Sara sighed as she unlocked the door to the townhouse she and Grissom once shared. Her husband was currently in Paris, guest lecturing at the Sorbonne. Paris! Of all the places…
She had no idea what had possessed her to leave her husband temporarily to go back to CSI. True, she had missed all her friends in Las Vegas, and she missed the excitement working in the crime department gave her- but now that she was here, she missed her husband even more.
She giggled. Calling her ex-supervisor her husband sounded so… strange. Just that day, she had caught Greg and Nick staring at a tarantula they had found.
"That's definitely not my tarantula," Nick had confirmed, disproving Greg's earlier theory.
Sara smiled as she recalled the sudden look the two had shared. "Is that… little Stevie?" Greg had said incredulously.
Her ears had immediately perked. Little Stevie was the tarantula Grissom had lost several years ago.
The two had laughed at their find. "I can't believe it! After all this time…" Nick had chuckled.
Greg had shot him a look. "We'd better show him to Sara so she can go tell her…"
"Husband!" They said in unison and tittered at the unfamiliar classification of Grissom. Supervisor, yes. Bugman, sure. But husband? They never thought they would see the day.
That was the point Sara had decided to intervene. "I'll be sure to tell him," she had interjected.
Nick and Greg had immediately turned around and blushed. "Ha-ha… hey, Sara…" Greg trailed off.
She had smiled. "Shift's over. Night, boys."
Now, she quickly changed into her pajamas and flipped open her laptop for her Skype date with Grissom. She logged in, but to her surprise, he wasn't online.
That's odd. Usually he's the early one, she thought. She glanced at the clock- she technically had a few more minutes. Making sure the volume was up so she would hear when he got online, she slipped to the kitchen for a bite.
While she ate, she glanced at the clock periodically. When the clock chimed nine, she became concerned. Their date was scheduled for seven thirty. Even in heavy traffic, it never took more than half an hour to get from the Sorbonne to the apartment. And if he ever had to work late, he always called her- because he knew she'd worry.
Sighing, Sara picked up her phone and dialed Catherine's number. "Hey, Cath? Have you talked to Grissom recently?"
"Sorry, sweetie, not since last week," Catherine replied. "Why?"
Sara sighed again. "He hasn't answered any of my recent phone calls, and he's an hour and a half late for our Skype session."
Catherine whistled a low note. "Try calling the Sorbonne; maybe they can give you some details on his whereabouts."
Sara smacked her head, feeling stupid. "Of course! Thanks, Cath, see you next shift." Not waiting for a reply, she hung up and long-distance-dialed the Sorbonne.
"Sorbonne." Sara heard a man with a thick French accent answer the phone.
Since her French was somewhat rusty, Sara replied in English. "Hi, can you please tell me the last time Gil Grissom was in? He's doing a lecture." After a moment, she added, "I'm his wife." She couldn't help but smile at how weird it was to call herself that. Grissom's wife. It had a nice ring to it.
"Yees, Madame Grissom, one moment, please." She heard some rustling. "Monsieur Grissom was most recently in on the Friday of last week. He took two weeks' vacation time."
Sara's mind seemed to freeze. "All right, thanks. Bye." She hung up, but she remained still. Vacation time? Wouldn't he have told me?
She knew it would be useless, but she called his cell phone. She immediately received his voicemail.
So his phone was off. Of course.
She bit her lip. She could only think of one possibility why he was AWOL.
Is my husband having an affair?
Sara yawned for the umpteenth time as she half-staggered into the break room at the beginning on shift. She had gotten absolutely no sleep, mulling over every single possibility of why Grissom wasn't responding.
"Sara, are you okay?" Nick's gentle voice came from behind her as she felt his hand on her shoulder.
She did everything in her power to stop the tears from rolling. "I'm fine."
Nick sat across from her. "Sara. I know you by now. Tell me what's wrong."
Sara sighed shakily. "I… I'm worried about Grissom." When Nick only stared at her, she continued. "I haven't heard from him at all for the past few days, last night he missed out Skype session… I think he…" Sara paused, trying to reign in her emotions.
Nick squeezed her hand. "I think he's cheating on me." She said finally, a solitary tear sliding down her pale cheek.
Nick couldn't help but smile. If only Sara knew where Grissom really was. He wished he could sit with her, explain to her, tell her everything would be okay, that Grissom really wasn't cheating on her. But he couldn't.
He could only wrap one muscular arm around her as racking sobs slowly overtook her body.
"Hey, we've got new ca…" Catherine, who had just entered with Greg, trailed off as she took in the scene. "…ses. Sara, sweetie, are you still worried about Grissom?"
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she let Nick wipe away her tears as Greg put a supportive but concerned arm around her. "I'm fine, Cath."
Cath raised one eyebrow. "You sure?"
Sara nodded with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "Yeah, give me a case."
Catherine smiled, remembering why this day was so special. "All right. Greg, you and Nick have a 246 at a pool near the Strip. Sara- you sure you're up for it?"
Sara nodded again.
"You can take the 419 by the highway." Catherine handed the thin, copper haired woman the case file.
"Got it," Sara half-sniffled. She stood and headed outside to her Denali.
Her hands gripped the steering wheel as she drove, her knuckles eventually turning white, as she thought of her husband yet again.
She loved him, she really did. She loved him with all her heart, and she knew –well, she thought she knew– he felt the same. She still remembered the chill that went down her spine whenever they had flirted some years ago. Another salted tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered the time Grissom had unwittingly told her his feelings. She had watched behind the glass as he related himself to another man- how they had both had to choose between their work and a woman.
And of course, she remembered how she had melted in his arms when he had surprised her by following her to Costa Rica. Even after she had left him. Even to this day, she still felt guilt stab at her heart for leaving him so suddenly- and with nothing but a letter.
But he had forgiven her- more than that. He had re-offered his marriage proposal and for a while, it seemed like happily ever after.
Yet another tear rolled down her cheek. But she shook her head and angrily brushed it away. She was at work. She could not focus on her marital problems.
She easily detected the crime scene by the bright yellow tape and a solitary police car at the scene. She climbed out of the Denali and grabbed her metallic silver crime scene kit and her standard-issue Nikon camera.
"Hey, Jake!" She greeted the young officer already there. She and Jake were acquaintances from several different cases.
Jake tipped his hat. "Hey there, CSI Sidle." No matter how many times she told him to call her Sara, he still insisted on calling her "CSI Sidle". It always cracked her up.
She glanced around. "Why is no one else here?"
"Oh, uh… they're o-on the way," Jake stammered.
"Okay…" Sara was suspicious but she said nothing of it as she ducked under the tape. "What do we have here?"
Jake led her over to the body- dressed in a dark suit, his limbs were splayed, minus one arm that was tucked under his body. His black hair, which was flecked with gray, was also flecked with blood, which pooled onto the ground as well.
"I, uh, didn't touch the body, but I didn't notice any gunshot wound or anything, so I'm assuming any injuries are on the front," Jared told her, coughing slightly.
"Okay, thanks," Sara murmured, crouching by the body. She sensed Jake going back to his cruiser.
She snapped a few pictures of the body, then flipped it over- and gasped in shock.
"Did you miss me?" said the body.
The hand that had been hidden under him held a rose. His eyes –his clear cerulean eyes– were twinkling and very much open. Sara noted the small package of fake blood tucked into his breast pocket.
Her mouth hung agape as the man handed her the rose. "Sorry I had you so worried, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise," he explained softly, a small smirk on his lips.
Sara wasn't sure whether she should slap him or hug him. Instead, she straddled him and took his face in her hands, as his arms snaked around her waist. "Damn it, I was so worried," Sara breathed as the camera she had been holding suddenly tumbled down to the side.
"I'm so sorr-" he was starting to apologize but was cut off by Sara's lips on his own.
Smiling at the response, his arms tightened their hold and he deepened the kiss by letting his tongue explore her mouth- not that it was unfamiliar territory. Sara's hands ran through his hair. She didn't care that it was streaked with fake blood, because her husband was here- not at some stupid museum in France. He was here and he was hers.
Suddenly, to Grissom's severe disappointment, Sara's lips were torn away as she remembered they were not alone- poor Jake was probably still watching.
He smiled, recognizing Sara's realization. Both turned to see that Jake's cruiser disappeared, and in its place sat two standard CSI vehicles, along with their colleagues watching and grinning.
Sara got up off Grissom and stalked to them. "You knew! You all knew!" She accused, grinning.
Catherine smirked. "Guilty as charged."
"I gotta say, it took some serious planning," Nick added.
Grissom came up behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder and twining his hand around her stomach. "You do forgive me, right?"
Sara beamed. "Of course."
She turned to address her colleagues- her family. "Thanks, guys. I feel bad now for crying my eyes out earlier!"
Grissom's grip tightened. "You cried?"
Catherine gave him a stern look. "It was like Waterworld in the break room. Poor Sara thought you were cheating on her or something."
Grissom stared apologetically at his wife. "Sara, I will never cheat on you. I love you too much." He hung his head. "God, Sara, I'm so sorry… I feel terrible for making you worry so much."
Sara cupped his chin in her hand and brought his face upward so she could look him in the eyes. "It was worth it," she murmured as she kissed his nose.