The sun reflected off the water, casting her entire view in a gloriously bright orange glow and rendering her virtually blind.

So, it came as something of a shock when she finally waded her way to the shoreline and found someone grinning at her from the sand.

"Hey!" She greeted, peeling her wet hair out of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see why you've been leaving work on time recently." Nick half-joked, holding out her towel, which he had found draped over a nearby rock.

She took it with gratitude, half-heartedly drying her hair, while he unzipped her wetsuit for her.

"Fancy a swim?" She teased, drawing a bright laugh from the Texan.

"No, no thanks. I prefer to do my swimming in a pool."

"Wimp." She nudged him playfully.

After managing to peel herself out of her wetsuit and wrap her sarong-style skirt around her waist, she turned to him with a lazy smile.

"Coffee?"

"Don't you want to get changed first?" He asked, gesturing to the fact that she was still in her bikini top, with water glistening off her shoulders and dripping from the tips of her curls.

"Nah." She scrunched up her nose, pointing up the bank behind them to the row of nearby shops. "There's a really cool little coffee place up there. I'm buying?"

Nick chuckled again, enthralled by this uncharacteristically free side of his usually stoic colleague.

"Alright, let's go." He indicated for her to lead the way and shuffled across the sand after her, struggling to keep his balance on the shifting ground. "You sure you don't want to get dressed? I don't want you to catch a cold."

She threw her head back with another infectious laugh at his attempts at protectiveness.

"You sound like my grandmother!"

x X x

Catherine had spent the best part of two days while Sara was off work with Bobby's warning ringing in her ears. As long as the brunette was away from the lab, she had no idea how she was or who she was engaging with, and that left her deeply unsettled.

So, when she walked into the break room and found the object of her concern sat laughing jovially with the boys, she was immediately filled with a sense of relief.

"Hey guys," she greeted cheerfully, gaining a nod in response from the team without them ever breaking the flow of their conversation.

"What, you didn't feel like joining her?" Warrick asked.

"I tried to persuade him, but he didn't want to get his feet wet!" Sara mocked, causing Nick to swat harmlessly at her.

"I'd have gone swimming with you," Greg chimed in. "Where was my invite?"

"Swimming?" Catherine enquired, feeling somewhat left out of the conversation as she helped herself to a cup of coffee, grateful to find that Greg had got to the pot first tonight.

"Yeah, Nick came over to the lake today to interrupt my morning swim." Sara explained.

As the younger members of the team continued to joke with one another, Catherine felt her earlier relief suddenly ebb away, quickly replaced with a new and inexplicable feeling.

"You, uh, you saw her swimming?" She clarified as ambivalently as she could, sinking onto a stool. "You've never let me watch you swim."

"Come down sometime." Sara shrugged happily. "Maybe I can entice you in instead, since Nick was too much of a wuss to play."

Before Nick could refute the slant on his bravery, Grissom wandered into the room, with Lou Vartann in tow.

"Hey guys," the detective greeted, to a murmur of hellos. "Sara, could I borrow you? We've had a break in your rape case."

Sara shot Grissom a look, who nodded his consent, and she quickly hopped up from the couch.

"I'll be right back." She assured the boss, scampering out after Vartann.

Catherine watched her go, before flicking her gaze towards the boys again.

"So, what took you to the lake?" She asked with a casual tone that didn't reach her cool blue orbs.

"Curiosity." Nick mused, pursing his lips. "She's been in such a good mood recently, I wanted to see why."

"And?" The blonde pressed, although she already knew the answer. Sara had been acting like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, simply because one had.

"Man, you should see her out there." He chuckled. "She's like a completely different person – she's so relaxed when she's in the water. I don't know quite why, but moving house has really done her some good."

Grissom, who had been monitoring this conversation closely, cocked his head to the side.

"She was in the lake?" He queried with a small frown.

"She swims on a morning." Catherine volunteered absently. "That's why she moved up there, for the water sports."

"I'll have to check it out sometime." Warrick nodded with a touch of admiration to his voice. "I'm kinda interested to see what skills she's got on a set of water skis."

"Beach party!" Greg grinned at the prospect. "Challenge you to a race, Nick?"

While the boys descended into yet another competition-based conversation, Catherine had taken to staring into the distance, a perplexed look on her face. So distracted was she, she never even noticed the careful blue eyes scrutinising her from across the room.

x X x

She exhaled, blowing a stubborn strand of hair out of her eyes in frustration. Between the flies and the hot Vegas sun beating down on her, she was beginning to pine for Sara and Warrick's case – extreme decomp aside, at least they were indoors.

"So," Grissom said casually, interrupting her internal rant. "Sara's happier now that she's moved?"

"What?" She frowned at the random statement, pushing herself to her feet and wiping the sweat from the back of her neck.

"Sara – it seems she's enjoying her new home."

"Yeah, she is." Cath agreed, suspicious by the sudden introduction of this subject after such a long period of silence from the entomologist.

He nodded slowly, and for a moment she thought that that was all he had to say on the matter. She was just about to resume her work, when he spoke up again, a questioning lilt to his voice.

"You didn't seem particularly happy about that yesterday."

She scowled, shaking her head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"In the break room." He clarified. "When the boys were talking about her swimming in the lake, you seemed ... annoyed about it?"

She stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment, before finally letting her gaze slink off to the side.

"Of course I'm happy for her." She stated. "I'm the one who encouraged her to move out there."

He blinked, apparently surprised by this revelation. Then again, he had been surprised to learn that Sara was moving at all, especially given the jump in rent compared to her old apartment; but he had decided that it was not his place to ask how she could afford such a sudden change of residence.

He continued to appraise Catherine, while she did her damndest to ignore his piercing look. Finally, when it became apparent that he wasn't going to get anything further from her, he appeared to shrug it off and sloped over to examine a piece of evidence which had caught his eye.

She released a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding and tried to shake off the feeling of judgement that his questions had left behind.

Every time she thought that she knew Gil as well as anybody could know him, he managed to surprise her. Evidently, his people skills were improving! Without her even realising that he was taking note, he had managed to read her like a book.

For he was right, as much as it pained her to admit it. Of course, she was thrilled that Sara was enjoying her new home and that the move had relaxed her. But she had been annoyed yesterday in the break room. Not at Sara's newfound emotional liberation – no, it was her friendliness with the boys that had grated on her.

Although she couldn't begin to explain why, she was jealous of them.