Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I do own a poster of them.

Author's Notes: Well, guys, this is the final chapter. If you guys are interested in reading a sequel, please, let me know, because I'm toying with the idea right now.

This chapter is a little longer than I expected it to be, and I'm not sure if flows really smoothly. I wrote this at work today, and I've put in more than my fair share of hours this weekend, so I'm loopy and incoherent as it is...18 hours yesterday, 16 so far today, and the person scheduled to come in at 8 called to say she is running late, she went to Houston to visit with family for Easter, and she was just leaving, and in normal conditions it's a 4 hour drive...so...I'll be here at least until midnight...Enough of that.

Thanks for all of the response, hope you guys enjoy.

Jenny

Nine:

"All I'm saying is that it would be so much easier for you just to stay here, permanently." Greg said, leaning against his doorframe, "I mean, we're saving money by sharing a car, so we're not spending 2.50 a gallon on gas, and the rent would be half as expensive, utilities would be half as expensive...and it's not like we don't get along, because we do."

"You're reaching for excuses to keep me here, you know that Greggo?" Sara laughed, "Even if money was a good reason, which isn't not, where do you expect me to sleep? I like your couch, but I need a bedroom, and you've only got one."

Greg smirked, "Do you even want me to answer that?"

"And 'your bed' is not an acceptable answer. Just admit it, you'll miss having me here." Sara teased, throwing her pajama pants into her duffel bag, "You've already convinced me to stay 5 weeks longer than I was supposed to...longer, actually. I could have gone home after the first week or two."

"Yet my charm convinced you to stay until your cast came off." Greg replied, "That's got to show something."

"Yeah, how doped up on pain medication I was." Sara laughed, "Just because I don't live here doesn't mean we can't still hang out. If you want, you can come over every morning after shift and we'll have breakfast."

Greg shrugged, "Well, I guess that's a good compromise. Especially if you buy...since we all know you don't cook..." He tossed a forensics magazine to her, "So are you ready for your big return to the field?"

"Beyond ready." Sara replied happily, sliding her shoe on over her soft ankle splint, "It has been way too long. I sort of feel bad for Cath, though, stuck in the lab alone. I'll miss hanging out with her."

"Ah, yes, but now you get to hang out with the rest of us again, and not just when we dump evidence on your station." Greg replied, "Are you sure you're up to this?"

Sara turned to stare at him, her jaw slightly open, "How can you even ask that? I've been waiting for this moment for 3 months, wait, scratch that, 13 weeks and 4 days. Don't you think I'm ready?"

"It's just going to be a big transition. I mean, your ankle is still giving you problems sometimes, and being on your feet for 12 hours won't help that. You haven't put that much work on your foot since the accident." Greg replied as he started searching for the car keys, "It's not that I don't think you're ready, because it's obvious that you were born to be working in the field, but I just don't want you to overdo it and hurt yourself again."

Sara dangled the keys in front of him, picking them up from on top of the TV, and gave him a quick hug, "It's sweet that you care."

Sara grabbed her bag, and rushed out of the door, practically glowing from the giddiness she felt at being back to work, completely, and was too far ahead to hear Greg's soft, "If you only knew how much I cared." as he shut the door behind him.

At the lab, Catherine and Warrick were sitting alone in the locker room, sure that no one would interrupt them, since they were nearly an hour early for the start of shift. The only person they would suspect of being early today, was Sara, but they knew Greg well enough to know that they'd arrive with only 5 minutes or so to spare.

"I just feel bad about keeping it from them." Warrick whispered softly, taking Catherine's hands into his own, "Nick's my best friend, and he and Greg are starting to know something's up. I mean, I've never been shy about introducing my girlfriends to them, and they know I'm seeing someone. It makes me uncomfortable to lie to them."

"It's not lying, it's just not sharing all of the details." Catherine replied softly, ignoring the incredulous look Warrick gave her, "Okay, maybe it's the same as lying, but I don't want things to get awkward around here. What if, God forbid, something goes wrong on a case and our team is investigated. If everyone knows we're dating, it could create reasonable doubt and we'll lose the bad guys."

"You're starting to sound like Sara." Warrick laughed, "I don't think it will affect our credibility, I just think you don't want people to know. Are you ashamed of being my girl?"

Catherine shook her head, a look of horror on her face, "No, it's nothing like that. I just don't know what people will think, and I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea..."

"I love you, Catherine." Warrick said softly, leaning in and brushing his lips against hers, moaning as she put her hands on the back of his head, deepening the kiss. He pulled away, looking her in the eyes, "And I want everyone to know I love you."

Catherine moaned, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, "I love you too...and if you want to tell, we can break the news to everyone tonight."

She leaned in, wrapping her arms around him as their lips met again, feeling so warm and comfortable in his embrace.

"Now that's what I'm expecting as a thank you present for letting you stay with me." Greg commented to Sara, his words sending Catherine and Warrick jumping apart. "No cards, no flowers, just a big wet one on the lips."

Sara hit his arm, pulling at his shirt, "Come on, let's give them some privacy."

"It's a little late for that now." Greg replied, giving the couple a smile, "How long has this been going on?"

"Right after Sar and I came back to work." Catherine supplied, looking down guiltily, "We were waiting to tell everyone."

Sara smiled at Warrick and Catherine, happiness for her two friends evident on her face, "Congratulations, you both deserve to be happy, I'm glad you found each other." She turned to Greg, "We won't tell anyone, right?"

"Not that anyone would be surprised. We all know how much you two liked each other, even if you were both too clueless to see the other's feelings. I think Nicky owes me 50 bucks." Greg said with a grin.

Warrick's eyes grew wide, "You were betting on us?"

"Well, yeah." Greg replied, as if this was the most natural thing in the world, "It was one of those things bound to happen."

Catherine and Warrick looked at each other, then towards Sara to validate Greg's claim. Sara shrugged, "They said the same thing about me and Grissom, but we'll never be together."

"Yeah, I lost money on that." Warrick admitted, earning a swat on the leg from Catherine, who insisted, "It's just wrong to bet on people's lives."

The conversation halted when a new voice entered the conversation, "So are we all hanging out in here today?"

"We're all waiting to see you naked." Sara teased, causing everyone but Greg to laugh. "So, you going to change for us, or what?"

"Well, I'd kind of like to change in private." Nick said gruffly, his eyes still tired. He hadn't gotten home until nearly 2 pm, and he hadn't gotten enough sleep as he needed to be having this conversation.

"Oh, don't change Nick, we like you just the way you are." Catherine purred, "we were just about to go get some coffee...come on guys, let's give him some privacy."

"You know, for as much as he shares his personal life, he's really making a big deal about his privacy right now." Warrick teased, raising his eyebrows at Nick, "Something you're embarrassed over?"

Nick glared at Warrick, who held up his hands and backed away, "Yeah, it's time to go get that coffee."

Catherine led the others away on her crutches, maneuvering a lot easier than Sara had been, since she was functioning with all limbs except her leg, Warrick trailing closely behind her. Greg turned to leave, but Sara caught his eye, "I'll catch up in a second."

Greg nodded, a brief look of hurt crossing his features, and then started towards the break room to catch up with Catherine and Warrick. Sara leaned against the lockers, staring at Nick, "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, a little edgier than he had meant to. "Nothing's wrong."

Sara raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms, "Don't lie to me, Nick, you're upset about something."

"Don't worry about it, Sar." Nick said firmly, slamming his locker shut, "It's not important."

"If it's upsetting you, then it is important." Sara insisted, "You can tell me, I thought we were friends."

Nick sighed, "We are friends...it's just...well, I'm just pissed off. My sister, Karen, she's just a few years older than me...my Mom called me, she was hospitalized this morning. Her husband, Travis...hurt...her. They say she's going to be fine, but none of us saw this coming. I just wish I would have known...I wish I could get my hands on the sorry son of a bitch."

"She's pressing charges, right?" Sara asked, squeezing Nick's hand, "I'm so sorry...are you going to take some time off to go see her?"

Nick shook his head, "With Catherine still out of commission, we're still one CSI short. I wouldn't feel right doing that to Grissom, besides, what if something happens and you need some more time off of field work? It would be unfair to everyone else for me to leave."

"It's your family, Nick, you can get a new job, you can't get a new sister." Sara whispered softly, giving him a gentle hug, "If you need anything, you know where to find me...we're trained CSI's, you know, we can hide a body if need be."

Nick cracked a small smile, "Thanks...but don't tempt me with murder."

"I'm sure Grissom's waiting on us by now." Sara said, returning Nick's smile, "Let's go catch some bad guys."

They walked into the break room just as Grissom had taken a seat, holding several slips of paper in his hands, "Sara, Nicky, glad you decided to join us."

"Shift doesn't start for 20 more minutes." Sara pointed out, "It's not like we're late."

Nick smiled at her, tapping his elbow against hers, "Aw, now Sara, why do you go have to cloud the issue with facts."

"If you two would stop flirting." Grissom said pointedly, causing Nick to blush, Sara's jaw to drop, and Greg's eyes to flash with pain, "We've got a 419 at the MGM Grand. Housekeeping entered the executive suite to find 4 db's. I want Nick and Warrick with me on that one. Sara, Greg, you've got a decomp at Lake Mead. A couple of high school kids found a body in a trash bag shoved in their boat that was docked there."

Sara and Greg shared an exasperated look, decomps were the worst, both would rather be at their multiple at the MGM Grand. "I get to drive." Sara said in an almost unaturally bright tone, forcing a smile.

"Why do you get to drive?" Greg asked, frowning as he took the slip from Grissom, "You drove over here tonight, I get to drive to the scene."

"Seniority." Sara replied with a genuine laugh, holding the keys just out of Greg's reach, "If you do a good job, I may let you drive back."

Greg's voice showed the disbelief he had plastered on his face, "Let me? It's my car!"

"Just let me drive, okay?" Sara said, rolling her eyes, "I drive faster, we can get there sooner, and be done with the decomp sooner."

After a few seconds, Greg relented, "Oh, alright. So, how bad is a decomp anyway?"

3 hours later, they were standing in the autopsy room, clothed in scrubs, watching as Dr. Robbins pulled several body parts out of the green garbage bag.

"This bad." Greg said softly, his face growing more and more pale with every bone the doctor supplied them. "This is disgusting."

Sara shot him a look, "That's an understatement." She peered closer at him...anything to keep her eyes off of the body..."You okay?"

Greg nodded, glad he hadn't had time to eat a meal before coming to work. The last thing he wanted to do was throw up in front of his coworkers, especially Sara, and have them reminded that he was still a naive rookie when it came to field work.

"You sure? Why don't you bring those fingerprints we found to get processed? Oh, and you can start flipping through missing person's reports if you want to." Sara said gently, seeing the greenish color creep onto Greg's face. She looked at Dr. Robbins for confirmation.

He held up the bone he had just classified to be a pelvic bone, "We're looking for a woman under the age of 20, who has had a child, and who has been dead for approximately 10 to 12 weeks."

Seeing the thick black liquid dripping from the bone was all Greg needed to convince him to do as Sara suggested. "Page me if you need me." He said quickly before bolting out of the room and doubling over in the hallway, panting for breath, relieved to have some clean oxygen entering his body. It was times like these that he missed working strictly in the lab. When would Catherine be back in fully duty again?

Sara found him sitting in front of a computer screen 2 hours later, a scowl on his face, "Any luck?"

"Only 73 women who match the description." Greg said sarcastically, "I wish we had something more to go off of."

Sara stared at him, trying to come up with some advice to make him feel better, but unable to. She often felt the same frustration, and nothing besides solving the case truly made it better. Luckily, she was able to give him a way to significantly lower the list of missing females. "I've got something that may help." She held up a slimy baseball cap in a sealed evidence bag, "West Las Vegas High School Academic Rally Participant. This is a standard Rally team issue for WLVH. The pin attached shows she won second place in American History for the County. I did a little online research, the County Academic Rally took place 14 weeks ago."

"Did the website give you a list of winners? A list of participants from each school?" Greg asked excitedly, his eyes perking up a bit.

Sara shook her head, "I did learn that only one student from each high school goes in a specific subject, and American History is a subject offered in 11th grade, so you're looking at a missing girl from WLVH, who has been missing less than 14 weeks and is around 16 years old. If that doesn't narrow down your search, I don't know what will."

"If we both didn't smell like a decaying corpse, I'd hug you." Greg said with a grin, "I'll page you with a name."

Sara walked out of the room, a smile on her lips. She could see Warrick and Catherine laughing together in the break room, matching radiating smiles on their faces, their postures carefree. She stole a glance back at Greg, who was typing furiously on the keyboard, his face mirroring the excitement of a child who was on his way to get his first bicycle. She went into the locker room, not wanting to interrupt Catherine and Warrick, not to mention nauseate them with the stench of her clothes, and made her way to her locker. She planned on getting a change of clothes and taking a shower, hoping to rid herself of the awful stench that always came hand in hand with a decomp.

When she opened her locker, a ziplock bag of lemons fell into her hands, with a note taped to the bag, "Thought you might need these...glad to have you back...Grissom."

She smiled as she stepped into the showers, letting the warm water hit her back, the tension draining away slowly. It was the little things that made her love her job, and her coworkers...her friends. She couldn't ask for a better team, and she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. As much as she had played with the idea of returning home to San Francisco, after the recent events, she realized that home, was in fact, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The End.

I think there's going to be a sequel, if there's interest. I've got some loose ends to tie up with Greg, and with Catherine and Warrick. Let me know if you'd like to see a continuation. I just felt that what I had wanted to accomplish in this story was complete...hope you all enjoyed reading, because I enjoyed writing this very much. Thank you to my faithful readers and reviewers, you guys are the best, you made me feel like I was doing a wonderful job, and I really appreciate that, without your encouragement, it would have been easy to let this story fall in the cracks and remain unfinished.

Jenny