Chapter 22
Author's note: I don't own CSI but I do love to play with them! It's the sincerest form of flattery!
I've been working it over and over, trying to imagine the conversation between Ecklie and Grissom would sound like. Finally, I think I captured it. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
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"You look like hell, Gil," Conrad Ecklie bluntly said to his old colleague.
"I've never felt better," Gil tersely answered, "But thanks for reminding me."
"Well, you said it was important," Ecklie continued, making quick work of the niceties and moving directly into the reason for the meeting.
"I have a request here for time off – two weeks specifically – for myself and Sara upon her release from Doctor's care."
"Gil," Ecklie rubbed his balding head, "You do realize that if you do this, your little secret will be out of the bag right?"
"What little secret is that Conrad?" Gil asked, laying the bait.
"About you and your 'girlfriend'." That last word was said very sarcastically. "You know, if you are fraternizing with an employee, I won't be able to protect you!"
Grissom chuckled to himself, he knew that was the last thing on Ecklie's mind.
"Well," Grissom answered, "No need for you to protect anyone, Conrad, Sara and I have married and we will be honeymooning during that time."
Ecklie sat behind his desk, stunned. He had no idea what to say.
"Pick your chin up off your desk, Conrad, and sign the papers," Grissom insisted, "I have hundreds of hours on the books, as does my wife."
"Ok, well, uhm, congratulations Gil, I am really very happy for you. And yes, I will approve the time, I assume Catherine will take over for you?"
"Yes," Grissom answered, "She will be back on limited duty soon, and she will be able to supervise from the office."
"How long until Sidle, I mean, well, is she going to remain Sidle or change to Grissom?" he asked.
"I don't know yet."
"Ok well how long will Sara be off?" Ecklie continued his original question.
"According to Dr Griffin, she will need to be off for about a week, she will have some psychological evaluation and should be fine to go back to work. Right after the honeymoon of course."
"Of course, Gil. So you know we will have to discuss how this changes your team when you get back."
"No, Conrad," Grissom smiled, "I've already spoken to the Sherriff who agreed that nothing changes, except that Catherine, as assistant supervisor, will take over Sara's evaluations."
"Oh, I see," Conrad Ecklie grimaced. He had, yet again, been outsmarted by Grissom. He was sure that the Sherriff would have preferred Grissom to him for the lab directorship, but Grissom did not want to move forward in his career. Grissom very seldom used his relationship with the Sherriff for his own purposes, but when it came to his team, and when he knew that Conrad was going to be an ass, he used his connections. He had often been accused of not being very political. But Grissom thought of himself as adept when he needed to be.
But now, he had a wife to worry about. He needed to be sure that his decisions did not have a negative impact on Sara. Conrad could be very vindictive, and he never really liked Sara, so he would have to be careful how he proceeded.
Conrad, knowing he'd been trumped, signed the papers and handed them back to Grissom. He still could not understand why Sara had decided to get involved with Grissom. After all, Ecklie had asked her out several times, why would she pick Grissom? Oh well, her loss.
"Well, Good luck to you Gil, I really wish you and Sara all the best together. Please make sure you get all of the paperwork done in human resources."
"Thank you Conrad, I appreciate your sentiments and thank you for meeting with me tonight."
Gil stood up and left Conrad's office.
As he walked away, Conrad Ecklie sighed and wished that he had a younger, beautiful wife waiting for him to come home.
That ship had already sailed.
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"So what I really want to know is how did you guys find me so quickly?"
"Well, it was really pretty easy," Nick Stokes took a deep breath. Sitting beside his friend Sara in her hospital bed, wondering exactly how much she knew and how much he should say to avoid getting in trouble with the boss. "Let's just say there were a couple tracking devices."
"So no one trusted me to be able to do the job?" she asked.
At least she is feeling better, she's getting feisty again.
"Everyone trusted you Sara," he explained, "It's the perp that we didn't trust."
"Et tu? Nicky." She responded, her brown eyes flashing.
He reached out to grab her hand.
Startled, he pulled his hand back.
"When did you get married?" he asked.
"Earlier today."
"What?" he asked, sounding surprised. "But who?"
"Let's just say, you know my husband pretty well," she smiled from ear to ear.
"Grissom?" he asked.
She grinned again.
"You go girl!" he said, genuinely happy for his friend.
But then he realized that they must have been seeing each other behind the teams' back for a while if they married.
"How long…" he began to try and form the question, "have you been together?"
"Honestly Nick," she chose her words carefully, "We have only been together-together for a couple weeks. But we've been involved for years."
He looked puzzled.
"Ever since we met in San Fransisco, before I came to Vegas, we have had a relationship."
"Wow, I'd never know," he answered.
"Really, the only one who ever caught on to it was Greg. And Brass in the last little bit," she responded, "But we've tried to keep each other at arm's distance because of the stigma that would be attached if it was revealed at work."
"That's got to suck," he thoughtfully added, "But what about Hank?"
"Well, we had decided that the relationship wasn't going anywhere, we were fighting a lot, and we decided to give it a rest." She began to explain. "But when it came to light what Hank had been doing, Gil was right back in my corner, being my knight in shining armor and making me feel good about myself again."
"So what brought on the jump into marriage?" he asked.
"Well, it seems that just after we went to the bar and you guys were making fun of me for that person hitting on me, I got mad at him and told him I was taking some time away. That seemed to be what he needed, because he grabbed my arm, and pulled me in to an intense kiss. One like he had done those years before in San Francisco."
He smiled. He genuinely was happy for both of his friends.
"I guess once we jumped in with both feet, we knew it was right, so there was no need to dance around it any more."
"I'm happy for you both. I'm really happy for you both. And I hope to be uncle Nick soon!"
She gave him her classic Sidle-slug to the arm but followed it by a warm hug.
"Now," he grinned, "Do I get to break the news to Gregg-o?"
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I hope you enjoyed. Wrapping up with one more chapter before Friday. I PROMISE 100% FORECAST FOR SMUT!
And please, if you have been reading along, or if you just found this story, send me a review. It really does mean a lot!