Disclaimer, etc: See first chapter

A/N: I have major apologies to make. I promised an finish to this fic over the weekend. This wasn't written until Saturday evening. For some reason my e-mail and my beta's were…not compatible. On another note, thanks to Nikki for the fantastic beta! Thank you also to everyone who has left a review. So, I'll stop talking now.

"You came back," It was a statement, not a question.

Sara was standing, for the second time that day in her doorway, looking at Grissom.

"I'm not going to do this, Sara," whispered Grissom, somewhat hoarsely. "I'm not going to lose you without a fight. I can't do that."

"Oh, God, Gil."

Sara felt a rush of guilt as all her anger fell away and she pulled Grissom into a hug. For those few moments, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he held by her waist, the entire world seemed to fall away. There was nothing except him and her. Sara buried her face in his neck, re acquainting herself with his smell and the feel of his skin on hers. She revelled in his closeness, the feeling of his nearness after four long, endless weeks. Suddenly the fact that he was in her sanctuary didn't seem as unnerving as before. Her fingers lightly traced his jaw line, and the newly grown hair she found there.

"We need to talk properly, don't we?" she murmured, not wanting to break the closeness, the familiar safety of being in his arms.

Grissom murmured something indistinguishable into her hair that sounded like;

"We're not so good at that."

Sara chuckled then, and they broke apart. She led him over to the couch and they sat down, reluctant to leave each other. Unconsciously, she leaned back into his chest with a sigh as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"I've never really talked to you about why I changed my mind, did I?" Grissom asked, quietly.

Sara shook her head. She had wondered, a few times, but had been too wary of shattering her new found contentment to bring it up.

"It wasn't just Nick's abduction, though that was the catalyst," Grissom's voice was quiet, meditative, as though he was working it out himself in his head. "It showed me how short life is. That sounds ridiculous and cliché, but... I don't know. It could have been any of us in that coffin. You. It could have been you, Sara, and all I kept thinking was that I'd never have been able to tell you how I feel. That scared me more than any of the other crap that was holding me back. I believe now, though, that it really started when we had that case at the mental hospital. When you were in that room, you just looked as if you were…saying goodbye," Grissom broke off and Sara turned around to face him, looking straight into his haunted blue eyes.

"I was," she replied simply. That was the longest speech she had ever heard him make and she had no response.

He pulled her tighter close to him. "Just so you know," she breathed into his ear, "If you ever leave me again then you will have used up all your chances."

"Didn't I do that already?" he asked, a hint of humour in his voice.

"Hmmm, maybe. Every time you do something stupid, I think that," Sara replied, only half joking.

"Like when?" Grissom enquired.

"Err… plenty of times before we were together. That thing with the Debbie Marlin case, for example."

Sara felt Grissom flinch against her.

"I never thought you knew about that. I'm sorry."

"I know you are," Sara reached up slightly and placed what was intended to be a gentle kiss on his lips, but he caught her and held her.

Later that night, as they lay curled up in bed together, he asked her tentatively to move in with him. Not just to move in with him, but to buy a house with him. Their own house. Sara said yes, because she realised that she didn't want to have her own sanctuary, she wanted to spend all her time with Grissom, because he was her sanctuary.

A/N2: So, thank you for reading, please leave a review to let me know if you liked it (or not: D)