Title: And The Winner Is...
Author: jenbachand
Format: ficlet
Rating: General
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Disclaimer: I made no profit from the writing of this fic.
Spoilers: CSI 7x17 Fallen Idols, but nothing specific.
Summary: Sara has this obsession.

Author's Notes: This is the first of the ficlets promised for the winners of my Oscar Poll. This one is for cadiliniel. Big thanks to mingsmommy for her impeccable beta work.

The request for the night off had crossed his desk one Tuesday afternoon, before he passed it on to Catherine to sign off on. His curiosity as to what she wanted the Sunday night off for had him rummaging through files to look over past schedules.

He looked over the calendar for last year, and noticed that on the same Sunday night last year, she had been off. A year ago they were seeing each other more often than not, but unless they were both off on the same night, time off was usually spent in individual pursuits. Pulling out older calendars he realized that she had taken the same Sunday off every year since coming to Vegas. He really was unobservant sometimes.

When he remembered how she started dragging him to movie theatres all over Las Vegas and beyond, it clicked. Sara was a serious movie buff. Sure, her DVDs had moved in with her, and he knew she had most of the classic titles. But until this year, he had never been caught up in the anticipation leading to the climax that was The Academy Awards.

So, in an effort to be a more supportive partner, to be involved in her interests, he found ballots and they each picked their choices. He actually printed several sets, as the time ran down and each one had a last minute change on one category or another. He left her watching the pre-show fashion coverage as he headed off to work. She had the lists ready, a highlighter nearby, and her laptop sitting on the coffee table with the website loaded.

The night was busy, a dead party girl at a hotel, a couple of very ignorant criminals trying to break into a closed bank, and a pawn shop robbery. Her phone call, somewhere around one in the morning, was a welcome surprise.

"How did you do it?" She sounded both frustrated and amused.

"What 'it' are you referring to?" He waved to Nick that he was going to take the call and started towards his truck.

"You picked almost every one. I barely got a third of them right. You even picked the right animated short, and we haven't even seen any of them."

"I guess, once I get my head in the game," he paused briefly, then lowered his voice to a more intimate tone, "I know how to pick things that are worthy of recognition." Her small sniffle a moment later let him know that he was getting better at this whole relationship thing.

"Yeah, you're pretty great like that." Hearing her say that, he felt as if he had won the best award on the planet. No statue or plaque could be better than the fact that the love of his life was his.