A/N – Okay, another day, another chapter. I hope you enjoy the continuation of the story. It's fun weaving the characters into each others lives. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer – My disclaimers are seeking psychiatric care. I believe they're in the same institution as Britney Spears.

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"I just have one question," Grissom casually asked. "Just how long have you been trying to ask me to go with you?"

Sitting in the psychologist's waiting room, Sara suddenly stopped tapping the journal against her knee. "Since my last appointment," she replied, staring at the fake palm in the rust colored bucket in the opposite corner of the tan room.

"You didn't ask last week because…?" he left off, waiting patiently for an answer.

"Have you noticed my life lately," she muttered.

Having known her for all these years, Grissom could simply hear the excuse in her statement. Frowning, he picked up a magazine, realized it was of the garden variety – literally – and dropped it onto the coffee table in front of him.

He hated fidgeting, but found himself doing just that. Absently, he picked up another magazine, flipped some pages, and it too was added to the stack. Sighing, he leaned back on the sofa and watched his wife nervously flip through her journal again. She'd let him read it a couple of times, and he'd been surprised at the flow of phrase that had him wishing she could pour the ache into him.

"Sara?" a middle-age woman asked, standing in the doorway to an office. Smiling, she beckoned Sara to join her, and smiled, "is this your husband?"

"Yes," Sara replied. "This is Gil."

"Please, take a seat," she said, indicating a soft green micro-fiber couch across from the armchair.

Once seated, Dr. Granger said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Gil. Sara's talked a great deal about you."

He wasn't precisely sure why, but the level of discomfort he'd felt upon walking into the waiting room seemed to double. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too," he replied.

Unfortunately, his level of disquiet only increased when she asked for Sara's journal and said, "Give me a moment to read this." Sitting back, she opened the journal, flipped through to the most recent pages, and began to read, leaving the room taut in the silence that followed.

When Sara laid her hand over his, he felt her insecurity in the touch, and clasped her hand tight. He was surprised how much calmer the touch made him feel. Sensing her gaze on his face, he turned his head, looked into her brown eyes, and smiled softly. Again, he squeezed her hand. It surprised him when the psychologist managed to read through Sara's scrawl so quickly and shut the journal.

"You've had an eventful week," the psychologist remarked. Turning to Grissom, she said, "I want to thank you for accompanying Sara today. Has she told you why I requested you attend?"

Furrowing his brow thoughtfully, Grissom replied, "No, she hasn't."

"I suggested last week that perhaps some couples therapy would be beneficial. It seems that some communication problems exist between you," Dr. Granger replied.

"I, ummm…" Sara started to say, then stopped. Clearing her throat, she took a slow breath, and clearly stated, "I asked him to come with me an hour ago."

When the doctor's eyebrows shot up, she finally asked, "May I ask why you waited so long to ask?"

It seemed that many seconds ticked by before Sara finally replied, "I ask too much. Frequently. I didn't want to drag him into this. I was trying to figure out a way to make this part unnecessary."

The calm demeanor and voice belied his feelings when he quietly asked, "Am I not already involved, Sara?"

When Sara opened her mouth to retort, she closed it on a huffing breath, and said, "Yeah. You are."

"This is one of the reasons I wanted you here, Gil," Dr. Granger stated. Looking over to Sara, she murmured, "Could I speak to your husband for a moment before the three of us talk?"

Sara's nod of acquiescence surprised Grissom as she quietly made her way back out the door to the waiting room. Left alone, he focused on the psychologist.

"I don't know anything about you, but I've known Sara for awhile. I've learned about her life, and the pain she's endured," she stated. "I also know that while she will put herself out to face life's difficulties head on, she sometimes doesn't understand the difference between dependency and giving herself a break."

At the word 'dependency' Grissom frowned. He remembered the drunk driving incident, but never considered her to be one that would allow herself to depend on alcohol or any substance. His forehead scrunching in thought he wondered, I can't see her becoming an alcoholic or drug abuser. She's seen too much of the pain they can cause. Hell, we've talked about it. What is it she's afraid of becoming dependent on?

Then it clicked.

"She thinks she's becoming dependent on me, doesn't she?" Grissom asked.

Thinking through the proper response, Dr. Granger finally responded, "She's afraid of being dependent on anyone. Sara was raised in a household where her parents had formed an extremely unhealthy dependency on drugs, alcohol, and each other."

"Dependent means not self-sufficient," Grissom stated. "If anything, I'd say Sara is the most anti-dependent person I've ever met."

"Except when it comes to you," Dr. Granger interjected. "At this point, I think I should bring Sara in."

Once seated, Dr. Granger stated, "I've been speaking with your husband about dependency," and watched Sara not quite withhold the wince.

"Okay," Sara replied.

Grissom watched his wife's reaction, and sighed. It was obvious the two women in the room had more than once discussed the topic at hand, and his wife felt uncomfortable with it.

"I've been reading through Sara's journal entries," Dr. Granger stated. "While they were not precisely what I expected when I asked her to journal her day, they've given me great insight into her thought processes. The manner in which she writes, along with the topics discussed, can be at times erratic and other smooth and flowing. The one common element I have found through them all is the feeling of being alone."

Surprised by this statement, Grissom quickly glanced over at his wife in time to see her face turn ghost white, and was struck that he hadn't seen this in her before.

"Sara, how many times in your life have you had someone you could turn to when you needed help?" Dr. Granger asked.

"I don't know," was her quiet reply, as Sara avoided everyone else by looking at the blank wall on the opposite side of the room.

"Do you remember anyone really being there for you during rough times?" the psychologist asked.

Sara's lack of response bit into him like nothing ever had before, and he felt every muscle in his stomach clench when she replied, "Gil. He's been around when I ask him."

"I always will be here for you," he murmured, taking her hand in his once again, leaning forward with his other hand on his knee. He was surprised when she slid her hand away from his.

Picking up the journal, Dr. Granger handed it back to Sara, and said, "If I were to make a guess, Sara, I'd say that you don't outright share everything you're feeling even with Gil, unless it gets to be too much." Sitting back in the arm chair, the psychologist asked, "Do you ever ask him for help before your back gets pushed to the wall?"

Sara's lack of response spoke the answer clearly.

"Why would you think you're dependent on me?" Grissom asked.

When she sought those startling blue eyes, she drew in a breath and said, "I take up so much of your time anymore."

Grissom replied, "I'm choosing to put you first. Anyone who knows anything about our history knows you've put me first for most of it. You're going through a hard time right now. It's my turn."

When he saw the surprised look on her face, he smiled, "You are perhaps the strongest, most compassionate woman I've ever met, Sara. The self-doubt I've seen flare in you lately takes me by surprise, because you are so amazingly competent and thoughtful. Has it ever occurred to you that you're entitled to a little down time to recuperate from everything you've been through this past year?"

"When do you get to recuperate, Gil? When was the last time you worked on writing an article, or worked with your bees? Hell, when was the last time everything in your life not revolve around my problems?" she retorted. "I feel like I'm becoming a burden."

"So you withhold what you're feeling? You put yourself on the sidelines alone?" he asked.

"I believe you both have just pinpointed the majority of the problem," Dr. Granger said to the couple. "Sara, you seem to associate feeling like a burden with what you saw throughout most of your life – an unhealthy dependency saddled on someone else's back."

"What we have is nowhere near unhealthy, sweetheart," Grissom murmured. "It's a bit tangled right now, and I'll admit that I've been worried about you. However, it'll change in time."

"Sara, you just spent a great deal of time going back through an unhappy life. You've revisited memories that have haunted you from childhood. I believe you called them your ghosts," Dr. Granger stated. "What you need to consider is that emotionally and psychologically, you're more wounded than the broken bones and scrapes you received in the desert. The fact is that it is going to be harder to heal what is on the inside than what is on the outside."

"I've been keeping the damn journal, and coming here to talk," Sara muttered. "The nightmares don't go away, they just morph into something less identifiable."

"You'll probably have them for quite some time," Dr. Granger interjected. "Your subconscious needs to learn to deal with what happened on a level you can't force. Also, by having your family here, you've added another stressor."

"What would you suggest?" Grissom asked.

"I would ask that on top of Sara's regular session, we have a couple's session immediately afterward," Dr. Granger stated.

Grissom was surprised when he didn't internally recoil or grow tense at the recommendation. Rather, he felt maybe they could move forward. He hated the fatigue he'd seen in her eyes the past weeks, and more than once wished he could wipe away every memory that had placed the shadows there.

"I'd like that," he responded, and watched surprise and something close to guilt flare in her eyes.

The next evening, Grissom pulled out his own notebook, and began the exercise Dr. Granger had given him. It was time to write something in his own journal.

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It was the end of the third extraordinarily boring shift, with Nick and Greg surrounded by archaic fingerprint cards, and both sets of eyes burning from hours upon hours of manual comparison. Stepping into her lab, Mandy smirked at the boys sitting at her counter space.

"Having fun, boys?" she quietly asked, and watched Greg's shoulders droop.

I'm being cruel, she thought, smiling to herself. I'm definitely being cruel.

"Any closer?" she casually asked.

It was her tone of voice that had Nick's head snapping up. Creasing his eyes, he slowly turned and stared at her. "You have something," he accused.

Smiling widely, "Oh yeah."

"Well?" he asked, moving closer. "What did you find?"

"Oh, just all of your fingerprints," she stated, not making any move to provide the information.

"Are you going to give us the names?" Nick asked, frustrated.

"You know what I want," she laughed, and waited. Nick did not disappoint her.

"For cryin' out loud," he muttered in response.

Greg quietly leaned back against the counter he'd been working at, and discovered he'd been forgotten. Enjoying the show, he simply watched as Nick opened his mouth and quietly began to sing, "Oh Mandy," only to be stopped.

When Mandy used her fingers to indicate he needed to be louder, Greg had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

The Texan gave a grudging grin before opening his mouth and more loudly singing Barry Manilow's Mandy.

Greg's attention turned from Nick to the slight smile that seemed to soften the fingerprint analyst's face, and he felt the sudden need to sit. He wondered if either of his co-workers had a clue of the expressions on their faces in that moment.

Feeling like he was invading their space, Greg lightly turned back around. A grin suddenly split his face when he wondered just how long the two of them had been seeing each other – and just how much mileage he could get out of this newfound knowledge. He suddenly frowned, though, because Nick hadn't said anything to him about any kind of relationship.

However, the light bulb went on in Greg's head quickly enough, when he thought, lab policies.

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A/N – Well, halfway through her date, Review gets a darn page to return because of an emergency 'all hands on deck' call. So what happens? She shows up, wondering why Login won't give her a break. After all, she's finally decided to get a life. Who does he think he is! She'd be HAPPY to get a life if he would LET her!

What do you think Review should do about it? Let me know your opinion.