Merry Christmas all. Again thanks to those who are reviewing. It's very gratifying for an author to get reviews I think. I try to review all the stories I read, and so should you. Here's my next chapter. Enjoy.

Grissom checked his clock, it read 3 am. He looked out into the halls from behind his desk and saw Catherine approaching. She smiled as she took a seat and handed him a large manilla envelope.

"Judy gave this to me to give to you. It's from the Sheriff."

"Oh."

And he quickly tucked the envelope into his briefcase. Catherine had a semi-confused look on her face.

"And these are your messages." She handed him a small stack of notes.

He took them and began to read over each one briefly, making an appropriate pile for each one. Out of the stack she noticed that he only kept 5 messages and the rest he threw away. Once she had his attention again she continued.

"What are you going to do about filling Sara's position?"

"I'm not going to fill it just yet."

"Come on Gil. With you stuck behind a desk and her gone, I don't have to tell you what's going to happen."

"Don't worry Catherine. I'll think of something."

"Well you had better start thinking a lot faster." She stood and walked out.

He thought for a moment then moved to the door closing it and the blinds. On second thought he locked the door also. No one needed to know what he was doing as he retrieved the envelope from Sheriff Burdick.

After a few hours of going over the information given to him, he knew he could get Ecklie's ass in a sling. It was a gift from God. He may have taken his hearing but he was going to gain something in return. The lab would be free and clear of Conrad Ecklie.

Once again Gil checked his watch, just after 5 in the morning. He knew Sara would be up and decided to call it a day.

Grissom was fairly tired as he walked up the steps to his house. It had been a while since he had been up all night. He was going to have to get used to that again. He opened the door and attempted to sneak in. Grissom stood silently in the doorway as the smell of eggs cooking flooded his nostrils. He moved to where he could see Sara. She was cooking breakfast and dancing. He concluded that she had the stereo on, and by the looks of it was singing. She turned to spoon her cooked eggs onto a plate, and never saw him standing in front of her as she swayed and sang along. Grissom got just close enough to read her lips as she sang.

"You can try to resist, try to hide from my kiss, but you know, but you know that you can't fight the moonlight, deep in the dark, you'll surrender your heart, but you know, but you know you can't fight moonlight." She looked up and jumped back dropping the pan in the process. "Damn Grissom, what are you trying to do give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry."

"You know just because you can't hear, doesn't mean you have to be so silent at everything else."

He furrowed his eyebrows at her.

"Just for your information I was trying to be quiet. Looks like I succeeded."

She heard the anger rise in his voice and realized what she said was uncalled for.

"Griss, I'm sorry. It's just that you scared the be-Jesus out of me and..." She dropped her head to look at the pan she dropped on the floor.

Grissom walked around the breakfast bar and picked it up for her. He set it on the counter then pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

"Sara, I should be the one apologizing. I was just trying to see what you were singing. Since I can't hear you I just wanted to see you sing and enjoy yourself."

He felt her body shudder and felt the quick hot breath of a sob on his neck.

"Honey, please don't cry. It's alright." he pulled her back and looked at her face. She still refused to look at him, but the redness around her eyes gave her away. "Sara, look at me please. It's ok. This is hard on both of us, but we need each other to get through this."

She began to cry harder and all he could do was hold her until she settled down. Once Sara had regained control of her body she looked up at Grissom as he spoke.

"Your eggs are cold. How about I make us omelettes for breakfast?"

He wiped her eyes dry and she nodded. After they ate Grissom went to bed and Sara laid with him until she was sure he was asleep. She crawled out of bed in search of something to do. So she started picking things up.

She picked up his briefcase and moved it over into his study and laid it on his desk. The envelope slid out and fell to the floor. Sara bent to pick it up and as she read who it was from, her curiosity got the best of her. Hoping that it was about her job she pulled the contents out and placed them on the desk. Her mouth dropped open as she read through the papers.

"Damn." was the only word that she found appropriate at the time. She was about halfway through the files when she felt his presence. Without moving her head, she moved her eyes just enough to see his bare feet on the floor in the doorway. "Busted." She knew he didn't hear her but she had to say it out loud.

"Sara, what are you doing?"

She began to put the files back into the envelope and back into his briefcase. Then she slowly stood and pushed the chair in. Even though she wasn't watching him she knew he had moved and was now behind her. It was worse than getting your hand caught in the cookie jar at grandma's house. He loomed behind her, almost making contact. But he was close enough she could feel the heat radiating off of his body. She gulped, raised her head, and turned to face her executioner.

"I asked what are you doing?"

"It's not what it looks like."

"Oh really. Seeing you reading files from my briefcase is not what it looks like. Tell me Sara. What should it look like?"

She knew she had to look at him in order for him to understand her. And it took every ounce of energy she had to do so.

"I brought your briefcase in here, set it on the desk. The envelope slid out and when I saw it was from the sheriff I was hoping maybe you got me my job back."

"But that's not what's in there."

"Hun. You got that right. Let me help you with it please. I know this is under the table from everyone else. So why not let me help."

"No."

"Please Griss."

She laced her arms around his neck and pulled herself into him. God how she hated begging, but with him it seemed to work. It just depended on how much begging was necessary.

"Sara, no. I'm doing this because I was asked in confidence."

"And... I sense an and coming."

"And I wanted to use it to my advantage. When I can prove all of these accusations, I'm going to ask the Sheriff for your job back. That's if you want it back."

"Hell yes I want it back. I'm going stir crazy around here. But I want to help. I can do research online here during the day or maybe I can tail him. Yeah, I'll tail Ecklie for a few days see where he leads me."

"Down girl. I should be getting a warrant today for his financial records. Once I can track the paper trail it's, bye, bye Ecklie."

"Can I at least help?"

"Sara, I think that it would be better if you acted like you knew nothing about this."

"Please..."

"Stop begging. It's not going to work. Come on I need to catch up on some sleep."

She walked with him to the bedroom and watched him climb into bed. He held the covers up and she quickly moved under them as his arm bought them down over her. He held her as he fell asleep. But Sara was no where near asleep. In fact she was far from it. It took her a few minutes to free herself from his grasp. With every movement she was afraid he would wake up.

She silently closed the door and made her way to the computer. Like him she had a very good memory and began searching the internet for any additional information that had to do with the file on Ecklie.

TBC

FYI the song I had Sara singing is Can't Fight the Moonlight, by Leann Rimes.