Title: A Week of Wishes
Author: annefishermn@yahoo.com
Feedback: YES PLEASE!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I'm not making any money from this, please don't sue…
MONDAY 2:58am
Sara dove into the pool, the crisp cool water, cooling her skin. She surfaced almost halfway down the pool, and began swimming slow, leisurely laps. She had the pool completely to herself. That was not a big surprise; it was three in the morning and the pool was supposed to close at eleven. But as long as she was quiet enough she doubted that her apartment manager would notice or even care. It was her night off, and she was bored out of her mind. She would be at the lab working anyway, but she was maxed out on overtime and Grissom sent her home, despite her protests. She hated her nights off. It always seemed that the quiet nights came when she least wanted them. She had spent the first several hours inside listening to her police scanner. Maybe if a big enough call came in she would be able to go in and work for a while.
Sara stopped swimming and turned to float on her back in the middle of the pool. She looked up at the night sky, and let her mind wander. The lights from the strip made it hard to see very many stars, but it was a clear night and she could pick out a few constellations: Orion's belt, Cassiopeia, the big dipper. Maybe if she sat here long enough she would see a shooting star. 'Hmm,' thought Sara, 'what would I wish for?' She turned over and resumed swimming laps in the pool. There were lots of things to wish for: a promotion, the freedom to work as much overtime as she wanted, the ability to clear her mind of thoughts she didn't want to think, so many choices. Oh what fun it would be to have a magic wand and be able to go back in time and change things. For example, she could go back in time and make herself not ask out Grissom. What a mistake that turned out to be. She really never thought that she would be turned down. They had been flirting for three years. Why did he say no? Was the idea of going out to diner with her truly that revolting? She pulled herself out of the pool and walked over to the chair where she had left her towel and began drying off. These last few months at work had been strained. He seemed to be so uncomfortable even being in the same room with her. It had been a long time since he had assigned them to work on a case together. 'Of course I ruined our friendship,' Sara thought bitterly as she walked up the stairs and back into her apartment. 'I ruin everything. I'm not exactly a people person.' When she entered her apartment, Sara went straight for the shower, eager to try and wash the past away.
************
Grissom walked into his office and shut the door behind him before he sunk into his chair and laid his head in his hands. He had just spent the last two hours with the sheriff dodging his questions about a variety of subjects. Sometimes he really wished that he could go back to just being a supervisor and leave the whole running of CSI thing to someone else. 'How nice it would be to be invisible whenever I felt the desire to disappear.' He thought to himself as he absentmindedly ruffled through some long overdue paperwork on his desk. He picked out some of the most urgent paperwork. He glanced over the file; a jealous husband killed his mistress when he found out that she was cheating on him, such irony. The case was going to court next week. As far as Grissom was concerned, he was still ahead of schedule. He decided to go outside and get some fresh air before he attempted to catch up on paperwork. 'How odd it is that love and lust can change otherwise normal people into killers,' Grissom thought as he walked down the hall. Love was seriously overrated. Science, learning, roller coasters…all those things gave him pleasure, made him happy. Hobbies; that is what people need, not ill-fated romances. Grissom pushed out the double doors and into the cool Vegas night. He turned to take a walk around the building, get his blood flowing. When he reached the back of the building, he noticed that the lights in the back parking lot were out. It was odd to suddenly be thrown into twilight. It was not often one found oneself in the dark in Las Vegas; everything here was brightly lit at all hours of the night. He glanced up at the sky and was surprised to be able to pick out a few of the brighter constellations. 'Orion,' Grissom though to himself, 'another tragic love story. Greek myth says that he was so in love with the daughter of King Oenopion that it totally consumed him. She of course would have nothing to do with him.' Grissom let his eyes fall slowly back to Earth. His thoughts wandered to Sara. He wondered if his chance with her was now in the past. Nothing left but a tragic love story from days gone by. He wanted so much not to be caught up in such a place, but it seems that despite all of his precautions he was. In his automatic self-preservation he pushed her away, afraid of what feeling something real would do to him. Now, without even the friendship that they had forged to sustain him, he was lost. Grissom sighed and continued his walk around the building. There was no sense in dwelling on it; he could no more change the past than he could change the stars in the sky. It was time to go back to work.