3 Dead in a large suburban home just outside of the city limits. Two of the deceased were identified by their daughter as the home owners, and the other as the elderly mother of the male decedent. Grissom had been asleep when the call had come in but given the number of bodies and shift change happening in a matter of hours he'd been the one called in to work the case. No obvious cause of death could be determined from his initial walk through and so as it neared closer to the beginning of night shift the rest of Grissom's team was called to meet at the scene.

Grissom was a bit surprised when he first glanced at the clock and noticed how long it had been, time always had a way of getting away from him when he was working alone. Still it felt a bit odd how foggy his time in this house felt, 2 hours passing in what felt like minutes and feeling as if he'd accomplished nothing in that time. However his logical mind reminded him of how little sleep he'd gotten the night before, having favoured instead to dive into a new entomological article. In his 20s and even into his early 30s Grissom could spend nights on end rejecting sleep in favour of his minds pursuits, but now well into his 40s he could easily feel the impairments caused by a night without adequate sleep. Something tonight felt off though, something about the fogginess he was experiencing felt wrong.

"Were the gas lines to the house turned off?" Grissom asked as he exited the building to get some fresh air in order to clear his mind. A young cop was standing guard by the front door within earshot of his question. Grissom didn't much care who he was asking the question to, only that he received an answer before his team arrived, as he'd never willingly allow his negligence to put his team in harms way.

"Yes sir, Captain Brass made sure it was turned off at the main lines when there was no obvious injuries to the victims" The young cop responded quickly, almost surprising Grissom with the rapid answer. It was nice but not necessarily common to have an officer here who paid enough attention to save Grissom the call to Brass.

The teams arrival spared Grissom a response to the young man, and truthfully any small talk he may have had to make while waiting. Grissom wasn't necessarily an unfriendly man he just has never been the most gregarious of sorts, and the young cop had earlier in the day given the impression of someone who enjoyed the social aspects of his job. He'd reminded Grissom in part of Greg: young, talkative, eager to please. Either way his team had just pulled up and Grissom could now focus on giving them their assignments.

"What do we have?" Catherine asked as she walked up the steps to the front porch.

"Two deceased: two upstairs, one on the first floor.. Sorry three deceased" Grissom explained while shaking his head over his misspeak. He really needed to go to bed earlier in case he is called in early for cases.

Grissom explained to his team what he'd learned about the case thus far as they followed him into the home. He'd been assigning them roles when he noticed that someone was missing. It wasn't like him to not notice, especially not her – he'd been acutely aware of the young brunette's presence ever since he'd met her. He must be more tired than he'd thought as he'd finished assigning roles before he'd realized her absence.

"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked his team. He's pretty damn sure he'd told Catherine to call the whole team in and it's certainly not like Sara to be late.

"Should be here soon, sounded like she was still asleep when I called" Catherine answered with a hint of laughter in her voice.

It almost made him wish he had told Catherine not to bother calling her. Sara was hard to catch off guard, nearly every time she was called in early to a scene she'd been ready and waiting for the call. In fact Sara was prolific for simply just showing up when she heard a case on her police scanner and guessed she'd be getting a call soon – which had more than once lead to a mix up where Sara had wound up working a swing shift case – leading to the common belief that the young brunette didn't in fact ever sleep. It feels a shame to have woken the girl up on the rare time she'd proved that belief to be false.

Grissom and Catherine started working to process the master bedroom on the second floor with the deceased couple, while Nick was assigned the deceased elderly woman's room and Warrick processed the main living areas. It was a large house and it was looking like it was going to take them at least half the shift to process it. Grissom wasn't sure how long they'd been working – his head seeming to feel more foggy by the minute, he felt almost as if he were drunk – when a soft knock on the bedroom door startled him out of his work.

"Hey, sorry I'm late" Sara's gravelly voice called out in apology as his eyes met hers. The light of the hallway was bathing around her as she stood in the doorway to the room, making it look in Grissom's eyes as if she herself had an aura of golden light around her. That can't be right though can it? This house had harsh white LED lighting, not the soft glow he's seeing. He waved off her apology, but couldn't take his eyes off her as he tried to work out where the light was coming from.

"Where do you want me?" Sara asked looking at him with a curious look on her face.

"Underneath me" He responded, the words spilled out from Grissom's mouth without ever processing in his mind. A goofy smile though found it way to his lips even if he wasn't quite cognitively aware of what he'd just said.

"Grissom!" Catherine chastised, shock evident within her voice as she reached over to swat him on the arm – none to gently if he were honest.

Unfortunately with the impact against Grissom's arm brought the awareness of what he'd just said. Mortified is one word, dumbfounded is another, both and many more along the same lines could be accurately applied to Gilbert Grissom in this moment. As he was sure his face played out a montage of emotions, Sara's did too: First shock, then a ghost of a smile whispered onto her lips, before falling away to that indifferent hard mask that had made home on her face as of late.

"Somethings wrong" Sara said while looking around the room as if she'd be able to spot the source of whatever caused his slip up. Hurt registered within him at her words at the idea that she thought something would have to be amiss for him to openly flirt with her. She's not wrong for it though he knows that, he's pushed her away, only allowing a glimpse of his emotions towards her to show in moments where he fears losing her more than he fears her knowing how he feels. It hurts none the less to know that he's caused this reaction.

"Brass, was the gas shut off to the triple?" Catherine is asking into what he can only assume must be her phone as Grissom is pretty sure Brass isn't at the scene, although he's not sure he can't seem to remember. He doesn't look at Catherine to find out, his eyes are firmly planted on Sara as she looks at him as if she's analyzing his every thought. His head is so foggy now that he can't quite remember, but he feels like Catherine's question has been asked before. His mind tries to focus on that, but instead all he can register is Sara as she bends down in front of him to shine her penlight into his eyes.

"Thanks Brass" Catherine is saying as she hangs up her phone and joins Sara in squatting in front of him. "Brass says he called the gas company before he left and they insured him it was being shut off, He's not sure if the tech has been out to do it as he left that to Officer Franklin. Brass is sending someone over with a meter right away" she explained.

There is a flurry of action that Grissom doesn't quite register, it's all just vague sounds and movement around him. That should worry him – he knows that, but Sara's hand has moved to hold his arm and it consumes his every thought. She guides him gently with her hand staying in place on his arm, and he knows he'd follow her anywhere so long as that gentle soft touch remains. His surroundings and the other people at the scene don't exist in his world at the moment: it's only him and Sara, attached by the anchor point hold she has against his arm. Somewhere in his consciousness he is vaguely aware of the frenzy going on around them, but his mind remains at complete peace held there safely by her warm hand.

Then it's gone. Stolen from him by some man who's pushed between them and placed something around his face. He hates that man for it almost instantly, though a glare at the intruder provides reality in the form of a paramedics uniform, he still for a moment wishes to return to that world where only Sara exists. Then concern comes because he has no idea why or when paramedics arrived on his scene, nor why what he now recognizes as an oxygen mask is placed around his face. Worry for his team fills him, though a few question quickly provides that they are all safe and that only Grissom himself was exposed long enough for any adverse side effects.

The case was solved quickly upon the teams eventual return to the lab and the scene being marked as safe again. Life insurance, so often the motive behind these kind of cases boils down to life insurance and this case proved the rule not the exception. The daughter having hooked up a tank to slowly leak gas throughout the house, killing her entire family, for what? Money. He'll never understand the valuing of money over human life and he doesn't hope to ever understand it.

His mind still feels slightly foggy despite the paramedics clearing him. It's nothing that he's been insured sleep won't cure, so that's his plans from the moment the case is solved. Catherine drives him home not trusting him to safely drive himself, it would typically annoy him but right now his mind is too preoccupied with remembering the feeling of Sara's hand against his arm to complain. Once home he falls asleep still thinking about and holding on to that feeling.

Across town though, someone struggles to sleep. A sad smile placed upon her face, because Grissom said a hell of a lot more in the time between Catherine calling Brass and the paramedics arrival. Words that gave her hope and spoke to the depth of his feelings towards her, and yet the pain of knowing it took a gas leak for these words to escape his lips still remains.