"Yes, Sara, I'm still working on Meghan's moth. And no, I'm not going to have sex with her on my desk."
Sara gasped and dug a finger into his side, laughing when he swerved the car slightly to the right in surprise. "Grissom! All I asked was whether you'd figured it out yet. Geez, sex on your desk? I'd hope that if that happened, it would involve me and not some other girl."
Grissom laughed. "But it's so fun to watch your face get red like that! And if you're going to be beating up suspects regularly now, you'll have to practice those weak punches."
"Hah," she snorted. "That was a dig, not a punch. You can't handle my punches, boss."
Grissom was saved from having to respond by the last stoplight before CSI turning green. He hit the gas just a little harder than necessary and made the turn into the parking lot. "Game face on now, Sara. No throwing yourself at me during shift."
"I hate you!" she laughed. "And how about you focus on figuring out the moth that I already figured out rather than undressing me with your eyes every time you see me." She started walking toward the building, still laughing.
Grissom grabbed her hand and pulled her back toward him. When Sara gave him a curious look, he smiled. "Okay, smartass, what species?"
"I don't know the Latin name, but it's a Death's Head. Have you never seen Silence of the Lambs?" Grissom didn't respond, only chuckled and gave her a gentle shove toward the doors.
They split up inside. "I really have to start tracing those furry things and linen books, Gris. I'll see you in a little while."
Grissom nodded. "Fine. I've got to go work with Meghan's new pet. On my desk," he added evilly.
"Oooh, you're gonna pay for that!" She turned with a flip of her hair and headed for the lab she'd commandeered yesterday.
An hour later, she was no closer to finding the mysterious redhead who owned both a chinchilla and old texts. Muttering curses, Sara wandered down the hall toward the break room.
"If Nick were to sleep with Warrick, I'd wonder what the hell they were on," came from just inside the doorway as she walked up to it. What was going ON in there? She quietly took up a place against the doorframe, just behind Catherine and the redheaded man – the one who wasn't a criminal – and listened avidly. Only Grissom noticed her, and he acknowledged her presence with just a flicker of his eyes.
"Jesus, Cath. Don't do that," said Warrick in a shocked voice.
Catherine chucked a thumb over her shoulder at Horatio. "It's not nice to leave guests wandering around, Meg."
"Sorry about that," Meghan apologized with no remorse. "So, what's in it, Gris?"
Grissom gave his friend a 'shut-up for five seconds and I'll tell you' glare. Once everyone was quiet, he spoke. "It's a moth."
Meghan groaned. "Come on, Gris, I know that! What type?"
Grissom's patented Evil Glare made a grand appearance again. "I wasn't finished. What you have here is a really nice specimen." Grissom decided not to mess around once he caught sight of Meg's hand heading in the general direction of her gun. "Let's see if you had a life in the early nineties. Here we have something called the Acherontia Styx. Common name and movie it appeared in?" There was total silence for a long moment. "Hmm? Nobody?"
Time to speak up, Sara thought with a grin. Grissom, bless his evil heart, was giving her an opportunity to grandstand. "Death's Head Moth. Silence of the Lambs." Meghan and Warrick both turned around, surprised to hear her voice. "What?" Sara asked indignantly. "I happen to like Silence of the Lambs."
Meg looked up from the specimen jar on Grissom's desk and caught the tail end of a sentence Grissom was signing to Sara. "--watch it every weekend."
She turned back to Sara and signed to her. "What's this about watching it every weekend?" The expression on Sara's face could only be described as priceless. Everyone barely managed to suppress the chuckles.
"How do you know sign language?" Sara demanded, feeling a pang of annoyance that she was no longer the only one Grissom could talk to like this.
"Do the words 'deaf niece' ring a bell?"
Warrick quickly stepped in and cut off Sara's reply, hoping to diffuse any potential explosions. He didn't know what strange thoughts were going through his coworker's brown head, but he knew that Meg looked pissed off at the moment. "That's right. I forgot about Chelsea. How's she doing?"
Meghan smiled at the mention of her niece. "She's fine. Titi and I taught her how to say her name."
"Whoa, man. Kudos to Saint Meghan. Anyways, I've got that linen fiber to process, and I need Cath's help on that. Let's go," Warrick said lightly, motioning to his partner. Catherine and Warrick made a quick exit before anyone could tell them Greg had already processed the fibers an hour ago.
With a slight smile, Grissom picked up right on cue, turning to Horatio. "Let's go write this up. You can use my office."
With everyone clear of the room, Meghan and Sara were free to talk. "Sara?"
"Yeah?"
Sara took a seat at the head of the table, amused that she was taking Grissom's usual place. Meghan noticed the small smile and raised an eyebrow. "What's going on with you and Gris?"
Sara looked up in surprise from her study of the papers a rather disorganized Grissom had left. "What makes you think there's something going on with me and Grissom?"
"Um, maybe the fact that when I left two years ago, you guys were ignoring each other, and then I come back, hug him, and you get all hot and bothered over it and Warrick and Nick have to save my ass by practically dragging you out of the room. That tells me something's going on."
Sara blushed slightly pink. Damn, she hadn't known they were quite that obvious. "You're perceptive," she said, stalling.
"Criminal psychologists and profilers generally are." A rather long, awkward silence followed.
Sara looked down at her hands, trying to think of an appropriate response. Oh, hell, why not tell the woman. It wasn't like it her relationship with Grissom was big news these days, and Meghan was her friend, at least while Sara wasn't in a jealous mood. "We're, um, we're living together."
Meghan couldn't keep the smile off her face, displaying her pleasure at this revelation. "Surprise, surprise." It came out more sarcastically than intended, but it was meant with utmost affection and friendship. "Anything good happened that I might want to know about?" Meghan added quickly, aware that Sara wasn't sure whether she meant it as a compliment or not.
Deciding that Meghan couldn't have meant any harm, Sara grinned wickedly. "Only if you tell me what's going on between you and the Miami dude."
Meghan sighed in slight irritation."What is it with you people? Nick and Warrick asked the exact same question earlier. Nothing is going on." There was a slight pause before she continued. "Except………"
Sara leaned forward eagerly. Was there another professional pair getting it on in this office? "What? Except what?"
Meghan was giggling uncontrollably. It took a few seconds before she could control herself enough to speak. "Spiffy shoes." Another severe giggle fit hit Meghan, and Sara tried, and failed, to hold in her own amusement. They both were soon in tears.
"Spiffy shoes? What the hell?" Sara asked when she could catch her breath.
"Lemme tell you the whole story. Last night, we checked into the hotel, I unpack with lightning speed, as usual, and I go into his room. We've got the adjoined rooms and all that crap. So anyway, I'm sitting on the bed, going over the case file while he unpacks, and he puts this super-shiny pair of shoes on the bed. And, of course, being me, I can't resist picking one up."
"Because you are woman, and women like shiny things."
"Really! It's a scientific fact, too. Women, birds, cats and ferrets are all attracted to shiny things. Anyways, this shoe is so damned shiny that you can see yourself in it, and I tell him that. So we get into this really long discussion about the female affinity for shiny things, and finally I say 'So, is that the secret of the rich men, then? They all have nice manners, polite smiles, lots of money, and shiny, spiffy footwear?' and we both just cracked up at that." Sara allowed herself a few more giggles.
"You are such a dork sometimes, Meg."
"I know. Especially after what happened later."
Sara's eyes widened slightly. "Really?"
Meghan blushed slightly. "Not that, you pervert."
"I wasn't talking about that." Yeah right. Play innocent, Sidle. "What happened?"
"Okay………I hadn't slept in about two days, and I fell asleep. On his bed."
A slightly befuddled look crossed Sara's face at this point. Well duh, she fell asleep in Grissom's bed every night. "And this is strange why?"
Meghan more than slightly blushed before continuing. "Because I woke up the next morning and I was in his bed, right next to him. And we were all, you know………" Meghan twined her fingers around each other and held them up in demonstration.
Aha. They were a week or two behind her and Grissom, it seemed. Amazing how this stuff seemed to go on a schedule. She grinned. "Oh. I see. And so then what happened?"
"I figured out where the hell I was, and got out of there."
"No romantic action?"
Meghan shook her head. "None whatsoever. But thinking about it now, I just realized something. You remember how I would have these nightmares every once in a while that would just scare the holy hell out of me?" Sara nodded, remembering the many times Meghan had come in, shaken from a bad dream. "Well, they've gotten to the point where they're coming every night, which is part of the reason I'm staying later and later. I'm afraid to go to sleep. But that's not my point. Thing is, last night was the first night in six months I haven't had a bad dream."
There was complete and total silence for several seconds while Sara processed this new information. She'd known Meghan had occasional nightmares, but she didn't think it was so serious that they came every night. "You know, that probably means something," she said, the hint broad in her voice.
Meghan ran a hand through her hair tiredly. "I know. Probably means I'm going insane. I've been thinking about it for a while. I can't explain it. There's no clinical explanation, anyway."
"Then stop looking for a clinical explanation, Meg. In fact, stop looking for one at all. It'll come. Just be patient."
"Patience is a virtue that I do not have. Anyway, changing the subject…wanna go harass Nick a bit? It'll take my mind off going insane, at least for now."
Sara smiled widely. If there was one thing she and Meghan shared a liking for, it was knocking around the guys. She stood up and walked towards the door. "If we get Cath, we can triple-team them."
They shared a conspiratorial smile as they walked out of the room.
