Chapter Sixteen

"Where is Grissom?" Greg asked Nick, both of them standing in the morgue.

"He's not coming," Sara said, rushing in for the second time that day.

"Where have you been?" Nick asked, giving her a suspicious look. "I paged you fifteen minutes ago!"

"I was held up behind traffic, Nick. Sorry." Sara stared back at him, silently daring him to drop his gaze.

Greg looked back and forth between his silent duelling companions. "Traffic?" he asked, hoping to ease some of the tension. "But I saw you earlier in the lab. Where did you go?"

"I took Grissom home; he was sick; incapable of driving. Migraine, pale and sweaty. I think he might be getting the flu. Catherine said it was going around. So he's at home, and I'm your help," Sara explained, giving Greg a grateful smile. He could always relieve tension.

"Oh. But what about your case?" he asked.

"Ruled suicide," Dr. Robbins answered, walking into the room. "Sara, hello again." He nodded at the brunette, and turned to the body in front of him.

"Oh," said Greg again, looking embarrassed.

Nick looked at the coroner. "What do we have on our Hotel Man?"

"Gunshot wounds to the chest, and one in the head; execution-style," said the doctor. "Cause of death was obviously the gunshot wounds, but he also bled out. And time of death was around three am this morning."

"Wow, we were up late," Sara said to herself, thinking back to the night before, and how little sleep she and Grissom had gotten. They'd talked, and attempted to sleep, but were quickly awoken by the gunshots. She didn't think they'd been up to almost three in the morning.

All three men turned to stare at her. "What?" Greg asked.

Sara lifted her eyes up, surprised to find them all staring at her.

"Did you say 'we were up late', Sara?" Dr. Robbins asked, a grin forming.

Her face flushed momentarily. I let that slip out loud? Crap.

"Yes!" exclaimed Nick, his own grin forming. "You were out with someone last night! And I can't believe it wasn't me," he joked, squeezing her shoulder playfully. He turned to Greg. "See Greggo? I told you it was Sara we saw at the hotel this morning!"

Sara froze as the color from her cheeks drained. Nick and Greg had seen her? At the hotel? No. They didn't. I left before they got there… didn't I? Yeah… I did… I think.

Composing herself, she put a smile on. Nick was still babbling. "Who was it? Who were you with?"

"Was it Gil?" Dr. Robbins asked, a smirk overpowering his grin.

Sara's smile dropped off her face and she turned serious. "No, it wasn't Grissom. Do you have anything more to tell us, or are we done?" Dr. Robbins shook his head no. "Good. Then let's head over to the DNA lab, and see who this guy is."

She backed away from the table, heading for the door. Nick and Greg thanked the coroner and headed out after her.

OoOoOoO

Sofia met the trio in the DNA lab. "Sofia," Nick greeted her as they walked in. "I was wondering where you'd gotten to. After we were done at the scene, you and Grissom disappeared. Then he came back, alone. Where did you go?"

She looked a little taken aback by Nick's greeting and small interrogation. "Oh… I needed to talk to Grissom in private about something. When we were done, I went for a small walk. Didn't feel very good. But I'm better now."

Sara sighed inwardly. Being rejected by Grissom, it was painful. It made you feel dumb, like he only wanted to be with smart girls. She knew what Sofia meant by not feeling good. After Grissom had said no to her, she'd felt sick to her stomach, even hours later. That pain wasn't going to go away soon for Sofia either. But Sara didn't much care about Sofia's pain. It just meant that Grissom was hurting the blonde so he didn't have to hurt her anymore. It was a good feeling, for once. That someone else's heart was getting beat on, and not just hers.

She knew that later she'd start to feel bad for the cop, but right now, she was loving the feeling of being Grissom's woman, partner, other, whatever you wanted to call her, but the reason other women couldn't go out with him. A feeling she'd wanted for longer than she could remember.

Sofia was quite obviously avoiding Sara's gaze, and Sara took note of it. Probably because she told me what they were 'talking' about. She asked him out, for God's sake! It's her own fault. She asked out a committed guy. Even if we don't make it painfully obvious that we're together, she shouldn't have approached him. Everyone with eyes in this lab saw us, knew that there was something there, even before it was official, which they still don't know about. She just wasn't smart enough to see it, I guess...

"Sara?" Someone was calling her name. "Sara!" Greg was waving something in front of her face. "Nick said to tell you to take this to Trace," he said, handing her the sealed evidence bag with a blue fibre in it.

"Sorry Greggo," she apologized. "I'm just a bit distracted, that's all."

"We've noticed," he replied, walking out the door, leaving her alone in the DNA lab. "Oh," he said, poking his head back in, "Sofia and Nick have gone to Ballistics, by the way. They want to know what kind of gun was used to shoot Hotel Man. Page me when you get something."

"I always do." Sara gave him a grin. "Page me when you get something too."

"Always do," he teased, leaving again.

Sara stared after Greg, a bit confused at his comment about her being easily distracted. I don't get distracted at work with Griss, do I? No. He's not even here! But what else could he be referring to? Maybe he does think we have something…

She pushed that thought from her mind, and headed over to Trace.

A/N 5: Sara isn't heartless, just so you know. And I don't think she is, contrary to what was just going through her head. It's just, if you'd been in love with a guy (a really hot, sexy guy) for like, eight years, and finally got him to come around to you, you'd be super jealous of an annoying-voiced British blonde cop who looks like she wants to screw every guy she can get, right? That's what I thought.

Still not a Sofia hater though!