Grissom was still confused as he got into work, he pulled up next to Sara's empty space. Not even registering that her car should still have been there. As he had promised the night before he had drvien by her apartment to pick her up only to find that she wasn't there, thinking she must have got another bus or got a taxi he carried on to work.

He sat in his office, listening to the signs of people walking by on their way to the break room, Catherine had arrived and entered the break room before discovering a message on her phone and scurrying back outside where there was a better reception. Warrick had also arrived early and was sat in the break room talking to Nick who had arrived recently.

Grissom stood up in order to go to the break room to see how everyone was doing and to hand ou assignments, having put it off for as long as possible in the hope that Sara would come and find him. So he hadn't moved so he didn't miss her. As he realised why he had sat tere as long as he could it finally registered that he hand't beard her enter and her car wasn't there. Puzzled he moved towards the door, only to be pushed back as Catherine came into the room without knocking, as was usual for her.

She took an authorative tone of voice which immediately shocked Griss so much that he actually did as she said without even realising that she never normally ordered him.

"Grissom, go sit back down now! Stay here until I come back, I'll give out the assignments today while you stay here. You will not move from that chair until I return. Hand me the assignments and sit down. Do you understand?"

He nodded dumbly as he handed the assignments over and sat back down in his chair. By the time Catherine arrived back he had regained control of his thoughts and was trying to control the anger he felt as a result of his confusion with Sara by trying to work out why Catherine had been so ... direct.

He looked at her as she entered back in, but felt taken aback again as she started scolding him.

"What the hell did you do to the poor girl Grissom? All I got was a lousy message on my answerphone, she didn't pick up her phone and then Judi tells me that you gave her permission to have time off for 'personal reasons' all I can tell from the message is that it is something to do with you, and something to do with the clinic. What the hell did you say to her and do to her Grissom? Sara isn't the kind to run away and hide, she'd fight. What on earth did you do to make her stop fighting?" She panted slightly breathlessly after this outburst, glaring at him feircely as she waited for a reply.

"Catherine, right now you seem to know more than me but I only caught about 3 words of that. Sit down and say it slowly, what's wrong with Sara and what did she tell you?" He asked outwardly calm but inside in turmoil, she was taking time off work, Judi seemed under the impression that she had cleared it with him, that meant it had to be something to do with him. And why was she still talking about the clinic?

Catherine's words were drowned out as he realised that if Sara had gone to the clinic and was trying time off to do it that she was still planning to have a baby from a donor. 'Does that mean she does regret last night? Why does she still feel the need to have someone elses baby? It must have been obvious last night that I would do anything for her. Please don't let me have hurt her, or forced her into this. Who am I kidding? I'm the reason she needs to do this. If I hadn't flirted with her before pushing her away so often she would have found someone else, then she could have had a child with them. Why did she keep waiting for me though? There's no way I'm worthy of her efforts. Or of her.'

It suddenly struck Grissom how much it must have hurt her over the past few years for her flirting to be accepted and returned, but for her advances to be forced away and ignored. He only just realised what had been growing on him since the night before. How much Sara liked him, loved him even. She had told him she did last night, and he finally believed her. He couldn't believe how blind he had been when it had come to his personal life. He knew he hid from it but he only just realised how much he ignored it.

He vowed that he would be more open from now on, but he knew that he wouldn't stick to it, a lifetime of habits were too well ingrained into him. He changed it to vow that he would at least be more aware that there was life outside work. And it was open to him. 'At least it was, I hope it still is.'

Catherine who had been shouting and ranting again and had reached the end as the need to breathe overtook her need to shout at Grissom. He just caught the last phrases.

"-e poor girl, what the hell did you do to her?"

"We made love." He whispered quietly, barely audibly, more to himself than to Catherine as he was asking himself the same question.

"God Grissom, I know your not up to date on relationships but you must have realised she liked you I me-" She froze mid-word, as she actually realised what he had said and not what she had been expecting to hear, her expression changed for annoyance to confusion and then to disbelief, quietly she asked him, "Wait, did you just say what I think you said?"

Grissom didn't answer he just looked up at her. His eyes told her everything she needed to know, more open than they usually work, a tear forming in the corner of one eye, but both of them full of pain and confusion. She could only watch as he slowly broke down in front of her. The man who had always kept his feelings hidden had finally had them opened, and everything was coming out. His eyes were staring and faced the desk as tears began to roll down his face, slowly and silently.

Catherine went round to the other side of the desk and pulled him into a hug. Something Grissom would never normally accept, but he just clung to her as he cried softly. Finally he looked up at Catherine, a note of pleading and desperation in his voice as he let go of her. "Catherine, what did she say? What's she doing?"

Catherine snow crouched in front of him told him all she knew.

"She called me and left me a voice message, it didn't even ring. All it said was that she was fine and not to worry, she was taking some time off work, and that she was safe. She was arranging a meeting at the Munro clinic and she would call again in a few days. That's all I know, that's all she wanted me to know. She said she would call soon and I'm sure she will, I'll let you know if anything major happens."

Grissom finally took hold of himself, he turned back into supervisor. "Did you tell the team anything this morning?" She nodded, "I told them that she was taking some time off for personal and that it would be appreciated if they didn't try and work out why or debate amongst themselves where and why she was gone. I also told them that all I knew was that Judi told me this morning saying that it was cleared with you. I also told them that you didn't know any specifics, and that you had only granted the time off so that we didn't lose her permanently."

Grissom smiled weakly. "Thanks Cath, anyway I have some case documentation to finish writing up, Brass has already arrested her for incest. So I need to finish the paperwork really before I start on a new case. I'll let you get back to your case as well now." Catherine wordlessly took his hand and squeezed it quickly before walking out of the door to go catch up on her case while Grissom settled down to some work to take his mind off Sara.

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A month had passed and Grissom was almost pulling out his hair in frustration, Sara had still not come back. She called Catherine every few days but hadn't once tried to speak to him. He had begged Catherine to tell him everything but she just annoyingly smiled and said that she knew nothing anyway, but that she was fine and not to worry. He was arriving early at work and leaving late, needing to take up all the time he could with useful thoughts so that he didn't drive himself completely insane with constant thoughts of Sara.

He was working late, again, when Catherine bobbed her head into his office before she left. "Just to let you know Griss, she'll be back this afternoon. I'm off to go meet her for breakfast though now and fill her in on what shes missed while she's been gone. You need to eat, go get some breakfast. See you tomorrow." She vanished as soon as she had appeared, Grissom was only sure that he had seen her because he could hear her footsteps retreating down the corridor. His mind raced, this afternoon. He needed to go change and shower and trim his beard and have some breakfast. He knew that he had plenty of time but he also wanted to grab a few hours sleep.

He longed to follow Catherine and go meet Sara now, but instead he forced himself to tidy up his office, and then calmly walk out of the building. Drive home and go to bed. All the time wondering waht she needed to discuss with Catherine so urgently that it could not wait until tomorrow.

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Catherine drove down to the address Sara had given her. 'Why does she want to meet before she gets back? It's probably to ask about Grissom. She knows that he told me that they slept together, it's probably to see how he's doing and to ask what I told the rest of the team. That and she probably just needs to see a friendly face. I still can't believe they finally slept together after all this time. Finally." She was still shocked by the way Grissom had described it, she knew that he wouldn't sleep with someone with no emotion involved, but he wouldn't say that they hade 'made love' unless he actually loved her and probably knew that she loved him. She turned it over in her mind as she pulled up outside the hotel Sara had told her.

Climbing out of the car she noticed that it was just average. Not cheap but not expensive. Corporate style, normal. There wasn't much else that could be said about it. She walked over to the elevator and went up in it to the 3rd floor. Walking along the corridor until she reached the room number Sara had told her. She then stopped and knocked on the door. It was opened by a distracted but happy looking Sara. Catherine had chance to notice the hand placed subconsiously over her abdomen before been greeted with a warm hug and ushered inside and into a seat.

Sara greeted Catherine warmly, happy to finally see a familiar friendly face. She had spoken to her on the phone, but she wanted Catherine's help in knowing how to break it to everyone and especially to Grissom. She also didn't want to break the news over the phone, she saw from her friends face however that she already knew.

Catherine looked at Sara and especially at the hand placed over her abdomen. "So" she asked "you went through it then? You actually went to the clinic and chose a donor?"

Sara looked at the floor not knowing how to phrase what she wanted to tell her. Catherine reached across and took hold of her hand. "Sara if you're happy then I'm happy. So go on spill, what kind of man did you choose?"

Sara smiled, "Oh ermmm, average height, dark hair, blue eyes, also works in science-" Her smile changed into a grin as she saw Catherine expression change from curiosity to disbelief to amazement and then finally to excitement. "You mean Grissom?" She interupted, almost squeaking out the words in her excitement. Sara's grin told her all she needed to know. "Ooooooooooh" She squealed at her before pulling her up into a hug. Sara hugged her back before both women stopped and just faced each other, they suddenly burst out laughing as Catherine squealed at Sara again and placing her hand on her still flat stomach.

"Well, seen as you're not allowed champagne, I think this occassions requires shopping, you won't be able to fit in those for much longer. But first details, how many week far gone are you so far?"