Grissom woke up when he felt something tickle the corner of his mouth. He sniffled and put his hand up to scratch the offending area, but instead found his hand captured and held against his chest. There was a strange weight on his legs that shouldn't have been there, either. Awake now, in the face of this strangeness, he opened his eyes.

Staring down at him from mere inches away, a pair of brown eyes shone in the dark.

"Sara?" he said, trying to banish the last dregs of sleep and clear his mind.

"Hi." She didn't move, only kept staring into his eyes.

There was something wrong with this, his brain informed him. "Sara?" he tried again.

"It's me," she said this time, and saw the corners of her eyes crinkle the way they did when she smiled her girlish smile.

After a few seconds of fishing madly for an appropriate comment, he managed, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Because you have pretty eyes."

"Huh?" Of all possible responses to his question that he could list, you have pretty eyes was not one of them.

"They're really, really blue," she continued, as though commenting on his eyes was a perfectly valid pastime at - he checked the clock on the VCR - three in the morning.

"Uh, and yours are brown. Are we going somewhere with this?"

"Where do you want to go?" she responded with what he was sure was a note of flirtatiousness in her voice.

"Uh..." He took his hand back from her and gently pushed at her arms, trying to move her away from him. "How about back to reality?"

She allowed him to push her upper body away slightly, but refused to give up her position straddling his legs. "This is reality."

"This cannot possibly be reality, unless one of us has finally lost our last thread of sanity."

"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, tapping her chin and looking momentarily distracted. "That's a distinct possibility." Then she shifted her weight to her other leg.

"Come on, Sara, get off me." And stop that wiggling, he mentally added.

"You want me to get off of you?"

Was there ever a more loaded question than that? He worked it over in his mind for a moment, trying to figure out an appropriate answer. "It depends on your definition of want," he finally said. "While I am enjoying the experience as a whole, I'm pretty sure this is not a good activity in the middle of the night."

"Seems to me that this is the best activity for the middle of the night."

"Sara!"

"You really don't like this?" She traced a finger down his jaw line and then back up to his mouth, where she softly touched his lips.

"Get up," he growled, knowing that things would only get worse if he allowed her to keep touching him.

Sara refused to be moved, but did take her hand away from his face. Meeting his eyes again, she said in her normal, straightforward tone, "I read your letter."

The words hit Grissom like a bucket of cold water. God, that letter...what did she mean? Was she going to give him an answer? "Oh?"

"Mmhmm." Her hand was back on his face. "I understand what you were trying to say now."

When she hadn't added anything more after a few seconds, Grissom prompted, "And?"

"Hmm?" she mumbled, sounding like she'd forgotten what they were discussing. "Your hair feels nice."

"Don't," he said. "I asked you to think about it, not forget about it."

"I did think about it."

"You did?"

"Yep."

"But it's only been a few hours."

Tired of bending over him, she put one of her hands on each of his thighs and leaned her weight back on them. "I'm a quick thinker."

"And...you made a decision?"

"Uh-huh." She continued to look at him with no discernable emotion on her face.

"What did you decide?" Grissom prompted, getting annoyed.

"I decided..." She moved her hands again, this time putting them on the bed next to each of his shoulders, then added, "Are you sure you want to talk about this? You said you didn't want an answer tonight."

"I am giving you ten seconds to get off me, Sara."

"What happens if I don't?"

"I don't know," he said, exasperated. "But you won't like it."

She didn't move. "There isn't much you can do that I won't like."

He was out of ideas along this line and decided to try a different tactic. He put his hands behind his head as though he was about to take a nap, and looked up at her face, which was mere inches away. "Are you going to give me an answer? Or should I be prepared to just deal with this kind of stuff all night?"

"I'm going to give you an answer," she assured him, bending her elbows so her chest was low enough to brush his.

"Sara! This isn't funny anymore. Please, give me an answer. I don't care what it is."

"Let's use our deductive powers, shall we?" Sara teased. "You tell me one of the possible responses I'm sure you thought of, and I'll tell you why it's right or wrong."

His face darkened, partly with embarrassment and partly with anger. "This isn't a game."

"It is now," she said, bending her elbows more so that her weight rested almost entirely on him. "Now come on, ask."

"Fine!" he said, deciding that if this was the only way he'd get an answer, he'd force himself to play along. Best to eliminate the worst options first: "Is your answer, 'No, I can't stand you'?"

"Mm-mm," Sara said with a smile, shaking her head teasingly. "I don't compliment the eyes of people I can't stand. Try again."

" 'I don't want to talk about this'?"

"Nooo..." She lowered her head so her lips almost touched his. "If I didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't have come out of my room. What else have you got?"

Grissom sighed, eyeing those lips that were inching closer. "How about, 'I'm not ready to make a decision and I don't know if I ever will be'?"

She leaned to the side and whispered into his ear, "I thought about that for a while, but decided that it was going to suck for you and me both if I didn't decide."

Grissom shivered when her warm breath hit his skin. "'I've decided that I'm not interested'?"

"Do I look uninterested?" she asked, returning her eyes to his face. "You're too much fun for me not to be interested in."

Things were looking up. "What about, 'I'd like to try it, but we have to move very slowly'."

"Hmm..." She twitched her hips the tiniest bit. "Slowly...don't think so. I've never been able to do anything slowly around you."

His mood was improving as she eliminated each negative outcome. "'I'm in love with someone else'?"

"What!" Sara squawked right into his face. "You've got to be insane if you believe that one. I don't complement the eyes of a guy if I'm in love with someone else, either."

"'I'm still not sure of you'?" he guessed.

"If I weren't sure of you, I wouldn't be out here," she said, letting her lips brush against his jaw.

He was smiling now. "How about 'I hereby pledge my eternal love and devotion and promise to do absolutely anything Grissom asks of me'?"

"Hah! I can just imagine the things you'd milk that for. 'Sara, feed my bugs.' 'Sara, do my paperwork.' 'Sara, go deal with Ecklie.' Not a chance, Gris."

"Okay..." he said slowly, reaching up and resting a hand on each of her hips. He flexed his fingers a little, feeling the areas of skin where her shirt had ridden up. "How about... 'Yes, I'm ready'."

"Why Grissom," she said with a teasing smile, "you figured it out! I always knew that genius brain of yours would eventually kick in."

"Yes?" he said again, needing to hear her to confirm it.

"Yes."

"You're ready?"

"Mmm." Leaning down, she kissed him while one of her hands moved to his chest, exploring. "Moreready than you'd ever believe."

THE END

A/N: Whoa, I don't know what happened here. I hadn't planned for this story to end so abruptly, but once I sat down with pencil and paper, this is what came out. I hope you've enjoyed the saga!

A/N 2: There may be an epilogue coming for this, about what happens when they return to the real world and have to deal. I haven't yet decided whether I want to do it.