Author: Lithium Shamrock (LS)

Spoilers: After PWF

Paring: Implicated (and backed) G/S

Authors notes: A look into the characters post PWF, and Sara's past.

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It was unusual. A conversation had actually ensued a statement.

And the conversation wasn't an argument.

Or a threat of bodily harm to a fellow colleague.

"The human body is made up of 75% water," Warrick added sharply, trying to assert his knowledge into the conversation, before tossing a football to nick, which he deftly caught.

"I know." Sara said, leaning against the fridge, "but I need coffee" she whined.

Coffee was Sara's life force. Well, not the coffee itself, but the caffeine. Who needs sleep when caffeine will suffice?

"Sorry Sara, we can't help it if the coffee machines is broken." Nick responded, giving her puppy dog eyes.

"Can't Greg fix it?" said, tone almost pleading.

"Yeah, if you want to explode" Nick laughed, throwing the ball back to Warrick, just missing Catherine, who was seated to Warrick's left. Warrick smiled at Nick, and the game of 'toss the football' continued.

"I said Greg, not Cath" Sara said quietly, but defiantly.

Sara stared coldly at Cath, who returned the stare. There was no love loss between them. It wasn't a secret that after the explosion, Sara really resented Cath, not only because of what happened to her, but because of what happened to Greg.

Sara hated to see his hands shake. The lost confused expression on his face. He didn't look the same. She feared he wouldn't be the same again. She hated change.

"Whoa guys, can we cut this out?" Warrick said, fearing another outburst. Sara was always making trouble these days.

"Man," Nick started, "you can't keep on like this," he said harshly.

Catherine shrugged it of, and carried on reading the report in front of her. Sara's stare moved from Cath to the glass of water.

Water. It makes up 82% of a persons blood. Blood. I bled because of her.

Grissom came in, and regarded Warrick coldly as he was just about to throw the ball back to Nick.

"Warrick," Grissom asked question.

"Yeah boss?" Warrick asked defensively, eyes darting between him and Nick, looking for some help.

"This isn't a football field"

Before giving Warrick a chance to respond, he began opening case files. He looked at Sara, but she gave him the same cold stare she gave Cath.

He was so infuriating, but Sara always knew this. Getting close to him meant being drawn in. Things always felt so close to happening…but never did. She decided that distance was probably the best cure for whatever "this" was between them.

Sara wasn't just distancing herself from Grissom. They all had noticed. And this distance wasn't just physical, it was emotional to.

She never seemed to smile anymore. She seemed to verbally attack every person who spoke to her.

Warrick and Nick had tried talking to her. Cath couldn't really be bothered. And Greg… Greg seemed to be elsewhere these days; he was almost as distant as Sara.

Her response was always "I'm fine." People never say, "I'm fine" if they're ok. It's an unconscious cry for help.

Grissom was tempted to say something to her. She should be at the table with everyone else, not looming in the background. But he knew if he said anything now, she'd argue. He wasn't arguing with her in front of everyone.

He hated arguing with her.

Her words always seemed to burn.

And the memory of his words to her, they burned him too.

"Ok, Warwick, Nick, Catherine, ill need you all on a RTA on 95."

"Any details?" Cath said, looking toward Grissom.

"Yes, but they're sketchy at best, early reports indicate that a Tanker collided with the intersection, and people don't keep there distance these days." Grissom said grimly.

"Sara and I will be on a attempted rape/murder case," Grissom said, closing the folders.

"Any details?" Sara imitated not just Cath's question, but also her tone of voice.

Grissom looked at her, slightly shocked, and was just about to say something – to reprimand her - but changed his mind, and decided it might be best to answer her question, but ignore its deliverance.

Cath just smiled to herself played with her nails. She didn't need Sara to punish her. She was doing that herself. She punished herself every time she saw Greg.

Grissom again hesitated before giving the details. Maybe he should have put her on the RTA; he knew how Sara was rape.

"A man tried to rape a prostitute in a back ally, he didn't realise she had protection, a gun."

"Girls gotta have protection these days," Cath said absently.

"Got a name on the guy?" she said, folding her arms, and placing her half empty glass in the crutch of her arm.

Grissom wondered why she was continuing this. What was she playing at?

"Yeah, he had ID, name's 'Jack Letts'."

Sara dropped her glass, and didn't even flinch.

Glass scattered across the floor, but her eyes remained fixed on the back wall, before she closed them, and turned away.

"Sara…" Warrick ventured.

"You ok?" Nick continued, asking the question everyone was thinking.

"Leave me alone. I'm fine" she answered, monotone.

No one ever says they're fine when they are.