The Silver Lining
by Anna Greenway.
Rating: Have rated the story as M, just to be safe. This is for sex and other adult themes which will arise. Not recommended for anyone under 15.
A/N: Yes, this story features a parallel universe. Yes, I've probably been watching too much Stargate (LOL). But some ideas are too good to cast aside, and this is one of them. Story will feature GSR, and possibly Cath/Warrick and SoNic, but I make no promises over those. It's primarily a story about the Grissom/Sara relationship, about the friendship between the team, and about the meaning of life itself.
Prologue
In the end, when Sara thought back to the early days of her life with Grissom, she thought often of that first time she had slept with him. How the hot morning sun had streamed in through the kitchen windows, the way her heart flip-flopped as he kissed her for the first time. It had not been expected – his invitation to a post-shift breakfast at his place had seemed as innocent as she knew it was to the rest of the team – but two days after Nick's kidnapping, it seemed something had finally changed. Kissed her he did, and after spending a few minutes deliciously pinned between him and the kitchen bench, returning his kisses with fervour, it had seemed natural to move things into his bedroom.
It had taken him five years to decide to kiss her, and no time at all for him to decide that he couldn't stop there.
She had never before understood the difference between having sex and making love, but she learned it that morning with Grissom. While her past boyfriends had tugged her clothes off and passionately had their way with her, Grissom did everything with a tenderness that made her dizzy in the haze of his love. While he kissed her deeply and held her close, his hands on her were gentle, removing her clothes with care, glancing into her eyes for permission. And when he laid her down in his bed, kissing her hungrily, he even paused between kisses to adjust the pillow an inch to make her more comfortable. The gesture only made her kiss him harder, and by the time she spread her legs and let him enter her – hard and full – she knew she could not hold on much longer.
Later that afternoon, she drifted back awake with a feeling of pleasant contentment. The day had heated up, the scorching Nevadan sun outside glowing hot through the blinds, and the sheet covering her had slipped to her waist. She lay on her back, chest bare, and turning to look for Grissom, found him gazing intently back at her, perched up on one arm.
He looked as if he had been watching her for some time.
She smiled. "Hey."
"Hey," he replied.
He was as naked as she was, and reached out one hand, tucking her hair back behind her ear. Behind him on the bedside table, she spotted a discarded condom wrapper. The digital clock told her it was late afternoon.
"Were you watching me sleep?" she asked, curious.
He did not answer, but let his fingers fall from her hair to her torso. They traced a path just underneath her breasts, intimate, and yet not quite touching.
"You're perfect," he replied, matter-of-fact.
She smiled wider, and leaned up to kiss him. They had ended up making love again.
Thereafter, she had spent many lazy afternoons with him, squeezing in the time between the chaos of their Vegas lives. The relationship was probably not what most people considered normal, and yet she could not have cared less. They were happy, and as the months passed she began to see the subtle changes which told her their relationship had progressed. For one thing, she began to realise how much money they were spending on condoms, and after making a quip that they should take out shares in the company, they had decided that she would go on the pill. Not too long after, she had walked in to his bedroom one day to find him emptying out a drawer – piling old pairs of socks and underwear aside on his bed, before offering it to her to use. Sometime after that, half of her clothes had ended up at his place, and her underwear had become a regular part of his laundry load. When she spotted him one Sunday neatly folding her lingerie and ironing her work blouse, she knew they had made it.
And yet more joyful still was the feeling of learning about him, and the physical aspects of their relationship. She learned that his favourite part of her was her breasts, that his prime time for sex was on hot summer afternoons, and best of all – that he liked being teased. With her past boyfriends, she had resented being reduced to a sex object, and had never walked around naked or in her underwear for their enjoyment. And yet with Grissom, who loved her for all she was, that feeling had evaporated. She felt a cheeky delight in teasing him, in testing what he would do. One warm afternoon, when he had been settled on the couch doing a crossword in a pair of old sweat pants and a college t-shirt, she had walked innocently to the fridge in her underwear, feigning innocence as she searched for some fruit juice.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him still, removing his glasses.
She poured a drink as she watched him ponder it over. After several attempts at speech, his eventual words made her smile.
"Aren't you cold?" he asked.
She grinned. "I'm fine."
His eyes did not leave her, and she saw them move downward.
"You want some?" she asked.
He stared.
"Some juice," she clarified, waving at the bottle.
"No," he replied. "Thanks, I'm fine."
She downed her juice, and then, rubbing her arms in a feigned moment of slight chill, said, "You know I think the temperature is dropping. I'll be back in a sec'."
She made to head for the bedroom to find clothes, but got barely two steps before Grissom laid his crossword aside, getting to his feet.
"I'll turn up the thermostat," he said.
She struggled to stifle a grin as he ramped up the central heating. Not long later, they were both naked again, and she discovered the true depth of his desire for her with a new position and a desperate, hurried passion that had made her smile with the memory for months afterward.
Another summer later, and she found herself engaged after his spontaneous proposal in front of his bee hives. Many things had changed – she had gone through the trauma of her desert abduction and near death, had been moved from grave to swing shift, and yet she felt more stable in their relationship than ever before. In hindsight, it was perhaps strange that they had not discussed it more. It had been so sudden that she felt as if she needed time to absorb it all, the thousand thoughts and implications fluttering around like a hive inside her head. It meant meeting his family, moving in permanently with him, formalising everything in front of all their friends and acquaintances. She would have to choose a bride's maid, and Grissom a best man. The thought of a huge sappy white wedding had never appealed to her, but she felt warm about the idea of a small gathering with their friends – as long as Ecklie was not present. She did not even want to think about her family.
"We should get you a ring," Grissom said the next day, holding her bare left hand in his.
She nodded, linking his fingers with hers. "We could go on the weekend. We both have a day off."
He kissed her. "It's a date."
She did not know then that the weekend would never come, or that it would be Grissom who would unknowingly summon her into a world of peril. But much later, she did pinpoint that moment as the last day she had felt normal – and the last day she had cared.
Life was funny like that.