Chapter 4

Several hours later Dickie sat on an imaginary chair close to where Grissom was seated as he stared at a large hairy specimen that was crawling in a jar in front of him. His face showed his distaste for it and his nose would lift in disgust as it would raise its head (or, Dickie wondered—was it its butt?) in the air, then squirm and latch it's long spiky feet (were they feet? For all Dickie knew—they might be his intestines trying to escape out of such a hideous little body!) onto the sides of the glass.

"Wow! You make really good coffee," Sara said as she sat on the floor of the living room with a dozen jars spread out in front of her. "This is my fourth cup and I'm not feeling wired at all."

"Me neither," Grissom said as he removed one of the lids only to have a large grasshopper-type insect jump out and land on Sara's forehead above her right eyebrow.

Jenny's squeal bounced off the walls but Sara and Grissom didn't hear it as the platinum blonde jumped away from where she had been sitting next to Sara. "Good Lord! That thing's huge! And she's just sitting there with it on her face!"

"A match made in heaven," Dickie said as he patted the air next to where he was sitting and waited for Jenny join him. "Oh, no—that's right. "We're" a match made in heaven. If these two can ever get their heads out of their. . .lab coats. . .and get some loving done—"then" we'll be a match in heaven!"

Grissom sat there and looked at how Sara was trying to watch her little visitor as she scrunched up her nose and started blowing out of the side of her mouth. He started chuckling as he pointed at her. "You look funny."

Sara picked up the little container and put it over the bug, but held it against her forehead as she looked through the bottom at Grissom.

"So do you." She dropped the jar and started laughing at her own joke then stopped when the grasshopper jumped off her face and scampered across the room. "Aren't you going to get that?"

"Yeah," he sighed although he remained seated on the chair, took another drink of his coffee then stared at the bottom of his cup. He looked up at Sara with a sheepish grin. "I need more coffee. Do you?"

"I will in a second." She tipped the cup back and drank down its contents then tried to get to her feet but somehow the room seemed a little lopsided and she was having trouble navigating it. Grissom grabbed onto her arm and helped her out through the hallway to the kitchen. She stopped suddenly and looked at the pot of coffee sitting on the counter. "Hey. When did you make another pot?"

"I don't know," he answered as he poured himself a cup. "Who cares. Come here—I'll fill ya up."

"Dr. Grissom, I do believe you're compromising me," Sara said in a low, teasing voice as she raised an eyebrow at him and he chuckled in response then lifted his cup toward her.

"A toast."

She stood there and watched him as he smiled back to her then after thirty seconds started giggling again. "A toast to what?"

"Ento—ento—entomology, of course." He clicked his cup against hers and started drinking down the coffee.

"To bugs!" Sara agreed and started drinking. "And all their friends! Little suckers!"

"I think he's had quite enough," Jenny said from where she was now sitting on the table.

"He didn't get to the romance yet," Dickie told her.

"She tried! She couldn't have been more blatant! And he wants to talk about bugs!"

"Not all bugs are suckers," Grissom told her and he started back through the hallway again and flopped on the chair he had vacated earlier.

"Not all women are either!" Sara told him and when he looked at her through disappointed eyes, she started laughing again.

"Ahh," he moaned, then stared at her inquiringly. "Aren't they? I mean-are you?"

"Am I what?" Sara said as she wiped at the tears that had formed in her eyes.

"Oh—my—God!" Jenny exclaimed next to a chuckling Dickie. "Is he asking what I "think" he's asking."

"Well, he aint whistling Dixie," Dickie snorted.

"How crude! How utterly crude!"

"Are you what?" Grissom asked.

"That's what I said. Am I what?"

"I don't know. Ya know what? I'm really feeling like I need to go to bed right now. How are you feeling?" He got to his feet and moved until he was standing in front of her, making her smile disintegrate as he nearly touched noses with her. "Do you feel like going to bed?"

Jenny squealed with excitement and Dickie tried to slap Grissom on the back, but his hand went straight through. "Dammit," Dickie voiced his disappointment but let it slide immediately as he smiled at Grissom. "That's my boy! Show her who's a man!"

"Uh. . ." Sara managed to get out as she watched how his eyes were moving over her face before resting on her lips. "Yeah. . .sure."

"Your night clothes are over there," he said then started stumbling across the hall to the bedroom.

Jenny looked at the suitcase Grissom had brought over earlier then she looked back at Sara who was simply standing there watching Grissom walk into his bedroom, but not seeing Dickie walking right behind him.

"Alright, boyo! You can do this! I know you can!" Dickie was saying nearly in Grissom's face. "Give it the good heave-ho! Do it for the Gipper! Give it the old college-try!"

In the meantime Jenny was nearly jumping up and down in anticipation as she watched a stupefied Sara.

"Come on, girl! Get those clothes off! Forget about putting anything else on! Hell! He invited you—get naked!"

"Did you say. . ." Sara dropped her cup of coffee on the floor as she turned more fully toward the doorway to Grissom's bedroom.

"Yes! He did!" Jenny nearly shouted and when Sara still refused to budge, she started grabbing onto Sara's clothes. With a few tugs she had Sara's shirt opened and was pulling it down over her arms.

"Hey," Sara said quietly as she watched the clothing dropping from her. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, sweetie!" Jenny said as she tossed Sara's shirt onto the sofa then turned back to her. "You're just gonna get some well-deserved lovin'!"

"I'm gonna get some lovin'?" Sara asked, making Jenny stop her movements as she looked very closely at Sara.

"Do you hear me?" Jenny asked slowly.

"Yeah," Sara said quietly as she looked back toward Grissom's bedroom. "I hear ya. I'm gonna get some lovin'."

"Do you "see" me?"

Sara turned and closed her eyes almost all the way as she looked at Jeanette. "I do—if I squint my eyes real tight. You're fuzzy—but you're beautiful."

"Oh," Jenny smiled as she patted her hair. "Thank you."

"Are you my angel?" Sara slurred.

"Angel? Yeah—yeah—I'm your angel. I guess that's one way of looking at it."

"What kind of an angel are you?"

"I'm the—get your butt in that bedroom and make love to that man before it's too late—angel!" She blurted but when Sara looked at her doubtfully, she corrected herself. "I'm the "love" angel. Now come on, honey! You've got to help-out here! I know you're feeling a bit tipsy but. . ."

"A bit?" Sara asked. "I'm frickin' drunker than a skunk! On coffee! What kind of coffee do they make at this damned lake? I'm so high I'm seeing angels." At this last comment she started giggling again.

"That's right, honey—you laugh and blame it on the coffee. But for crying out loud! Get your clothes off!"

"O—kay!" Sara said obligingly as she started to push her shorts down but stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"You're looking."

"Oh," Jenny said at the realization that Sara didn't know she had seen her naked before just as she had seen dozens of naked ladies over the past eighty-five years. "Okay, sweetie, I'll turn my back."

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"I can't believe you actually told her to come into your room!" Dickie said as he took the cup out of Grissom's hand and sat it on the nightstand. "How very. . .forceful of you!"

Grissom looked at his hand, wondering where the drink was that he had just been holding then saw it on the nightstand. He shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't concerned with how it got there. His brain was too fuzzy to concentrate on such trivial things. He could hear some noises coming from outside and he stumbled toward his window. He looked out and saw the man who had brought him to the cottage—what was his name? Skipper? And did that make the little guy next to him Gilligan? Grissom chuckled at the thought. What the hell were they doing crawling on the ground like that? Oh—that's right. He called and told them the water in Sara's cottage wasn't running through the pipes. They must be checking the crawl-space beneath the cottage to see what was wrong. He turned back toward his bureau and wondered how his shirt had gotten off his body and put on top of that piece of furniture.

"Hey—what the. . ." he said as his shorts were yanked down over his hips.

"No time for formalities, bucko!" Dickie said. "You're getting ready for a date!"

"But shouldn't I be getting "dressed" for a date? Not undressed?" Grissom looked at the man who was taking the shorts he was stepping out of and slowly stood up until he was face-to-face with him. He couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped him again as he heard commotion coming from Sara's cottage. "You look like the Thin Man."

"You see me."

Grissom moved to the edge of his bed and sat down then he looked at Dickie again and laughed, then stopped suddenly and fell back onto his pillows as he fell into a deep sleep.

"Ahhh," Sara said from the doorway as she stood there, still wearing her panties and bra. "He's so cute."

She took two steps into the room and flopped down onto the bed next to him and snuggled against his side. Jenny and Dickie stood there with wide eyes as they watched them both sleeping.

"They fell asleep!" Jenny said with disbelief. "They—fell—asleep!"

"I told you there was too much hooch in their coffee! Now, what good did it do?"

"How was I supposed to know they couldn't handle their booze? We drank this much the night we. . ." she started but stopped and changed the subject. "So, what do we do now?"

"Wait, I guess. What else can we do?"

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Jenny sat on the bureau and watched as Grissom started to stir and hope blossomed in her again. "Come on, Romeo! Wake up and show her who's boss!"

She watched as he repositioned himself then fell back to sleep. She looked to where Dickie slept on the air on the other side of Grissom. She slowly floated over toward where he was resting peacefully. He looked so content and sweet. Dammit! He should be awake with her and trying to figure out how to get these two nerds together. She pulled her foot back and gave him a swift kick, resulting in him flipping over to look at her in shock, then immediately dropping to the floor.

"Dammit, Jenny! I wish you'd stop doing that!"

"Then get up and help get these two motivated."

"What do you want me to do?" He asked grumpily as he got up and brushed off his behind. "Sing sweet love songs into his ears? I don't think "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" will get him into the mood as easily as it used to get "me" ready for love."

"Everything" used to get "you" ready for love," she said snidely then stood next to him as they stared down at the sleeping couple.

Grissom felt something warm against his side and opened his eyes to see light coming in the window from something bright and unnatural. He glanced down to see Sara lying next to him. He couldn't, for the life of him, remember what had happened. His hand went immediately to his abdomen and then lower, feeling the boxers that still covered his midsection.

"Sara," he whispered then gently shook her. "Sara?"

"Mmmm," she groaned as she tried to bury her face against his neck but he pulled back and shook her again. She opened her eyes and looked at him, revealing her shock in her brown orbs. "Griss?"

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"What happened?"

"I—don't know. The last thing I remember, we were sitting in the room sorting through my find from this morning."

"We didn't. . .I mean. . .did we. . ."

"Highly unlikely," Grissom said as he moved away from her and grabbed his shorts that were close by. He got up and pulled them on over his boxers. He turned and looked at Sara as she self-consciously pulled the bedspread over her body. "I think whatever it was that backed up in your cottage—got over here and we were breathing it in without being aware of it. It's evidently gone now. We're lucky. We could've lain down to sleep and never woken up."

"But—our clothes."

"Must've had hot flashes of some sort and took off the clothes to cool down. I can't imagine what else we would've taken them off for."

Jenny took a step toward him in frustration but Dickie pulled her back. "Are you insane! You can't imagine. . ."

"I can," Sara said and Grissom looked over at her.

"Sara," he started and moved to sit on the bed next to her as he took her hand. "I'm sorry. I don't remember anything. I'd prefer to think we hadn't traveled down a road I'm not prepared to travel."

Sara pulled her hands from his and moved to get up. "I think I've heard this story before."

"Oh, honey," Jenny said as she ran to catch up with her. "Don't let him fool ya! He wants you so bad!"

"What's the matter with you?" Dickie asked Grissom. "You're hurting her!" When Grissom sat still and didn't go after her, Dickie did. "You don't deserve her."

"I know," Grissom whispered to himself.

"Come on, sweetie," Jenny tried again. "Go back in. Tell him the way it is! Don't let him do this to you!"

Dickie looked over at her, ready to agree but his expression turned to shock as he watched her start to disappear before him. "Jenny?"

He looked down at his own hands and watched as they started to disappear as well. Neither heard the two men from the cottage next door, nor did they see how they were hurrying out from beneath the building. Instead, they looked at where they hand landed on the beach.

"Dickie—what's going on?" Jenny scurried over to where Dickie was just sitting up. "Your clothes are all—dirty—and tattered."

"What just happened?" Dickie asked as he saw her clothing was in the same condition.

"Dickie—we're—solid. Something's happened!"

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The pounding on Grissom's front door turned Sara toward the sound as she closed her blouse then she watched as a fully clothed Grissom went to answer the person who was so insistent outside. He pulled the door open and found the gentleman who had brought him to the cottage.

"Yes? Have you found the problem with Sara's cottage?"

"Dr. Grissom," the man said nervously. "I think you better come and see this. I know you deal with this kind of thing everyday—but I'm not used to it!"

Grissom looked back at Sara and they both followed the man across the lawn separating the cottages and squatted down to look at the canvas tarp that was lying near the crawlspace with bits of dark gray satin and black cloth. He looked back to the man. "You moved it?"

"Yeah. We didn't know what was inside it. We just found it in an old rusted barrel. Someone must've put it under when they were building this place."

Sara could see something approaching them through the darkness and looked toward the front of the house to see a young couple walking down the path. The man was tall and rather handsome in a dapper-kind of way with a mustache and refined features but looked completely out of place in his "Kiss Me, I'm Irish," tee-shirt and the woman was absolutely stunning with hair so blonde it could practically be considered white. There was something about her that didn't quite jive with her tee-shirt as well as it shouted "I'm a Bitch, So What of It?" The proprietor of Pale Moon looked at them questioningly.

"May I help you?"

"Our boat," said the young woman. "It sank and we're trying to get back to our car."

Grissom reached down and pulled open the tarp as a rusty revolver and two skulls dropped out followed by a dirty sequined hand purse. He used a piece of tarp and opened the clasp where he found an old piece of paper. He carefully put it on the tarp then lifted a small heart-shaped locket. He tried to open it but it was rusted closed.

The blonde-haired woman looked down at the articles, clearly disturbed by the body parts and gun, but upon seeing the purse and locket she fell to the ground in a dead faint.

"Jenny!" The man with her went down on his knees and lifted her against him.

Sara went to her as her companion fanned her and she slowly came around. "Dickie? Dickie, that's. . .that's. . ."

"Shh. I know snooky bear. It'll be alright now." He helped her to her feet and looked at Sara. "Is there some place we can go until she feels better?"

"Yeah—sure. Bring her over here." Sara walked ahead of them and went back into Grissom's cottage then took them to the sofa where she lay down. She went to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water. "Here. Drink some of this. It will help."

"What's—what's going on over there?" Dickie asked as he moved to look out the door and saw Grissom walking back toward them.

"They—um—found some bodies under the building," Sara told him.

Grissom paused then moved past him to the living room where he stopped next to Sara. "It seems something beneath the cottage ruptured that barrel today and released the gases inside. It could be what made you pass out. But that doesn't explain what happened over here."

"What would've ruptured the barrel?" Sara asked.

"Could've been anything. By the looks of it, it's been there for decades. Maybe it just finally gave way and collapsed. At any rate, we've got two bodies that need investigated. I called the lab and Catherine's sending Nick and Greg here. They'll be collecting everything and taking it back." He paused as he looked at Sara. "Um, since your cottage is now a crime scene, you won't be able to stay there. I suppose you'll want to go back with the guys. If not, I can go and you can stay in this cottage."

Jenny looked over at Dickie and he looked back helplessly as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose so," Sara said weakly.

"No!" Jenny spoke up, turning Sara's and Grissom's attention back to her. "I'm sorry. I guess I spoke out of turn—but this place looks big enough for the two of you to share. Gosh—this place looks big enough for two couples to stay in, even."

"Where are "you" staying?" Sara looked at the younger woman and smiled gently at her.

"We—aren't staying anywhere. That's the problem. We drove and drove out here and thought we'd take a little canoe ride—and the darned thing took in so much water it went down. Now we can't find our car. I don't know where we're going to stay tonight."

Sara looked over at Grissom and he looked back.

"You can stay here," Grissom said quietly. "I doubt we'll get much sleep tonight anyway."

"Are you sure, old chap?" Dickie asked, turning Grissom's curious eyes on him. "I mean—are you sure? We don't want to push ourselves on you."

Grissom looked back at Sara. "No—no. It's no problem. Stay here and you can find your car tomorrow. It's a big lake. It could be parked anywhere."

He turned and went back to the door.

"Then you'll both be staying also?" Jenny asked.

"Like he said," Sara explained. "We probably won't be sleeping much anyway. But you need some rest so why don't you try to sleep?"

Jenny looked up at her and nodded her head submissively then looked at Dickie. He moved to sit on the edge of the sofa next to her and he took her hand.

"We'll be fine," he told Sara. "I'll sit here and watch over her."

"I think you can pull the sofa out into a bed," Grissom said over his shoulder. "It might be more comfortable. Sara, I'll wait for Nick out here."

"Wait. There's got to be something I can do to help." She moved out the door behind him.

Jenny looked up at Dickie and felt a tear slip down her cheek. "Dickie—why are we here—like this? I thought we were going to go to. . .heaven. . .or someplace like that. . .when we got them together. Instead—they find our bodies and a gun! What happened, Dickie? I don't remember a gun!"

"I don't know, my love." He pulled her into his arms and hugged her to his chest. "You know that the last thing I remember was falling asleep in the car. We had stopped on the way to get married and decided to rest before going on. I was just so sleepy—we both were. That's why we decided to stop. But-I never thought there was a gun involved. Jeanette, dear. I don't remember a gun! Jenny, that means someone killed us."