A/N- Sorry for the shortness of the chapter. More to come soon. Thanks everyone for the reviews! They make my day so much brighter.

Chapter 3

He called the next morning after shift, and asked if he could come by. On the way to her apartment he stopped for Belgian waffles and fruit salad. So the pattern was established. Every morning when he got off work he would call her on the way to her home. If anyone noticed that he left work on time now, no one said anything. They were all too glad to see Grissom act more like normal. Sometimes when he arrived at Sara's he had a movie or a new forensic journal. Always he brought something to eat.

"What is this obsession you have with bringing me food?"

"What?" It had been almost three weeks of daily visits before she asked him about his habit.

"You. Food. Every time I turn around you are bringing groceries or cooking or talking me into going to a restaurant. Not that I don't appreciate it, ut's just... funny."

"I, uh... did some reading and... vitamins and calorie intake are import for... you know." He was worried about what she would think, hoped she wouldn't feel that he had overstepped his bounds. But he was a scientist, and his very nature compelled him to research and then but that knowledge to use. It was the way he dealt with work, and the habit spilled over into his personal life.

"You did research?"

He nodded.

"On cancer."

Again, a nod.

"And as a result you have decided that it is your job to feed me."

He couldn't tell if she was upset, so decided to answer as honestly as possible.

"It's something I can do, to help. I want to make this as... easy... as it can be."

Sara felt the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Never had someone gone to that much effort to help her. Despite her effort to hold them back, a lone tear managed to escape and make its way down her cheek.

"Oh, God, Sara. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

Sara silenced him with a finger pressed to his lips. with her other hand she wiped away the tear.

"I'm not upset, I'm overwhelmed. That is the single sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

Grissom, for the first time since he was a teenager, blushed.

Sara was nervous when he came over the next morning. She had a favor to ask of him.

"You know how you said I should tell you when I need something?"

"Anything." He looked at her expectantly, pleased that she was keeping her promise and asking for help.

"Tomorrow's my chemo, and considering last time I don't think that I can drive myself home. So I was wondering if..."

"I'll be there. Just let me know when."

"You don't have to stay. Just drop me off at ten, and if you could pick me up at noon."

"Do you want company?"

"You don't have to..." She looked down at the floor, suddenly interested in the color of the carpet. She didn't want him to see the myriad of emotions playing across her face.

Grissom reached out, and with two fingers under her chin lifted her head so that their eyes meet.

"Do you want company?"

Sara took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes."

Grissom glanced at his watch again, the third time in ten minutes. Shift had ended over an hour ago, but he was in the middle of a hot case and couldn't leave yet. He was in an interrogation room, just him, Brass, and a man they suspected of killing his wife. Despite the evidence piled up against him, the man refused to confess, and it was making Grissom antsy. He always felt a little on edge when waiting for that key moment when a suspect slipped up and made a mistake, usually in some small but vital way that he could use to make the whole lie come apart. Normally he enjoyed it, that extra bit of adrenaline fueling him, making his thinking sharper. This time he was having trouble focusing on the suspects story, and was glad that it was Brass asking the questions. He had thirty minutes before he had to leave and pick up Sara for her appointment. For the first time ever he seriously considered walking out of an interview. Confess already, damn it.

He looked down at his watch again, then turned to the suspect just in time to catch it. The little lie. Little lie, big lie.

"She left the party early, but I wanted to stay. So she took the car and I said i would get a ride, or call a cab."

Brass also recognized the lie, and had to smile just a little bit. Time to hang the bastard with his own words.

"So why is it that everyone else at the party remembers you leaving the same time as your wife?"

"I didn't. I mean, I left a few minutes latter. I, uh, met some buddies at a bar."

"Which buddies? What bar?"

And with that the interview was all but over. Ten minutes was all it took for him to sob out his tale. The argument, the fight, the push against the counter, and the blind panic when he realized that she wasn't breathing.

"Kills his wife and then just leave her for the housekeeper to discover. Do they get any scummier?" Brass asked the rhetorical question.

Grissom made some noncommittal reply as he started walking down the hallway, intent on getting his briefcase out of his office and leaving as quickly as possible. Brass noticed his hurry, and wondered at it. Grissom, in a hurry to leave work. That was a rarity.

"Got a hot date? he teased.

"What? Oh, no, I just... have some things I need to do."

That was suitably vague. Brass watched as his friend left, after a brief stop in his office. Come to think of it, Grissom hadn't been putting in much overtime at all the past few weeks. Something was most defiantly up with him. Oh, well. If he wanted anyone to know what was going on he would have said something.

Sara was quiet on the ride to the hospital. She had been feeling pretty good for the last week, and was not looking forward to the recurrence of the nausea and fatigue she knew to expect after the chemo treatment. Grissom left her to her silence, only glancing at her every few minutes as he drove his car along the too familiar route to Desert Palms. As he pulled into the parking garage he reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze before he turned off the engine.

Walking throughout the sterile white walls of the hallway, Grissom's hand found its way to the small of Sara's back. He applied no pressure, just rested it there gently lending her his strength. She felt the soft warmth that pooled there, and was grateful.

"You doing okay?" He knew she wasn't, and felt foolish as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

"I'm trying to concentrate on the fact that after today I'll be halfway done with treatments." She tried to smile at him, but it came out more like a grimace.

They were ready for her almost as soon as she arrived. As she started to enter the office she turned to look at him.

"I won't be much company, but if you want to come in with me, you can." Her speech was casual, but there was a naked look of longing in her eyes as she waited for her reply. He said nothing, but simply followed her into the room, slipping his hand into hers.

He didn't know how it started, but somehow they fell into a conversation of 'do you remember.' It seemed to keep Sara distracted from the I.V. in her arm and the harsh chemicals dripping into her veins.

"Do you remember the first time we went for coffee in Boston? It was snowing so hard class was canceled the next day." Grissom smiled at the memory of the eager young Grad student who had asked him such insightful questions. The conversation at the coffee shop had lasted for hours. Might have gone on all night, if the cafe hadn't closed.

"I remember that the service was horrible. We waited for half an hour just to order, and by the time our drinks came they were cold."

"The company made it worth it, though." He said it without thinking, just one of those lines that seemed to slip out when he was around her.

"Do you remember that guy who thought he was all macho? Strutted around and told everyone that he was going to be a cop, and was just taking your class because it was an easy A. Then you showed those slides from the body farm."

"I'm just glad that he ran out of the lecture hall before he lost his lunch. He never did come back to class." Grissom's eyes twinkled at the thought.

Their conversation turned to more recent memories, as each tried to come up with the funniest thing that happened at the lab.

"Remember Greg dancing down the hall in the headdress?"

"Remember when you said that you left the Collins girl in the car with the windows cracked, and everyone believed you."

"How about Nicky, thinking a chopper dropped the scuba diver in the tree?" She laughter at the memory, and marveled at the fact that she could laugh during chemotherapy.

"What about you, and the case where you thought the victim spontaneously combusted?" he teased.

"Hey, it's a possibility. So if the solution to a problem is not neat, plausible and wrong; then it could be messy, unlikely and right." She smirked at him, enjoying the opportunity to use his own quote against him.

It surprised Sara when the nurse came to remove the I.V. The two hours had gone by amazingly fast, considering where she was. Not only that, but she felt okay. Until she stood up, that is. A bout of light headedness made her stumble, and it was only Grissom's quick reflexes that stopped her before she fell.

"Thanks," she muttered.

They left the office after Sara confirmed her next appointment. Grissom kept his arm wrapped around her waist as they left the hospital. Someone might think they were simply lovers, out for a walk, if it wasn't for Sara's pale and sweaty skin, and the concerned look on Grissom's face.

He had driven half way to her apartment before she gave the urgent order for him to pull over. She had just enough time to get out of the car before emptying the contents of her stomach at the side of the road. Wave after wave came, until there was nothing left but dry heaves. Grissom helped her back to the car, and drove back to her apartment as quickly as he could.

She collapsed on the couch, shivering from cold and exhaustion. Grissom covered her with the blanket from the back of couch, but she still shook. He stooped down and picked her up, sitting down on the couch with Sara in his lap, the blanket covering the both of them. Clasping her to him, he slowly stroked her hair until the shivering stopped. Sara's eyes fluttered open, a moan escaping from her lips.

"It hurts, Griss. I can't do this anymore. It hurts so much." He could barely hear her, so quietly did she speak. The pain behind her words was evident. It was the defeat that mixed with the pain that scared him. She couldn't give up. He wouldn't let her.

"Shh... It'll get better. It had to. It's always darkest before the dawn." He wrapped both his arms firmly around her and rocked slowly back and forth. The panting of her breath slowed, turning into the deep even breaths that signaled sleep. He waited until he was sure that she was asleep before carrying her into the bedroom and laying her on the bed. He covered her with a quilt and kissed her on the forehead before he left.

To be continued...