PART 33: WHERE JEALOUSIES ARE DISCUSSED

Sara was just plain jealous. She didn't understand, and he hadn't tried to explain it to her. Well, yes, he had. She had told him not to bother; just to do what he needed to do.

Why do girls always say things like that? They very rarely mean them. She would need to teach Grissom that lesson some day, and the sooner the better.

She was at her apartment, stewing, and he had just called to say he was on his way, whether she liked it or not. She knew he'd been with Heather; he'd told her as much. She knew he'd spent the night there earlier in the week. She accepted his word that nothing had happened.

Grissom had also told her he'd never paid for sex. It occurred to her that maybe Heather hadn't asked him for money.

She'd left him a note at his place. "I took the dog. I'll see you at work." It was meant to be the equivalent of an angry wife packing a bag and going to stay with her mother.

She was sitting on the floor in front of the TV with the dog sprawled over her legs; they hadn't yet been able to convince him that he was too big to be a lap dog. Normally he ran to the door to greet Grissom, but not today. Apparently he was taking her side.

"Well? Is it all done?"

"It's done. We're done."

"And things are okay?"

"Better than okay. I think she's going to be alright."

"And you promise you didn't sleep with her?" She was mostly kidding. Mostly.

"You mean recently? Or ever?" He expected her to laugh. She didn't.

"I'm trying very hard to act mature about all this." And she really was. She was doing the best she could.

He sat on the floor behind her wrapped himself around her, hugging her tightly. "And you're doing admirably. I appreciate that very much. I know it's hard to understand why I needed to do this."

Apparently the dog felt that things were adequately resolved. He stood and licked Grissom's face.

"You can say that again." She stood too, but kept her tongue to herself and walked into the kitchen. Not so much resolved for her, he guessed.

"Well, boy," he mumbled, "hope you have room in your dog house for me." Grissom scratched the dog behind the ears, and then they both followed her. "You know, Sara, green's a terrible color on you." Bad idea.

"Gil Grissom, that woman is in the business of sex. I have to hear from Catherine about how Heather's the only one that she's seen rattle you, about how she's sure you spent the night with her. I think my jealousy is well founded."

She was emptying the dishwasher, putting away cups and plates with much more force than necessary. He was waiting for something to break. Hopefully her anger, before the glass.

"I'm sorry, Sara. I don't know how to talk to you when you're like this."

He seemed so sad about it that it gave her pause. Without looking at him, she said, "You'll learn soon enough that at times like these, no way you can talk to me is going to do you much good. I wasn't running from you by coming here. I was running for you." She continued with what she was doing, though some of her annoyance had been diffused.

When he didn't speak again, she finally turned towards him and found him smiling tenderly at her. "What?" she snapped.

"I think that's one of the sweetest things you've ever said."

"Oh, shut up."

Grissom left the room then, and she continued to putter. Eventually she ran out of things to do and went looking for him.

He was gone. He'd left a note that read:

"Sara,

I'm sorry I hurt you. Thank you for choosing to put some space between us so that you wouldn't hurt me back. This seems like a good system, though you should know right now that I'm always going to be inclined to chase after you. So please don't ever run too far or too fast; I'm an old man, remember, and I might have trouble keeping up.

P.S. I heard make-up sex is the best kind."

She laughed out loud. No wonder she was so jealous; she'd never had it so good, and it would kill her to lose him.

END OF PART 33

a/n Three more short chapters will bring us up to the season 7 finale and end this series. If there is enough interest, I will start a summer series that will go beyond the finale, so please let me know.