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

A/N: No rating change yet... But it is on the horizon... How'd you like the reveal in the last chapter? ;)

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Chapter 42

After the toast everyone started to mill about again, which gave Grissom the chance to confirm what his eyes had told him; Sara is here! He craned his neck to glance over in that corner of the room again, and when that proved unsuccessful he tried to make his way over there. He was stopped by Catherine, who looked as though she was trying to figure out what he was searching for, "Gil, what on earth are you looking for?"

He only half heard her, because his focus was on solving a mystery, "Huh?"

"What are you looking at? The only thing I see is Warrick talking to the guys over there." Catherine was playing it cool, but Gil was too preoccupied to suspect the intention of her question.

He shook his head as he answered, "Well, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn I saw Sara over there."

Catherine played it off as nothing, "Oh yeah, Tina got stuck at work, so Sara bailed Warrick out." It was time for Catherine to go in for the kill, she turned to head towards the kitchen and shot back, "You see her everyday, Gil… What's so special about tonight?" Catherine was not sure he actually heard all that she had to say, because when she glanced back, he was already half way across the room and headed on a beeline for the door. She had a good laugh and went back to help Stephanie and Beth in the kitchen.

As Gil was about to make it to the door, he was stopped by Thomas, "Hey Gil, I wanted to introduce you, formally, to my best man." Gil halted his progress and tried to focus on the introduction, but his mind was already outside. "Carter Wilbanks, this is Steph's Uncle Gil. You might say Carter is the reason me and Steph got together." The two men shared their private joke.

"Nice to meet you, Carter." He searched his brain for an excuse to get away from the party, "I'm terribly sorry, but I've got a page and I need to respond. Do you mind?"

Thomas patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, don't sweat it. We're one pile-up away from having to clear the room… We understand the page thing." All three men nodded their heads, and Gil took out his pager to make himself less conspicuous as he left through the front door.

"Kind of jumpy, ain't he?" Carter asked his friend.

Thomas shook his head and laughed, "Nah, he's just not used to crowds like this… He's a pretty quiet guy. Basically, the polar opposite of Steph at a party." The two men laughed, slapped each other's backs and moved back into the party.

Once outside, Gil scanned the area trying to detect some movement. He could not imagine that she had pushed her way through the crowd to hide in the bathroom, so that left him with outside.

The look he had seen on her face as he was making his toast frightened him. She looked so lost, and the only other times he had seen that look on her face had nearly killed him: after the lab explosion, and after she was attacked in the psychiatric hospital. Gil would not be able to live with himself if he did not reach out to her when she was in that state. I just wish I knew what it was about.

Gil was also back tracking in his mind to the scene he witnessed outside his office that morning. She told Nick she was going on a date, and Gil had jumped to the wrong conclusion. His doubts of self-worth had caused a lapse of sanity, and he decided, right then and there, if it was the last thing he did, he would never let doubt steal away anything ever again. He needed to find Sara and finally tell her everything. He owed her that. I owe her a lot more than that.

CSI GSR CSI GSR CSI

The moment Sara breached the door, her tears started to flow down her face. It was all too much for her to deal with. Grissom was her UNCLE! How fucking stupid could I be? She was angry at herself for having punished him for her own stupidity; her own blindness. She never had the nerve to actually talk to the man about the new girl in the lab. Hell, I can barely talk to him about the weather without losing my grip!

Sara replayed every exchange that had passed between them since Stephanie's arrival, and she realized that every single time she had been hurt, she had hurt herself. Grissom had been nothing but open and caring with her through the whole, stupid ordeal. She brought it all on herself, because she was too blinded by her own jealously to see the truth.

When she looked up, she realized she was standing out in the open for anyone to witness her falling completely apart, so she started searching for a place to hide out, until she could pull herself together. Right, like that could happen in this lifetime! She moved away from the front door and found a little niche next to the shrubs. She thought it was the perfect place. She could not see the front door, so she assumed she was safe and she began to weep openly.

"How could I have been so stupid?" She finally spoke the words aloud, and her sobs masked the sounds of approaching footsteps. She reached into her handbag, hoping to find some tissues in there, but after several passes inside the bag, she slapped it down against her side, only to find a handkerchief waiting for her as she looked up.

She froze instantly. Sara was paralyzed with fear. She could not bring herself to take the handkerchief and she was even more afraid to see who the owner was, but she could feel him standing just behind her. She could sense his presence there, like a warm blanket, but she knew that if she looked at him, she would never be able to hold it together.

It seemed like an eternity, but finally he spoke, "It's clean." He was close enough to her, she could feel his breath on her shoulder as he spoke, and her mind reeled from the sensation.

Sara forced herself to speak, "Thank you." She took the handkerchief, but did not turn to look at him, and she wiped the streams of tears from her face before handing it back.

He pursed his mouth and shrugged, "You can keep it… I have another."

Sara thought to herself; Of course you do. Such a boy scout.

"Sara, are you okay?"

His words were still dancing across her shoulder and it made it even harder for her to focus enough to even breathe, let alone speak. She drew in a breath, and then another, and then she found the strength to speak, "It's nothing."

He tilted his head and moved around to get a better look at her, "Sara, you crying, is never 'nothing.'"

She could not help herself, a laugh escaped her lungs. "Yeah… Maybe you're right." She would not look up. She could not look into those deep pools on his face. She was sure it would be her undoing.

She could tell he was trying to size up the situation, and when he spoke again, she knew he was just being Grissom, "So, I was pretty surprised to see you in there. I heard you and Steph were having some kind of trouble." He paused when she held her breath at his statement, "You want me to talk to her? I know she can be a little brash for some people, but she really does mean well."

Sara shook her head and worked up the courage to speak again, "It's nothing, really… Just a-." Could she say it? "It was just a misunderstanding. We've already cleared the air."

"That's good…Can't have my favorite people at each other's throats."

Sara could not help herself; she popped her head up and looked straight into his eyes when he said those words. Was her mind playing tricks on her? She immediately knew the answer when she saw the side of his mouth curl up into that adorable smirk of his. She was about to make a comment, but he beat her to the punch.

"Sara, I'm actually glad you came tonight… There's um, well, there's something that I've ah… Well, that I've been wanting to talk to you about?" His speech was stunted and Sara was growing more afraid with every word.

"Maybe this isn't the best time." There it was; there was the out. Sara gave him the perfect opportunity to back away and forget about this whole thing. Why do I always do that? "I mean, there is a party going on in there."

He looked up and towards the house, "Yeah, but that's not about me." There was a faraway look in his eyes that Sara was trying to pin down when she had seen it before. "I need to do this, before-…" That was when it suddenly dawned on her when she had seen that look before: the interrogation room with Lurie. "Before it's too late." Once again, all the air left Sara's lungs. If this kept up, she was sure she was going to pass out before long.

His gaze suddenly dropped to his feet, and he absently took a step towards her. She was hypnotized by the display and found herself being pulled towards him by some invisible magnetic energy. They were standing with barely an inch separating them. Their breaths were mixing in the same air space. Sara could not believe what was going through her mind, or what her body was screaming for her to do. She was sure she felt waves of similar energy washing off of him, and the heat from his body was reaching out to her in that small space between them. She was about to lose complete control and there was nothing telling her it was wrong. When he drew in a slow, deep breath, she finally snapped.

Time slowed to a ridiculous crawl and it took an eternity for her handbag to plummet to the ground as she bridged that seemingly vast distance between them. Her left hand was the first to make the interminable journey of a single inch to rest on his shoulder. It caused him to raise his head in a slow motion scene, which also found Sara's body closing the distance to his body. When the bag finally hit the ground, her lips were just touching his, and that was when the entire world crashed down around them and time stood still.

Her mind exploded into a million pieces at once, and she was not sure what was holding her up at that point, because all conscious thought vanished in the instant they finally met. She was desperately trying to regain her conscious mind, because she wanted to remember this moment for the rest of her life. She was not sure it would ever happen again and she never wanted to lose it.

When time finally found its foothold once more, all of Sara's doubts were thrown to the wind. What she found in that instant was that her kiss was being returned with a passion she had only ever read about, and she fought for the air that would allow her to remain conscious and still able to continue their fevered embrace.

Soon, it was Sara's passion that took hold and she was suddenly aware that she had just knocked him backwards into the wall behind them, but her mouth never broke from their embroiled and animalistic kissing. As her lungs burned in their need for oxygen she finally gasped for air, and she was dropped back into the torrent of their desire when he took the opportunity to touch his lips to her shapely neck. She fought to hold on to the sheer bliss surging through her veins in that deliciously sensual moment.

As the air was rapidly flowing in and out of her lungs with each gasp, she realized that she was pressed against him tightly, but that she would not have been able to move, even if she wanted to, because his strong arms were wrapped tightly around her back and shoulders. She could feel every one of his nimble fingers as they stroked her flesh, and she was not sure if she could ever separate from him again. She was completely lost in the waves of pure joy and pleasure that were crashing through her in that moment, and her desire became an overpowering force, as she reached out for his face once more and claimed his mouth again and again in her lust to possess him completely.

They probably would have gone on like that forever, but then the lights from a passing car played across their bodies and the wall they were pressed up against. The sudden knowledge of their exposure out in the open caused them both to break their impassioned embrace. They were both gasping for air and chuckled at their current states.

With all the tension of six years of emotional and sexual frustration falling away from her, Sara was the first to speak, "You were saying?" When he let loose with a hearty laugh, she buried her face into his shoulder and giggled.

He held her close to him and rested his head against hers for a moment before speaking, "Well, obviously we can't stay here." His words blew across her ear and she was filled with the undeniable urge to kiss him again.

As her desire was threatening to take her control again, she finally pulled away. "No, we can't. But I don't know if we can leave either." Her eyes met his and she could see her own yearning being reflected back at her. She knew in that moment that he was feeling the same things she was, and it melted her heart. Sara broke their gaze, for fear her resolve would melt alongside her heart, and looked toward the party. "I think we might be missed."

He tilted his head forward and rested his forehead against her head, "Probably…" He paused, and Sara thought for sure he was going to retreat back into his own head again, "But that's their problem." For the umpteenth time that evening, Sara found herself completely without air. She stood there, locked forehead to forehead, with a man she was not entirely certain she knew as well as she thought she did. "Sara, I need to take care of this, and I'm-… Well, I'm af-… I mean, if I wait, then I'm afraid-…"

"Of what'll happen?" Upon hearing her words, he slumped against her, and rested his head on her shoulder. She knew, without a doubt in her mind, he was experiencing all the same things she was feeling; that they were both reaching a crossroads and nothing would ever be the same.

"Sara… Come with me?" She was not sure if that was a question, a command, a request or a plea. "Please?"

At that moment, she would have done anything he asked of her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head to her breast, stroking his hair as she spoke, "Just say the word… I can't… I can't resist anymore."

He looked up into her eyes and said the words she never thought she would hear, "I'm not asking you to."