Nick Stokes made his way into the locker room just as shift was set to begin. Warrick and Catherine were putting bags away jackets as Greg and Sara were changing into their own work shoes, all talking about the shift ahead when they'd start working together as a team once again. He knocked on the door and they all looked up at him, surprise on their faces.

"Nick!" Greg was the one to shout the exclamation.

"Hey, you're back." Catherine made her way over and hugged him. "We've missed you."

Warrick took the two feet and held out his hand as Catherine pulled away. Nick grasped his hand and they pulled each other into a one-armed hug. "Hey man, great to have you back."

"Good to be back." Nick pulled away from his friend and colleague. "So, I heard the team is back together."

Greg nodded as Sara stood up, shoving her shoes and bag into her locker. "Absolutely and you've missed a ton."

"I'm sure I have. I'm going to get changed and then meet you guys in the breakroom."

Sara hugged him as she headed out the door. "Good to see you back walking the halls."

"Got bored at home so definitely glad I'm back too."

"I know the feeling. One week due to my suspension last year and I nearly lost it; I can't imagine two months." She slapped his arm, "see you for assignments."

Grissom entered the breakroom to see the team doing various things. Sara was doing a crossword, seemingly stolen from his desk without him noticing, while Catherine and Warrick were talking. Nick and Greg were playing War with a deck of cards.

"If we're all ready to work, I have assignments." He stated and all attention went to him. "I have a B & E in Henderson, Catherine, it is all yours. Take Warrick with you."

Catherine took the paper and read it. "Trailer park, should be pretty cut and dry."

"Just what we need." Warrick stated and patted her arm.

"Nick, you and I will handle a 434 at Club Talis." He handed the paper off to his returning CSI, having already been asked by said CSI not to make a fuss about his return.

Grissom turned to Sara and held out a paper. "419 with your name on it. Take Greg with you."

Sara smiled as she started reading the form. "Oh, Lake Mead campgrounds."

Everyone stood and started towards the door, talking as they did so. "Sara?"

"Yeah?" She turned and looked down at her hand when Grissom's eyes pointed in the same direction. A grin crossed her face as she walked over and handed the nearly completed crossword to him. "You shouldn't leave them laying around if you don't want me finishing them."

"It was on my desk."

She smirked at him, "exactly."

Getting to the locker room, Sara found everyone talking while removing what needed for shift from their lockers. Catherine caught her attention as the redhead pulled on her jacket. "You just walked into his office and stole the crossword? Daring move there girl."

Sara chuckled, "it's the one from yesterday. He still hadn't finished it so I decided to do so." Pulling her field boots from the bottom of her locker. "Besides, I'm not likely to get anything other than gentle inquiry. That's if it comes at all."

"True." Warrick stated while closing his locker. "Lake Mead campground means insects. I hope you've planned for all the samples you'll be bringing back." It was stated with humor, "he'll be like a kid on Christmas."

"Sara could probably identify half the insects." Greg slapped Warrick's back. "That'll save us half the trouble."

Catherine chuckled, "means there's a possibility of getting home on time after shift."

"I doubt that." Sara stated as she sat down to pull on her boots, her in-lab shoes going into the locker. "But I'll probably be sitting out at the back of the department over a pig again."

Nick turned to her, "why would you be sitting out with a pig?"

Warrick chuckled as Catherine smirked. "Has no one told you?"

"Told me what?"

Sara closed her locker and stood up, pulling on her jacket. "Should we tell him is the question." Greg's eyes rotated over the group. "Or let him find out and endure like we have?"

"You guys have endured next to nothing." Sara told Greg pointedly, "I'm a professional."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Nick looked around and finally settled on Sara. "You going back to school to get an entomological degree also?"

"Something like that." She smirked and focused on Greg. "Come on Greg, I'll let you drive if you're out the door in five seconds."

Greg grabbed his jacket and headed out. "See you guys later." He grabbed the keys that Sara held up and she followed after him.

The Lake Mead campgrounds varied from sand to forest so when they arrived, Sara had to be directed to the body by an officer. Greg followed right behind her, both stopping as they found David over the rotting body of their victim.

"Something wrong Super Dave?" Sara asked him and he looked up to see her.

"No, just bug central. I didn't want to disturb until you got samples for Grissom." He watched as Sara bent down by the body, face in a slight grimace as she opened her kit to remove collection jars. "PD found ID in her tent at one of the camping sites. Been there a while the park ranger said but they aren't sure exactly. Shelby Piers, 24."

Sara knelt closer to the body and pulled various insects from the large wound on the abdomen. Each one she handed off to give to Greg for him to close. "Use the beef jerky in my kit Greg, small pieces go a long way."

"Yep, on it."

David looked up at her, "so is the rumor true? About you and Grissom?"

"It is." She glanced at David with a smile, "we've been together about four months."

"Well, if the way you're collecting insects is anything to go by, I'd have thought years."

Sara pulled her forceps and hand away from the body. "I'll, uh, take that as a compliment." She motioned to the body. "Any idea on TOD or COD?" Soft clicking let her know that Greg was snapping photographs.

"TOD will require Grissom and Doc Robbins. I'd guess days to weeks though. As for COD," he pointed to the forehead, where they saw a large hole on the slow rotting corpse. "I'm thinking large caliber."

"Or something other than a bullet." Sara bent over a fraction to look at the wound. "Take an impression once she's cleaned up."

Greg stood up, "I'll go check out her tent."

"I'm going to sketch the scene and look at the area around the body." Sara told him as she packed insect samples into her case. "Thanks Dave."

The sun was reaching above the horizon when Sara and Greg returned to the lab. Their original two locale scene turned into a larger locale when they found out that their victim moved around the campgrounds for over three months. She was a student at the university but lived at the campgrounds illegally. Greg headed to log in evidence while she handed of samples to Grissom regarding their insect activity so an entomological timeline could be nailed down.

Nick was speaking with Grissom; the supervisor was reading a file while Nick spoke. "…illegally obtained so I'm going to run through all the of original owner's relatives to see if any of them could have taken after the man's death."

"Knock, knock." Sara tapped on the door and both men looked towards her. "I, uh, have some friends of yours." She held up a bag of small collection containers. "Thought I'd bring you a present." There was no way not to smile as she spoke.

Grissom accepted the bag as she walked over to his desk. "I see, did you identify any of them?"

"I did and they're labeled."

"Well done, my dear." Grissom spoke as he looked at the labeled containers. "All correctly named, but you failed to date them."

The smile turned to a smirk as she grabbed a file from his desk and smacked his arm slightly with it. "That's for you to do. I'm not going to do your job and mine." She backed up towards the door as she continued speaking, file still in hand. "Talbot is going to drop off the pig tomorrow around midnight so don't forget to sign for it. For expenditure."

Nick stood and motioned to the jars. "I'll let you have fun while I run down this gun lead."

"Let me know what you find."

"Sure thing Boss Man."

Halfway through the night, Nick stood in the trace lab waiting for Hodges to finish a substance analysis. Sara walked in with a file and looked up to see Nick waiting while Hodges sat by the printer. "You two look like you're bored out of your minds."

"Printer is slow apparently." Nick told her as he drummed his fingers against the metal table. He motioned to Hodges, "said it'd take a minute."

Hodges moved away from the printer and held out a paper towards Sara. "The swab from your victim's entry wound."

"Oh good, you have it." She went to grab it but Hodges pulled away. "Hodges, what is this?"

"Is the rumor true because I'm getting both 'yes' and 'no' from various sources." He looked straight at her. "What's the truth?"

"It's true and that's all anyone is getting right now. The truth when asked." Sara stated and pulled the paper from Hodges' hand. "Aluminum and carbon particulates, well that's interesting." She turned and left within seconds, calling Greg's name as she went since he was speaking with Catherine about something not even ten feet away. "Greg, how would you like to try out some archery?"

Nick motioned towards where Sara left to. "There's a rumor about Sara?"

"That's right, you've been recovering so you don't know." Hodges moved to the printer to remove the paper. "Ecklie and your team were the first to know, but the rest of us are catching up. The past two weeks rumors have swirled but we're always directed to ask Sara if they're true or not."

"So what is the rumor?" The CSI looked at the paper in his hands, seeing the gunshot residue from an additional source arrived back positive. "Obviously, whatever it is, it's true since she just confirmed. So, catch me up."

Hodges leaned in slightly. "The rumor is that she and Grissom are dating."

"Obviously it's not true." Nick watched Hodges' expression go unchanged. "No, no way. You're not serious." Nick looked towards the doorway to see Sara and Greg talking about the results in Sara's hand. "Sara and Grissom?"

"It caught us all by surprise. Archie said he saw Sara and Catherine join a meeting between Ecklie and Grissom two weeks ago."

"No man, I'll believe it when I see it." Nick looked down at his results. "I guess it was as simple as a pop and drop. I still can't believe the girl just walked right up and shot this guy over a phone. People do some stupid stuff sometimes."

The sound of utensils and plates filled the air as Grissom and Nick joined the other four techs at a booth inside Frank's Restaurant. A quick call by Warrick an hour before had their extra-large booth on reserve by one of the waitresses. Greg moved out from where he sat beside Sara and moved to sit beside Catherine, leaving Warrick the person in the middle. Grissom sat down beside Sara as Nick sat on the other side of Greg.

"Sara, how'd the archery angle work out?" Catherine asked the woman as she worked on doctoring her coffee, it having just been brought to the table.

"Clarifying." Sara smirked, "although I scared Greg."

Greg motioned to his friend, "because you shot one close to my head."

"Your head is big enough that it'd never have hit you." An eyebrow quirked to ask him to refute it. "Anyways, we checked the permits for the park and only two hunters didn't register a gun when they went for the permits. It was a hunting accident as the kid really didn't know what he was doing but the father covered it up so it became a crime." She picked up her coffee to take a sip before continuing. "You'd think people would learn that covering up accidental deaths creates crimes."

Nick nodded, "I'd agree but I think it makes them face their own failed morality."

"'A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion...'" Grissom spoke a quote and several names were thrown out.

"Oscar Wilde?" Catherine supplied and Grissom smiled at her.

"No, but good effort."

"No, it was a Greek philosopher. I remember that from my Sociology class. Aristotle." Greg stated and looked to Grissom for praise.

"Close but no."

Sara smirked, "Socrates." She continued the quote, "'…a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.' That's the full quote, anyways."

Catherine pointed between the two. "You two really are made for each other."

"Are you going to continue the pig experiment now that we don't actually need an exact time of death?" Greg asked, "I'd like to watch."

"The court is going to want proof it was the defendant that committed the murder so thus, the show goes on."

"I don't get why you constantly do these experiments." Warrick told them, "seriously, it's weird."

Sara picked up her coffee again. "No need to watch it Greg when a camera can record every stage. Besides, all the insects have to be contained so out in the open is not ideal beyond the first 24 hours."

"She gets me." Grissom said pointing to Sara with his thumb and half the table laughed. Nick seemed to be quiet watching everything. He was tired after his first night and was trying to gauge the relationship between Grissom and Sara after what Hodges had said.

"Okay guys, sorry that took me so long." The waitress walked over, "heavy night I'm guessing if you're all here."

"Not at all. A rather boring night for once Judy." Grissom told her.

Judy smiled at them, "what can I get you guys?"

Catherine closed her menu, "pancake special."

"Same here." Warrick stated, "bacon instead of sausage."

Nick sighed as he looked at the menu, "meat special Judy, thanks. Oh, and a coffee and orange juice."

"You got it. Good to see you back Nick." She looked to Greg, "what for you Wonder Boy?"

"I'll take the breakfast sandwiches, extra sausage."

Judy turned to Sara and Grissom; the supervisor was prompted first. "What can I get you Dr. Grissom?"

"Two veggie omelets." He motioned between him and Sara and the waitress nodded.

"You got it. Edna is already on her way with coffee and juice."

Catherine smirked at Grissom, "you on a no-meat kick now too."

Sara had her head down looking at her phone, deleting messages. "If he wants to kiss me, he is." She looked up after putting her phone on her hip. "Catherine, Brass just sent me a text telling me that your case was over a stolen puppy. Is that true."

"It's worse." Warrick interjected, "the twice-stolen puppy belonged to the LVFD Firehouse 4. Little dalmatian that got stolen when they were away at a call. The original thieves didn't realize that the puppy's ID chip would show it belonged to station. So they called it in, thinking we'd help them find it and get it back no issue."

"Oh man, that's just wrong." Nick finally spoke.

The secondary waitress set a plater on the edge of the table and set down coffee cups and juice, taking two seconds to fill the new cups. "You guys need anything else?"

"We're fine. Thanks Edna."

Catherine put her hand up, "okay, so now that Nick is back, it's time for the reveal on how evals and supervision are going to work going forward."

"I assume we're staying under Grissom while Sara's goes to you." Warrick stated despite it being a question.

"Not exactly." Grissom started as Sara reached over his arm to grab his untouched juice, her own empty. He didn't seem bothered and didn't react. "I'll retain oversight over Catherine, Warrick, and Nick while Catherine takes over mine, Sara, and Greg. It's a cross-supervise system that Catherine learned was used in Seattle when a similar situation happened."

Greg grinned. "But we're a team. That's all that matters."

"Okay, I just have to say this is weird." Nick stated and looked at the group. "Neither good nor bad, just weird."

"Give it a while and it won't shock you." Greg patted Nick's shoulder. "We got thrown the curveball, that's why we decided to let you get hit too."

"Don't worry Nick," Sara stated with a smirk, "we're not into PDA. So, not likely to get anything other than words."

Catherine nodded towards Nick. "It's true. Only words in the last two weeks."

"Still weird." He turned to Grissom, "you break her heart, no one will find your body."

"They beat you to it." Grissom motioned to the three between Nick and Sara. "Besides, Sara would make it so you'd think I left the crime lab and ran to the other side of the world. Of all of you, I'm more scared of her."

"Thanks guys, but I have it under control."

"I bet you do." Catherine met Sara's eyes and winked at her. Both women shared a grin knowing they'd spoken about what Sara felt like sharing.