AN: Finally, they're together! But we still have a little ways to go in this fic, so I hope you're not jumping ship now ;) Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter, it's always nice to hear from you!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to CSI

Chapter 32

Grissom wakes up ten minutes before his alarm is set to go off, like most days.

Unlike most days, he also wakes up with a warm body stretched along the length of his own and a few strands of hair tickling his nose. Moving back a little to take stock of his surroundings, he realizes that Sara must have moved away from him at some point during the day, rolling onto her other side, and even in sleep, he followed, spooning up against her back. He can't say he's surprised – she's like a magnet, always drawing him in.

Her breathing is still slow and deep, indicating she hasn't woken up yet, and after turning off his alarm, he settles back down. He's tempted to pull her closer, maybe even kiss her awake, let his hands explore her body as she slowly stirs to life, but he knows she never gets enough sleep, so he refrains.

It's not long before she shifts next to him, though, body tensing for a brief moment before she rolls over to face him. He moves back a little to give her room.

"Hey," she says with a smile, voice still a little rough, eyes blinking the sleep away.

"Hey," he replies, finally giving in to the urge to lean in and kiss her.

She sighs into his mouth, one hand coming up to tangle in his hair.

Grissom's the one to eventually pull away. "We should probably get up, if you want breakfast before it's time to pick up Shelby."

"What time is it?" she asks, and he cranes around to check the clock on the bedside table.

"Just after two."

"No rush, then," Sara says with a smirk. "I told Pat you wouldn't pick her up until after four today. And from now on."

He raises his eyebrows. "Oh, did you? Now who's assuming?"

"I never said I wasn't. In fact, I was counting on neither one of us wanting to get out of bed. Or, well, I was hoping."

She stretches a little, eyes sliding closed.

"Still tired?"

"A bit," she admits, and he pulls her closer as he moves onto his back. She settles in with her cheek against his chest, one hand trailing lazily up and down his arm, the feather light touch raising goosebumps on his skin.

"Then let's rest a little longer."

"Mmm."

Neither of them falls back asleep, though, and it's only another fifteen minutes or so before Sara speaks again. "Hey, what's today?"

He considers for a moment. "Um… Monday?"

"No, what date is it?" she clarifies.

"June twenty… third."

To Grissom's surprise, she groans. "Damn it, Catherine!"

"I feel like I'm missing something," he says when she doesn't elaborate.

She props herself up on an elbow to be able to look at him. "No, it's just…" She huffs, running a hand through her hair. "Remember the day after I got back to town, when we were on the phone, and you were almost late for work?"

"Yeah." Of course he remembers – he remembers every single conversation they've had, and not only since she came back to Vegas.

Sara sighs. "Well, after I hung up, Catherine said she gave it a month before, well, this happened." She gestures between them. "She's going to be so smug!"

"Ah, that would explain some things," he notes, her words making sense of a particular exchange with the woman in question.

"What?" She frowns down at him.

"Remember when I got called in to work last Sunday?" he starts.

"The third rape and murder victim dumped along the I-15? Of course I remember."

"When Catherine got there, one of the uniforms on site asked if you were going to show up too, and when she told him you weren't, he asked her to tell you that he said hello. Then when we were on our way back to the lab later, she told me that if I didn't get a move on, someone else might come along and beat me to it," he explains. "I think her exact words were 'if you don't pull your head out of your ass soon, someone else is going to ask her out, and you'll only have yourself to blame. She's not going to wait around forever'."

"Catherine actually said that?" she snorts.

"She did."

She's quiet for a moment. "Who was the officer?" she then asks, causing his eyebrows to rise.

"That's your question?"

"Just curious." She shrugs, a smile playing around her lips.

"I don't know his name," Grissom replies, trying to hide his exasperation. "I think he was at that homicide at the MMA venue a couple of weeks ago."

"Jesse?"

"I just said I have no idea what his name is," he repeats, frowning. "You apparently do, though."

She tilts her head to the side, studying him for a long moment. "Are you jealous?" she finally asks.

"Of course not." Even he can hear the petulance in his voice.

"Good, because you don't have any reason to be," she says. "He's right out of the academy, like, twenty-two, tops. He's been a little too helpful and overly enthusiastic, but I didn't think it went further than that. I'll make sure not to encourage him."

"Yeah?" He hates to admit it, but her words do make the little green-eyed monster he didn't want to acknowledge settle down.

She leans in for a quick kiss. "Of course. And Catherine was wrong about one thing."

"Really? What's that?"

"I probably wouldn't wait forever, but I would definitely give you a little more than a month to get your act together." She's smirking a little at him by the end, but it doesn't take away anything from the words.

"Oh yeah?"

"Absolutely. I know you can be a little… slow on the uptake with these things."

He rolls his eyes, even though he knows she's right. "So, you wouldn't have said yes if this… Jesse asked you out."

She immediately goes serious and shakes her head. "No, of course not."

He tugs her down again, kissing the top of her head when her body is stretched out against his once more. "I'm glad."

She hums, settling in more comfortably.

"Speaking of work…" he starts after another moment and Sara snorts.

"God, you suck at pillow talk."

She's right, of course, but there is a reason he decided to bring it up now. "I just thought we might want to figure out how to handle… this at work. Do you want to keep things just between us for a while?"

She considers for a moment. "Not really. Do you?" She sounds curious, so he's not worried he's offended her or anything.

"No."

"I mean, I'm not very into PDA and I doubt you are either, and we're both professionals, so we're not going to flaunt it at the lab or anything, but…" She sighs. "Catherine is going to just know the moment I walk through the door. She's scarily perceptive, did you know that?"

He considers the many times the other woman has hinted at his feelings for Sara over the years. "As a matter of fact, I did know that."

"But it's not just work, either," she continues. "Nick's doing that Texas barbecue for the Fourth, Greg's been going on about setting up some sort of game night day thing, and you're at Catherine's for breakfast or dinner at least a couple of times a week. I just… I don't want to have to watch everything I say and do so they won't figure it out."

Grissom's not sure why that makes him feel warm all over, but it does. "Me neither."

Another sigh. "And then there's Ecklie."

Of course. "Do we really need to worry about him right now?"

"I think so, sorry." She looks up to give him an apologetic smile.

"Did he say something to you?" he asks, frowning. He knows she and Conrad have always butted heads, but they seem to have been doing better lately, the few times they have actually interacted over the last few weeks.

"Not recently or anything, but yeah, on my first day back," she admits.

He casts his mind back to that day – it hasn't been more than three weeks, which seems impossible. "Is that why you were so mad?"

"Of course you remember that," she chuckles. "Yeah. He was… I wasn't actually sure how much he knew, or thought he knew. I asked Jill not to send my personnel file with my application for the open position, I wasn't sure if you would get it and I didn't want you to find out about Shelby like that. But I knew he could access it if he wanted to…"

Sara trails off and he tries to imagine it, getting the papers about her application along with her file with information about Shelby as a dependent. How would he have reacted? It's impossible to know. Finding out the way he did, that had been hard enough, but figuring it out that way… he can't even imagine.

"What exactly did he say?" he asks, pulling himself back to the issue at hand.

She bites her lip, thinking for a moment. "He asked if you and I had a… an understanding, I think is how he put it. And I asked what he meant by that."

"You were baiting him!" he exclaims, amused.

"No!" she denies immediately. "I really wasn't sure what he knew. The baiting was just a bonus."

"Sure it was."

"Really! So he was, like, it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots, bla bla bla, and was I denying that Shelby was yours, which I obviously didn't, but I told him it wouldn't affect our ability to work together. And then I asked him why he approved my transfer if he already knew about her."

Grissom has no problem picturing Conrad's reaction to her standing up to him. "I bet he loved that."

"He did sort of look like he'd swallowed a lemon, yeah," she confirms with a smirk.

"I'm still not sure that means we need to tell him. At least not right now," he argues, and she gives him a sheepish look.

"That was the last thing he said, after he asked if we were together, which I told him we weren't. Let's see how he phrased it…" She frowns for a moment, and when she continues, her voice is a passable – if exaggerated – impression of the man in question. "If your relationship status changes, I want to be informed right away, or there will be consequences. Something like that. There was no mistaking what he was talking about, anyway."

He considers for a moment. "I mean, I would put that down to simple power play," he then says. "But it's probably best not to risk anything. I'll talk to him before shift starts tonight. Technically, we're violating lab policy, but considering the grave shift's solve rate, I doubt he'll try to split up the team. The supervisor/subordinate situation is an added complication, of course, and I suppose if he wanted to push it, he could demand that I step down, which wouldn't be the end of the world. I think it's more likely that he'll have Catherine handle your evaluations and all of that, but I don't think she'll mind, and it'll just mean less paperwork for me."

"Win win?" Sara asks with a smile.

"I think I already won."

She laughs, burying her face against his chest, and he wraps his arm tighter around her. "A little cheesy, but I'll take it over work talk."

"Sorry, I just… yeah, figured it was best to get it out of the way."

"No, you're right," she admits with a sigh, her breath tickling his stomach a little.

It's about as close to a perfect afternoon as he can imagine – Sara in his bed, Shelby waiting to be picked up later, hopefully dinner with his two favorite girls. Sara's words from a few minutes ago, about Catherine's presumption, reminds him that, only a month ago, he had none of this. Again, the impossibility of his life changing so completely in just a few weeks strikes him, and the words that have been bubbling inside him lately start beckoning to be let out. He's never been good at expressing his feelings, but… he doesn't want to put it off. You never know what the future might bring, after all.

"I love you." Grissom's anticipating the way she freezes slightly, or he would have missed it – it's gone in a split second. "Too soon?"

"No, I just…" She pushes herself up against his chest to look at him. "I've never said those words to anyone except Shelby."

"Never?" He can hear the incredulity in his own voice and is about to apologize, but she shrugs, a half-smile on her face.

"It's probably not a surprise, but the Sidle household wasn't exactly a place where terms of endearment were tossed around," she says, a hint of sadness in her voice that he wants to erase. "I had a foster mother who would say it to all the kids when there were other people around, especially during the annual CPS visits, but then she'd turn around and smack you for forgetting to say thank you or not finishing your dinner. So I didn't really have a healthy relationship with the words or sentiment for a long time. And it's not like I've had a lot of opportunities to say it as an adult, so I just…"

"I'm sorry. And I wasn't…" He frowns. "Wasn't expecting you to say it back sounds bad, right? I wasn't fishing for it. I just… I wanted you to know."

She smiles again before leaning in for a kiss.

"Thank you. And I do, you know that, right?"

He returns the smile, not exactly relieved but… OK, maybe a little relieved. And the words will come when she's ready, he has no doubt of that.

"I was hoping."