Chapter 28

"Yeah, Jimmy! Are you going to say something?" Sara asked him with a slight smile on her lips.

"Do you already know each other?" Estelle was asking of the three.

"Uh, well, yeah." Jim finally spoke. Gil tied hank to a nearby tree and waved Jim over to join him and Sara to talk. Jim walked toward them, still trying to make sense out of it all.

"So, you." He pointed and Grissom. "And She." He pointed at Sara. "That's your dog." He stooped down to pet Hank.

"Yeah, that's Hank." Grissom informed him.

"Hank?" Jim asked looking at Sara who just shrugged. "Well, he was a son of a bitch too, I guess."

"Look, Jim..........we didn't mean to deceive anyone, but you know Ecklie and lab policies...." Gil trailed off trying to read Jim's reaction.

"Gil. I'm not going to stand here and lecture you on the good and bad of all this. I think you can figure it out yourself. But, I'm going to say this once." He looked sternly at Gil. "And ONLY once!" He looked at Sara. "Its about damn time!" He smiled wide at the duo and wrapped them into an awkward embrace.

Estelle smiled as she watched Jimmy and his friends. He seemed mad at first, but he burst into a smile and all three were sharing a hug of sorts. They made their way back to the table and sat down, chattering and laughing.

"So, you all DO know each other, then?" Estelle asked of the group again.

"Yeah, we do. Gil and I are old pals. Actually, I used to be his boss. But he's the boss now."

"Oh, he's the one who got your job after......" Estelle stopped not wanting to upset Jimmy.

"Yeah. Yeah. No hard feelings. Someone had to take over." He looked at Sara. "That's when Miss Sidle here entered the CSI force."

"So, you all work together?" Maggie asked from the end of the table.

"Yeah. That's one reason Jim didn't know we were in a relationship. Gil's my supervisor."

A round of "OH"s accompanied her statement. Jim just smiled as he bit into his hotdog. Wouldn't Catherine just die to know this information!

"Jim." Sara's stern voice and look brought him out of his thoughts. "You have to keep this to yourself."

"Oh, yeah. Of course I will." He smiled at the couple. "But on one condition."

"What's that?" Sara was starting to get a funny feeling in her stomach.

"You have to tell me how long this has been going on, and how you were able to keep it a secret from top CSI's!" He chuckled.

"Oh! Well, sure, we can fulfill that condition." Gil smiled and took Sara's hand into his and kissed the back of her hand."See it was easy to deceive you all. We're just smarter and always one step ahead." Gil grinned at Jim.

"That's not an answer."

"Ok. Ok. I'll really tell you." Sara filled Jim and Estelle and her friends in on their relationship, all the way back to how they met at the Forensic Academy Conference. Jim smiled remembering some of the instances and now laughing as the story was filled in and completed.

"I gotta tell ya. You are two of the sneakiest people I've met." Jim chomped on his last bite of pickle and smiled. "But I'm glad you figured it out." He wiped his hands on his jeans. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Al Robbins was an animal lover. Anyone who heard him talk about cats or dogs would know that about him and his animal adventures. He had one cat that he especially liked. His name was Dr. Mittens and he was about 17 years old. Way beyond his prime. So, here he sat with Dr. Mittens in the vets office, contemplating the decision of treatment or peaceful rest for his old pal. He was afraid it would be the latter. These were the decisions he hated, but his wife left it up to him to decide.

A young mom and her son sat with a Golden Retriever between them. His foot obviously injured, the dog hopped around and resisted sitting still. Al chuckled as the boy got the dog to lay down, only to have him pop back up again a minute later. He was putting off the inevitable decision. He looked down at Dr. Mittens and sighed. A single tear slipped out of the corner of his eye. This is how Sara found Dr. Albert Robbins when she entered the vets office, Hank in tow.

Sara's first thought was to duck out before he saw her with Hank and asked questions. But she saw the look of sorrow on his face and the single tear. She had to comfort him.

"Hey." She said softly.

"Sara! Hi." Sara sat down next to him, Hank by her side.

"This your cat, the one I hear you talk about? Dr. Mittens? Right?"

"Yeah" He smiled at Sara. "He's uh, not doing well. I'm afraid putting him down is the best option."

"Im so sorry." She gently touched his shoulder. "I know how hard it is. I had a cat years ago that I rescued, and he got cancer. So, even though I wanted to fight, I had to do what was best for him."

"Yeah. Doesn't get any easier. Even when your as old as I am." He gently smiled at her, tears in his eyes.

"You want me to go in with you?" Sara inquired.

"No. But thanks for the offer, Sara. Death is something I'm familiar with."

"Yeah, aren't we all." Hank sat looking at Sara and gently nudged her hand that held his leash when she started to tear up. "Its ok, Hank." She soothed him with her voice and hand on his head.

"Hank?" Doc asked her, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, uh, yeah, this is my dog, Hank." She smiled. "I know. But he already had the name when We-uh-I got him from the rescue."

"Well, just so you aren't pining away for a certain other dog named Hank." Doc winked at her.

"How does everyone know about my personal life?"

"Sara, you should know by now that even the dead have secrets that get shared and spread around the lab like wildfire. No ones life is secret around there."

Sara furrowed her brows together, not knowing how to respond to that comment. Did he know something? Well, he didn't know about Hank. What did he know?

"Well, I take that back." He went on with his thought. "Everyone except Gil Grissom. That man is a mystery even to me, and I think I know him fairly well."

"Hmmm" was Sara's only reply. Doc looked at her, trying to read her expression.

"Well, you probably know him better than anyone else on the Team."

"What? Why would you say that?" HE MUST KNOW SOMETHING!

"Well, like I said, rumors make it around, even in the morgue. I heard things about your relationship with Gil when you first started working here."

"Ah, yeah. Which ones? The one where I slept my way into my job? Or the one about the threesome with Catherine?" Sara sat cross armed, obviously upset.

"Well, I doubt you or Gil would use sex as a career advancement tool, and I hadn't heard the one about a threesome..........but I did hear the one about Gil being smitten with a young brunette CSI who lived in San Francisco who apparently left him with a giant hickey." He smiled at a blushing Sara.

"Oh, that story."

"Yeah, that one." He chuckled. "I take it that one is true?"

"Well, sort of..........but that was a long time ago, Doc."

A vet tech appeared out of a back room and signaled to Doc to follow her. He stood carefully, cat in one arm, crutch in the other. He turned and looked down at Sara.

"I'll just say this............Gil was the happiest when he came back from those San Francisco trips. And it just seems like he's been happy again. I wonder what brought the smile back?" He smiled and turned, making his way into the room.

Later that day, during an autopsy of a murder victim, Doc's suspicions were confirmed. Gil entered the autopsy room, pulling gloves on over his hands. He stood beside Doc, listening to him give the autopsy results. They went over the information and Grissom pulled of his gloves. He took off his lab coat and hung it on a peg near the door.

"Hey, Gil!" Doc Robbins called to him.

"Yeah." He turned to look at him, stopping by the door.

"When did you get a dog?"

"What?" Shock apparent in his voice.

"You have paw prints on your back." Doc smiled at him. "From the size of them, I'd say.......a boxer?"

Gil stared at him for a moment, wondering how he could know that from a paw print. He just smiled and started to go through the door when he heard Doc call out to him, "Tell Hank I said I hope his vet visit went well."

A/N: sorry for the delay in updating. I've been so upset with Sara leaving again its hard to write happy stuff. This is a shorter chapter, but the next will probably be LONG! I wanted to get Doc Robbins in here somewhere. I had this feeling he knew something, just like Jim did and maybe Greg. I think they all kind of knew on some level. Well, except Nick. Please R&R. Wendy