A/N: I would like to thank the always fabulous (and wonderfully encouraging) Grace for the super-quick beta job.
Disclaimer: As of this moment, I do not own CSI.
He was pacing outside her door. His watch read seven in the morning, which meant it had been nearly three hours since he had dropped her off at her apartment and left. He hadn't gone home though; instead, he had driven aimlessly through the city.
They had both been at the hospital –with Nick. Everyone had said they would take turns staying with him until his family arrived, so he never had to be alone. However, none of them had been able to leave their colleague, their friend. So they had stayed and had taken their respective turns seeing him in the Intensive Care Unit for five minutes every hour upon the hour. Even when his family came, they had remained until the sheer exhaustion that had been seeping through their bones had finally triumphed.
That was why he had offered to drive her home. She wouldn't have been able to do it herself, as she was running on empty.
He should come back later. She would be in bed. She needed her sleep.
No. That's the coward's way out. No more excuses.
Making up his mind, once and for all, he knocked on her door.
After what seemed like an infinite amount of time, she opened the door, yawning and bleary-eyed. "Grissom?" An expression of fear and apprehension crossed her face as she asked, "Nick? Did you hear…?" She trailed off unable to finish voicing the rest of her question.
"No. No, Nick's fine. At least, I haven't heard anything differently," he quickly assured her.
She looked relieved. "So, why are you here?"
"Regrets."
Her eyes displayed her confusion.
He stepped forward, knowing inherently that this was the point of no return and, for the first time in his life, not even caring. It was scary. It was exhilarating. And she was still waiting for an explanation as to why he was standing on her doorstep, waking her from her slumber. Time to take the fall or take the leap, whatever analogy one wanted to use or deemed most appropriate.
"I'm here because I can't do this anymore. I can't… no, I don't want to let another moment pass by without letting you know how I feel," he said, his voice getting stronger as he spoke.
She was standing, leaning against the doorframe, rooted to the spot and he could see her clutch the door tighter, causing her knuckles to whiten. "Grissom, it's been a rough few days for us. Don't… don't say anything you'll regret later. You can't," she paused and spoke softly, finishing the rest of her sentence, "You can't just take it back… I couldn't handle that." Both her voice and her eyes were pleading, as if silently imploring him to not hurt her.
He took another step closer, until he was all but invading her personal space, forcing her to look up into his eyes as he spoke the next words. "But don't you see the only thing that I will regret is if I walk away from here…from you and not tell you how I feel?" He lifted his hand until it found its resting place against her cheek. His thumb softly stroked her skin. He could hear her steady breathing and could smell the shampoo in her hair, which was curly and still slightly damp as if she had gone straight to bed after taking a shower.
She was beautiful and lovely, and he was not letting her go. "Sara, I want you to know that I care about you." He paused, realizing that what he felt for her went beyond just caring but still unable to form the 'right' words to tell her how much she meant to him. "I know that's not enough," he began but her lips effectively silenced his as she leaned forward to kiss him, hesitantly and unsure at first and then growing in confidence.
She broke the kiss seconds later, her arms around his neck and her eyes sparkling like he had never seen. "It's enough for now," she said gently. "Why don't you come inside and we can talk some more?"
He followed her into her apartment and shut the door behind them, shutting out all the regrets on the other side. In here, there was no room for them. There was only room for truth, honesty, and the woman he loved.
A/N2: I've been having writing issues (my muse decided to take a vacation to the Greek Isles, but didn't invite me) in addition to just being busy. RL is still being a bit of a vampire (i.e. inspiration sucking vampire), so I was pleasantly thrilled to wake up today with a story idea in my head (which btw was supposed to be for my Soup series for the letter R but yet again I'm too wordy). I'm hoping this means Athena (my muse) is back and has stopped being a drama queen. I can always hope, right? Anyway, basically, I hope you enjoyed this short ficlet. Reviews are always nice and appreciated. Thanks for reading!