OAKWOOD CLOSE

~ Chapter 12 ~


A/N: My apologies for the delay in getting this chapter posted; we seem to have had nothing but family emergencies and business problems lately and Oakwood Close ended up being one of the many things that got pushed further and further down my to-do list. There's only three more chapters to go after this one though and I plan to do everything I can to make sure we get through them without any more hold-ups. :)


"Thanks for that, Cath; I owe you one." With his cell phone clamped to his ear, Grissom eased himself slowly down onto the nearest of the dining chairs and, as Sara looked up, rolled his eyes melodramatically as he listened to the strident voice on the other end of the line. "All right then, I owe you a couple." He reached for the coffee pot only to have Sara beat him to it and watched appreciatively as she topped up his cup. "Yeah, we both slept in a little longer than expected so we're getting a late start; we should be back sometime around three." With a smile of thanks, he pulled the now full cup towards him. "Okay, we'll see you then. Bye"

"All sorted?" Hair still damp from her shower, Sara raised her own mug up to her lips and took a quick sip of the hot liquid as she watched him.

"Yeah, I told her where Mom kept the spare key so she's going to stop by the house and pick out an outfit then drop it in at the funeral home for me." One shoulder rose in a slight shrug. "Then she's going to take Ben out on a shopping trip to find something for him to wear tomorrow. I'd never really considered that he'd need something special for it but I guess it makes sense; a t-shirt and a pair of jeans probably wouldn't be the best look for his grandmother's funeral, would it?" Despite the subject, his mouth quirked up in a small smile. "You know, I think this will be the first time Catherine's actually taken him somewhere since a sales clerk in Walmart made the mistake of calling her a doting grandma."

"And the clerk lived to tell the tale?" Sara's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Only just," Grissom grinned, vividly remembering Catherine's disgusted indignation at the remark. "And I'll bet you anything that's a mistake he'll never make again."

"So is that why you owe her a couple of favours?" Sara asked. "Because she's risking public humiliation again?"

"Not quite, no." Lifting his cup, Grissom took a moment to breathe in the heady aroma of freshly brewed coffee before taking a mouthful. "Apparently Ben didn't behave too well last night; it was his first full night away from me so I guess it's understandable but I don't think Cath really appreciated the three hours of sleep he allowed her or the food-splattered kitchen she found herself with at breakfast when she turned her back on him to answer the phone." He smiled. "She's talking a full paint job but, knowing Cath, I think it's fair to assume that she's exaggerating just a little." He paused for a moment. "You know, since we're talking about Grissoms disturbing other people's sleep," Putting his cup back down, he sighed. "I want to apologize for last night. I didn't mean to… I shouldn't have…" He dropped his gaze, staring down at the tabletop, as he sought the right words. "I never should have put you in that position, Sara and I'm really sorry that I did; I should have had more control."

"Don't be silly." Pushing her half-full cup to one side, Sara frowned across at him. "You've just lost your mother, you found yourself caught up in, what could have been, a much more serious accident that it turned out to be and then I compounded it all by pointing out what would have happened if your son had been in the car with us." She reached across the table and laid a comforting hand on top of his. "Honestly? I'd have been shocked if you hadn't broken down." She squeezed his fingers. "Seriously, Gil, you have nothing at all to apologise for; I'm just glad that I could be there when you needed someone." Dipping her head slightly to try and catch his eye, she grinned. "Besides, I probably had the best night's sleep than I've had for a long time after all of that so I'm not about to complain."

Popping his head back up, Grissom said nothing but the single deep breath in and slow, even exhalation that followed coupled with a look of gratitude let Sara know that, although still embarrassed by his behaviour, he appreciated the easy dismissal of the previous night's events.

Pulling her hand back, she decided a change of subject was the best way forward. "I like your house."

"So do I." Turning slightly on his chair, Grissom looked around his neat and tidy home. "It's a little on the small side but it's really all Ben and I have needed up till now. He shrugged. "I'm going to be sorry to leave it."

"You've decided then," Sara frowned. "You're definitely not taking the contract extension?"

"Yeah, as much as I've enjoyed all the field work here I'm really not sure my knees can take another year of hiking through the Arizona wilderness and I really think it would be better to give Ben a stable base. I'd like to get him set up somewhere where he can grow up knowing that place is his home; I don't want to have to uproot him every twelve months or so when my latest contract finishes."

"I…" Taken aback by the news, Sara ran her finger absently around the lip of her mug as she stared across the table at him. "I just thought, I guess, that if you left here, you'd stick with your plan to move back to Vegas. I mean, I assume Betty's house is yours now and…" She shrugged. "It seems as good a place as any to raise a child; there's good schools in that area and he'd have all of us around him, of course, a family of sorts."

"Well, unless she changed her will sometime during the past month then, yes, the house is mine," Grissom told her. "And, that's where Ben and I were going to be living but now that Mom's gone… I don't know." He met her gaze with a steady one of his own. "I've got job offers from a couple of different places and enough money in the bank that I don't have to make any rushed decisions so there's plenty of time to make up my mind."

"Any offers from Vegas?" Curiosity piqued, Sara couldn't help but ask. "I, uh… I remember Ecklie mentioning once that you had an open invitation to return to the lab if you ever decided that that was what you wanted."

"Yeah, but it's not." Raising his cup, Grissom shook his head. "That kind of work doesn't interest me anymore; been there, done that and I really don't feel the need to revisit it." He grinned. "Besides, I know what the hours are like, remember and strange as it sounds, I would actually like to see my son grow up, not just catch the odd glimpse of him as I rush from one bloody crime scene to the next."

"It's not always like that." She reminded him.

"No, it's not," He conceded. "But it is like that often enough for me to know that it's not the kind of lifestyle I want Ben being raised in." Lifting his hands, he rubbed idly at both temples a sight that instantly worried Sara.

"Headache getting worse?"

"It's annoying but no worse than it was last night," He told her truthfully, dropping his hands self-consciously under her gaze. "But to answer your question, there's two Vegas options on the table; one is a teaching position at UNLV and the other is with the Water Authority," He shrugged nonchalantly. "A similar kind of project to the one I've been involved in here in Flagstaff but this one would be a permanent position not just a twelve month contract."

"Well that's the kind of thing you're after, isn't it?"

"Perhaps but, like I said, there are other offers to consider and time enough to make up my mind so, I guess we'll see." Turning slightly on the chair, he looked up at the clock on the kitchen wall. "You know, we should probably start making a move." Pushing back from the table, he held his left arm tightly against his ribs as he slowly got to his feet. "I'll go and grab a shower and then start getting everything together that I want to take back with us." He gestured vaguely towards the coffee table in the middle of the living room. "I think I threw my keys down there last night when we arrived; the car's in the garage if you want to pull it around to the front of the house."

"Gil?" Taking a deep, bracing breath, Sara stood to face him. "Hang on a minute, okay; there's something that we need to discuss." She wasn't sure why now seemed to be the right moment or even exactly what it was she was going to say but something compelled her to continue. "You're probably not going to want to hear this, in fact, considering your reaction yesterday, I think that's almost a given but it's something that's hanging over the two of us and I think it's better that we get rid of it now.

Standing stock-still, he didn't need to ask. "Wynard."

"Yeah," Sara nodded. "Him and Basderic; I owe you an explanation for all of that."

"No you don't" Grissom stared at her as he took a deep breath in. "It's none of my business and getting angry the way I did yesterday was stupid and immature." He shook his head as if to dismiss the entire subject. "I never should have let it happen so just forget about it, okay?"

"No, I can't." Sara shook her head. "It's clearly something that's..."

"It's clearly nothing!" The vehemence in his tone belied the words. "I don't need to hear this, Sara, I don't want to hear this."

"I think you do." Keeping her own voice calm and controlled, she took a step around the corner of the table towards him. "As much as you may not like the thought of discussing it, I think it's something that we both need."

"No." Grissom took a single step backwards away from her. "We don't." His eyes flashed, filled with a long-suppressed anger and pain. "I told you all about Melissa because you all but insisted that I do that." He let out a quick, mirthless laugh. "And, considering Ben's existence, it wasn't really something I could hide but that doesn't mean you have to reciprocate." He turned away quickly and started towards the back of the house. "Trust me; the last thing I'm ever going to want to discuss is you and other men."

"Nothing happened."

Her quietly spoken declaration brought him to a halt but he didn't turn back.

"I saw the photos, Sara." Shoulder muscles rigid, Grissom took a deep breath in before continuing. "It didn't look like nothing to me."

"The ones taken outside that bar?" The knowledge that he'd seen the photographs shocked her to the core but Sara pushed all feelings aside as she tried to explain. "Then you've pretty much seen the extent of it." Her legs felt weak and she sat once again. "Absolutely nothing more than that happened at the hotel on the night that Taylor Wynard died; I went up to his room, we had a drink and talked and then I went to my room… alone." She sighed. "And shortly after that, Basderic murdered him and tried his level best to make it look like it was me."

"So I heard." Still unmoving, Grissom's comment was delivered expressionlessly and Sara bristled at the tone.

"Don't get me wrong, there was a part of me that wanted something to happen with him that night; after all, it was my birthday and I had just been stood up by someone I stupidly thought I could rely on even if he had just pulled the plug on our marriage." She saw him flinch but carried on regardless. "A big part of me wanted to hurt you, to punish you for throwing everything away like you did but," She shrugged. "When push came to shove, I couldn't let myself go through with it. I think I realised when I was sitting there talking to him that, in the end, the only person I'd be hurting was me."

"You really think I didn't hurt? That it didn't kill me to make that decision?" Keeping his back to her, Grissom shook his head. "I was giving up the only person that I'd ever truly loved; how the hell could you believe that would be painless?" He fell silent, his only movement a rhythmic clenching of his fist then, after clearing his throat, he turned slightly to look at her.

"Like I said, I'm going to grab a shower; I think the sooner we get on the road the better."

A/N2: Thank you Sylvie.