Grissom breathed in deeply, her sent filling his senses. He smiled and pulled her closer to him. Kissing the nook of her neck, eyes still closed.
"Good morning." She whispered, then looked past him and at the clock on the night stand, "Shoot." She quickly left his embrace and stood. His eyes were open now, watching as she quickly made her way around the room. "I'm going to be late." The shower water turned on and he could hear her get in.
Now sitting up, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "You've got an hour until shift." He called to her from the bed. A few minutes later she reemerged toweling dry her hair. "I promised Roni I'd come in early to help her practice using some of the equipment."
"How's that going?"
She pulled a shirt over her head and zipped on a pair of jeans. She shrugged, "It's okay. She's very green. But she's a bright girl. How's your bee colony coming along?" She quickly diverted the conversation.
"You should come by and see. I have it set up in the tented area behind the lab, where day shift's botany experiments are."
"Where we sat out with the dead pig that one night?" She smiled.
He smiled at the memory, "Just adjacent. I'll leave a suit for you in your locker."
Sara picked up his pants from yesterday off the floor, folded them and placed them on the bed. "I'll see you at the lab." And with that she left the room. He heard her pet Hank, and close the door behind her.
Grissom quickly reached into the pocket of the folded pants to pull out the ring. He rolled his eyes at himself for being so careless. I'll leave it in the office for now, he decided. He then got up and dressed for the day.
Grissom was spending most of his free time in the lab with his bees out back. It was Sunday now, three days had past since his impromptu trip to Santa Monica and then San Fransisco. The ring was burning a whole in his desk drawer.
Sara had yet to find time to visit him and the bees. Each time she was free, she'd find he was out in the field. She just finished up processing the remains of a body found at the Rampart construction site, and passed off a good deal of what was left to Roni. She made her way to Grissom's office, but he wasn't there.
"Have you seen Grissom?" She asked as she approached Judy.
"I think he went out to the bees, left about twenty minutes ago."
"Thanks."
Sara made her way back to the lockers, grabbed the bee keeping suit that Grissom had left for her a few days prior, and made her way outside.
She could see him there through the fencing as she approached. Watching him for a moment as he carried out some routine maintenance tasks. She opened the fence door and he looked up to see her there entering.
"Oh I love it when you dress up." He teased and she laughed softly.
"Well, you know, whatever it takes to get some time with you." She spoke softly through her laugh and followed him to the bees. "How's the study going? Any sign of colony collapse disorder?"
"Nope. So far it's healthy." He sprayed the smoke into the bee's hive.
"Nothing too healthy about smoking," She jested as she cleared her throat.
"Well, the scent confuses the guard bees. They won't admit the faremone that informs the colony that there's an intruder." Grissom now opened the hive's box as a few start to fly out.
"Oh don't worry, he's harmless."
Grissom smiled.
"Who's who?"
"These are the workers, the infertile females."
"They don't sting?"
"Not unless you swat them, close one up in your hand or freak out. Go ahead, take off your gloves."
"Eh.. alright.. I trust you." She spoke through pursed lips as she slipped the glove off her good hand.
Grissom shook at the hive slate, allowing some of the bee's to fly away. Sara stuck out her hand, letting one land on her.
"See? It's cool." He watched as Sara smiled, letting the bee crawl over her long slender fingers.
"The worker bees defend the hive, procure the pollen, make the honey, deposit the larva and pupae into each of these cells." He looked up again to watch as she studied the bee intently. His heart swelled with love for this woman before him. So bright and open minded, understanding and unjudgmental. So beautiful. His eyes softened as he looked at her closer, a warm smile dancing on his lips. He couldn't wait until tomorrow night.
He looked back down at the bees and before he knew what he was saying, the words just started coming out, "You know, maybe we should get married." It came out like an after thought, like he hadn't been thinking about it at all. He couldn't look at her right away, just kept looking at the bees, afraid of what she might say, or how she might react.
Sara snapped her head up in his direction, unsure if he said what she think he did. Surprise etched over her features as she stared at him. Her mouth slightly agape. And then, he turned his head to look at her, eyes meeting.
Her heart began to race uncontrollably. freak out.
"Ouch!" She turned her attention to her hand to watch as a bee finished stinging her. The area of her palm inflamed and swollen now. "Oh."
"Sorry." Grissom grabbed the smoke and sprayed it a few more times near the hive. Sara began to rub at it, laughing softly.
"Don't pick at it, makes it worse." She looked up at him, looking at his face, his features, watching as he took out a pocket tool and took her hand in his, "Releases venom into the blood stream. It's better to scrape it." He began to scrape at the sting mark on her hand as she looked at him in awe.
Her mind was racing, her heart still beating fast. She opened her mouth to talk but nothing would come out.
He still couldn't look at her, "So uh, what do you think.. You know, about—"
She leaned over to catch his eye, "Yes."
He looked up at her now, relief washing over him. She flashed a big grin his way, "Let's do it."
"Yeah?" His boyish grin began to form on his lips.
She let out a small, excited laugh, grinning from ear to ear as she watched his smile get bigger. He suddenly had the overwhelming urger to kiss her, he leaned in. Plastic on plastic. Their bee keeper suits awkwardly got in the way. She looked down at her hand that he was still holding. He quickly scrapped away the rest of the stinger and put a lid on the bee's colony.
They left the fenced in area and Grissom turned her to face him, slowly taking off her bee keeper helmet and netting before doing the same to his. He looked deep into her eyes and smiled before gently placing a kiss on her lips. He could feel her smile against him until she began to kiss him back. Her still gloved hand made its way to the back of his neck.
Her phone began to rang and she reluctantly pulled away from the kiss to check it.
"It's Hodges."
"Go." He nodded. "I need to finish up here."
Sara leaned back in to kiss him again before leaving. He watched as she disappeared around the corner. His whole body filled with warmth and excitement.
Sara walked back from the locker room, having disrobed form the bee suit and placing it back in her locker. She made a conscious effort to conceal her current mood. Her exuberance. She walked down the hall to find Hodges.
"Hi Sara. You look like you're having a good day."
Obviously not hiding it well enough.
"Thanks." She worked to disguise her feelings further.
"Here are those results." He handed her a piece of paper.
A little later Grissom made his way back to his office. He took a seat behind his desk and quickly took out the ring that he'd stashed there a few days prior. He looked at it again as it sparkled in the dimly lit room.
"Hey!" Grissom looked up with a start at the sound of Catherine's voice, having had surprised him. He quickly shoved the ring back in his desk draw. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing." He tried to sound innocent. "Why?"
Catherine looked at the cooler on the cart and then back to him as he stood now.
"What's in the cooler?"
"Carp" She spoke as she opened it, "Paul was holding one when he died. He had a freezer full of them. Some sort of experiment."
"Huh." He moved around his desk to walk toward her, taking a better look, "I could, uh, process those fish if you'd like."
Catherine smirked knowingly, "Do I know how to turn you on or what?"
Later that night, after shift was long over, Grissom sat behind his desk once more and once more he opened the desk draw to look at the ring.
"Hey." He looked up and this time it wasn't Catherine in his doorway, it was Sara. He smiled as he quickly shoved the ring into his pocket. "I'm off tonight."
He looked at his watch to realize it was now Monday. "Me too." He smiled, remembering the other countless times they'd had this exchange before. "I'll see you at home."
"Yeah," She spoke seductively, her words lined with suggestion, "You will." Grissom arched an eyebrow as she pursed her lips and walked off. He could feel his heart beat faster.
He spent the next fifteen minutes devoted to wrapping up his paperwork to get home to her.
"Goodnight, Judy." Grissom spoke as he passed through reception.
"Goodnight, Dr. Grissom."
As he made his way to his car a feeling washed over him. He felt happier than he'd ever known possible.