I am so sorry about the long wait for the next chapter. It's, uh, a very long story…
But, tah-dah! Here it is! And remember, reviews are always welcome 8-)
*a.l.
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Grissom was more than surprised to see Sara the next day at work, and she was smiling. He was passing by the break room on his way to his office when he noticed her sitting on the couch reading a book. Maybe she had forgiven him already? She seemed pretty happy to be sitting all alone in the room. Grissom pushed open the door to the break room, but Sara didn't look up to acknowledge his presence until he was standing right in front of her.
"Sara?" he asked quietly looking down at her.
"What?" she said not looking up from her books.
"I was just wondering…" But Grissom couldn't go on because at that moment Nick came bursting in the room.
"Sara!" He called as he made his way over to the couch and sat down next to her. "Good to have you back." He threw his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug.
"Thanks." She unenthusiastically mumbled giving Nick a smile. Nick noticed this strange mood and turned his head to face her. She in turn, turned to look at him, and even though she was now smiling, he could still see pain and hurt in her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Nick asked quietly as if he didn't want Grissom to hear. But Grissom was standing right over the two of them and he would have to be deaf not to hear Nick.
"I'm fine." Sara responded though clenched teeth. Nick removed his arm from around her shoulder and she leaned away from him.
"No, Sara…something is-" Nick opened his mouth to question what was wrong with her once again, but Catherine came breezing into the room and he held back.
"Can I have a case?" Catherine asked as she made her way into the room, totally ignoring what was going on between Grissom, Sara and Nick.
"Yah, you and Sara are on a 419 at a breaking and entering." He said handing Catherine the case folder. "Nick, since Warrick was at court today he's got the day off, so it's you and me with two 419s on some back alleyway."
"Sounds good to me." Catherine replied walking out of the room. "Come on Sara, I'm driving."
Sara stood up to leave, "Of course you're driving." She muttered to her self, hoping that no one would hear her. Nick did though, and he watched her leave the room. Sara was suddenly all tense. Her face tightened into a scowl as she walked down the hallway, but then suddenly as if she had put on a mask, it disappeared and a smile appeared.
"Are you going to come?" Grissom asked Nick. He stood in the doorway waiting for Nick to follow.
"What happened between you and Sara?" He instead asked.
"Excuse me?" Grissom replied. Something told him that he wasn't going to arrive at the scene as soon as he had hoped to.
"Don't tell me you're as blind as you are deaf." Nick shot back. "Can't you see what's right in front of you?"
"Nick," Grissom asked slowly, "What are you talking about?"
"Sara, Grissom! Can't you see she's not only upset, but also tense and in pain too? Are you that blind?"
"Nick, what happened between Sara and I is none of your business." Grissom replied getting a little fed up with Nick.
"If it's not my business then I'm going to make it my business. If you're not going to do anything about Sara, then I am, Grissom." Nick said as he made his way to walk out the door and follow her.
"Nick, stop right there, we have a case to get to!" Grissom shouted at him.
"Who cares about that case when we have one right here?" Nick spat back as he made his way down the hall.
"Sara's problems are none of your worries." Grissom yelled down the hall to him. Greg in the lab across the way looked up to see what Grissom was yelling at, but sensing the anger in his voice stayed where he was.
"Well then they should be yours, Grissom." Nick shot back. "If you don't do anything about her, she's just going to disappear! I can't let that happen to her, even if you can."
Grissom could take no more and went jogging down the hallway to catch up to Nick. He was not about to let Nick go and find Sara when he was needed on a case with him. "Nick, this is Sara. She's a big girl and she can take care of her self."
"That's the problem here, Grissom, she doesn't know how to. She barely eats or sleeps, and when she gets mad god knows what she'll do sometimes. Someone has to talk to her, and since it is not going to be you, it might as well be me." Nick said turning to look at Grissom. "Do you not care about her?"
Grissom was taken aback by this question. Of course he cared for Sara, but did he care about her in other ways too? "Yes. No…no, I mean, Yes, I do care about her." He finally stammered.
"Then you aren't going to let this disposition of hers go on any longer. If you care so much about her you should talk to her, and that is exactly what you are going to do. Either you talk to her yourself or I am going to go talk to her now."
Grissom stared at Nick for a moment, trying to figure out if he was serious. Nick glared back at him, his jaw tightly clenched together. Grissom could see that Nick was really worried about her, and that he would do anything to make her happy. This made him nervous to realize that Sara was not only affecting him with how she acted, but Nick too.
"Fine." Grissom finally breathed. "I'll talk to her when she gets back."
"You better." Nick replied sternly. "If not, I don't know what's she's going to do." Nick paused for a second and looked over at Grissom. "Look, I know you two had words so I called Sara up after she left. I'm just worried about her, Grissom. She doesn't act, sound or look too good right now. I just don't want her to do anything drastic."
"I understand, Nick, but can we go to the scene, now?" Grissom asked. Nick shot him a look of loath, but then he nodded his head and followed Grissom out of the lab.
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"Nick, will you please sit down? You are starting to make me nervous." Catherine asked him from her seat on the break room couch.
"He hasn't talked to her yet, he isn't going to, and I know it. That –." Nick responded, suddenly getting very angry.
"Nick, stop right there. Calm down, okay? What, you talked to him yesterday, right? This is Grissom you realize. He doesn't know how to use the small amount of social skills he was given. Give him some time to get the nerve to talk to her." Catherine replied trying to cheer Nick up, but it didn't work. He was still just as angry.
And if to make him feel any better, Sara, as if on cue, came walking into the room. She looked first at Catherine sitting on the couch, and then at Nick standing right in front of her. "I'm going to head home." She said softly.
"What? Why?" Nick inquired taking a set towards her.
"I finished what I was working on and I'm beat. I'll see you tomorrow." Sara then turned and walked out of the room.
"And now he's not going to talk to her today either!" Nick proclaimed as Sara made her way down the hall. "I don't know why he is putting this off like he is. All he has to do is say a few kind words to her, so why can't he??"
"Nick, how about you go home too?" Catherine asked him, "You've finished everything here for the night and you are starting to drive me crazy. Go home and watch some football."
"Will you talk to Grissom and tell him to talk to Sara?" Nick pleaded with her.
"Fine. I'll do that for you, now you go home." She replied shooing him out of the room. Nick gave her one of his big Texas grins, and then left the room leaving her all alone.
Catherine was just beginning to enjoy the peace and quite when Grissom made his entrance, and Catherine looked up casting on him a long gaze.
"What?" he questioned as he made his way to the coffee pot.
"I sent Nick home." She replied as he brought over a cup of Greg's coffee for both of them.
"And when did you become shift supervisor?" he asked half mockingly.
"Since you stopped caring about your shift." She replied taking a sip.
"Catherine, don't you start with me too. I know I need to talk to Sara about a few things, and now I probably have to talk to Nick. Since I am talking to him how about you too? And then Warrick will feel left out, and then of course we can't leave Greg, so how about we all go out together and discuss our relationships with each other?"
"Don't you take this as a joke, Gil." Catherine said once again casting him a long glance. Grissom turned to look at her. She rarely referred to him by his first name; he we actually quite surprised when anyone called him Gil.
"I wasn't planning on it." he replied; now looking at her.
"Good. Now since everyone else has left, I think I should be going too." Catherine took the last sip of her coffee and tossed the cup in the trash.
"Sure. I'll just handle shift all by my self." Grissom replied shrugging.
"Warrick is here, Grissom. And you could always call Greg." She laughed and then exited the room just like Sara and Nick had done. Grissom scowled for a moment at the thought of having to work a case with Warrick and Greg. That would just make his night so much better.
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