Sara keyed open the door to the condo and immediately felt something was off. She placed her hand on her holstered gun and slowly walked down the stairs. She heard a noise coming from down the hallway.

"Who's there?" She spoke sternly, ready to pull her gun.

"Hey." She heard him before she saw him, releasing her hold on her weapon.

"Gil!?" She nearly ran into his arms. "What are you doing here!?"

He wrapped his arms around her tightly. "When you said you weren't coming…" She could feel him shrug against her.

She breathed against his chest and felt his chin rest on the top of her head. "When did you get in?"

"A couple of hours ago." His hand moved to caress her face before lightly pressing his lips to hers.

"It's really good to see you." She smiled, keeping her eyes on his. His presence in their home now caused her to confront just how badly she had been missing him.

"What about your students?"

"Pierre is covering my class for the week."

"Are you just here because I'm ovulating?" There was a hint of accusation layered into her soft joke.

He smiled, "It did cross my mind briefly."

She took his hands in hers and he let her lead him to the bedroom. To the bed they hadn't shared since just after Warrick had died, and even then… they had barely shared it.

"Sara…" He spoke softly afterward, his fingers working their way through her hair as he watched her features. "Do you… uh… do you still want this?"

Her eyes opened and caught his in surprise.

"To try…" He added quickly, ensuring she didn't construe his comment to be a larger conversation about their relationship.

"Oh." Was her simple response. She was silent for a long beat as she considered his question. "Sometimes I do wonder if my body knows something more than I do. If this isn't happening for us because… deep down maybe I'm not so sure."

The scientific part of him was ready to explain away what she was saying, but he knew quickly it wasn't what was needed in the moment. And more then that, she of all people didn't need the lesson in biology. But the mind-body connection is powerful, he would readily admit.

"I see." He propped himself up a bit more to face her better, "Let's pull this back."

"Gil… are you sure?"

He nodded easily, "When I suggested this originally, I thought we would be living in the same city, that it was something you may want too… but we can have the full human experience without starting a family. If I have you, I have enough."

She smiled softly but she was unconvinced. She thought back to sitting below the swarms of Monarch butterflies, to the look on his face when he first spoke his desire to her. Should knew that deep down, this was something he wanted. Whether he realized the depths of his desire though, she was unsure.

"Why don't we just table it until the grant comes through. When we're living in California… with a more permanent address." Her eyes searched his, he was holding something back, "What?" She finally probed.

"It was rejected. The grant."

She stayed silent but her disappointment was loud and clear.

"I'm still going to finish up this semester as planed." Grissom began, answering her unspoken questions, "In the meantime, I have begun to rework our proposal and will submit it through other agencies."

She nodded, "Okay." She sat up now and swept her hair up in a ponytail. "Let's go over it."

He smiled with admiration, "The proposal? Now?"

"Yeah."

A smile spread over his features, feeling the rush of enjoyment that he got when they engaged in academic pursuits together. He stood and threw on some clothes before walking out of the room. Moments later he returned to find she'd put on the shirt he'd just discarded in the throws of passion. It bagged over her slender figure as she sat up ready to receive the papers. He rejoined her on the bed with the new proposal and watched as she took the papers and began to read. Her fingers pushing back a few stray hairs every so often.

He was suddenly taken back to the first time they did this together. Working in bed like this.

It was in the midst of a murder investigation where an entire family, mother father and two children had gone missing. The pools of blood in the house were abundant enough to confirm the death of at least three of them. The scene was six hours north of Vegas and the responding team spent the night at a local motel.

He smiled as he watched her flip through the proposal now. Thinking again to that first time, they hadn't even slept together yet, he mused. They were barely even together really. It had been just a few weeks after Nick was abducted and rescued. A few weeks after he'd finally acted on his desire for her, catapulting them into a secret romance. When he showed up at her motel room door, using Greg's snoring as an excuse to spend time with her.

He thought back to that evening, how adorable he found it that she brought her own sheets to the motel. How he laid there next to her for the first time, how he felt unbelievable nervous and at peace at the same time. Laying next to her as she read, seeing her in her pajamas, her reading glasses. He'd never known she wore glasses to read until then.

How she readily put her book down to talk through the case over again with him. That was the first time they shared a bed to work through files and papers, all of it scattered around them. And if he hadn't already been so in love with her, it would have been the very thing that would cause him to fall.

"This is a smart reframe." She pointed to the new proposal he had put together, taking him out of his reminiscing. "Tying it to climate change could be the political tie that actually gets this funded."

"If we focus on the pollinators…"

"Then we can tie the effects of climate change to chain of reaction that creates food insecurity for large swath of the population." She interjected.

"Exactly." He glowed. This. He had missed this more then just her presence. He missed working side by side with her. Watching her use her mind. Benefiting from the expanse of knowledge she brought and the quickness of her thoughts.

The two continued to pour over the details of the proposal, charging each other with energy as the discussed the scientific methods to be employed, the research they could engage in.

"If we monitor changes in insect phenology, distribution, and population dynamics, we could also argue that laboratory experiments are necessary to simulate future climate scenarios. We could observe direct physiological and behavioral responses of the pollinators to…"

"Page 45." He smiled and watched as she flipped to the page he mentioned.

She skimmed the section, "This is great." She glowed. "I actually think this is a better endeavor than our previous idea." She was rewarded with his boyish grin. It made her heart flutter. But then, a moment of reality sank over her, she looked down at her lap briefly, "If this doesn't work out…" Sara began hesitantly, "Will you still move back after the semester as we work out what's next?"

He glanced up at her over his reading glasses before slowly taking them off. She could already sense his hesitation before he even spoke.

"Let's see where this shakes out before we make alternative plans." He offered. "Where are they with finding a replacement?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, actually. Ecklie hasn't mentioned anything."

"How long do they think you'll stay?"

She shrugged again. She had made it a point not to provide a timeline.

He reached over and touched her cheek with his thumb. His touch was warm and soft and loving. "We should get some rest before you get called back in."

She nodded in agreement silently.

Sara stirred away to the feeling of light, feathery kisses trailing up her neck. Her eyes began to flutter open, the haze of sleep beginning to fade away.

"Mmmm Good morning." She smiled softly as his face came into focus.

"Good morning." He continued to trail light kisses along her neck, her collar bone, her shoulders. "I made breakfast."

"You did?"

"Eggs and fruit. You know there's nothing in the refrigerator."

"You know how it goes, old habits."

He kissed her lips softly.

The two sat down for breakfast and Grissom began to fill her in on his lecture seminar, on the side research project he and Pierre had started, on the new students. In turn, Sara filled him in on the more interesting cases she'd pulled recently. On late night drinks with Greg and Nick. On how Lindsey had seemingly grown up over night and was even planning on studying forensics.

As he cleared their plates he looked back at her a bit hesitantly, "I think I should visit my mother while I'm in the states. It's been…. A while."

"Betty?" She spoke as if clarification was needed, "Is she in town?"

"No, but it's only a four hour drive to Santa Monica… Would you come with me?"

She smiled, "Let me just clear it with Catherine."

"She actually called this morning."

"She did?" Sara furrowed her brows.

"I answered. It was uh, nice to catch up briefly." He watched as she smirked. "What?"

"How pedestrian of you. Catching up with old friends."

"Yes dear." He smiled knowingly, "Anyway… she worked it out to borrow someone from days so that you can have the next few days off while I'm here." He suddenly became nervous, like perhaps he had overstepped. "That's okay, right?"

She stood and brought her hands to his face, "It's perfect." She kissed him softly, "Let's go today."