Uncompromising Home

Summary: When a Slayer talks to a CSI... watch out!

Pairings: If you've made it this far, you already know!

Disclaimer: See Part 1

Feedback: Happily accepted.

Grissom sat in the chair in his hotel room, digesting everything he'd heard.

Demons were real.

Buffy Summers was a Slayer.

And Sara had had a date.

With another man.

That was probably the hardest to digest.

Oh, he knew how hypocritical he sounded. He didn't want to claim Sara, but he objected when others did. He didn't date her, yet took Sofia Curtis out to dinner. He KNEW, but it didn't seem to stop him. He'd always been able to keep Sara before. Always been able to see her, to smell her, to hear her laugh, to bask in her. He'd always taken it for granted that she would be there.

Until she wasn't.

A knock came at his door.

Filled with hope, he answered it. Please be Sara, he thought.

It wasn't. It was Buffy. "Can I come in?"

He was in shock, but opened the door wider.

She glided through it, coming to a halt in the middle of the room. "Let's talk."

Grissom shut the door. "Let's not." He headed for the Scotch bottle.

Buffy shrugged. "Fine. Then you'll watch Sara walk out of your life, with no way to hold her this time."

Gil froze. He turned to her. "She's leaving?"

Buffy looked at him. "She wants to. She's been wanting to for a few years now. Not the job, of course, just the location. She's not happy there."

"Then why-"

She interrupted him. "You KNOW why. She even told you. She loves you, enough to do what's best for you. Until recently, she knew that what was best for you was that she stay and ease your burdens the best she could. Now, however, she wonders if what's BEST for you is what's RIGHT for you."

Grissom tried to make out what Buffy had said. "You're trying to tell me that she sacrificed her happiness because she thought I needed her?"

"Yes."

"I never-" Again, Buffy interrupted him. "You DID know she wasn't happy! You knew when you sent her that plant. You've known all the times she's dropped anvils on your head. You've ALWAYS known that she put your happiness above her own. When you're in love, that's what you do. But Sara is only human. She can only give you what you need with no regards to her own heart for so long before she can't anymore, before she has to walk away. She thinks she hasn't done you any favors, letting you hide like she has. She wonders daily what you would have said to her that day she told you that you her reason for coming to Vegas had she let you stumble your way through it.

She told me all of this," Buffy added, when she saw the look in his eyes. "We're sponsors."

"Sponsors?"

"In the 'In Love with Repressed, Cowardly Older Man who won't reveal his Feelings' group. We call each other every week or so and chat about what we're doing wrong, or right. I know a lot about Sara's sitch because I share parts of it."

"So if you know so much, why aren't YOU happy? Why are you shutting Rupert out? He loves you, you know."

"And yet, he's afraid," Buffy sighed. "I've died twice, you know."

"Died?" Gil was surprised at the tightening in his chest at the thought of this feisty, vibrant young woman dying. He also understood Rupert's reticence a little more.

"Yep, Slayer's drawback. Save the world, shortened life span. Most don't live beyond 25. And despite the fact I'm not the Chosen 'One' anymore, Slayers are still prone to drop much sooner than the average person. Giles is afraid to love me because he knows he'll lose me again. He doesn't think I'm worth the risk."

"That's not true," Grissom insisted, having heard the wistfulness in Giles' voice when he talked of 'his' Slayer. 'His' Buffy. "His fear has nothing to do with how long you'll live."

"Yeah, right. There's other problems too. I've been cruel to him, he's been cruel to me. We're working through that. I've also been baking."

"Huh?"

"Long story. I've been staying out of relationships because I wasn't ready for one. Now, he's not ready. Timing, I guess."

"He says you barely talk to him-and that this isn't the first time, either."

"The first time is another long story, but he left me to cope during a time I really wasn't capable of tying my shoes, let alone what I had to face. This time, I've just been trying to be a grown up and give him the space he seems to so desperately need."

Buffy looked at her watch. "I have to go. Sara thinks I'm on patrol. But I'll leave you with a few truths." Buffy looked at him. "Sara has been through a lot, Grissom. Until recently, she hasn't been willing to pursue you since you've pulled away so hard when she's tried. Now, her past is catching up with her. So she's been healing herself while waiting for you." She moved toward the door, then grasped it. "Sara adores you, Gil. But she's trying to adore herself at the same time. I just came to tell you that being where's she's standing, she'll wait a little longer for you. But your time's running out." She opened the door and shut it behind her, leaving the entomologist to think.

End Part 6