The Candy Corn Debate
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone in regards to CSI; the show and its characters belong to a bunch of people who aren't me. I am merely borrowing the characters for my own amusement. Dance puppets, dance.
Author's Note: It's been a while since I've written anything, but I'm back! This is in response to Geekfiction's Halloween Challenge. Of course I chose candy corn (like I'm going to pass up a food prompt and some GSR). Anywho, hope you like this one. And of course, my biggest thanks to EllipsesBandit who is the super beta.
"Hi, honey. I'm home."
Sara smirked at the slight melody in Grissom's tone. Even though they had been living together for close to a year, it was still adorably odd to hear his domestic greeting. Well, two can play at this game.
She got off the couch and kissed him on the cheek as he brought in some grocery bags. "Hey, baby. How was your meeting?"
"Pointless," he replied. "Ecklie wanted to reiterate once again what we all know about the budget constraints."
Once all the bags were brought inside, she started to help put away the food. In one bag, she found several different cheeses: ricotta, feta, mozzarella, and parmesan. Then she watched him pull out broccoli, zucchini, and carrots. Finally, there was the package of lasagna noodles next to the tomato paste on the table; all the ingredients for her favorite vegetarian lasagna…which could mean only one thing.
"You need some blood, don't you?"
Grissom's mouth twitched as he knew he had been caught. "The Red Cross doesn't have any outdated samples to send me and I need to run some blood splatter experiments."
"And Ecklie hasn't hired any new personnel," she sighed. A moment later, Sara came across vanilla pudding, brown sugar, eggs, and a package of chocolate chips. "You need more than a just a test tube."
"Just a pint," he quietly stated. When she looked at him, he had the eyes of a lost puppy silently asking to come inside. Most men begged their girlfriends to watch football or spend hours playing a video game. No, she had a man who sometimes asked for a sample of her blood.
Rolling her eyes, she finally gave in to his request. "Fine," she shook her head, "you draw some after dinner."
His eyes lit up like the inside of a jack o' lantern, knowing he could now do his experiment. Walking around the counter, Grissom hugged her from behind and let his lips wander along her neck. "Thank you," he murmured.
"Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I think the only reason you're with me is so you have a personal tap."
"That's not true," he said after he let go of her. "I also like the fact that you do the laundry."
"I've got an experiment for you," she told him in an impassive voice. "Why don't you tell me what it's like to spend the day on the couch?"
After the food had been put away, the only remaining items on the table were a package of candy corn and some toiletries. Sara furrowed her brows as she cleared the grocery bags. "Gil, I thought you said you got the candy for the trick or treaters."
He stared at her strangely because she was standing right next to the purchase. "I got candy corn."
"Candy corn?" She asked slowly.
"What's wrong with them?"
"There's nothing wrong with them; they're great. But candy corn is kind of…boring."
Grissom's frown deepened. "Boring?"
"To kids," she clarified. "This is the one time of the year where they're allowed to rot their teeth on high amounts of sugar, and I'm pretty sure they want to do that with something more than candy corn. They're going to want their favorites." She smiled at his apparent dissatisfaction with her reasoning.
"It has remained unchanged for one hundred years," he gently argued. "Do you know who invented candy corn?" When she shook her head, he continued, "George Renninger, an employee of the Wunderlee Candy Company during the 1880's. It was popular with farmers because of its kernel shape. And because of lack of machinery, it was only made from March to November like most of the candy at that time."
A small triumphant smirk appeared on his face. "Besides, there different colored ones at Christmas, Valentines' Day, and Easter."
"M&M's do the same thing," Sara pointed out.
Shrugging his shoulders, he relented. "What should we do?"
"We'll take this to the lab, and the next time we're at the store, we'll pick something else."
When he gave her a somewhat sad nod, she needed to cheer him up. "Think of it this way; at least the kids in the neighborhood will know us as the weird scientist couple who give good candy at Halloween."
---------------------------------------------------
October 30
"Today is National Candy Corn Day," Grissom offhandedly commented as they stood in front of the candy aisle.
She grinned at his last ditch effort to get the same treat again. "I know. I saw Greg and Nick 'celebrating' earlier." The two men had eaten three-quarters of the large bowl of candy corn Sara had filled.
"We could always give them the Reese's Cups," she said referring to the package already in their shopping cart.
"Those are mine," he simply stated. At her chuckle, he added, "experimental purposes."
When Sara and Grissom had first started buying their groceries together, a bag of Reese's Cups sometimes appeared in their cart. He feigned ignorance when she asked about it, claiming more experiments needed to be done to find out how these occurrences happened. It turned out he needed to experiment with the right combination of the candy and vanilla ice cream
"We could always get WinterGreen LifeSavers," he suggested. "You can't argue that they're 'boring,'"
Turning to face him, she replied, "True, but then you'd be explaining the concept of triboluminescence and how that makes LifeSavers spark in your mouth. Unfortunately kids won't be interested in a science lesson on Halloween."
He let out a short breath through his nose. "I don't see why not. They could learn a little bit about physics while they're out rotting their teeth."
"I know, sweetie, but when kids go trick or treating, they're after their favorites. Skittles, Milky Way, Twix, Starburst. Things like that."
"What about Snickers?"
Her face scrunched up in disgust. "Not many people like Snickers." She decided to take a different approach to the problem. "What kind of candy did you like when you were eight years old?"
Without missing a beat, he answered, "Chocolate covered grasshoppers."
She had to laugh at that. "I love you," was all she offered.
They went back to their perusal, but Grissom had taken a few steps down the aisle while Sara stayed near the cart. He inspected the bags with pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows, much like how he examined a piece of evidence. She was seriously contemplating buying a bag of Three Musketeers miniatures for herself, when he showed her a package containing many small boxes.
"A candy that combines an element of both our personalities," he explained.
She laughed as he placed the Nerds in the cart.
The End
And yeah, we gave trick or treaters Nerds at my house :) Happy Halloween!