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

A/N: I decided there needed to be a "gang's all here" moment for the story, so I hope I was able to use that MPD research well enough to switch between personalities. ;)

REVIEWS: Thanks to all who have reviewed. I've really enjoyed communicating on some of the finer points of the storyline with those of you reviewing. It also helps to know what I am hitting and what I should work on (including looking up all the hotel names I use).


Chapter 27

A slow night in the crime lab was the last thing Sara Sidle was looking for tonight. She needed to be busy, and she needed to be busy really badly. Time to think was not what she wanted. She wanted to do what she always did; numb her mind with the meticulous and overwhelming tasks of working a crime scene. Instead, she had already finished six reports and was desperately attempting to read a journal article without much success.

Her mind kept wandering back to the night before, and the sensations of Grissom's hands and breath on her neck; the sound of his voice and breath so close to her ear; and the look in those rich blue pools that were his eyes. Her heart was breaking with every replay of that scene in the Processing Room, but her mind refused to cease its attempt at making sense of the whole thing. She knew it was a pointless exercise, but it simply would not stop. And just when she thought her night could not possibly get any worse; everyone descended on the Break Room.

"C'mon, Bro… You can't possibly expect me to believe that line of bull yer tryin' to spread?" Nick had been in rare form all night, and his entrance proved that nothing had changed. "I mean, really, there ain't no way you can pull that off, I don't care how smooth you think you are, 'Rick."

Warrick followed closely behind him, with his arms up in a display of surrender, "Hey, it wasn't me… The honey started the whole thing, but I've got the ring, brother, so it was all hands off." Warrick went to sit down at the table and noticed Sara sitting off to the side in the corner, "Hey Sar."

Next in the door was Greg, and he was not buying Warrick's story, "Oh man, you're honestly telling us you didn't even sample goods, Warrick?" Greg also noticed Sara in the corner, but chose to only nod his head at her to show that he had noticed.

"Not even a sniff, man… You have met my wife, right?" All three of the boys were laughing at Warrick's intimation of his wife's possible wrath when Catherine came in the door behind them.

"Hey, have you guys seen Sar-…" Her gaze fell upon Sara in the corner, "There you are! I was looking everywhere for you." Catherine said as her hands went straight for her hips.

Nick was unable to control himself and had to comment, "You must've missed a spot."

Catherine was just about to respond to his comment when Grissom appeared in the doorway, his arms overloaded with a large steaming box of containers, "Food's here!" They all cleared a path for him to rest the box down on the table.

"Since it was a slow night, after such a hectic couple of weeks, Cath and I thought it might be good if we treated you guys to lunch." Grissom started to unload the cartons, each with a name on it, and the others began to greedily snatch up their respective prizes. Grissom looked around at the table and then looked up in confusion, "Where's Sara?"

When he turned his gaze a little he found her still hiding out in the corner, "There you are…" He started over to her with two containers in his hands, "I wasn't sure if you'd want Egg Foo Yung or Kung Pao, so I figured I'd take whichever you didn't want." The smile on his face was genuine and it made Sara forget her pain, if only for a moment.

He stood in front on her with the containers, waiting for her to make her decision. Sara contemplated excusing herself and saying that she was not hungry, but she knew that would not go over well with everyone else, and just lead to more questions, so she decided to bite the bullet and share a meal with her co-workers. She reached for the Kung Pao and took it from Grissom's grasp. When she did, their fingers grazed each other momentarily, and the feeling was positively electric, but Sara had to struggle not to pull away too quickly and to draw attention to the moment.

She tried to smile, but it came out as weak (almost trembling), and Grissom tilted his head with a puzzled expression on his face. Sara could tell he was about to say something, so she leaned forward in her chair to quickly move to the table and reached for some chopsticks from between Nick and Greg, and then she took the seat between Greg and Warrick. She was safely away from Grissom's proximity; for the moment.

Sara watched Grissom return to the front of the table from the corner of her eye, and was infinitely grateful he had chosen to let the moment between them drop. When her sideways glance made the full circuit of the table as he sat down, Sara was almost certain that she saw Catherine observing her look. She was obviously being paranoid, because when Catherine spoke, she seemed oblivious to the moment, "So, you guys better not get used to this kind of thing… Not unless the pay gets a whole lot better around here." They all laughed at her candor as they dug into the food.

Greg kept looking over the table and into the box sitting beside Grissom, where he saw four more containers. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, "Hey Boss… What're those other cartons for?"

Grissom looked up from his Egg Foo Yung and into the box, then over at Greg. "You think we do this all by ourselves, Greg?" His answer was cryptic, as usual.

Before Greg could think of a properly sarcastic remark, part of his answer had arrived, "Nice page, Gris." Detective Sofia Curtis came sauntering into the Break Room. "'Food… Now.' Terribly effective." She was smiling before she dipped her head into the box to find her food. Once she had recovered the container with her name on it, she took the seat closest to Grissom. Sara realized that either Sofia had not heard the news, or was trying her best to ignore it.

"That's because my man is one of few words, Sofia." Jim Brass came through the door right after the female detective, "Unless, of course, he is quoting some Shakespeare, or an obscure piece of classical literature, just to make us all look like a bunch of schmoes. Right, Gil?" Brass patted his friend Grissom on the back as he joked.

Grissom nodded his head, "Touché, my friend. Touché."

Greg watched as the two detectives got their food and sat down at the table to eat, but he also realized there were two more containers. He opened his mouth to make another comment when David Phillips cautiously came to the doorway of the Break Room.

Grissom, sensing there was someone behind him, turned around in his seat, "Oh David… Come on in and have a seat." David entered, still a little trepidatious about entering the CSI stomping grounds. Grissom reached into the box and pulled out the carton marked with the younger man's name, "Here you are… Chicken Lo Mein, right?"

"Ah, yeah, right." David took the container from Grissom and then stole a quick look around the table.

Nick motioned for David to head around on his side of the table, "Got a seat right here for ya, Super Dave." David nodded his head and moved quickly to retrieve his seat and avoid any more attention.

Sofia, having settled herself decided to strike up some conversation with Grissom, "So, Gil, what made you decide to do this?"

Grissom turned to her with a raised eye brow, but before he could say anything, the answer to the question came from another voice behind him, "Someone must have finally knocked some sense into him." Stephanie entered the room with her typically confident stride and stood directly behind Grissom's back as everyone called out their hello's. She looked around the table to size up the situation, "Well, it looks like the gang's all here." Sara noticed that she was still looking around and had made no attempt to sit down.

She realized, at apparently the same time as Grissom, that there were no other chairs. Grissom wiped off his mouth and quickly stood up. "We seem to be short a chair." When he stood up, he placed a hand upon her forearm, and Sara found herself desperately wishing that it had been her arm, "Why don't you take mine and I'll go grab another from the next room."

Stephanie bowed her head slightly in a mock gesture of gentility, "Why thank you, kind sir." When the young red-head went to sit in the chair just vacated by Grissom, Sara noticed that she slid the chair to the side a bit, which placed her strategically between Sofia and Grissom. As much as Sara wanted to not like Stephanie, she had to admit that she was a sharp, intelligent and ballsy woman; everything that Grissom found attractive and she admired in others.

Without waiting for any formalities, Stephanie took the initiative, "So, what are the current odds on Nick getting another date in this lifetime?" Several people around the room nearly spit out their food and Nick leaned back in his chair, his face flushed from top to bottom.

"You guys aren't really runnin' that bet, again?" His response got even more laughs from the assemblage. "Man, don't you guys have nothin' better to do with yer time?"

Stephanie chuckled, and reached for the final container, "Aw, sorry, Nick, but I just learned about this pool and I wanted in on the action. Besides, I've already witnessed your approach, and I think they might be overestimating your ability." She winked at him with her statement, and even Sara was having a hard time not laughing at his predicament.

Thankfully for Nick, Grissom re-entered the room with another chair, "Would you guys please leave Nick alone." There was a hint of mischief in his eyes, but when he spoke again there was no need for a hint, "Besides, his track record is pathetic enough, without you folks reminding him of it constantly. Isn't that right, Whistle Boy?" Nick was cringing badly at Grissom's reminder of his incident in the morgue two weeks ago.

"You know about that, too?" Nick was visibly worried about that revelation.

"Departmental email." Catherine just had to add her own touch to the baiting, and the room was reduced to a howl in honor of her perfect retort.

Sara looked up from her food and glanced around the room. Gathered together in one place was her entire world: all of her friends and cohorts; all of her hopes and dreams; all of her pain and heartache; all of her professional and personal aspirations. She quickly had to look back down into her food container because of the tears that were threatening to break forth. When she reached for a napkin, she realized that someone had been paying attention to her bout of reverie, "Sara?"

Grissom's voice both delighted and deflated her, but she knew she had to come up with something fast to change the focus, "S'okay, I just bit into a pepper." The room let loose with a chorus of "oh's," and Brass grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator to pass down the line to her.

So, this is my life now; terrible pain and little joys. Way to go, Sidle.