DISCLAIMER – Not mine. Belong to Anthony Zuiker, et al, CBS and Alliance Atlantis.

A/N –Thanks to the positive feed-back, from the first thru to the last chapter. Reviews as always are much appreciated.

Just a little FYI, this story takes place before the team break-up during season 5.

Thanks to those who took the time - Missusmesser, LocoGreggo, Jenn Sidle, msgrits, novafan, csiatlantis, Tripp3235, trainerker, Duckie24, CPDCSI, Blaze, Kelly, moi, jesusfreak30, Phoenix38133, csijunky05

Chapter 9

Sara and Greg spent the next week barely speaking to another beyond the necessity of the job. Sara even went so far as to ask not to be teamed with Greg as she thought he'd learn a lot from the other members of the team.

For his part, Greg was happy to have some distance between himself and Sara. What he'd thought was a burgeoning relationship seemed to be nothing more than an illusion.

Nick was the first to notice that the former lab-rat seemed a little distracted by a certain brunette. He was trying to hide the fact that he was watching her every move at the morning briefings. But Nick noticed the surreptitious looks that he was constantly throwing her way.

As they headed out on their nightly assignment, Nick looked to the young man sitting next to him. "Hey Greggo. What's on your mind?"

Greg looked to Nick. "Huh?"

Nick smiled. "What's up? You've been kinda quite for the last few days."

"You know about women don't you?" he asked.

"Sure a little I guess. Don't suppose anyone's a real aspect on those endowed with the double X."

Greg smiled. "What do you think of Sara?"

"In what context are you asking?"

Shrugging a little with embarrassment Greg said, "Well, you know that I've been crushing on her since she started right?"

Laughing Nick replied. "I think that would probably be the worst kept secret in the lab."

Blushing slightly, Greg cleared his throat. "Yeah well anyway. Lately, it seemed we'd been getting close, you know like in a relationship kind of way. That on top of the fact that lately she'd been responsible for most of my training, we'd been getting to know each other much better. And I was sure that there was something more there, at least the beginning of something more anyway. Well, could I have been wrong. Like, totally mixing up signals?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't know man. What makes you think you were getting closer?"

"Okay, for starters, about a month ago, she seemed to have a total breakdown. I kinda helped her through it. Then the other week, I took her to the Body Farm. She'd been talking about it for ages, and I knew Grissom would never take her, so I thought it'd be cool to set it up for her. We had a real good time, but after that it seems to have gone down hill, and I'm not really sure why."

"So what happened after that trip?"

"Well, I said that she should take advantage of the day she had off, and to make sure to let Grissom know that should he call, she wouldn't be able to come in. Well, as always he did call, and she did go in. I told her not to give in to him all the time, cause that's what he always expects, and she's better than to be used like that."

Nick barked a small laugh. "Well, there's your problem dude. You can't tell Sara of all people what she knows herself to be the right thing to do. She's got a strong will, and pointing out her mistakes is only going to get her pissed off."

"But Grissom's always doing it to her. He's always doing a pull push thing with her, and I can see how much it hurts her. I don't want her to hurt. She's too good for him," he sighed. It was a relief to get it off his chest, and he knew Nick was discrete enough not to repeat any of what he'd just said to either Grissom or more importantly Sara.

"Greggo, I see it too. We all do. But that seems to be the way she wants it. If it wasn't she'd do something about it herself. She's a grown woman. She knows what she's doing."

Greg made a small noise that conveyed his disbelief. "Doesn't seem like it to me."

"Just wait for her Greg. If it's meant to be. It'll happen." They pulled up to their crime scene and began processing.

Back at the lab, Sara was in trace collecting evidence from her last case. Grissom passed the lab and watched her. He took in her slender form, chestnut hair, that she'd left natural that day. He loved it when she didn't straighten her hair, it made her look much softer.

He moved away before she noticed he'd been staring. Looking up, Sara let out a sigh, that he'd finally left. Cataloguing the evidence that she'd found so far, she labelled everything and took it to evidence lock-up, then she headed for Grissom's office.

TBC