Grissom walked into his office quickly, trying to avoid everybody. He didn't want to face all the questions about what had happened and he wanted to change before pouring his heart out to Sara. He closed the door behind him and pulled the shirt from the hook on the back of the door. As he slipped the fresh shirt over his head (to avoid having to try fastening any buttons) he heard a man's voice say, "Hello Mr CSI man."

Grissom slipped his head out of the neck opening in the shirt and saw a man sitting at his desk. Had he been there when he walked in? He was angered by the fact that he couldn't remember. A CSI's perceptiveness is one of his greatest assets and for Grissom to have missed someone seated in his chair. As if seeing the question in Grissom's eyes, the man said, "I've been hidden behind your desk for about 2 hours now. What took you so long?" He asked rhetorically. that's strange Grissom thought.

"Did I miss our appointment?" the supervisor asked, knowing full well he did not. Who took appointments at 3:30am? But it was a safer way to ask, without being rude.

"Who needs an appointment when we're old friends?" He smirked. "Dr Grissom, you don't remember me? My name is..."

"Jerome Thayer." Grissom finished for him.

"That's right! You put my family behind bars 10 years ago. I just got out...happy to see me?"

"The bomb in that apartment building...that was your work?"

"Yes." A bright smile lit up his sociopathic face.

"Can I ask why you're here?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" he said. Getting up from Grissom's chair, he started to remove his jacket, making himself at home. What caught Grissom's eye was the blinking red light on the man's chest and as he unzipped the rest of his jacket, the CSI supervisor made the fearful realization that this man was covered in C-4. He took a deep breath, "I realize you're angry..." Grissom was cut off.

"ANGRY? If you'd hit me I'd be angry. If you stole my girl I'd be angry. You took away 10 years of my life!" he yelled. "Lock the door."

Grissom had no choice, he did as the man asked.

"I'm glad you know the meaning of compliance. That'll make this a lot easier. I want you to shut up and listen to what I had to go through because of you."

Grissom nodded but the intruder didn't even get the chance to start. The doorknob rattled.

"Grissom?" a muffled voice said from beyond the door. It was Catherine.

"Grissom what are you doing in there? We heard screaming?"

"Who is that?" Jerome quietly demanded to know.

"Catherine Willows. My second in command." he replied after a while, deciding the information couldn't hurt.

"Oh yeah? Cool. Well…how do we tell her she'll soon be the first in command?"

Grissom's eyes shut briefly as he struggled to keep composure, and reopened them to look at his kidnapper.

"Grissom?" Catherine called again.

"Oh…I have an idea…let's see if she picks up on it." He got closer to the door and opened the shades in the side window letting her peer inside. He stood there wand put his arm proudly around Grissom's neck, showing off the dynamite strapped to his chest.

Catherine's jaw dropped and her eyes widened and locked with Grissom's. Suddenly the blinds were shut again and Catherine stood in the hall, trying to make sense of what she had just seen. Then she heard the man yell "Back off!" from within the office. She took one step back, then another and bumped into Warrick.

"Hey…woah…Cath you alright?" he asked, seeing her facial expression.

She turned to him and managed to stammer out, "cell phone…give me your…cell phone." as she pulled him down the hallway, away from Grissom's office but still in sight.

"Sure." Warrick said questioningly. "Where's yours?" he asked, removing his cell from his jacket pocket and handing it to her.

"Don't know." She absentmindedly answered. After punching in the Sheriff's number she held the phone to her ear and clutched onto Warrick's shirt at the waist, keeping him there. She needed some reassurance, some form of support. Warrick placed one hand on Catherine's shoulder and he saw Sara approaching them.

"What's going on?" Sara queried. Warrick shook his head in response and added a shrug to emphasize his point that he had no clue. When Catherine started talking, or rather blurting out, Warrick and Sara's eyes went wide with disbelief and fear. Sara walked to Grissom's office window and tried to see inside, in vain. She returned to them, panicked. Catherine was now off the phone and in Warrick's arms. Sara faced them and raised her voice, "Well? What do we do? We have to do something!"

"Catherine, what do you know?" asked Warrick, pulling her ever so slightly away from him and bending his head down to look at her. Catherine regained her composure and got into work mode at this question.

"Not much…Grissom's door was locked but I had just seen him go inside. When I knocked, he didn't answer. I knocked again and the blinds next to the door opened. I saw a man with his arm around Gil's shoulders and he had…dynamite strapped to his chest." She looked at Warrick, "there was enough there to blow the whole lab away."

"Guys! What do we do!" Sara demanded, on the verge of tears.

"Sara, calm down. We'll help him but you have to lower your voice, if the man hears you…" Warrick didn't have time to finish. Sara stormed off toward the locker room

Catherine and Warrick looked at each other, wondering what that was all about. Neither of them said anything and Catherine closed her eyes briefly. When she reopened them, she was the same calm and collected CSI she was on any other crime scene.

"OK, War, think. What can we do?" They stood there pensively until Catherine's eyes sparked with an idea. Her head snapped up to meet Warrick's gaze and she said, "Stay here, I'll be right back." With that, she turned on her heels and ran in the other direction.

As soon as she'd left, Warrick crept closer to Grissom's office to see if he could hear their conversation. He reached the first window and crouched to the ground so as to remain out of sight. Even though the blinds were shut, he didn't want to take a chance with his shadow or anything that could give him away and anger the man in Grissom's office. All he could hear was muffled words. They weren't speaking loud enough…

Someone grabbed his shoulder and he jumped back to standing position. He quickly took a step back out of sight from the window and turned around to see Sara stooping there trying to get ahead of him, her gun in hand.

"Sara! What are you doing?" he whispered harshly.

"I'm going to shoot him through the glass. I can't just sit here and not do anything." She said as she shot Warrick a glance over her shoulder.

"Sar, you can't do that! You don't know how he's rigged! You can't even see him. What if you shoot Grissom instead?" he said as he tried to pull her back behind him. She fought back.

"Let go of me! I have to help him."

"Sara, what if it's a release trigger?" Warrick suggested, keeping his grip on her, preventing her from getting in shooting stance. Her eyes considered this and she took a step back into Warrick's arms. He hugged his frightened friend from behind and took her gun from her, holstering it at his waist.

"Catherine has an idea, she said she'd be back quickly, just hang on." He reassured her quietly.

"And here I am…" Catherine had fingerprint powder and her duster in her hands. "If there's only one door and no windows that open, there's only one way in…it's worth a shot." She said and stepped in front of them, not knowing what Sara had just tried. Catherine kept herself low to the ground and silently dusted the doorknob and what she could of the door frame. From her back pocket she produced a couple tape lifters and lifted three prints. When she was done she left her duster and powder on the floor, removed her shoes, placing them silently on the ground, and ran down to the print lab. After explaining the situation to the print lab tech, she got him to bump all other priorities and run the three she'd just collected.

Fifteen minutes later, she ran back in stockinged feet to the hall where Warrick and Sara were left waiting but there was no one there. She quickly looked around and saw a light flicker towards Grissom's office. She followed the direction it came from and upon finding it's source, she saw Sara flicker a light towards the office again with Warrick standing in front of it.

"It's Jerome Thayer. Grissom testified against him 10 years ago…What are you guys doing?" she asked, noticing that they hadn't stopped their light show.

"We're trying to get Grissom to turn the desk light on and get the man…Jerome Thayer…to stand in front of it… like a spotlight. Then if we turn the hall lights off, we'll be able to see him and hopefully pick up on what kind of rigging he's got on."

"Oh, good thinking. In that case, I'm gonna go find Nick. We should let him in on this too…"

"Yeah you're right. He'll be pissed that we didn't get him sooner." Warrick watched her shuffle off.

A few minutes later, Warrick and Sara saw the light turn on in Grissom's office. Sara silently thanked the powers that be that Grissom was the intelligent man he was. That was one of the main reasons why she had fallen in love with him. She knew that now and for the second time in one day she was coming close to losing him. She felt tears sting her eyes and she shut them tightly trying to fight them off. She was startled back to reality when she heard Nick walk in saying, "I can't believe you guys didn't call me before now!"

"Nick, man, it wasn't planned…we were just thinking of ways to get Gris out of there…"

"Both of you shut up! Not now! Warrick I just remembered, I saw his trigger when he opened the blinds earlier. It's just a button…not a release trigger!" Catherine almost shouted.

"That's great! Perfect! Sara hit the hall lights!"

Sara quickly obeyed and they were soon standing in near darkness. Nick pulled the pistol from Warrick's belt and stode confidently over to Grissom window.

"Hey Nick, hang on. We only get one shot at this. Who's the marksman here?" They all looked at each other. Sara raised her hands in a 'not me' gesture.

"Ok, well, who got what on their last proficiency testing?" he suggested. "I got an 87."

"89." Warrick gave.

Catherine's eyes grew a little wider, "92." She said, realizing it was up to her.

"Ok then, Cath, you're it." Nick said, handing her the pistol he'd taken from Warrick.

Catherine took the gun from her co-worker's, watched his eyes for a moment and closed her own in silent prayer. A prayer to God…to Lindsay…to Grissom. Too much was at stake here. One shot. I cannot screw this up. she thought.

"You can do this Cath" she heard Warrick say and she opened her eyes to him. And with that, she walked off toward her boss' office, her lack of shoes making her approach undetectable. When she reached her chosen spot she knelt on one knee to gain more stability. She could see two shadowy figures and it took her no time at all to determine which one was Jerome Thayer and which was Grissom. She took a deep breath in one last attempt to calm her nerves. Deciding to shoot for the head since shooting him in the chest was taking chances with dynamite and shooting him in the leg would keep him alive and that was taking chances with a psychotic mind who would still be able to hit the trigger button.

She raised her right arm and braced it with her left. She shut one eye and with the other looked through the aperture. Her finger tightened on the trigger as she held her breath. She heard the shot before she realized she'd pulled the trigger completely. Glass shattered and the blinds shook with the impact, but they still shielded the view of the scene beyond them. There was no sound other than glass shattering to the ground and the blinds shaking. Nick was the first to reach the window. He parted the blinds slowly to one side to gain visual access to Grissom's office. Catherine dropped her gun to the floor as Warrick helped her to her feet and Sara approached Nick's side, searching for an answer. He turned to her and smiled wearily, then turned to Catherine.

"They should bump that 92 to an even 100." Catherine let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and Warrick wrapped his arms around her for congratulations and support. "That's my girl." He cooed. Catherine was shaking from the adrenaline rush and Warrick's warmth was welcomed.

"Gris?" Nick called out. A few seconds went by before the group got an answer.

"Yeah." They heard a breathy sigh escape from the window and the door unlocked to reveal a shock-faced Gil Grissom.

The second word out of his mouth was, "Sara…"

"Grissom…" Sara said as she left Nick's side and closed the distance between them. She threw herself in his arms as he wrapped them around her.

"I love you they both said simultaneously. Surprised at the other's admission, they both pulled back a little to look at each other, then collapsed in a hug once more. When they released each other the second time, partially, not wanting to sever the connection completely, Grissom asked, "Who took that shot?"

"Hawkeye over here did." Warrick said, giving Catherine a little squeeze with his arm still around her shoulders.

"And who's idea was the light flickering?"

"That was a combined effort between Sara and I." Warrick explained.

"Ok, so that give you the responsibility of calling this in to Brass." Grissom said, turning to Nick with a small smile. He thought for a moment and added, "and we'll need statements from all of you."

"Consider it done." Nick said, his cell phone already in hand.

"Always the supervisor aren't you?" Catherine teased. Grissom smiled and slipped his arm around Sara's waist before saying, "Sorry. It's a habit…thank you, everyone. Maybe I'll have to organize some extra time off for this…"

They all smiled, despite knowing how much paperwork they had ahead of them.

A/N: Hey…so let me know what you think, positive criticism appreciated! I'm not sure exactly where to go from here, so if you also have ideas, pass them along. THX!