A/N: I'm really sorry I haven't updated sooner. I think I'm finally finished with this chapter.

Disclaimer: The story at the end is recognizable, as I didn't create it, and therefore should not be given the credit for the idea. However, I did create their thoughts. (You'll figure it out, just read it!)

Again, really sorry. I'll have the next chapter up before the middle of next week. Enjoy!

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Day 1

7:13 PM

"Sara." Grissom tried to pull out of the embrace, but she just held on tighter. "Sara," he asked more persistently. "We have to let the others know that you're alright."

She finally let go.

"Okay, but make it quick, please. And I don't want to talk. Today at least." He understood, and quickly pulled out his cell phone.

"Gil Grissom!" he heard on the other end. "Where the hell are you?" Typical Catherine, he thought.

"I pulled up the website, I figured you knew how to read a map," he joked.

"This is no laughing matter! We have no idea where Sara is!"

"Uh, yes we do." Please talk, he mouthed to her. She resigned and took the phone from him.

"Hello," she answered. All she heard was a satisfied sigh on the other end. "Catherine?"

"Oh, thank God. Sara, you're all right?"

"For the most part. I'm sorry I put you guys through that. It was a hasty and wrong decision to make and…" she stopped when she saw Grissom shaking his head at her. "Well, I think it was. Gil here seems to think that it's all his fault, which it's not," she directed at him.

Gil? When had she started calling him Gil, Catherine thought to herself. The curiosity getting the best of her, as it usually did, she forged ahead with her thought. "So, when are you and Gil coming back?" Since she knew her friend was all right, she figured a little prodding was in order.

Shit, Sara thought. That slip up would cost her dearly. "Here, why don't you talk to him," she told Catherine as she swiftly handed to the phone over to Grissom.

"What's going on with you two?" Sara beeped the car horn three times.

Grissom understood what she was getting at, and told Catherine, "Look, I'm really stuck in traffic and I can't talk right now. I'll call you back later. Oh, and please tell the team that Sara is alright." With that, he hung up and went over to Sara, who stood grinning next to the car.

"That was close," she told him.

"Too close," he answered back.

"Their going to fine out eventually," she said as she inched closer to him.

"Yes, they are," he told her, inching still forward.

"It's okay," she said, with he fully understanding what she was trying to tell him.

"Yes, it is." With that knew found knowledge, Sara took the plunge and kissed him heatedly, their kiss growing more passionate by the second until Grissom began to pull away.

Still panting, he told her, "Not yet." His 'yet' threw her into an emotional realm of need and she couldn't wait until they were alone.

"Okay," she told him, very close to catching her breath after having it knocked out of her for the second time in a very short span of time. What he could do to her with so little effort amazed her, scared her even; but she was looking forward to the adventure.

"Sara, I uh, I wanted to know if you were done with whatever you were doing here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you came here for a reason, and I wanted to know if this," he pointed to the mental facility, "was all you wanted to do here."

"Oh, okay. Um, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to the B & B, just to see it."

"Why would I mind?" He was saddened that she still didn't truly accept him. "Sara, when I told you I love you, I meant it. I would never mind if you did anything, except leave me." His eyes were pleading; asking her if this was what she really wanted.

"I'm sorry. It's just this is all so new that I don't really know what to do or how to do it and… Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"Okay." He took her hand, relieved that she wasn't leaving him. "Let's go." With that, the two got in the car, each wondering where they stood with each other at that point.

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Day 1

8:11 PM

Sarastood on those steps for what seemed like hours. Her legs were cramping, and she could barely feel them anymore. Never the less, she continued to stand there not moving for anyone or anything.

She couldn't believe she was there, in front of her childhood… well, she couldn't call it a home. It had been merely a place where she existed for the first decade of her life.

Sara knew she had to do it. She had to confront her past, again, or else it would keep haunting her for the rest of her life. So she took a deep breath and took the few steps needed to get inside the door.

As she stepped inside, familiar sights and smells assaulted her senses and almost sent her to tears. As she stood in the foyer, eyes scanning every piece of memorabilia, memories came flooding back.

"Mommy, mommy? Mommy, where are you?" a five year old Sara Sidle cried through the house. "Mommy?" She found her mother lying against the front door, head in hands, crying silently. "Mommy?" Sara came closer, and a twenty-two year old Laura Sidle picked up her head.

"Go back to your room, Sara," her mother said emotionless. It was then that Sara saw the black and blue bruises on her mother's face begin to form. That had been the first time she had seen her mother beaten up, and it wouldn't be her last.

Sara was knocked out her reverie when she felt a hand on her shoulder. As soon as she had stepped in, she had completely forgotten that Grissom was there. "Hey, you," he said with a slight grin that she found highly contagious, and very cute.

"Hey," she answered and smiled back. "Sorry, I was just… remembering," she solemnly told her.

"I figured as much." He wrapped his strong body around her and she embraced him as if her life depended on it. "Do you want to keep going?" She merely nodded and trudged off to other parts of the house.

After visiting the living room of torture and the kitchen of death, they made their way up to her old bedroom. She sighed contently, seeing as nothing in there had changed. As soon as prospective buyers learned what had happened in there, they quickly steered clear, and as of yet, it remained vacant.

She pulled Grissom over to her bed and showed him what laid beneath. He saw everything from dirty socks to old childhood novels, such as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". He looked up and smiled at her, again. Even through such a horrible time, he couldn't stop smiling at her.

"'To Kill a Mockingbird'?" he asked jokingly.

"Hey, I was only seven when I got that book. And it's a great book I'll have you know!" Good, he thought, I'm lightening her mood.

"I know. I've read it." He picked up the multiply read, tattered, old book, and told her, "we'll have to put this in our library." She looked up at him.

"Our library? Don't you mean your library?"

"No," he told her, taking her hand. "I mean our library." Sara's eyes began to water as her hand flew to her mouth. "Move in with me?" he asked pleading albeit knowing the answer.

All she could do was nod. He pulled her into a hug, and she nuzzled her head under his chin. Grissom noted that it fit perfectly.

"O, my God, Grissom?" she asked, pulling away slightly to look him in the eyes. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," he told her. He hadn't meant to say 'our', but now that he had, he cursed himself for all the years he held back his emotions. "I love you, Sara."

This madder her snuggle into him more, and he happily accepted her affection. He had missed so much, and he knew he would never get it back, but he was going to make the most of what he had now. "Do you want to go get something to eat?"

"Sure. I know a little diner a few miles from here." The two headed out of the haunted place. Grissom had a book in one hand, and for once in his life, Sara in the other.

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Day 1

8:32 PM

"So Sara's alright?" Nick asked Catherine questioningly, still not believing his friend. "You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No, for goodness sake's, Nick. This is the fourth…"

"Sixth," Greg interrupted, sick of hearing the same information over and over again.

"…Sixth time I've told you this," Catherine finished. "She's fine. Trust me. The way she was talking about her and Grissom I'd say there were off getting married somewhere or something." This brought looks of shock from the entire team.

"You are kidding, right?" Warrick was trying to understand.

"Yes, I'm kidding. But I wouldn't be surprised if it were true."

The team just shrugged it off, hoping to badger their friends into telling them what was going on as soon as they got back to Vegas.

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Day 1

9:01 PM

Dinner went very well… as well as any first dinner could go with two socially inept people. It was quite, but comfortable, and they both enjoyed it. When Sara, was about to leave, she realized something. "Oh, geez, I um. I don't have anywhere to go."

"I booked a hotel room," Grissom told her. "I, uh, I didn't, wasn't thinking that I'd, uh, find you here, so I, uh…" What is he stuttering about, Sara thought. She looked at him with a questioning look on her face. This made him even more nervous, but he knew he had to keep going. He swallowed the lump in his throat and continued. "I wasn't thinking when I left Vegas, and so our hotel room only has one bed, but I figured, since we'd be sharing a house, that it would be okay, like a transition, but then I wasn't sure if I was jumping the gun and…" Sara stopped him by putting a finger over his lips.

"Shh. It's okay. We'll figure it out."

"So, um, I hope it's okay." Grissom was quite nervous, even though he had no reason to be. He had asked her to move in with him, but it wasn't until recently that he recalled what it entailed.

"Grissom." He still looked away from her, probably more embarrassed at his inefficiencies than he was nervous. "Gil." He looked up. "I told you, it's all right. Really." She put a comforting hand on his cheek, and this time, she didn't need an excuse to touch him.

It had been a rough case. A man had hidden a body in a house, everyone knew it, and, even after busting down every possible wall, they couldn't find the victim. Grissom couldn't take it anymore, and he retreated out the back door of the building to a walkway, checking his pulse and feeling it rise.

Sara had seen him go out the back door, very flustered, and just looked on for a few moments deciding what to do. It wasn't often she saw Grissom out of control, and she hated to admit it, but it scared her. Sara eventually decided that she should see if she could help him out.

It pained her to see the man she loved aching for justice and righteousness, so she tried to convince him to walk it off with her, if not for his own comfort, she thought, but also her own. He told her that he didn't want to take a walk, but she could tell he was still very stressed out. Sara knew she needed to calm him down, and did the only thing she could think of.

She reached her hand out and cupped his cheek. He looked up in surprise, and they stared at each other for only a few seconds, but it seemed as if the world had stopped. The electricity sparking between them was almost palpable, and Sara marveled at the softness of his skin. How she longed to feel more, but knowing this was neither the time nor the place, she promptly pulled her hand away.

Meanwhile, Grissom could have sworn his heart had stopped, or was beating so fast he couldn't even feel it beat anymore. He was just as surprised when she took her hand away as when she placed it on his cheek. The cool night air reached his heated skin at the absence of Sara's hand, and he almost shivered.

She had to think quickly of a reason she would do such a thing. Saying she couldn't stand seeing him in pain because she loved him would have been insane, so she just told him, "Chalk, from plaster," in reference to the walls they had been tearing down, and walked back into the building.

Grissom tried his best, but although his efforts were great, he could find no chalk on his cheek. He disregarded it, and, noticing his pulse had gone back to normal, followed Sara back inside.

Grissom put his hand atop Sara's, and leaned into her touch. They could both get used to this.