Moving On

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

Chapter Ten

About two weeks after Nick had left Denver, Sara was out working a case once again. When she finished collecting evidence, she headed back for the lab. She deposited her evidence in the vault and went into the break room for a cup of coffee. Just as she was sitting down to read over her notes and look at the pictures from the crime scene, her supervisor came into the room.

"Sara, just the person I was hoping to find," Fred said.

"Oh really?" Sara asked, "what'd I do now?"

"Nothing, I was going to tell you that you have a guest. An older guy, waiting in the reception area," Fred told her, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Did you get a name?" Sara asked, "I'm not expecting anyone."

"Nope," Fred sat down, "it could be a witness in one of your cases or something. He definitely knows who you are though, he asked for Sara Sidle."

"I guess I should go find out who it is then," Sara headed out of the room.

Sara walked toward the reception area of the crime lab and spotted a man facing the opposite direction. She froze in place as she realized that she knew exactly who this man was. Part of her wanted to turn and run, the other part hoped she was only imagining that he was actually here. Instead, she closed her eyes briefly, took a deep breath and approached the waiting man.

"Grissom," she said, almost nervously.

"Sara, hello," Grissom rushed forward, "it's good to see you."

"What are you doing here?" Sara asked in a tone that came off a little ruder than she had intended.

"There was an entomology seminar and I figured since I was in the area, I'd stop by and see you," Grissom explained, "it's been a few months since I've really seen or heard from you. You didn't really expect you could let an old friend slip away, did you?"

"I've just been caught up in adjusting to the new job," she told him.

"Well, I didn't come at a bad time, did I?" he asked, suddenly realizing she might be in the middle of a case.

Sara replied, "Not really, I just didn't expect to see you here."

"Oh, sorry to surprise you," Grissom seemed disappointed, "so how are you?"

"I'm good," Sara told him, "I'm in the middle of a tough case though."

"I'm really sorry. I should realized you'd be busy," Grissom apologized, "I just thought since I was in the area, I'd stop in see how you're doing in your new lab."

"Things are going really good here," Sara said, "it's okay that you stopped by. You didn't know I'd be in the middle of a bad case."

"I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. I guess I should head back to my hotel and let you get back to your work. Can I get your phone number so we can maybe get together before I head back to Vegas?" Grissom asked.

"Uh, sure," Sara scrawled her number on a piece of paper she was holding and tore off the edge, "perhaps we'll go to breakfast in the morning?"

"Thanks," Grissom said, "I think that would be great."

"Yeah," Sara forced a smile as he turned to go.

Once Grissom was gone, Sara collapsed onto a nearby chair. Her head was spinning as she had not expected to see Grissom in Denver. She really wished that he had just stayed away from her and let her be. Of course she knew that before their troubled relationship, they'd been really good friends. Just when she'd though she'd successfully been getting over him, he had to show up and shake things up.

Sara returned to the break room and finished reading over her notes. By the time shift was over, she had basically forgotten Grissom's earlier visit. Her mind had been focused entirely on the case in front of her. She clocked out, decided to skip out on a team breakfast and instead went straight home. Her case was giving her a bit of a headache, and she just wanted to fall asleep. As she was about to drift off, she was startled awake by the ringing of her phone.

"Hello," she answered sleepily, her heart pounding from the sudden loud ringing.

"Hey, it's Grissom," he greeted her.

"Oh, I forgot about breakfast," Sara sat up.

"It's okay," Grissom said, "I just thought I'd see about maybe having lunch later or dinner, whichever works best for your schedule."

"Maybe we could have lunch," Sara said.

"There's a restaurant near my hotel. I know they serve vegetarian food because I stopped there for lunch today," Grissom said, "would that be okay with you?"

"Sounds good to me," Sara yawned, "what time should we meet?"

"How much sleep do you want to get?" Grissom inquired.

"I can be ready to go by one," Sara told him.

"That's good for me," Grissom agreed.

"Okay, see you tomorrow then," Sara jotted down the name of the restaurant and the time they were going to meet as she was tired and didn't think she'd remember.

"Goodbye Sara," Grissom said.

"Goodbye," she hung up.

After hanging up, it hit her that Grissom had finally remembered that she was a vegetarian. She mentally reprimanded herself for thinking that perhaps he was finally changing for her. She had to remind herself that he had put her off for years and caused her a lot of misery. She fell into a rather restless sleep.

"How have you been?" Grissom asked as they were seated.

"I've been doing really well," Sara said, "I'm enjoying the new town and I think it's having a really good effect on me. I haven't been driven to drink in a long time and I'm just a lot happier."

"Things have been pretty good back in Vegas too. They brought in a new CSI and she's adjusting well. Things were a little hectic at first for her, she came from a smaller town, but she's fitting in," Grissom explained.

"Good, how is the rest of the team?" Sara asked, sipping her glass of water.

"Greg's actually starting to really mature. He's very serious about his job lately, I'm not sure yet if that's good or bad. Sofia's still pretty bitter about Ecklie placing her on nightshift and I'm my old self," Grissom said.

Sara smiled, "That's great. I'm sure Greg's just realized that this job is a little more serious. He wants to be taken seriously, so he's probably acting that way to be respectable."

"You're probably right," Grissom nodded, "it's just unusual after so many years of blasting music and all."

A waitress came and took their orders and they sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment afterward. Grissom sensed something was off between the two because even though Sara seemed friendly, she just quite wasn't her old self. He had thought that since she was happier in her new job setting and life, she would act around him more like her early days in Las Vegas.

"It's really good to hear that you're doing well here," Grissom told her, "it may not seem like it, but I was really concerned about you."

"I honestly think that I was just falling into a rut and now that I've pulled myself out, things are looking a lot better," she explained, absently using her straw to stir the ice cubes in her pop.

Grissom sighed heavily, "I'm sure I wasn't helping out your situation. I wasn't a very good supervisor. If I paid more attention to things, our team probably would have remained intact."

After eating, Sara sat, drumming her fingers on the table, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Grissom sat down his cup and showed that she had his full attention.

"Why would you lie about your reason for coming here?" she asked boldly.

"Excuse me?" Grissom looked shocked.

"You said you were here for an entomology seminar. I looked into it and there was no seminar anywhere in Colorado," she explained.

He sighed, folding his hands and placing them on the table, "To be honest, I was afraid to tell you the true reason for my visit, so I came up with a plausible lie. I hated not telling you the truth, but I didn't know how else to go about it."

"What?" it was her turn to be confused.

"I lied to you because I came here to see you," he said softly.

Sara was caught off guard and didn't know what to say.

"I miss you, Sara. Things aren't the same at the lab without you," he elaborated.

"Grissom," she started slowly.

"No, please, let me finish. I know you probably thought I was ignoring you and wouldn't notice that you were gone. But I do notice. In case you thought there was something between Sofia and I, there wasn't. It was just an innocent dinner and I know that must have gotten around to you, gossip travels quickly," he said slowly.

"You're right. I did think you wouldn't care that I was gone," Sara told him.

"The truth is, once you were gone, I realized just how important you were to me. I feel awful for rejecting you for so long. I was hoping that maybe, we could make up for it," he said.

They sat staring at each other in silence for a few minutes.

Finally, Sara spoke…

A/N: To be continued! I had to throw a cliffhanger in there for ya ;) And don't worry, I am busy, but the next chapter and a little more are written, so you won't be waiting weeks for the next installment.