Disclaimer: I don't own.

A/N: Enjoy! Thanks for the reviews! They make me smile!

Chapter Fifteen:

I felt guilty for not being upfront with Jace about Ve—Dr. Grissom. Really, I did. I didn't like lying to him, but I didn't see any way around it. If I had cheated, I could confess to that and beg forgiveness… but I hadn't. How do you confess to spending time and flirting but remaining faithful?

Okay, maybe it's easier than I'm making it sound, but with the wedding a week away and seriously, no harm done, I didn't want to have that fight.

…But after Jace left, I was… lonely. And bored. And all I could think about was wanting to call someone and do something and…

I called him, and then I hung up. No. No, I would go to bed and sleep so that I could enjoy his lectures in the morning, maybe we'd grab another meal, and then I would come home to Jace who would no doubt have to work again, so then I could see him for dinner. See? That was more than enough friend-time. I didn't need to call him. So I wouldn't.

My phone rang, and though I closed my eyes in disbelief, my heart was leaping in my breast.

"Hello?"

"…Did you just call me?"

I sighed. This was another one of those 'How do you explain this?' situations. Oh, yeah, I did, I wanted to see you but I felt guilty for it because logically I know I'm only reaching out to you to make up for my dissatisfaction with my relationship. Yeah, that would go over real well.

"…My butt did." I cringed. The phrase that brought no questions from my friends was probably not a universal concept.

"Excuse me?"

"Uh… I… My phone was on the couch. I sat on it, my mistake, and it was calling you, so I hung it up."

"Oh."

"…Yeah."

There was a slight pause. "…Aren't you supposed to be having a romantic dinner?"

I swallowed. "I am. …Yes, I am. So… I'll just… let you go and… get to it."

"Sara."

"Hmm?"

"He's not there… You don't have to lie to me."

"…What?"

"There's no sound of cooking in the background and it's a little late to be eating now anyway… and you wouldn't have been sitting on the couch after a romantic meal, unless you guys just couldn't make it to the bedroom… in which case, you wouldn't have answered when I called back. …Or at least you wouldn't have sat and talked to me. You would have explained the mistake and then made some excuse to get off. …Especially since it's me. …You wouldn't sit on the phone with me with him right there."

I sat with my mouth open, uncertain how to respond, but he just sighed softly.

"What happened?"

"…Work."

I expected him to criticize Jace for once again working, but he didn't. "…It can be hard, having a job where you could get called in at any time. So what are you doing with your evening alone?"

I laughed. "Washing dishes… I'll probably finish off the wine and fall asleep."

He laughed. "Well, okay… I was going to suggest getting some ice cream and maybe a walk on the pier, but… hey, if you've got the night planned out, far be it from me to interfere."

I smiled. "…I probably shouldn't drive…" I'd had three glasses thus far, though a full one sat before me on the coffee table.

"I'll pick you up then. …See you in… half an hour." He hung up, leaving me stunned.

…Stunned, but very happy.

I brushed my teeth, thinking of the garlic from my sauce, changed clothes—I was still in the black slacks and black blouse I'd worn to the conference and it was no longer comfortable—and cleaned up the house a little because I knew I wouldn't want to do it when I got home. I heard his car pull up and grabbed my keys and purse before he could get out of the car—I didn't want him inside. …No, that wasn't necessarily true anymore. I would feel strange with him inside, and I would worry about him leaving some clue he'd been here. I locked my door and hurried down, sliding into his passenger seat with a grin.

"Hi."

"Hey… I'm sorry you're stuck with me. I know you were excited for the… romantic dinner."

I gave him a half smile. I had been excited for it. "…I'm not 'stuck' with you. I would have been stuck at home, but… this is a good second choice." I frowned as he cringed. I didn't mean to call him my second choice, but… Well, he was, wasn't he? …Wasn't he?

He swallowed. "So… ice cream close by?"

I directed him to an ice cream shop on the pier because he had suggested said walk, and we moved from his car onto the wooden planks together. I glanced at him. "…So this isn't dinner. Am I right to guess you still won't tell me?"

He grinned. "You are. …I guess I could be persuaded to tell you something lesser, however, for reciprocation…"

We stepped up to the window and the teenage boy greeted us. "Hi. What can I get for you?"

He considered for a moment. "…A cookie-dough waffle cone, please. Two scoops." The teenager nodded and looked at me.

"…One scoop of chocolate and one scoop of strawberry, in a waffle cone… Thanks." He nodded and rung it up, telling Dr. Grissom the total and then moving to make said cones. He pulled out money but I stopped him, retrieving the money I'd won from him.

"I hustled you… I can buy us ice cream."

"You paid for brunch too."

"…With your money. And if we get dinner, I'll still be paying with your money…"

He frowned but allowed me to pay the teenager who passed us our cones and handed me my change. I frowned as we walked away and he nudged me. "…What?"

I wrinkled my nose up. "He didn't wash his hands between touching the register, touching the cones and the ice cream scoops, and then touching the money and the register again. …Currency is disgusting, the way it changes hands… Ugh. Those germs obviously get all over the register, and then get spread to the cones and the scoops which sit in the buckets of ice cream…"

He looked at his ice cream in distaste, but I liked mine with a shrug of the shoulders. He laughed. "So it's gross, but not enough to deter you?"

I smiled. "My brother convinced me to eat dirt and bugs when I was three… I think I'll be okay."

He laughed then, her whole head falling forwards with it. "…Isn't three a little old to fall for that?"

My eyes were wide with indignation. "No! …He made a mud-pie and he told me it was chocolate… there were dead grasshoppers in it! …I cried for like an hour after I took a bite and he fell over laughing…"

He laughed again. "I'm sorry… it's not funny that you were so upset, but… No, it's all pretty funny!"

I smacked his arm but his grin remained fixed in place. I scowled. "You'd probably eat them willingly, that's why you think this is humorous…"

"Actually, I would. I love chocolate-covered grasshoppers… fried ants…" I shuddered and he laughed again. "Yeah, my mom doesn't like them either… When I was in college, if I brought any home with me and ate them in front of her… She would get so mad at me. I can't tell you how many boxes she threw away…"

"Good." I said, feeling that Mrs. Grissom was very much justified in this action. My spite only made him smile brighter.

"So…this wedding on Saturday. Inside, outside? Catholic, protestant, jewish?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Inside… He's, uh… he's not very religious, but his family is and… and it's the church he grew up in, so…"

"Are you religious?"

I snorted. "I'm a… border line atheist. I don't necessarily believe there's nothing… but I'm not convinced there's someone up there either. …I feel like people just needed someone they could blame… some way to explain things."

"…Or maybe a way to forgive themselves…?" He suggested, and I tilted my head, thinking.

"…In a new-testament sense that works… I'm not so sure about the old. There's not as much talk of forgiveness…"

"…So why are you getting married in a church you don't believe in?"

I hummed softly, taking a large lick of ice cream to buy me some time. "I… I wasn't like most little girls. I didn't dream about the perfect wedding. I mean, I liked fairy tales and all that but… by the time I was old enough to really think about anything beyond the whole fairytale idea, I…" I stopped, hesitating, but he nudged me gently again.

"…You… what?"

I glanced off to the side, "…I had decided I didn't want to get married." I glanced at him, taking in his surprised expression, and looked back to the side. "So, anyway… when it came to picking a place to have it… Really, as long as it was somewhere meaningful to him… that was what mattered, to me."

"…What made you change your mind?"

"Hmm?" I asked, though I knew exactly what he was asking.

"About marriage. …Why do you believe in it now but you didn't when you were… what? Eight or nine?"

I shrugged. "I leaned that… that marriage doesn't fall into two categories—fairy tales, which any self-respecting nine-year old doesn't believe in anymore, or lifetime television dramas. …With age comes… the realization of a middle ground."

He frowned, and I knew he was thinking about what I'd said. For some reason, I found it rather harder to lie to him than I did to Jace. …But then, I had told Dr. Grissom a lot about myself that I hadn't told Jace… "What about you? …How come you never got married?"

His head snapped up, taking him out of his thoughts for a moment. "…Oh. …I guess I just… got caught up in my career… never found the right girl… I told you about playing poker in Vegas to pay for fetal pigs and cadavers… There was a girl, at the time, who I… I thought she could have been the one, you know? But… I was spending everything I made between my job and my card games on experiments… It was more important than her, even though I thought I loved her…" He shrugged. "…Just not the right girl, I guess."

I gave a worried sort of half-smile to my shoes and kept walking.