Chapter Four: Masterminds at Work

They were talking about her. All of them, just laughing it up about the situation that Sara had been forced to deal with for more than five years. It burned Sara to know that her best friends were discussing the relationship that she didn't have with their supervisor. But she knew that would all change if she just walked through the locker room door. Once again the room would fall silent, and they would stare with no idea what to say or do. So she did.

The laughter ceased as she strode into the room towards her long metal locker. The silence was deafening, and Sara could barely suppress a grin.

"So, are we going to Julius' tonight," inquired Sara with a smile.

The group returned the smile and nodded 'yes', but their eyes registered their confusion with Sara's uplifted mood. Suddenly Catherine said what the boys were all thinking.

"Sara, we need to talk."

The smile fell from Sara's face, and was replaced with a grimace and piercing eyes.

"If it's about Grissom or my new wardrobe, I do not want to hear it. Personally, I've given up on Doctor Grissom."

Sara's face softened, and the smile returned. She looked each one of the men in the eyes, and continued.

"You once said that I could have any man in the crime lab. I believe your words were 'why waste your time on Grissom?' Do you still believe that?"

Sara moved slowly towards Greg, never taking her eyes off of his, and stroked his cheek. He shivered.

"Of course I do, but…" Catherine continued to explain, but the others began to chime in.

"Any one of us, Sara, but…"

"…Grissom is a great guy, Sara. You guys were made for each other."

"…and there's a movie opening tomorrow. I'm free if you wanna go…"

"GREG!" Catherine, Warrick, and Nick turned to argue their disapproval with Greg, but knew it fell on deaf ears for Greg always had a thing for Sara. Still this was not part of their plan.

"Sara, we'd like to speak to you. We've been talking…"

Sara cut Catherine off with a simple, "I know."

"Well, we have a plan to get you and Grissom together, but if you don't want to hear it…," said Warrick, trying his best to make their scheme sound enticing.

"Ah, yes. The great masterminds at work," mumbled Sara. "What makes you think that I don't have my own plan?"

She backed away until it was against her cold locker once again. Her eyes shifted between her audience reveling in how lost they all appeared.

"These clothes and my attitude aren't part of some self-improvement plan. All of this is for him. Everything I do is for him."

She looked towards the door just in time to see Grissom walking by.

"Oh my god!" She went breathless with the thought of him hearing her private confession. All the time spent thinking up the perfect plan had been a waste. He knew what she was doing. Slowly, Sara turned to look at her audience. She had already been defeated.

"What have you got?"

TBC

I'll update soon.