Chapter 2

"Cradypedes lateritius," Grissom said to himself as he gathered his specimen in the wooded area behind the cottage.

Dickie sat on his imaginary chair with his chin in his hand as he watched with extreme boredom. "It's a grasshopper."

Grissom put the little jar into his bag he was carrying over his shoulder and proceeded farther into the woods, having a floating Dickie Pendleton just behind him. He looked around and after a moment reached in his kit and brought out another jar. He stalked his prey then gathered it with satisfaction.

"Isoptera."

"It's a damned termite, and if you let that thing loose back at the cottage I'll haunt your ass for the rest of your natural life and well into the next one!" Dickie sat up a little straighter as he watched Grissom carefully close the lid. "Look, buddy! My idea of a good time is not spending it out in the middle of the forest with creepy, crawly insects! We've got to get you back to that woman and let your juices flow! Let your desires stir! Let your love fly!"

Grissom cocked his head to the side and said to himself, "Fly—musca domestica. Hmm." He shrugged his shoulders and started searching again. "Ah! Camponotus vicinus."

Dickie looked at Grissom very closely, then sighed and put his chin back in his hand. "It's an ant."

Grissom disposed of his little friend and moved along, stopping to inspect various wildlife and making Dickie shiver with dislike. Finally he was moving closer to the clearing but stopped again.

"Pselliopus spinicollis."

"Eee-God! It's a spider! Don't pick that up—ohh—you did! That's disgusting! Ya know, when I told Jenny I'd spend the morning trying to steer you back to that lovely gem of a lady in the other cottage—I definitely didn't think I was going to be suffering through this!"

"Hymenoptera Apocrita," Grissom said with wonder he approached a perfect specimen. He opened his little glass jar and slowly approached the bee, not seeing how Dickie now stood about ten feet away, nervously batting away the insects that were buzzing around him.

"It's a wasp," Dickie said with irritation as he swatted at another that flew past his face.

"Ah," Grissom said as he continued to approach the bee and place the jar over top of it and sliding the lid on top. "but not an ordinary wasp."

Dickie stopped his movements as he looked at Grissom with wide eyes. Grissom stood erect with his own wide eyes as he stared ahead of himself, not understanding why he just said that. It was almost as if someone had commented on his specimen.

"You heard me!" Dickie whispered but Grissom merely shrugged his shoulders again and put the jar into the bag he had slung over his shoulder then started toward another bee that was walking along a leaf.

This time Grissom didn't respond as one of his little friends decided a good roosting place would be down the inside of Dickie's tuxedo collar. At first Dickie's shoulder twitched, then it twitched again. This time he reached behind himself as his fingers slid down the back of his white collar. His high-pitched scream alerted a flock of birds as they flew out of the trees above them and he started turning in rapid circles as he tried to get the bee out of his clothing.

"That's it," Grissom almost cooed as he allowed the bee to walk across the back of his hand. "You're as harmless as can be. Only the uneducated fear you."

"Uneducated, am I? I have you know that I spent four years at Harvard!" Dickie stopped his circles and quickly looked up at the hive that was hanging from a limb and snapped his fingers. His intention was to prove to Grissom just how anxious one could get when dealing with angry bees! But as the hive bounced off the ground, Grissom slowly started walking out of the wooded area. Dickie, on the other hand, screamed as they swarmed up around him and sent him on a dead run to the beach below where he ran into the water then turned to look at a very calm Grissom going up onto his back porch and inside.

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"Oh! Come on!" Jenny yelled at Sara as she ran up the beach. The platinum blonde buffed her nails as she reclined on her airy chaste lounge that kept up with Sara's energetic jogging. "This is—!"

"Go on vacation!" Sara huffed as she continued pumping her long legs with sweat rolling down her throat and dripping between her tank top covered breasts. "Get some rest and revitalize yourself! Bastard!"

"Well," Jenny said as she sat up along the edge of the invisible piece of furniture with her legs dangling but still a good three feet from the sand below. "This is certainly the beginnings of a wonderful relationship! And look at you! You look like a pig—sweating like that! Don't you know you never let a man see you sweat? Just what are you doing this for? If you have this much energy—go next door and jump your neighbor's bones! And fine bones he seems to have, indeed! Oh," she began with sympathy. "come on. I know men can be difficult to see what's in front of them—blind even. Hell, it took Dickie three months to get up the nerve to ask me out! And it didn't matter that he was asking out every other woman that worked for his father—no! He was blind to ME! Bastard!" She looked over at Sara again. "So—just what ARE you doing this for?"

"Fat ass," escaped Sara's mouth, making her knit her brows as she wondered where THAT came from.

"Fat ass?" Jenny asked with alarm then twisted on the lounge as she tried to see her own curvy posterior. "Oh, god! Maybe that's why Dickie took so long to ask me out! Jeez! Is my ass too fat?"

"No one likes a fat ass," Sara blurted, this time pausing half a second before starting her run again.

"Oh, my God," Jenny wailed quietly as she hopped off the air and landed on her heeled feet next to Sara, quickly getting in stride next to her. "I've got a fat ass!"

"I don't have a fat ass," Sara said snidely to herself as she continued to run.

"I know," Jenny agreed as she started to get out of breath then she fell a step behind and looked at Sara's shorts-covered bottom. "You've got a—perky behind. So why are you doing this? You don't need to do it. I do, though. . ." She followed Sara up the beach. "So? What about this guy next door? You like him a lot, huh?"

Sara continued running, her mind on Grissom as it usually was. Damn him, didn't he realize how much his mood swings hurt her? Didn't he realize the hot to cold attitude upset her more than if he'd just be cold to her and stay that way. No. He always gives out little signals to entice her back in.

"Fuck signals!" Sara blurted.

"Excuse me?" Jenny huffed as she tried to stay next to Sara and she looked at her full of questions. "Did you say what I thought you said? Is he giving you signals that he wants to. . .well that's great! It won't be as hard as I thought if he's giving you signals that he wants to spoon with you!"

"I mean it—just fuck the signals and leave him behind—that's what I ought to do!"

"Ohhh," Jenny said with disappointment. "That's what you meant. No! No! Don't give up, honey! He's here—waiting for you! You've just got to look past your window and see what I saw last night. Yowsa! If you'd have seen that—you'd have been on him like a tick on a dog! But then I suppose you must've seen something you liked—you had some mighty crazy thoughts going on when me and Dickie rode into town last week. God, honey! Aren't you going to slow down soon? I'm so tired I could just drop over dead! Oh, that's right—I am dead."

"Gotta keep going. Gotta keep going," Sara urged herself making Jenny roll her eyes as she struggled beside her.

"Okay—fine." She ran farther. "We'll keep going. Look, all I'm saying is," she started to sing but her voice cracked at the exertion. "Love is in the air." She put her hand to her throat. "Jeez, that sounded horrible. Anyway, romance is there for the taking."

A flock of birds flew out of the woods ahead of them, slowing Sara's stride as she watched them, then the sound of a scream filled the air. Jenny watched as Dickie came running out of the woods and straight into the lake, then she looked at the man casually looking at something in a bag as he walked to the rear entrance of his cottage and went inside.

"Sara! Look!" Jenny yelled but Sara was already peeling her tank top over her head, leaving only a bathing suit top on before turning toward her front door and jogging up the stairs and inside.

Jenny dropped onto the sand in an attempt to catch her breath then rolled over and looked at the phantom standing knee deep in water. "What—are you doing?"

"Bees! He collects them! They flew all over. They went down my shirt!" He started walking out of the lake and stopped to give her a hand and assisted her to her feet. "What's wrong with you? You look all—sweaty. We can't sweat!"

"Yeah?" She asked as she turned on him. "And we can't feel it when bees sting us either!"

"Well, I don't like them! I hate insects!" He lifted his nose to the air. "They were flying all around me. They were supposed to scare him into coming back to see her—but I think he rather enjoyed it—the bees swarming all around him, I mean."

"I feel sick, snookums," Jenny said sadly as she leaned on his shoulder for support. "I think I'm going to vomit."

"We don't vomit, either," Dickie said dully, bringing fiery eyes up to meet his and making him smile sheepishly.

"Well, I feel like it! That woman ran all the way back up the beach!"

"But you were running with her. Why? You never run like that. It isn't. . .well. . .something that you practice."

"Nevermind," she told him then started walking away from him, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms.

"Ya know, you look really rather enticing right now. Maybe you ought to run like that more often," he said as he lowered his lips and slid them over hers.

"Oh, Dickie," she breathed. "How much longer are we going to have to wait?"

"Only until we get them to make love. Then we can finally. . ."

"If only we would've taken your car instead of mine—we would've been married and had children and grandchildren. Oh, Dickie. . ." She started to sniff against his shoulder and he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, flicking a bee off it before offering it to her.

"Now, now, my love. There's no sense going over it again. What's done is done. We'll have our chance soon enough. I'm sure of it."

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Grissom put his specimens away when he got inside. This little vacation wasn't turning out so bad, after all. He moved into his bedroom and started to undress, glancing at the window shade as he did so. He had to smile to himself when he remembered the previous night when the blind snapped open and he came over to close it. He could've sworn he saw two people standing outside, but when he moved, he saw that it was only his reflection and the playing of light on the glass. Then today in the woods. . .well, he must be hearing things. He went into the shower and turned on the water, allowing it to run down over his body. His thoughts automatically turned back to the brunette beauty who usually haunted his dreams and he wondered what she was doing at that moment. Was she on some California beach sunbathing that long, lean body of hers. Was she being watched by some young bronzed, muscle-bound hunk? Son-of-a-bitch! Whoever he is—he better keep his damned hands off her! The thought struck him and he shook his head. He had no right to do anything. What did he do but watch her and fantasize? Too afraid to do anything about what he wanted. But if he could. . .

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Sara stood in her shower, letting the hot water stream down over her. She poured some shampoo into her hand then gasped when for some reason it nearly emptied. Sighing, she put it up to her hair and lathered it up. Jeez, it sure was a lot of lather. She thought about what Grissom was probably doing about right now. Probably ankle deep in dead bodies and not even thinking about her; about how much he might miss her; about how much she might miss him. She grabbed the shower gel and started rubbing it on her arms. When he sat there and told her to go get some rest and revitalize. . .boy, she'd like to revitalize alright! Her hands started moving over her shoulders and then moved down to lather her breasts. She'd revitalize right on the end of his. . .Damn! What happened to the frickin' water?

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Sara growled at the shower head that was refusing to release any water. She grabbed the handles and turned them but to no avail. "Not now! I'm all soaped up!"

"Hmph," Jenny said as she stood in the tub in front of her, holding her hand over the nozzle that should be spraying down on the other woman. "I'd say now is the perfect time! I saw where your hands were heading! I definitely don't want to have to stand here and see you. . .well, not see, because I would've turned around. . .now if I'd be in that guy's shower and he started to. . .ya know. . .I would've watched him. . .but not you. Boring! But I would've had to listen to you and that would've been rather defeating our purposes! Go on—go see why the water isn't working. The main thingy to control the water is out back, below the back porch."

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Sara said as she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself then stepped out of the shower, not seeing how Jenny quickly turned off the faucet. "I have no idea where the stupid main valve is!"

Jenny jumped out of the shower behind Sara and her heel got caught on the bath mat and made her stumble as Sara walked out the door.

"Damn heels! I should've been wearing my flats when I died!" She rushed out to the kitchen where Sara was looking beneath the kitchen sink. Just as Sara reached for the handle and tried to turn it, Jenny blocked the faucet.

"Great!" Sara turned it back off and turned toward the back door. "Now what do I do?"

"Out back!" Jenny said as she ran up to her but Sara didn't respond. "Out back! Under the porch!" Still nothing. "OUT BACK, DAMMIT!"

"Maybe if I look out back," Sara said offhandedly and started out the door.

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Dickie turned off the shower and followed Grissom as he wrapped a towel around his waist. He nervously wiped the sweat from his brow as the man went straight through the house and out the back door. Dickey followed him and looked up at Jenny as she followed Sara out of the other building.

"What's wrong with you?" Jenny asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Ha! Ha!" He said then nodded toward the man who was squatting in front of the main valve and looking at it intently. "He was thinking about her in the shower! He got—well—rather excited and damned near poked me with his stick!"

"Dickie!" Jenny warned. "If we don't do something—they'll take care of their urges themselves and never get together! I mean, look at them! Here they are, wearing only towels—and they're only twenty yards away from one another! She's too busy looking for the water thingy and he's too busy trying to fix his!"

"Here she comes! Hurry, snookums! Don't let her go back in the house!"

"What am I supposed to do?" Jenny asked as she threw her hands up in the air and started running toward the dark-haired woman. This time her heel got caught between the blocks of the rear sidewalk and she tripped.

"Baby doll!" Dickie yelled as he watched Jenny go down, then smiled when he saw that she grabbed onto Sara's towel as she went, pulling it completely off the woman and bringing a surprised shriek from the brunette. "Well, that ought to work!"

Grissom spun around, hearing what he believed to be a scream and saw the most beautiful body he had ever witnessed. His eyes slowly traveled up as the woman grabbed for her towel, then stopped as her eyes met his.

"Sara?"

"Griss?"