Title: Roads Diverged
Author: Jeanine (jeanine@iol.ie)
Rating: PG
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Sara/Lockwood
Word Count: 996
Feedback: Makes my day
Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.
Archive: At my site Checkmate (http://helsinkibaby.ahkay.net) , Fanfiction.net; anywhere else, please ask.
Summary: The road not taken…
Notes: For the LiveJournal MultiFandom1000 challenge, rewind to #9, The Road Not Taken. If you've not read my story, A Fool for Lesser Things, where Sara and Lockwood were involved prior to his death, this story is an AU of that… I think it's pretty clear from whence the roads diverge!
***
Sara never wanted to fall in love with Cyrus Lockwood. In those early days, where he seemed to be always there, hovering in the background, being her friend, that was all he was, all she wanted him to be. She was only just getting over Grissom, she was still burned by Hank, and the last thing she wanted was a relationship.
Cyrus won her over anyway.
With his quiet demeanour, his friendly overtures, the general fact that he was just a nice guy who wanted to be there for her, she didn't realise she was falling for him until she was in too deep to back out, and had no interest in doing so anyway.
The realisation of just how much he meant to her came suddenly, hard-won on a morning when they'd been sleeping together for five days. She knew how long because that was the shift when Catherine's suspension ran out, and it was her day off, and his, and they had plans. She'd woken up when he'd got out of bed, and he'd told her that he was going to the bathroom, but when she'd turned around seconds later, she'd heard the shower running. That much had made her squint at the clock, and she knew he was getting ready to begin the day, run errands, and weighed up the advantages of staying in bed herself, or getting up and going with him.
Seconds later, she was joining him in the shower, where they stayed until the water began to run cold, and after that, it was a long time before they made it out of the bedroom. They eventually did though, making it into town, where they tried to go to the bank, only to be stopped at the corner, hearing words like hold-up and shots fired and reports of a young mother killed as she tried to make a run for it, and Sara suddenly realised that but for their amorous encounter that morning, Cyrus would have been there.
Maybe he realised that too, because they didn't perform the rest of their errands; instead they went back to his place, and curled up on the couch for the rest of the day.
Sara was surprised to find herself thinking that she could spend the rest of her life like that.
By the end of the summer, Sara had moved into Cyrus's house, had met his family, and his little niece Stephanie had grown to love her, was calling her "Auntie Sara." Cyrus had met her family too, when she'd taken him to Tomales Bay for a week, a week when the carnival was in town, and she'd taken him on the Ferris Wheel, and they'd gone on the Cups and Saucers, where he'd kissed her as the ride slowed down, just like when he'd kissed her for the very first time.
Nick was fond of teasing her about the two of them, and his teasing increased coming up to Christmas, when he would ask her if she was getting a diamond under the tree. As it happened, she got a sapphire, but in a necklace, not a ring, giving Nick another chance to tease her as Valentine's Day approached.
As it happened, when Cyrus proposed, it wasn't on any special day, but it was at a special place, the carnival where a year earlier, he'd kissed her for the first time. They faithfully re-created that date, down to the milk can throw and the Cups and Saucers, and when they were stopped atop the Ferris Wheel, the lights of Vegas spread out below them, Cyrus asked her to marry him.
She didn't hesitate to say yes.
When the time came, her father walked her down the aisle as all their friends and family looked on. It had fallen to Catherine to help Sara with the dress shopping, and they'd chosen one that was ivory rather than white, halter necked with a flowing skirt, and Sara knew they'd chosen the right one when she got to the altar and saw that Cyrus was having trouble putting words together. Beside him, Nick the best man was having no such troubles, lips and eyes smiling as he looked at the two of them, the match that he was taking sole responsibility for, and he kept smiling all day, just like they did. Their first dance was to "To Make You Feel My Love" and Sara told Cyrus that she'd never been happier, and she meant every word.
When Nick made his best man's speech that day, he joked about how he'd better be first in line for godparent duty, and everyone had laughed, Sara and Cyrus most of all. But it was no laughing matter a scant five months after the wedding, when the aroma of Greg's favourite coffee turned her stomach, when she couldn't keep any food down. The doctor confirmed her store-bought test, and Cyrus whooped with delight when she told him, lifting her up and spinning her around, an act that had her running to the bathroom. He resolved to wrap her up in cotton wool for the next eight months, which is just what he did, and she surprised herself with how much she actually enjoyed it. She cut down her hours at work, drove a desk once she started to show, and when their daughter was born, he was there, and he held her later, after everyone else had gone, and he'd told her that he'd never been happier.
He told her the same thing two years later when a second daughter was born to them, and again, two and a half years later, when they had a son. He was two months old at Christmas time, and when Sara sat on the couch, with him in her arms, looking at Cyrus and their daughters ripping the paper off presents, she knew that this was what life was all about, and that she wouldn't have it any other way.