I Forgot To Tell You
Chapter Six


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Author's Notes: This long chapter is to make up for the shorter, much crappier fifth chapter. Hope you all enjoy. Oh, and don't stop reading because of the outcome of this chapter!! I swear it all gets cleared up in the next two or three or four chapters. However many there's going to be.
Disclaimers: Unnecessary.



Warrick walked into the break room and poured himself a cup of coffee, turning when he heard Sara clear her throat behind him. "What's up?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing much."

He held the coffee cup to his lips and looked at her expectantly.

"You've got a nice bounce to your step tonight, is there anything you'd like to tell me?" she asked.

He smiled. "Ask me if I'm free this weekend." Sara rolled her eyes but smirked, fiddling with the pen in her hand.

"Hot date, huh?" she asked.

He nodded slowly, then seemed to notice her appearance for the first time. He frowned. "You don't look so good." He poured her some coffee and watched her refuse it politely. "Gonna tell me what's wrong?" he asked. She shook her head. "Come on, I shared."

"No thanks, Warrick," she said, pushing herself out of the chair she was sitting in and attempting to smile to make him think she was okay. "Catch you later, alright? I've got work to do."

All he could do was nod as she left the room. He sighed as soon as he was sure she was gone, muttering to himself as he opened the newspaper. Grissom strode in not two minutes later, grabbing a mug from the shelf and sniffing the coffee a little to make sure it wasn't old.

"It's fine." Warrick's voice was loud, disrupting.

"OK," was all Grissom said before taking a seat beside him. "What are you reading?" he asked.

Warrick grunted. "The usual. Murder, corruption, robbery..." He stopped. "Did you see Sara?" he asked, folding the paper back up when he realized Nick had stolen the Sports section.

"No, I haven't, actually," Grissom said, eyeing the front page with interest.

"Whatever you did this time, it must have been pretty bad. She looks like hell." Off his supervisor's surprised expression, Warrick drained the rest of his coffee and exhaled loudly. "Well, I'm off to find Catherine. I promised her I'd take her out for dinner."

He exited the room then, and Grissom was left alone with a hot cup of coffee and a very large sense of confusion.


Sara walked down the hallway on her way to the lab and drifted off into that familiar memory, leaving off where she had ended the night before.

*****

Her hand was shaking as she grasped the cold steel of the doorknob, and she tried desperately to regulate her breathing when she heard it coming out in quick, breathy gasps. She heard sounds from inside. He wasn't alone. This thought made her even more disturbed, even more curious. Pushing her hair away from her face, she turned the knob, pulled the door open, and stared at the sight inside his office.

She couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, she couldn't even look. She closed her eyes and willed it all away.

Michelle was there, in his office. Sitting on the sofa with him. Pressing herself against him. He had this look of horror on his face, and Sara knew it wasn't just because she had walked in. His hand was on Michelle's upper arm, trying to push her away. They both stared at Sara in unbelieving shock. Dr. Grissom stood.

"Sara, wait. This isn't how it looks."

She shook her head, tears of shock spilling out the sides of her eyes. "I... I have to go." And she spun around, through the still-open door, down the hallway. Then she was in the parking lot, trying to remember where she had parked her car. She heard a voice from behind her, loud and pleading, begging her to stop.

"Sara! Sara, wait!" He was yelling, not caring if the rest of the parking lot heard him. She had never witnessed him raising his voice. She wasn't sure if she liked it. Turning, she observed the sight of him standing in the dark, shoulders rising and falling, curly hair a mess, eyes filled with fear. "Please, just let me explain."

"You don't have to explain anything, Grissom," she said, taking the liberty of using only his last name.

"Yes I do," he said. His voice shook. "I was trying to get her off of me, Sara. She came in for help with homework. Well, that's what she said. It was unexpected and I didn't want her there. She pushed herself against me. I was in the middle of asking her politely to leave when you walked in." He moved a little closer to her and exhaled. "I am so, so sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry about?" she asked him, shrugging like his story hadn't effected her at all. "It's not like we're a couple, or dating or anything."

"We could be," he said, though he didn't know why. Then he shook his head. "No, no, we couldn't. It would never work. You're right, I shouldn't be apologizing, it's just..." he hesitated. "I wanted you to know what happened, that's all."

She nodded, trying not to let the disappointment show in her face. "Yeah, OK. No problem." She turned back to her car and opened the door, knowing he was still watching her. "Goodbye, Dr. Grissom."

"Goodbye, Sara."

She dropped the class that night. It wasn't required for her major anyways, and she was sure she couldn't handle going everyday, knowing he didn't love her the way she loved him, knowing she could never have him to herself. Michelle would always be there.

She moved into an apartment alone, leaving Michelle with the dorm. She didn't ask any questions, just nodded when Sara told her she was moving out. They hadn't talked about that night yet and Sara had no intention of ever doing so. As far as she could tell, Michelle knew that she was completely pissed at her and would never venture into the conversation herself.

She slipped into routine and got used to never seeing Michelle, or Dr. Grissom. She built a life for herself and ignored the voice in the back of her head that said it was really no life at all.

******


"Sara." She heard her name, but didn't turn. She'd know that voice anywhere. She opted to stay seated in her office chair, staring at her computer screen, rather than pick up the phone. "Sara, are you home? It's Grissom. If you're home, please pick up... OK, well, I guess you're not."

She sighed, swivelled her chair around, and picked up the receiver. "Hey Grissom."

"Hey," he said, trying to sound light. "I was afraid you weren't there."

"Yeah, I didn't pick up right away. Sorry, I was just... thinking." She decided not to tell him what about. Though she didn't know exactly why he had called, she was sure it had something to do with work, and she wasn't in the mood for that. "What's up?"

She heard him swallow. "I... uhh... I was calling to see how you were. You seemed... distant today at work." He wasn't nervous, just trying to choose his words carefully. Darting around something offensive.

"Warrick made you call me, didn't he?" she asked, running her fingers through her hair, not bothering to suppress the huge grin that had spread itself across her face.

"He suggested it, but he doesn't make me do anything." A comfortable silence followed, that which Sara broke with the clearing of her throat.

"I'm fine, Grissom. Just a little..." She hesitated. She didn't want to alarm him, but she couldn't lie to him, either. "I'm not feeling very good, is all."

"Is it the flu?" he asked. "It's going around."

"I'm not sure." OK, so that was a lie. She was very sure it wasn't the flu. "I'm just a little down, a little... groggy." Now she was just making stuff up.

"I'm coming over," he said quickly, and she could picture him running around his apartment looking for his jacket. "Do you like chicken noodle-" Oops. "Do you like soup?"

"Sure. But no meatballs."

"No meatballs."



He arrived in less than twenty minutes, sporting a navy blue jacket and a black baseball cap. He looked so different standing in her kitchen than he had ever looked at the lab. He held out the thermos towards her and attempted a full smile. "Soup -no meatballs- as requested."

She smiled back and took it from him, getting herself comfortable on her sofa. "So..." she trailed off, not wanting to get into the subject of work, but knowing it was bound to surface sometime. "He was sleeping with Leah."

"Yeah," Grissom said, his eyes sparkling apologetically. "He was. Cheating on Michelle and beating her." He sat on the sofa beside her and watched as her face grew more and more full of anger.

"Bastard," was all she could say. They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "But other than that, you didn't find anything in his house? Just the stains on his sheets?" She watched him nod. "Damn. No murder weapon, no fingerprints left behind at the crime scene. Nothing."

"I have a feeling Michelle knows more than she's letting on," he said, unscrewing the cap of the thermos and handing it to her. "But she's not going to say anything, at least not to me. Or anyone, really, if we interrogate her."

Sara moved her face closer to his and raised her eyebrows. "Are you suggesting I ask her in a private setting?" When he shrugged, she sighed. "What makes you think she'd tell me anything?"

"You've already been to her house, Sara." Ouch.

"Grissom, we're not allowed to do that."

"Well, technically..."

"No, no!" She raised a hand in front of his face and squeezed her eyes shut. "Is that what this was all about? You come over here, bring me soup, act all worried about my condition, butter me up... all so you can use me for the case?"

He shook his head almost immediately. "Sara, that was not what this was all about." He meant it, she knew that. "I really am worried about you. I came here because I wanted to make sure you were alright. And I would never, ever use you."

She stared him straight in the face, her eyes level with his, wanting to know what they would tell her. "Why is that?" She didn't know why she had asked him.

He said nothing, just looked at her and breathed in and out. She sighed again, taking a sip of the soup, knowing he wouldn't tell her. Not now, anyway.

"Sara," he started. "A young woman is dead because this creep walks the streets everyday. Another woman is being abused. A woman with a baby. A woman who just happens to admire you more than anyone else."

"If she admired me so much, then why the hell did she try to take you away from me?"

He blinked. Once, twice. "I don't know," he said. "I wish I did... but I don't."

TBC, please R&R!