DISCLAIMER: I still, twenty six chapters later, do NOT own CSI
This is the epilogue, set in season six, so three years after the chapters that have been set in the present and eight years after the chapters set in the past. You can probably do the math yourself, but I'll tell you anyway, Greg is thirty and Catherine is thirty-five.
It's much too late to find
When you think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me, ohh?
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me, ohh?
"Another Pina Colada ma'am?" the tanned bartender asked, scooping up Catherine's empty glass.
"Thanks." she nodded, handing him Greg's empty glass too. "One for this guy as well."
"Certainly." the man replied, going back to bamboo hut turned bar.
"Greg." Catherine whispered. There was no response, so she repeated it again, louder. "Greg"
This time he woke up. "Wha?" he asked, sitting up straight on his deck chair.
"You were sleeping." she told him.
"I was?" he asked, rubbing his sandy blonde hair.
"Yes. And now you've messed up your hair." she replied, leaning forward to fix it.
She ran her fingers through it, savouring the silky softness of it beneath her fingertips.
"Mmmm..." Greg moaned, closing his eyes.
Catherine's fingers walked around the back of Greg's neck and down his spine.
He moaned again and Catherine pulled her hand away, aware that they were attracting several glares.
"Why'd you stop?" he asked her, looking up again with puppy dog eyes.
"People are staring." she whispered.
"So?"
"Greg..." she smiled, ruffling his hair once more for good measure.
"Fine." he sulked, taking their drinks from the bartender.
Catherine gazed over the top of her cocktail glass at the huge turquoise swimming pool. Looked at the children shooting down the waterslides, laughing and screaming. Looked at the people lazily floating on inflatable sunloungers, sipping their drinks. Looked at the familes putting on suncream, and the teenagers buying ice-creams. Catherine looked at the blue sky beyond their resort, at the plam trees and ever-present sun. Going to Hawaii had been Greg's idea, and it was their first holiday ever as a couple. She was enjoying it, a lot. Catherine looked at her pouty boyfriend, pretending to read a book about spiders that had been a christmas present from Grissom.
"Come on" he badgered. Let's go back to the hotel room. Lindsey's going to be at kid's camp for another hour.
"Alright" she whispered back, standing up. Hand in hand, they headed to room 104.
Later on they collected Lindsey from camp, and then went to a Hawaiin dancing worshop. The next day Greg tried to teach them how to surf, Lindsey was surprisingly good at it. On the Saturday, there was a huge barbeque that the whole resort came to, with a disco afterwards. They spent the rest of their time swimming, scuba-diving, windsurfing, hiking and cycling. They went sightseeing and toom lot's of photographs, ate some of the nicest food they had ever tasted and spent time lounging by the pool or beach. Greg insisted on making Catherine and Lindsey wear Hawaiin print dresses to match his shirt and Lindsey and Catherine painted Greg's fingernails while he was asleep. Greg and Lindsey became the best of friends and woke up at seven a.m. every morning to watch Spongbob Square Pants on T.V. in Nevada time. Lindsey started calling him Dad. Catherine liked that, and so did Greg.
When they got back to Vegas they showed everybody the photographs and made them all jealous by talking about the Hawaiin weather. Catherine started working an arson case with Warrick and Grissom, and Greg helped Nick and Sara with their double homicide. They went to a diner afterwards and laughed about their day, their coworkers and each other. Everything had gone back to normal. Greg loved being a CSI, and although lab rules forbade him from working cases with Catherine, they were happy that they got to see more of each other. Grant was arrested, trialed and convicted of multiple counts of rape, assualt and, in Catherine and Greg's case, attempted murder. He was going away for a long time.
The next day, Greg, Sara and Nick were chasing their suspect, who was attempting to flee to Europe. As they ran through security, to where the suspect was getting ready to board the plane, an aeroplane of several soldiers was landing. Greg watched them grab the small rucksacks that had held their whole lives for so long and run into the terminal, eager to see their loved ones. None of them knew this, but one of the soldiers was Thomas Mitchells, husband of Laura Mitchells, the nurse who had allowed Greg and Catherine to sleep in the same bed in the hospital. She believed that love could withstand any distance, and was much more important than money, greed or hospital procedure. She wasn't sure wether or not her husband was alive, and her face lit up when she saw him. He ran straight to her and kissed her, right there under the Arrivals sign, making passers-by stop and stare.
When Greg was released from the hospital, he moved in with Caterine and Lindsey. He went back to work and began trainging to work out in the field, a proper CSI. Greg and Catherine made each other happy. Sometimes, they made each other cry too. But in the end, you only remember the good things. The whipped cream fights and the making pancakes and the laughing at cartoon. You just remember the sunny days at the beach and the long nights spent dancing. In the end, life comes down to three things, friendship, family and love. And they had all three. In the end, that was what they remembered. Family, friendship and love. Lots of love.
Well, that's all folks. If you've made it this far, thank you, and I hope you've enjoyed this story. I might do a sequel one day, but for now I want to work on other CSI pairings and genres, like I might do a kidnapping story or a humour fic next. Most of my stories will probably be starring Greg Sanders, so I might do some Sandle next. I want to try a few things and decided what I like best, I'm new to this. If you liked this story, please check out Making The Cut, my other CSI story, which is shorter, less intense and focuses more on the case. If you want a sequel to this or have any other ideas, please let me know.