A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! I hope you like this chapter.

I don't own CSI. Some inspiration is from episode 212, "You've Got Male."

Getting a Life

Sara sat alone in her apartment, reading an article in one of her many forensics journals. Soft music played in the background; it was the only sound aside from the turning of the pages as Sara read them. She felt perfectly content to spend her day off in this calm solitude.

Her quiet sanctuary was shattered by the ringing of the phone. Marking her place in the magazine, she put it down on the coffee table and reached for her ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sara!"

"Hi, Mary," she smiled. "What are you up to?"

"I have big news!" Mary exclaimed.

"Okay, let's hear it," Sara encouraged.

"I'm engaged!" Mary practically yelled.

"What?" Sara exclaimed.

"Tom just proposed! We're getting married!"

"My God, Mary!" Sara exclaimed. "That's incredible! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Mary said, her beaming smile carrying over the phone line to Sara. "You'll be my maid of honor, won't you?"

"Of course," Sara said without thinking. "When is the wedding?"

"Oh, we don't know yet," Mary replied. "We've been engaged for about five minutes. You're the first person I've called."

"You called me before your parents?"

"They'll keep me on the phone forever," Mary said. "I wanted to let you know as soon as possible."

"Well, thanks."

"Here, Tom wants to say hi."

"Okay."

She could hear the phone changing hands. Muffled voices were just barely audible in the background for a moment, then Tom's deep baritone filled her ears.

"Hi, Sara," he said.

"Congratulations!" she said in greeting.

"Thanks," he laughed. "Hey, Sara, I just wanted to thank you. It's because of you that I met Mary, and because of you that I had the courage to ask her out. Without you, I know I wouldn't be here right now."

Sara smiled. "Well, you're welcome. Just … be good to her."

"I always am," Tom said.

"I know."

"Okay, Mary's trying to tell me that she wants the phone back, so … thanks again, Sara. You really are the best."

Sara smiled. "I just want both of you to be happy."

"We are."

Sara couldn't stop thinking about Mary and Tom's engagement the next day as she walked into the break room to have her ritual cup of coffee to kick off her shift. She had never been a huge fan of weddings or marriage, but it looked as though she would have a ring-side seat for this one. Maid of honor. She wanted to roll her eyes at the very thought.

Grissom poked his head into the break room, cutting off her thoughts. "Sara, are you busy?"

Sara looked up from the coffee she was stirring. "I suppose the coffee can wait."

"Bring it along," Grissom said.

"Where are we going?" she asked, following him out of the break room.

"Henderson."

"Dare I ask why?"

"DB in a convenience store."

"Sounds like fun."

Grissom smiled. "I thought you'd say that. I'll meet you outside."

Sara nodded and went to collect her things. Knowing Grissom, she didn't have much time before they would leave.

She was right; he was waiting when she walked outside. He pressed the button on the key fob to unlock the SUV's doors, and Sara put her field kit in the backseat before climbing into the passenger seat.

"So, how was your day off?" Grissom asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Sara looked at him with a curious expression. She wasn't about to tell him about her new role as maid of honor. Somehow, she wanted to keep that one to herself. "Fine."

Grissom chanced looking away from the road to glance at her. "What did you do?"

"Why do you care?" Sara asked a bit more forcefully than she had intended.

"I'm not allowed to be interested in your life?"

She shrugged. "You haven't shown much of an interest in the past."

"That's not fair, Sara. Who helped you get your first job? Who brought you here to work in our lab? I think I've been very interested."

"You're right," Sara said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Grissom nodded. "So, your day off …"

"I just relaxed," Sara said. "I caught up on some reading. It was a low-key day."

Grissom nodded again. "Not a bad idea after the week we had."

"Yeah, two doubles and a triple," Sara said. "Not exactly relaxing."

"Just don't …"

"Don't what?"

Grissom sighed. "Don't spend every day off like that."

"Griss …"

"I'm worried about you, Sara," he said. "I'm worried that you're too … consumed with this job."

"Aren't we supposed to be into the job? Isn't that what makes a good CSI? Dedication?" A slight edge to Sara's voice gave away the anger that was bubbling just below the surface.

"Yes, of course, I want you to be dedicated," Grissom said patiently. "But, there is such a thing as going too far. We've talked about this before. If you get too involved, it gets to be too much. That doesn't make a good CSI; that makes a CSI who's been pushed into early retirement. That's not what I want for you, Sara."

She looked straight ahead, pursing her lips. "I'm fine, Grissom."

"You'll find something to do outside of work? Outside of law enforcement?"

"I'm fine," she repeated.

"Okay, I'm off. I have a little girl waiting to for her mother to kiss her before she leaves for school."

"Bye, Catherine," Nick smiled. "Tell Lindsey hi for me."

"I will," she promised. "See you guys tonight."

Catherine set off down the hall, her mind already home with her daughter. She could see the light peeking out of Grissom's office door as she approached; she ducked in to see him sitting at his desk.

"Hey, Gil, I'm going home," she said.

"Catherine," he said, looking up. "Do you have a minute?"

"Of course," she said in confusion, walking all the way into the cluttered office. "What's up?"

"I need you to do something for me."

"A new case?"

"No," Grissom said slowly. "A favor."

"Name it," she said without hesitation.

"Would you … talk to Sara?"

"Talk to Sara?" Catherine sat down across the desk from her supervisor. "About what?"

Grissom paused and licked his lips. "I'm worried about her. I'm afraid that she's getting too … involved with her work."

"You think she's becoming a workaholic?"

"Yes."

Catherine rolled her eyes. "Well, Pot, I'm so excited that you've decided to call out the Kettle."

"There's a difference," Grissom said. "I know when to stop. I know my limits. I know how to relax, how to put cases behind me. I know how to leave my emotions at the door." He paused again. "She can't do that yet."

"And you want me to teach her how?"

"She needs to learn it somehow," Grissom said. "She's a great CSI, and I don't want to lose her."

"Have you said something to her?"

"I've tried talking to her, Cath, but she won't listen to me. I don't know how to reach her."

"Well, what makes you think that I'd have more luck?"

"We both know that you're the people person."

Catherine smiled slightly. "You really think you're wooing me right now, don't you?"

"Is it working?" Grissom asked hopefully.

Catherine shook her head. "Fine, I'll talk to her. I can't promise success, but I'll do my best."

"If you do your best, you'll succeed," Grissom said confidently.

It was several days before Catherine had the chance to talk to Sara. They were assigned different cases, and only ran into each other for moments at a time at the lab. Finally, she found her opportunity. She had just wrapped her case, and was ready to leave for the day. Walking into the locker room, she found Sara slamming her locker shut. The purse over her shoulder and jacket in her hand told Catherine that she wasn't the only one on her way out for the day.

"Hey, Sara."

Sara gave her a smile. "Hi, Catherine. Nick said that you solved your case?"

"Yup. It's all up to the DA now."

"Good. Well, I'm off. I'll see you later."

"Sara, wait."

Sara stopped in the doorway and turned to look at her again. She raised her eyebrows in an unspoken question.

"What are you doing?"

"Um … leaving?" Sara ended her question with an isn't it obvious? tone.

"Okay, let me rephrase. Where are you headed?"

"Home."

Catherine looked at her for a moment. "Do you want to go grab breakfast?"

Sara's eyes narrowed slightly. "Have you been talking to Grissom?"

"About what?" Catherine's face was the perfect study of ignorance and confusion.

Sara sighed. "Never mind. Sure, breakfast sounds great."

Take that, Grissom. I do go out socially.

Catherine selected one of her favorite diners, which she swore had good vegetarian food. Sara laughed at her.

"How would you know?"

"Hey, I don't live on meat alone, you know," Catherine smiled, passing her a menu. "You know, I really admire you for this vegetarianism. I don't think I could pull it off."

"Well, it's easier for me than it would be for you," Sara said. "I don't have to worry about forcing a family into different eating habits."

"Yeah, I think Lindsey would kill me if I cut off her Happy Meals."

Sara opened her menu. "You were right; this is a great selection." She looked up. "Why don't we all come here more often?"

"All of us? The whole team?"

"Why not?"

Catherine looked thoughtful. "We haven't gone out together in ages. We used to do it all the time … maybe it's time to start again."

Sara smiled. "One big, happy family?"

Catherine nodded. "I think that we are."

Sara nodded. "Honestly, I can't believe how close this team is. The team I worked with in San Francisco was nothing like this."

"How so?"

"Let's put it this way: I never went out for breakfast with any of them."

The waitress came to take their orders, effectively stopping their conversation. Once she had gone, Catherine looked at Sara with a smile.

"So, Miss Sara, how are you settling in?"

Sara frowned slightly. "I've been here for a year and a half, Catherine. I'm pretty much settled."

"It's a big city," Catherine said. "It can take some getting used to."

"I like it," Sara said. "I'd rather live in a city than outside it."

"Well, there's certainly more to do in the city," Catherine said.

Sara looked at her closely. "You have talked to Grissom."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Save it," Sara said harshly. "He yells at me every chance he gets to find a hobby, and now he's got you trying to do the same thing." Her eyes narrowed. "I thought you really wanted us to have a nice, girls' breakfast, but I was wrong. You brought me here so that you could do Grissom's dirty work."

"Okay, stop," Catherine said in a tone that boded no arguments. "I'll admit that I talked to Grissom. I'll even admit that he's worried about you, and that he asked me to talk to you. And, yes, that's why I initially suggested this breakfast. But, Sara, if you want the truth, here it is: I'm having a good time. Until you brought it up, I had forgotten why I asked you to come here. So, if you want to storm out of here like an angry teenager, go ahead, but you won't be doing it for the right reasons."

Sara looked at her in silence for a moment. "I – I don't know what to say."

"Well, that's a first," Catherine said sarcastically.

Feeling soundly chastised, Sara's face flushed slightly. "I'm sorry, Cath."

Catherine sighed. "Look, Sara, Grissom's right. You can't be 'on' 24/7. Yes, this is a demanding job that requires your all … but you have to be able to give your all. If this is all there is for you, you are going to burn out, and you are going end up quitting long before you should. You have a lot of talent. You're great at your job. I just want to see you being great at it for a lot of years to come."

Sara nodded. "That's basically what Grissom said, just … better."

Catherine laughed. "Well, as he always says, I am the people person."

"I guess."

"Can you try to find a hobby?"

Sara sighed. "I suppose."

As it turned out, a "hobby" found Sara. She had no idea that agreeing to be a maid of honor would require as much work as it did. She found herself longing for the days when she had been able to open her email without finding links to pictures of bridal gowns, bridesmaids' dresses, flowers, invitations and centerpieces awaiting her. Mary sought her opinion on every aspect of the wedding, quickly making her glad that nearly 3,000 miles lay between them. She could only imagine how much worse this experience would have been if she and Mary still shared an apartment.

But, far worse than the bride herself were the bridesmaids. Mary emailed Sara a list of four girls, including their phone numbers and email addresses, stating that Sara would need to get in touch with them to plan the bridal shower.

"Bridal shower?" Sara exclaimed, staring at the message on her computer screen as though this must be some horrible joke. "She must be joking. How can I plan a bridal shower? I've never even been to one."

Sighing, she dutifully composed an email to her fellow bridesmaids. She hoped that they would have a better idea of where to start than she did.

She had an inbox full of replies that night. After reading the first one, Sara sighed again. She could practically see the ribbons and lace dripping from the messages. The cute fonts they all used made her want to hurt them, and the thinly veiled suggestions that maybe she wasn't up to the task of being Mary's maid of honor made her cringe. These girls were going to drive her mad.

Work became a welcome reprieve from the wedding insanity. The zeal with which she threw herself into her work made Grissom and Catherine nervous. Exchanging glances, they both knew that they were thinking the same thing: they had failed.

"What's wrong, Sara?" Catherine asked with concern as she walked into the break room at the beginning of their shift. Sara was sitting alone in a chair in the corner, looking utterly miserable.

Sara looked up at Catherine, realizing how much of her emotions had been playing across her face. "Do you know anything about bridal showers?"

Catherine looked surprised. "Why? Are you getting married?"

"Hardly," Sara laughed. "But, I am the maid of honor in my friend's wedding, and this shower thing appears to be my responsibility."

Catherine nodded. "The bridesmaids usually throw a shower."

"Yeah … but, the thing is, I don't really know what to do. And, as the other bridesmaids already see me as incompetent, I sort of want to email them a lengthy list of ideas. I just don't have any."

Catherine smiled. "Come and see me after shift. I'll help you out."

"You will? Thanks, Cath," Sara said with a beaming smile.

Nick and Warrick exchanged a look.

"It's times like this that I'm glad to be a guy," Warrick said.

"I'm with you, my man," Nick agreed.

"I'm jealous," Sara laughed.

"Okay, here we go," Grissom said as he rushed into the break room. "Catherine, Nick, you have an apparent hunting accident. Should be an easy night."

"Thanks," Catherine said, taking the assignment slip from Grissom. "I think."

He smiled. "Sara, you're coming with me to check out a body found at a highway construction site. Warrick, you'll join us once you've wrapped your current case."

"Right," Warrick and Sara said in unison.

"All right, that's everything. Sara, we leave in five minutes."

"Sure."

Five minutes later, Sara found herself in the passenger seat of the SUV Grissom was driving to the scene. She took a deep breath, hating what she had to request from him.

"I need to take a three day weekend next month."

Grissom's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline. Sara rarely asked for a single day off, and never three in a row. "What's the occasion?"

She made a face. "Do you remember my friend Mary?"

"Of course. She's a very sweet girl."

"Yeah, well, you're not the only one who thinks so. She's getting married, and she's asked me to be her maid of honor."

"Well, congratulations."

"Yeah, thanks. Anyway, her shower is next month, and if I'm not there, I think one of these other psychotic bridesmaids will try to usurp my position."

Grissom laughed. "You know, I was in a wedding once. Best man. I was actually terrified of the bridesmaids. It's amazing what being in a wedding will do to otherwise sane, well-adjusted women."

"Yeah, so I'm learning."

He smiled. "I'll make sure you get the time off. Just put a written request on my desk."

"No problem."

Their light conversation on the way to the scene stood in stark contrast to the case that awaited them. Two sisters, Donna and Joan, had been killed and dumped at the construction site. As horrific as the crime was itself, it was the way of life chosen by Donna that truly disturbed Sara.

The young woman had completely cut herself off from society. She lived with her sister, but rarely left her house. Her car showed very little mileage, she worked from home, she ordered her clothes from catalogues, her fridge was full of take-out food and plastered with delivery menus.

Sara saw a lot of herself in this victim – far too much, really. At first, she wasn't disturbed by it. So, Donna liked to order food. So did Sara; she hated to cook, and assumed that Donna had felt the same way. Donna subscribed to catalogues; so did Sara. She had loved turning the pages to see the items for sale since childhood. Occasionally ordering things gave her something to anticipate. Receiving a package was a welcome change from going to work and returning to quiet house every day.

Then, she was given the task of going through Donna's computer. After searching through it, she realized how lonely this girl had been. Her catalogue purchases weren't casual and few and far between like Sara's; she was ordering at least once a day. Donna only had one friend on her buddy list; a man who Grissom discovered was a recently-released prison inmate. She had declared her undying love to him, telling him in an email how special he made her feel, how strong the connection between them was.

She was so cut off from human contact that her only friend was someone who was, quite literally, unable to be with her.

With this revelation, panic filled Sara. Donna could be her. Oh, she wasn't there yet, but she could be. Sara knew that she was within inches of living this girl's life – and she wanted out.

She raced home after work. She walked into her apartment slowly, staring at it as though she had never seen it before. Then, she shot into action.

The containers of leftover take-out were thrown unceremoniously into the trash. All her delivery menus followed. Her stack of catalogues found its way into another trashcan.

Feeling better already, she looked down at her answering machine. As usual, it flashed a red 0 at her.

In the past, she had never been bothered by her lack of messages. Now, after hearing Mary's subtle comments about being lonely, after listening to Nick's off-hand comment that she needed to get out more, after talking to Grissom and Catherine about hobbies and activities, after seeing the way that Donna had lived and died, she knew that she never wanted to see that red 0 again.

She grabbed her phone and punched in the number that Hank had left her ages ago. It rang twice before he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi," she said with a brightness she barely felt. "It's Sara."

"Sara?" he said in surprise. "Wow, I didn't think I'd ever hear from you!"

She took a deep breath. "Yeah, sorry. I was thinking … do you want to go out … somewhere?"

"I'd love to," he said cheerfully, "but tonight isn't good. Can you do dinner next Tuesday?"

"I can," she smiled.

"Great," he said. "Can I pick you up at seven?"

"That would be great."

"Excellent," he said. "What's your address?"

As she gave him her address, a feeling of peace filled her. This was right. She was finally going to have a life – a real life that was more than school or work.

Mary, Grissom and Catherine would be so proud.