Irrefutable

By: Manigault

Thanks so much for the replies and thanks for reading this story.

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"You agreed to help her do what exactly?" asked Sara. The calmness of her question was remarkable to her own ears and more worrisome to Grissom than if she had reacted with anger or even distress.

Ignoring the woman who was inching her way towards them and easing into the recliner opposite, Grissom reached for Sara's hand that was curled tightly in her lap. She was angry.

"Honey, it wasn't my intention to become involved but it's something that I feel that I need to do after being informed of her situation."

Sara let her hand uncurl and laced her fingers with his as she cast a suspicious look over at the amused woman who was lounging in Grissom's black leather recliner, one leg draped elegantly over the other. She didn't appear so distraught that she had to have Grissom's help.

"We've never met," she said to the woman that had spiked the gossip mill of CSI over the past few years. "I'm Sara Sidle, I live with Grissom."

Lady Heather raised her eyebrows at this revelation. Obviously, this Sara Sidle was one of the reasons that Gil had been much more standoffish and simultaneously, why she had detected a new level of peace in his eyes that had not been there the first few times they had met.

"Why are you here?" Sara asked when the silent inspection had become unbearable.

"You say that you live together?" Lady Heather asked with a slight smile on the corner of her painted red lips as she ignored Sara's question by asking one of her own. "This townhouse is so sterile, so unlived in that your statement surprises me."

Agitated with the direction of these comments, Sara swung her attention back onto Grissom and locked eyes with him.

Taking the cue, Grissom squeezed her hand and looked over at Heather. "Sara and I have a home outside of Vegas." He felt no need to elaborate.

"Ahhh, I'm impressed, Gil." Lady Heather flicked one ankle and studied the couple's posture as she addressed Sara with her eyes and then with her question. "Why do you call him Grissom? How very impersonal."

"How very," Sara repeated without hiding the sarcasm. She was disturbed by this womans accusatory statement. "we agreed to use personal only in bed."

That much was true, Sara thought to herself as memories of the first time they had been intimate came to mind.

Grissom had been doing things with his tongue that should be illegal, but had felt so right, and she had been blown away by his attentions.

'Grissom, that feels soooo good.'

A soft chuckle drifted up her body, rippling along her spine, and barely registering in her brain.

Sliding back up her body until his until his lips met hers, he had whispered, 'You've never called me Gil. I'm between your legs, the most intimate moment of our lives, and I hear my name. My last name. This he had stressed with an exaggerated sigh.

He was going there? Now?

'Okay, then, Gris, could you please continue?'

'Gil.' he insisted. One hand found it's way back to the place where his mouth had been only seconds before and he began a gentle caress that was sending spasms of pleasure coursing along her senses.

'Gil,' she heard her voice as she felt his body shudder against her and his hand moved back up to cup her face. Staring into his eyes, she had repeated his first name with a smile.

"Sara?" Grissom's voice cut through her memories and she felt a blush creep it's way up along her neck. She felt his hand tighten around hers and he smiled gently. "I want to fill you in on what has happened today."

"Lady Heather came to the lab to see you this morning," stated Sara recalling Greg's announcement. "Was that the first time you have seen her since stopping her from killing someone?"

Startled for only a second, Grissom nodded. He suspected that the grapevine would have weaved its way to Sara's ears before Heather had reached his office. "I haven't seen her since that day, but she came to see me this morning and convinced me to meet her for breakfast."

"Why is she here with you in your townhome?" This was the question that was bugging her the most and the one that she had tried to receive an answer about minutes earlier only to have the question turned on her and her relationship with Grissom.

"It's not that simple, Sara, but I'll try to explain." Grissom wanted to be alone with Sara and he didn't want Heather's prying eyes observing them and dissecting them as they talked this situation through.

Standing up, he gently pulled Sara to her feet and murmured for her ears only. "Let's talk in the bedroom," She nodded and he turned briefly towards Heather. "If you will excuse us? You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen." Without waiting for her reply, he left the room with Sara who spared no glance over at Heather whom she wanted to vanish. She let go of Grissom's hand and moved ahead of him into the bedroom where they had first made love. Stopping just inside the room, she stared at the bed in thoughtful contemplation. Had Lady Heather ever slept in this room?

As if reading her mind, Grissom took her hand and led her over the bed while saying in an offhand manner. "Heather stayed in the guest room and I slept on the sofa," he watched her slide onto the bed, her feet firmly planted on the floor. "I couldn't sleep in here without you." It sounded so juvenile to his ears, but it was the truth. He had hovered in his bedroom and quickly fled back to the den where he had slept fitfully on the sofa after downing two pills for the headache that was threatening to slip over his conscious.

"Heather called me several times over the past few days and I never returned her calls," Grissom began as he stuffed both hands in his pockets and stared intently at Sara's face. "I didn't want to talk with her about the trial coming up and that is what I assumed she was calling about. Besides, I also assumed that it would only be postponed, yet again." The case had come up for trial on more than one occasion and each time, for some inexplicable reason, it was postponed. Grissom had his suspicions that Heather had something to do with it, and the fact that many of the court personnel were clients at her domain were forefront on his mind.

"She came to my office this morning, unannounced," Grissom continued keeping a close eye on her expressions. "I told her that I coud not speak with her about the trial, but she was persistant and convinced me to meet her for breakfast." This part he couldn't explain to Sara. He couldn't explain it to himself. By talking to her, Grissom felt that he could finish that chapter in his life and she would leave him alone. He would insist.

Sara broke eye contact with him and stared at her hands that were clasped together in her lap. "Go on," she said when he failed to continue and she allowed herself to slide her gaze back up until she met his own.

"Heather didn't want to talk about the upcoming trial," he said with a frown furrowing between his brows. "she wanted to tell me about a threat she was receiving that involved her missing grandchild."

Anger sliced through Sara and for the first time she allowed her anger to slip through her composure. "Tell her to call the police. Call Jim. This isn't in your area of expertise, Grissom, you know that as much as I do."

Turning his head away, Grissom nodded. "I told her that. I suggested she phone Jim and let him handle the situation, but she was adament that if she involved the police then her grandchild would be hurt."

"She walked into CSI headquarters," said Sara with a disbelieving shake of her head. "I think that would constitute involving the police."

"I mentioned that fact and she insisted that it was different and the perpetrator knows that it's different."

Stunned by what he was suggesting, Sara wordlessly questioned him with her eyes.

"Apparently, the perp knows me and is the one that suggested that I become involved." Grissom crouched down in front of Sara and wrapped his hands around her own. "When we met for breakfast, I received a phone call from this person." Searching his mind for the exact words he repeated the man's threat. "He claims to have been emotionally harmed by me in some manner and now he plans on wrecking havoc in my life."

"This is so far fetched, Gris, that I'm having a hard time believing it." Sara pulled her hands from his grasp and placed them on each of his shoulders. "Are you sure Lady Heather isn't playing games with you?"

Grissom stood up and began to pace around the bedroom. "I'm sure," he tried to sound confident but didn't believe his own words. "What purpose would she have for interfering with my life like that? She has a missing grandchild. She is on trial for kidnapping and almost brutally murdering the suspect in her daughters own murder. She has enough on her plate without screwing with my life."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, but Sara kept that opinion to herself and glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. "Work! I"m late for work, Gris." Shit. She didn't want to leave him her with her and she still hadn't been told why Heather was here and not at her own home.

"I'll vouch for you with your supervisor," Grissom offered, his tone lightening for the first time since this whole plight had begun that morning.

"You are on schedule tonight," said Sara. "Don't you think it will be suspicious if we both come in late tonight? We've been so careful."

Lifting his arms, palms out, Grissom waved them slightly and tried to sound nonchalant. "I called Catherine earlier and told her not to expect me."

Silence stretched between them as they eyed one another with trepidation. Finally, Sara spoke. "Tell me why this person would insist that you become involved? Did he give you any indication of what is it that he thinks you did to him? And, if he wanted to ruin your life then why not expose our relationship? Wouldn't that be easier than all of this cloak and dagger?"

"Exposing our relationship wouldn't destroy me," replied Grissom. "However, losing you would."

TBC