Title: Defining Moment
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: CSI is nothing to do with me, much as it depresses me to say that.
Notes: This is in response to this week's Unbound challenge, where the first and last lines are provided and there's a 1000 word limit – it was very difficult to stay within the limit, but I just managed. Oh, I should also say, this is total fluff! :-D
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The hot chocolate warmed her as it slid down her throat, making her groan with pleasure.
Grissom looked up sharply at the sound, his eyes flicking to Sara's lips as she lowered the mug and let her tongue remove the remaining traces of liquid.
"Feeling better now?" he asked, inwardly cursing the hoarseness of his voice.
"Yeeeessss," she replied, drawing out the word as the pleasure continued to course through her. "Just what you need after dumpster diving and finding a ton of rain water in said dumpster. How is it you never do the diving, by the way?"
He felt her eyes on him, probing him for an answer, but he kept his gaze on the road, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. "Supervisor perks."
"Of course," she sighed and he could tell she was rolling her eyes.
A moment later, he heard a rustling sound and let his eyes drift to his companion once more. "What's that?" he inquired, noticing a white paper bag clutched in her hands.
"I bought a muffin when I got my hot chocolate."
"Ah." His knuckles were starting to turn white from his death grip on the wheel, so he slackened off, but then caught sight of her nibbling at the muffin out of the corner of his eye; his hands reflexively gripped tighter. Feeling his mouth go dry, he gave a cough and that instantly brought him back to Sara's attention.
"You okay?" He nodded. "Oh, wow, I just realized… I didn't even ask you if you wanted anything to eat when I went in to get the coffee and hot chocolate," she said apologetically.
"That's okay." Unable to think of anything else to say, he grabbed his coffee from the drinks holder and took a sip before replacing it securely.
"No, no, it's not. Uh… do you want a bit of this?" she offered, holding the muffin in his field of vision.
She hadn't bitten into it, having opted instead to pull little pieces off with her fingers, but the thought of eating something that was hers was doing strange things to his insides and he felt himself becoming flustered.
"I… uh…" he stammered. Sara wasn't sure whether to take that as a yes or a no, so she pulled a piece off the muffin and held it out for him. He motioned with his hands to show he was driving, which was pointless since she'd already seen him remove a hand from the wheel to drink his coffee. However, she didn't comment on that fact; instead, she took him totally by surprise.
"Open up," she urged and he turned to stare at her, wide-eyed. The look on her face made him think that she was as surprised by her action as he was, but she took advantage of his mouth opening in awe and placed the muffin piece on his tongue, drawing her fingers over his bottom lip as she retreated.
His mouth slammed shut as he swallowed, eyes instinctively back on the road as he tried to think of something to say.
"Want some more?" she asked a moment later, her voice dropping to an almost-whisper. He didn't meet her gaze, but nodded and opened his mouth, still looking straight-ahead. This time, he let his lips close just as she was drawing her fingers back and he heard her gasp of surprise. Opening his mouth slightly, he let her fully remove her fingers and then turned his head to see her collapsing back against her seat, eyes closed and a slight flush evident on her cheeks and neck.
She didn't offer him any more of the muffin, nor did she finish it herself, she merely sat in silence for the rest of the journey back to the lab. Once in the parking lot, she jumped out of the vehicle, grabbed some bags of evidence and disappeared into the building, all before Grissom had even opened his own door.
As it was near the end of shift, and it wasn't a pressing case, Grissom decided to take the evidence to the vault, for processing the following day. Upon entering, he was met with the sight of Sara doing exactly the same thing. She looked up at the sound of the door closing and neither knew what to say. Once his evidence was put away, he came to stand beside her.
"I'm sorry," he said seriously, "for the stunt in the car, it wasn't fair."
There was something in his tone and his eyes that made Sara realize that this could be a defining moment, one that, if she didn't take, she'd regret forever.
"It's okay… I've always kinda fantasized about you eating off my fingers, it's on my list of fantasies," she admitted slowly.
"Did it live up to the fantasy?" His voice was husky and, meeting his gaze, she found his eyes darker than usual.
"More than," she whispered in reply. "It's moved right up to number one."
"It's no longer a fantasy now though, can it still be on the list?" he asked logically, eyebrows arched and head tilted. She shrugged in response and he looked at her even more intently, taking a step forward.
"I'll amend the list title… from fantasies to dreams. You can still dream about something that's happened."
"What other things do you dream about?"
He had taken another step forward and was now merely inches from her. Swallowing, she answered honestly, "I'm not sure you could handle me telling you."
Raising his eyebrows in answer to her challenge, he closed the distance and brought his lips to hers.
After what seemed like hours, they finally parted, breathless, and stared at each other. It was Grissom who eventually broke the silence.
"How are those dreams now?" he smirked.
She met his smirk and raised him a wink as she replied, "Maybe I should rearrange my top ten list."
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Fin
