When Lindsey arrived home, she was surprised that the front door was locked. She looked back toward the driveway and reached into her backpack to pull out her key. There are two cars in the driveway, I wonder what's going on inside that she has everything locked up? Lindsey opened the door and walked into the house. When she didn't find her mother in the kitchen or the living room, Lindsey headed toward the bedrooms. Catherine's door was ajar, so Lindsey stuck her head in. "Mom," Lindsey spoke quietly, not wanting to startle her.

Catherine looked up and quickly sat up in bed. I forgot about her, I can't believe I forgot. "Sorry Linds, I've been kind of busy," Catherine stated before Lindsey could say anything else.

"That's okay," Lindsey replied, walking into the room to sit on the edge of the bed, "there's another car outside, do you have a guy stuffed in your closet?"

Catherine smiled and shook her head. "No Lindsey, Sara and I went shopping after shift."

"And her car is still outside because?"

"Because she is exhausted, and she's sleeping in the guestroom."

"Because?"

"Never you mind."

Lindsey rolled her eyes and got up off of the bed. "I'm going to watch TV."

"Try to keep it down. Make sure your homework gets done too."

"Yes mom," Lindsey droned, walking out of the room.

Catherine laid back down in the bed and once again tried to get to sleep.

When Sara woke up a few hours later, it took her a minute to realize why she wasn't in her own room, and why she was at Catherine's house. Deciding that she needed to talk to Grissom, she got out of bed and walked into the living room. Lindsey was sitting on the couch watching television. "Hi Lindsey," Sara spoke.

"Hi," Lindsey replied, engulfed in a television program.

"I don't want to disturb your mom, so when she gets up, can you tell her that I left to go home?" Sara asked.

"Sure."

Sara let herself out of the house, got into her car, and started her drive home. What am I going to say to him? How could he keep this from me?

Sara arrived home, let herself into the house, and stood stark still when she noticed Grissom's motionless body on the floor. Walking closer, she took in the empty bottle of scotch and a glass with a small amount of the amber liquid still inside. Sara picked up the glass and the bottle so they wouldn't be knocked over, and she set them on the coffee table. Sara rested her hand on Grissom's shoulder and started to lightly shake him. "Gil, wake up," Sara stated while shaking him.

After a short moment, Grissom started to stir, and he immediately placed a hand over his eyes. He groaned and brought his other hand up to his face. Sara reached for his wrist and tugged on it. "Come on Gil, you need to go lay down in bed, and I sure can't pull you up from the floor," Sara tried to get him up.

"I am plenty comfortable here," Grissom stated, his voice slurred.

"Yeah right. Get your butt up off of the floor and go lay down," Sara snipped, still bothered by their earlier dealings, "for the number of times you told me not to do this, you sure followed your own advice."

"I don't want to fight with you."

"Then just get up off of the floor."

When Grissom still didn't move, Sara held onto his hand and started to pull. Grissom snapped his head up and tried to get her to stop. "Sara, that's not good for you, stop," Grissom warned.

"You think all of this stress is good for me?" Sara shot back.

"I'll get up, just give me a minute," Grissom spoke, not responding to her comment.

Using the couch behind him for leverage, Grissom managed to get to his feet. He felt like he had a gallon of water swishing around in his head, and his coordination and balance were obviously absent. "Come on," Sara stated, taking his arm, "you're going to lay down."

Grissom allowed Sara to lead him to their bedroom.

When Grissom laid down on the bed, he immediately turned away from Sara. "I'm going to go lay down in the guestroom," Sara stated, turning to leave the bedroom.

"Ummhmm," Grissom mumbled, allowing her to leave.

Sara walked out of the bedroom and into the guestroom. She got undressed and slipped under the covers. I can't believe this, he got himself drunk. That's going to make everything so much more awkward when we get around to talking.

Once the blaring of her alarm clock sounded, Catherine got out of bed. She took a shower, got dressed, and then went to wake up Sara. Catherine opened the guestroom and frowned. Where is she? Catherine walked out into the living room and found Lindsey still sitting in front of the television. "Lindsey, where's Sara?" Catherine asked.

"She went home. She said she didn't want to wake you," Lindsey relayed the message.

Well, at least they're near each other. "Go get your stuff ready to go to your aunt's," Catherine instructed, turning the television off.

Lindsey got up from the couch and walked into her room. Catherine ventured out to the kitchen, picked up the portable phone, and dialed Sara's cell phone number. Not receiving an answer, she dialed Sara's home phone number and got the same result. Oh well, I'll just talk to her at work.

"Where's Grissom?" Nick asked Warrick after they had been waiting in the break room for a while.

"I have no idea," Warrick replied, "but Sara's not here either, and Catherine is elsewhere."

"I hope everything is alright," Nick spoke, thinking about the baby.

"There's probably a reasonable explanation for all of this," Greg stated, adding his own interpretation.

Catherine breathed a sigh of relief when Sara finally picked up her house phone. "Sara, what's going on?" Catherine asked, "Shift started about fifteen minutes ago."

Sara looked at her watch and realized that Catherine's statement was indeed true. "Cath, I'm sorry I didn't call you earlier, but Griss and I can't come in tonight," Sara explained.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, but we can't come in," Sara stated, not wanting to get into the real reason they wouldn't be going in.

"Can I talk to Gil?"

"Now is not a good time Cath. You woke me up, I'm sure he's still sleeping."

Something odd is going on over there. "Alright Sara, call if you need anything," Catherine stated, giving up on getting any more information out of her.

"Okay."

Sara returned the phone to the cradle and went to clean up the living room. When she was finished cleaning, she sat down on the couch. Now to wait for him to get up so we can talk.

Catherine entered the break room, assignment slips in hand. "Where are Grissom and Sara?" Nick asked Catherine.

"Home, they're both taking tonight off."

"Is everything okay?" Nick asked, the other two men thinking the same thing.

"It will be," Catherine answered cryptically, looking away and thumbing through the assignment slips, "we need to get to work."

They accepted their assignments and went off to their separate scenes.

When Grissom woke up around midnight, he had a killer headache, and he found that all of the offending thoughts were still on his mind. Sara is going to shoot me. Why did I do this anyway? Resigning to the fact that he was going to have to face her sometime, Grissom got out of bed to head to the bathroom to retrieve some acetominiphin and clean himself up.

After washing up so he felt more human, Grissom realized that it was almost midnight. Dammit, now work is involved in this too. Someone has to be wondering where we are. Grissom poked his head into the guestroom and found that Sara wasn't there. Maybe she went into work. Grissom walked into the bedroom, picked up his cell phone, and speed dialed Catherine. "Willows," Catherine answered.

"Catherine, did Sara go in?" Grissom asked.

"No, she called in saying that the two of you were staying at home," Catherine stated, "you haven't talked to her yet, have you?"

I came to a stupid conclusion, just because she wasn't in the guestroom doesn't mean she's not in the house. "She went to your house, didn't she?"

"I'll let you talk to her about that. I will warn you though, she's going to chew you a new one, and I can't say that I blame her."

"Catherine, you don't even know what's going on. Try to stay out of my business for once."

"You're welcome for covering shift for you."

Catherine could hear grumbling on the other end of the phone before Grissom terminated their conversation. I said my piece, now they have to figure it out with each other. I hope Grissom doesn't make another serious mistake.

After ending his phone call to Catherine, Grissom walked out to the living room and found Sara sleeping on the couch. He sat on the coffee table and ran his fingers through Sara's hair. Sara stirred and looked up at him. "Hey," Sara spoke, her voice still tinged with sleep.

"What did I say about sleeping on the couch?" Grissom scolded.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm up now," Sara stated, brushing him off and sitting up.

Grissom and Sara sat in silence, occasionally glimpsing at each other, until Sara inched closer to him and brought her right hand up to his face. She slid her hand back over his ear and rubbed her thumb against his beard. "Can you hear me?" Sara asked, her voice full of concern.

"Not well," Grissom admitted, staring at the floor.

Sara switched hands, bringing her left hand up to his face and covering his ear. "How about now?"

"Much better."

That confirms that theory. Now that I think about it, he didn't answer me when his left ear was covered, and he did answer me otherwise. "I called and made an appointment for you," Sara stated, dropping her hand from his face and clasping his hands in hers.

"When?" Grissom asked, still not looking up.

"Friday, two o'clock."

"Sara, we need to talk," Grissom stated, his mind clearly focused on other thoughts.

"Yes, you're right, we need to talk about a lot of things," Sara replied.

Grissom took his hands from Sara's and looked into her eyes. "You did the one thing I was always afraid of, the one thing you said you would never do," Grissom spoke, his voice practically a whisper.

"What?"

"You left."

"Gil, I'm not going to leave you," Sara tried to reassure him, "we both did things we probably shouldn't have, but I'm here."

"If things ever get bad, what are you going to do, walk out the door?"

"Gil, that's not fair."

"You always have the courage to say something," Grissom explained, "but you never have the patience to stay around and wait for an answer."

"How long have you known?"

"I didn't really notice that much, not until both Catherine and you said something in the same day."

"Did you say anything to her?"

"No."

"Were you going to say anything to me?"

"Of course."

"When?"

Grissom stayed silent, contemplating what he could tell her that wouldn't start another argument. "I don't know Sara. We have so many things to think about right now, and I didn't want to worry you unnecessarily."

"Gil, I'm worried anyway!"

Grissom got up from the table and slid onto the couch next to Sara. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tried to get her to lay down. "What?" Sara asked, attempting to figure out what he was doing.

"Come on, get comfortable, lay down," Grissom instructed.

Sara slid down on the couch and brought her head into his lap. Grissom took the opportunity to run his fingers through her hair and play with the strands. "I need to tell you about what the doctor is going to say," Grissom stated.

"How do you know already?" Sara questioned.

"Sara, I already had surgery, the doctor really isn't going to be able to do very much to help me."

Sara slightly stiffened when thinking about the news, but then found herself preoccupied with tracing circles on his knee. "There isn't anything that can be done?"

"There is one thing that will be effective for a while, but there isn't a way to tell how long it will work."

"What is it?"

"A hearing aid."

"At least you'd be able to hear."

"Yeah," Grissom agreed, his voice trailing off.

Sara brought her hand to her stomach when she felt something odd. "What is it?" Grissom asked, bringing his hand down to her stomach to cover hers.

"I think I felt the baby move."

"Was that the first time?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Grissom kept his hand over hers and kissed her hair. "Griss, since we're not going into work," Sara stated, "I think I'm going to go lay down for a while, I really haven't gotten much sleep."

"Sure, in our bedroom," Grissom emphasized, "I'll join you."

"We're not through talking," Sara pointed out, sitting up on the couch.

"Talking can wait until later though."

Sara nodded and allowed Grissom to lead her to bed. Things are looking better, for now anyway.