9- "Time Flies"
The next day, Greg awoke at around one o' clock in the afternoon and decided to head over to the hospital to see Arianna again.
My wife, Arianna Sanders, Greg couldn't help but think while waiting at a red light, and he burst into laughter, a nice, giddy laughter. The man driving next to him nervously looked over his shoulder and drove quickly away.
He headed into the hospital and walked into Arianna's room. He froze.
She wasn't there.
Greg gasped, then checked the room number and stood there, at a lost for what to do. Lance entered the room silently, and said, "She was discharged this morning."
Greg jumped up and spun around. Lance held out an envelope. "She told me to give this to you."
Greg took the envelope and Lance smiled sadly and left. Greg sat on her bed and slowly opened it up. Outside of it fell a letter and a picture. He picked up the picture and smiled.
The pianist had taken a picture at the perfect time. Lance was in the background, smiling broadly. Greg held the cell phone in his right hand, and his other arm was around Ari's waist. Greg and Ari were looking at each other in the eyes, smiling. They actually looked like newlyweds, except Ari was in her interview clothes and Greg's lab coat could be seen draped over a chair near Lance.
He smiled and set the picture aside as he picked up the letter:
My dear "Greggo",
After that stunt we pulled yesterday, the Doctor was suddenly very eager to discharge me. I wanted to wait until you came, but he rushed me out, calling me Mrs. Sanders the entire time.
I moved into an on campus apartment, they allowed me one because of the pregnancy. At least one good thing happened from that, huh?
I guess the picture came along with the wedding package. It was taken at the best time, don't you think? There were two, I am keeping one.
As for this sad excuse for a marriage- I am not holding you to anything. You can continue on your life as if you weren't married to me. I will return again and then we can get a divorce. I am doing summer classes so I finish the year around the time the baby will come.
Until we meet again,
Arianna
Greg stared at the letter and reread it, prying apart the little things. Why hadn't she signed it another way? Why didn't she sign a last name?
Why was he thinking so hard about a letter?
He drove home, feeling totally confused inside. He didn't know what to think. Sure, the wedding wasn't out of love, but the romantic part of Greg was willing to see... well, he didn't know what, but something. Besides, he had never been one for commitment. Maybe being forced into one was... fate or something.
He reached his apartment, still void of feelings. It was kind of wrong of her to sneak off like that, but then Greg wondered what he would have done. Probably the same thing. They were so alike, and yet so different in many ways, and it frustrated him.
He walked into his apartment and turned on the radio. The song "All by Myself" by Celine Dion lulled out of the speakers. Greg glared at the radio and shook his head as he switched the channel.
He found a frame and framed the picture. It was corny, but it was his wedding picture.
He shook his head, smiling despite himself.
He took the picture to work and showed it to Grissom. Grissom approved.
"She looks very... wow." Grissom said, and Catherine walked in just at that moment.
"Who is this?" Catherine said in an "ooh-la-la" kind of way. "New girlfriend?"
"No!" Greg said, jumping up and trying to grab it, but Catherine was a former dancer, and she managed to twist around and grab it right out of Grissom's hands.
"Hey, she's a cutie! Looks like a great girlfriend!"
"No," Greg said, "She's my wife."
Of course, at that particular moment, everyone in the CSI lab had shut up and everyone heard him.
Grissom smiled and said in a Desi Arnez way, "Greggy, you've got some explainin' to do!"
After telling everyone who she was, he thought it would be respectful to keep the whole truth away from them. He also kept the pregnancy secret too, not sure to tell them he was or wasn't the father.
"When will we get to meet her?" Sara asked, and Grissom saw Greg's hesitation and Grissom spoke up, "Okay, people, murderers haven't stopped because of Greg's love life. Let's get back to work."
Everyone groaned and headed out, and Greg put the picture near the comparison microscopes.
A month passed, then two. Greg used the excuse of his wife going to school for the fact that they never saw her. He slowly got over her, and sometimes even forgot he was married. Then he would see the picture, which he never had the heart to throw away, and feel uneasy again.
She would call sometimes, but always have some excuse to get off the phone before he would gather the courage to say how much he missed her.
Yet another month passed. It had been three months, and Ari was four months along and hating it. She sent him a picture, and she looked positively radiant. She had cut her hair and was starting to show. She spent an entire phone call complaining about the price of maternity things. He had offered her some money, but she refused it, and he knew she would. He sent it anyway.
Finally, it had been six months since he had last seen her. She was seven months into her pregnancy and was starting to take night classes so she could finish her school credits in time for December 14th, the due date.
Greg remembered the day well. It was mid-October, and he remembered it so well because it was raining, an odd event in the desert. It was Saturday afternoon, and he was in a white tank-top and jeans, and watching TV while drawing. He never told anyone that he enjoyed to draw, figured it was very "non-Greg" of him. For some odd reason, he had been thinking a lot more of her lately. He hated it how hard it was to forget her.
There was a knock at the door. He had ordered Chinese Food takeout, and answered the door holding the money. It wasn't the usual delivery boy.
"Hi, Greg." Arianna said.
"We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness."
-David Weatherford