See chapter one for disclaimer etc.
A/N: This chapter took a bit longer, sorry. My vacation came to an end and there were a million things I had to do, including organizing my own birthday party. But, I finally finished it and here it is!
Have fun!
4.
A faint rumble started to form in the skies above him. Dark clouds were already moving this way. That was one hell of a storm coming up..
Sara's house was lovely. It was a small complex, much more like a big villa, or ranch-like kind of thing than an apartment building.. It had a nice garden, lining a big porch at the front. The garden was a little wild, with poppies, ferns and wild roses everywhere, plus a number of trees Grissom couldn't place by name. He sighed as an involuntary thought crept into his mind.
I could definitely live here with Sara..
He quickly shook his head, to get the thought out of his grey mass upstairs, but it wouldn't. He sighed and walked over to the small garden fence. Grissom could see that it had been a nice shade of dark green once.. once. Now, the paint had almost rotten away, along with most of the wood. It was a miracle the planks were still in place – or still standing. He carefully stepped over the fence, because he was afraid that if he tried to open it, he might unintentionally take half of it with him.
A little further into the garden was an old mailbox, also in a nice shade of green. Shall I drop it in the mailbox? Grissom thought, but it didn't really appeal to him to do that. He walked on, 'till he reached the front porch. It was lovely. There was a big swinging couch, with a few rocking chairs and a nice coffee table made out of glass and wood. A cream white sign next to the front door said
THE GLENNWOOD ROSE
in curly, black letters. A few dusky pink roses were painted next to the letters. Very classy, Grissom thought. He was so busy deciding how he was going to get the note to Sara without having to put it in the mailbox, he didn't notice a man approaching him.
'Excuse me, can I help you?' The man had a strong accent, probably Scottish. Grissom turned around and looked at him. He looked friendly with big, green eyes and a long white beard. His light grey suit was of good quality, even though it was at least one or two sizes to small for the man. If he'd worn a red suit he could've passed for Santa, Grissom thought.
'Well, that depends,' Grissom said with a smile, 'Pardon my intrusion, but I have a letter for someone who lives here, I believe. I would like to make sure that she receives it personally, so putting it in the mailbox didn't quite catch my fancy.' The man returned Grissom's smile.
'I see. On which number does he or she live?'
'Err..'
The man raised a brow.
'You don't know?'
'No, sorry,' Grissom apologized, 'maybe you can help me with that? Her name is Sara Sidle.' The man's face seemed to lit up at the mention of her name.
'Sara! Yes, I know. She lives in the upstairs, most south apartment. Number four, that is. Over there, by the window. She's such a nice woman. We all love her, you know. What's your relationship with her, if I may ask?'
'Funny way of asking,' Grissom said, 'Well, let's just say my love for her can't be defined.'
The man raised a brow at that.
'Right. Well, I can deliver it for you. I believe she's out at the moment, because I ran into her in town just now. You won't be able to give it to her personally, if that's what you want..' Perfect, Grissom thought, I can get there unseen.
'No, it's okay. Is it possible that I follow you in and just.. place it in front of her door?' The man seemed to think that through for a minute, before he smiled at Grissom and opened the door.
'That's fine. I'm Ted, by the way.'
'Ted, nice to meet you. Gil Grissom.' They shook hands and Ted got his key out of his pocket to unlock the front door.
Grissom stood in front of Sara's apartment for a minute or two before he finally put the envelope on the floor and slowly pushed it forward, until it was on the other side of the door. He sighed in content and walked away. They all loved her, Ted had said. Why wasn't that hard to believe? Grissom chuckled to himself as he reached the porch again. It was still dry, but Grissom decided to pick up the pace a little. He practically ran all the way back to his hotel.
--
By the time Sara got home from her little trip to the store, the storm had already gotten a lot worse. The clouds were almost black now, placing a dark blanket of shadows over Auburn Woods. Sara was just walking towards the garden fence when the first raindrops started to fall.
'Shit.' She muttered. Three seconds after the first drops had fallen, it had turned into a serious downpour, and by the time Sara had reached the front porch she was soaking wet. With a grim face she unlocked the door and walked inside. Her feet made soft squishy sounds on the stairs and when she saw the door of her apartment, she smiled.
'Finally.' Sara said to herself. She opened the door and her brow furrowed as she saw a white envelope in front of her feet. A few drops had made wrinkled circles in the paper. She picked it up and closed the door behind her. Curiously, she checked it for an address or something on the front, but there was none. With a sigh, she tossed it onto the coffee table and went to take a shower.
After cleaning up and feeding Greys, she saw the letter again. With a big cup of coffee in her left hand, she picked up the envelope and opened it. She recognized the handwriting immediately.
Grissom.
It wasn't a letter, she soon realised. It was a poem. A very strange poem, actually:
Those who seek shall find –
Their keys, their love, something they just left behind.
For those who lost or left their heart
Please seek, we may not be that far apart.
I've missed you every hour, every day
If you feel the same, then please come and find me
Where apples are golden and Sunshine is grey.
It left Sara speechless and for a good five minutes she sat with both letter and coffee cup in hand, just staring out the window and listening to the rain that hit it with repeated tickety-ticks. When she found her senses again, she blinked and read her poem again. And again.
'He's here.' She whispered. Greys meowed and jumped onto the couch. Oh, my god. He's really here, she thought. That's why there was no address or anything on the envelope. He.. he must have brought it here personally.
She put the letter down and walked over to the window. The skies were still dark and the rain was still pouring down, but Sara didn't care. There were so many thoughts in her brain, she thought she might faint from it.
Why didn't he just come and see me? Was a good example.
And what did he mean with those last two sentences? How am I suppose to know where they have golden apples and grey sunshine?
She closed her eyes and rubbed them, the letter falling onto her lap.
'Meow.' She smiled, looked at the cat and scratched it behind the ears.
'I know. I have no idea how I'm going to find him.' She stood up, carefully put the letter back into the envelope and started to walk towards the bedroom.
Sara had trouble sleeping that night. She kept repeating Grissom's words in her mind, hoping the answer would present itself after hours of thinking. Every time the living room clock told her another hour had passed, she sighed, but kept thinking. At about three o'clock she fell asleep from pure exhaustion.
The next day she went into town. Maybe a walk through the woods will help me, she thought. Without thinking, she walked through Main Street. The weather was cloudy and Sara sensed a shower coming along, but she ignored the feeling because it had poured yesterday already – can't happen twice in a row, right?
Orchid Dust, the small but very cosy diner in town was an excellent place for a cup of coffee, along with some thinking. Sara sat down at one of the white wooden tables. A young woman named Gina, whom she knew superficially, came to take her order and chatted with Sara for a second. Outside, the clouds were already turning a dark shade of grey again and Sara softly scolded herself for ignoring reason and acting on the old gambler's fallacy. A minute or three later, Gina returned with the coffee. She put it in front of Sara, with a dish of chocolate-caramel-cookies.
'Sorry, I didn't order this.' Sara said, pointing to the dish. Gina smiled.
'On the house. They're our specialty and absolutely delicious.' Sara raised a brow but smiled.
'Okay, thanks.' She picked one of the cookies and tasted. Gina was right.. they were absolute heaven. Sara had always liked chocolate chip cookies, but this was something entirely different.
She was so absorbed in the heavenly brown cookie-UFO's that she didn't notice Ted Arlington walked towards her table and tapping her on the shoulder.
'Sara?' he tried when he got no response. She jumped in her chair and turned around, coughing.
'H-hello Ted!' it came in between coughs.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. May I join you?' Sara coughed one more time and nodded.
'Yeah, sure. You want a cup of tea or something? Oh, and you've got to try these cookies, seriously. They're addictive.'
'Thank you, but I'll pass. So, how are you?' Sara finished the last bit of her cookie and immediately grabbed another one.
'I'm very well – wow, these really are amazing! – Why wouldn't I be?' Ted shrugged.
'Don't know. I just wanted to inform how you and that guy are doing – now, what was his name..'
'What guy?'
'You know, the bloke that came by the other day and asked me if he could hand his letter to you. He seemed like a very decent man, a bit hazy sometimes, but decent.'
Sara's eyes had gone wide and the cookie in her hand stopped half way to her mouth.
'Y-you're kidding me, right?' she said, quickly composing herself. Ted shook his head. 'Grissom came- you.. you spoke to Grissom?'
'Grissom! That was that fellow's name. Right, so how's everything between him and you? I hope he treats you well. He said something to me about his love for you not being explainable, so my first guess's that it's fine, but you never know, eh?' The rambling Scot made her smile, as did some of his words.
'.. something about his love for you being unexplainable..'
'I haven't seen him, actually.'
'You haven't?' Ted raised a brow, 'Well, what's takin' so long, love? It's unfair of you to keep him waiting, you know.' Sara had to laugh at that.
If only you knew how long he had kept me waiting..
'No, I'm serious,' he said when he saw her laugh, 'If you take too long, old Sunshine might make a pass at him.' Sara's head snapped up.
'What did you just say?' Ted's chuckle kind of pissed her off, but that didn't really matter to her right now. He'd said something that'd caught her attention and it was far more important.
'Sabrina did say to me she thought he was sexy. He's a bit too young for her, but still.'
'Sabrina Sunshine, she runs the Old Mill Inn, right?' Ted nodded.
The Old Mill Inn was a small hotel in the middle of town. It was built in the old mill, as the name said, and the place was very popular with tourists. The manager and receptionist, Sabrina Sunshine, was in her late sixties, widowed, very friendly.. and grey as a pigeon.
'.. come and find me were Sunshine is grey..' Sara whispered. She stood up unexpectedly, causing Ted to jump in his seat.
'Christ, love. What's gotten into you?'
'Nothing, Ted, nothing. I just.. remembered I have a very important errand to run. Got to go.' She almost ran to the front door, stopped just as sudden as she went and walked back to Ted.
'Did Sabrina happen to tell you in which room her new crush is staying?' Ted thought for a second before answering.
'No, but you could ask her. She knows for sure!' If a persons smile could make ice cubes melt, the smile Sara gave to Ted would have melted the ice caps.
'Ted, I owe you one, you have no idea!' She again ran across the diner and when she was at the door, Ted yelled after her:
'No problem, kid. Good luck!'
