A/N: This story will examine two pivotal question and answer sessions in Grissom and Sara's relationship, as well as the time in between: Sara's invitation to dinner in season 3, and her question about Grissom's trust in her in season 7. It is a collaborative effort with GSR'r, who was the brain behind the concept…I am merely the scribe.

The format is a little different than my other stories, but, hopefully, it's clear. Make sure you pay attention to the dates in italics so you aren't totally confused.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this story.

I don't own CSI. Some inspiration and dialogue are taken from episode 322, "Play with Fire."

October, 2015

"Hi, Mommy!"

"Hi, baby," Sara says, smiling as she watches her five-year-old daughter weave through her classmates to join her on the sidewalk. "Ready to go home?"

Anna nods, taking Sara's hand and skipping along beside her to the car. "We have homework."

"Really? What's your homework?"

"We have to bring a picture of our family to talk about for show and tell tomorrow."

"Well, we'll have to find one when we get home," Sara says, opening the car door and helping Anna get settled in the back seat.

"I want to take the one from Disney World," Anna says. "The one with us and Mickey."

Sara smiles. "I'm sure we can find that one."

"Good. Megan said she's never been to Disney World, so I want her to see it."

"Why?" Sara asks as she climbs behind the wheel. She and Grissom always ask their daughter to rationalize her decisions.

"So she can see what it's like," Anna says. "Then she can tell her mommy and daddy, and maybe they can take her someday."

"Maybe," Sara agrees as she backs out of the parking space. "So you had fun at school today?"

Anna nods vigorously before realizing that her mother can't see her. "Yes. I played with Chrissie and Emma at recess," she says. "We went on the monkey bars. Then, Kevin came to play with us, but he fell off and Mrs. Johnson said we couldn't play on them anymore today."

Sara smiles as she pulls out of the parking lot. "Did you learn anything?"

Another nod. "We learned about families. That's why I have to bring a picture tomorrow."

"What did you learn about families today?"

"That lots of people have different kinds of families," Anna explains. "And, we got to talk about our own families. Ethan said that he has three brothers and two sisters."

"That's a lot of brothers and sisters."

"Yeah," Anna agrees. "He doesn't like it because his sisters won't let him in the bathroom in the morning."

Sara grins. "That would be difficult."

"I talked about you and Daddy," Anna adds. "And Hank."

"Are you sure you want to take the Disney World picture, then?" Sara asks. "We could find one with Hank in it, too, if you'd like."

"O-oh," Anna says. "I don't know."

"We'll look through the pictures when we get home. We'll find a nice one."

"Yeah," Anna agrees. She pauses. "Can we listen to the radio, please?"

"Sure," Sara says, turning on Anna's favorite top 40 station.

Within moments, the car is filled with the sound of Anna singing along with the radio.

"Anna Banana!"

Anna giggles. "Daddy!"

Grissom leans down to kiss the top of her head. "How are my favorite girls?"

"Anna's been telling me about school today," Sara says as Grissom comes up behind her to kiss her cheek. "She learned about families."

"What did you learn about them?" Grissom asks.

Predictably, Anna drops her book bag and lunchbox with a thud before answering her father's question. Sara shakes her head.

"Pick up your things and put them away," she reminds her. "Your snack is in the kitchen."

"I want to answer Daddy's question."

"After you put your things away," Grissom says.

Anna hangs up her book bag on the hook Grissom installed for her the week before school started, and carries her lunchbox into the kitchen. She puts it on the counter next to the sink, then hops up onto her chair at the table, where Grissom has set out two chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.

"Now," Grissom says, "let's hear about school."

"Well," Anna says as she sits down at the table with her cookies, "Carrie said that her mommy and daddy got married in the Bahamas with 500 guests, and that they had silver ice cream scoops as their favors. Lisa said that her daddy is a doctor, and her mommy doesn't work. She stays home and tells the maid what to do. And, Brian said that his family goes to Ireland for Christmas every year because it's where his great-great-great grandma lived."

Sara gives Grissom a look, and he shrugs. He had been the one to insist that Anna attend this very expensive private school. It is entirely his fault that these are her classmates.

"And," Anna continues, "Josh said that his mommy and daddy met at a big party, and that his daddy took his mommy to Paris to propose to her." She frowns slightly. "What's propose?"

"It's when you ask someone something very important," Sara says.

"Usually, it means that you're asking him or her to marry you," Grissom adds.

"Oh," Anna says. "Daddy, did you ever take Mommy to Paris?"

Grissom smiles. "Yes. But, she got bored with it quicker than I did."

Sara smirks. "You didn't complain too much about moving back Stateside."

"Of course not, dear."

"Did you propose to her?" Anna asks, oblivious to her parents' conversation.

"Twice," Grissom says, winking at Sara.

"Daddy has asked me plenty of important questions," Sara says, hoping it will divert Anna's attention away from their engagements.

"And, Mommy has asked me some important questions, too," Grissom says.

Anna's eyes light up. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?" Sara asks, thinking that she needs to work on her child's common courtesy skills.

"Tell me what questions you asked Daddy. Please."

Sara smiles and looks at Grissom. "We've always asked each other questions."

"Mommy asks some good ones," Grissom says, smiling back at her. "In fact, it was a question that made me realize that she liked me."

Sara's smile widens. "Really? What might that have been?"

Grissom flushes slightly and breaks eye contact with Sara to look at Anna. "You know, Aunt Catherine always told me that I needed to get my head out of the microscope."

Anna giggles. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I was so busy with work that I didn't know what was going on around me. I didn't have enough time to pay attention to Mommy or anyone else." He pauses. "No, that's not right." He looks up at Sara. "I'm sure I could have had the time. I just wasn't willing to make it."

Sara smiles. "Ancient history."

Anna frowns. Her parents are getting off track. "Daddy! Tell me about the questions!"

Grissom frowns at her.

"Please, Daddy, will you tell me about the questions?"

He smiles. "Of course." He clears his throat. "Like I said, I wasn't good at seeing what was right in front of me. I knew that Mommy was my friend, and maybe, somewhere deep inside, that I wasn't content with that. But, I didn't think that she wanted anything other than to work with me. Then, one day, Mommy said something that made me realize that she wanted us to be something more than friends."

"What did she ask you?"

Grissom smiles as his eyes take on a faraway, dreamy look. "It was a long time ago …"

May 2003

Grissom leaned against his desk, flipping through his rolodex. It was time to at least call the doctor. He knew it. He was starting to miss things. It wasn't all the time, or even enough to merit panic, but his hearing problems were more pronounced now than they had been a year ago.

He sighed as he stared at the specialist's number. It was so difficult to call. So difficult to schedule this vital appointment. So difficult to admit that he was human, and old, and subject to the same frailties as the rest of the world.

No, not the rest of the world. Not everyone had these problems. But, his mother did, and that should have been enough to convince him he needed to see his specialist. If his mother knew that he was waiting for things to get better on their own, she'd smack him.

But, she didn't know. No one did. And, Grissom wanted to keep it that way. It was far easier to live in denial when there was no one trying to talk him out of it.

"You … got a minute?"

Grissom looked up to see Sara leaning against his doorframe. He plucked the doctor's number from his rolodex and slid it deep into his palm. For some reason, the idea that she would find out about his … problem … was almost unbearable.

"I was just leaving," he said.

"Yeah, the schedule says you're off tonight," Sara commented.

"I am," he agreed.

"Me, too," Sara said quietly.

Grissom frowned slightly. She shouldn't just be off for the night, she should be off for the week. His stomach churned as he remembered how she had looked sitting on the sidewalk after the explosion. The lost, confused look in her eyes was something he'd never forget. "You should be on paid leave."

"I'm fine," Sara said firmly, with a smile.

She began to talk about the case they had been working; he followed the conversation easily enough. It was almost a relief to discuss work – for a brief moment, his mind was taken away from his hearing problems.

Even so, he needed to leave. He stepped closer to the door and to Sara, realizing that she was blocking it. He was about to ask her to move so that he could leave when she spoke.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?"

The first emotion Grissom felt was shock. The second was elation. The third, the one that stuck, was sorrow. No, he couldn't have dinner with her. How could he? She was a young, beautiful, vibrant woman, and he was an old man who was losing his hearing.

"No," he said, his tone suggesting that it shouldn't even be up for discussion.

"Why not?" she asked, still holding on to her smile. "Let's … let's have dinner. Let's see what happens."

"Sara …" he said slowly. He didn't even know what to say to her. Finally, he decided that honesty would work best. "I don't know what to do about this." His fingers ran back and forth between them in the air, as though trying to identify the unnamed "this" of their relationship.

Sara's hopeful expression dropped. "I do," she said. She paused, her expression becoming harder. "You know, by the time you figure it out, it really could be too late."

Grissom watched her walk away with a defeated slump to her shoulders. As he stood in his office, he experienced a moment of intense clarity.

He had always been interested in her. He couldn't deny that. But, he could easily ignore it, which was what he had been doing since the day they had met. After so many years, it had become second nature.

But, now …

Knowing that she had feelings for him changed everything. It was as though the doors to everything he had ever wanted were opening before him. All he had to do was to walk through them.

It was so tempting …

Catherine walked by silently. No … not silently. The heels of her shoes were striking the floor; they should have made some sound. Grissom watched as her lips moved, saying goodbye to him. The words never reached his ears.

He bowed his head in defeat. It could never happen. It didn't matter that he was attracted to Sara. It didn't matter that she wanted to give a relationship a try. He wouldn't do that to her. He wouldn't force her into a relationship with an old man who had every chance of becoming deaf within a few years' time. She deserved so much more.

Adjusting his things in his arms, he left his office. Resolution filled him. He'd let Sara live her life. And, he'd live his just as he always had – alone.

Angry tears spilled down Sara's cheeks as soon as she got into her car.

"Damn you, Grissom," she whispered, brushing at them with the back of her hand. "I don't want to cry over you."

She took several deep breaths, slowly feeling herself calm down and regain control.

She loved Grissom. She had been attracted to him since sitting down for his lecture years before, infatuated with him since going for coffee with him after the lecture, and in love with him since he had stayed up all night watching bugs crawl all over a dead pig to prove that her theory that a man had killed his wife was correct.

They were friends, to be sure, but, somewhere along the line, friendship had taken second place in her heart and mind. She had hoped that it had done the same in his.

And, now, he stood there and told her he didn't know what to do about this.

Grissom may not have known what to do about them and their bizarre relationship, but Sara knew what she had to do.

She had to pull away. She had to bury herself in work. She had to find the distractions that Grissom had always said she needed.

She had to do anything other than think about him. Because, she wasn't about to ask him to dinner again. She wasn't going to give him another chance.

Every time she thought they were getting closer, every time she thought they were becoming more than friends, he would pull away and break her heart. She couldn't let him do it to her again. If she let that happen one more time, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to fit the pieces back together.

October, 2015

"Why didn't you want to go out to dinner with Mommy?" Anna asks, frowning in confusion.

Grissom looks at Sara, but she only looks back at him. She will not make this easier for him. She will not explain away his actions.

"I was scared," Grissom finally admits.

Anna giggles. "Daddy, Mommy isn't scary."

"She can be," he says, looking not at his daughter, but at his wife. "She has the power to hurt me very much."

"Mommy won't hurt you," Anna promises. "She says she doesn't like hurting people."

"That's right," Sara agrees, finally coming to Grissom's rescue. "But, Daddy didn't know that back then. He was afraid that I wouldn't like him as much as he liked me."

Anna frowns again. "I like you both the same."

Grissom smiles. "There are different ways to like people, Anna Banana. You like your friends, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, I liked Mommy more than I liked my friends."

Anna's eyes light up. "Yesterday, Josh took Carrie's crayons and used them to write on her cubby. Carrie was mad, but Mrs. Johnson said he just did it because he likes her. Does that mean that he likes her more than he likes his other friends?"

"Probably," Sara says, struggling not to laugh. "Boys can be very silly about how they show that they like girls."

"Did Daddy write on your cubby?"

"No," Sara says, getting up to walk away before she burst out laughing.

"I was very silly about it," Grissom says. "I pretended that I didn't like Mommy at all, so that she wouldn't know how much I liked her."

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"That makes no sense."

With that proclamation, Anna bounces off her chair and skips down the hall. Grissom and Sara hear her going up the stairs to her bedroom.

Grissom looks at Sara with a sly grin. "Going to laugh now?"

Sara bursts into laughter.

"You're sure you're allowed to take two pictures?" Sara asks as she leads Anna into the garage.

"Yes," Anna says. "Mrs. Johnson won't mind."

"Okay," Sara says. She opens Anna's door, then walks behind the car to open the garage door. She gasps at what she sees.

"What, Mommy?" Anna asks, abandoning her lunchbox and book bag in the car to join her mother at the garage door.

"Daddy wrote on my cubby," Sara said, struggling between laughter and tears.

Anna looks up at the writing on the door and giggles.

GIL LOVES SARA

"He must like you, Mommy," she says.

"Yes," Sara says. "And, I like him, too."