Thank you so much for the reviews everyone. I mean, there is nothing more valuable to a writer than having people comment on their work, good or bad (but hopefully good.). A lot of time is put into every story that I write, and I like to see that least one person out there is enjoying it. Thank you again!

*a.l.

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Sara jumped about five feet when the phone rang. No one ever called her on her home phone. It was always either her cell phone or her pager. For a while she had actually forgotten that she owned a regular cordless.

"Hello?" she asked into her end, expecting a telemarketer to start jabbing away at any second.

"Sara?" a voice on the other end asked.

"Grissom?" Sara practically dropped the clothing and the phone that she was holding in her hands. "Why are you calling me here?"

"You're cell phone wasn't on. I know this is your time off, but I need to talk to you." Grissom said quickly, as if someone in the room was timing him with him. He sounded concerned, but Sara knew it was just a fake front.

"What?" she asked a little annoyed at the fact that Grissom had called her at this time. She had found the one and only travel suitcase that she owned and was in the process of packing it. Sara had laid out all of the shirts that she thought she would need, and was in the process of washing her pants.

"I'm sorry." Grissom replied trying to put some emotion into his words.

Sara laughed, "That's great Grissom. Now how about you tell me what you are sorry about."

There was a pause on Grissom's end, and Sara knew he was searching for exactly what she was mad at him about. "You don't even know, do you?" Sara finally spat into her end. "That's just like you, Grissom. Apologizing for something you're not even sure you should be sorry about." Sara took the phone away from her ear and clicked it off. She was now fuming and continued down the hall towards her room.

Two minutes passed before her phone rang again, and Sara reluctantly walked back out into the hall and picked up the pone.

"What now?" she barked in.

"I'm sorry I don't know what I should be sorry about." Grissom replied sheepishly.

"Apologies are just words, Grissom." Sara replied softly, and now Grissom practically dropped the coffee mug he was holding. Lady Heather had said that same thing to him, and he knew how that whole thing had turned out.

"Is there anything I can do?" He stammered trying to regain some of his confidence.

"No, sorry. What's done is done." Sara was in no real mood to be having this discussion with Grissom. She was leaving in two days and there was nothing he could say or do to make her change her mind. Sara was packing enough clothes for at least five days for her destination, and then she would take it from there. Deep down inside Sara knew she would come back to Vegas (at some point. Maybe.), but she didn't want to think about that right now.

"Sara, I juts wanted to talk to you."

"And I just wanted you to listen. But we can't always get what we want."

There was a pause and neither side of the conversation knew what to say next. Sara finally spoke after a few tense moments of silence.

"Look Grissom, I'm in the middle of stuff here. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yah, bye Sara." Sara clicked her side off and placed it back down in the receiver. She stared at it for a moment, as if waiting for it to ring again. But it didn't. Sara heaved a heavy sigh, and walked back to her room.

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"That lasted less than five minutes." Nick stood in Grissom's doorway looking pretty annoyed.

"Well what did you want me to do? She said she was busy." Grissom put down the phone and looked up at Nick. "I'll try talking to her later, okay? She and I will take a case together."

"Oh yah, sure, because that's probably just what she wants. Some quality bonding time with the man who could really care less." Nick turned and walked away from Grissom's office.

"Nick!" Grissom called after him, and he turned around. "What is up with you? Suddenly you are all protective of Sara, where did this come from?"

"I've always been this way, Grissom, you just probably never saw it." he replied, folding his hands across his chest. "I'm not going to let anything happen to her, and I'm scared that something might." Nick finally said.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to her either." Grissom said, but Nick did not look too happy with this reply.

"I'm not so sure about that." He said turning and walking down the hall. 

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Sara meanwhile, was staring at the phone, wondering if it was going to ring again. She knew Nick had edged Grissom on to call her, and she was wondering if she was now going to be receiving a call from him. Sara really could use to talk to someone. This past week at the lab had passed incredibly fast, mostly because of the lack of time Sara had spent there. She never realized what she could do with just a little bit of free time. Sara hadn't carried on a civilized social conversation with anyone from the lab for a good week now. She did, however, have a nice conversation with the man at the movie theater behind the counter, and the lady she met at the park with the cute little dog. But other than that, no real talks with Nick, or Catherine or anyone else for that matter.

Sara turned away from the phone and looked at the suitcase that was now on her floor. She couldn't believe that she had actually pulled the first part of her plan off. With some clever thinking, she had moved what she was calling Operation: Cloud into effect.

Slowly disappearing from the lab had been easy. Sara knew she spent too much time there anyway, so she casually slipped into conversation that she was doing some other stuff this week. At first people wondered what Sara could be doing considering the fact that she rarely did anything extracurricular.  But soon, no one gave Sara's outings another thought.

For long periods of time this week, Sara had escaped to the locker room, claiming that she was taking a shower, when really she was just reading a good book in there. Yesterday she had spend two hours doing that and no one had noticed that she was gone. The day before that, prior to heading back to the lab after a scene, she had headed to Starbucks. No one seemed to notice that she was spending less and less time there. Well, no one except Greg. He had asked her bluntly where she had been this week because he missed her. If only he knew, Sara had thought. If only he knew…

Sara yawned. She was quite tired and knew that tomorrow was her last "official" day at the lab before she took off. She might as well get a good night's sleep. Then, tomorrow she would transpire the final elements of her plan, and then, well, she hadn't thought about what she was really going to do after that. She knew she was leaving Vegas, that's for sure, but to go where? Even the next town would be a welcomed vacation for her.

Sara climbed into bed thinking about all the possible places she could go on her unofficial leave of absence. No sooner had she done that that the phone rang. Sara almost instinctively got out of bed and took a few staggered steps forward, and then she stopped. Instead, Sara turned back to her bed and climbed under the covers, letting the ringing phone put her to sleep, a sleep that was greatly welcomed.

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