"No way," Sara muttered, staring blankly at the bank of lockers in front of her. She had been changing into her day clothes, but had become distracted by her thoughts and was now sitting, thinking, in a pair of slacks and a bra. Sara had been sitting like this for nearly twenty minutes, and she was surprised that no one had walked in on her yet, but only in a distracted sort of way. Her mind was working too busily to allow entrance to such mundane thoughts as, "Put on a shirt."

She'd been turning the problem over in her mind continuously, searching for new angles and explanations for her sudden sickness, but was no farther along in finding a solution. Dizziness, she thought. Nausea. Flu? No, flu-induced nausea wouldn't be triggered by food.

Dehydration? This seemed like a good choice, until she realized that her lips weren't cracked and she'd thrown up a stomach full of water. Ok, then, what about over-hydration? Water poisoning, yeah, that could cause vomiting and dizziness. But then, she hadn't drunk any water in nearly five hours when she got dizzy before going to work.

Running out of options, Sara. Think! Food poisoning. Maybe the salad I had last night was bad. But no, Grissom had eaten some of it too and he was feeling fine. She was getting desperate and began searching her mind for more obscure causes.

Chemicals? She'd read that certain chemicals, when inhaled, could cause the symptoms she had. Pesticides, even everyday things like white-out, if inhaled in large enough quantities, could do this. Try as she might, though, she couldn't think of a point in recent memory when she might have crossed paths with that much of the vapors of a dangerous chemical.

Well, maybe she'd forgotten inhaling the stuff. There was no other explanation! It wasn't like she could be pregnant or anything; she was on the Pill and besides, pregnant women don't just suddenly get sick all at once . . . do they? She realized angrily that she didn't know. She could always look it up on the internet at work or home, but surfing was recorded at work and Grissom was always around at home.

She could ask someone, she supposed, but that was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. Who would she ask, anyway? Catherine? Hah, the woman would have "Sara's pregnant" rumors spread all overt the building before the night was over. She could ask Doc Robbins; she knew that she could at least trust him, but he was too paternal and would probably be stuck on taking care of her.

Well, she certainly couldn't ask one of the guys. Grissom was out of the question to begin with, and Nick and Warrick, even assuming they had a clue about female biology, would be too surprised to help her. Besides, they were no better at secret-keeping than Catherine.

"Sara?"

Sara's head shot up at the sound of another voice and she assumed her best innocent look. "Uh, hi Catherine."

Before speaking, Catherine surveyed the situation. Sara had been sitting on the bench in front of her locker, elbows resting on her thighs and head in her hands. She'd straightened up when Catherine had entered the room, but there were signs of worry on her face and, even more obvious, it looked like she'd forgotten that she was only half-dressed.

The blonde readied her racket and launched the first conversational ball, an easy-to hit shot. "You ok?"

"Yeah!" Sara nodded vigorously. Her hair bobbed around her and she wore the fakest smile Catherine had ever seen. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just changing."

"Changing," Catherine said slowly. Then, quickly changing tactics: "You been stuffing, Sara?"

Sara blinked. "What?"

"Stuffing. As in, tissues in your bra? Either that or you need to do some shopping, 'cause that thing doesn't fit you quite right anymore. Your cups runneth over," she added with a grin.

"Oh god," Sara moaned, but quickly recovered and began thinking of excuses. There weren't many to be found, though. She could say that yes, she was stuffing . . . no, bad idea. What about starting to whine about how she was getting fat . . . no, definitely not – that would make Catherine even more curious. There was always the clueless defense; she could look down and say, "oh, really? I had no idea" . . . no, that was the worst idea yet, because the older woman would take pleasure in proving it to her.

Finally she realized that she was cornered and let out a big sigh. "Ok Cath, I surrender. I have a question for you."

Hmmm, Catherine thought. Was it really possible that what she suspected was true . . . and that Sara was willing to talk to her about it? "Hey, what else am I here for but to instruct you young people," she said with a reassuring smile, and took a seat on the opposite end of the bench, facing Sara. "So spill, I'll answer whatever I can."

Sara was hesitant to speak. She hated this, needing other people's help. Someone upstairs must hate her to put her in fixes like this! "Before I ask you anything, you need to swear to me - and I mean swear upon your mother's grave and your daughter's life – that this information will NOT leave this locker room."

"I promise. Sara, what is this? What's wrong?"

"Ok I'm going to tell you some things that happened to me today, and I want you to give me your first impression of what could be the reason for them."

"Oookay."

Taking a deep breath, she began. "I've been having dizzy spells all day. One at home where I almost fell in the kitchen, and then I ended up falling asleep on the floor with the dog; and then again tonight when Nick and I went to get lunch."

Catherine sighed. "Did you forget to eat again?"

"No! Why does everyone keep asking me that? I eat, I eat plenty! Would you just listen to the rest of this before you start with your smartass comments?"

"Hey, sorry. Go on."

Sara didn't want to go on, but she had gone this far, might as well finish it. "Then when Nick and I were driving back with everyone's food, his tuna sandwich smelled majorly nasty and I got nauseous. So I stuck my head out the window for a minute, got some fresh air. Then, when I closed it again, the smell was right back there. I had to make Nick pull over so I could throw up. And I wasn't carsick," she clarified. "It was the tuna.

"And now you just told me my boobs are too big for my bra. Cath, we're talking about my boobs. Sara, the girl with the small ta-tas?"

"Ah." Catherine was afraid she could see where this was going. "And you want my first impression?"

Sara bit her lip. "Yeah."

"Then my first impression is that you and Grissom haven't been paying as much attention to certain things as you should have been."

"But we have!" Sara said insistently. "I take the pill exactly right . . . so there's no way that it could be . . . that. Right?"

Shaking her head, Catherine cast a look of mild amusement at the younger woman. "Oh, trust me, it's possible. That's how I got Lindsey." Her face softened as she took in the look of shock on Sara's face. "Hey, listen. It's just that nothing works perfectly all the time. Ok so let's take this piece by piece, ok?"

Sara nodded mutely, so Catherine kept talking. "You're on the Pill, but you're experiencing some of the first signs of pregnancy." They both jumped a little at the mention of the p-word. Catherine recovered first. "Now, have you taken a test or anything?"

"No! I only started getting all these problems today. I didn't think everything could just hit so suddenly. If I were pregnant, wouldn't I be feeling maybe a little bad one day, then maybe I'd get dizzy the next day . . .?"

"Nope. Once your body figures it out, everything goes wrong – and right – all at once." Hesitantly, Catherine put an arm around Sara's imperceptibly shaking shoulders. "Why don't we cut out a little early and go to my house, ok? That way you don't have to worry about having Grissom underfoot. We'll pick up a test on the way and get this figured out within an hour."

"Oh my god . . . what am I going to do if I am?" She was really beginning to shake now as the reality hit her. Pregnant? A baby? She had no idea what Grissom thought about having children of his own. Hell, she had no idea what she thought of having children of her own. But reality was reality, she reminded herself, and stood up, straightening her shoulders. "Ok. Let's do it."