TITLE: Five Times One
AUTHOR: MSCSIFANGSR aka Chauncey10
FANDOM/SHIP: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Sidle/Grissom
RATING: Mature for subject matter.
DISCLAIMER: CSI is the property of CBS, Bruckheimer, Zuiker, Mendelsohn, Etc. Etc. Etc. Unfortunately, I'm not an etc.
SUMMARY: Five times one equals five so therefore the one is unnecessary. The five times Sara saved Grissom's life and the time she didn't.
SPOILERS: If it's been on CSI, then it's fair game.
A/N: The first 5 ficlets contain exactly 250 words each. The last one 500. These stories were written in response to Camilla Sandman's 'Girl Saves Boy' Challenge on LiveJournal.
BETA: Neelloc12 looked over the first ficlet. Jellybean handled all the rest.
The fives times Sara saved Grissom's life:
~1~
Gil Grissom awoke from a deep slumber and as the cobwebs in his mind cleared, he realized he wasn't alone. An arm that wasn't his was casually draped across his mid-section. The hand and fingers attached to said arm were slowly inching their way downward. As the slightly elongated nails reached the triangular patch of coarse hairs, his breathing stopped.
His barely audible groan filled the silence of the morning. The hand came to a abrupt standstill.
His first thought was of his first aid training: "If a foreign object is lodged inside an artery or vein, do not remove it on your own. Should the object be removed, excessive bleeding could occur, possibly causing death."
His heart had a gapping hole in it for as long as he could remember and he realized he didn't want to die alone and unloved. The foreign object in his bed would staunch his wounds.
The silence continued for several long moments. The beautiful brunette's hair was sprawled out across his chest and he thought idly to himself that he could get used to that sight and he knew he had to make things right, right now, "Don't stop, Sara. That feels wonderful."
Her brown eyes lit up with wonder and her hand resumed exploring his lower anatomy, even delving lower reaching a rather pronounced protrusion. Groans of pleasure soon filled the bedroom and afterward as he looked down into her eyes, the reflection of love was indescribable.
He knew he'd been saved.
~2~
"Don't move someone who's fallen from a high place until the extent of damages is known. They are at risk of sprains, fractures and worse, internal injuries."
Again Grissom's mind supplied analogies of first aid. He wasn't sure why his mind was inundated with all kinds of medical related metaphors when faced with the conundrum of his relationship with one certain brunette beauty.
He had fallen from his formerly suspended height where he rose above everyone including his own emotions. Now, he couldn't help it, he was in love with Sara Sidle. She'd slipped into his heart without pretense or pretext.
She had rapidly become his everything. He knew she had felt the same way, but if something were to go wrong either in their working relationship or in their private life, he was terrified she would leave both him and Las Vegas. He was formally at risk for extensive internal damage should that occur. He was taking a huge risk; he felt unbalanced and she knew it.
"Gil, you don't have to move out of your townhouse if it's too much," she had said earlier. "We can keep on like we're doing if you're scared. We can move in together sometime in the future, if that's you decide. It's totally up to you. " She'd shrugged her shoulders and returned to flipping through the latest 'National Geographic'.
He thought for a very long time before answering her and when he did all he said was: "I love you."
~3~
He and his live-in lover were dining out on their shared evening off. The Japanese restaurant, 'Wasabi Sushi', had opened near their newly acquired loft. It had the best sushi in town or so Sara had proclaimed upon first eating there.
They had ordered their sushi and appetizers along with several glasses of plum wine. They held hands, flirted, and gazed into their other's eyes and after a time they were interrupted by the waiter bearing their orders.
Everything was perfect.
That is until he felt his throat start to constrict.
Grissom had been devouring his order of six hand rolled veggie rolls and a side of edamame when a green bean stuck in his throat. He couldn't swallow at all and after several moments of struggling to clear his throat, he felt something press hard against the bottom of his diaphragm. Tears were forming in his eyes and he clutched his throat in autonomic response.
Suddenly several short, sharp adominal thrusts were performed on him exerting pressure on the bean in his trachea, forcibly expelling it.
His first thought after regaining control of his own breathing wasn't of Henry Heimleich; it was of embarrassment. He could see the headlines now: Hero saves Criminalist as his Employee/Lover watches. Defense attorneys would pay high dollars for that type information.
When his date slipped back into the chair across from him, it was his first clue that Sara had been the one who saved him. And no one was ever the wiser.
~4~
She was surfing on eBay, not really shopping for anything in particular; just killing time before shift was to begin.
The pouring lyrics spilled from her itunes: "Three thousand five hundred miles away, what would you change if you could?"*
Nothing.
Grissom could not have survived much longer in the suffocating environment of the crime lab after witnessing Ernie Dell's cyber suicide. Sara Sidle understood Gil's life needed to be saved and she wasn't the one to do it, so she let him go. She could have asked for him to stay, but he needed to get away from it all and the sabbatical was a balm to his soul.
It killed her that they were apart. They shared a bond that could not be easily broken. A quote from a television show she and Grissom had become addicted ran through her mind emphasized her point: "My devil danced with his demon and the fiddler's tune was far from over."**
She pretended outwardly it didn't bother her that he was gone. Their co-workers didn't realize they were lovers; they shared ownership of a loft; they shared a life together away from work. Nick thought Gil wasn't coming back, but Sara knew better.
Everyone else, if they thought about him at all, questioned the validity of leaving Catherine in charge and whether Grissom would have allowed the train wreck that was Mike Keppler into their close knit universe.
Only Sara knew he would return, not for the team, but for her.
*"Raining in Baltimore" by the Counting Crows, 1993. Written by Adam Duritz.
**"Dexter" Season 1 Episode 12 "Born Free" December 2006
~5~
"Do you regret marrying me yet?"
Grissom allowed his reader glasses to slide down his nose before looking up at his wife of almost a day. "No, my dear."
"Good, because it says right here that I probably saved your life by doing so."
"What are you talking about?"
Sara grabbed the newspaper article and sank into the couch beside her husband. Grissom lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders.
"And I quote..." She began by deepened her voice in imitation of stereotypical television newscaster, "By choosing a bride 15 to 17 years younger, a man can cut his risk of premature death by 20 per cent, which could be a result of natural selection – only the healthiest, most successful older men are able to attract younger mates."*
"What are the demographics of the study?" He asked logically before Sara elbowed him lightly in the ribs.
"It also says that having sex on a daily basis will increase a man's life exponentially."
"Well, I think that we conquered that statistic about 2 years ago..." He said as he pushed her long hair to the side and used his thumbs to create circles along the upper portion of her neck.
"Ummm, that feels so good."
"You know what else will feel good?"
"Continuing our honeymoon in our bed?" Sara cooed in his ear as he devoured her neck with kisses. Her hand magically disappeared into his pajama pants.
"My thoughts exactly," he murmurred as he gasped in pleasure.
*"Marrying a younger woman can save your life" by Linda Franklin. 2010. Examiner dot com.
And the time she didn't:
~1~
"I'll call you sometime," he'd said when they reluctantly parted company in Berkley after enjoying a wonderful meal filled with flirtations and sexual innuendo. They'd shared a passionate kiss or three at her apartment door, but that was as far as the night had gone. Neither expected more, but still the opportunity was filled with immense possibility.
But after a while of nothing, nobody sits at home and waits for a phone call that never comes.
Soon afterwards, Sara met a new guy and after they were together for awhile she and her boyfriend, Jace Wendt,* decided to drive down the coast to Cabo San Lucas. She and Jace were actually sunbathing, enjoying margaritas on the beach the exact moment Holly Gribbs was shot.
The telephone in her apartment rang throughout the night and well into the next day.
Grissom left twelve messages on her machine and six for her at the San Francisco crime lab. She didn't have a personal cell phone, and had left her lab-issued phone locked in her desk while she was away.
When she returned a week later, tanned, happy, and sporting a diamond on her left hand, she was surprised he'd finally called. After she'd listened to Grissom's almost frantic messages, she wondered to herself: What if I'd been able to go to Las Vegas for him? What would have happened? Would we have continued our possible romance or would have it been purely business?
Sara returned his call immediately but he was busy at a crime scene. However they did speak for a few moments. He filled her in on the situation and that he'd called another CSI friend to help in the investigation who had taken the position vacated by the death of the rookie. He promised to call her again soon but they ended up playing phone tag for about six months.
When they were finally able to speak on the phone, their former closeness had wilted and then she felt it completely dissolve when she invited him to her wedding. He chose not to attend. She didn't take it personally.
Several years later, they spied the other at an amusement park in California. She, with her husband and child, were milling about the park and he, alone, was waiting to ride a rollercoaster. Although, when his blue eyes met her brown, their gazes held for a few breathless moments, each nodded in acknowledgement but neither spoke.
Another few years later, they paneled together at a forensic conference in LA and at break, she told him of the mundane trials and tribulations of her family life starring her hard-working husband and her percocious nine year old daughter, Ayla*. He reported his recent unconventional nuptials to a former dominatrix and his hopes he could get his new bride to agree to a rather conventional honeymoon in Paris.
Best wishes were exchanged; both were remorseful without serious regrets and they never saw each other again.
She wasn't able to save him that time.
*'Jace Wendt' and 'Ayla' are characters from a story called, "Serendipity" written by HeartsAndEyesDelight published on Fanfiction 2010. She graciously gave me permission to use them.
THE END
Reviews are appreciated.
Ouch! Did I really write that last one? Please no flames. Remember what I said at the beginning: Five times one equals five, therefore the one is unnecessary.