Disclaimers, etc. in Part 1

Part 3 of 4

---

"Hey, Sara, enjoy your night off?" asked Nick as she entered the break room.

"Yeah, I guess. What are you doing here so early?" she inquired, surprised to find him there when there was still an hour before shift.

"The DB from last night, I wanted to know if some samples were back from Trace." Sara nodded. "So, what did you do with your night off, get your apartment sorted out?"

"Uh, no," she replied, a feeling of guilt washing over her as Nick mentioned her apartment and his assumption that she had moved back there, "I just watched some TV."

"Anything interesting?"

Grissom had entered the room and headed for the coffee machine, overhearing Sara's reference to TV. His hands stilled as he waited for her answer.

"A Discovery documentary about bugs."

"Bugs! Geez, Sara, you really need to find something more exciting to do," exclaimed Nick. He heard a grunt coming from his boss and gave him a sheepish grin. "No offense, Grissom."

"None taken, Nick, but just remember that we don't comment on all the strange documentaries you watch," said Grissom. Sara chuckled and, as he passed her on his way out of the room, he winked; she nearly fell off her seat.

"How come you're here so early anyway, Sara? You don't have anything major going on otherwise you wouldn't have agreed to taking last night off," said Nick.

"You know me, Nick, I can't stay away from the place for too long," she hedged, not willing to admit that Grissom wanted to come in early and she had automatically said she would leave as well, rather than assume that he would allow her to stay in his home without him.

---

"How's the timeline going, results nearly in?" asked Sara from her place in Grissom's office doorway.

He looked up and peered over the rim of his glasses. "All the bugs were fed as per my instructions," his tone showing he was surprised at that. "I should be able to finish it off tonight."

"Mind if I sit in on your final calculations? If I don't have any other cases, of course."

"Of course, Sara. You started this case with me, you should finish it with me," he smiled. "I have tonight's assignments, you can be based in the lab."

"Great. I'll see you in a bit then," she said as she left to go to the break room.

---

They finished the timeline halfway through their shift and Sara had then helped Nick with his DB case while Catherine worked solo on another. An hour after the end of shift, Nick, Warrick and Catherine had all left, leaving only Sara and Grissom. She had nothing left to do and decided to find out if Grissom was ready to leave.

"Hey, how's it going?" she asked as she walked into his office.

"Hey," he replied, briefly glancing up from his paperwork.

"You look busy," she commented.

"Yeah, the problem with being Supervisor; even when it's a slow week, there's always paperwork to do."

"Anything I can help with?"

"No, I'm reviewing evidence for a couple of cases that are due in court next week," he explained. "Thanks for the offer, Sara, but go on home." She didn't say anything and Grissom finally looked up after a few moments, wondering why there was silence; it finally hit him. "Oh, you're waiting for me?" She nodded. "I'm gonna be a while, just go on home."

"Umm…"

"Here, take my keys," he said, retrieving his house keys from his pocket.

"If I take your keys, I'm going to have to stay awake until you get back anyway so I can let you in, so I might as well just wait until you're finished," she pointed out.

"No need, I have a spare key somewhere," he replied, fishing in his desk drawers until he found the key and held it aloft for her to see. "Just don't flip the deadbolt on and it'll be fine."

"You don't mind me being in your home on my own?" she asked hesitantly.

"No," he shrugged. "If you were going to snoop, you'd have done it by now, when I was asleep," he smirked. "Just make sure you actually get some rest, okay? No napping on the couch, you need to get at least five hours."

"I'll try. How long do you think you'll be?"

"Probably a couple of hours, I'll try not to waken you."

"Thanks, Grissom," she said softly. "I'll see you later." He nodded and returned to his paperwork as she left the office.

---

Sara locked the door behind her and dropped the keys by the phone before removing her jacket. She didn't quite know what to do with herself as she really wasn't tired, her pre-shift nap having given her extra energy. However, she knew that if she sat down to watch TV, she would more than likely eventually fall asleep, getting herself into trouble with Grissom.

Instead, she walked towards her bedroom, but stopped just outside the door. Turning around, she found herself looking into Grissom's room. She had caught a glimpse of it the other day, but his door had only been slightly ajar then, now it was fully open. Not feeling brave enough to actually enter the room, she surveyed it from the doorway. The walls were adorned with specimen cases holding insects, much like the living room, but other than a single photo on his dresser that she assumed was of his mother, there was nothing else in the room that was uniquely Grissom. The duvet cover was plain, a light blue color in contrast to the dark blue painted walls, and there were no posters, no pictures, nothing on the walls other than the specimen cases. The only redeeming 'Grissom factor' was that the nightstand was littered with forensic and entomology journals. Sara couldn't read the titles from where she was standing, but she recognized a couple of the covers and figured that only entomologists would be interested in reading a magazine that had a photo of a giant bee on the front page.

She toyed with the idea of entering the room on the pretext of borrowing one of the journals, but she knew she couldn't; entering his bedroom, his inner sanctum, without his invitation was crossing a line that she couldn't undertake. A wave of tiredness suddenly hit her and her eyes fell on the large bed in the center of his room. It looked warm and inviting and, for a moment, she pictured herself curled underneath the covers, her head resting on the pillow that would hold his scent. She literally shook herself to rid her mind of the image before it overtook her. Taking a deep breath, she about-turned and walked into her own bedroom, eventually crawling into bed about ten minutes later.

---

Wearing only her pajamas and Grissom's robe, Sara padded into the living room around four hours after she had fallen asleep. The last thing she expected to find was Grissom asleep on the couch.

"Can dish out orders, but can't follow them," she muttered under her breath as she remembered his instruction that she sleep in a bed, not on the couch. Remembering her attire, she turned to go back to her bedroom, but managed to hit her leg off an end table and let out a squeal of pain.

"Sara?" said a sleepy Grissom as he heard the commotion. His head popped up over the back of the couch and met her sheepish face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she apologized.

"It's okay, I shouldn't be sleeping here anyway."

Sara smiled as she realized he was remembering his earlier words to her, just as she had done.

"When did you get back?" she asked.

Checking his watch, he replied, "About two hours ago." She nodded and then dipped her head as she felt his gaze boring into her. "Given how long it would have taken you to get back here, you can't possibly have had five hours of sleep yet," he said pointedly.

"I tried," she defended.

"Trying is good," he said gently, "but not always good enough."

"I got four hours," she protested.

"You have another hour to go then."

"Grissom."

"I'm going to put your whining down to the fact that you're tired," he teased. "I'm assuming you came through for a glass of water?" She nodded. "Can you get me one while you're there?"

"Sure," she smiled and moved to the kitchen to fetch two glasses of water. When she turned to hand one to him, she found he was no longer there and she walked towards her room. Passing Grissom's room, she found the door now closed and she placed her glass in her room before going back to his and knocking on the door.

"Come in, Sara," called Grissom after a few moments, just as she had been about to knock again.

She opened the door and hesitantly stepped inside. "Your water," she said quietly, motioning with the glass. Grissom was sitting on the edge of his bed, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands.

"Thanks," he smiled tiredly.

He made no move to take the glass from her, so she stepped forward and placed it on his nightstand, moving the journals out of the way and confirming her earlier suspicions about their contents. As she stepped back, she brushed against his knees and he instantly sat upright, dropping his hands to his sides.

"Sorry," she murmured, walking backwards away from him.

"Think you'll be able to get back to sleep?" he asked just as she was about to leave, startling her with the sound of his voice.

"Probably not, but I'll try," she said honestly.

"You need the rest, Sara," he told her. "I know it's been a pretty slow week, but I have a feeling it's the calm before the storm and we're going to be short-handed next week as both Catherine and Warrick are in court."

His casual attitude with her since he'd woken up had made Sara forget about her current clothing, but she was quickly reminded as his eyes flicked over her from head to toe. She followed his gaze down to her feet and she was still looking there when she replied, "Like I said, I'll try, but I'm not promising anything."

"Feel free to put that bug documentary back on if you think it'll help," he grinned.

"But then I'd fall asleep on the couch and I remember a certain someone telling me not to do that," she retorted with her own grin, her attention drawn back to his face.

He was too tired to argue with her and instead just smiled.

"Have a good sleep, Grissom," she said finally as she left the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

---

"I've made some sandwiches to take with us for shift and I've prepared dinner, I just need to cook it," announced Sara as Grissom trudged into the living room after his sleep.

"Thanks, how long will it take?"

"About ten minutes."

"Okay," he nodded, dropping into a chair heavily as Sara stood to go to the kitchen. "What are we having?"

"Vegetable stir-fry."

"That sounds too healthy for my liking," he called.

"Deal with it," she replied cheekily. At her tone, he jumped up from the couch and stalked into the kitchen.

"What was that?" he asked from just behind her.

"Um, that was my way of saying that you should look after yourself?" she tried.

"Uh huh," he said, letting her off the hook. "Anything I can do?"

"No, it's all under control."

He nodded and told her he would be in his study checking his email.

---

"Gil, did you finish checking over the evidence for my court case next week?" asked Catherine mid-shift.

He looked up at her, pushing aside his half-eaten sandwich. "Yes, I finished it this morning, everything looks fine."

"Good," she smiled. "What's on the menu?" she inquired, nodding her head towards his sandwich and taking a seat in the visitor's chair.

"Salad," came his slightly morose reply.

"Really?" she said, her interest piqued. She directed her gaze towards the food and studied it closely.

"Is there something wrong with my choice of sandwich filler, Catherine?" he said slowly as she peered at the food.

"Not at all, it's just interesting that you have exactly the same as another member of the team," she replied with a smirk.

Knowing exactly to whom she was referring, and not wanting to get into that conversation, he tried to sidetrack with, "I'm sure salad is a very popular choice."

"Yes, but not with you. You're not exactly known for your healthy eating, Gil."

"Maybe I'm trying to change my ways," he said nonchalantly.

"Do you want to know who else has salad sandwiches tonight?"

"Not really."

"Too bad, because I'm going to tell you anyway."

Grissom glared at her, trying to get her to leave without being ordered, but this was Catherine and she didn't wither, she just smirked at him and leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table.

"Sara," she said, watching him closely for a reaction.

"Well, that's not surprising," remarked Grissom, causing Catherine to raise her eyebrows inquisitively, "Sara is into healthy eating."

"Yes, but as we've already established, you're not, so I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence or…" she trailed off, having baited the hook and now waiting for him to bite; he didn't take the bait. Instead, he picked up his sandwich and resumed eating, blatantly ignoring Catherine's fishing trip. She waited for a minute, but he kept his eyes steadily on his paperwork and she eventually huffed a sigh and left him alone, unaware of the smirk Grissom sent to her retreating back.

---

Although Sara was glad when shift ended, simply because it had been another slow one and she hated not having much to do, she was reluctant to leave the lab; it would be her last day staying at Grissom's, after the next shift she would be going back to her own apartment.

She silently followed him into his home, her thoughts drifting to the first time she'd followed him in, the first night he had let her stay there.

"Hey, Grissom?"

"Yes?" he said as he turned to face her after she closed the door behind them.

"I'm gonna cook dinner for us later, so don't start anything if you're awake before me."

"You cooked yesterday, it's my turn."

"I want to, as a thank you for letting me stay here."

"There's no need, Sara," he smiled.

"I'm going to anyway though, so just be ready for 5pm, okay?"

"If you insist. I'm going to bed, I'll see you later."

"Night, Grissom."

---

TBC