AN: Thanks for the reviews. Here is your next chapter.

Chapter 6: Space needed

Two months later

The team had noticed these past two months that something was changing in Grissom and once everybody found out about his little secret and after the initial shock wore off they all understood it was about the pending fatherhood.

They tried to comfort Sara as much as they could but she kept pushing them away, saying it's fine and that she was dealing with it but if she was honest with herself she would say she is having a tougher time with this than she is showing everybody.

Now they were at the Stokes/Willows residence celebrating Nick and Catherine's engagement and BreAnna, Amanda, Greg and Warrick were in the pool swimming, Nick was cooking on the grill and Sara and Catherine were at the snack table putting various snacks on their plates.

Catherine looks over at Sara and asked. "Where's Grissom?"

They all noticed Sara had showed up to the party alone and Catherine was the only one to have the guts to finally ask, they figured it had something to do with the baby.

Sara looks over at her and said. "Alice is having an ultrasound to see what they are having and Grissom wanted to be there." Catherine nodded and Sara goes back to looking at the food, she didn't even have to ask why Sara wasn't there, she knew it had to be hard for her.

Catherine was just about to open her mouth to speak again when they heard Greg's voice. "It's about time you showed up Griss."

Sara and Catherine turned around and saw Grissom walking up to them with a smile, he kisses Sara on the cheek and said. "Hi honey."

She gives him a little smile and nodded her head then asked. "I take it everything went well?" He nods and kisses her on the cheek again then walks closer to the table and grabbed a chip with a grin still on his face.

Finally Catherine opens her mouth and asked. "Well come on Grissom don't leave me in suspense what are you having?"

Grissom turns around to look at Catherine with a raised eyebrow then he looks over at Sara and she gives him a sorry look for telling her but he just waived it off, looks back at Catherine and replied. "It's a girl." Then the two of them could see the sparkle in his eyes.

Catherine was excited for him so she smiles and said. "Congratulations." Then she turns to her guests and said. "Guys did you hear that Grissom's having a girl."

They looked at Sara before they said anything and she gives them a smile and said. "Come on, its good news right?" They all smiled and congratulated him too then Sara looks a Grissom and said. "Congratulations Griss." Then she wiped a tear away, said excuse her, puts her plate on the table and walked into the house.

They all felt bad and Grissom could see that Nick was getting ready to go after her but he puts his hand up and said. "Let me Nicky."

Nick nods and they all watched Grissom go comfort his girlfriend, all having very mixed emotions right now.

Grissom walks to the downstairs bathroom, knocks on the door and said. "Honey, can I come in?"

After a few seconds when he didn't get an answer he was just about to knock again but heard the click of the lock so he took a breath and opens the door then he sticks his head in and saw that Sara was getting ready to sit down on the ledge of the bathtub with her back toward the door.

He walks in, shuts the door behind him, walks up to the bathtub and sits down in front of her, he takes her hand and said. "I'm sorry."

She looks into his blue eyes and said. "Why are you sorry? You having a baby girl is something you're allowed to be happy about."

She wipes some more tears away and he shakes his head and replied. "Not when I see it's hurting you and I...…" He trails off as if an idea came to him, she looks at him wondering why he stopped talking then he takes her other hand and said. "Marry me."

Sara's breath hitched in her throat and she gasped. "What?"

He gives her that adorable grin she loves and speaks again. "Marry me. Let me prove to you that nothing is going to change between us." He stops to look around the bathroom then looked back at her and continues. "I know I could have picked a more romantic place and a better moment but I never been more serious."

She knew he was telling her the truth and as much as she wanted to jump in his arms and shout yes at the top of her lungs, she knew it wouldn't change how she felt so she shook her head and said the words she never thought she would ever say to him. "I can't."

Grissom's heart sank down to his stomach and he said softly. "You can't? Why?"

Sara saw the hurt in his eyes and she wanted to take it away and knew she could with one word but she had to do what was right for her and not jump into anything before she was ready to accept everything.

She squeezed his hand said. "Getting married now wouldn't solve anything, in fact it could make things more complicated and I don't think we need that now, ok?" He nods his head then looks down like he did something wrong and just when he was about to take his hands out of hers she holds them tight and said. "Hey, you did nothing wrong. I am just not ready for that step right now." She takes one hand out of his, puts it on his cheek, rubs her thumb up and down to calm him down and when he looked back into her eyes and nodded again she continues with a small smile. "I still love you and the next time you ask me I'll say yes."

He gives her that smile again, leans toward her and kisses her softly on the forehead then brings her in his arms and she holds on to him tighter, wishing she could get through this.

They release each other a few minutes later then he stands up and holds out his hand, she looks up into his blue eyes and takes it.

He helps her up, they give each other another smile then they walked back outside and tried to enjoy the party as much as they could.

Two weeks later

Sara walks in the break room after completing her shift and the team all smiled at her then Nick asked. "So Sara are you coming with us to have breakfast this morning?"

She walked over to the sink to wash out her coffee cup and after she put it back in the cupboard she looked at the team and replied. "Sorry guys but I am just going to go home and crash."

Her two weeks had seemed to blur into each other and she really couldn't tell what day it was, she was so tired and not only because she had been losing sleep over the baby thing but it was also work.

They all nodded sympathetically then Grissom walked in the room, he looks at Sara and they share a small smile then the gang asked him if he was going to have breakfast with them and he said sure, he looked at Sara again and she shook her head and said. "Rain check."

He walks up to her and said. "Sara you have been saying rain check the last few days, are you ok?"

The truth of the matter was Sara was still not ok and everybody could tell that she was becoming distant to Grissom and even he was becoming aware of it too.

She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal and said. "I just have been tired, excuse me."

She walked past him and when his hand touched her arm she tensed so he let it go and after saying bye to the gang she walked out of the room.

Grissom turned to the team when she was out of the room and asked. "You guys ready?" He knew he had to talk to her but he felt that he should let her cool down a little before he did.

They all nodded and got up from their chairs and headed out of the break room, all worried about Sara.

All through breakfast Grissom had become distracted and they noticed he was hardly eating anything so finally Catherine speaks. "Gil maybe you should just go talk to Sara."

He looked up from his breakfast and looked at his team.

Warrick nodded and said. "Yeah I agree, we noticed how distant she has becoming towards you, go clear the air."

Grissom nodded and as he was getting up he was getting his wallet to pay for breakfast but Nick stopped him and said he will pay. He gives him a little smile and walks out of the diner.

When he was gone they looked at each other and Greg said. "Hope everything gets resolved."

They all nodded and continued to eat hoping this talk will help them, they hated seeing their friends hurting.

Sara had finally gotten to sleep when she was brought out of it because there was a knock on the door. She looks up at the ceiling of her bedroom, groaned then thinks. 'Now what?' And her answer was another knock, this one a little louder, so she gets out of bed, wearing a tank top and sweatpants and heads for the front door.

When she gets to the door she looks in the peephole and mentally sighed, took a breath, opened it and tired brown eyes met concerned blue eyes then Grissom asked. "Can I come in?" She nodded and moved out-of-the-way. He walked in and she shuts the door.

Once they were sitting on the couch he turns to her and asked. "Sara what's going on? I feel that these last two weeks you have been pulling away from me or I am I just completely wrong?"

Sara stared at the blank TV screen for a few seconds then she turns her head to him and told him the truth. "No you're not wrong."

Grissom gets more concerned and he reaches for her hand but before their hands touch Sara stands up from the couch and heads to the kitchen, he follows but stands so the kitchen counter is between them and asked. "Why?"

She pulls out a water bottle from the fridge and said. "I have been thinking long and hard between working, that is and I feel that I need to take a break from us."

One of his eyebrows rose up and this time he walked around the counter and puts his hand on hers and said. "Sara…"

She cuts him off with a nod and continues with more conviction. "Yeah I do. I need to sort through these feelings that I have without the distraction of us, I need the space Grissom." She walks past him, going back to the living room and he turns so he is looking at her and was very speechless on what was happening. He took a few seconds then walks back in the living room but at a safe distance away from her.

She stands next to the couch looking at him for a minute, while feeling her heart breaking, then looks at the blank TV screen again.

It was a few more minutes of silence then he speaks. "I thought you were ok wi.."

She cuts him off. "I am far from ok with this." She sighed and continued. "Listen, I just need a little time, please understand."

She looks over at him again and he nods his head looking very deflated and she wanted to walk up to him and bring him in her arms but she knew it wouldn't solve anything and she would be back at square one. She looked away again and he cleared his throat then said. "Then I guess I should go."

Sara nodded but still wasn't look at him, she replied. "That would be best."

He nods back, heads to the door but before he got there he turned around and walked right up to her, brings her in a hug and even though he didn't feel her hug him back he held her tight, kissed her head and whispered. "I love you Sara, remember that." With one more squeeze on her shoulder, he turned and walked toward the door, this time walking out.

When the door shut, tears started to come out of Sara's eyes as she sits on the couch then she brings her knees up to her chest, puts her arms over her knees, lays her head on her arms then says to the empty room. "I love you too Grissom." And before she knew it she cried herself to sleep with her heart breaking.

Grissom had just walked out of Sara's apartment complex when his phone rings so he answers it, talks for a few minutes then hangs up, he looks back at the door then sighed and headed for his vehicle. He understood that Sara needed time but that didn't mean he wasn't sad about it, he thought they were making strides together but it looked like it was another step back and no matter how much this was hurting him he will give her the space.

20 minutes later Grissom had put down a small box of baby toys on the floor, in the spare room that was converted to a nursery for their little girl, at Alice's apartment.

He started to look around the colorful themed room when Alice cleared her throat behind him, he turns around and she gives him a small smile and said. "Thank you for the hand and the lift." Her car had broken down and she had gotten it towed to the auto shop but then they told her it was going to take longer than a few hours and because she had just went to the store for some of the bigger baby things she didn't want to take a cab so she had called Grissom.

He nodded and replied. "You're welcome. Are you all set?"

"I am."

He nodded again then after clearing his throat he told her that he was going to head out, she nodded and moved out-of-the-way so he could walk by. He had just gotten to the middle of the hall way when he heard Alice say. "Whoa."

He turned around and saw she had put her hand on the door frame. He looks at her a little worried, walked back to her and asked. "You ok?"

She turns to him with a smile, removes her hand from the door frame, grabbed his hand and puts it on her stomach. He swallowed nervously then his eyes get wide when he feels a tap on the palm of his hand, he looks at her and asked. "Was that..."

She cuts him off. "A kick? Yes." He started to smile, she smiled back and they look into each other's eyes for a few seconds then as he cleared his throat he takes his hand off her stomach and she speaks again. "I don't know if I said this before but I am sorry you got caught up in this, however I am not sorry I kept this baby."

He nodded his head in understanding then replied. "You weren't the only one there that night, I have to take responsibility too."

"And you have done a great job at it despite the situation and I got to say that I am surprised." He raises an eyebrow and she continued. "Not a lot of men in your position would be this caring, they would either ignore their baby or throw money at the issue and walk away but you have done neither." He was about to talk when she speaks. "Plus I got say your girlfriend has to be pretty amazing too, you know supporting you through this." She saw him look down after she said that and asked. "What's wrong? She is still supporting you right?"

He looks back up and replied in understanding. "She asked for a little space."

She puts her hand on his shoulder and replied. "I'm sorry, what are you going to do?"

He takes her hand off his shoulder, released it, looked at her and replied. "I'm going to give it to her no matter how much this hurts because right now it's about how she is feeling and what she needs to do to sort it all out before we can all truly move forward." She nodded and after the confirmation about a doctor's appointment in a few days he said bye and left the apartment.

When the door shuts Alice sighed then puts her hands on her stomach as the baby kicked again, wishing she could help but knowing there wasn't anything she could do, she didn't want to get in the middle of the two of them or at least as much as she already was.

AN: Will it work out for them? We will see soon, bare with me a bit longer. Please review.