Two weeks later

Grissom was at his desk finishing up the last of the monthly budget when Sara walked by. She was smiling; it had been a long time since he had seen her smile. They hadn't talked much since the last time he stayed the night. When they decided to date, they decided that no one was going to know. It was going to be too much of a hassle, and he wanted as little friction as possible. At first, it was exciting, the coded messages to each others, the weekends holed up at his house. It was bliss, for a time.

Then the nightmares started.

Oh, he knew that she wasn't sleeping for quite some time. He saw the effect of the dreams that she was having. If he stayed the night at her house, she was up almost every hour. He would wake up to screams, though he made it a point not to show that he knew. Obviously she wanted to keep it to herself, and he didn't want to intrude. He felt it wasn't his place to play Freud on her. It happened for so long, it became impossible to play the charade anymore. He made excuses on not staying at her house; he didn't want to embarrass her with what he knew. The last night they were together was over two weeks ago. They had a fight, and Sara left him at her house. He didn't know what was going to happen. He worried that she was going to relapse, and start drinking again, but he wasn't going to chase her. He was too old to have that kind of drama in his life. When he left her place, he left his key on the counter.

He wasn't intending on it being the end of their relationship, not at all. He had deduced that she needed her "space" and trying to be understanding, he gave her all the space that she needed. She seemed happier this way, and to see her smile, made him miss her more and more.

She was talking to Hodges about her latest case, the showgirl murders. The death of Cassie had bothered her for some time now, even though they caught the guy who killed her. The pretrial hearing was coming up and she was getting all the facts together. Both of them would be testifying then. The defendant wanted a speedy trial, so they were jumping through hoops to get all the tests and reports together to present to the DA. She was about to walk away when Grissom signaled her to come into his office.

"What's up?"

"I was wondering, maybe we could go over this prelim before we send it off to the DA." Grissom was stalling, trying to word it just right.

Sara took a seat and opened her folder that she was holding. "Ok, I just got done talking with Hodges and he is…"

Grissom stopped her. "Not here, I was hoping you could come over."

Sara looked up from reading, understanding where he was going with this conversation. "I think here would be better. This is a case; we should be talking about it here." She didn't want to go to his house. He hadn't spoken a word since he left her key on the counter. Now, after all this time he wanted to talk. Nope, not going to happen, if he wanted to talk to her, he would talk to her here, just like he did to everyone else.

Gil was puzzled. Why wouldn't she want to come to his house? He gave her space; he just didn't think it was going to be this long before they could resume what they started.

"I, uh, was hoping that we could talk about other things as well." He stammered as she was getting up to go.

"I think everything was said when you left the key on my counter," she shot back.

"I thought you wanted your space, to work out….that problem." He was losing ground fast and he didn't know what to do. Sara was rarely emotional and seeing the defiance in her eyes was unsettling, and he was put on defense.

"My problem," she spat "Is that I believed we had something together. Something special." He tried to motion to her to quiet down, and she hissed instead. "I guess that it wasn't very special to you. I needed someone who could understand where I was coming from, and all that you were worried about was the amount of sleep you needed."

"That was not it at all," he stated, his voice rising as he spoke. "I thought that you needed space, to work out what needed to get worked out. Oh, I don't know about these things. I'm too old for this." He pushed his chair from the desk, running his hands through his hair in frustration.

"You're the one who didn't speak to me. I know that leaving you at my house was probably immature, but you're the one who chose to avoid me at all costs." She got up out of her seat turning to leave she paused and looking at him said, "It's probably better this way. Someone was going to find out sooner or later."

"Sara, please, I'm sorry." He got up from his chair and walking around the desk grabbed her elbow to stop her departure. She stiffened at his touch. "You know I don't have much experience in this kind of thing, please give me another chance."

Later, as she thought of this, Sara bitterly would think to herself, if there is a God, he has a very bad sense of humor.

Around the corner walked up Nick and Warrick. They were talking about a suspect they had just interviewed.

"Dude, that guy is lying through his teeth. You know it and I know it." Warrick said as they walked away from the interrogation room.

"He can lie all he wants, but the evidence never lies," Nick said as he held the swab that they took from the guy for a DNA test. "I'm going to take this to Wendy. I'll see you later ok?"

"No problem, bro. Take care of yourself." Warrick patted Nick on the back as he headed towards the locker room.

It was when they separated ways that Nick looked towards Grissom's office. There was Grissom and Sara. His heart sank to the depths of his stomach. He didn't hear what they were saying. He didn't want to know. He saw the look in Grissom's eyes as he held onto Sara's arm. He knew that look. All of his fears came crashing down onto him at once. He felt betrayed. He thought that she cared for him. She told him that there was nothing between her and their boss. Obviously, that was a lie.

He tried to get past Grissom's office as fast as he could, but Sara saw him pass.

Busted.

Oh my God. He saw me, he saw us. She thought to herself. She pulled her arm away from Grissom roughly. She had to talk to Nick. Looking at her boss she said, "Grissom, this is not the time and place for this kind of talk, ever. As far as I am concerned, this conversation is over."

She left quickly, Grissom chiding himself on his actions. You are acting like a foolish boy. She is right, it's probably better this way. Shoulders slumped; he walked back to his desk, every step feeling like he was carting a ton of bricks around his neck. He sighed deeply as he sat down. He picked up the phone, dialed the florist. Giving her information and his credit card information he ordered a pot of live flowers sent to her house with one note. I'm so sorry, please forgive me- Gil.

Sara half walked, half ran towards DNA. Wendy was in there with Nick. She slowed down as she saw Wendy look past Nick and see her. A smile slowly came across her face. Sara tried to be casual, and failed miserably.

"Where's the fire Sidle?' Wendy quipped as Sara entered the lab. "You have something for me to run?"

"Oh, no, I'm just finishing up on the showgirl case, getting it ready for pretrial." Sara quickly said. "I was hoping that I could talk to all the CSI's involved, Nick's the last one I need to talk to."

Nick wrinkled his brow as she talked. "You have my report Sara. There isn't anything left to tell."

"There are some things that we missed on the last report. I really think we need to talk about what we viewed on scene." She tried to stress those words, hoping that he would get the hint.

Oh, Nick got the hint, but he wasn't budging. He was ticked and had no problem telling her that in the same coded talk.

"I think everything that I viewed was accurate Sidle. You don't need to remind me of that." Nick wasn't budging from his spot next to Wendy, and it frustrated Sara to no end.

"I really think that some facts are obscured here, and I need to explain the situation as it stands right now."

Wendy's grin spread across her face as she saw the two go back and forth. She knew something was going on between them, but couldn't put her finger on it. She was just hoping one would slip up and spill the beans. This was going to be good.

Before she could get any more juicy conversation, Nick picked up his reports with a huff and stomped out the lab. Sara was at his heels, trying to keep up.

"Nick, please, we need to talk." Sara gasped as she tried to keep up. Nick's long strides far outpaced hers and it was hard to look casual and not desperate at the same time. "Not now." He said as he passed Grissom's office and walked towards the locker room.

Inside the locker room she grabbed his arm. He turned to her quickly, a hurt look in his eyes. That look brought tears to her eyes. "Please, it's not what you saw."

"You lied to me Sidle. You said there wasn't…." As he spoke, Warrick came out of the showers, towel wrapped around his waist. He was toweling off his hair and didn't hear what he said.

"Hey Nick, well well, what do we have here? You lost Sidle?" Warrick smiled slyly as he said this, knowing how his friend felt about her.

"Uh, sorry Rick, I got so caught up in Nick's story I forgot where he was going, right Nick?" Sara said as she nudged Nick in the ribs quickly without their friend seeing it.

"Sure," Nick said quickly. "Though I think Sara has been wanting to catch you in a towel for a long time now Brown so you better watch out." She slapped him on the arm as he said this. Warrick knew that wasn't the case, but he played along. He sauntered up to Sara; hand on the towel that he had wrapped around his middle.

"You want to see what's under this Sara?" He smiled with a mischievous grin on his lips.

Sara blocked her view, "Nope, that's quite all right." Under her breath she spoke to Nick, "I'll speak to you at home." She made a quick and hasty departure, slamming the door behind her.

Warrick looked at his friend; concern in his eyes replaced the sly grin. "What's going on with you two?

"Nothing….really." Nick looked away from his friend and opened his locker. He didn't want to talk about it with him. Not now anyway.

"Hey, this is me you're talking to, your friend?" Warrick wasn't going to quit so easily. "We haven't hung out after work in weeks man, that's not you. You know that you can tell me anything. I'm not going to say anything."

Nick shut the locker door and looked at his friend. "I wish I could tell you what's going on, but it's complicated and I really don't know where I stand right now."

Warrick saw the look in his friend's eyes, the confusion that was there. He would let it go, for now. He didn't want to push him too hard. He knew that Nick would come around eventually. "Ok man, I hear you. I'll leave you be. If you want to talk, you know how to get a hold of me."

Nick put his hand on Warrick's shoulder, "Thanks bro, I owe you one." With that, he left.

Sara practically ran to her car. The tears were coming quickly, and the last thing she needed was anyone else to see her in this state. It was a close call with Warrick, but they had been lucky, she was able to dry her tears quickly so that they didn't see. She franticly tried to open her door, but the sobs came out, shaking her whole body.

Sara.

The voice was so calm, reassuring even, but she recognized that voice, and it chilled her to the bone. She looked up and saw her dad, well it really wasn't him, and he had been dead since she was 13. All she could see was a faint image at best, but she knew that voice.

"Dad? Is that you?"

That's right Pumpkin. Haven't seen you in awhile. The image was getting a little clearer and she could see he was wearing the same clothes he died in. His skin was gaunt and dark circles under his eyes. It frightened her, but she tried not to show it.

"Probably because you've been dead for oh, about 23 years now." She was nuts, she had to be. "I've got to go now, nice seeing you." She got her key in the lock and opened the door. Getting in, she put on her seatbelt quickly, trying not to look in the direction of the specter.

Sara, we need to talk. I've been watching you for awhile now. He was inside the car now, sitting next to her. It unnerved her to be so close to him.

"You are not real. You are a repressed feeling in my subconscious. I do not want you here." Sara was trying to state fact, trying to make sense out of the situation, than really talking to her long dead father.

Not real? How's this for real? He grabbed her wrist and it felt like the temperature of the car dropped 40 degrees. She was really scared now. If only Nick were here, but she still had to fix that mess.

He can't help you right now.

She whipped her head at the image. It couldn't be possible. "Please leave." She whimpered quietly. She wanted to leave, but felt frozen to the seat.

I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk.

"Sara? Are you ok?" It was Nick, worry causing his jaw tighten, a nervous habit. He was walking out to his car when he saw Sara, in the car, talking to someone, but there was no one in the car.

She looked at him, all the color drained from her face. "I saw…..my dad." She turned to look at the passenger seat, and the ghost was gone. She turned back to Nick, scared out of her mind, and said in a small voice, "I want to go home, I just want to go home."

Nick opened the door, and kneeling down he embraced her. The tears came again and the sobs shook her frame as she held him. He looked up, to make sure no one was around and quietly said. "You want me to drive? We can always ride together to work, you know, come in early so we don't raise any eyebrows."

"I don't care; I just want to go home, with you." Sara sobbed as she unbuckled herself and slid over. "Hiding this thing isn't going to solve anything anyway."

"We still need to talk about what happened at the lab Sar, I need to know where I stand with you." Nick was a nice guy, but the cloak and dagger stuff that they had been doing for the past couple of weeks left him more confused than ever.

Ever since she took him in the bathroom, and he felt that presence, he stayed with her. He had to. He cared about her, and he didn't want to see her in such a state. Of course there was the whole side benefit of getting to be with her. He had loved her for a long time, and these last few weeks just deepened his love, but seeing her with Grissom hurt. He had wanted to believe her, but now he wasn't so sure. It felt like a betrayal, even though he wished with all his heart that it wasn't happening.

"Nick, I'm so sorry about everything. I want to come clean, but not here ok?" She wanted so badly to show him how sorry he was, but not here, where anyone could walk up on them.

"Deal. Let's go home."

"