"Did you get any sleep?" Sara asked her partner as they readied themselves for the game. He'd clearly failed to disguise the fatigue etched into his features.
"Some." His shoes now tied, he straightened his back stiffly. "We wrapped it up this afternoon."
"Your case made my armed robbery look easy. You don't have to do this, you know."
Grissom gave her a reassuring half-grin. "I'll get my second wind."
To Grissom's eyes, the two men who sat across from him and Sara were mismatched; one was about thirty, muscular and serious. The other wore his youthful exuberance and inexperience the way that a Boy Scout would wear a merit badge. Come to think of it, he probably wasn't much older than a Boy Scout, Grissom surmised.
"Hey," Sara greeted them, "I guess we're your competition tonight. I'm Sara, this is—"
"Dr. Gil Grissom, right?" Boy Scout practically assaulted the entomologist with his enthusiastic handshake. "Oh my God, I've been dying to meet you! I'm Rob Powers. I'm becoming a cop to get some police experience before I try to move into the crime lab."
"It's nice to meet you, Rob," Grissom responded politely.
"Robbie. My friends call me Robbie. Anyway, that's how Stokes did it, right? I heard he was a cop in Dallas for a while before he became a CSI."
"Jack Bohannon," the other man chimed in. "We're bowling for the academy, in case you haven't guessed."
Robbie continued his battering of Gil's sensibilities. "So what made you pick forensics? I mean, it's so cool, you know?"
Grissom's quick glance toward Sara delivered his message to her loudly and clearly: Help me!
"Hey, guys, let's get the ball rolling…no pun intended." She stepped between the men and smiled congenially.
"Who's first?" Robbie wondered aloud. "Should we flip for it?"
"You can go first," Sara offered.
As Robbie took his place on lane six, Jack leaned in and muttered to Gil and Sara "Eight years in the Marines…I always wanted to be a cop after I got out. How did I end up babysitting this guy?"
"Hang in there." Sara chuckled as she gave him a friendly pat on the arm.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
The CSIs bowled well, marking every frame in the first game. With every passing minute he spent with Sara, Grissom felt his exhaustion melt away. Just two frames into the second, disaster struck.
Sara began her approach, sliding to a stop at the foul line. Somehow, her feet got tangled with one another. She kept her balance, but cried out in pain. The ball rolled directly into the gutter.
Grissom rushed to her side as she sat down gingerly on the wood. "What's wrong?"
"I twisted my ankle," she grimaced. She rubbed the offending ankle with both hands.
"Let me see it," he prodded gently.
Sara looked around, her face flushing red, and began to struggle to her feet. "I'm gonna go sit on the benches."
Grissom briefly considered trying to convince her to stay off of the ankle, but he knew it was futile. Instead he put his arm around her and helped her hop to the seating area.
He kneeled on one knee before her, cautiously placing her foot on the other knee. "It doesn't hurt much now," she asserted. "I can finish the game."
"Sara, it's already swelling."
"Is she all right?" Robbie invaded their personal space.
"I'll be fine, thanks."
"Anything we can do?" Jack asked.
"No, thank you," Grissom said. "It's under control."
"I'm okay, really."
"I don't think it's fractured, but it needs to be wrapped," Grissom insisted.
"I'm not going to sit in the E.R."
"You don't have to," he soothed. "I have an ACE bandage in my first aid kit at home. You could use some ice, too."
"I'll get some from the snack bar," Robbie volunteered, and immediately went to perform his task.
Sara's blush grew. "This is so embarrassing. It's really not that big of a deal."
Robbie returned with a plastic bag filled with crushed ice. As Robbie reached for Sara's ankle, Grissom intercepted the bag.
"Thank you, Rob." Grissom applied the cold pack to the growing edema. "Ready to go, Sara?"
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Arms around one another's shoulders, Grissom and Sara made their way up the walkway to his townhouse.
"Grissom, I can walk," Sara protested.
"You should keep weight off your ankle."
Once inside, he helped her to the sofa and went to get his first aid kit. "Elevate that foot."
With a sigh of resignation, she peeled off her shoe and sock and leaned back against the arm of the sofa to rest her injured appendage on the cushion.
Grissom set the bandage on the coffee table and sat next to her on the sofa. He gently laid her foot in his lap. Removing the ice pack enabled him to study the swollen ankle carefully.
"You're being very sweet," she told him shyly.
"You deserve it." He massaged her foot and leg, pushing up her pant leg to run his hands lightly over the soft skin. Once the bandage was wrapped snugly around the injury, he maintained the tender contact and met her eyes with his own. God, her skin felt wonderful. His hands seemed to move on their own accord, wandering further and further up her long leg. And her foot rested dangerously close to…easy Gil, he warned himself. Too much, too fast. You brought her here to fix her ankle. Her eyes told him that the incredible connection between them hadn't diminished over time. She still cared. Was she moving closer, or was it his imagination? As if in answer to his unspoken question, her lips moved lightly across his.
They shared a second, longer kiss before pulling apart slightly. She put her head on his shoulder and he tightened the embrace. After a few moments of comfortably silent affection, Grissom spoke. "I'm going to make dinner."
Sara pulled back and stared at him with an amused grin. "You're cooking?"
He rose to his feet. "Of course." Reaching the kitchen, Gil flipped on the light switch.
"Can I help?"
"Only if you can help from the couch." He gestured toward her elevated foot.
Sara hobbled into the kitchen and sat on a bar stool.
"Hey," Grissom protested.
She cleared her throat and smiled triumphantly as she pointed to her foot, which rested on another stool.
A grin spread over his face. "You're incorrigible."
"That can be a good thing. Why should I sit in the living room alone when I can sit in here with you?"
Although he was unsure how to answer, his confidence soared as he turned back to preparing dinner.
At the end of the evening, after Gil helped Sara home, he couldn't help but feel hopeful. Things definitely seemed to be moving in the right direction.
TBC