A/N: OK I apologise for the fact that this chapter is slightly shorter than the others. I had intended to add Smut but since FF is cracking down on it you get it eu naturale. if y'all want I can post the next chapter this weekend too. you know what to do! :o)
Greg groaned and squeezed his eyes closed tighter against the glaring sunlight as Sara opened the thick curtains with a flourish and switched on the radio. 'Sweet Caroline' bellowed out of the stereo as she moved into the kitchen and poured herself a coffee, smiling over the mug as he attempted to shake himself into consciousness.
"Neil Diamond? You're spending way too much time with Grissom Sara"
She narrowed her eyes and launched an apple from the fruit basket in his direction playfully.
"it's the radio, genius" she leaned back on the counter and sipped the coffee slowly, taking in the mess of blankets and pile of discarded clothing surrounding her friend "so… you going to tell me why I got rudely awakened at 1am?"
"You were awake…" he protested, attempting to fold the blankets into a neat pile and failing miserably. He threw the ball of material into the corner of the sofa and moved across the room picking up his clothing and wondering why he felt the need to have it spread out across the floor in the first place.
"Only because you called me 40 times on your way over here!"
He would have protested if it wasn't true. The cab driver had shook his head in disbelief as he had left countless messages on her cell varying from teasing her about her 'old age' to begging her to answer her cell so he didn't have to spend the rest of his life calling her name to a window like some kind of modern day Romeo stuck in limbo.
"Well I might have had a tiny disagreement with Caitlyn…"
He knew she was waiting for him to expand his explanation but the smell of coffee was washing over him igniting his thirst for caffeine and his need for the slow comfort the liquid brought as it slid down his throat. He dropped into a chair by the window and gazed out at the park across the road. It was far from the hustle and bustle of the strip. A little garden of Eden, a world away from the insanity of the strip yet still in the middle of the city. She paid a premium for this condo and he could see why as he wistfully watched young couples strolling hand in hand past the rows of blossoming spring flowers and children breaking free from their parents over protective grasp to deplete some energy on the playground.
"Tiny disagreements don't make you come to my door in the middle of the night Greg" she began, taking the chair directly across from him and refusing to drop her gaze "what's going on?"
Greg sighed and continued staring out of the window until he couldn't ignore her stare anymore. She knew how to get the truth out of him every time.
"she may have a slight issue with… us" he fidgeted in his seat and stared into his mug taking on the persona of a teenage boy afraid to tell his mother he'd been in detention for 3 weeks.
"Us? You and me, us? Us?" she blustered in disbelief.
"Yeah Sara – us. She's mad at me for texting you while we were out for dinner" he sighed, taking a swig of his coffee and returning his gaze to the park again "among other things…"
"What other things?"
"I don't even know, she's… she's so insecure I don't know how to… fix her"
"You don't have to fix her Greg!" Sara laughed in disbelief as she joined him watching the people toing and froing in the park. Joggers raced past, their ears buzzing with music transporting them to their own place far removed from Las Vegas. Friends shared a picnic breakfast and a game of Frisbee, their smiles wide and honest as they frolicked on the grass.
"Tell me what to do" he almost begged her, leaning across the table to meet her eye.
"First thing you need to do is get out of here, if she finds out you spent the night here you are screwed!"
She took his coffee mug from his hands and sauntered into the kitchen with a backwards glance at her friend, clearly struggling with his confusion about the female species.
"She'll already know… I didn't come home. There's only one place I'd be…"
She paused for a second after placing the mug down on the counter and watching him fight his inner turmoil. It occurred to her suddenly that there was a solution to all this, Caitlyn wouldn't be the first girlfriend to struggle to cope with their unorthodox relationship, she wouldn't be the first girlfriend to be lost in favor of their friendship but she was the first one Sara had ever seen him care so much about. She was the first one he had ever looked at with that much love in his eyes and she didn't want to be responsible for the loss of that. She turned back to Greg with a slightly pained expression. "Greg...maybe she's right. I… I depend on you too much"
"Sara what are you talking about?" Greg asked with a frown.
"I'm talking about doing something to save your relationship." Sara offered her expression not changing. "Maybe it would do us both some good to… go it alone for a while"
"No" his answer was so simple and decisive she was genuinely surprised. "Not gonna happen, you are stuck with me. Caitlyn will just have to deal with it"
"Look, we're always going to be friends Greg. But...I'm not going to text you the second I start feeling down, and you don't have to drop everything when I do. I'm a big girl, I can look after myself."
She attempted to give him the easy way out. He could run home to Caitlyn and tell her he had made the ultimate sacrifice for her. He could have spent the foreseeable future wrapped in her embrace, he could have been happy but Greg didn't want that.
"Sara, no." Greg stood up walking slowly towards her. "I love Cait, but I love you too. If she can't cope with that then she's not worth it"
Sara opened her mouth and took a deep breath, ready to stage her protest but Greg's expression told her there was no point. He had made his decision.
"Ok… first you have to do something about that hair" she smiled ruffling his bed head playfully as she marched back into the kitchen. "Then you need flowers, your very best puppy dog expression and a reservation at The Eiffel Tower"
"Are you insane? Even if I could afford it I'd never get a table!"
Sara raised an eyebrow and flicked through a small book by the phone with a smile.
"You shower, leave the rest to me…" he hesitated, watching her with suspicion until she waved her hand around at him and he darted off in the direction of the shower.
He emerged looking like a human being again, a towel wrapped around his waist as he strolled around the apartment like he owned the place. Sara chuckled under her breath and shook her head as she cradled the phone under her chin and waved him into the bedroom, opening Grissom's closet with a nod.
She disappeared back into the living room asking for a 'Pierre' on the phone. Greg glanced at the closet with a sigh. Grissom wasn't generally known for his fashion sense; he pulled out a garish blue and white patterned shirt and shook his head in disapproval.
"Put that back Greg!" Sara called from the living room, smiling at his choice of shirt.
"Stop trying to watch me get naked Sara" he casually placed the shirt back in the closet and made a halfhearted attempt at finding an almost modern looking shirt. "Does Grissom even own a cool suit?"
Sara casually strode back into the room with an eye roll and nudged him out of the way. He watched as she pushed a few hangers out of the way and slid a dark navy suit, tossing it onto the bed with a victorious smile.
"Oh Ms. Sidle your detective skills astound me."
She narrowed her eyes and disappeared out of the room again, choosing not to respond to his hilarious display of wit. He surveyed the suit laid over the bed waiting for him. It felt a bit wrong to be wearing another man's suit; like he was violating his privacy somehow. The sheer material reflected the light as he held it up to examine it closer. He remembered this suit, Grissom had worn this suit what felt like eons ago. When he was younger and more fashion conscious. He couldn't imagine him wearing it now; it was most definitely a young man's suit. He visibly flinched as he tried it on, taking in his image in the mirror with a satisfied nod. Sara appeared in front of him with a wide smile highlighting her features as she smoothed out the collar.
"Can't keep your hands off me huh?" he grinned as she met his eye with a flat expression "can't say I blame you Sara. I make this look good"
"You'll be making it look good on a park bench if you don't hurry up and get home"
Greg strode into the living room and slipped on his shoes. Sara handed him his watch and leaned back on the counter to watch him again as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Your reservation is at 6 and the bill is taken care of, get some flowers on the way home and… just tell her the truth. Tell her how you feel, honesty is important"
He shifted nervously as he smoothed down his hair again and retrieved his wallet from last night's clothes. This was potentially a make or break moment in his relationship, he hadn't quite realized the magnitude of it all before now.
"You look great, go knock em dead"
Sara held the door open with a soft reassuring smile; he was suddenly reluctant to leave. His heart was gripped with a feeling of dread. Caitlyn was bound to fear the worst. He had given her no reason not to.
"I'd rather not knock her dead you see…. I'm not really into the whole Necrophilliac thing…"
"Greg, you can't hide here forever" she placed a kiss on his cheek and gently steered him outside. "You need to do this"
"Can I hide here after if she stomps on my poor defenseless sacrificial heart?"
"Of course, just don't make it in the middle of the night ok?"
The entire cab ride over he had run through all the possible scenarios in his head. It occurred to him that going to Sara's probably wasn't the best idea he'd ever had, in hindsight he really should have gone after Caitlyn straight away and made her see sense, in reality all he had done was give weight to her already heavy argument.
He brandished the bunch of flowers in front of him like a sword, his first line of defense in his strategy to woo her back was to wave something pretty at her and look sorry. He turned his keys in the lock as quietly as he could manage, hoping she would still be asleep or doing some work in the office. He wanted to have the element of surprise, hoping he could gage her mood long before she started throwing things.
The first thing that hit him when he walked through the door was the smell. A heavy pine fragrance filled the air, his dark wood floors shone in the sunlight pouring in through the wide open windows. The thin curtains blew into the air in the breeze like they were trying to break free. The whole room was eerily immaculate, like he had just stepped into a show home. It didn't help suppress his nerves at all. His shoes clicked on the floor and echoed around the room as he slowly made his way across to the kitchen. There was no sign of Caitlyn at all, none of her ridiculously cheery, mainstream music, no tapping of computer keys, no chatting on the phone or chick flick on the TV. He pulled a vase from under the sink and filled it with water for the flowers with another suspicious glance around. This was all off, she was supposed to be mad at him and she had spent the night cleaning the apartment. He was well aware her OCD could manifest itself in stressful situations but this was ridiculous.
She emerged from the bathroom; her figure framed in the doorway by the light pouring in. her hair was tied in a messy knot, the dress replaced with a vest and a pair of joggers that clung to her curves but she looked completely drained of the sparkle she always seemed to exude as she stood there wringing a cloth in her hands. Her eyes were red, either from crying or from using too much bleach; her hands were dry and cracked, the skin at the sides of her fingernails broken and angry from where she had been biting them.
He had only seen her like this once before, in college. They had attended together, although he had graduated a year before her she followed him to Stanford. Their friends joked that that was how inseperable they were, the truth was his mother wouldn't let him attend any other college and she was stuck working at her parent's restaurant to fund her education. She had found out her boyfriend had been cheating on her with her then best friend Lois. Since she lived with Lois he had come home to find her furiously scrubbing the floors of his room much to the amusement of his room-mate Clive. In that circumstance he had simply wrapped her in his arms and held her until the tears stopped, he was good at that. He was good at picking up the piece's after someone else had broken them down but now that he was faced with the fact he was the one who had broken her he faltered at the first hurdle.
"Hi…" he offered quietly, suddenly feeling self-conscious and unsure. She stared at the rag in her hands looking like every tiny morsel of confidence had been sapped out of her and his heart ached for the beautiful woman she had been before, he wanted to go to her. To wrap her up and tell her she had it all wrong but she flinched when he took a step towards her. Her hands tightened around the cloth so that her knuckles were strained and white and she fixed her eyes on his feet. He may have seen her in OCD cleaning mode before but he had never, ever seen her looking so scared and so uncertain.
"I um… I got you flowers" he gestured to the now discarded bunch of flowers on the kitchen counter. "Sara got us a table at the Eiffel Tower later… if… if you want to go that is…. With me"
She finally met his eye, dragging her gaze from the floor and looking at him with eyes brimming with tears. The guilt he felt welling up inside him was almost too much to bear. He cleared the space between them as quickly as he dared, enveloping her in his embrace and whispering his apologies into her hair.
"please… don't apologise to me…" she whispered, the sound disappearing into his chest.
"I shouldn't have gone, I was an idiot" he began, running his hands gently down her arms while she furiously shook her head. She tried to speak but he placed a finger on her lips "I just slept on her couch, I promise. I would never, EVER cheat on you. Not in a million years would it ever even enter my mind."
"Greg…" she almost begged him to stop talking.
"Megan Fox could walk in here right now and offer herself to me, no strings attached and I would say no" he smiled to no avail, she was still looking at him with the same pained expression, with the same sorrow.
"Greg, please…."
"do you know how hot Megan Fox is, Cait?" she laughed through her tears and he decided he was in the clear, kissing the tears from her eyes as he guided her to the couch and sat down with her "I'm not going to promise I won't see Sara again." She nestled into his chest as he lay back against the soft pillow's and relaxed into the warm sunshine spilling in through the window's "She is important to me, she's very important to me in fact but I will promise that you'll be important to me too, because I love you. Probably a lot more than you know, I always have"
"Greg… I have to tell you something…"
She twisted her body to look at him, searching his eyes for sincerity and he didn't have to fake it. Every word he said was true. Her breath trembled as she met his lips, a weary hand resting on his chest and feeling the pounding of his heart.
"you don't have to say anything" he hushed her with his soothing tones, stroking her face gently.
"I'm sorry Greg, I …"
He silenced her protests with a kiss, a long, slow, meaningful kiss that made all her protests melt away. His thumb traced small circles on the exposed skin of her back, a gesture he had become familiar with over the past few months but one that still had her shivering in his arms.
She turned around and placed a leg on either side of his body and twisted her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his as she ran her fingers through his hair. Her lips brushed over his ear, her tongue darting out to tease him as she nibbled the soft flesh of his earlobe and breathed on his neck a heavy lustful sigh. Greg's hands instinctually stroked the length of her back and tilted her hips towards him, pulling her closer as he teased her soft neck with his tongue.
"I love you too Mr. Sanders" she breathed into his ear, knowing full well it would drive him crazy. He sunk further into the couch, taking a moment to drink in the beauty of the woman in front of him. It still struck him sometimes that she was his. He would still gaze at her as she slept or lounged about in one of his shirts and marvel at the serendipity of it all. She caught his eye with a smile as she unbuttoned his Grissom-shirt "but I do not believe for one second you would turn down Megan Fox!"
Greg wrapped his arms around her and gently lay her back on the soft pillow's of the sofa, his lips dancing over hers "it's true, let's take a raincheck on dinner and I'll prove it!"
