Title: Turning Pages
Author: Maggienhawk
Disclaimer: Do you really think I would be writing stories about them if I owned them? No, I would be too busy with Warrick, Nick and Greg to even bother with Grissom and Sara!!!
Summary: Sara remembers the important moments of her life as she flips through her photo album. GSR
A/N: Wow, it's been awhile. Just to let you know, my muse has been missing for quite some time now. Luckily, while I do not own CSI, I do own the WaT team, and they found it for me. (just kidding). This was written at 1am, just because I wanted to write something, and this is what resulted without much of a muse. (It was really exhausted due to the whole ordeal). Yes….it is 2am!
She flipped through the pages of the photo album while sitting cross-legged on the floor of her living room. She smiled as the memories that went with the prints flashed through her mind. College parties, where for the first time in her life she was free to do as she wanted; her brother's marriage to his childhood sweetheart after reuniting after fifteen years and countless moves to different foster homes; and lab parties in San Francisco where she would enjoy the company of her coworkers outside of the lab.
Then, even though she knew the exact order of the pictures in the album, she was startled by a picture of him. Actually, it was one of the two of them, taken on her last day in Vegas. Greg had gone camera happy, wanting to capture every moment on film, just so that he wouldn't forget who Sara Sidle was, as if it were actually possible. He had pushed Grissom right up next to her and said "Cheese!" and it turned out to be the perfect picture of them. Neither was looking at the camera, but at each other, flashes of sadness obvious in their eyes, even though the picture was still. She could still remember the feel of her heart breaking at that moment, knowing she was leaving the only man she had ever loved. And the saddest part, she remembered thinking about, was that she never got to experience all the good that came with loving another person.
Turning more pages, she remembered her life after Vegas. Working in Seattle, a completely different locale than she had ever lived in, supervising her own shift of criminalists. She fantasized of ways to end up spending the rest of her life with him, even though they were hundreds of miles apart. Sure, she dated, but something was missing, something she knew she could only have with one person in this world. The one person she barely had contact with then.
A new page revealed a day she would never forget. A picture of her in the foreground, with the Washington State coastline in the background. It was the day she realized she had romanticized her relationship with him from the very beginning, save for a few moments when she had been sure it was for real. Her fantasies of him had become blown out of proportion and she knew that she would never have the relationship she wanted with him. She decided that day that she would not live with the regret anymore; she would fall out of love with him and finally move on with her life.
And move on she did. A few more pages revealed her wedding portrait, one of the happiest days of her life. She could remember the way her cheeks ached because of her huge smile all day. She remembered the way his skin felt on her as he held her hand. She was reliving the elation she felt as they shared their first kiss as man and wife.
The rest of the pages were filled with pictures of their only daughter, and the days spent entertaining her on the beach, or spent celebrating one of her birthdays. As she reached the first empty page of the album, she reached next to her and placed a new picture, one to add to her memories. It was one of her family, on the day they left their daughter at Harvard, ready to start a life of her own, following in her mother's footsteps.
She closed the album, and wiped a lone tear from her cheek. She looked up to see her husband walking slowly into the room, bringing her a cup of tea. She saw the man she had fallen in love with, the man who had been able to replace her first love. As they curled up on the couch together, in front of the fire, she thought how lucky she was. Sure, she didn't get the perfect marriage she had always fantasized about, but how many people in this world get the chance to fall in love once, let alone twice? And she was especially lucky, because in her case, she fell in love with the same man twice.
She snuggled further into his chest and whispered softly, "I love you, Griss."
She smiled as he replied in kind, mentally cataloging this moment so that when as she flipped through her album the next time and saw her daughter's picture while at Harvard, she would remember the feeling of contentment she felt at this moment.