Budding
Chapter Twelve
Grissom's pulse went up as he noticed that Sara's front door wasn't closed all they way. He entered her apartment with some trepidation; he wasn't always one to carry his gun and at the moment, he wished he had. He prayed to God that Sara was okay.
Her apartment was a little cluttered, and in need of some serious dusting. The curtains were drawn tight, and the place was only illuminated by the hall lights within that led to the various rooms.
The décor of her place was mismatched. Splashes of color here and there, clashing with the darker colors. It wasn't her at all. Sara wasn't known for whims of fancy, and he was convinced that she never got the time to fix up the place after the resident before her.
He looked around carefully, and his eyes befell bottles of pills.
He picked them up.
Valium and Zoloft.
"Shit," he muttered to himself.
Whoever the doctor was who prescribed that combination should have been put in jail.
He put the pills down and turned around.
When he turned, he felt a hard fist going across his face.
He growled in sudden pain and he stumbled a bit, knocking over a chair in the dining area. Then he heard a whimper of effort from his assailant as a hard object crashed upon his back.
He heard frantic footsteps and the lights flickered on.
"Grissom!" Sara said in surprise, breathing hard from the exertion.
"Sara," he gasped. "I didn't mean to intrude."
"Yeah, well, you scared the shit out of me," she said as she threw down the cutting board. "You deserved to get your ass kicked. Breaking and entering is against the law you know."
Grissom glared at her.
"I didn't break in," he defended. "You didn't close your door all the way. Now you tell me which is scarier: a friend coming in to check on you, or a complete stranger, which I could have been, coming in after you?"
Sara sighed in frustration.
"What do you want Grissom?" She asked.
Grissom took in her state of dress before speaking. Sara Sidle had successfully beaten his ass in pajamas with turtles on them. There was something oddly embarrassing about the whole scene.
"I just came by to check on you," he said, rubbing his jaw. "You have a pretty strong right hook Ms. Sidle."
"Compliments of my dad," Sara said shortly. "Now, what do you want?"
"I wanted to see if you were feeling okay," Grissom said. "You didn't sound too good on the phone."
"Well, I'm fine now, so you can go," she said harshly. "It's not like you've ever cared about me before."
The words stung him.
"That's not true Sara," Grissom said. "I have always cared about you."
"Just leave," she said. "I can't talk about this with you now."
"About what?" He asked.
"About how you've been denying your feelings," Sara said. "I opened my heart to you, and you took advantage of that. You could have at least confirmed that you were feeling the same way I was."
"Was?" He asked.
"Am," she deadpanned, changing the tense.
"Sara, it's very complicated, what we feel," he started. "A you have to think-"
"I'm tired of waiting and thinking and guessing," Sara said, now to the point of tears. "I need to know how you feel. I have been in love with you since the first day I met you, and I never changed my mind about you because I thought I knew you felt the same way."
"Sara, we just need time to-"
"No," she interrupted. "I've given you time. I've given you more than enough time. You need to make a decision Gil. Do you love me or not? If you don't love me, then let me go, but if you do, then we can pick up the pieces of our pathetic lives and work things out. Do you love me or not?"
Grissom looked into her brown eyes, turned dark with anger and resentment.
"What's it going to be Grissom?"