A/N: Thank you all for the comments and reviews. Love reading all of your encouraging words and takes on the story. The next few chapters will be fun :) Enjoy!

Sara erupted in soft laughter. He was left confused and vulnerable by her response but it felt good to see her smile, even if it may have been at his expense.

"Really?" She started, "That's what you'd like to know?"

"It is." He answered simply.

Sara took a deep breath to regain control of herself before answering, "Grissom, we've known each other for six years now. Do you think I came to Vegas for the desert and strip clubs?"

He wasn't sure what to do with her response so he kept quiet, hoping she would continue, which she did.

"We were really good friends at one point. I left everything I ever knew to embark on this new adventure in Vegas when you called and I had assumed that that friendship would be my constant. But it hasn't been."

He looked down at this hands, feeling a bit ashamed. Over all these years, he had done everything he could to shun her from his mind without so much as giving a second thought to her or her feelings. Was he really that obtuse? He lifted up his head to look her in the eyes.

"I'd like to fix that," He spoke softly, "If you'll let me."

He took her deep breath and lack of refusal as a 'yes'.

"With regard to employment..." She winced as he spoke, "I'm not going to fire you. Your behavior is a direct result of my shortcomings as a supervisor, and I am sorry for that."

She opened her mouth to protest the latter sentiment but he continued before she could, "You will need to see a P.E.P counselor though, to make everything look kosher."

"That's fine."

"Good." He smiled softly. "As far as the suspension goes, I can't override Ecklie's call."

"I know, it's fine."

The shrilling sound of his phone going off interrupted them. He apologized to Sara before answering,

"Grissom... Now? Okay— I'll be there in 30." He clicked off the phone and looked back at her.

"It's okay," She assured him. "I'm fine, really."

He stood up, "Take this week to really relax. No police scanner, no forensic text books. And, if you're free tomorrow, I'd like to start amending our friendship with breakfast."

"Grissom, we really don't have to do this."

"I know. I want to."

"I don't need pity."

"I don't pity you Sara. Actually quite the opposite. No—this is me making up for being very selfish over the past five years since you came to Vegas. I'd like to rewind to San Fransisco, but I can't. This is all I can offer now."

She smiled and resigned, "Breakfast would be nice."

His phone again beeping,

"Grissom." She could see his impatience for the person on the other line, "Did you send it over to Hodges? Well do that first. Look, I'll be back soon, just send it to trace and I'll take care of the entomological timeline." He sighed as he closed his phone, then turned to sara.

"Tomorrow?"

She nodded.

He lingered a bit awkwardly as they stood now by the door. He wasn't leaving.

"You should go." She motioned to his phone, still held in his hand.

"Right, right." Another brief hesitation followed before finally he pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her. She was so shocked by the gesture that she didn't hug him back initially.

He could smell her lavender shampoo as her soft curls touched his cheek. The hug was meant to be platonic, comforting, but he realized his mistake almost immediately. She was intoxicating, and he could barely bring himself to end the moment. But he knew if he held on any longer, the gesture would be taken the wrong way so he reluctantly pulled back.

He kept a hand on either shoulder, "I'll take care of Ecklie and Catherine." God they were so close right now. He could feel her warmth below his fingertips. His heart was pounding in his chest. "Get some rest." He smiled, trying his best to keep an even keeled composure.

She nodded. "Thanks, Grissom. I—I really needed that." She smiled shyly.

And with that, he was gone. She peaked outside to watch as he walked down the sidewalk to his car before driving off into the dark. His absence left a weird void in the room. She tried to relax again but couldn't seem to quiet her mind. A bath might do the trick. She thought.

Sara turned the stereo system back on and ran the bath water. Once full, she slipped into the steaming soapy suds, quickly dunking her head and then coming back up. She closed her eyes, letting beads of water fall over her face, and tried to keep the feeling of his body against hers in her mind. His beard tickling her cheek. His heartbeat against her ear. His hands on her back. His warmth engulfing her.

She smiled sadly knowing that the brief intimate moment was fleeting and unlikely to reoccur. She replayed the moment in her head again, each time sinking further and further into the tub.

"Meet at Franks at 10am? -G" Her phone buzzed and displayed a text from Grissom.

"See you there." Was her simple reply. She took special care to not get too excited over this. While it was nice that he was making an effort to rekindle the friendship they once shared, she knew that he wouldn't let it go past that. That was something she'd have to live with. And somehow, as she justified it in her mind, simply his friendship could fill the void she needed filled. She could be okay with just that, she'd convinced herself.

She arrived at Franks at exactly 10am to find Grissom already waiting inside. His hands surrounded a large cup of coffee. He looked up to see her enter the diner and smiled as he waved her over.

"Hey."

"Hey." She smiled back, slipping into the booth bench opposite him.

"How was the rest of your night?"

"Good, thanks. I took your advice and got some rest."

"Good." He smiled back at her.

The waitress came over and took their breakfast orders. Once gone they continued their conversation. They discussed some recent cases, literature, Vegas, there tangents went on and conversation was surprisingly effortless. He sat there and smiled as she went on about a story from her time in San Francisco.

"What?" She smiled, noting the goofy grin on his face.

"Nothing." But he couldn't shake the smile off his face.

"C'mon. what?"

"Nothing, really. Its just—this is nice."

She agreed. This is nice.

April 2005

Grissom and Sara had spent a decent amount of time together outside of work since February. They shared breakfast after shift, the occasional lunch in the lab and had even spent some of their mutual days off together at museums or in parks. Their friendship came effortlessly once they allowed it to blossom.

They kept their friendship low key, even though they were doing nothing wrong. Somehow, doing that just seemed easier.

That April, Grissom and Sara caught a 419 at a state psychiatric center. Interviewing patients proved to be more difficult that anticipated as most of them were mentally unstable. Grissom could sense some tension in Sara as they worked the case, but thought better than to bring attention to it. He had learned quickly from their time together that she could only open up when she was ready, no sooner. And he was sure she could say the same of him.

"I'm going to get someone to open these drawers." Grissom said as he tried for a third time to open the file cabinets in the nurses station. She nodded her head, not looking up from the desk's contents she was examining. Grissom made his way down the hall to talk to a guard stationed there. That guard pointed him in the right direction to someone who could help him access the needed files.

Once Grissom disappeared out of sight, Adam, a prime suspect and ward patient, entered the room. Closing and locking the door behind him. Sara straightened up, feeling someone's presence behind her and turned to find him standing there.

"Are you a spiritual person?" Adam asked as he finished locking the door.

She could feel her hart beating fast as she scanned her peripheral for a guard or nurse to help. "I can be."

"Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? That bad things are there to teach us a lesson?" Sara felt around the desk behind her for a syringe and uncapped it slowly. He took a small step toward her with each word he spoke. "Like, maybe all our problems could be solved by tuning into a higher frequency. There this one guy I read, he believes that illness, anxiety, fear, all occur when people are vibrating at 10,000 cycles a second." Until he was mere steps away.

Sara lunged toward him with the syringe but he quickly over powered her and brought her to her knees, holding a sharp piece of ceramic to her neck.

"Do you think, If I could just get up to 100,000 cycles per second, I'd be in the realm of sound, light and spirit?" Her breathing was jagged as his forearm pressed hard against her neck. "And everything would just be fine." She nodded helplessly, fighting for breath.

"Yeah. Yeah." She gasped hard.

"You know what I think? I think I'm just vibrating at the wrong frequency." She continued to struggle against his hold. She was so focused on the cold ceramic piece being shoved at her neck that she barely heard the door knob rattle. Suddenly, Grissom appeared in the window.

"Do you think I'm smart?" She could feel his tears on her neck.

"Yeah. uh, hu, yes." She kept agreeing with everything he said. She could see Grissom's face clearly now. His eyes lifeless and face numb. She could see his lips moving, mouthing "open the door." over and over again.

"I can't!" The nurse's aid tried again with a different key.

"Just open it." Grissom pleaded, his voice empty and small. He could feel his heart stopping. His hands and feet went cold, the hairs on his neck sprung up straight.

She stopped struggling and just stared into Grissom's eyes, pleading him to help. She flinched and the ceramic tool pressed harder.

"Don't you move a muscle, I will kill you." Adam's voice deepened with anger. He looked at her face and saw her line of vision. "You do not look at him! You keep your eyes on the floor!" He yelled and she obeyed, taking her eyes off of Grissom.

Just then, the nurse ran to the window, "No! Adam!"

His head snapped up in her direction and for a moment, Adam lifted the tool off of Sara's neck to point at the nurse. "You! You go away!"

Sara took her opportunity to jab Adam in the chest and release herself from his psychotic hold. He then tuned to tool on himself and spewed his blood over the floor.

Sara sprinted to the door and flung it open, running straight past the useless nurse's aid and Grissom, down the hall to the gated window. She put her hands up on the gate and hung her head low. Grissom sprinted down the hall after here. He slowed his steps as he approached her. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Sara."

She turned to face him. Her neck was red where Adam's grip was mere moments before. Her eyes looked sad and defeated. He reached out to touch her neck, she flinched slightly as he did.

"We should get you some ice." He spoke softly.

She shook her head, "I'll be fine."

He was always amazed at the strength she possessed to bounce back from the roughest of situations. A trait she must have learned as a child, he mused.

They stood in silence for a few minutes as she stared at the emptiness of the hallway. He waited patiently for her to regain her composure.

"After my father died, my mother came to a place like this for a while for evaluation."

Of course she did. Grissom felt so foolish as to not have connected the dots sooner. He could have easily had Sophia work with him on this and shielded Sara from the torment of revisiting those memories.

"It looked the same, it smelled the same." She continued, "It smelled like lies.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She could hear the concern laced around his words.

"Crazy people do make me feel crazy." She let out a small awkward laugh.

"If you want, I can have Sophia take your place."

"I appreciate that. I do—I really do. But, I kind of made a decision to move beyond that. And I really want to finish this case."

Before Grissom could respond they were interrupted by an exasperated nurse, "We have rules for a reason." Her voice accusing, "You people come in here disrupting things. This is your fault." She wagged her finger at them.

"Really!?" Grissom's tone surprised, his head tilted.

"You seem to take your job rather personally." Sara chimed in.

"What are you suggesting."

"That you have an intimate relationship with Adam Trent." Sara's eyes were intense and cold.

"That is ridiculous."

"Your lipstick is on his underwear." Sara retorted quickly.

"I gave Robby my lipstick sometimes. Maybe he was wearing it when—"

"We didn't find any on his lips." Grissom interjected.

"Well thats your problem." She said storming off.

Grissom turned back toward Sara. "What do you say?"

"Let's finish this." A determined look in her eye.

Grissom had a hard time sleeping that night. The image of Sara being held captive by Adam replayed over and over in his head, no matter how hard he tried to will the thoughts away. She's fine. He kept reassuring himself, she's fine. But he kept tossing and turning none the less. Her pleading eyes ingrained in his memory. The red marks on her milky white skin after she got free. The tone of her voice as she relayed more details of the aftermath from her father's stabbing.

He imagined a 13 year old Sara. A lanky and tall pre-teen with long brown hair. He imagined her hiding under her bed or in her closet with a flashlight, reading books as she tried to drown out the noise of her parents' fights. He imagined what the scene must have looked like from her perspective. How one night the arguing got louder and louder until suddenly there was silence. He imagined her slowly peaking out from closet and making her way to her parent's bedroom only to find her father lying limp on the floor in a red puddle. Her mother over him with a bloodied knife.

He imagined how much courage it must have taken for her to slowly back out of the room undetected and call the police on her own mother. How she managed to graduate valedictorian of her High School two years early while being bounced around from foster home to foster home.

Sara's story was not one of pity or self loathing. It was one of strength and triumph. He realized that not only was Sara incredibly gifted, smart and beautiful—but she was also the strongest person he'd ever known.

He spent the whole night fighting the urge to call her, just to hear her voice an make sure she's alright.