Title: October's Beauty

Author: Jeanine (jeanine@iol.ie)

Rating: PG

Pairing: Sara/Grissom

Spoilers: Primum Non Nocre.

Feedback: Makes my day

Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.

Archive: At my site Checkmate () , Fanfiction.net; anywhere else, please ask.

Summary: It is October

Notes: For the LiveJournal CSReports (500 words) "Sports" challenge - I think this is the most tenuous connection imaginable, but there you go. And it's Sara/Grissom, which, for me, is a departure.

***

It is October, and every October for as long as he can remember, Grissom has done the same thing - slavishly followed the World Series. Usually on television, occasionally in person if vacation time and friends with tickets permit, but either way, it is October and every October, his thoughts are full of baseball diamonds and beauty, and he is happy.

Not many people know that about him, only one in Vegas, and he remembers how she scoffed when she first found out about it. A hockey player had been killed on the ice and they were sitting in the stands, preparing to process the crime scene and when she accused him of liking baseball only for the statistics. He had told her that it was a beautiful game, and her reply had been automatic, and caustic.

"Since when are you interested in beauty?"

His reply was automatic and sincere.

"Since I met you."

She was surprised, whether it was because he could see beauty in the game, or in her, or that he'd admitted to either, he'd never be able to say. He just knows that he told her the truth, the truth he'd been hiding since he asked a question in a long ago seminar and looked into her eyes when she was the only one to raise her hand in answer. Her enthusiasm had shone through, and when he'd kept in contact with her, her intelligence, her wit had shone through in their letters and phone calls.

He'd thought they were strictly friends until he realised that during their too-infrequent meetings, they would talk long into the night, and his dreams would be filled with her dancing eyes and gap-toothed smile.

There were times he thought about more than friendship, but that's what he contented himself with, even when she moved to Vegas and he saw her every day. Especially then, because he knew all the reasons they shouldn't start anything.

Her youth.

His hearing.

Their working relationship.

Their friendship.

Her beauty.

He saw her every day, and he didn't know why a woman like her would want him.

He still doesn't know why, doesn't understand why, but now, he doesn't care.

Because now it is October, and like every October, Grissom is thinking of beauty and diamonds. Except the beauty he's watching is the beauty asleep in his arms, and the only diamond he's interested in is the one he put on her finger a few hours ago.

It is October, and he's never been happier.