I GOT CARRIED AWAY AND DECIDED TO WRITE ANOTHER CHAPTER. ALL THE SAME RATING AND DISCLAIMER INFO APPLIES TO THIS CHAPTER AS STATED IN THE FIRST CHAPTER.
"Sorry if my apartment's a little messy," Sara apologised, pushing her way through her door. "I never seem to get a chance to tidy up," she explained.
Grissom, still somewhat dumbfounded, dismissed it. "It looks fine," he said. "Lived in."
"That's the problem. I sometimes think I want one of those perfect show homes without any weird blankets or books or anything like that."
"This place reflects you as a person, though," Grissom protested.
"What? Messy, disordered and chaotic?" She laughed. "I guess you're right."
"I was thinking more along the lines of deep, intelligent and complicated."
"How can a room be intelligent?" She caught his eye and smiled. "Okay, sorry, I'll just accept the compliments at face value. Can I get you anything? A drink?"
"No thanks. To be honest, I don't know why I came back here. I'm burnt out, I need sleep."
"Use my bed," Sara stated matter-of-factly.
"Where will you sleep?" Grissom eyed his surroundings, taking in the artwork and Buddha statues and books and chakra diagrams.
"In my bed," Sara replied. "Don't worry, I'm not coming on to you. I wear pyjamas," she added.
"I don't know if that's a good idea." Gil didn't actually look that uncomfortable with the proposal.
"What? Wearing pyjamas? Hey, I'm taking the piss," she said. "Look, I figure you need a person around, and I happen to be that person. I just thought maybe you want a cuddle, or someone else's body heat while you were asleep. It's soothing," she said.
"I wouldn't know, I haven't experienced that sort of feeling," Grissom retorted, eyes still scanning the room.
"Neither would I," Sara confessed. "But my romantic streak is telling me it would be a nice sensation." She observed Grissom observing her living room. "Look, I know we don't have the easiest relationship. We never have. Even when things are good between us, there always seems to be friction somewhere."
"That's the sexual tension."
"You're joking," she gabbled.
"You see me laughing? I mean it. That's why I've always tried to keep my distance a bit. I'll make a flirty comment and then step back. I always think I've gone too far."
"Yeah, well sometimes you don't go far enough."
"I know."
"So what do you say? Do you want a bit of non-sexual, purely platonic comfort?"
"Men and women, or at least you and I, can never be purely platonic. There's always a sinister undercurrent flowing."
Sara rolled her eyes. "If you wanna go, you know where the door is."
"No!" Grissom protested, reaching for her hand. "I do want to stay. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you've done for me the past couple of days. But I'm scared we could spoil what we already have."
"What about if now were just platonic, and we worked through the other issues at a later date. We don't have to let our unruly hormones get the better of us."
"Don't we?"
"Hell, no! I know if mine had, you'd know by now. In fact, I would at this point, or perhaps at some other point much earlier in our history, you would now have no trousers on. In fact, I think any undergarments would have gone missing too."
Grissom laughed in spite of himself. "You think we can last one night?"
"Sure. And if not, who am I to get in the way of nature? And you, as a biologist, who would you be, preventing a natural phenomenon?"
"Who indeed?" Grissom wondered aloud.
THE END
