A/N: I loved writing this chapter. I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

I don’t own CSI.

Exposed

Grissom’s cell phone rang, disturbing the relative quiet of the crime scene. He looked at the screen, scowling to see Ecklie across it. He silenced the phone and put it back in his pocket.

Warrick and Greg exchanged a look.

“Who are you running from, Griss?” Warrick asked.

“Ecklie.”

“Well, that figures,” Greg said. “Who else would he ignore?”

“And we call ourselves investigators,” Warrick said, giving Greg a grin and a wink.

Grissom looked up. “I’d feel more comfortable calling you two investigators if you were actually investigating. Or are the prints lifting themselves now?”

Knowing better than to keep teasing their boss, Warrick and Greg got back to work.

Grissom turned back to the blood spatter he was photographing. He exhaled. He knew exactly why Ecklie had already called him five times only three hours into his shift. He just wasn’t ready to deal with him.

Not yet.

Grissom, Greg and Warrick were driving back to the lab at the end of a very long shift in the field when Grissom’s cell phone rang. Greg and Warrick, who had watched him ignore four more calls from Ecklie while they had processed their scene, both laughed. Grissom took his hands from the wheel long enough to pick his phone up. He frowned when a number he didn’t recognize lit up the screen. He opened the phone, ending its ringing.

“Grissom.”

“Hey, Grissom, it’s Mary.”

“Hello,” he said.

“How’s Sara?” she asked.

“Much better,” Grissom replied.

Mary laughed. “You’re at work, aren’t you? With colleagues.”

“I am,” he replied.

“Yeah, Sara says that you get really … short … when you’re working. Well, look, I’ll talk and you can keep going with these monosyllabic answers. I was just calling to see if you think Sara would be up to some visitors this weekend.”

“Yes, I think so,” Grissom said.

Mary giggled again. “Well, great. I found a really amazing last-minute flight deal, and I thought Josie and I could come out to see you guys. You’re sure Sara will be up to it?”

“Yes.”

“And, you’re okay with it?”

“Of course.”

“Great. Okay, I’m clicking reserve right now. I’ll email you and Sara both my flight information, but I’ll be in on Friday at 5:30 local time. Does that work?”

“It won’t be a problem.”

“Great. Okay, I’ll see you Friday, then.”

“Thanks … for calling, and for doing this.”

“Don’t mention it,” Mary said. “I want to see Sara more than anything. Thank you for helping me with this.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Bye, Grissom.”

“Bye.” Grissom closed his phone and dropped it in a cup holder.

“Not Ecklie this time?” Greg asked.

“No.”

Warrick flipped down his vanity mirror to glance back at Greg. “Secret girlfriend?” he teased.

“Oh, funny,” Grissom said sarcastically. “Hilarious, even.”

Greg and Warrick both laughed.

“You’re not going to tell us who called?”

Grissom sighed. “I’d really like to keep things work-related, gentlemen.”

“Um, Griss, that went out the window about … wait, how long have I worked here? Like nine years ago, man. Maybe ten …” Warrick chuckled. “We’ve never been a strictly worked-related group. Or do the birthday parties we’ve always thrown for each other – and even Lindsey – count as work now?”

“Fine,” Grissom said peevishly. “That was Sara’s best friend, calling to see if I thought Sara’s well enough for a visit. Happy now?”

Warrick and Greg both looked surprised.

“Sara’s allowed to have friends, guys,” Grissom said, misinterpreting their silence.

“It’s not that,” Greg said. “It’s just … we didn’t …”

“We didn’t think it was actually personal,” Warrick said.

“Well, I’m glad we could all learn what happens when we assume,” Grissom said as he drove into the lab parking lot.

“We’re sorry, Griss,” Warrick said. “We’ll stay out of your personal life.”

Grissom smiled slightly. “I’m sorry for snapping at you,” he said. “Listen … this whole thing with everyone knowing about Sara and me is still really strange for me. I just … I guess hiding it was safer, in a lot of ways. I feel very exposed right now. I’m not upset with you guys, and I’m not ashamed of talking to Sara’s friends. I just …”

“We get it,” Greg cut in as Grissom trailed off.

“It’s still a little strange for us, too,” Warrick acknowledged. “I don’t think we know where the boundaries are yet.”

“Neither do I,” Grissom admitted.

“I think it’ll be easier when Sara gets back,” Greg said. He frowned. “When does Sara come back?”

“Middle of next week,” Grissom said.

“Good,” Greg said. “Good. I miss her.”

“We all do,” Warrick agreed. “I know Nick had talked about going to see her, but …”

“But, what?”

“He wasn’t sure if she was up for visitors or not.”

Grissom nodded. “I’ll talk to him.”

Interestingly, Nick was the first person Grissom, Warrick and Greg encountered as they walked into the lab. He was carrying his jacket and whistling, obviously on his way home for the day. His whistle changed abruptly when he saw the bags and buckets of evidence they were carrying.

“Well, I can see three people who are working a double today,” he said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Grissom agreed. “Hey, can you guys go start logging this? I’ll join you in a minute.”

“Yeah,” Warrick said. “Come on, Greggo.”

Nick looked slightly apprehensive at the fact that his boss had clearly wanted to talk to him alone. “Something wrong, Griss?”

“No,” Grissom said. “I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

“Okay,” Nick said, still bemused.

“Warrick mentioned that you wanted to visit Sara.”

“Oh,” Nick said, understanding breaking out across his face. “Yeah, I’d like to see her, but I didn’t want to push. She’s not back at work yet, so I wasn’t sure she’d be up to entertaining visitors.”

Grissom pulled a bindle from his pocket and scribbled their address on it. “This is where you’ll find her. She’ll be awake by now.”

Nick smiled, but still looked concerned. “She’s up for it?”

Grissom nodded. “I think a visit from a friend will help her more than anything.”

Nick’s smile widened. “Thanks, Griss.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sara was just finishing her breakfast dishes when the doorbell rang. Hank sprang into action, bounding up the stairs and barking.

“Okay, chill,” Sara said with a laugh as she reached the door, grabbing the dog’s collar to hold him back.

She peered through the peephole, and smiled at the sight of Nick on her doorstep. Keeping a firm hold on Hank’s collar, she pulled the door open.

“Hey, darlin’. Are you up for some company?”

Sara smiled as she opened the door wide enough for Nick to enter. “Do I have much choice?”

He grinned and gently kissed her cheek as he entered the house. “Look, I know how it is to be stuck at home when you’d rather be at work – or, really, just outside the house. So, I wanted to come over and save you from yourself. There will be no infomercial purchases for you.”

Sara grinned. “Thanks, Nicky. I was on the verge of ordering that rotisserie.”

“And that would just be a shame,” Nick grinned. “I don’t think it works nearly as well on veggies as it does on chicken.”

Sara giggled. “Come on in.”

“Who’s this?” Nick asked, grinning at the dog.

“This is Hank,” Sara said. “Hank, say a nice hello to Nick.”

She released his collar, waiting for the dog to jump on Nick. To her surprise, he followed her command and stepped closer to sniff the hand Nick extended to him. Nick scratched his head, grinning up at Sara.

“You’ve got a sweet little guy here.”

“I don’t know if he’s really little,” Sara said, laughing. “I can’t believe how sweet he’s being. He must like you.”

“Well, you did say to be nice.”

“Yeah, but that never works when I say it. Only when –” She stopped abruptly.

“Only when Grissom says it,” Nick finished for her.

“Yeah,” Sara said, leading him into the living room to sit down. She shook her head. “I’m still getting used to the idea that you all know.”

“Yeah, well, I think we are, too,” Nick agreed, sitting down next to her on the couch. He shook his head. “I can’t believe you guys kept it from us for so long, Sar.”

She smiled. “If I say that we didn’t want you to know, will you be hurt?”

“Nah,” Nick said, smiling. “We all understand why you did what you did.”

“Good.” Sara looked down, her heart suddenly pounding. She had wanted to talk to Nick alone for over a week, but now that he was here … “Nick …”

“Yeah?”

She drew a deep breath and kept her eyes on the floor. “I haven’t really talked to anyone about what happened after … after Natalie …”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “I know how that is. You can talk when you’re ready to talk.”

Sara nodded and began to watch the patterns her fingers were tracing over the leather of the cushions under them. “Yeah, I know that … it’s just …” She looked up to meet his eyes. “Nicky, I want to thank you.”

Nick frowned slightly. “To thank me?”

“I listened when Catherine said you were the one who found me. And, I know what you meant about it being a group effort, but …” She looked up at him with eyes full of tears. “Nicky, if you hadn’t seen me … if you hadn’t … God, Nicky, thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”

Nick reached across to pull her to him, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe. Tears blurred his vision as she began to sob against his chest.

“Sara, you told me once that when it’s your day to die, that’s it. It’s your day.” He tipped his chin down to kiss the top of her head. “That day … in that desert … Sara, it was not your day. I wasn’t going to let it be, and neither was anyone else. We were going to find you, Sar, one way or another. I just happened to be the one to see you, but …” He hugged her even tighter to him. “Sara, it was an honor to do that for you.”

Sara sobbed against him, feeling so much for the first time since that first traumatized day in the hospital. “Nicky … it was the scariest thing …”

“I know, darlin’,” he said, keeping her locked in his arms. “I know.”

“How did you do it?” she asked in a little voice. “How did you keep going? I had a way out, but you … you were trapped … you …”

“I knew you guys were looking for me,” he said. “I knew that my team would find me, and I was not going to let you find my body. Not as long as I had air to breathe …” He swallowed hard as his last few moments in the coffin came back to him. “I know what it’s like to want so badly to give up that you’d do anything …” He swallowed again. “I am so proud of you, Sara. I am so proud of you for not giving up.”

“I couldn’t give up,” she said. “I have too much to live for.”

Nick kissed the top of her head again, and she pulled back from him, wiping at her tear-stained cheeks.

“Are you okay?” Nick asked.

“Yeah,” Sara said. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Good,” Nick said. “I don’t want Grissom to flip out on me for coming over here and upsetting you.”

Sara laughed. “No worries. It’ll be our little secret.”

Nick grinned. “Well, we all know you can keep a secret.”

Sara laughed again. “Be nice.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When Grissom finally made it home, Sara was alone with the dog, watching the second Antonio Banderas movie Catherine had given her. Her eyes lit up when he walked into the room.

“Hey!” she said. “How was work?”

“Long,” he replied, leaning down to kiss her. “You were right about the guys only taking it easy on me for the first day or two.”

Sara giggled. “Not used to working doubles anymore?”

“I could get used to not working them,” he replied, sitting down next to her. “What have you been up to today?”

“Nick came to see me.”

“He said he was going to. I gave him our address.”

“I didn’t even think to ask him how he found me.”

“Well, that’s how,” Grissom said, taking her hand in his. “Sara …”

She frowned at his tone. “I don’t think I like where this is going.”

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

“I know. But, the way you said my name … you don’t want to tell me what you’re about to tell me.”

He sighed. “It’s Ecklie.”

“Well, now I know I don’t like where this is going,” Sara said, rolling her eyes. “What has he done?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Yet?”

“Because I haven’t let him.”

“You haven’t let him? Gil, what on earth are you trying to tell me?”

He sighed again. “I’ve been avoiding Ecklie for the past two days.”

Sara giggled. “That’s not exactly unusual, dear.”

“He called me about fifteen times today.”

“Um … I’m going out on a limb here, sweetheart, but it sounds like he might want to talk to you about something important.”

“It is,” Grissom said quietly. “Sara, he’s trying to get in touch with me because he wants to talk about us.”

“Us as in you and me, or us as in you and Ecklie?”

Grissom rolled his eyes. “What do you think, Ms. Harvard and Berkley degrees?”

Sara sighed. “Yeah.”

“Sara, the rules are very clear,” Grissom said, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. “We knew that when we started this.”

“Yeah,” she said again in a very little voice, watching his fingers playing with hers.

“We … we can’t …”

“I know.”

“We can’t work on the same team and have a relationship,” he said. “It worked for us when we could keep it quiet, but now … Ecklie’s not going to leave this alone or pretend it doesn’t exist. Particularly not considering the fact that we’ve been doing this for so long without telling him. He’ll see it as an insult to his intelligence, and, worse, his authority.” He paused. “Sara, I think it would be best if one of us switches to swing shift.”

“Swing?”

“Yeah. That way at least some of our hours will overlap, and we’ll get some time together at home, too.”

“That makes sense,” Sara said, already feeling the sting of leaving her friends and the shift she had worked for the past seven years behind.

“I’ll do it,” Grissom said.

Sara’s eyes snapped up to his face. “What?”

“I’ll move to swing,” he said. He gave a slight smile. “Maybe we’ll get to work a few cases together, if we’re lucky.”

“Yeah, but, Gil –”

“Sara, I want you to go back to grave,” he said. “I want you to go back to work with Greg, Nick, Warrick and Catherine. Cath can take over as supervisor. She’ll do a great job. And, the rest of you can keep doing your jobs.” He paused. “Well, one of you will probably take her job as assistant supervisor …”

“Nick,” Sara suggested. “You were right before, Griss. He doesn’t care about getting promoted, so he’s the best choice to promote.” She squeezed his hand. “He’s a lot like you in that way.”

Grissom smiled slightly. “You’re okay with this?”

“No,” Sara said. “Not at all. I don’t want us to work on different shifts. I don’t want to only see you for a few hours a day. But … I guess it makes us like every other couple out there, huh?”

“Yeah,” Grissom agreed.

“Griss … will you still be a supervisor if you switch to swing? Don’t they have a supervisor?”

“I can go back to being a CSI,” Grissom said with a shrug. “I’ve never liked the paperwork, anyway. It’ll be nice to go back to the science. And, if Ecklie wants to cut my pay, that’s fine. We have a double income; we’ll be fine to keep the house.”

“But, Gil –”

Grissom put his fingers over her lips to stop her words. “Sara. This is the best way. It’s what we should do.”

“But, I could –”

“No, Sara. It’s the best way.”

Sara looked at him, realizing how serious he was. She didn’t think for a minute that his plan was the best way, but she knew better than to fight with him when his mind was so made up. She’d have to come up with a solid, logical counter argument before she started trying to battle his decision.

“Okay,” she conceded.

“Good,” he sighed, looking relieved that she had agreed. “I have some happier news for you.”

“I could deal with some good news,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“We’re going to have company this weekend.”

“Are we? Who’s coming to visit?”

“Mary and Josie.”

“What?” Sara shrieked. “Griss, are you messing with me?”

He laughed. “I think I know better than to do something like that.”

“When are they coming?”

“Friday evening.”

“How long are they staying?”

“You know, Mary didn’t say. I think she said it was a weekend deal, but I’m not sure.”

Sara frowned. “Why, exactly, do you know when my best friend is coming to visit us before me?”

Grissom laughed. “Mary didn’t trust you to be honest about your health. She was afraid you’d tell her you were fine to entertain visitors when you were really on your deathbed.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “First my mom, then you and now Mary. You’re all impossible.”

“You know, Sara, when you’re the only one who feels a certain way, you might be wrong.”

“Right … like Columbus, Galileo –”

“Point made,” Grissom said, holding up his hands in surrender. “However, in this case … you might be a little bit … optimistic in your self-diagnosis.”

“And, you might be evil.”

Grissom laughed and leaned in to kiss her. “I love you, Sara. There’s nothing evil about that.”

She sighed against his lips and kissed him again. “I love you, too.”