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- Chapter 1

She swallowed back the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry, I..." forcing back the sudden onslaught of tears into submission, she found her voice. "I didn't mean to interrupt anything." Turning and walking down the two steps and path, her mind was cursing her sudden thoughtfulness and concern. Her boost in confidence and her desire to help a friend who was ill had her standing on her boss' doorstep with a carton of warm soup in her hand and a well rehearsed reason for showing up readily placed on her lips, but now she wished she was miles away.

The door that was already partly ajar and held by some stranger, suddenly opened in a rush of warm air. The sound of bare feet slapping against the pathing stones echoed in her ears, as did the flurry of noise and voice that came with it.

"Sara!" Grissom shouted as he hastily closed the front of his dressing-gown and tied it tight with the belt around his waist. He jogged down the path and rounded on her. "Sara." he breathed out, trying to say something, but nothing seemed the right thing to say.

She tried valiently to push away every emotion she was feeling, but it was like trying to bury your head deep in a pillow to tune out the noise of a jackhammer in the street, and it not working. She tried to force a smile, but that didn't work out too well either.

"Sara," he tried again. "It's not what it looks like." he ran a shakey hand over his face and sighed. "It is, but it isn't." he hesitantly tried to explain.

Why was he trying to explain? It wasn’t like he was doing anything wrong. He was seeing someone. He was in a relationship with someone. He had moved on. It was no wonder he wasn’t showing an interest in her anymore. She should have seen it before now. He had gotten himself a life outside work and he seemed happy. From what she could tell from the smile on the other woman's face and the relaxed expression on his. He had colour in his cheeks and his face looked so young.

Sara’s heart sank. She finally shrugged and took a few steps around him. "I just came to see if you were okay." she paused and swallowed hard as she looked into his blue eyes, trying to see if she could muster the courage to get angry or jealous or anything, but couldn't seem to find the willpower. "I," she stammered. "I was told you were sick... I was off lastnight. I thought you might-" she sighed, knowing she was babbling. Instead of attempting to explain herself again, she turned and climbed into her car.

He watched her car until it disappeared into the darkness. His body felt heavy and drained as his shoulders dropped. He headed back towards the house and as he got closer, he noticed a small carton perched on the postal box outside his door.

"Soup." Anna said as she leaned back against the doorframe. "How thoughtful."

Grissom looked up from the carton to catch Anna’s look before his eyes lingered on what she was wearing. Wrapped in the bed sheet that was previous covering his bed, was not a respectable item to be wearing when answering a door, half naked, hair ruffled and pinked from a day and night of lovemaking.

“It’s cold out here Ann. You should put on something warmer.” he suggested gently as he moved through the door and closed it behind him.

Anna smiled. “I’ll be in the shower.”

He nodded and watched as she retreated to the bathroom.

A second or two later, she stuck her head around the bathroom door and looked at him with a teasing smile. “You going to stand there all day?”

Grissom looked up and nodded, offering her a small smile in return before placing the soup in the fridge.

-

Sara didn't move from her car and stayed outside her apartment building with tears streaming down her face. She had been confused by his upbeat behaviour lately, but now she understood. Over 2 months ago, he had come to work and immediately started joking around with Nick, watching football plays on the Break Room TV with Warrick and teasing Catherine about her new hairstyle.

It was confusing at first, but then he started working with her again. He showed an interest in their once strong relationship. He’d even gone to the effort of buying her breakfast a few times to make up for his behaviour and this made Sara think he was actually giving ‘them’ a try.

But she couldn’t have been more wrong.

All the time they had spent together, all the time they had worked together in the past few months… It was all false hope. She really thought he was going to make a move. Now she knew why he wasn’t taking that next step and why he hadn’t. She didn't know when it started, but he was seeing someone and that someone made him happy. Sara should have noticed, but his attention was blinding her to what was actually happening.

It was now, alone in her car as it started to rain that she remembered he was leaving on time most mornings and getting into work minutes before shift started. The early starts and the late stays were almost non-existent and Sara only just noticed. Even if she had, she never, never thought that it could be another woman. She just couldn’t allow herself to think he could be with someone else after all they had been through. Their past obviously wasn't something he thought about and that hurt more.

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