Disclaimer: All right everyone, sing along… "I don't own CSI, its characters, or anything associated with the show. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is the sole property of CBS and Alliance Atlantis." This document was written purely based on the fact that my muse will not stop nagging me. For the entertainment of you folks only.

Spoiler: Unbearable. (barf)

A/N: Here we go. You have no idea how painful it was to watch the clips for this over and over again to get the direct dialogue. Of course, I had to twist Grissom's mind a little to have it fit into my plot.

But I'm sure his sarcasm in the end of the first Sophia/Grissom conversation is due to Sara changing, or Sara forcing him to change. And many have said that they feel that the "dinner" was political. When I wrote it, it could very easily fit that way. However, I am not optimistic, and plan on finishing this fic before TPTB damage GSR again.

Reviews are appreciated as always, but I know this is awful for any GSR fan. I apologize, and when it's all over, we can have some lemonade. Spiked lemonade. And we'll smash lots of useless utensils with rocks.

I am a genius.

Grissom looked as his office, his desk clean, papers organized. The piles of bureaucracy from a month ago were gone. In its place was order and harmony.

I am so brilliant, I amaze myself. I have killed two birds with one stone.

Sara had helped him tremendously. And they had enjoyed each other's company. At least he assumed so. He had enjoyed hers.

The first few evenings were awkward, as they felt around for a common ground. This wasn't a big surprise, it wasn't every day that he made out with Sara in the park.

After shift-meeting number three, he confronted her about it.

"Sara, do you want to… talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" she asked quietly.

Grissom knew she was playing stupid. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Oh, I don't know. About the fact that I had my tongue halfway down your throat and my hand up your shirt a few days ago."

Sara gaped at him.

I can be blunt too, sweetie.

"All right," she said. "We can talk about it. What would you like to say?"

"I'd like to say that I enjoyed it, and would like to do it again."

Sara's jaw was on the floor.

"Grissom! We're at work!"

"So? The door is closed."

Sara's panicked expression morphed into one more coy.

"Okay, loverboy. How do you think you are going to manage that?"

"Well, I'd like to use this time for us to … well, I guess it's … hang out."

How do you say 'I'd like to spend time getting to know you' without sounding like a total dorfwad?

"And if after your six weeks, you would like to continue to spend time with me, we could arrange that as well."

"I see," Sara said with a half-smile on your face. "So that's why you thought up this 'punishment'. You wanted to spend time with me."

Grissom's face flushed a bit.

"Well, yeah. I thought it would be a good idea. Kill two birds with one stone."

"Are you sure it's not, 'Have your cake and eat it too?' Sounds to me like you want to get to know me without leaving the lab, sort of a 'no-strings-attached' thing."

Am I that obvious?

"Is that so wrong?"

Sara smilled at him, a real, genuine smile. "I suppose not."

From then on, she was more comfortable around him. Somehow he had done the right thing, but they hadn't done anything, and he had no idea what he had done to make her smile.

And she smiled at him a lot more now. He enjoyed it tremendously.

Although all they did was talk each night after shift. And do paperwork. He felt it was good for her to learn about supervisory chores, so she'd know what was involved when she took on the role later in her career.

He remembered her frowning at all the red tape and meaningless forms.

"This is really a waste."

"I know. Do you see why I get frustrated sometimes when there are delays or mistakes? Each mistake that's made costs me hours of paperwork. And each time we gather evidence, I need to log that so we replace our stores and don't run out."

"I had no idea. This is insane. I'll let Greg know and we'll be better about stuff like this."

"You don't need to change the way you work for me, Sara."

"Don't flatter yourself," she smiled back at him. "I'm going to do it for the good of lab."

The smug expression on her face was priceless, and Grissom chuckled at her. Sara preened and said, "You can put that in your report. That I'm supporting efficient work practices at the office."

They laughed quietly and returned to the paperwork.

I am such a genius.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

There were three days left in Sara's six week "discipline". Sara would miss spending time with Grissom each day, but he had said that they could "continue" spending time together outside of work. Right? She replayed his words in her mind.

Sara wondered how he felt they would do that, considering that they worked together. Ecklie would have a field day, and Sara wasn't sure what the policies were on inter-office dating. She had always wondered, but never had checked, since Grissom had made it quite clear that he "couldn't do it".

Now with the possibility that he "might do it," Sara was afraid to check. Relationships might be forbidden, and she didn't want Grissom to lose his job. She knew how important it was to him.

Greg came running up to her, "Hey guess what? There's a bear in the morgue!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Really! It's dead and all, but there is a bear in the morgue! And Grissom wanted me to tell you to meet him in his office. A new case came up. Some missing woman or something."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Grissom was processing a young womans's body with Sophia. They had found their missing wife.

He extracted a hair with the skin tag attached. Sometimes the science of his job fascinated him.

"A person's entire identity, balled up in a few nanograms of matter," he said aloud.

Sophia responded. "So you mean one's identity can be wholly quantified by our DNA," she stated as she closed the cap of the DNA swab.

"Well, genetically it can, " Grissom replied. "We're completely programmed as soon as the sperm hits the egg."

"So we're defined, at a cellular level."

"More or less." Grissom looked back at the body to continue searching for evidence.

Sophia stood and looked away from him, her tone superior. "No. Identity is the totality of all life experiences."

Grissom shot her a look as she continued, "And our brain's neurons process our relationship to the world and each other."

Sophia took a picture of the woman's legs, an all-knowing expression on her face.

Grissom shrugged, "I stand corrected. DNA is what we are, not who we are."

Sophia rolled her eyes to the ceiling, as if recalling something.

"What we are never changes; who we are never stops changing."

Grissom smirked, his tone mildly sarcastic. "Yeah, whether we like it or not."

Grissom was thinking of Sara, and how she had changed him these past weeks. Now that the walls between them had broken down, he was finding it difficult to repair them. Many times when Sara was in his office, his mind wandered into dangerous territory, and he fought to keep his emotions under control.

He was frustrated by his inability to ignore her affect on him. Before he could tune her out, like she wasn't there. His boundaries protected him. Now, although they were back, they were not as strong as before.

Later that evening, Sophia surprised him by stopping by his office. He was studying his collection, and was expecting Sara shortly.

"You got a minute?" Sophia asked.

"Sure. You did a nice job on the case."

She and Sara both had, and he wanted Sophia to know it. This was part of his "Be A Better Supervisor" plan. He was full of plans, lately. I'm so clever.

Of course, if he had been a decent supervisor in the first place, the whole situation with Sara's suspension would have never happened. Then again, he wouldn't have gotten to kiss her, either. Hmm.

"I.. uh.. " Sophia cleared her throat. "I just wanted to you know that, I've enjoyed working with you."

Oh? What's this about?

"Well, I've enjoyed working with you as well." Grissom said politely.

Sophia coughed lightly.

"Well, it's time I made a change. I don't like the direction the lab is headed."

Grissom paused and removed his glasses. Is this about me? Wait, does she mean Ecklie?

"You mean Ecklie?" he asked.

He chided her, "You can't pay any attention to him."

"Eh, you've got a good team, but I was a supervisor. My demotion was undeserved. And every day I'm here, I'm reminded of that."

Sophia's tone was mildly tinged with anger, a first for her. Normally she had a calm, superior tone. She was not an emotional woman. A thought came to Grissom.

Perhaps this could work to my advantage. She knows a lot about Ecklie, and she's upset with him. An opportunity has presented itself.

"What?" Sophia asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Grissom turned from her, studying his bugs, echoing her words from earlier this evening, "Well, someone once said that what we are never changes, but who we are never stops changing."

He turned to face her, noticing she was smiling at him. Gotcha.

"Let's have dinner, shall we?" He gestured to her and she smiled again.

They left his office and walked together to his car.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sara was walking down the hallway towards Grissom's office. Shift was over and they had booked the stepmother and her boy-toy for murdering a young woman. Sara wondered how the little boy would manage without a mother. He was absolutely adorable. Sometimes I wonder if I could be a parent.

Sara had retrieved her stuff from her locker about ten minutes ago, but something made her stall a while longer before she went to visit Grissom.

She knew she was a little irritated with him. Her mind replayed Grissom and Sophia talking earlier in the shift, with Sophia leaning near him and flirting with him. Jealousy flared again at the thought of Sophia laying a hand on Grissom. And Greg's comment about how Sophia was "fitting in" just made her want to hurl.

Greg should know her well enough by now to know that Sophia was no friend of Sara's. Sara was sure she had eyes for Grissom, and she didn't like it at all. And Sophia was just so tacky sometimes. How wrong was it to make fun of Greg's apartment, like everyone was there? What was that supposed to mean, that he's desperate or something?

Sara's temper began to rise as she grew defensive of her friend. She was glad Grissom hadn't sent the two of them out together to do a crime scene recently.

She's so blah sometimes. And other times she acts like such a know-it-all. And her voice, there's something off with that too. It's like she changes dialects or something. There just this vibe of untrustworthiness around her too. Like she's up to something.

Most likely she's up to figuring out a way to get into Grissom's pants. Whore.

As she got to Grissom's doorway, and peered inside, she was surprised to see he wasn't there. She walked away slowly, towards the DNA lab, wondering if he was checking on something there.

She saw Hodges, and as much as she despised him, she knew he was nosy.

"Have you seen Grissom recently?"

Hodges sneered at her, a little too much for her liking, like he knew something important.

"Why, yes. I have. He just left with Sophia. I believe they were going to… dinner? I overheard him asking her out while I was walking by. I think… no… I'm sure… he was holding her hand when they left."

Hodges thought to himself, "Okay, so that last past wasn't true, but hey, it could have happened. I know she's got a think for the BugMan."

"They looked quite familiar with one another. Do you know how long they've been dating? I mean, you're friendlier with him than I am, and all."

Sara's face turned pale as her heart plummeted to the bottom of her soul and shattered into a million pieces.

She turned from Hodges and fled the lab, running to her car.

HOW COULD HE DO THIS? HOW COULD HE?