The lightness of Sara's tone caught Sofia off guard. That wasn't the Sara Sidle she had met in Las Vegas, that wasn't the easy pissed off woman.

"To be honest, I don't know, Sara. I don't know what I feel for you. I know, you're important for me, I don't know in which way. I like you, I'm happy you're here, that we met again, that you stay with Don and me, but I can't say, what exactly I feel for you. I was sure, I'm done with relationships for a while, that I didn't want anything else than my freedom and stay far, far away from any kind of love relationship. But yes, your kiss – even I knew it wasn't a serious kiss, only a way to tease me – caught me a little bit off guard and turned me upside down. For no reason. Unfortunately my head doesn't always work the way it should. Must the blonde gene."

"You are not a real blonde."

"You don't have any evidence for that."

"I can see dark roots."

"Damn it, I need an hour in the bathroom, wash the brown dirt our of my blonde hair." Sofia smiled.

"Do you want me to move out?"

"I want you to do a lot of things, Sara, moving out isn't even at the end of the list. The only way for you to get out of my house is when you want it that way. I want you to stay and I'd be very sad, if you make the decision to move out."

"I like to stay at your house, but I don't want to make things difficult for you."

"I make things difficult for myself. It's me and nobody else."

"And there's nothing I can do?"

"Sure there is: Don't leave the house because I act like a jerk."

"If you want me to stay, I'll stay."

"I want you to stay. And so do Rantanplan, Scoob and Don."

"Okay, I stay."

"Thanks." Sofia took Sara's hand carefully and held it, when the brunette didn't pull back. "I'll work out what is wrong with my head. Maybe I need a session with your therapist."

"Remember, you're not allowed to hit on your therapist. Think carefully if you want her to be your therapist or your girl-friend."

"What did I just say a few seconds ago about me and relationships?"

"You want relationships."

"Somehow there had to be a problem between my mouth and your ears…."

"No, you said, you want me to stay. You want relationships to other people, Sofia."

"You know what I mean."

"I do." Sara smiled.

"Good. Do you want to stay here or shall we leave?"

"Where do you want to bring me?"

"I thought of a place with waves, sand, where the dogs can run free and we can take a bath with them."

"Sounds like a perfect place. My skin should be fine with a little bit of sun by now."

"We'll take a sunshade with us."

"And a cell phone. I forgot to tell you, Greg will come here today. He could talk Grissom into giving him a week off and takes off to L.A. after a little nap."

"Perfect. He has a week off, you have two more weeks until you've to start your new job and I've a week off too."

"A whole week? I thought only today. To bring Don to the airport."

"My plan was to fly with him to New York, to stay with him, but he wanted to go alone. So I've a whole week off. If you want private time with Greggo, you have to go back to your motel."

"I don't want private time with Greg, don't talk stupid. But I have a question, after you told me to invite him: Where will he sleep?"

"In your bed?"

"Only in his dreams – if he still dreams this dream."

"As soon as he'll see you, this dream will be alive again." Sofia grinned.

"I won't take him in my bed."

"Poor boy. He can have my bed if I can get into yours."

"Out of the frying pan into the fire. Great."

"Hey, I haven't made a decision about you. Maybe I don't like you at all and I behave strange because I'm getting a flu or so."

"She compares me to a flu, what a nice safe person. I might change my safe person and ask Greg to come with me."

"No, you won't." Sofia took Sara's arm and pulled her on her feet. "Let's go home, pack some picnic and go to the ocean. You know when Greg will be here?"

"Late afternoon, early evening. Depends on the traffic. I sent him your address and told him, if he arrive between five and six, he'll find us at doctor Weinberg's place."

"Yeah, the dogs won't open the door for him. They're smart, but not that smart."

"Let's hope he's smart enough to call us if he ends up in front of a closed door."

"He's a smart man, he'll come straight to you."

"Somehow it sounds like you make more out of this than it is." Sara furrowed her brows. "I'm not sure if I like that."

"You can make a decision about that on our way to the beach."


"This is a nice spot." Sara buried her feet in the sand and watched the dogs playing in the waves. They were on a part of the beach between Santa Monica and Malibu, where they were allowed to let the dogs run free.

"Yes. You don't have any cafes or surf shops around, but you have a quiet spot to enjoy the water and give your dogs some freedom."

"Better than shops and cafes." Sara started pulled off her shirt.

"She's stripping! Now I want a beer and watch." Sofa smirked.

"You'll get a handful of sand in your face."

"A fight on the beach? Sounds…promising."

Sara snorted, got out of her pants and walked towards the water. She wasn't stripping, she wore a bathing suit. If she was on the beach, she wanted to have a little swim. Her skin was better, there was no reason not to go into the water for a few minutes.

The water was warm, she made her arms wet before she dove into the next wave, that came towards to the beach. When she got her head out of the water, the dogs were on their way to her.

"Hey guys, are you…hey!" She tried to push them away. Both tried to climb on her back, the craws scratching over her sensitive skin. "Ouch." She got down and dove a few yards away. Unfortunately as soon as her head popped out of the water, the dogs started to follow her. She hoped, they'd lose interest after a minute or two, but they kept following her, no matter in which direction she dove. After ten minutes she had enough, dove back to the beach and left the water. As soon as she was ashore, the dogs lost interest.

"Your dogs assaulted me!" Sara pointed to red scratches on her arms.

"They tried to safe you."

"By climbing on me? Pushing me under water?"

"Yes."

"That makes no sense."

"Not for you, in their world, it will make great sense."

"Thanks. That's why you don't go into the water, why didn't you warn me?"

"I'm not swimming for another reason, that has nothing to do with my dogs. And I didn't warn you because I didn't think, they like you so much that they try to rescue you."

"You want me to believe it's a good thing they did?"

"Let's say, they did it with a good intention."

"Great."

"The next time, you take a shirt with you in the water. Had been better for your skin anyway, you're a little bit red." Sofia handed Sara a towel and put the sunshade up.

"I can't hide the whole time, when I start my job, I'll up out the whole day."

"And you'll wear a ranger uniform."

"Yes."

"That will protect your skin. And you'll look sexy."

"Stop it, lieutenant."

"Making you compliments?"

"Hitting on me."

"If I don't try to get you, I'll never know if I could get you. And most times, I regret things I didn't do."

"Let me give you a friendly advice: if you have any intention to have more than a friendship, you won't get it by being annoying. If I want you, if I could consider you as a partner, I'll let you know. The more you try to make me want you with comments like that, the bigger the chance, I'll withdraw and won't spend any time with you at all. At least not more than I have to."

"That's a nice way to say: fuck off!"

"No, it's a friendly advice."

"Are you really annoyed?" Sofia asked carefully, suddenly scared, that she was about to break their fragile friendship with her – to use a nice word - clumsiness. "Did I mess it up?"

"No, you didn't mess anything up. I don't like it when people hit on me, not that obviously. I prefer the subtle way, when the other ones waits if I respond and then act again. People, who try to get me with brutal force are not interesting for me."

"I'll remind that and won't offer you a sandwich. You can get one yourself if you're hungry."

"I know you understood me so I'll ignore the BS you said and ask if you can apply some sun crème on my back. The after sun stuff."

"No more baths?"

"Not as long as your dogs are around."

"I can call them back and keep them here for the time you're in the water."

"No, I wait for another time. I live in L.A. now, there'll be plenty of days, I can stay at the beach. Maybe tomorrow with Greg."

"He'll like the beach, the surf boards and the girls in bikini. After all, he wanted a trip to Hawaii to compare sand from the lab. That's what he told me once."

"Yeah, his early days, his crazy days. He was so cute back them."

"And now?"

"He's still cute but when I first came to Vegas he was cute like…like a puppy, that tried to walk and fell every few yards. And he tried to hit on me too hard."

"He has a great…no, I won't say that. I'm capable of learning. I won't comment your sentence." Sofia grinned and gave Sara the sun crème bottle back.

"Good girl." Sara looked at Sofia and started to grin.

"What?" The blonde knew Sara thought about something mean. There was a plan in Sara's head it was visible and Sofia knew, she was caught, she had no chance to escape.

"I've got a lovely idea."

"When you say it this way it can't be lovely, it sounds scary and I'm sure, I don't like it."

"You strike me as somebody, who likes to try things, you'll like it."

"What do you have in mind, Sara?"

"Nothing." Sara started to put some sand on Sofia's feet until they were buried and went on with the right foot.

"No!"

"What?"

"You're about to bury me alive."

"No, that sounds bad, that sounds like I'd try to kill you. I want to…give you some natural sun protection."

"I'm under the sunshade."

"That's not natural."

"Will you stop what you're doing?"

"Sofia, you haven't moved your feet to get rid off the sand, you don't mind that I play mummy with you." Sara grinned and used now both hands to bury Sofia under a thin layer of sand.

"She's nuts."

"That's why I'm in therapy."

"No, that's not the reason. I'm sure doc Weinberg hasn't realized yet how crazy you really are."

"You think, she isn't a good psychologist?"

"I'm sure she is, but you're better than she is."

"Sofia, no more faked compliments, remember?"

"Bugger. Do I get credit for trying?"

"If you try real hard, yes."

"I'll try real hard." Sofia flinched when Sara's hands touched her side.

"Are you…?" Sara asked with a huge grin.

"No! Don't even think of it!"

"I don't." Sara grinned. Sofia was ticklish, that was good to now. "I'm on a mission." She threw more and more sand on the blonde. It took her almost five minutes until there was only Sofia's head looking out of the sand.

"Are you happy now?"

"Almost." She took her cell phone and took a photo. "That will be the pic I'll see whenever you call or send a text. Really nice."

"Now get me out of this."

"No, you can do that yourself."

"You buried me alive, you get me out of this."

"I can help you."

"That's the least you can do."

"Okay." Sara got up, sat on Sofia's belly and started to tickle her.

"What the…stop that…!" Sofia tried to fight Sara's hands, but her arms were buried too and when she got them free, Sara had already started to tickle her. With her legs half under sand, she tried to fight Sara.

It took her almost a minute until she had the upper hand, managed to throw Sara down and get on top of the brunette, her hands pinned down.

"Say you're sorry and ask me to forgive you."

"No."

"You're not in a position to be not nice to me."

"Bite me."

"I'd love to, the problem is, you'll take it personally and be mad. Otherwise I'd love to sink my teeth in your skin, Sara."

"Get off me."

"As soon as you told me you're sorry."

"Now!"

"Try it again."

"You won't do anything to me, you're my safe person."

"I know. But I can let you stay in this position for a while."

"You'll be bored soon."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"We'll see if you're right."

"Get off!"

"No." Sofia smiled. That was good, she had the power over Sara and the brunette couldn't be mad at her because she started this thing herself. Just perfect.

"Please."

"Almost."

"I'm sorry."

"I knew you can say it." Sofia let go of Sara.

The brunette got up, got her arms around her knees and took a deep breath. Immediately Sofia was alert. This was the way Sara had learn to breathe when she was in a stress situation.

"Are you alright?" Sofia carefully touched Sara's shoulder with the tips of her fingers.

"Yes." Sara closed her eyes.

"Sure? You're pale."

"Having me pinned down isn't the best position. Too many memories, bad memories." Memories, she didn't want to think of.

"Sara, I'm sorry, I didn't know…"

"Exactly, you didn't know and I started it." Her eyes opened again. "You'll hear a lot of not nice things this afternoon, Sofia."

"I thought so. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Now? I'll be alright in a minute. Then? Sit next to me, be there, take me in your arms if I start to tremble, don't let me have another bout again, please."

"I'll do whatever I can. I promise."

"I know." Sara smiled a bit. "That's why you're my safe person."