He had no idea what he was thinking. What WAS he thinking? He should have turned around and walked away. But it was too late. He was already across the threshold. Maybe if he could just back up as if he was in the wrong room, no one would notice he walked in in the first place.

Fortunately everyone that was in the room was focused on filling their lockers with coats, bags and other such personal gear before heading in for their shifts.

What was he thinking? He wouldn't be able to talk in here. There were too many people always walking in and out and there wasn't even a door, so anyone who was happening to walk by would be able to hear what they would be saying. It was a stupid idea anyways. He would blab everything in minutes. Besides, why would he give him the advice that he needed?

Deciding against going in there and risking everyone overhearing, he slipped his coat off and into the locker and shuffled quickly out staring at his feet. He had just gotten to the door when he ran into another body and knocked them to the ground.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered looking at who ran over.

"It's alright Greg," Morgan said, smiling up at him as she picked herself up off the ground. She brushed off her pant legs and glanced down at the floor.

There was uncomfortable silence between the two of them, neither of them being able to do what they would have liked. Eventually, both excused themselves clumsily and hastily made their way away from each other and in opposite directions.

Greg shook his head as he walked into the break-room to get his assignment. He stole a glance at the blonde as she walked down the glass hallways and sighed to himself. It was going to be a long day.

Morgan was nervous. Or maybe she was worried? It was probably just nerves. Whatever it was, it had her on edge and she could concentrate on the evidence that was right in front of her. She was so wrapped up in her little world that she didn't hear her coworker coming in.

"Morgan? How's that evidence coming along?" Finn asked.

Morgan sighed and looked up at her older coworker.

"Honestly, this has me stumped. I have no idea what to do from here."

Finn's eyes darted from the younger blonde's face to the evidence on the table and back again.

"Are you sure that everything is alright with you?" Finn asked with a slight tilt to her head.

"Of course. Why would you get the assumption that anything was wrong?" Morgan questioned surprised.

"Well, you seem kind of out there and distant today. That, plus the fact that the evidence is still in the bag and you're studying a ham sandwich." Finn pointed at the table.

Morgan stared. Finn was right. The evidence was still in the bag and her lunch was sitting out on the table, spreading the mayonnaise everywhere. Morgan saw this and gave a cry and slammed her head into her hands.

Finn moved out of Morgan's peripheral vision and the CSI thought that the older woman left her to her thoughts. Then she heard the door shutting and footsteps as Finn walked back to her side.

"Alright, spill. What's going on? Does it have something to do with your kidnapping?" There was genuine concern in the older blonde's eyes.

Morgan's eyes widened and her head shot up.

"NO. No, this has nothing to do with that. At least I hope that it has nothing to do with that. Oh god, I hope this isn't what it's all about." Morgan's blue eyes reflected another concern that wasn't there to begin with.

"Then what is it? Because I don't think a ham sandwich is going to help catch this guy. Whatever's bothering you needs to be addressed so you can get on with your life, and so you can do your job. OH, is it a boy?" Finn leaned in with excitement at this possibility. She was as eager as the next person to get the latest gossip.

"It may," Morgan bit her lip.

Finn rested her hands under her chin and nodded waiting for her to continue.

"So, I've been in a relationship for a while now. I won't tell you his name because we don't need the whole world knowing my private life. But during my whole kidnapping ordeal and its aftermath, he was there for me. He helped me move on, you know? In a way that nightmare brought us even closer together and I can't imagine doing hardly anything without him."

"It sounds like you're in love, Morgan," Finn pointed out.

"I know! And it's horrible!" Morgan gave a small wail.

"Hun, why do you think that?" Finn stood up and walked over to the other side of the table to stand by the young blonde.

"Because the past few weeks he's been distancing himself from me. I had called him one time to see if I could come over, and he said that he had other stuff to do and that we could try again another time. I don't understand, why?" She turned to the blood expert with tears in her eyes. "Does he want to break up with me? I really thought that we were getting past things."

Finn bit her lip. She was not really an expert on matters of the heart. Two failed marriages and quite a few flings. She never seemed to find that happily ever after that all the stories talked about, but from this look in Morgan's eyes that she could see, Morgan had something special with whoever this was.

"Morgan, I'm not going to pretend what is going on in your personal life. But you should talk with this guy. Maybe he has his own demons that he has to deal with before catching up to you. There could be something on his mind and you might need to bring it out. I don't know. But I would talk to him for sure." Finn patted Morgan on the shoulder and opened the door to leave. She stopped. "I would get that sandwich back in the fridge before something bad happens to it."

Finn left Morgan with her thoughts. Her eyebrows knit together as she thought about it. There wasn't any real reason to be worried. But she knew that they were going to talk about it.

You hear that Gregory Hojem-Sanders? Morgan thought loudly.

Greg was in the Trace lab staring through the microscope. Just staring. He'd been in the same position for nearly ten minutes now. It was staring to unnerve David. It was like there was an ever-present pest that wouldn't go away. It was worse than when Grissom knew the answer before he could be told.

Greg was pushing the fifteen minute mark now and he still hadn't moved. Hodges was about to go over there and check for a heartbeat when Greg spoke.

"Hodges, could you look at this for me?"

Hodges denied that he was relieved that Greg wasn't dead. Mostly for the reason that he didn't want his lab to become a crime scene. He would get so far behind on his work and then he would have to work the overtime without the benefit of the pay, and everyone would be on his back about not having their results in on time, and-

"Are you going to come over here and look at this, or are you going to stand that way with a dumb expression?" Greg snapped at Hodges lifting his head off the lens.

Hodges bit back most of the sass that would have come out but some escaped his mouth.

"At least I have been making some progress. You've been staring through those lenses for so long and so stilly that I thought that I would need someone to investigate you."

Greg stood up and glowered at the lab technician for a moment. Greg had no significant height difference, but the weight of the glare was enough to make Hodges to feel smaller. But he stood his ground.

A second passed and there was a change in the CSI. He looked tired and weary, as if he'd been carrying a burden alone. He shook his head and rubbed his forehead with his palms.

"I'm sorry man. I'm just a bit stressed lately. There's this thing that's happening at home, and I'm not sure how to proceed."

"Oh." Hodges said. He leaned down and looked through the scope to look at what Sanders had been looking at for a while now. He was surprised that one person could stare at it for so long. Something must really have been bothering Sanders for him not to recognize a strand of human hair.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Greg asked out of the blue.

Hodges didn't move from his position above the microscope, but made a non-comment grunt.

"How did you propose to Elisabetta?"

Now at this Hodges jerked up from the microscope to look at the CSI. He searched for any sign that there was a practical joke. But there was no such hint. The young CSI was serious about it.

"I'm assuming that it was romantic," Greg prompted.

"Well, I was in Italy, and pretty much every place in that city is romantic," he offered.

Greg's face fell a little. He'd figured as much, but he was still hoping that Hodges could have been of some help. He seemed to be the only one that seemed to be happy in their life's position. Nick had never been married, Sara had recently been through a divorce, Ecklie had multiple divorces, same with Finn. The only one who might be able to actually give good advice was Russell, but he couldn't risk exposing his plan. Although talking with Hodges was its own version of tempting fate. The man knew how to blabber like no tomorrow. But he was Morgan's best friend, and that gave him enough reason to trust him this once.

"Figures," he muttered to himself. Where did that leave him? Back at square one with nowhere to go. And time was running out for him.

"Is there any particular reason that you're asking?"

"Educational purposes," Greg stated. He didn't need his plan to be blabbed. Or his formation of a plan.

"You have a girlfriend!" Hodges exclaimed, happy to be the one to figure it out. "Are you planning to propose to her? Is that what this is about? You need help proposing to her? I'm so honored that you would choose me."

He stopped speaking and looked back at the younger man. Greg's pupils were dilated and his breathing was becoming rapid and erratic. He was on the verge of something and for some reason, Greg was afraid of that.

"Why did you choose me? I've barely started on this path. Russell would have been a more logical choice. Why?"

Greg looked around the entire lab before shutting the doors. Greg turned to look at his acquaintance. There was a moment in Greg's mind where he wondered why he was doing this, but he was quickly reminded why he was doing this.

"I chose you because you are the logical choice. You would give the honest truth, no matter how much it would hurt. And I need that honesty right now."

"Who is it?" Hodges asked.

Greg took a deep breath. It was now or never.

"Morgan."

Hodges only nodded. Inside he was turning gears as rapidly as he possibly could. That would explain the secrecy, the edginess. That would also explain why the pair of them had been happier. He knew that there was a man in Morgan's life, but now he knew who it was.

"Well-" he began.

"What am I thinking anyway? She wouldn't say yes. She loves her job much too much to marry me. Its one thing to be sneaking around behind the job, but this is another thing. But I can't imagine living without her near me all the time. I can barely sleep without her near me. But what if I ask her and she says-"

His sentence was ended with a slap to the face.

"Get a grip on yourself, Sanders. Those are your nerves talking. If you listen to them, you'll get cold feet and you'll lose out on the greatest thing in your life. I can tell you from experience, I almost let Elisabetta go. But I couldn't dwell on those thoughts. Or else where would I be? I would be that lab tech nobody liked still. You need to take a chance sometimes. Take it." Hodges nodded out into the hallway.

Greg turned and smiled widely. Morgan was walking down the hall. She was talking with Nick about the results on the evidence she was supposed to be looking at earlier. She glanced up and saw that Greg and Hodges were looking at her. She only saw Greg's smiling face. She turned the corner and disappeared. Greg turned back to look at the Trace technician.

"I wouldn't worry so much about her. But if I were you, I would take the chance."

"Thanks man."

Greg shot him a genuine smile before walking out of the room.

Hodges watched as the CSI ran after the young blonde he'd come to see as his little sister. Mentally he reminded himself to make sure that Greg knew that if he ever broke her heart that he would be in serious trouble, from him, from her dad, from the department. He glanced over and saw that he was left with the evidence.

"Smooth Sanders. Real smooth."

Morgan was a little nervous. She wasn't normally nervous coming over to Greg's house, but her talk that morning with Finn had eased some things, but others still lingered. What if he really did want to break up? She didn't think that her heart could bear it.

She was pleasantly surprised to see that Greg was as nervous as she was. He kept glancing at the door and kept one hand firmly in his pants pocket.

They had a nice dinner. Nothing that was fancy, Greg wasn't the best at cooking anyway. He had once tried to make her a pie for the fourth of July but ended up nearly setting his house on fire. After that Morgan had restricted him to cooking things that came out of a box. Lasagna was always a good food to eat. Unless half of it drops on the ground. Which happened. Greg tried to laugh it off, but Morgan noticed the tightness in his voice.

After supper they sat on his sofa with the TV on, not really paying attention to what was actually on the television. Finally Morgan had had enough.

"I need to talk to you," She said spinning around on the sofa to face him.

"Actually I need to talk to you too," he answered.

"What's going on with you? You've been becoming so distant from me lately. Is it something that I did? Cause I really thought that since I got back we've been making some real progress. But you're pulling back. What is it? Is it me? Do you want to break up with me? Because if that's what you want then I should tell you that I can't imagine life without you. I don't wan-"

"Morgan! I don't want to break up with you! No, far from it. Baby, I can't sleep without you near me, and I can barely function properly without you telling me what to do. I love you Morgan. I don't know what I would do without you."

Morgan could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. He didn't want to break up with her. He didn't want to break up with her. But that means that-

Before he knew what he was really doing Greg was on his knees in front of the blonde and pulling a small black velvet box out of his pocket. He opened it and she gasped.

"Morgan, I love you and can't seem to live without you, so would you marry me?"

The tears sitting in her eyes flowed over and she was crying. He didn't want to break up with her. He wanted to marry her. HE WANTED TO MARRY HER!

She jumped into his arms and pressed her mouth to his. The sudden weight knocked him off balance and the small box flew out of his hands. They landed on the floor, his hands on her hips.

"That's a yes, right?" He murmured against her lips.

"Yes." She smiled before kissing him again.

"Your ring!" He said trying to reach over and grab the small diamond ring out from underneath he sofa.

"We can get it later," Morgan whispered sensually in his ear before kissing him again, long and deep.

Greg was alright with that.

Greg had no idea what he was doing. She had only said yes the night before. It made sense to tell their supervisor and Ecklie, but anyone else didn't need to know immediately. But here he was, calling a family meeting, going to tell everyone about their secret relationship.

They planned to enter separately, like there was there nothing unusual. Greg would be there waiting already with Russell and Ecklie and Morgan would enter later with the rest of the team. It wasn't telling the rest of the team about the whole thing that made Greg nervous, it was telling his boss and her father.

They were waiting for Eckile to join them in Russell's office before he told the first two people in his plan. He had begun to pace after five minutes in the office and his supervisor was starting to worry.

"Greg, relax. I'm sure that whatever you have to say isn't that bad. It's not like anyone is going to kill you for what you're going to say," Russell joked, trying to put a positive attitude in the room.

Greg froze from his pacing. That thought had never even crossed his mind. And the Sherriff was the right kind of man with the right kind of resources to make a man disappear without a trace. And he knew that he wasn't the Sherriff's favorite person. Somehow, somewhere still in his mind he was sure that he still saw Greg as the crazy lab tech with wild hair and mismatching shirts.

"What's going on?" Ecklie asked when he walked in the office. "Where's everyone else?"

Greg turned around and his heart nearly stopped. What was he doing? Why was he doing this? Right, for Morgan. That was quickly becoming his mantra. For Morgan.

"Well, sir, I have a few things to tell both of you. You might want to sit down." He waited for the older men to make themselves comfortable before continuing. "For the past few months I've been dating someone and last night I asked her to marry me. She said yes."

"Well, congratulations bud," Russell said standing up and patting the man on his back. His work family was expanding.

Ecklie sat on the chair a moment longer. Questions were formulating in his brain.

"What does that have to do with me?" He asked finally standing up.

Greg's smile faded for a moment and he turned away from his supervisor to look at the Sherriff. He stared the older man straight in the eye before speaking.

"It's Morgan."

There was a moment that no one breathed waiting for someone else to break the ice that had formed. Then Ecklie moved. Greg flinched sure that there was going to be a punch that was going to connect. Instead he found a hand extended out for him to shake. After a moment's hesitation he gripped it.

"Now, you and I are going to have a nice talk after this shift, alright?" Ecklie said staring down the CSI. Greg nodded. "You're going to do everything you can to keep Morgan happy and I expect a real wedding, not a drive-thru wedding. And if I ever get whiff of any sort of mistreatment, you can be sure that I won't hesitate to protect her. But congratulations, son."

D. B. Russell ignored the threat in the Sherriff's speech. Every father threatened that for his daughter. It was the last final promise that they could give before they were their own person.

"Thank you."

Both the Sherriff and the CSI turned to the white-haired man. Greg had a smile that couldn't be restrained anymore. He didn't know why he was so worried about the whole thing. Ecklie wanted only what was best for Morgan. He just hoped that he could live up to it.

"Shall we call the rest of the team in?"

Greg nodded. He was ready. He wasn't afraid of their reactions. The hardest part of telling was over. He felt like he could take on the world.

The text went out and soon people filed in, each one wondering why that there was such a meeting so late into the shift and what Ecklie was doing there. Morgan walked in behind Sara and smiled widely at the sight of her father and fiancé smiling at her.

"What's up?" Nick asked after he followed Hodges in the room.

"Yeah, why'd you call this meeting?" Finn asked crossing her arms.

"I didn't. They did," he said gesturing to Ecklie and Greg.

The Sherriff's hands went up. "I was no part of this. I was called here the same as the rest of you." He stepped back from the front.

"So what's up?" Sara asked looking to Greg.

"I'm getting married."

There was an instant reaction from the group. Congratulations were heard and there was motion to give Greg hugs. Finn paused after she gave him a hug and looked over at Morgan. She was the only one who hadn't made a move or noise since Greg's announcement. She thought that something was wrong, but she was surprised when there were tears of happiness in her eyes.

"Who is it? Have we met her before?" Nick asked, slapping his buddy on the back.

"Yeah, you've met. Baby, want to step out?"

Everyone not in on the secret looked around wildly for the hidden person that they missed when they walked into the room. But no one stepped out from the shadows.

"Where?" Henry asked dumbly.

"Here."

Morgan stepped out from behind everyone and walked to stand by Greg's side. She took her hand out of her pocket and rested her left hand on his shoulder, showing off to the world the diamond ring that they had to find buried underneath the sofa.

Finn smiled widely and clasped her hands together. So Greg was the one. Finn had had her suspicions about a possible proposal, but didn't want to give Morgan the false hope. But there they were standing in front of her with the evidence to say otherwise. And the smiles on both of the young CSI's were enough for her.

"When did you two start dating?"

"Months ago," Morgan said with a little blush to her cheeks. "We started after the case involving Greg's old flame in the piano. I don't know, something just clicked."

She looked at her fiancé with admiration.

"Now I'm sure that you have a lot of questions, and we only have so much time left in our shift, so if you would like to join us at our usual diner spot. There, Greg and I would be happy to answer any questions that you have. Hope to see you there."

She gave a small wave to everyone in the room and wrapped her arm around Greg's. She barely gave him the chance to say goodbye to his coworkers before Morgan was dragging him out of the room. He gave a slight wave before he disappeared around the corner with Morgan.

"She has him wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?" Hodges said turning to the rest of his coworkers.

Ecklie gave a small chuckle to the rest still in the office. "She certainly does, doesn't she?"

A/N: A quick side story about this story. It came to me in a dream and the part that made sense was the scene where Greg and Hodges were talking in the lab. The rest of the dream included me plucking paper-clips out of the carpeting, which would make no sense. Why would there be carpeting in the lab? Then there was a giant hole in the floor, enough to swallow a foot.

Don't tell me I have weird dreams. I already know.

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