Moving On

Disclaimer: I obviously still do not own the rights to CSI.

Chapter Three

Sara enjoyed lunch with her soon-to-be co-workers and got to know little bits and pieces of information about each CSI. Soon everyone had left except for Fred Mayer and Lucy James.

"Oh, by the way," Lucy said suddenly, "if you need somewhere to stay until you find an apartment, you are more than welcome to stay with me."

"Thanks," Sara said, "I guess that's one less thing to worry about immediately."

"I have a small house with a currently empty guest room," Lucy explained, "I'll give you my address before you leave. You can ship your stuff to my place if you need. I can put your furniture in storage, there's a place about three blocks from my house."

"Wow, thanks a lot," Sara smiled, "you're so kind."

"I figured it might be hard enough to adjust to a new city and I'd help you make the transition a little bit easier. When I first moved here, it was insane. Of course I was a brand new CSI too, at least you know you can handle the job," Lucy said.

"I remember your first night," Mayer laughed, "I took you to a murder scene and you freaked out."

"Well I'm over that now," Lucy said, "besides anyone would have freaked out at that body. There was so much blood."

"I guess we should let you head back to your hotel. Your flight back to Vegas is pretty early in the morning, isn't it?" Mayer asked.

"Yeah it is," Sara glanced at the clock, "thanks for bringing me to lunch, I had a great time."

"I figured it would be good for you to get to know us a little bit, I think you'll fit into the team just fine," Mayer told Sara, "I guess we'll be seeing you in a couple weeks, then?"

"If everything goes smoothly, yes," Sara stood to leave.

"See you in a while then," Lucy waved.

Sara got into her rental car and drove to a nearby hotel.

"I liked her," Lucy said to Mayer once Sara was gone.

"Me too," Mayer agreed, "and in a few weeks, she'll be here full time."

"Great," Lucy smiled, "maybe she'll last longer than our last new hire."

Sara found her hotel room and plugged her laptop into the internet. She would at least be nice enough to send Grissom a head's up e-mail.

Grissom,

Hey, I'm in Denver right now. I just got back from my meeting with Supervisor Mayer. I think he really liked me and our meeting seemed to go well. I went to lunch with the team and everyone was really nice. I think I am going to take this job. I just thought you should know, in case you need to start looking for a replacement. I'll give you my official notice when I'm back in town.

Sara

Sara took a deep breath and hit send before she could change her mind. He needed to know that she was serious about this. She was not doing this as some sort of ploy to get him to open up to her. She had seriously given up on that ever happening. Grissom was…Grissom and she found that after years of trying to get him to open up, it was worthless. Grissom lived his life almost entirely within in his own little world and he seemed to be content with it. What really bothered Sara was the way he was now acting around Sofia. She had given up on him, then a few weeks later, the new girl showed up on their shift and Grissom was acting around her the way he used to act around Sara. That was what had put Sara over the edge and made her decide to seek jobs elsewhere. She hadn't expected to find one so quickly and hoped that she wasn't going to regret this.

Sara went to bed somewhat early because she hadn't realized when she booked a hotel near the crime lab that the airport was nearly an hour away. Her flight was at 8 AM the next morning, not a big deal in and of itself, but with an hour travel time and to be safe an hour to go through airport security, she would be waking up early the next morning. She asked for a wake up call at 4:30 AM and then went to bed.

When the phone rang the next morning, Sara wanted to kill it. Once she was a little more awake she realized how irrational it was to want to shoot a phone. She decided to take a quick shower, hoping it would help her wake up. She got out, got dressed, gathered up all her stuff and realized she had time to get breakfast somewhere before she drove to the airport. The problem now was finding somewhere open so early in the morning.

Grissom got to work at his usual early time and headed for his office. He turned on his computer and saw that he had an e-mail message from Sara. Quickly reading the message he was stunned. He kept hoping to see that there was more, but it was just those few sentences. Ever since Sara had told him that she was looking into the job in Colorado, he kept hoping she was only trying to get his attention. Now she had it completely and he realized that perhaps this wasn't about him anymore. Maybe Sara had really moved beyond her attraction to him and she just wanted a job in a new city.

"Hey Gil," Sofia entered his office and plopped down on the chair across from him, "something wrong?"

"Oh no," Grissom closed the e-mail and took off his glasses, "since when are you here so early?"

"Does it matter? I thought being early was normal for people on this shift," Sofia countered, "you're always here long before I am. And it seems that Sidle and Sanders are always here pretty early too. You guys can't enough of this place and now neither can I."

"What brings you here?" Grissom asked, not really in the mood for small talk.

"I just thought I'd come say hello. And thanks for convincing me to stay here," Sofia smiled, "dinner was great. Maybe we should do that again."

Grissom sighed and closed his eyes, wishing that perhaps when he opened them Sofia would just disappear, but she did not, "I don't know what to say to that."

"Didn't you have fun? I thought you were enjoying yourself?" Sofia raised her eyebrows in concern.

"I did enjoy our meal, but I don't want you to think it was anything other than a couple of co-workers eating a meal together. I know, I've probably been sending you the wrong signals, and I'm sorry if I have been," Grissom explained.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" Sofia was thoroughly confused.

"No, it's not you. I promise," Grissom shook his head, "I'm just not in the right place to be dating anyone right now."

"Oh," Sofia said flatly, "I see. Well I'll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing."

Grissom watched tiredly as Sofia walked away. He could tell that he had made her mad even though he had tried desperately not to. Suddenly, he felt a lot older than he was and he wished he could just leave Vegas, maybe take Sara with him, and never look back. But he knew that it was not possible and he was just stuck here in reality. He didn't know what he was doing with himself anymore. He had pushed away the one person he really did care for, and now she was going to leave him. He didn't know why he had suddenly taken an interest in Sofia, she was nice, but his heart was already taken. He would always love Sara whether or not he could ever tell her so.

"Don't you look happy," Catherine appeared in the doorway.

"The night hasn't even started yet and I'm already in over my head," Grissom shook his head tiredly.

"What's this I hear about Sara taking a job in Colorado?" Catherine asked, "and I'm asking you because I figured if the rumor was true, you'd know."

"I guess she found out that there was an opening in the Denver Crime Lab and contacted the supervisor there. She's there right now for an interview. I have the feeling she will get the job, she's a talented CSI," Grissom decided not to mention the e-mail he'd just received.

Catherine turned her head to the side slightly, "Does this have anything to do with her outburst? I mean, she did say some nasty things to me, but I didn't take them too seriously. She was obviously stressed out. I hope I'm not driving her away."

"Cath, I don't think she's leaving because of you," Grissom cut her off, "both of you have strong wills and have been known to clash from time to time. This last time ended in a one week suspension for her, but I don't think that's why she wants to leave. I think this has been coming on for a while. She just saw an opportunity open up in Colorado and finally decided to act on it."

"You don't think it's because of you, do you?" Catherine moved in and sat across from Grissom.

"I certainly didn't help things out," Grissom said slowly, "but I'm not even sure this about me anymore. I think this all about Sara."

"Why do I have the feeling you know something I don't?" Catherine asked.

Grissom was trying to decide what to say, "A few weeks ago Sara did tell me that she only came to Vegas because I was here. Maybe that is the problem. I don't really know anymore."

"She's not really going to leave though, she can't," Catherine said, "maybe she just wanted to explore her options and see what else was out there for her. She'll see the lab in Colorado and decide she'd much rather stay here."

"I can only hope you're right. Ever since Ecklie screwed things up around here, the best thing has been that Sara was still on my team. If she leaves, I don't know that there's anything to keep me here anymore," Grissom sighed.

"Don't talk like that. You still have plenty of mentoring to do with Greg. He may be a CSI now, but he's still got a lot of learning to do," Catherine countered.

"You're right, I would just hate to see Sara go and think that it's my fault," Grissom leaned back in his chair.

"I guess we'll just have to see what she says when she gets back," Catherine stood and left.

A/N: I had to do it! I couldn't let Grissom and Sofia continue their little…whatever you want to call it. I don't like her if you couldn't tell. This story still has a while to go, but it is mostly Sara-centered, especially in this beginning part. The next couple chapters are probably the only time you'll be seeing any of the usual characters (Catherine, Sofia, Greg, Nick, Warrick, Brass etc).