"Hey, it's Super Sara!" Nick said as she and Grissom came into the break room on Monday. She froze, glanced accusingly at Grissom, who began sending out protective vibes as he glared at Nick. Nick put his hands out in surrender. "Sorry, I didn't realize. . ."

"You say nothing about my scar, you understand?" Sara snapped. "No comments at all. I want you to pretend it's not even there, ok?"

"Sure," Nick said, hoping Grissom would stop giving him the 'Death' Look.

"Okay," she said, relaxing. Nick watched, amused, as Grissom relaxed with her, his posture slacking.

--------------

She was asleep on the couch when he came in at the end of shift, various printouts of fingerprint reports were strewn across the layout table with manila files opened as well. She'd obviously been matching fingerprints with cases, and, he noted, slightly annoyed, she'd started his crossword puzzle. In pen. And, as he glanced over it once, she'd gotten one of the clues wrong.

The brunette stirred, and Grissom asked, "Sara?"

With one eye half-open, she replied with a non-committal moan, and rolled so her back was facing him.

"Staying here today, or coming home?" he asked her back.

"Go away," she grumbled.

"So you're staying," he said, matter-of-fact.

She groaned and turned to lie on her back, rubbed her eyes sleepily. "You wouldn't dare leave me here with day shift."

"Not if we go now. You want to go out for breakfast?"

Sara opened her big brown eyes at the sound of breakfast, but sighed and answered, "I need a Vicodin, and that's going to put me out like a light."

"Here," Grissom tossed her the pill canister. "We'll go home, I'll cook something when you're ready."

"Damn," she said, laden with sarcasm, "I was really looking forward to a smoky restaurant."

He glared at her, then helped Sara to her feet. She grimaced as she put weight on her injured knee, causing him to state, "Your knee still hurts."

"I didn't tell you? Doctor said that'd be the last to heal, I may get arthritis."

---------

She fell asleep on the couch almost immediately after they arrived at home. He was glad, he had to make a phone call and didn't want her to hear it.

"Jennifer? Hi, this is Gil Grissom. Yes, I'm calling about Sara," he said quietly into the receiver.

"What's up?" the psychologist said. She'd been treating the woman for two months now, but recently, Sara had quit coming to her sessions. There was nothing Jenny Pauley could do, it wasn't like Sara was required to come, so she had let the woman go with her phone number and the assurance from Gil Grissom that Sara would call if she needed anything. It turned out that Grissom had called far more often than Sara would. Jennifer had not been surprised.

"She needs something, but I don't know what."

"What do you mean?"

The man sighed heavily. "She's been very. . .down. . .lately. Sleeping too much, never hungry, irritable. She nearly killed Catherine yesterday over a game of cards. She's acting depressed, but she'll be fine for a few days and I think it's over. I brought her to work today for a change of pace, and she was better."

"Where is she now?" Jenny asked, absorbing all of the symptoms. She knew Gil cared very much for the brunette, would do almost anything for her.

"Sleeping. I woke her up to bring her home and as soon as we got here she was out like a light."

"Ok, here's what we're going to do. One, wake her up." There was a slight protest on the other line. "Gil, wake her up. Get her outside, take a walk. I don't care what, but get her out of the apartment, and get her some exercise."

"Then what?"

"Keep it up. Every day, rain or shine, take her somewhere. I have a feeling you're right, she is a little depressed, and don't take this the wrong way, but taking her to work was probably not helpful."

"Why?" he asked, without hurt or anger.

"She saw everyone leave to do what she loves, and let me guess, she got stuck doing paperwork." His silence gave her all the answer she needed. "She wants to be normal again, she wants to pretend nothing ever happened to her. I think she's still having issues with the situation, and she may not know it, but she's dying to do something about it."

"What can she do? The guy's dead."

"Not to her. Maybe never to her." She changed topics, "Does she know you called me? That you were planning to call me?"

"She's going to kill me if she finds out."

Jennifer thought for a moment, then said, "How are you doing?"

He sighed. "I'm fine. I'm just worried."

"This is a sensitive question," she said, changing topics again so fast Grissom's head spun, "but when was the last time you two. . .um. . ."

"Before she was taken," he answered immediately, a little uncomfortable himself.

"That hasn't been a. . .problem. . .for you or Sara? That it's been so long?"

"No," he said truthfully. "She's not really up for it, and I. . .Well, it's never been that important. The physical aspect of a relationship, that is. I'm more into the emotional, personal, mental aspect. Sara's the same."

"That's good. You two still sleeping together?"

"Same bed every night for months, you know that."

"How often do you tell her how you feel about her?"

Grissom thought for a minute. "Probably not enough," he admitted. "I always thought that once I fell like I have I'd say it a thousand times a day, but that's not me. I think Sara knows that."

Jenny looked at the clock absently, noting the time. "Listen, Gil, I have to go. I have an appointment with a client in two minutes, and I have to review my notes. But feel free to call me back when you need to, ok? Now go get her up and take her out. I'm sure she'll feel better."

"Thanks, doc. I didn't want her on any more meds." He hung up.

The sound of the phone being hung up woke Sara, and she murmured, "Who was that?"

He moved to sit next to her, moving a strand of hair off of her face. "I called Jenny."

"Why?" she asked sleepily.

"No reason."

"You worry too much, Mr. Grissom," she replied with a smile that ended in a yawn.

"I only worry because I care," he said. "Want to take a walk?"

" 'Kay." Sara stretched.

"I love you," he said abruptly.

Sara gave him an amused look. "I know," she replied. "Me, too."

He nodded, inhaling deeply. "I just wanted you to know, don't forget."

She was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and amusement. "Okay," she said like he was crazy.

"C'mon, let's go walk."

--------

"Jenny wanted to know about our." He coughed. "Personal relationship."

Sara snorted, the sound leading to a full-out cackle as she thought about what he had said. "She didn't?" she said between laughing fits, a huge grin stretched across her face. "Oh, that's priceless. She didn't use those words, did she?"

"No," he admitted, thrilled to see her laughing. Grissom clasped her hand, and added, with a smile of his own, "For a therapist, she has an awful lot of trouble asking about it."

"What did you say?" Sara was genuinely curious through her giggles.

"I told her we hardly had one, not since before everything happened."

"It's probably for the best, really," she commented, still grinning.

"Why?"

"Well." She paused to laugh again. "The end results are pretty much the same. At the end of the night, I'm exhausted, so I roll over and go to sleep. Everybody's happy, and we still wake up together. Best of both worlds, for now."

"Hell," he exclaimed playfully, "why should we ever bother again? You're happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy."

"Nah," she said, shaking her head. "You've still seen me naked more times than I've seen you."

"And the problem with that is.?"

"It's not fair, for starters." She grinned at him. "Don't worry, it'll happen again."

"What if I don't want to?" he shot back.

"What if I don't want to?" She stuck her tongue out at him, and they mock- glared at each other for a few moments, both grinning like fools.

"I'm crazy about you," he said finally, staring into her deep brown eyes like the truth was in them.

"Not nearly as crazy as I am about you," she replied softly, staring back at him.

He swallowed hard, the grin melting from his face. "That's not possible."

"Gris." Sara trailed off. "What are you saying?"

"Did Catherine ever tell you I called her the night you went missing?" She shook her head. "I did. I was sitting in the hotel room, and it was like the world had fallen apart. All I could think was that you couldn't be gone, and all I could feel was you around me, and I felt insane and desperate and I wanted to die."

She started to speak, but he cut her off. "I told Catherine that I couldn't ever imagine waking up without you, and I still can't. And I don't know exactly what I'm trying to tell you, but I don't ever want to wake up without you."

Sara saw the emotions in his eyes, she pulled his head down and kissed him hard. "You won't," she promised. "You won't," she repeated more firmly, kissed him again.

"Wow," he chuckled as they broke apart. "I feel vulnerable."

"You forgot emotionally exposed," she teased.

"Right," he said. "Another good reason to keep you around." Grissom winked at her, and they kept walking.

"Wait," she said, stopping in her tracks. He turned to look at her, the question in his eyes. "Did we just do what I think we just did?"

"Depends, what did we just do?"

"Grissom, are we.engaged.now?"

"We're.promised," he explained. "But if you want a ring, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Maybe," she replied, still looking confused, he called her on it. "Yeah, I think I'm still confused."

"Okay," he said, leading her to a bench and sitting them both down. "Here's the deal: I think we just promised to never be apart another day of our lives, which can be construed as a exchanging of vows, so to speak. It can also be viewed as a form of engagement, I guess."

"You're nervous," she chided.

"Yes, yes, I am." Grissom grinned at her. "Do you want a ring?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. What do you want?"

"I have no opinion either way."

"You don't want to get married?" she asked. "Holy crap, I just said the 'M' word."

"I would if you want to, but a piece of paper and two rings isn't going to change anything."

"It makes it official," she pointed out.

"True," he conceded. "Everyone would know about you and me."

She snorted. "Everyone does know."

He gave her a half-smile. "So, want a diamond?"

"Anything you give me, I'm running purity tests on," she warned.

"You wouldn't."

"I might."

"It'll get in the way when you have gloves on," he commented.

"Yours will, too. We may just have to get chains to put them on."

"So, we're doing it then."

"I guess so," she said with a grin. "Whoa."

Grissom watched her laugh and stutter her way through, "Okay. Wow. Holy shit. Whoa," and he had to admit she was beautiful when she was flustered.

Guess the walk was the right thing to do.

---------

"Grissom, put me down now!" Sara commanded as he carried her into the apartment. "Grissom, come on, put me down," she begged. "Please."

"Okay, okay," he smiled, putting her down. "Remind me never to give you a piggy-back ride again."

"No problem, old man," she teased, removing her arms from around his neck, kissing his cheek quickly.

"Who are you calling old?" he exclaimed to her retreating form.

"You," she called, as she closed the bedroom door. Her voice was muffled through the wood as she added, "What are you going to do about it?"

He strode into the bedroom, throwing the door open. It hit the wall with a thud, but they both ignored it as Grissom gently tackled her onto the bed. They stared at each other for a long moment, grins stretching across both of their faces, breathing hard.

"This's what I'm going to do about it," he said finally, and closed the distance between his mouth and hers.