Chapter 12 (Coming back down to earth)

A/N: Ok, I feel like I have to up the rating, just in case. So this chapter gets an R for a lot of cursing and not so nice descriptions of a certain character. Please read to the end of the chapter before giving me a piece of mind. Thank you!

xxxxx

For once, Grissom and Sara were not early. They were right on time.

They had wanted to wait until the others were all assembled in the break room, so that they wouldn't have to repeat everything.

Entering the break room, they saw that their estimation had been correct. Warrick and Nick were brooding over a file, Catherine was sorting through the assignment slips and even Greg was present, hovering over the coffee pot.

Sara coughed lightly and everyone turned their way.

The surprise was written on every face. Grissom was back.

With him was a much better looking Sara.

"Grissom! Sara!" It was Nick that broke out of his current state first- He moved over to them and hugged Sara. When he let her go he stuck his hand out to Grissom and said, "It's good to have you back and I really have to apologize. I'm so sorry."

Grissom nodded and smiled at the younger man. Nick on the other hand was incredibly relieved that his apology was accepted, but vowed to make it up to the entomologist with his work.

"Hey man, good to have you back. We were worried, you know, 'there will be no cake' and all." Warrick rose and shook Grissom's hand too before turning to Sara repeating Nick's moves. "Hey girl, you look so much better."

Greg abandoned his coffee and awkwardly took Grissom's hand. "It was too quiet here. No one yelled at me." He grinned at his own stupid comment. He made a move to hug Sara, but aborted his try as he saw Grissom watching him. The older man still made him nervous as hell, especially around Sara. Instead of a hug, he settled on a quick squeeze of her arm saying, "I missed you." Then he hurried back to the coffee pot.

Catherine just sat at the table taking everything in with a cold gaze. The others were wondering what was going on since they would have expected her to be the first one out of her seat. But now they could see something dangerous flaring in Catherine's eyes.

"You bastard!" Suddenly she was in front of Grissom staring right into his eyes.

"You asshole! Who do you think you are? You have no right to leave us like that. We're not some bugs you can cast aside. But then, you probably treat them better than you do us." She was on a roll now and no one dared to interrupt her. They had long ago learned that you didn't want to be on the receiving end of her anger.

"Do you know what a mess you have left behind? And now you probably think you can come back and pick up where you left." She was breathing fast and irregular. "Two weeks. Two fucking weeks without a word. Gil Grissom, you are an asshole."

The fire was burning hot in her and now Grissom wished he had one of his hearing spells. But he also knew that a part of him needed to hear it all so he could change. If he wanted to be a part of the team he would have to change some things.

"Cath..." Sara tried to stop Catherine's tirade, but was immediately cut off again.

"Sara, stop it. He doesn't deserve to be defended." Catherine snapped at her.

And when Sara made a move to counter her statement, Grissom stopped her with a hand on her wrist. She looked up at him and his eyes told her that it was all right. Knowing that he was planning to see this through to the end she forced herself to stay calm.

"I thought we were friends, Grissom." Catherine went on, but her voice had lowered and now showed her disappointment. "We have known each other for so long and we went through so much together, privately and professionally. So why did you think that stupid note would be enough? Did our friendship mean so little to you that you couldn't even talk to me?"

Tears had begun to travel down her face and now everyone could see how deeply hurt she had been by Grissom's betrayal.

"I thought we were friends."

She left the room in a hurry to prevent that the others from witnessing her total break down.

The three younger men remained frozen in their places while Sara and Grissom stared at the open doorway. After a short eye contact they left the break room together. Grissom went in search for Catherine, while Sara decided to hide in one of the labs, not ready to face possible questions of the other CSIs.

xxxxx

Twenty minutes later, Sara left the safety of the A/V lab. She paused at Grissom's office – although technically it was Catherine's now – and saw that they were sitting in front of his desk talking.

A lump formed in her throat, but she swallowed it. They were friends. Sara had always felt a bit insecure where Catherine was concerned, especially in regard to Grissom. It had seemed that, especially in the past year, he had been more willing to trust Catherine than her.

Suddenly Grissom looked up and over at her. He said something to Catherine and got up to open the door. "Sara," he smiled at her and led her inside.

Now Sara could see that the tears had dried and the other woman was smiling at her.

Oh god, had he said something about them, she feared. She looked at Grissom, but could not tell if he had really betrayed her like that.

"Grissom told me about my new job." The new supervisor said. "I really hope you're okay with that."

Sara nodded, trying to return the smile, but still wondering whether she knew something about them.

"Sara, I know I have treated you unfair in the past," Catherine stood and went to join Grissom and Sara, "but I promise you that will not happen again. I respect you and your work and I want us to be friends."

Sara couldn't believe what she was hearing. This was an official peace offering. "You know, I was not only worried about Grissom these past few weeks."

That was right, she had always asked her if she was all right or if she wanted to talk. "I want to be friends too."

Catherine held out her hand with a smirk that said 'the gesture is a ridiculous ritual of male bonding, but let's humor them'. They shook hands and grinned first at each other and then at Grissom.

Sara was still a bit unsure what exactly Grissom had told her, but as soon as Catherine had left the office he turned to her. "I didn't tell her about us. But I told her about my surgery and that you were there. I told her the surgery and too much stress are the reasons for my stepping down."

How did he know what she had been thinking about? "Sara, don't you know that I would never do that."

She knew that. Why was she doubting him?

Grissom asked himself the same question., but then realization dawned on him. "Sara, listen." He wanted her to look in his eyes while he said the next part. It was too important for her to misunderstand. "Sara, Catherine and I have been friends for a long time, but there was never, never more. And although we're friends I would never talk to her about very private things. In fact, I don't tell her much at all and when she wants to know something she usually had to pry it out of me with a crow bar. Sara, you don't have to worry about Catherine. Never."

Relieve flooded her at his gentle reassurance. She knew she was being stupid, but years of the same push and pull between them had taught her to always expect the worst. She needed his reassurance.

We need to learn to trust each other again," she said, knowing it would take some time to undo the damage done by both of their actions.

"Let's go back to the others and finish this so we can all get to work."

TBC