Flowing Pens
By: Labrat
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Spoilers: None that I am aware of.
Summary: My response to this weeks Unbound challenge.
Disclaimer: Nope nothing belongs to me, so please don't sue?
A/N: I want thank Marlou for beta-ing this for me, I wouldn't have the guts to do this without her help.

Opening line: "No, Grissom, I'm not going to let you shave my legs," Sara replied.
Ending line: The pens were lined up as if on a parade.


000


"No Grissom, I'm not going to let you shave my legs," Sara replied.

Blinking back the confusion that had entered her voice Grissom glanced down at the razor in his hand. Normally Sara was the first to offer her help with one of his experiments, yet recently everything had changed. Things had became stressed between them, in and out of work.

Grissom sighed as he once again pled his case.

"But Sara I need to time the whole process. I need to take in every variable. I know nothing of a woman's personal time in this situation. "

Blushing as he admitted that his knowledge of such things were, to say the least. Next to nothing, but he wasn't sure the worst? He was currently admitting it to the one person who

he would rather want know this about himself. The line he had been creating of personal and workship conversation had not thought of this problem.

"Let me get this right? Your victim was murdered while shaving her legs, with her husband asleep in the adjoining room?"

Grinding his teeth together Grissom nodded stiffly to her question, noticing the confused look within her eyes he felt the need to add more,

"Their lover was currently in the shower, the victim was to join her there after wards."

Schooling his eyes downward at his desk Grissom wondered what she was thinking? He would could feel her eyes on him, asking or rather demanding to know why he had come to her with this experiment. Knowing she knew of the lines he had been drawing between them, taking care to never cross them. Never allowing himself the freedom he once had taken with her affections.

Glancing up to look at her Grissom felt his world fall apart, taking in Sara as she stood there in front of his desk, her eyes looked haunted. For the first time he took in the dark bags under her eyes, the redness held within. Her hands were wringing on one another as she stood there, and stood there she did. He could tell her mind was elsewhere, a different place or time he wasn't sure. But the light within her eyes were gone, the smile he had cherished had disappeared. There in front of him stood his once prized student with the lifeless of a corpse. His breath caught as he whispered,

"Sara.... How, I mean, what happened to you?"

He watched as she suddenly started to play with the pens on his desk trying to figure out the right way to answer him, as if her very life depended on her answer.

"Sara honey, there is no right or wrong answer here. Please just."

Suddenly he was cut off with a stare that took his breath away. But she answered him, much to his despair.

"You happened Grissom, I'm not sure what happened to me but I know you're the reason why. I lied. I know what happened to me, I fell in love. Like a fool I went and done the most human thing I have ever done and fell in love with the most wonderful guy I have had ever met. But you know what Grissom, I wasn't good enough so I tried to move on. Without him, then I tried to change for him and still I wasn't good enough. And here after all this time he doesn't notice my desire for him, my need to love him and to be loved back. Instead I turn out to be just some experiment to him."

With that she let the tears fall as she fled his office.

000

Grissom watched in horror as the one woman that he'd….

Swallowing hard he pushed that train of thought away, admitting it to himself would not solve anything. It wouldn't make either of them feel better and it wouldn't undo all the wrongs he had done by her.

But just now, looking at her he would have admitted to anything to stop her tears, to smooth the hurt that was there. The pain that must be hiding so deep within her core.

"You did it again, didn't you?"

Looking up and at the soft voice Grissom felt his thoughts freeze as Catherine walked within his office and shut the door. Indicting yet another one of her emotional chats about his current state with Sara.

Sighing as he refused to call it a relationship cause that word seemed too involved. And a work relationship was not that involved, (well maybe) not for them.

"What do you want Catherine?"

He watched as she sat down and stared at the pens laying across his desk, her eyes picking out the lighter colored inks.

"I want you to be happy Gil. and all the evidence points in one direction. Wanna take a guess, Gil?"

Closing his eyes Grissom knew he was beat. Catherine knew him all to good well, she knew enough to know where his heart was. She had been there beside him when he had muddled his way through relationships with other women. Been there through the Dr. Lurie case, and most importantly she had been there when Sara threatened to leave him. In fact, Catherine was the reason he still had Sara.

"Sara."

He never knew he had whispered her name, never imagined that caressing her name in such a way would show all his emotions. All his desires for her!

"That's right Gil. Sara, the one who you trusted to work the internal investigation about Warrick and Holly. The one that pulls doubles on any single given case, or the one that helps out with each and every one of your experiments. Mostly the one that loves you with every fiber of her being."

Shaking his head he tried to deny it.

"She dose not love ,"

"Of course she does."

Looking at Catherine, Grissom blinked hard and fast. trying to deny it to her.

"Why else would she put up with the pain and suffering you are causing her? And you know you are. Cause you are going through the same."

Sighing in defeat Grissom reached for the pens and played with all the ideas running in his head. Suddenly he looked down and saw that all the pens were lined up as if on a parade.