AN: THOUSAND thanks to Alex! Thanks for beta reading and helping me with the story! You are the best: megahugs :

chapter 6

Sara took seat on the sofa next to Gretchen. She handed a cup of coffee to her, smiling softly. It had taken her a while until she had cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. The coffeepot had slipped out of Gretchen's hand and there had been coffee and shards scattered over the ground and they had been almost everywhere.

Usually I'd get paid for creeping over the ground on my knees, Sara had thought while slightly starting to become irritated because Grissom was still asleep. Yeah, he deserved to sleep, he was a hard working man who deserved to sleep but he left her almost alone with his mother.

Sara stared into her cup. The coffee was hot, it almost burned her hands through the china. But in some weird way it felt good, the hotness filled her body and somehow helped to calm her down. She was nervous. She didn't really know why, she liked Gretchen though communicating with her was difficult. Gretchen read from Sara's lips and wrote her answers down on a notepad. And Gretchen seemed to be pleased about the fact that Grissom was involved with Sara, there was always at least a soft smile on her lips when she looked at Sara, she didn't give her that 'you stole my son' feeling that her friends had so often described to her.

From what Grissom had told Gretchen didn't seem to be a conservative person, at least Sara drew that conclusion from the fact that Gretchen had wanted to set Grissom up with some guy. So she hoped that there wouldn't be those usual 'you're sleeping in the same room without being married' conversations…even if Gretchen would want to start one of those it would probably be Grissom whom she'd try to reprove with a comment about it.

/I am so glad that Gil finally found a woman like you./ Gretchen scribbled down on her notepad.

Sara smiled softly. "Thanks." She felt blood rushing into her cheeks, she felt that she was blushing but it was more from her bad conscience than from anything else.

/Really. I always wanted a daughter in law that is just like you./

Sara swallowed hard. This was just not right. This lie was a big mistake how could she ever agree to do this? How should they ever end it? The plan of Gretchen not liking her had so totally failed how were they supposed to ever get out of this lie?

/Gil was always scared that he wouldn't be good enough for you, he said that you would deserve more than he could give. He said he wouldn't be able to make you happy./

"He does make me happy." Sara faked a smile, wondering if there was maybe, just maybe, a little bit truth in everything that Gil had told his mother. The question of why he had picked her to be part of his lie had haunted her for a long while now. Why her? Was he maybe really feeling something for her and was just too scared to confess it? And how was she ever supposed to find out?

/I actually never believed that the two of you would ever get together. He so totally lacks all social skills and he is really not the emotional type. What is it that made you fall in love with him/

Sara raised an eyebrow. Was this some kind of test? A catch question? How could Gretchen say something like this about her own son? Somehow very critical for a loving mother, Sara thought, then realizing that she couldn't know how exactly a 'loving mother' is supposed to be.

"He is not like the others. He is special, he…it is not about being a sociable person or being very emotional or romantic or whatever…we are tuned to the same wavelength."

While Gretchen began to write again Sara took a sip of her coffee hoping that she'd find a way to change the subject. Gretchen was interested into art so maybe she should ask her some questions about some famous paintings…it wouldn't be too difficult to set her interest on another theme, at least that was what Sara hoped.

/And that means as much as he sexually satisfies you/

Sara almost chocked on the coffee. She felt the hot liquid in her windpipe, almost hysterically trying to fill her lungs with air she coughed heftily. In this moment she didn't know what was worse, the fact that the hot coffee seemed to burn away her windpipe, the pain that was produced by the hot coffee and that ran through her whole body, the fact that she was almost suffocating or the fact that Gretchen had asked her if the reason why she was with Grissom was that he sexually satisfied her.

She gasped for air, the cough finally eased up, the shock didn't. Had Gretchen really asked this? She didn't really expect an answer to this, did she?

Sara slowly turned to Gretchen again, Grissom's mother threw an asking look at her and Sara realized that she really wanted an answer to this question.

She wouldn't answer this! NEVER! Not even over her dead body! In fact she couldn't, she wasn't sleeping with Grissom, sadly, she thought smirking to herself. She had to make up an answer anyways but she couldn't just tell his mother about their 'fictional' sex life and no matter how she would answer the question it would be more embarrassing for Grissom than for her but it wasn't Grissom who was sitting here on the sofa next to his mother, it was her and it was her who was supposed to answer this question.

"A relationship is not about sex, it's…it's maybe an important part for a lot of people but it's not what keeps the relationship alive…or….I mean sex is not the most important part of a relationship."

/Oh, so he does not satisfy you? He probably just hadn't enough practice./

Sara swallowed hard. Oh my Gosh! She needed to get out of this, she needed to find a way to change the theme or a reason why she needed to leave now and why the hell was Grissom still asleep? "That's not it."

/Oh my, but he is not impotent, is he/

Sara stared at Gretchen, unbelieving. How could she just ask this? She was his mother! She was not supposed to ask those questions!

At least now she knew where Grissom got his curiosity from…but gladly Grissom's curiosity restricted itself to solving crimes, insects and the human mind, not the sex life of other people. Though the thought that it might be nice if he would at least be interested in her sex life ran through her mind.

Was there a way to get out of this conversation without making a total fool of herself or Grissom? On the one hand Sara would have loved to embarrass Grissom, how could he leave her alone with his mother for so long? On the other hand she knew that it was not his fault that she had been waking up so early and that he was still able to sleep, it was not his fault that his mother had asked these questions and he couldn't know that she was talking about something like this with Sara.

"I…I think we should not talk about…this theme."

/Why not/

Why not? WHY not? Sara couldn't believe this. This must be some bad joke, some really bad joke. Gretchen was making fun of her, was she? "Because it's…" she could so easily say that this was a theme Gretchen should talk about with Grissom and not with her, but Grissom would never look at her again if he'd find out about this so she swallowed the words. "…I don't think that Gil would like it if we'd keep on talking about this."

She prayed that Gretchen would respect her answer, she prayed that Gretchen would stop asking those questions now.

/He'll never find out if we don't tell him./

If it wouldn't have been Gretchen Sara would have ripped off her head.

/Has he ever tried Viagra? Maybe this could help./

Sara felt so ridiculous, this whole conversation was ridiculous. She was really close to tell Gretchen that Grissom made her scream from pleasure all night, that he never had problems with anything, EVERYTHING was alright with her if it just promised to end this conversation.

Finally the bedroom door opened. Grissom had already changed into his clothes what made Sara wonder how long he had already been awake. It somehow filled her body with anger that he had obviously been awake for at last five minutes.

"Good morning.", he said smiling softly. "Where's the coffee?"

You can have your coffee, scattered over your shirt you can have your coffee…hot coffee!

Grissom noticed the expression in Sara's eyes and threw an asking look at her.

Sara left her seat and walked over to him. "Never! I say NEVER leave me alone with your mother again or I promise you that something really bad will happen.", she said angry then left the room throwing the bedroom door shut behind her, leaving a slightly confused Gretchen and a very much confused Grissom in the living room.

She let herself fall back on the mattress, closed her eyes and tried to calm down. It didn't really work but it somehow made her feel better that she had at least managed to express her anger to Grissom. Even though this seemed to be useless, he didn't understand why she was angry and she'd never tell him. But that didn't matter at the moment.

TBC