The night crew was gathered in the break room, waiting for assignments. Grissom was late, as usual. Nick and Warrick were entertaining themselves playing table football with a piece of paper folded into a triangle. Catherine was on her cell phone, trying to convince Lindsey to listen to the babysitter and get to bed. Sara was sitting on the couch, absently picking pieces of fuzz off the arm of the couch. She just wanted to get going on a real case. Last night had been slower than slow. She was stuck in the lab all night with no new cases. It was almost as bad as her day off. The only real difference was that while she was in the lab at least she could do a little something. She had spent her shift working on cases off the board, trying to find a new angle on an old case. Nothing had really popped out at her. And so the shift was a waste. But now here she was again, ready to start another shift. Hopefully tonight would bring a new case, a fresh case that she could dive into and make some real change. She needed the distraction. It would feel good to have something to really dive into. Grissom walked into the break room, interrupting her thoughts.
"About time Griss, where you been?" asked Nick, as Warrick bounced the paper football off the side of his head.
"Ducking the sheriff."
Catherine closed her phone and turned to the group. "So do you have work for us tonight?"
"Catherine and Nick, you get a drive-by shooting. Warrick, I've got a B&E for you." He turned to look at Sara sitting on the couch. For a split second his voice caught in his throat, a hesitation to take the simple step that he was about to take. "Sara, you get an apparent double murder suicide. You're with me."
Sara looked up with a start; did he just say what she thought he said? Did Grissom just put himself on the same case as her? She felt rather like she had entered "The Twilight Zone."
"I'll grab my coat," she said, standing and walking quickly from the lab towards the locker room. Together on a case, after so many weeks and months apart. What made him change? Why was he putting them together again? Her stomach was fluttering and she could feel herself shaking all over. She needed to sit down. Does it mean something? 'This is silly,' she thought to herself. 'I have no reason to be this nervous.' But she was. She was beyond nervous.
Back in the break room, the crew was chatting as they gathered themselves up and set off to work on their respective cases. When Grissom was alone in the room, he sat down at the table. 'What am I doing? How can I possibly think that she and I will be able to work together again after so much time avoiding each other?' He thought back to the way it was when she first came to Vegas. They worked together almost as though they were one person. What one of them missed at a scene, the other one caught. When she was too involved in a case he was there to try and stabilize her. When he got caught up in a case and his pulse skyrocketed, she was there to wipe away the anger and refocus him. Would they be able to get back to that? He hoped so. He really didn't want things to be strained between them. It was affecting the whole lab; they all knew something was amiss between them. Of course, he had non-work motives to bring her back into his life and restore their friendship, but he pushed those thoughts away. He hoped beyond hope that there was still a chance for them to be friends. Tonight would be the first test, a case together. From what he knew of the case it should be relatively simple, no overtime or double shifts to deal with, so they shouldn't have too much trouble. But truth be told, he had never been so nervous in his life.