DISCLAIMER:Don't Own it. No Money Made... Just for fun and enjoyment.

A/N: Okay, back the Grissom/Sara action. :D

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Chapter 23

With his face obscured by the microscope, Sara stole a sideways look at Grissom. She was trying to wean herself from thinking about him, but it was not so easy. It had become a habit, and some habits were just not easy to break. Grissom was not easy to break.

She shook her head, hoping to clear the thoughts from her mind and get back to work. She took a deep breath and rolled her neck around. She winced at a stinging feeling in her neck, and brought her hands up to examine the source. She found a sticky, raised line of tissue there and brought her hand back down to see what was now stuck to her finger. Sara stared at her hand for a moment, what she saw there was not registering in her mind at first. However, her actions had not gone unnoticed, and she knew it when Grissom was instantly at her side, saying something to her. She blinked her eyes once, then twice. Finally, she was able to respond, "I'm fine Grissom… It's just a scratch."

"Sara, would you just let me get a look at it." Grissom was being very insistent, and even though she wanted to, Sara knew there was nothing she could do. Grissom was relentless when it came to protecting his people.

So, she lowered her arms and surrendered her stance, "Fine, but it's just a scratch."

They were looking eye to eye when he spoke, "Let me be the judge of that." He slowly reached up and gently brushed the hair away from her neck. For what seemed like an eternity their eyes were locked, but then Grissom broke the stalemate and tilted his head down to get a better look at her neck. When he got closer to her neck, she stiffened slightly, as she felt his breath near her ear, and she just hoped that he had not noticed. It was when his fingers came into contact with her neck that she was unable to hide her response. She nearly jumped off of her stool, and Grissom retracted quickly, for fear he had caused her pain, "I'm sorry… Is it that sensitive?"

Sara worked to recover fast, "Ah, no… Ah, your fingers… They're um, they're a little cold." Grissom gave her a smirk and then rubbed his hands together to warm them up. When he reached up again and stroked the wound to examine it. Sara was lost in the sensation of his fingers on her neck, and she did not notice when he brought his head back around to look her in the eye. The look he found on her face, with her eyes half closed made the breath catch in his throat.

Grissom had to clear his throat in order to break the trance. "We need to get it cleaned up to have a better look." Sara's eyes immediately popped open, but he had already moved away.

She looked around, but she did not see him, and when he suddenly reappeared at her side she jumped. He held up the medkit with a grin on his face, "This should do the trick." He turned to face the table and set up his first aide station. Sara took in a deep breath and tried to steel herself for his next ministrations. She needed all of her strength not to get caught up in the sensations she had felt before. Sara knew Grissom was just being his regular self, but she was simply not ready for that kind of contact.

Grissom appeared to be taking an unusual amount of time putting together a cleaning preparation. Sara was about to tell him that she did not have all night for this, because she had evidence to process. However, she was not prepared for what happened next. "Okay, now just remember, I'm not used to my patients having a pulse, let alone being able to talk back." Sara sat up bolt straight in shock.

Grissom called back to the woman who had just entered the room, "Hey Steph… I see you found your way here."

"I had a map and some breadcrumbs, thank you very much." Sara turned to see Stephanie walking towards her with her tongue stuck out at Grissom, showing her complete lack of appreciation at his jibe, as well as their comfort with each other. "So, Sara, was he at least good looking?"

Sara was not sure what she was going to do or say, but she knew she had better think fast, because she suddenly realized that her mouth was hanging open. "Ah… Umm… Huh?"

Stephanie was right beside her at this point, "You know… The vampire that thought it might be a good idea to go after someone like you?" Stephanie winked at her to show she was making a joke, and then she took the antiseptic and gauze from Grissom's grasp, leaning in for a closer look at the wound on Sara's neck. "Well, this doesn't look too bad… Probably just a scratch, but with the fact that it broke the skin, if you haven't had a tetanus shot for a while, you really should go in and get one. When was your last tetanus shot?" Stephanie did not wait for an answer, and set about to clean the wound.

Sara thought back to when she had last received a tetanus shot, "It's been less than two years." She was desperately working to maintain her composure.

Stephanie was carefully removing the blood and grime from the area of the wound, "Hmmm umm… Well, double check your records, and if you haven't had one in longer, please holler at me and I'll make arrangements for you to get one over at Desert Palms." Stephanie was busy with her ministrations, and was not really paying attention to Sara, or her somewhat obvious state of distress.

For a few moments, there was only the sound of Stephanie humming quietly as she went about her work. "So, did you catch that new piece they had on Discovery about the cicadas in the South?" Sara was still having trouble thinking straight, and was even more shocked to having been asked a question about bugs from the coroner.

"No, I missed it when it was on the first time, but I managed to get a recording of it when it came on the second time. I just haven't been able to watch it yet. Was it any good?" Grissom was answering the question, and that was when Sara realized it had not been directed at her in the first place. That was also when her heart sunk just a little further.

"It had some interesting theories, but I was a little disappointed in it overall." She was applying something cool to the wound on Sara's neck, but there was nothing going to make her real hurt go away. "I mean, they didn't even cover the extended dormant period, or the basis of the attraction in their thrumming."

Grissom screwed up his mouth in a puzzled expression, "Seems hardly worth the effort if they weren't even going to gloss over that information, because what else would they be basing their theories upon, if not the essential factors of their existence."

"Exactly what I thought!" Stephanie was shaking her head in a show of disgust, before she took one more look at her handiwork, then placed a layer of gauze over the scratch, and held her hand gently over the wound. "Okay, Sara… It was just a bit more than a scratch, but only a little. You should be able to take the bandage off in twenty four hours, and then just keep treating it with a small amount of topical antibiotic cream for about a week. That should keep it from scarring, and make it heal a little faster."

Once she was certain the bandage was firmly in place she removed her hand and looked Sara in the eye before she spoke, "Now, when you go to take this off tomorrow, take yourself a nice long soak. I used a liquid skin to cover it and hold the lac together, and it'll make taking the bandage off a little tricky. So, give it plenty of time to soften up before you take it off, okay?" Stephanie grinned at Sara, and kept looking at her until she acknowledged her understanding.

Sara managed to hold herself together just long enough to let the woman know she understood her instructions, "Yeah… I'll be careful, but for now, I really need to finish processing this evidence… If you don't mind?" She had come across as solid and focused; the two things that Sara was the farthest away from at the moment.

"Sounds great… Just holler if you need me for anything, okay?" Sara nodded and Stephanie started putting the supplies back into her bag, leaving Grissom to close up the things from the medkit.

When Stephanie turned to leave the Processing Lab Grissom, called after her, "Hold up, I'll walk you back down and you can tell me about our victims." Sara could not remember a time she was so glad to have Grissom leave her alone as she was in that moment.

Sara went back to her work. In her work, she was always strong, and it made so much more sense than the rest of her life. Her work was science, and it was structured. Her life, it was anything but structured.