Title: Taking Sock of the Situation
Author: Lady Kes
Disclaimer: I'm still looking for an interdimensional portal.
A/N: Completely silly story written from the opening line of an Unbound challenge weeks ago. Mostly unbeta'ed, although ShipperGirl looked it over. Enjoy!

Her socks were mismatched again. Well, okay, they matched each other, but in no way did cow-jumping-over-the-moon socks match the sober navy pantsuit she was wearing. Grissom was sure it was deliberate since he couldn't think of a way to accidentally put on silly socks, but wasn't sure why Sara had suddenly begun wearing silly socks to court. It wasn't as if anyone would really see them, so there must be another reason.

Grissom approached Sara's locker and hesitantly said her name. She looked up with a smile, "Yeah, Grissom?"

"Not that this has any real effect on your appearance or your expertise in the courtroom, but are you wearing cow-jumping-over-the-moon socks?" he asked somewhat diffidently.

Sara's smile widened before she said, "And you call yourself an investigator! It's taken you this long to notice?"

Grissom frowned, not sure what she meant.

Sara took pity on his confusion and said, "I wear silly socks with my court outfits to remind myself not to take anyone in there too seriously, least of all myself."

Grissom nodded in understanding, "A stress-relief gesture."

Sara shrugged. "If you want to call it that. It's really just an excuse to wear silly socks, and I'd never turn that down," she finished with a grin.

Two weeks later, Sara entered the locker room to prepare for court...and saw a pair of lizard socks stuffed in the vents of her locker. She had to smile at his thoughtfulness, and wore that pair to court that day, smiling inwardly every time she saw her socks. The gifts continued every time she had a court date, and soon she had quite the collection. Her friendship with Grissom had gradually re-emerged as the gifts continued, and she appreciated his thoughtfulness every time she got another pair.

Finally she decided to try the same thing that had failed so miserably a couple years ago. She thought she might get a different response now, and wasn't she focusing on taking life less seriously? She went out and found a pair of socks with the periodic table on them, then wrote Dinner? on a slip of paper and placed the socks in Grissom's office right before the end of shift one day.

She received her answer in the form of a pair of arachnid socks on her locker that night. No note was needed.

Their first date began, fittingly, with an exchange of socks, and the relationship continued in the same vein. Both tried to keep what the socks represented in mind: that life is always a little absurd and must be viewed with a sense of humor. Thus, Sara should not have been surprised to receive a gift from Grissom one beautiful sunny picnicking day. Inside the beautifully wrapped box was a pair of socks...with diamond rings printed on them.

The guests at their wedding were more than a little startled at the line in the invitation that read, "Please bring a pair of silly socks," but most chalked it up to the fact that this was after all Grissom and Sara getting married and went searching for silly socks.

The wedding was gorgeous and it was quite obvious that Grissom and Sara were deeply in love, but it was the reception that everyone remembered and talked about. When the guests entered the lobby of the reception hall, a sign above a shoe rack asked them to remove their shoes and put on their silly socks. No one was entirely sure why, but the removal of fancy dress shoes and putting on of silly socks caused quite a bit of hilarity. The reason became a little more clear once Grissom and Sara were introduced, wearing their wedding finery with a pair of Periodic Table and Arachnid socks, respectively. The story was told and laughed about and judged to be very geeky, and the sock-themed reception continued on.

When it was time for the happy couple to ride off in their figurative carriage into an equally figurative sunset, the guests threw birdseed stored in baby socks, and tied to the back of Grissom's carriage (really his hybrid SUV) were......ten pairs of silly socks.