A/N: I am so terribly sorry for such a long time without updating this story. That's why I wrote my other really short story- The Spot- Gotta love fluff. Anyway- I am on thanksgiving break so I am going to try to get 2 more chapters up while I am home. We'll see. Ok- Read on!!

Chapter 4

For the second time in 24 hours, Grissom found himself wondering if he had misheard something Sara had said.

"Are you a doctor?" she added, looking confused and flushing.

"Sara that's not funny… do, you, you really not know who I am?"

Sara just cocked her head and slowly shook it. Her eyes were squinted and her lips were pursed. Grissom knew that look. It was the contemplative look. He needed to sit down. His world was spinning. For her part, Sara looked equally alarmed.

"Should I know you, I mean, I feel like you are vaguely familiar. But I can't really place you."

"Sara, you work with me at the Las Vegas Crime Lab."

"Vegas? That's the second best lab in the country!"

"Sara, what year is it?"

"2004… right?"

"Yes, that's right, do you know your name?"

"Sara."

"The whole thing."

"Sara Juliet Sidle. My mother's name is Eileen, my father's name is John, and my brother's name is Seamus, I even had a dog named Lochlan, and my brother had a cat named James. I suppose that's where you were going next."

"Yes, that's good, do you know where you live? Where you work? Who you work with?"

"No… No… and apparently with you. But I still don't know exactly who you are at the moment."

Grissom sighed and rubbed a heavy hand across his tired face.

"My name is Gil Grissom, I am your supervisor at the lab."

"The Gil Grissom? No Way! I went to a couple of your seminars in college. You didn't have a beard then, though. Oh, ok that's where I know you from. I loved those seminars. I can't believe that I work with you!"

Sara's eyes were sparkling with curiosity and joy, despite the situation that apparently was not bothering her much. Grissom just looked at her for a few moments. It was great to see that look on her face, just for a little while. It had been such a long time. He wondered if she still felt that way about working with him. At that moment, the doctor came into the room.

"Oh, good, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

Sara sat still for a moment, like she hadn't thought about how she felt yet, then she addressed the doctor.

"My head is pounding a little bit but otherwise I feel fine."

"That's good. You got a few nice knocks so we are going to keep you for one more night just to be on the safe side."

"You might want to keep her for longer than that." Grissom added quietly

"Why is that?" The doctor responded

"Because I think she has amnesia."

The doctor spun to look at Sara, he grabbed the other chair in the room and sat next to Sara's bed beside Grissom.

"Do you know your name?"

Sara sighed and answered the same questions Grissom asked before.

"What is the last clear memory you have?"

Sara thought for a moment.

"Working on a cold case in San Francisco, a boy kidnapped from a rich family. I figured it out 10 minutes before the end of shift. I ended up working a triple to find the kidnapper. She was actually raising him as her own son. After that, I remember going home, going to sleep and that's it. But I knew what year it was when I woke up just now. This is weird."

The doctor looked at Grissom whose eyes were wide.

"Sara" Grissom said lowly "That was nearly 5 years ago. That was the last case you worked before I called you to work with me. I actually called you the very next day after that."

"Okay, Sara, we are going to do a few more tests but I think that you have medium, grade amnesia. It's not uncommon after such a traumatic event and injury but I'm confused as to the degree. I'll be back in a little while to run those tests."

The doctor left and the pair just looked at each other. Grissom was first to speak.

"I suppose I should call the rest of the team, they've been worried about you, too."

He got up to leave but Sara pulled his hand back. He turned to see a question in her eyes.

"You're my supervisor, right?"

"Yes"

"Are we friends? You know, outside of work."

"Well, um it's complicated with us, I mean…"

"Are we more than friends?"

"We're… why do you ask?"

"Well because you were here when I woke up, and I'm assuming you were here while I was sleeping because your clothes have wrinkles. Deep ones, like you have been in the same position for a long time." She explained

"Well at least the CSI part of her brain is still functional." Grissom thought.

Sara continued

"And because of how I felt when I woke up before."

"How was that?" Grissom inquired

"I was confused. I didn't know yet that I was missing four and a half years of my memory but I still felt wrong. But when I saw you it was the strangest thing. Even though I didn't know who you were, my heart felt like it was speeding up and slowing down at the same time. It's like my body knows you but my mind doesn't. So I was wondering if we ever, you know…"

"No. No we haven't."

"So we are just friends then."

It was a statement, not a question. She nodded and looked back down at her hands. Grissom quietly left the room to call the rest of the team. He knew that if Sara had been of sound mind she would have been horrified by her admissions. But secretly he was glad she had said them. This memory impaired Sara was less defensive. And as sneaky as it was, it might give him the chance to find out a few more things. He reached the lobby of the hospital and pulled out his cell phone. He called Catherine and told her everything that was going on so she could pass it on to the team.

"Gil, that is so strange. She doesn't remember anything about the last four and a half years? Do they know why yet?"

Grissom just sighed and kept pacing like mad. His mind was racing with possibilities. Suddenly it occurred to him. He had to sit down. He plopped down into one of the hard orange chairs and groaned.

"Cath, I know what's wrong with Sara."

"What do you mean?"

"It's me. I'm the reason she can't remember the last 5 years. That's when I came into her life. She remembers right up to the night before I called her to come investigate Warrick. Cath, she's repressing me. What did I do to her?"

"Oh Gil, That can't be it. There has to be more than that to it."

"No- no there doesn't. She has feelings for me. She told me as much just before I called you. And do you know the only thing she said was when I found her this morning at her apartment? She told me that Chase Gregory had broken the plant that I sent her. He threw it at her I think. She was loosing consciousness and she wanted me to go and fix the damn plant."

"Gil, you sent her that plant almost 3 years ago. I can't believe that she kept it alive."

"It was huge Catherine. Orchids require a lot of work to stay alive, let alone to grow that size. What am I going to do?"

"Well first you are going to get your ass back in that room and talk to her. She's alone right now, mentally and physically. How would you feel if you woke up and realized you were missing half a decade of memories? And after that, well we will figure that out as we go." Catherine replied rather matter-of-factly.

Grissom smiled, he really had to wonder why they had not fired him and given her his job yet. He hung up with her and went back up to Sara's room. She was sleeping. He sat quietly in the chair next to her bed and just watched her for a long while. He had seen her sleeping a couple times before, when she would doze off in the break room after a double. He enjoyed being able to observe her without repercussion. She looked so much more relaxed and peaceful than during her waking hours. Grissom knew that he was partly responsible for making her that way. He reached over and brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face and his hand lingered as he let his fingers glide over the bruises on her forehead. His blood boiled at the thought of anyone hitting Sara. He tried to calm himself and instead of focusing on Chase Gregory, he contented himself with watching the rhythmic rise and fall of Sara's chest as she breathed deep heavy sleeping breaths.

He lifted her hand and looked at the smooth skin on the back of it. He turned it over in his and saw a white scar running through her palm from the explosion. Grissom still got chills when he thought about that day. Had she asked him out on ANY other day, his answer would have been different. But that day he had his cursed doctor's appointment and was chalking the invitation up to her rushing hormones and adrenaline. Maybe he was wrong. He traced the scar lightly with his fingertips and extended his hand to cover hers. He brought his face down to it and lightly placed a kiss over it.

"We will figure this out as soon as you're better Sara. I promise you."

He rested his cheek in her upturned palm and looked up at her, still sleeping as peacefully as before. Clearly not hearing his admission to the night. He eventually fell asleep that way.

The two were awakened about an hour later by a knock on the door. Grissom woke first and sat straight up, feeling that Sara would be uncomfortable to find him sleeping in her hand when she woke. She stirred and then woke when Grissom called for whoever it was to come in.

The door opened with a little bang and a candy striper with a large cart of flowers came waltzing in with a clearly caffeinated and overly chipper "hellooooo".

She handed Sara a large bouquet of Black Eyed Susans, and left the room, they could have sworn she was skipping.

Grissom looked over at Sara but she was looking at the flowers with an almost scared look on her face. She was starting to shake a little, he could hear the cellophane rattling.

"Sara? What is it, who are they from?"

She hadn't read the card but she already knew who had sent them."

"They are from my ex-boyfriend, Chase, I know they are. Wait a minute, why am I in here? What happened to me? I can't believe I didn't ask that already."

Grissom explained what had happened, he was hesitant to tell her everything but he decided to because he didn't know what might trigger her memory.

Sara just sat stock still and occasionally nodded her head. When he was finished he asked to see the card. He read it aloud, it read:

Sue:

I am sorry this had to happen, you just don't know what's good for you.

I hope you like the flowers, they are my favorites, but you knew that.

I hope you are feeling well soon so we can meet again.

Maybe this time you won't be so resistant.

You know what happens when you get like that.

See you soon.

Your Fiancé,

Chase

Sara had tears running down her cheeks by the time he had finished reading. Grissom was deeply confused by a few things.

"Sara, he was your fiancé?"

"Yes, for about a week and then I broke it off with him, he hasn't accepted it I guess."

Why does he call you Sue? Is that your middle name? Or did you change your real name?"

"No- it was his sick nickname for me. The day before we started dating I had cut my wrists, I don't think I was trying to kill myself, I couldn't tell you exactly why I did it. But it was his way of getting control in a fight, he would tell me that I wanted to die before I met him. That's where he came up with the name."

"I still don't see how Sue comes into it."

"He thought he was so clever. He would call me Suicidal Sara Sidle. Eventually that became too much to call me, especially in public. So I knew I was going to be in trouble when he would start calling me Sue. Shortened from suicidal."

"Trouble? What do you mean? He hit you?"

"Yeah, not at the beginning but once it started it was frequent, like if he was out of some kind of food, it was my fault. And afterwards, he'd pretend to feel bad and would buy me flowers, but I knew he wasn't.

"How?"

"Because he always sent Black Eyed Susans, it was symbolic. Susan, long form of Sue. After one night I told him I was tired and didn't want to have sex that night, he raped me. I had restraining orders on him and eventually he went to jail. Guess he got out, huh?"

Sara was crying and shaking like mad now, and Grissom was doing his best to soothe her.

His mind was speeding. This explained so much of her behavior, especially her passion in sexual assault cases. His hatred of this Chase Gregory person had increased ten-fold, if that were even possible. It made sense though, In French, Chase meant hunter. And that was certainly what he was.

He comforted Sara until she fell asleep with him sitting next to her in her bed, arms wrapped around her back with her head resting on his chest. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Grissom registered how well she fit there, but he had bigger things to focus on at the moment.

Like how to get away with murder.

TBC

OK well I am sorry for the short chapter but like I said I hope to get up another one before I go back to school. YEAH UALBANY!! I know that this section was a little intense but it will get better. Let me know what you think. And BTW, this story isn't exactly going where you think it is. But R&R- should I keep on?? Hope you like it!!