DISCLAIMER: Don't Own It, No Money Made... Just for fun & enjoyment.

RATING: M for Mature. For language and mature situations in later chapters.

A/N: The moment you are all waiting for... Well, one of them anyway. ;) Let the fireworks begin :D

REVIEWS: Thanks to all who have reviewed. I have been overwhelmed with the response lately and it has been greatly appreciated. I hope you all will continue to enjoy this story


Chapter 16

There was no escaping it tonight: Sara Sidle would have to go down to autopsy. She had managed to avoid the place all week, and thankfully, everyone assumed she was still cooling down from her run in with the new coroner the week before. If they only knew, she thought to herself. However, even that excuse was getting a little old; especially when the coroner had sent her an apology in the form of an enormous arrangement of flowers. Sara knew she would have to deal with the woman soon enough, but she had been hoping to get a better handle on her emotions before that happened.

Things had been going so much better with Grissom, so when Sara learned of the longstanding relationship between him and the new M.E., she was in complete shock. She had to admit that Grissom seemed very comfortable with the younger woman, and he also had been much happier since her arrival. Sara just wished that she had been the reason for his happiness.

As she walked down the stairs to the morgue she mourned for the loss of the opportunity to be with Grissom, but she also chastised herself for making so many wrong assumptions. She had always assumed that one of Grissom's biggest hang-ups about a relationship with her revolved around their age difference. Having met Dr. Stephanie MacInnerney, she realized that was not case, since Sara easily had five or more years on the young pathologist.

No, Sara decided that Grissom was apparently more shallow than she had originally thought. After all, each of the women he had been linked to were all exceptional beauties; classically beautiful women. First there was the anthropologist; the sultry blonde with the gentle soul, intelligence and calm Sara wished she had. Then there was Lady Heather; by all accounts a ravishing beauty who was able to match Grissom point for point when it came to classical literature. And then came Sofia; the sexy, passionate and intelligent former CSI, turned detective. Each of them had exceptional traits, both physically and mentally. Grissom was obviously attracted to gorgeous, intelligent women who were all larger than life, and by default Sara assumed that his lack of interest in her stemmed from her just not being one of those kinds of women.

This latest woman was no different; Dr. MacInnerney was young for a doctor, having finished school early. Greg even referred to her as a genius, and after reading her reports from the last two weeks, Sara had to admit that it was very possible. But it was her beauty which struck everyone who met her. She was taller than most of the men around the lab, so when she walked into a room or down a hall, everyone noticed. When she stood up, it was impressive and intimidating, and she used it to her advantage; Sara had already gotten a little taste of that during their first meeting. And not only was she tall, there was nothing gangly or awkward about her height. Instead, the woman was obviously quite athletic: the delicate definition of the muscles on her arms was a strong indicator of her physical conditioning. She had heard from Warrick that the woman once played collegiate basketball, so she was obviously in very good shape.

However, Sara though that her hair was what most people remembered and commented on, as it was the absolute perfect shade of auburn. The color was deep and rich and it caught your eye immediately, as it sparkled in any setting. She kept it at a shorter length than most people would, but the curl in her hair gave it so much body, that it did not appear to be too short. And to match that luscious red hair, she had the deepest green eyes Sara could ever recall seeing before. They shined like precious gems when she spoke, or smiled, and even Sara was stricken with their unfathomable clarity.

Her smile was most likely the other thing people were smitten with, and it was most definitely a strong asset. Sara imagined she had undergone a lot of orthodontia to get a smile like that, but the fact was, it was only Sara's jealousy which told her that, and the woman probably just had good genes for teeth.

Finally, Sara thought, her skin was also striking. She had the faintest of freckles across the bridge of her nose but the rest of her skin resembled that of the finest porcelain dolls. To top it all off, Sara surmised that the woman did not wear even the smallest trace of makeup. She was naturally beautiful in every sense of the word.

As she listed off each of the woman's physical attributes in her head, Sara realized that it would be impossible to even dream of competing with someone like that for Grissom's affections. Because, although she was a stunning beauty, she was, more importantly, Grissom's equal (if not his superior) intellectually.

So, Sara Sidle resigned herself to finally getting over Gil Grissom. She had made that decision, and the only thing left to do was to follow through on it. To that end, Sara figured it would be easier if she could just avoid the two of them at all costs. She could deal with the situation a lot better if it was not being shoved down her throat at every turn. She had asked to adjust her schedule; using some lame reason for needing time off during the week, which gave her two days of uninterrupted avoidance of the new couple.

Since it was Saturday, she was safely headed off to Autopsy, sure that she would find the weekend guy slowly processing her DB. The weekend guy was slow, and he was sloppy, but he was not involved with Grissom, and it made him a much better choice at that moment in time. Pushing through the doors into Autopsy, she found Ricky, the weekend assistant, as he closed one of the drawers. "Hey, Ricky."

Ricky looked back at her with a worried expression on his face, and motioned for her to lower her voice, "Shhhhh…" Ricky looked back in the direction of the office.

Sara lowered her voice, but she did not understand the point of the exercise, "I don't think the DB's can hear us, man."

Ricky laughed off her joke, "Nah… But the M.E. can." He pointed towards the office, "Catching a few Z's before the next one comes through."

Sara scrunched up her face into a question mark, "Since when do we give the M.E.'s nap time?"

Ricky laughed again, "When they've been here for fourty nine straight hours… That woman is an animal!" He was still whispering and had turned back to the office, to make sure he had not woken the woman on the other side of the glass. So, he failed to see the terrified expression on Sara's face.

When he turned back to face Sara, she had to think fast, "So, why has she been here that long?"

He just shrugged, as though he thought everyone already knew what was going on, "Well, she was covering for Doc Robbins anyway, since he had some conference this weekend… And they both had been covering for Doc Polaski all week, since his wife had an emergency delivery Monday… And last night Travis walked out, so she got stuck in here with a gang shootout to sort through."

He looked back again, just to make sure his talking had not disturbed the woman. "Hell, she's on her fifth assistant since she clocked in Thursday night! I can't figure out how she's still alive. 'Bout an hour ago the County Coroner called and said he got Desert Palms Pathology to pick up some slack, so she's only got the critical cases until Doc Robbins flies back from his conference in the morning."

He explained everything to a still dumbstruck Sara and failed to notice the stirring in the next room. So, to say he was shocked when the raspy voice emerged behind him was an understatement.

"And it won't be soon enough." Sara and Ricky both nearly came out of their skins when Stephanie croaked those words. The doctor rubbed at her face, as though she was trying to restore the circulation to her face with her hand, "What can I do for you, Ms. Sidle?" Obviously the woman had taken Sara's avoidance that week as a sign she was still angry with her for their altercation. She was going to have to fix that before it became the elephant in the room no one talked about.

Before Sara could respond, Stephanie began a yawn that obviously came from her toes, and as the yawn concluded, she stretched her whole body upwards. And though she thought it was impossible, Sara was sure the doctor looked even taller in that gesture. "Sorry about that… Kind of rude, but the only way I'm staying up right now." And she launched into another mega-yawn, though this one was accompanied by the rubbing of her brow as the air escaped her mouth.

"Oh well… I didn't mean to-… Well, you know wa-…" Sara took a deep breath and attempted to calm her nerves. When she found her resolve, she spoke again, "Sorry, I didn't realize you had gotten stuck here this weekend. I was just looking for the report on the case I'm working…" She remembered how the doctor recalled her patients, so she recited the information back to her in that format, "Taylor, fourty-six year old male, probable drowning?"

Stephanie nodded her head in acknowledgement, since she was entrenched in yet another yawn. She turned back into the office and re-emerged with a folder in her hands, "Here ya go… It's all there." The doctor walked back into the office and Sara could hear the sound of glass against porcelain as Stephanie poured herself a cup of coffee. When she came back out drinking from the mug, Sara and Ricky both could tell the taste was not what she was expecting.

"You okay, Doc?" Ricky asked with some concern.

She was still visibly wincing from the taste of the black liquid, "Did we replace the coffee with motor oil at some point?" She reached up to her mouth and spit something out into her hand, "And gravel?"

Ricky slammed his fist into his hand, "Dammit! That freaking coffee maker is a total piece of shit. That's the second time this week it's gone out." He went into the office and grabbed the coffee pot, carried it into the Autopsy Room, and poured the contents out into the waste sink. Sara could see chunks of foreign material falling out over the rim, and was forced to wince as well.

When she turned to avoid the sight of the coffee pot being emptied, she saw Stephanie absently about to take another drink from her cup, so she reached out and put her hand over the cup, as she attempted to remove it from the M.E.'s grip. "Oh man… Don't drink that." She handed the cup to Ricky, who had crossed the room again to retrieve it.

Sara could not believe what she was about to do, but it seemed like the only logical thing, under the circumstances, "C'mon… I have a fresh pot of some of Greg's secret stash that should be ready by now."

Barely able to put two thoughts together at that moment, Stephanie was easily led out of autopsy, "I just need something to help me hold out for six and a half more hours… Nothing special."

"Well, then you're in for a treat, because Greg has the best coffee in the place. And what he doesn't know can't hurt us." The doctor made a noise that could have been a chuckle, if she had not been so exhausted.

When they reached the lab break room, Sara guided the doctor to sit in one of the chairs, and then she went to the sink to clean out a cup for her to use, and her own cup as well. Sara returned to the table with two mugs of hot coffee and tapped the doctor on the shoulder to get her attention so that she could pass her the mug.

Slowly looking to her side, Stephanie found a steaming mug of coffee at her left shoulder and reached around to take the cup and cradle it between her hands. She blew across the top of the mug and then inhaled sharply to get the odor of the mystery coffee into her nostrils, in the hopes that it would trigger some association with being awake in her brain. She was pleasantly surprised by the aroma of the coffee in her hands, and decided this might have been the best idea she had heard in the last (she mentally counted back the hours in her head for a moment) fourty nine hours. She blew across the top one more time, taking in the aroma again before she dove in, and took her first taste of the consciousness sustaining fluid.

The amazing taste of the coffee in her hands was enough to give her a moment of clarity. She was in the lab break room, having coffee with the one person she had not been able to create a positive working relationship with yet. Then she remembered Hodges. Well, leeches don't count as people, she thought to herself. She was unable to hide the chuckle which escaped when she had that thought, and Sara had an inquisitive look on her face.

"Something funny about the coffee?" Sara tried to be calm when she spoke, and she found that it was not as hard as she would have thought.

"Not the coffee… Just thought to myself, I must be completely exhausted out of my mind, because I'm sitting down having coffee with the one person who'd like to see me roasting on a spit, and that this stuff could have been poisoned." As soon as the words left her mouth, Stephanie realized that, not only was she tired beyond belief, but that she had just unleashed her dark humor on an unsuspecting and probably undeserving woman.

Sara nearly choked on her coffee in her bid to keep it from spraying all over the Break Room. She cleared her throat and then responded from instinct, "Roasted on a spit might be a little harsh, poisoning a little too gentle." When she felt the other woman's eyes on her, she turned her head slightly and raised her eyebrow to its unbelievable height.

That was when they both burst out laughing, with the tension draining from each of them with every breath. Sara was overcome with a sense of relief in the act itself. She had been burying everything for days now, and it had been eating away at her soul. Everything she heard about this woman made her think that, under different circumstances, she would have been interested in getting to know her better, but the green-eyed monster prevented that from coming to pass, until now.

Stephanie was the first to speak, "Look, I know I was a total jerk last week, and I really am sorry for the whole mess. I hope this means we can get past all that…" She sat back in her chair as she attempted to form another thought.

Sara beat her to the punch, "You aren't the only one who needs to clear the air… I have something of a reputation for overreacting, as I am sure you've heard, and I guess it was just hard to get past that." She took a deep breath and knew in her heart that what she was about to say was important and needed to be done, "And if you can forget that I am a cast-iron bitch, I can forget about the hot-headed, total jerk thing… Deal?"

Stephanie let out a deep sigh before she answered, "That's the best idea I've heard all week…" With the removal of the regret from their first meeting, and the stimulation of the coffee, Stephanie had to add one more thing, "And I never thought you were a cast-iron bitch… Aluminum, maybe." The two women shared some hearty laughter and enjoyed their coffee.

It was not long before the two began to talk about everything that had gone on in the lab that week, their professional backgrounds, where they had worked, what their goals were, and their theories about certain evidentiary practices and procedures. Sara regaled her with stories about the others in the lab, tried to warn her about Hodges and gave her tips for dealing with a few of the more challenging men in the office. That was when the topic rolled into Stephanie's various altercations with Hodges over the last two weeks. She told Sara about the incident down in autopsy that Warrick had walked in on, and how if he had not walked in at that moment, she was about to shove the infuriating little man into one of the drawers and walk away. Sara agreed that it probably would not have done any good.

By the time Stephanie was paged to return to the morgue, more than an hour passed, and they had gone through two pots of Greg's best coffee. Sara could not believe she spent all that time talking with the woman who had just taken Grissom away from her. But she had to admit that Stephanie was an amazing woman, and no matter how much she might want to hate her, because of what she represented, she simply could not hate this woman. Stephanie was intelligent, kind, funny, morose, quick-witted, sarcastic, positive and damn talented. She knew in that moment, they might not be the best of friends, simply because of the situation they were immersed in, but Sara was not going to make her an enemy either.

As Stephanie made her way down to Autopsy once again, she was struck with an odd revelation. She had just spent nearly two hours with Sara and not once, in any of their stories or ramblings had either of them mentioned Gil. Stephanie could not recall if she had tried or not, or if it was just that the topic never seemed to get around to him. In fact, she was quite certain that a couple of times the conversation may have been steered away from the topic by Sara. She made a mental note to talk to Catherine about this revelation when they met at the diner before shift tomorrow.