with his index finger under my chin lightly so that I was now eye locked with him. Attraction brought our lips closer and closer until they met halfway and melted together easily. Intensity built rapidly with time, and as reluctant as it was, I was the one that pulled back, but not pulling far as I could still feel Grissom's ragged breath on my face and lips.

"Not now..." I whispered, shivering slightly when Grissom's hand dropped from my chin to caressed a line up and down my bare arm from the tank top I wore. "Later. I promise."

"I'm keeping you to that, Sara Sidle." Grissom's husky tone raised goosebumps to my skin.

"I hope you do." Lowering my head, I withdrew from his warm embrace to get the hydrogen peroxide.

Dabbing the wound with cotton balls soaked in hydrogen peroxide, the region around the open cut foamed up as the hydrogen peroxide took its cleaning effects on the infected area. It was imaginable that it stung – either that or I was just a sissy when it came to applying it on my own cuts. Then again, I'd take this chemical composition over Scotty's brother's remedy and its chemical composition any day.

Flashback

"Uncle Barry! Uncle Barry!" Brooke hollered as she pulled me out of the wreckage that had become of our two dirt bikes colliding into each other mid-air.

A haze covered my mind and I briefly wondered why I couldn't walk on my right leg without a sharp pain breaking through my haze for what seemed like a second. Brooke had my arm wrapped around her neck as she hobbled off the worn down dirt bike path. Several yards away, Uncle Barry and Scotty sat around an extinguished fire pit, having a beer and conversing over light matters. Brooke's carrying voice caught their attention hastily, and now both men had detached themselves from their seats to aid Brooke in getting me to a chair.

When Uncle Barry lifted Brooke into his arms to carry her, it was noted that I wasn't the only one with injuries.

Still disoriented from the collision, I didn't particularly pick up what Uncle Barry and Scotty were bickering about. Brooke, sitting beside me on the picnic table appeared mortified of their words, and as Brooke pulled an injured forearm and leg close to her chest, I took in the gash in her injuries that ran the whole length of her ulna and tibia. The skin around the open regions were burnt at the most to the second degree.

However, I got the message loud and clear when Uncle Barry cracked open a fresh beer from the cooler and poured half of it down my right leg. Haziness had dissipated into thin air and all I knew now was pain. Searing hot, unbearable pain from the alcohol reacting with the bacteria inside my gash the peg on my dirt bike had inflicted. Even Brooke, once the remainder of the beer was poured down her arm and left leg, had tears surfacing in her bi-colored eyes just as I did.

I hadn't even realized that I'd been holding my breath to hold back the scream of pain, until I passed out from lack of oxygen to my brain.

End of Flashback

Smirking to myself, I began to realize how stupid I was for forgetting to breath. But the pain had been so unbearable! It made me oblivious to everything else beside the gash that was in my leg. Of course, that had given Uncle Barry the prime opportunity to stitch the gash up with a needle and thread. Such a crude method, and I whole-heartedly blamed Uncle Barry for proposing the idea to Brooke to self-stitch all wounds up with such ordinary house items. But, it did cut back the money for medical bills since that kind of accident occurred quite often in our household. Cuts and gashes, I mean. Not the dirt bikes.

"All better." I announced when I tossed the third used cotton ball into the trash can.

"Well, I applaud your efforts, Nurse Sidle." Grissom teased lightheartedly. "Would you happen to have any replacement shirts that would fit me so that I don't have to go walking about the house bare chested?"

"I wouldn't mind..." I couldn't resist but to throw in the suggestive wink with that suggestive comment.

"But as you just said yourself, there are children in the next room." Grissom raised an eyebrow to me, crossing his arms across his naked chest.

"For your information, no, I don't believe I have any tops that'll fit you-" I had almost completed the word when something popped into my mind.

I still had one of Hank's old shirts in the far, far reaches of my closet. At the time when I found it, I was still on my drunken rampage after Catherine had dropped me off from the bar to my house. Originally, I wanted to shred it, drench it in gasoline, and set it ablaze, but I had passed out long before I got to it. When I'd finally awoke, I simply tossed it into the far back of my closet since I had taken out the trash the previous day. Out of sight, out of mind.

"Do you want to revise that statement?" Grissom asked when I didn't speak up for several long seconds.

"Actually yes." I focused back on his face. "For the record, I do. Well, I'm not sure if it will fit you, but it is a man's shirt."

There was a brief flash of emotion behind his blue eyes that I recognized immediately, but the tone of his voice confirmed what he was feeling with its underlying tone of bitterness and hurt. "Let me guess... Did it once belong to a certain paramedic named Hank Peddigrew?"

I winced. "Yes, but unless you want to walk around bare chested, its the only thing I have for you."

I began to walk out of the bathroom before he could properly give me an answer. From the creaking of wood on the doorframe of the bathroom, I could visualize Grissom leaning out into the hallway with one of his arms by his side and one braced against the door as he called out to me. "It's not one of those muscle shirts, is it?"

Stopping in the threshold of my bedroom doorway, I turned back to Grissom only to reply. "Don't worry. It stretches."

I heard a groan as we both slipped into the respective rooms.

Brooke's POV:

I had ditched Taj so far behind as soon as our makeshift taxi driver pulled into the apartment complex that he had to pace himself at an all-out sprint to catch up to my run up the stairs. I dreaded this paranoid and anxious feeling that was building up in my chest. And it kept adding on with every step I mounted. So, by the time I reached the door I was looking for, I couldn't help but kick the door in.

Flushed, panting, sweating from the work out and fear of something happening to the kids or my sister, and yet, I couldn't help but fall on the floor in laughter. What had me so tickled? The sight of Sara and Gil freezing in the middle of the struggle to fit a white muscle shirt that, even to the untrained eye, just wouldn't fit on him. They couldn't even get Gil's large arms through the sleeves, much less the rest of his body. Based on the one time I met Greg Sanders, this muscle shirt looked like it would be a comfortable fit on him.

"Auntie Brooke!" From behind my frozen sister and her boyfriend, I heard Kylie and Alex exclaim.

Easily weaving between the two adults in the hallway, they made a mad dash for me. And from where I had at least been on my knees, I was now prone on my back from the kids tackling me. Shortly after Kylie and Alex, Roxas came hobbling out from behind Gil and Sara as well, adding onto the pile.

Then came the bombard of questions from the older of the group. Unfortunately for me, it was a large mess of words that I couldn't understand. In the doorway, I could see Taj leaning against it in the threshold, smirking widely down at the entanglement of people. And just barely through the mess I love to call my son's hair, I could see Gil peeling off the muscle shirt and Sara walking toward me.

Sara's taste in men has not dulled. I told myself. For fifty, he's pretty up to code with his physical health. Sara, you lucky lil' girl, you...

And just when I thought Sara was going to be coming to my rescue from the screaming and hording children, she branched off and went to embrace Taj instead, leaving me in a free-for-all with the three munchkins.

"What the Hell was with that entrance? Doesn't anybody knock anymore?" I heard Sara ask Taj with a laugh as they pulled away.

"Y'know Brooke. Gotta make her entrance grand, don't she?" Taj teased with me.

Kylie and Alex hung around my neck heavier than all of my necklaces put together as I tried to stand up, only holding onto Roxas who was holding onto me. A choking sound came out of my mouth as the two children slid behind me, practically putting me in a choke-hold.

Practically? They are!

Somehow, I maneuvered everyone around so that they were packed together three in a row on the ground and I had them all pinned there, hair piling in front of my face and tickling their's from how long it was. The bombard of questions suddenly stopped and was replaced with giggling from all three of them. I felt the push of their feet against my stomach, kicking me off from hovering over them playfully. Breaking into one of the first true smiles I felt I had in a while, I got to my feet just as Gil was joining our group.

Shaking Gil's hand just for the sake of not hugging him while he was half-naked, I asked the common questions like, "Hey, how ya doing?" in a slightly mumbled voice. That's when Sara switched over to me and left Gil and Taj to interact with one another. And from where I stood hugging Sara, I could see the interaction clearly.

I couldn't quite describe what was happening between the two men, but it was a slow process to get their hands to meet in a hand shake and Taj was casting his wary glance over Gil. On first shot, I rolled my eyes, thinking how protective he could be of Sara, but when Gil shot a stare similar to Taj's back at him, I stopped mid-eye roll. Now it wasn't so much a circumspect stare as it was an almost knowing stare. Blinking myself out of the stare I had as the guys both covered up their harmonized stares neatly, Sara and I pulled back at the same time.

"Grissom was telling me that he saw you at the courthouse on his way back from getting all the supplies." Sara said, making casual talk.

Realizing I was still partly panting and there was still perspiration on my forehead, I remembered why and how I had gotten that way now. Looking around the small apartment warily, even though I knew that Gil and Sara wouldn't be standing around as calmly as they are now if there was an intruder in the house, I had to reassure myself that it was just us. Natural habit. One of the only good habits I have.

That's when I noticed the small, yet noticeable cut on Gil's lower torso.

"He got here before I did." I abruptly stated. Stated, not asked. "What happened? Everyone's all right?"

It took a second for the meaning of my words to click in Sara's mind, but when it did, she gave me a just nod. Tossing a thumb back at Gil for indication, Sara began to speak. "If it wasn't for Grissom, I have no idea what would've happened." A pause ensued before she pulled me off to the side privately. "How did you know there was someone that broke in? Please don't tell me you knew who it was Brooke."

"Kinda, but not by the good association. It was one of the guys that I got arrested for assaulting." I said in the strained truth. I now found it difficult to talk about things like this with my sister since she was in law enforcement now. "He had his arraignment today too for something or other, and he walked out just as Gil and Kylie left. I got this look from him that just flipped me out! But, I couldn't do anything! I had my damn arraignment to go to, but as soon as Taj and me got out, we jetted over here with the help of..." I tried to explain the incident in a fashion that didn't make it sound as bad as it actual was. "forced civilian transportation."

"God Brooke..." Sara shifted in place, rolling deep chocolate eyes at me. "You can't keep out of trouble for one minute, can you? Don't tell me you hi-jacked someone's car!"

"Nah!" Holding my hands up as a peace sign, I backed away slightly. "We simply instructed a kind woman that it would be in her best interest if she drive us to where we needed to go." Before she got seriously hurt...

A skeptical look was thrown my way like a fire ball. I literally ducked in my flinch to avoid it.

"So, I see you guys were having your own dilemmas before I came barging in on you." Forcing the two of us to rejoin everyone else with my comment, I broke up our private meeting at the drop of a dime. "Did your shirt magically shrink in the wash?"

The white muscle shirt was still clenched in Gil's left hand. He chuckled in a low voice, tightening his stomach to show his abs off even more. I sent a telepathic pat on the back to Sara next to me.

"No. It's not even mine." A look was exchanged between Sara and Gil. "Apparently the recent owner of this shirt was smaller than I am."

"Or just liked the challenge of squeezing into it everyday." I piped up. "All just to show off what they really don't got."

I thought I had heard a scoff of laughter in agreement from Sara, but wasn't sure as she walked down the hall back to her bedroom. "Hang on! Maybe I have an oversized shirt that will actually fit you."

"I'll go help her." I insisted, having the children tail after me down the hall, leaving Taj and Gil alone.

Taj's POV:

As soon as the girls and the kids were out of earshot, I turned back to the older man in front of me. I'd heard Sara call him Grissom and Brooke call him Gil. I chalked it up to it being some weird nickname from Sara to the guy, but Gil was his actual name. Didn't really matter. Not now anyways. Later? Oh, yeah. Definitely.

"A'ight, one simple question. Where you outside--" The guy cut me off mid-question with his hand raised.

"I was. And, I would appreciate it if you kept this to you and only you." It wasn't a pleading voice.

"Give me one good reason why I should? Who the Hell are you?" Now I wanted to know, and I was having difficulty keeping my voice down. "If you're into the same--" Again, he interrupted me.

"I'm sure you've seen your share of corrupt criminalists and cops in your time, but I am not among the pile, I assure you." And though I partially didn't want to believe him, the tone of voice he used prevented me. He sounded truthful, and frankly, I believed him.

The gears in my head were turning a little more slowly than normal, so by the time everything clicked in my head, it was too late. The girls and kids had arrived back now, and my prying time was over with. I had to admit. This guy was smooth. You wouldn't suspect him at all. I guess that was what made him perfect for the job.

Sara passed off the large T-shirt that appeared to be a tent on her, but perfect for this Gil guy. As he slipped it over his head and poked his arms through the sleeves, Sara leaned up – putting her hands against his chest for support – and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek just when she thought everyone was turned away. Just briefly, I caught sight of Gil's ears turning a bright pinkish color, and I couldn't help but shake my head.

He's more than okay in my book... I figured, catching sight of Sara's giant and gapped-tooth beautiful smile. Doing what he's doing and making one of my best friends happy. You're a pretty okay guy, Boss Man.

TBC...

A/N2: Yeah, in the flashback, that was a personal experience of mine, and I was in Sara's shoes. I had forgotten to breath. XD... Except in the particular accident I was remembering, my uncle hadn't used beer for once... Ooooh no. He had used Vodka. (We didn't have hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol, and my family didn't care either way. Lol) So, I hope everyone understands what I mean with that last line by Taj. If not, well... Hmm... PM me and I'll give ya a lil' hint. If you understand it, haha! Bet you didn't see that one coming! Told you everything would tie in together... And no, I'm not making Grissom anything he isn't. On the contrary, by the end of this story, I'm hoping to explain his most important role. Also, I feel like I'm obligated to go back on a somewhat humor track again... We'll see next chapter. And how's that for your GSR? Huh? Rate me! Lol, c'mon! I dare ya!

Peace out, one love,
MC New York