She was the last one to hand in her final exam and normally he wouldn't have allowed a student to take so much time but there was something about this one that… demanded exceptions to the rules. He waited patiently as she slowly made her way down the large auditorium steps, her usually pink complexion an ashen gray.
"Dr. Grissom, thank you for-" awkwardly, she shoved the exam booklet into his hands and turned to leave.
"Sara," his voiced stopped her before she could retreat. "I didn't get your final paper from you yet."
"Yeah, I…" she chewed on her lower lip, showing off the tiny gap between her front teeth. Her feet made a scuffling sound against the carpet on the floor and his eyes dropped to peer at her brown flip flops and red toenail polish. She was wearing an old pair of jeans that had frayed at the hem where the too long fabric had dragged on the ground. Not her usual professional attire but most students opted for more comfortable clothing on the last day of class. She was still stammering out a somewhat flustered and shy response as her adjusted the strap on her leather backpack over her shoulder when he looked up to meet her eyes.
Clearing his throat succeeded him in drawing her muttering to a close. He looked down at the exam booklet in his hands and eyed her hand writing. The large messy scrawl wasn't the typical form he would expect from a young woman such as Sara, though he had been surprised to find that there was much about her that didn't meet his expectations.
She seemed to be very intelligent, interested, analytical and studious compared to most of the other students in the class. And yet, by neglecting to submit her final paper she had more or less resigned herself to a failing grade. "I don't normally allow late submissions. Especially to students who don't find it necessary to approach me about issues with their assignment," he told her curtly, tossing Sara's booklet onto the stack of exams already piled onto his desk.
"I figured," she told him smoothly as she set her jaw and rolled her shoulders back. Her body screamed defiance but her endless dark eyes gave away her defeat. His heart skipped a beat and he wondered who this woman was, who could make his throat ache with all the words trapped there that he could only hope to express.
"Do you… have an explanation?" He found himself asking as he stepped away from her so that he wouldn't have to look into those eyes anymore.
"I…" looking down she shook her head. Lowering his eyes also he frowned at her hands balled into white knuckled fists that were wrapped around the leather strap on her bag. "No, I don't have an explanation."
"My grades are due Friday at midnight. Get it to me in time to mark it and I'll forget about the tardiness." Unable to look at her he busied himself with taking a seat behind his desk and settling in to get to work on his marking.
As if in slow motion she nodded and turned to leave him to his work. On her way past the first row of seat, however, she paused and spoke without turning back around, "Why?"
"Because we all deserve a little grace sometimes, Sara. And you look like you could use a break," his answer was low and quiet enough that he wondered if it would reach her.
Nodding again, she began ascending the stairs that would take her to the door and out of his life, possibly forever. "I hope to see you again, Dr. Grissom," she half turned, a few stairs shy of the top. "Maybe we can have a cup of coffee or something before you head back to Vegas."
Discarding his glasses onto his desk, he stood quickly, "I would like that, but-"
"But you don't date students…?" The small half-smile and the sparkle in her brown eyes had returned, "I don't see any students here…"
"But," he continued leaning against his desk, his arms folded over his grey sweater, "You will be busy writing a paper."
He didn't miss the eye-roll or the way her chest puffed up a little as she turned her back to him. "I'll be at Joe's on campus tomorrow afternoon working on my paper if you would like to join me. If not," she pushed the door open, engulfing herself in the too bright florescent light from the hallways, "I guess we'll both regret it."
When the door swung closed behind her and clicked shut. Casting his eyes downward to the spot where she had stood moments before he felt a small smile tug at his lips. Normally he didn't date students, or ex-students in fact, he didn't necessarily date period. But there was something about this one that demanded an exception.