Disclaimer: Not mine, how many times do I have to repeat it? My eternal gratitude to Anthony E. Zuicker and co for creating the wonderful show that is CSI.

Author's Note: School… let's blame it for everything! Or at least the holding up of this chapter (since it IS the pile of stuff I have to do's fault that I don't have time to write fanfic!) Anyway, on with the story….

Chapter 9

"Lunch time!" Sara chirped, setting down the tweezers she was using to delicately remove fibres from the suspect's coat with. "I'm meeting Greg, so I'd better not leave him waiting for too long… or our lab rat may venture out of his hole to find out where I am."

Usually, she wouldn't have dreamed of going until they had actually found what they were looking for, but once they had found it, they would need Greg to test it. So if the two of them didn't go now, they could well not get a chance to go out at all. Warrick and Nick could handle the evidence for the second, and she was downright sick of looking for tiny little fibres on a coat made up of tiny little fibres. She wanted them to get their guy, of course, but her eyes were beginning to complain, and they were only about three-fifths of the way through the guy's wardrobe.

The guys nodded together "Just be back on time, Miss Lovebird," Nick teased her, "Warrick and I want our breaks too, and we need your little lab-rat for analysis."

"Of course… wouldn't want you boys getting all faint on me, would I?" Sara tossed back, "I know how delicate you can be if you big tough men don't get to eat."

She had a feeling that if there had been anything other than evidence to toss at her, they would have. She nipped out the door, and down to the lab at double speed, almost bashing Greg with the lab door when she pushed through it.

He steadied her, "Whoa, whoa! I know I'm sexy, but a few seconds longer away from me wouldn't kill you. No need to rush!"

She smacked him on the arm, and he grinned down at her, "Ready for lunch then, I take it?" he asked, mock offering her his arm to rest her hand on. She rolled her eyes, and the two of them strolled out of the building together, down to the little all hours café down the street.

It was only when she came outside, either to a crime scene, or for some other reason, that it really sunk in that it was the middle of the night. The lab ran on it s own time, and seemed a totally different world. In reality, 'lunch' was earlier than people generally ate breakfast. But it was roundabout half way through their shift, so lunch break it was always called.

Back at the lab, Catherine wandered into the room where Nick and Warrick were still working on the evidence, "where's Sara?" she asked, "I wanted to borrow her for a couple hours, for our case, if you guys aren't too busy here,"

"Um… she's on her lunch break," Nick told her, "Bounded out of here as early as she could. She's not due back for a half hour."

"Is that so?" Catherine asked, a sly tone coming into her voice, "With Greggo, I suppose?"

"Of course. When are they ever apart?" Warrick replied, rolling his eyes, "They seem joined at the hip recently." Personally, he was all for it. They both seemed happy, and the pair of them needed a break. When they'd been spending so much time with each other, they hadn't been able to spend so much time with their minds concentrating only on work. Sara seemed more relaxed these days. And Greg… well, was as cheerful and relaxed as ever, but seemed to have an even bigger grin on his face whenever Rick saw him.

"Well, since I need Sara, how about we all have our lunch break?" Catherine suggested, her eyes glinting, "In fact, how about we surprise the love-birds by joining them. Maybe we'll finally get some information out of them!"

"Yikes, you really have a thing about their relationship, don't you?" Nick asked, "I mean… snooping is all well and good, but shouldn't we let them have their lunch in peace?"

"If I thought they were being serious and honest about what's going on, I would leave them to it," Catherine said, her tone turning more serious, "But I have a gut feeling that something's going on, and I do not like being tricked." The whole sudden change from sort-of-friendly to inseparable had her 'something is going on' detector beeping full blast. And the investigator in her wanted to know what exactly was going on. She liked both of them, but she did not like being lied to. And if that was the case, she wanted to know about it.

She smiled her herself. Okay, the real reason was she didn't like the feeling of being out of the loop when it came to friends. And in this, she felt not only out-of-the-loop, but right in another loop altogether. And she was also getting the feeling that was right where Greg and Sara wanted her and everyone else. It was infuriating, really. A lab full of hot-shot investigators couldn't even figure out what two of the youngest of their number were up to.

"Are you coming or not?"

The two men obediently trotted along to the men's locker room to change out of their lab clothes into some cleaner ones more suitable for lunch. While they were getting ready, Catherine cleared then all leaving with a surprised Grissom, who had not expected his whole team to take their breaks at once, but who didn't really mind so long as they got everything that needed doing done. Once that was done, Catherine stuck her head into the locker rooms, smiling as Warrick and Nick hurriedly pulled on the remainder of their clothing.

"Geeze, Cath! It's called the men's change room for a reason!" Warrick protested, bending to do up his shoes.

"Well, you were taking so long, and I figured the sight of me might hurry you up a little," Catherine said unapologetically, "We're going to miss them if we don't go soon!" And her resolve that she was going to solve this little mystery once-and-for-all today had only strengthened, making her impatient to get going.

She rushed them all out the lab door, feeling like she did with Lindsey when her daughter was dragging her feet, not wanting to go somewhere. The boys were coming, but they weren't anywhere near as keen as she was. In fact, she suspected they might be tagging along just to keep an eye on her. So possibly they were feeling motherly – fatherly, technically- too. Afterall, what was a parent for if not to keep an eye out. And the lab bunch, investigators and techs alike were like a family.

"So, they're still lapping it up?" Greg laughed, leaning across the table closer to Sara. Some of their colleagues were in here as well, and Greg didn't doubt that some of them weren't above eavesdropping, so the pair of them were speaking quite softly, their voices drowned out to people other than themselves with the water feature they were sitting next to, and the dull roar of traffic from outside.

"They seem to be," Sara sighed, "But I really think Cath's on to us." She paused, biting her lip and wondering if she should actually ask this, "Greg… don't you think it's time we drop the ruse?"

Greg's heart fell. She didn't want to pretend to be dating him anymore. And he had felt like it had been going so well. He had gotten to know Sara so well over the past month, and he knew he had been falling in something greater than lust with her. In fact, he would almost bet that he was well on his way to being in puppy-love.

"If you really think we should," he responded flatly.

Sara stared at him. He hadn't taken that the way she had expected him to. She had expected him to want the same thing as she did.

Then, she realised how she had phrased the question may not have been the best choice of words, and the other way it could have been taken. She had meant, stop pretending and make it for real. Afterall, she was attracted to him, and she had known for a long time that he liked her too. Now, she was well ready for them to be more than friends. She was definitely deeply in like with him, and it was deepening and strengthening every day.

"Uh huh!" A voice yelled triumphantly from the table closest to them, "I knew you were up to something, Sara Sidle! Pretending to date Greg and wind us all up. Low."

Two heads, one fair, one dark whipped around to see Catherine sitting, with a sheepish-looking Nick and Warrick,.

"What? Were you guys spying on us?" Sara snapped, her temper aroused by this invasion of her – and Greg's- privacy. She glared, "You're supposed to be out friends. Doesn't that count for anything? Like, shouldn't you let us alone when we're having a private lunch?" she asked, stressing the private. They had just totally ruined the moment.

"Well, if you hadn't been lying to us, we wouldn't have had to resort to spying to find out what was going on."

"It was a joke, Catherine. To get our own back on all the gossips at the lab. I never expected you to be one of them. In fact, I think you're worse. The gossips only make stories up, maybe eavesdrop. You're someone I thought I could trust, and what? You think spying is a good way to 'protect' us both? We were fine before you came along."

She shoved herself out of her seat, strode around to Greg's side of the table, and planted a hard kiss on his lips, "What I wanted to say to Greg– before you guys interrupted– was, do you want to go out? For real, no more pretending." With that, she tossed some money on the table to cover her part of the bill and stormed out of the café, back in the direction of the lab, without even waiting for his answer.

Greg stared after her. "Wow…" he murmured.

Author's Note: As you may be able to tell, this is winding down, and the next chapter is most likely the final. However, a sequel is likely, so keep an eye out for the final chapter and the possible sequel ;) Reviews are, as always, greatly appreciated and useful!