Title: Man to Man

Rating: PG

Summary: An old friend of Grissom's stops by and gives him a little advice on what to do about Sara.

Disclaimer: The only thing that belongs to me is the character of Mike. I created him. :grabs computer screen: You can't have him! He's miiiiiiine!! :clears throat: Yeah, just him. Everything else, including the beer and soda names...not mine.

A/N: I wonder what drove me to write this...hmm. One of the only G/S fics I have where there is no physical action between the Geeks. :wink wink:

Grissom opened his front door to the soft hazel eyes of his old-time friend.

"Hey, Mike! Long time, no see!" Grissom exclaimed as he extended his hand and the mousy-haired man took it.

Mike Rodgers shook Grissom's hand furiously. "Jeez, Gil when was the last time I saw you? Back at Harvard, when you were giving your seminar?"

Mike stepped inside the cluttered townhouse. Grissom offered him a half- smile, saying, "I guess -- I really can't remember all too well, actually..."

A chuckle was emitted from both men. Mike took off his brown leather jacket and placed it on the back of a chair seated at the peninsula in Grissom's kitchen.

"Anything I can get for you?" Grissom asked. "Glass of water, soda, beer..."

"Beer sounds good, thanks. Do you have Sam Adams?"

"That's one thing that hasn't changed."

Grissom smiled to himself and turned around to his refrigerator. He pulled out a tall bottle of Samuel Adams for Mike and a can of Diet Pepsi for himself. Grissom turned again and set the beer on the peninsula in front of Mike. As Mike took a hold of it and worked the cap off, Grissom took a seat diagonally from his friend and popped the soda open. It fizzed, and he took a sip.

"Soda, Gil? You always drank beer around me."

Grissom waved him off. "Ah, well...times have changed. Still have in it the fridge, but I've had them less and less over the years."

Mike gave him a nod of understanding and sipped his beer. An uneasy silence settled between them, and Mike broke it by saying, "So how's life treating you? Fair enough?"

Grissom sighed exasperatedly and set his soda in the counter. "Not really."

Mike's beer found the counter like Grissom's soda and Mike arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

Grissom shrugged. "Oh, paperwork's piling up on my desk, job's getting harder and harder by the day...I just can't seem to keep up sometimes. What about you?"

Mike completely ignored Grissom's attempt to get the conversation off himself and pushed him along. "You...can't keep up? With...what?"

Grissom managed a grin. "I'm...not sure I'd be comfortable in saying it out loud."

"God, Gil, I'm your pal! What do you think, the walls have ears?"

Putting on his best sheepish look and rubbing the back of his head, Grissom said, "I've been having some, uh...romance troubles."

A surprised laugh came from Mike. "Really? Last time we talked, you were seeing this anthropologist, and things were going great! What happened?"

"It's, um...not about Terri."

Mike fell silent.

"Yeah, she's, uh...she's married, first of all. The troubles I'm taking about are referring to someone else."

"Spill, man."

With a deep breath, Grissom tried to explain. "I'm in love with this woman. I mean, madly, deeply in love with her, and I didn't realize it until just recently."

Mike smiled. "Tell me about her. Maybe that'll help get it off your chest."

Silence fell again, then Grissom went on. "Well, it would be impossible for me to tell you about her in just one word. It just...can't be done. She's this beautiful, and I mean beautiful, tall brunette. She has this dynamite body, and I personally think she's wasting it on the wardrobe she has. Her eyes are a wonderful chocolate brown, like her hair, and she has this gap- toothed smile that never ceases to make me sweat when I see it."

"Ha! Sounds like good old Gil Grissom is love struck!"

Grissom couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I guess I am. Only...I'm a little scared to go after her. She's one of my employees."

Mike gulped. "Ouch."

Grissom smiled sadly. "This is just one of the things that keeps us apart, the whole supervisor/subordinate thing. I think because of that, and because of my stupid decisions, that we're growing even further apart. I actually met her at the seminar at Harvard, and...she was just so, so brilliant. A bright, young college student eager to learn. I was happy to teach her." Grissom waved his arm. "Then about four years ago, I called her here, to Las Vegas, to handle an internal affair. She still had that luminescent, infectious quality to her, but that was when our relationship steadily decayed. The more I was around her, the more I lost my sense and started acting weird."

He took another breath and went on. "The state we're in right now is terrible, and it's because of me. About a year ago, she asked me to dinner. She said she just wanted to see what would happen. Well, I refused, and ever since then her smiles have come less, and her brightness has been fading. She's like a dull, lifeless zombie now, and it hurts me to look at what I've done." He put his head in his hands. "I just want to be with her. I want to heal her emotional wounds, but I'm afraid if I try, I'll end up causing her more suffering that I don't want her to endure." A tinge of emotion quivered in his words.

Mike sat up straighter, stunned at his friend's sudden outbreak. He realized this was much more serious than he had thought. Mike patted Grissom's shoulder in a comforting way. "I'm sorry I joked about it."

He was thrown a subtle nod of forgiveness.

He thought for a moment, and then Mike said, "What's her name?"

"Sara...Sidle." He choked a bit on her name, the name that had assaulted his dreams for too long.

"And you're in love with her."

"Deeply; so deep that I'd be willing to die to keep her alive. She's such an amazing woman."

Mike sat back and spoke his mind. "Well, Grissom, it seems to me that if you keep this secret for much longer, you'll be tearing yourself up inside. I remember...I felt the same way with Margo. I chased after her for years, and finally, when I had the courage, I went to her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers and said, 'I love you. Will you go out with me?'" He chuckled at the memory. "Gil...if you love someone, you have to tell them. To get it off your mind. It's either you live your life admiring her all the time from afar, you tell her and find out she doesn't return the love, or you tell her and find out she loves you just as much as you love her."

Grissom sat and pondered that for a moment. The beeping of a wristwatch brought him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, sorry Gil, I got to run. I'm due at the mayor's office in less than half an hour." Mike got to his feet, retrieved his coat, and put it on. He stared at the half-drunken beer on the counter, then shook his head and looked at Grissom. "Thanks for having me over."

As Mike moved to the door, Grissom followed him. "My pleasure."

Mike escorted himself out the door. He took one last look at Grissom and muttered, "Tell her," then slammed the door shut.

Grissom turned on his heel. His face crinkled with frustration, and he thought about whether or not he should take his friend's advice.

He moved around the peninsula to his phone and picked up the receiving end. He dialed a well-known number and listened for a ring. It rang three times, and then a voice came over the other end.

"Sidle."

His heart fluttered. "Hey, Sara, it's Grissom."

"Hey."

"Yeah, uh...I was just thinking, and I thought that...that, you know, maybe you should know that, um..."

END