A/N: Two more chapters until this one is complete--enjoy! Thanks for reviews and comments!
Putting Senses to Order Chapter 10
The next day they met with Kermit for the last time. He would move on to other tourists with the same stories, the same casual, reckless driving, the same guided tours. Grissom passed him cash as a tip for his service and the man bowed and shook their hands. He had made arrangements for them to leave on the sleeper train, making sure they reserved a small private compartment, and alerted his "cousins" that they were his friends.
They stayed on hotels grounds, walked in the gardens, rested and ate plain foods before packing their bags for the night train trip to Luxor. A flight would have taken an hour; the train left late with a scheduled arrival for dawn. Sara and Grissom settled into the small cubicle called a sleeper compartment with a bag of food between them. Sara knew he had eaten something in the market to cause his stomach upset. She watched him as carefully as he had been watching her.
"You don't have to check everything I eat, you know," he huffed, slightly amused that she was taking such care.
Sara elbowed him. "And you don't have to watch every step I take, Gil Grissom," she chided back to him. Secretly, she appreciated his concern.
Within an hour, a train employee arrived to fold down the stacked narrow beds, leave bottles of water and small towels, and took their breakfast order. Grissom and Sara watched from the corridor as he smoothed brightly plaid blankets over each bed, showed them adjustable air vents and left them alone as quickly as he had arrived.
"I'm not sleeping up there." Grissom said as he pointed to the top bunk. "Neither are you."
Sara laughed. "I can climb up there."
"I know you can—you aren't. I married you to sleep with you."
His words worked. She slept with him—after making love with him.
"I've never undressed on a train," she said as she slipped her shoes from her feet.
"Allow me," he whispered. He unbuttoned her blouse and slipped it from her shoulders and hanging it on a hook above her head. His shirt followed. The tie on her Egyptian pants released with an easy pull and puddle at her feet. "I like that." He said as his hand slipped around her hip and snuggled her to his own hips.
They both laughed as they moved with the rhythm of the train. "We may never to this again," he said.
"Yes, we will—just not on a train!"
He pulled her into his arms and she felt his smile against her mouth. His pants disappeared into the shadows of the compartment.
Before dawn they were on the train platform with their bags looking for the transfer bus to the boat they would take up the Nile. The transfer got them to the ship, and after spending a few minutes in the lobby, they found a guide to take them to Karnak Temple. The sunlight was barely on the horizon as the old car took them on a short drive to the temple, the young guide explaining the significance of the temple area, how smart they were to come so early to see the most beautiful site in Egypt.
The young woman was correct. They stood in the Avenue of the Sphinxes as the sun's rays slanted into the long passageway of the Hypostyle Hall. The growing light brightened the sky to an orange blush, turned the barren hills to pink, and as the sun moved, a purple haze settled in the west.
Sara looked at Grissom as he slowly turned, taking in all that was around him. He gave her a crooked grin. "Unlike anywhere else on earth," he said before circling arms around her.
The guide approached them. "It is beautiful at night—with spotlights." She pointed high about their heads. "Details up there become apparent with the lights from below." The girl's tour took them into the temple, courtyards, and sun rooms, to see the colossal statues, a tall obelisk, the colonnade with carved scenes and inscriptions covering every inch of space on stone surfaces. They stepped over and around stones that had once been statues, steps, walls and floors. By noon, the temperature had risen with the sun and they returned to their boat.
Their ship was a small one compared to others docked along the river's edge taking on only 80 passengers. The hotel-sized cabin had a large window, a king size bed, and a large bathroom with a tub. They would spend several days floating along the river, stopping at the Valley of the Kings, several temples, the Aswan dam, and a few museums. At one stop, they sailed in one of the native felucca, a small, narrow boat powered by oars and sails.
From the deck, or from their room, Sara and Grissom watched the parade of other boats and ships of varying sizes, saw farms of bright green growing cotton, sugar cane, and cabbages. In places, birds filled the sky as white ibises lifted and drifted overhead in the blue sky. Occasionally, they saw belching smoke of factories surrounded by brown mud brick houses of workers.
The two had already established a partnership that needed no inclusion of others and found little reason to spend time with other travelers. They were observers of their fellow shipmates—sunburned women and white skinned business men, tipsy couples and retirees, and a few sullen teenagers who wanted to be elsewhere.
Their last night, they had returned to Luxor and the two found their way back to the temples at sunset. The smell of jasmine filled their noses as the sounds of the call to prayer came from surrounding mosques. They walked among the columns and the statues and the sphinxes to see the carved details of a historic land and society.
Sara's voice from the bathroom brought Grissom to the door as fast as he could move. She stood draped in a towel with a look of astonishment on her face.
"What's wrong?"
Her hand lay flat against her belly.
He reached her in two strides. "Are you okay?"
She placed his hand underneath hers. "The shower—I think I've felt movement for a couple of days—always in the shower—just didn't know what it was."
Grissom smiled; his hand rested lightly on her abdomen, then the movement occurred again. A smile broke across his face and he gathered her in his arms.