Title: Mettle

By: Manigault

Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.

Spoilers: Only in my mind.

Thanks: All of the reviews were wonderful. Thanks to everyone. Edited for you, LSI.
They worked together with the harmony of a past unhindered by outside influences that masqueraded as 'getting a life'. The case unraveled by dawn, leaving each of the investigators with a feeling of satisfaction that was enhanced with a surge of adrenaline.

Grissom stood beside Sara as she leaned back against her Tahoe, her expressive eyes sparkling with the thrill of working with Grissom and solving another case.

"It feels good closing this case, doesn't it?" Sara asked him with a slight hitch in her voice that she hoped he did not notice.

"Very." Grissom did notice the strange catch in her voice, but he decided that exploring it would only lead to paths he was not ready to travel. Instead he decided it would be to his advantage to high tail it home. "Thanks, Sara, you really helped me out."

The air appeared to shift before her very eyes as Sara heard the change in Grissom's attitude. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs, before offering him a tight smile.

"We are back to polite conversation, Grissom?" Sara pushed away from the Tahoe, but kept her eyes on his startled face even as she fished for her keys in the bag slung over her shoulder.

"Sara-I-." Grissom searched for the correct words, the ones that would take that look of resignation from her face and allow the sparkle to return to her warm brown eyes. "I didn't mean to sound stand offish."

He grimaced at the way he must sound. Stand offish? With a scowl he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and wished he could take the last five minutes back. His frown eased though as he saw the twinkle in those beautiful eyes and the quirk of the lips as she fought what he knew would be a full scale laugh.

"What did I say?" Grissom asked with a small smile of his own. He shifted from one foot to the other, but refused to take his eyes from her smiling face.

"You want me to repeat it?" Sara managed between a grin that dazzled him in the morning light.

"You better not." Grissom replied with a mock look of dismay as he looked around the parking lot at the departing and arriving investigators. He ignored the curious looks and turned back to the only person that he cared about at that second. "Would you like to go someplace for coffee and maybe talk?"

"Excuse me?" Sara asked as the grin slipped from her face. Wondering if she was day dreaming or if she had actually heard Gil Grissom ask her out for coffee and to talk, she repeated the question. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"Coffee. Talk." Grissom repeated with a short shake of his head. "Is that so hard to fathom, Sara?"

"With you, Grissom, yes it is."

"Well?" Grissom started to regret the invite and worse, question Sara's response. "You know, Sara, forget it. Go home and get some sleep."

"I want to go someplace and have coffee with you Gris, and talk." Sara gripped the keys in her hand and berated herself for giving him a hard time. "Your place or mine?"

She could not help it. The urge to tease him was ingrained in her, and she enjoyed the startled look that coursed through the blue depths of his eyes and the way his eyebrow arched.

"I thought we could go to this café that isn't too far from here." Grissom replied without missing a beat. Inside he felt the urge to say 'my place, your place, a hotel, the Tahoe.' "I thought you could follow me there so that we don't have to leave one of our cars here."

"We don't want rumors started." Sara said with a dry laugh. She suppressed the thought of other rumors that had run rampant throughout the lab.

Grissom sighed. He knew why she was averting her eyes, and also knew that was one of the things they should talk about. He was picking a trail; he only hoped the destination would prove worth the risk.

The End.