"Any regrets?" Sara asked with a contented sigh.
"One," her lover replied.
The word sounded like an alarm in her head as the fear and confusion registered on her face.
"We should have done this three years ago," Gil clarified. He turned slightly onto his side and enveloped her in his arms.
Relief washed over her. "We could have saved ourselves a lot of heartache," she added. Sleep, normally elusive to Sara, seemed to come easily wrapped in Grissom's arms. In Grissom's home. In Grissom's bed.
The annoying beeping jerked her from her peaceful slumber. She sat straight up, squinting as she surveyed the room for the source of the offending noise. Suddenly, as abruptly as it had begun, it stopped. Once the cobwebs cleared, she realized that the noise had ceased because Grissom had switched off the alarm on his bedside clock. Grissom! Oh my God, I'm in bed with Grissom! "Sorry," Gil said softly. "I didn't mean to startle you." His surprise at her reaction quickly gave way to amusement. "You act like you've never heard an alarm clock before."
"Let's just say," Sara replied coyly, "I've never heard your alarm clock before."
As they prepared and ate dinner together, each was amazed at how completely at ease they were. Some degree of awkwardness would seem inevitable, and yet there was none. It would appear to an observer that they had performed this pre-work ritual countless times together, like a couple married for many years. "Odd," Grissom observed.
"Odd?"
"Yes, odd. We've only had one date and it seems like fifty."
"Well, let's look at this logically," Sara began. "We've known each other a long time and spent a great deal of time together. First dates are for 'what's your sign?' and 'what do you do for a living?' We're well past all that. It's more like a fiftieth date for us. It's not so odd."
"Hmm, I suppose not."
"What are we going to do about work?"
"What do you mean?" Gil sought clarification.
"Is 'this'," Sara asked, gesturing back and forth between them with her right hand, "a secret?"
"I don't want to hide you, Sara."
"I don't want to hide, either. But there are potential ramifications."
"I'm not going to hide, but I won't advertise it, either," catching Sara's puzzled expression, he added "If someone asks me, I'll tell the truth, but I'm not going to walk around volunteering it."
"I can live with that."
Grissom sat down in the chair in front of his computer and logged on to the internet. "I just need to check my e-mail before I go in."
"I should go anyway," Sara told him. "I have to go home and change for work." She kissed him "goodbye" before picking up her purse and heading for the door.
"I'll see you at work," Grissom smiled. He watched Sara exit his townhouse and turned back to his monitor. Thirty-two emails greeted him, twenty-six of which were unsolicited garbage. The one from his mother caught his eye. She wanted him to visit her in California for a weekend in two more weeks. After a look at the work schedule taped to his refrigerator, he grinned as he typed his reply. He knew he was about to make her day.
"Saturday the 17th? We'll be there. And don't forget, Sara is a vegetarian…"
The End