Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.
Author's Notes: I just about came to tears last week after all the incredibly sweet and kind words from all of you. Thank you. I have missed this whole crazy CSI fan family so much:)
This is a short "bite" tonight, because I'm in the middle of packing for...drum roll, please...my first trip to Las Vegas! Yep, for my three-day stay at the MGM Grand, I've packed my clothes, my shoes, my hair dryer, my mace...hmm. I might have watched this show too much;)
See you next week! If I make it back...
A Movie and a Bite
by Kristen Elizabeth
Sara waited until Jaws had killed the boy on the raft before she told her husband, "Wendy in DNA resigned."
In Paris, with the same movie playing, Grissom frowned. "Why?"
"She's moving to Oregon. She wants to try her hand in the field."
"And...she couldn't do that in Vegas?"
Even though he couldn't see her, Sara shrugged. "Maybe she just needed a change of scenery." She hesitated. "Or maybe she's tired of living in a town where you can get eaten alive in a swimming pool."
"Do you want to pause?" Grissom asked a second later. "Talk about it?"
"It's not like we don't know what happens next," she reminded him.
"True, but when you suggested we have a bi-continental date night, I didn't realize there was a reason behind your movie pick."
Sara switched her phone to her other ear to give him a breakdown of their shark-based double homicide. "So," she finished up, "it's safe to say I have sharks on the brain."
"Being attacked by a shark in a chlorinated pool," Grissom mused. "I think I had that nightmare once. Summer of '75, I believe."
"Oh, that's right." A smirk lightened her tone. "You saw Jaws in the theatre."
"And I forced myself to go to the beach the very next day. The only way to conquer your fears is to face them. Of course," he added after his wife coughed loudly, "That's sometimes easier said than done."
In two different bedrooms, on opposite sides of the world, the Grissoms watched the film in comfortable silence. It wasn't until the Orca set sail to kill the shark that Sara spoke again.
"Hodges is a wreck."
Grissom frowned again. "Because of the case?"
"Because of Wendy," Sara corrected him.
Now he was really confused. "He liked Wendy?"
"I think he might love her." She smiled sadly. "He was just too late."
"You know," Grissom began a moment later. "I never thought I'd say this, but I feel bad for him."
Sara swallowed. "He had plenty of chances to give her a reason to stay."
"The thing about chances is this: they slip by so fast that most of the time you don't even realize they were there at all." Because he couldn't be there to take his wife's hand, Grissom lowered his voice. "Let's be honest, honey. How many did I let go by?"
"I never kept track," she replied.
"That many?"
Sara glanced at the framed picture on the table next to the bed. It was the only wedding photo they had, a single shot of them standing in front of a Costa Rican waterfall, fingers entwined, eyes locked, lost in the wonder of that one precious moment when they had been pronounced husband and wife.
"The number just never mattered to me," Sara told him. "Because I knew I'd never truly give up hope that one day you'd take one of them."
Her husband blew out a silent breath. "Then I am a far luckier man than Hodges."
"I miss you," Sara murmured.
On their screens, with only a two second difference, the shark reared its head out of the water, startling Chief Brody away from his chum bucket.
"Hank didn't like that," Grissom chuckled. "Woke him right up."
Sara's eyes suddenly glistened; she rubbed the moisture away with her bandaged hand. "Hug him for me." Her voice cracked, but she managed to add, "Please."
"Honey..."
"I'm fine." She sniffed. "It's just so weird to be at home...and still be homesick."
"I know." He reached out and scratched their dog behind his ears. "I miss you, too, Sara."
By the time they finished the movie, it was after midnight in Las Vegas and the sun had already risen in Paris.
"We should do this every week," Grissom decided. "You still haven't seen Citizen Kane."
"I'll Netflix it," Sara said.
As he'd spent the past five years of their relationship trying to get her to watch the classic, Grissom was understandably skeptical. "Really?"
"Sure. I can always use a good nap."
Grissom sighed. "Goodnight, Sara."
She pressed her lips against the phone, sending him a kiss from six thousand miles away. "Good morning, Gil."
Fin