Hey guess what no moaning or excuse because you all sent such great reviews (thanks for the support) and because it's my birthday today. Yes I am 16 officially.

Dumpster diving.

Once Grissom had entered the break room he sat down at the table on the seat next to Sara and gave the rest looks that said 'sit'. He doled out the assignment to them as normal but could not help but notice the eagerness in his staff or maybe it was just his imagination.

Grissom wasn't the only one to notice something different about the rest of the group Sara was observing the team with slight curiosity, mostly due to the end of the conversation she heard that sounded like a bet and she needed to know what it was about. Sara found herself more uncomfortable around people in the lab recently and she didn't really know why, but she had some feeling she was just being paranoid because she didn't want anyone to find out about her feelings.

Catherine, Warrick and Nick were all working together tonight. Catherine was thrilled when she heard what their assignment was, she optimistically had said. "Shopping!"

However her boss too soon corrected her "No, you are going to investigate a fire at the mall. There will be no time for shopping."

"Yeah well it's not like I could afford to shop, so really I was thinking of window shopping."

"Window dreaming more like...wait that sounded better in my head...I didn't mean to make it seem like you dream of windows." Nick added. Warrick laughed at Nick's self-correction. Then hastily changing the topic Nick turned to Grissom. "So I guess that means you and Sara are working together?"

Sara thought his first statement normal Nick, but why finish with stating the obvious like that, then she resolved to stop being so paranoid.

The others had an apparent disappointment because this meant that none of them could try and interrogate Sara if she was with Grissom. Each one was annoyed with Grissom for unknowingly getting in the way of their plans.

Sara even felt uncomfortable with the arrangement, she had always been able to manage working with Grissom alone before but now she felt like it was a task or a hard chore to keep from saying anything wrong. She directed her hatred at Catherine for bringing up her love life because it had made her more paranoid.

When they were at the crime scene Grissom and Sara were attempting to examine the body and hold their noses at the same time.

Grissom said "Usually it's the body that smells, but the body is reasonably fresh, so the smell is definitely coming from something else in there."

"Oh yeah." Sara said pulling back from the source of the horrid scent. "And I just know I don't want to know what it is coming from."

Sara held her breath as she drew near the body she struggled to reach it, from the ladder on the side where she had to lean in to examine it, but managed. Then she spotted an interesting bracelet on the left wrist of the male, unfortunately for her it was not fastened well and her lifting the hand of the body to get to it made the unusual bracelet slide from the corpse into the mass of trash beneath it. "Oh no!" She exclaimed as she saw it go.

Grissom with a hint of worry looked up at her on the ladder from where he was on the floor taking samples of the liquid, which was obviously urine, to see what was wrong with her. He asked quite hastily "What is it?"

"Damn thing, I had it but..." Then realizing she needed to explain herself said. "There was a bracelet and I was just retrieving it when it fell off."

"Sara just finish the examination of the body, then once it's been moved go in and fetch it."

"What! Why me? I thought you could deal with the dumpster." Sara said with visible distain that showed she was not overjoyed at the prospect of climbing into the dumpster and rummaging around. She really didn't want to be the one to find where that smell was coming from.

"Well there are three reasons for you going in there and fetch it instead of me: one you dropped this bracelet in there, two I'm too old to go climbing into industrial depth dumpsters and three I'm the supervisor which means I can get other people to do things I don't want to do." Grissom said matter of factly.

"Oh well three reasons why it's not fair to make me fetch it out, one it was an accident, two you are not as old as you make yourself out to be and like that's ever stopped you before, and three ...well with three I guess you have got a point there, but it's still not fair just because you don't want to."

After the coroner took the body away all that was left was the examination of the dumpster so Grissom revived the previous conversation with a touch of desperation. "Sara please will you search the dumpster?"

"Okay." She agreed but as an after thought she added as she looked up at the dumpster. "but it's a big dumpster." She thought that really she had been lucky the body was at the side near the ladder, although on second thought where else could it be, because if someone had dumped it they had to have climbed the ladder and put the body right near the edge. It's not like they could have thrown a corpse. And with that in mind she couldn't help but think, I bet Greg would make an interesting computer game out of that.

Bringing her out of the odd musings of her over thinking brain was Grissom with an almost pleading voice. "Well if I had known that I would have brought more people along, but I don't think much inside it is relevant all you need to do is find this bracelet and anything that looks out of place."

"Well a small bracelet in that thing is like - dare I say the overused phrase 'it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack'. But if we both looked our chances of finding it are greatly increased."

Grissom gave a look of thought and eventually he settled. "Okay fine we will both go in."

So they both climbed the ladder and got into the massive dumpster. The trash was compacted down quite well so it was easy to walk on. Since digging around proved very fruitless Sara started to move the trash on the side near the ladder to the other side. When she looked over at Grissom for help she noted he had been watching her with a smile on his face so she inquired with similar smile. They smiled at each other for a second, just a second but it seemed longer to both of them. "What?"

Grissom merely said in a mildly complimenting voice, with his eyebrows raised. "You seem to have a great system going there, perhaps I should just...."

"Oh no you're not going anywhere, so help me with this will you?" She interrupted him with a smirk to tell him she was not going to let him get out of this.

"Ok but if I mess up your very organised method it will take longer." Grissom stated truthfully returning to his normal emotionless voice.

Sara realized that for a moment there her heart had rose in hope at the tone of his voice and once again it sank with the realization that her hopes were just too high.

Sara then thought she saw a glint underneath a pile of trash and started more ruthlessly digging. "I think I might have found it, I just need to stick my hand down here and..." She did so and began reaching and rummaging around with her arm buried in the trash. "...wait I think I've nearly..."

"Sara" Grissom said to her after turning around to see what she was doing.

"I know I should just lift the other stuff and be organised but..."

"Sara I..."

"...I'm tired and that method has gotten us nowhere so give me a chance." She said still wriggling her arm around as she knelt down in the rubbish.

"Ok, but Sara you really don't need to..."

"Ahhh got it." Sara said triumphantly as she pulled her arm back up to reveal a fork.

"Sara." Grissom said a little louder and finally getting her attention he slowly lifted small, silver, shiny item for her to see. "If you'll let me ask, is this the bracelet you're after Miss Sidle?"

"Yes." Sara said with a touch of embarrassment.

"As fun as this experience was I really don't think I'll be wishing to repeat this ever again." Grissom mused.

"I don't think it's gonna catch on as a sport if that's what you mean, so I guess you'll be okay." Sara joked.

"Well now that we have done that I suggest we get out of here." Grissom said quite simply. They helped each other out of the dumpster and headed back to the lab with the evidence collected. Sara felt foolish and asked herself 'why he can always make me feel so foolish?' but of course she already knew why, she just didn't admit it to herself. Her hopes had been dashed enough times before and the only way she seemed to be able to deal with this constant rejection was denial.

TBC