A/N: Here we go, everyone, my first multi-chapter fic in the CSI fandom! Written from Grissom's POV. This story is not going to cover every episode of the series, but instead I'm just going to highlight some of MY favorite GSR moments as I attempt to answer why Gil thinks the two of them have been in a relationship for 9 years instead of 2. I own nothing but the little plot bunnies running around in my brain!

"When did you two first –"

"Nine years ago."

"You two need to get your stories straight."

A la Carte, Season 8 Episode 2

I watched Conrad storm out of my office.

Was that it? He wasn't going to ask me any more questions for his administrative review? I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. I couldn't believe that I had gotten off so easy. I knew for a fact that he had grilled Sara earlier or had given it his best shot. I smiled to myself. Perhaps that was the source of his crankiness. While neither one of us had wanted Ecklie to know about our private lives, we had known that eventually the day of reckoning would arrive. I'm sure my Sara took her interview this morning as seriously as a cross examination by a defense attorney in court. Her answers would have been brief, concise, to the point, and offer little information that could be used against us.

I sat up straight. Is that what Conrad had meant by getting our stories straight? Had Sara tried to minimize the fallout by implying we hadn't been in a relationship for very long? Because that was just –

I needed to talk to Sara.

"I can't believe you remember that I had a ponytail."

I chuckled softly as I drew the brush through her wet, wavy hair. "I remember everything about that day, honey. Your hair, your eyes, your smile – and I don't think I've seen you in a skirt since."

She gasped and turned her head to look at me over her shoulder. "You, Gilbert, are such a liar! I may not wear them often, but I do wear skirts!"

I scooted closer to her on the bed, letting her feel my body heat. "Not the jean skirt – what happened to it?"

Her eyes fluttered closed. "I got Lia's blood on it, remember? SFPD took it as evidence and when I got it back-" she shrugged.

I set the brush to the side and gathered her into my arms, being careful with her cast. "Still hurts?"

She sighed into my t-shirt. "We make so few real friends in this life that when we lose one – " she left the thought unfinished, but she didn't need complete it. It had only been a few weeks since I had almost lost her, since she had been kidnapped and left to die in the desert. If Natalie had succeeded, life wouldn't have been worth living.

Sara lifted her head and cupped my face with her non-casted hand. "Having you there with me during one of the darkest times in my life – it made all the difference."

I trailed a series of short, wet kisses from her lips down her neck and back up to whisper in her ear. "See? I was right. It's been nine years."

She rolled her eyes and used the weight of her cast to push me down onto the bed. "Are you kidding me? I waited seven years for you to wake up and see what was right in front of you! So that means I'm right – it's been two years."

I didn't answer her with words, as I let myself get distracted by the weight of her hips on mine, and the simple fact that we were together now, in this moment, after everything we'd been through.

I could agree to disagree. She said two, and I said nine.

I knew who was right.

A/N: Reviews are CANDY that feed the muses!