A/N: Thanks to Aus for the beta read and the "motivation' to write today! And thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed thus far, you're all my shining stars. As promised, the action has begun…

A True Test

Greg walked past the layout room, and stopped suddenly. Changing course, he entered the room, and tried his best to appear nonchalant. "Hey long time no see," he finally said.

Sara looked up from her case file. "Hey Greggo," she returned.

"You had a 3 week vacation from this place, and then the weekend off?" he teased her, sitting down across from her.

"Ha ha. I don't think that training qualified as a vacation. My body needed a four day weekend to recover," she told him, and looked back at her case file.

Greg watched her drum her pen against the table, he had to know if his suspicions were true. He cleared his throat, "So, um, what's the first thing you did when you got back?"

The drumming of her pen momentarily stopped, and Greg swore he saw a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"I, ah, I went straight to bed," she told him, not looking up.

His mind raced with the implications. "To bed? After three weeks of…" 'Of what? Of not seeing Grissom…of not having sex…' "…of not being here," he finally settled on the words, sounding lame even to himself.

She looked up confused, "Yeah Greg. It was a fifteen hour drive."

"Right, sure. Fifteen hours, that's a long drive," he muttered. "Any plans tonight?"

"Yeah Greg, it's called work," she explained offering a fake smile, and then returned to her reading.

"Right. Work. I meant after work," he clarified.

Mentally exhausted from the conversation she looked up, "I'm teaching a friend how to rock climb. What's with the twenty questions Greg? Do you need me to tell Grissom that you don't have enough work to do?"

Standing he shook his head. "No I have plenty of that. I'll just go do that…work," he said point out the door.

"I think that's a great idea Greg," Grissom's voice recommended.

Greg watched Sara's focus shift instantly to their supervisor. "Hey Grissom," she greeted him.

Grissom held up a slip of paper, "Sara, we need to go. There's been a murder-suicide."

She stood, and gathered up her papers. "I'll be right there. Let me grab my kit and vest."

Greg watched her hurry out on her way to the locker room, and then looked up at the other man in the room. "Hey Grissom. Anything for me?" he asked hopeful.

"Yeah Greg, your form 1090's were all returned to me. You get to redo all of them," he offered with an amused smile.

The younger man groaned, "No one told me about all the paperwork."

Grissom slapped him on the back as they exited the room, "You didn't ask."

Before they parted, Greg took a chance, "What are you doing tonight?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?" he asked.

Greg stammered, but found no words to reply.

Feeling some pity on his subordinate, he held up his hand, and decided to be truthful. "I'm going rock climbing Greg. Now get to work," he ordered and turned away, failing to notice the shock left in his wake.

---/---

Pulling up to the crime scene Sara looked over at Grissom. "I think Greg tried to ask me out today," she told him, still trying to figure out the reason behind their strange conversation.

Parking he looked over at her, he smiled, "Funny. He asked me out too."

Her entire face was a question, but he exited the vehicle before she could figure out what he was talking about.

Opening her door, she met him at the back of the SUV. He handed off her kit, and they approached the police barricade.

"I need everyone to back up!" an officer was shouting to the onlookers.

Grissom moved to slip under the yellow crime scene tape.

"That goes for you too Dr. Grissom," they were instructed.

"Why, what's going on Officer…?" Sara asked looking at the house, and then back of the young officer. She searched for his nametag.

"Dallion, ma'am. One of the bullets nicked the propane tank attached to the hot water heater. It's a slow leak, they just detected it," he explained.

"Has the electricity been cut off?" Grissom asked.

Dallion nodded his head, "Yeah, but they have a generator in the basement that kicked in. O'Donnell and Foster are in there trying to turn it off before the whole neighborhood goes up in flames."

Sara swallowed hard; O'Donnell and Foster were both friends of hers. She had completed the search and rescue training with the two of them. "What can we do?" she asked still looking at their crime scene.

"We need to move this crowd back," the officer explained pushing the barrels forward.

Sara was immediately on the other side of the tape helping.

---/---

Ryan O'Donnell sighed in relief as the motor in the generator came to a final stop.

"Who owns a generator?" his partner asked relieving his stress through sarcasm.

Looking around the basement they both noted the stockpile of food, water, and supplies. Picking up one of the cans, Ryan blew off the dust. "They're all labeled 1999. They must have been one of the families that freaked out about Y2K, and never came down here to disconnect the thing once the world didn't come to an end," he reasoned.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Foster pointed for the stairs, "Shall we leave this death trap, and wait for the gas to air out?"

"Yeah, ok, let's go," he agreed and made his way up the stairs.

The instant his boot hit the carpet, a small spark ignited. It was all the catalyst the house needed.

---/---

Sara was walking toward Grissom when the sudden force knocked her flat on her face.

Grissom was unable to help her as he too was forced back. His head slammed against the pavement, and blackness suddenly enveloped him.

---/---

Grissom's sense of smell returned first. Smoke assaulted him, and an undercurrent of something familiar. He was suddenly aware of sirens blaring all around him, and soothing voice pulling him into consciousness.

"Grissom, can you hear me?" Sara's voice broke through the haze.

"Sara?"

"Yes, Grissom. Open your eyes," he prodded.

Everything was blurry as he finally obeyed her request. Blinking rapidly a dark form hovering over him slowly came into focus.

"Hey. You're still with me?" Sara asked lightly. "I'm sick of your excuses about why you can't go rock climbing."

Trying to sit up, she helped maneuver him so he could lean up against a nearby car. He cupped her chin, looking into her eyes, "Are you ok?"

She nodded slightly, tears threatening to fall.

"What is it? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked panicked as he searched her for injuries.

Sara shrugged him off, "I'm fine. It's Ryan and Derek. They're trapped in the house. They've been able to radio out, but Derek is in bad shape. The fire trucks just rolled up."

"Sara!" a man's voice shouted interrupting the pair.

Her head whipped around. She looked back at Grissom, squeezed his hand and stood to meet the man running toward them.

"Matt, what are you doing here?" she asked allowing him to hug her.

"Are you ok? Were you here when it blew?" he asked clearly concerned.

Grissom tried his best to quell his jealousy. Pushing off the car, he stood, but had to lean heavily on the car for support.

Sara saw his movement out of the corner of her eye and she move to help him, "Whoa Gris. You need to get checkout. I don't think you should be standing."

Matt looked at the smoldering house, "I heard about the explosion on Ryan's police scanner, and came here. Is he here?"

Sara looked back at her friend, and then at the house. "No. He and Foster are still inside. They're trapped," her last words hung in the air for a moment. Turning to Grissom, she knew he wasn't going to be happy with what she was about to propose, "I'm going to see if we can help get them out."

Opening his mouth to protest, the CSI in him knew that this was the very reason why she traveled to Spokane. He couldn't argue, and he had to trust that she was well trained. "Just be safe," he offered.

Nodding, she looked at her colleague and ran to the firemen that were unloading their gear.

---/---

Sara stood back and listened while the city engineer explained to the team where the officers were located and the best way to get to them.

"…it's a tight fit. We'll need someone small to go down first and see where the weak areas are of the structure."

Glancing at Grissom, she noted his clenched jaw. 'He's not going to like this one,' she thought before taking a step closer to the group. "I'll go," she stated simply.

Most of the men sized her up, and those who didn't know her looked with skepticism.

She bristled at their reactions, "I've been trained in hazardous search and rescue, and am a member of the Las Vegas disaster response task force."

"Ok then, let's get you geared up," the fire chief concluded, ceasing any further arguments.

Feeling slightly proud of her small victory, she turned toward Grissom. He pulled her out of ear shot, and Sara braced herself for what was coming.

"Sara this is too dangerous," he told her, fear mixed with anger to give his voice a quality she had never heard before.

"I'm their best chance," she explained rationally.

Looking up at the stars he attempted to gather his thoughts. Finally looking at her, his desperation was clearly evident. "Sara there could still be pockets of propane in there, not to mention the fact that the entire structure could collapse any minute now!"

They were attracting attention, and Sara was slightly embarrassed. "Grissom!" her harsh whispered scolded him. "If you weren't prepared for me to do this why did you let me take the training? I'm going in there to save a fellow officer," her tone made it clear the discussion was over.

She started to walk away, but was pulled back, "Grissom!"

He spun her so that his back was to the rescue workers. "Shh, just let me…Sara I'll be right here when you get out," he told her, fighting every urge to kiss her.

Sara placed her hand on his chest. She fingered his button, "I'll be fine. You should go get your head checked out." Even as she spoke she realized how comforting it would be to know he was waiting for her.

"Sidle! Saddle up," Matt Mackenzie called out.

Sara squeezed his hand before walking to Matt who was holding her gear.

He smirked, "Did you see what I did there? Sidle. Saddle."

"Yeah, you're a genuine Robert Frost there Mackenzie," she told him, taking the helmet from him.

Grissom watched the two interact from a distance and realized his jealousy was due to Matt Mackenzie's presence, but was directed at their freedom to interact genuinely and openly.

"I could find you a pink brain bucket," he teased her as she buckled the white helmet.

"This will work just fine," she told him, and headed toward the rubble.

TBC…