"Your place or mine?" The question was asked lightly but Sara took it very seriously. If they went to his place she could leave if…hell. She never knew what to expect anymore. If they went to her place she would be stuck until he decided that he was ready to go. While she didn't think that he would seriously refuse to leave if she asked him to, she did know how stubborn he could get. He could be almost as stubborn as she could.

"Mine." At least she could be comfortable in her own home. 'Besides once the conversation gets to personal he'll run for the door,' she thought with a smirk. The smirk disappeared once she realized that he had touched her lips, and held her hand and her elbow. That was more contact in ten minutes than the last ten months.

Sara looked over at him as he drove. As her anger began to fade her confusion mounted. Not only about Grissom, but about a lot of other things. Sara knew what everyone was going to think. Brass had thought she had a drinking problem, and so would the others. It is what she would have thought. That was the most disturbing thing of all.

Deciding not to examine that too closely at the moment, Sara opened her mouth to give Grissom directions to her apartment, but then she thought better of it. 'Let him ask.' She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. A few minutes later the Denali came to a stop. She smiled, eyes closed, waiting for him to ask for directions.

"We're here." Sara's eyes snapped open in surprise. Sure enough they were parked in front of her building. She unbuckled her seat belt and slid out of the passenger seat. Grissom followed suit and walked around the vehicle to stand next to her. "Are you sure that you want to do this right now?" he asked as his gaze took in the dark circles under her eyes.

Sara nodded her consent and started walking toward the front of the building. Grissom took her hand lacing his fingers with hers and matched her pace. When they got to the door she punched in the security code and went inside. Sara nodded in the direction of the elevators, "I'm on the fourth floor." With their hands still linked together they waited in silence for the elevator to arrive.

They remained silent throughout the ride upstairs and down the hall to her apartment. Once inside Sara shed her coat and headed for the kitchen.

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked while preparing to make coffee for herself.

"Coffee is fine." He missed the feel of her hand in his. Grissom stood still next to the island in her kitchen and looked around until the clink of cups brought his attention back to Sara. She poured his and gestured to the cream and sugar that he should help himself. Having adjusted their coffee Sara led him to the couch.

As they settled back getting comfortable, Sara looked at him expectantly. She seemed content to let him run the show for now. He took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Sara. I'm not going to jump to conclusions. Why don't you tell me what happened tonight and we'll work backwards from there."

Sara nodded. "Fair enough. Warrick asked Nick and I if we wanted to get some dinner. We both declined and we all went our separate ways." She didn't see the point in mentioning the short discussion with Nick. "When I was heading back to my car I realized that I actually was hungry. So I stopped into a restaurant and I ate dinner and drank a few beers. I knew that I had drank more than I should have but I felt okay."

"Just a few?" Unknowingly, Grissom repeated Brass' words from a few months ago. Realizing that he expected more Sara elaborated.

"I drank one before my food came, two with dinner, and one more after I ate while I was watching the news at the bar." He quirked an eyebrow. "I ate at the bar in the restaurant since I was alone."

Grissom nodded absorbing this. "Do you have a drinking problem?" he asked.

Sara jerked in surprise. For some odd reason she had not expected him to be so straightforward, and she certainly hadn't expected him to ask her. She thought back over the last year trying to remember all of the times she'd drank at all. She did not drink everyday, rarely did she even drink once a week. Sara had not been drunk since she was in college. She had had the occasional drink since Brass had offered his advice, but only with dinner and only on her nights off. She did not want to be unprepared for another early rollout.

Grissom gave her time to think knowing that she was taking his question seriously and would give him an honest answer. If she said yes he would everything he could to help her. Assuming that she would let him. If she said no…he would believe her but he would stand by his earlier statement. Things were going to change.

Sara turned to him and looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't have a drinking problem. I just made a bad judgment call tonight. Nothing more, nothing less." She waited for his response. He searched her eyes hoping that he could see more than what her statement revealed. He found what he was looking for and nodded.

"Okay." Sara released a breath she didn't know she had been holding. He believed her. It gave her hope that once the news got back to the rest of the night shift that maybe they too would believe her. Even if they didn't believe her then just knowing that Grissom did would help her through this.

"But," she paused trying to decide whether or not she should continue, "I'm not happy here anymore. I'm isolated in my personal life, which is my own decision so I'm okay with that. However, recently I've become isolated at work as well. I'm not a yo-yo Grissom. You can't just pick and choose when you are going to ignore me and when I'm worthy of your attention. It isn't fair and it is making things incredibly tense. I hope you are serious about things changing Grissom because I can't work like this for very much longer."

Grissom sat there listening to her words. She spoke fast as though if she slowed down she might not have the courage to finish. A wave of guilt crashed over him. He had known what was happening and had not been able to stop it. He went in to work everyday with a new resolve to make things right but the moment he saw her he just couldn't help himself from giving her the cold shoulder to protect himself.

As per usual Grissom's expression was unreadable. Sara closed her eyes and steadied herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…well…I meant what I said but I think that maybe this is the wrong time to bring it up."

"Don't be sorry, Sara. You're right and I'm sorry. I really don't know if I can explain why I've been like this. The only thing that I know for certain is that I am serious about things changing. Starting right now."

TBC…