To my awesome reviewers- You Rock My World! I can't believe I've gotten 100 reviews, and I have all of you to thank! I hope you will continue to enjoy the story. Four or five chapters to go, but don't worry most questions will be answered and I've got my next all new story in the short-hand-scratched-notes-during-class-don't-get-caught-by-the-prof phase. Enjoy!

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"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know weather you did it or not."

Unknown

Greg order Chinese food while Sara got ready for work. Greg laughed as he realized that the majority of Sara's speed dial numbers were for take out restaurants. Ordering kid-friend and vegetarian food wasn't the easiest thing, but figured worse came to worse; they could always have peanut butter and jelly. After the food arrived, the trio sat down to eat. Sara was unsure how to broach the subject of her going to work, but she figured honesty worked before so she might as well stick to that.

"Sadie, kiddo, you know I have to go to work tonight, right?" Sara asked the child.

"I don't want you to go. I don't want to stay alone. Can Greg stay with me?" Sadie asked fearfully. Sara seeing this as an opportunity replied.

"I think we could arrange to have Greg stay here," Sara smiled at Greg. "But you don't have to worry, I wouldn't leave you alone." Sara told the child.

"But what happens if I have a bad dream or the monster comes back?" Sadie asked still scared.

"Well Greg will be here if you have a bad dream, and the 'Anti-Monster Spray' is still next to the bed so you can spray him if the monster comes back. And you can call me if you want." Sara got up and grabbed the house phone and her cell phone. She wrote down her cell phone number and handed it to Sadie with the house phone. "Go ahead, try it." Sara encouraged the girl. Sadie dialed the number and giggled when Sara picked up her cell phone pretending not to know who was calling. Greg watched the interaction between Sara and Sadie with amazement. He had never seen Sara open up so much to anyone or that she could have such a gentle side to her. He wasn't worried about watching Sadie for the night, especially if it meant he got to spend another night at Sara's, but he was curious to see how Sara would react. This would be the longest amount of time she was away from Sadie since the little girl arrived and he wondered if Sara could handle it.

Reluctantly Sara realized it was time to go. She hugged Sadie good-bye and told her to call anytime she wanted to. Greg escorted Sara to the door. When they were out of eyeshot of Sadie, Greg leaned in and gave Sara a lingering kiss good-bye. Sara smiled and said to Greg.

"Please let the apartment be in one piece by the time I get home."

"Hakuna Matata!" Greg replied. Sara rolled her eyes and headed out to her car.

Greg turned to Sadie after closing the door and said.

"Do you know what this place needs?" Sadie looked at him curiously. "This place needs a fort!" Greg laughed and the two searched through the apartment getting all the supplies they needed to make the best fort.

Arriving at the lab Sara glanced into the back seat to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. That's when she saw it. The booster seat was sitting idly in the back seat. Lindsey's old booster seat that Catherine had given her to become Sadie's booster seat. And all at once everything hit Sara. She had fallen in love with the little girl and would move heaven and earth to protect her. Sara Sidle, the least maternal of anyone she worked with, well other than Grissom, was hoping to walk into DCFS tomorrow and adopt the child. A week ago, she had been dreading the long weekend off, but now she realized it was the best weekend she ever had. She knew she had changed and she reveled in it. She knew she had to talk to Grissom about what was going on, she just hoped he would be supportive. Walking in to the lab with a new sense of purpose she ran into Nick and Warrick. Undoubtedly Catherine had told them her reaction to finding out they had researched her, and hopefully they would take it to heart.

"Hey girl, where's your mini-me?" Warrick asked with a smile. He didn't know if Sara would be pissed with him, but he figured he deserved it.

"She at home with Greg for the night." Sara replied, she could Warrick was being slightly tentative, but appreciated him not pushing her.

"Man, your apartment is going to be destroyed between the two of them!" Nick added.

"I'm trying not to think of that," Sara laughed.

"Listen, Sara, we're sorry, we didn't mean to pry into your life, well ok, technically we meant to, but we should have told Catherine we weren't going to help her, it wasn't right, we're sorry." Warrick laid all his cards on the table.

"I got pissed about that, it wasn't right, but I wasn't honest with you guys so what should I expect?" Sara asked rhetorically. "Plus when Catherine's got you by the balls, figuratively, or literally, who could fight her?" Sara replied with a smirk. Warrick turned bright red, Nick held onto the wall to keep from collapsing from laughter.

"How'd you know?" Warrick squeaked.

"I have my ways," Sara smirked again.

"Lindsey?" Nick suggested before both him and Sara broke into another fit of laughter when they saw Catherine walking towards them. Seeing Warrick red with embarrassment and the reactions of Nick and Sara, Catherine chose not to ask what had happened.

"So are you ready for your first night without Sadie?" Catherine asked while trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just a little worried about her." Sara replied.

"And the state that your apartment will be in when you return." Nick joked. They all laughed, unsure of what Sara would be coming home to.

"Well, I've got to go home to an ever maturing teenager. I'm hoping my house is in one piece." Catherine added as she said good-bye to the group.

"Yeah, I should be going too." Warrick added trying to make it obvious that he wasn't leaving with Catherine, but Nick and Sara saw right through him and began to laugh again. When they had calmed down, Nick said.

"I should be going too. I'm sorry about everything, but if you need any help give me a call." Nick said sincerely as he left. Sara knew the next challenge would be talking to Grissom. Heading to his office she was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. Seeing it was her home phone she momentarily panicked.

"Sidle."

"Is Sara there?" A young voice came over the phone. Sara smiled.

"Yeah, kiddo, it's me, are you ok?" Sara asked trying not to sound worried.

"I'm ok. Me and Greg made a fort. It's cool!" Sadie replied excitedly.

"That's great." Sara tried to sound enthusiastic but was worried by what she would eventually find when she returned.

"I just wanted to say good night. Good night Sara," Sadie chirped into the phone.

"Good night kiddo, I'll see you in the morning." Sara replied before hanging up. Sitting in his office Grissom had heard everything. He was right, the child was good for Sara, and Sara was good for the child. He was worried what would happen in the morning when the child was returned to DCFS. His thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock on the door. It was Sara.

"Sara come it, how was your time off?" Grissom asked sincerely.

"It was great actually. But there's something I need to talk to you about." Sara began. "Since Sadie's been with me, I realized something, we have a connection. I need to protect her so that she doesn't have to go through what I went through. I called and left a message with DCFS, but I wanted to let you know too, I'm going to try to adopt Sadie." Sara said with confidence. Grissom was stunned. Proud and in awe, but very stunned.

"Well Sara, I think this would be a great thing for both you and Sadie. You have my full support and you have plenty of vacation time saved up if you need to take some time off. It's going to be hard, but I think you can do it." Grissom replied.

"Thank you, Griss…" Sara replied honestly. "Oh, and I almost forgot, Greg colored this for you with Sadie." Sara slipped the picture of the racing cockroaches on to Grissom's desk. Grissom looked at it and laughed.

"I know Greg's been working hard to impress me since he's been promoted to a CSI, but I don't think Ecklie would see this as exemplary work. We'll just keep this in here." Sara laughed at Grissom's attempt at a joke as they headed to the break room to meet Sofia and get their assignments.

Sara had gotten a drowning case. A little boy had climbed under a fence that surrounded the pool and had fallen in. It was purely accidental, and Sara saw the pain and anguish in the parents faces. They hadn't been able to protect him. Sara couldn't image loosing Sadie, but she remembered that Sadie wasn't yet hers, and she could lose her very soon. Worried, Sara called home to check on Greg and Sadie. Greg picked up the phone and could hear the tension in Sara's voice. Greg told Sara that Sadie had fallen asleep as they were watching movies and that everything was going fine. He hoped that it would calm Sara down. After Sara told Greg about the case he could understand her worry, but reassured her that everything was fine. Eventually calming down, Sara returned to the lab to write her report and submit it to Grissom. The rest of the night was uneventful. Before leaving she asked Grissom if she could take a few days off to be with Sadie and to get the matter of DCFS under control. Grissom willingly agreed, and wished Sara the best of luck.

Sara left the lab on time for the first time in a long time. She was not interested in staying to catch up on paperwork or review old cases. She wanted to go home and be with the two people that were becoming the better part of her life. Unlocking the door quietly, as to not to wake anyone that may be asleep, Sara stifled a laugh as she saw the state of her living room. There was a fort in there all right. A giant fort. Looking into the door of the fort, Sara covered her mouth to keep from laughing. Sleeping side by side in the fort was Greg and Sadie. Oblivious to anything around them. As strange as it was, Sara was tempted to join them. Being careful not to wake either one, Sara laid down in the space between Sara and Greg. Sara felt Greg's arm unconsciously wrap around her as she joined them in a deep sleep.