Title: Wash Away Part Three

Disclaimer: See prior chapters.

Note: If you like LH, then I'm giving caution because I don't...and it shows.

March, 2006

"Hey friend, what's going on with you?" Warrick asked as he leaned on the layout counter and bumped her gently with his elbow.

Sara pushed a strand of thickening hair behind her ear and forced a smile in his direction before bending back over the layout table and the evidence they had collected that day. "This perp was smart, but not as smart as us." She said in an attempt to change the subject. For the past two months she had managed to avoid all personal talk with everyone at the lab and still was able to keep her secret.

Feeling the small bulge in her bully press against the counter, she knew that she could not keep this secret much longer and would soon have to make a plan of action.

Watching her reaction, Warrick refused to take the bait. "You haven't been yourself for the past few months, Sara, talk to me." He waited for a response, anything that told him she was okay. Like everyone else in the lab he had watched her relationship with Grissom implode and like everyone else wondered exactly what had happened between them. He knew that after the case involving Lady Heather neither one of them had been the same. Rumors surrounding his relationship with the dominatrix abounded, but he had not bought any of them. Surely, Sara had not believed the rumors?

Drawing in a deep breath, he decided to lay it on the line and ask her for the truth. "You haven't been the same since that weird ass case involving the dominatrix." He saw Sara's back tense as she ground her teeth. He should have stopped. He should have, but he found himself pressing forward. "Sara, you can't believe that Griss would be interested in that bitch, could you? The man is too intelligent for that kind of bullshit."

Sara turned her head slowly, but her eyes were drawn to the doorway. "I don't know, Warrick, why don't you ask him how he could be interested in woman who is all about submission?"

Warrick followed the direction of her gaze and found himself in an eye lock with Grissom. As if he had not dug the hole deep enough, he plowed deeper. "Good. You two really need to talk. If it gets any colder in this place, Doc Robbins can store the bodies in the hallway." Squaring his shoulders he brushed past Grissom, who was now staring at Sara as if he had not seen her in years.

Thinking he would turn tail and run, Sara returned her attention to the evidence on the layout table. She thought that she had been keeping up a good front with everyone. She performed her cases with a new intensity and focus that she had not thought possible given that every time she turned around she had to endure another rumor.

"Hi there," Grissom said in a low growl, as he walked to the opposite side of the layout table and stood facing her with silent trepidation. "I haven't see you in awhile."

"I'm here everyday." Sara replied, the words echoing in her mind from a similar response to that same sentiment years ago. She picked up a photo and narrowed her eyes on something in the background.

"I miss you." Grissom said softly as his eyes darted to the doorway and then back to her face. He watched her lower the photo and let her eyes travel up to his.

"That's too bad, Grissom, because I don't miss you."

She watched him flinch and instantly regretted the harshness of her words. Then she thought of his words that day to Catherine and wondered if she could pretend that he did not have such strong emotions for another woman. Not just another woman, she reminded herself, but one with a lifestyle that was completely foreign to everything she believed in. A woman who could use sex as a weapon. A woman who could tie a man to a car and whip him to shreds.

Instead of storming from the room in anger or defeat, Grissom appeared to be in a fighting mood. "I don't know what your problem is, Sara. Everything was fine between us and then you jumped to conclusions over a simple comment that I made to Catherine."

Sara's eyes narrowed in anger. "I know that you didn't just say what I thought you said, Grissom." She steadied her emotions as she heard her own voice rising higher. "I don't think we should talk about this here."

She saw a light of hope flicker in his eyes. "Then we can talk about this over breakfast?"

"No." Sara gripped the photo in her hand. "I need to take these to Archie."

"It can wait." Grissom felt his frustration build. The anger that was moving him scared him on some level he had always feared would affect him if Sara told him it was over. He thought that he had done decently over the past few months, giving her space, but hearing Warrick address Sara and knowing that the lab was all talking about their estrangement was too much for him. He had thought if he gave her some time they would revert to their friendly pattern and eventually the incident she had overheard would fade into the past. At least that is what he had convinced himself of as he lay in bed alone or chopped vegetables and made an omelete just like Sara liked it before realizing she would not be there to eat it. "We need to talk."

"You don't have strong feelings for Lady Heather?" Sara asked. She watched the emotions flicker over his face and his eyes lower to the table.

"It's not like you think, Sara. My feelings for Heather and my feelings for you are two very different things. One has nothing to do with the other." Grissom looked up at her as a red flush crept up Sara's neck in a manner that he knew indicated she was pissed.

"I get it." Sara knew her voice was carrying, but she did not care. She could blame it own hormones, but she knew that it was weeks of emotions warring inside. "I'm good enough to screw and keep behind the scenes, while Lady Heather is the classy broad you can discuss with Brass and Catherine. You can brood over her in the lab, and hug her in the eyes of anyone, not once, but several times. Why don't you go to her, Grissom? Why are you telling me you miss me when you can run to the woman that is your intellectual equal?"

"Heather is in Europe." Grissom said without thinking. He quickly realized his mistake when Sara smiled tightly. "It wouldn't matter if she wasn't, Sara. I miss you, not her."

"You miss the sex." Sara stated with a flatness that broke his heart. "Which surprises me considering I don't use submissive behavior and neither do you when we are in bed or out of bed for that matter." She hesitated and then shot the arrow. "Except the last time. You were in control then, weren't you?" Without waiting for his reply she spun on her heels to leave and found they had an audience.

Catherine stood with her mouth hanging open. Brass looked grim and Warrick, stunned. She pushed past them all and fled the building, determined that it was time for her to think about her baby. She ignored the looks of several lab techs as she hurried past them, one thought on her mind. Refuge.

TBC