Geek's A/N: Leslie, you BITCH! That has got to be the meanest cliffie ever, what with Nick's little comment and then Catherine's question at the end. You are so extremely hateful. But somehow, in spite of all that, I love you.
Mel, I REALLY hope you're enjoying the torture we're putting each other through!
Oh, yeah, shameless plug for Miss-Andromache's "Unrequited," which really rubs my Buddha (shameless use of CSI quote).
Sara groaned and slapped a diamond-studded hand to her forehead. "Ugh, we haven't even discussed that, Cath." She looked up at her fiancé helplessly. "Frankly, I don't know that I have the mental fortitude OR the desire to plan a wedding. Can't we just go to City Hall?" she whined plaintively.
Nick, Warrick, and Greg immediately vetoed the idea, much to her amusement. "Wait, let me get this straight," she said. "I'm sitting here, as a woman, saying I don't want a wedding, and you three macho guys are screaming about how I have to have one?" She looked at Catherine. "You getting all this, Catherine?"
"Sara," Nick whined, "this is too good to pass up. I mean, come on, how often do I have the chance to see you in a long gown? And Griss…" He turned and held a pleading hand out to him. "I mean, who the hell ever thought they'd see the day that this guy got married?" he said, only half-jokingly. "This is like stop-the-presses kind of news, and now you're going to deny me all the fun of seeing it go down? I mean, I'm not saying you have to have a state-sponsored formal affair, but come on, gimme something to work with here…"
Sara's head fell into her hands in exasperation. Grissom finally recovered from his fear of the testicle-snatching Catherine enough to step up and say, "Guys, seriously, we've got to get to work, but," he emphasized over his co-workers' protests, "we can continue the discussion over breakfast—and we'll even include Brass." He looked at Sara. "Ok?" She nodded.
"You buying?" Nick looked at Grissom suspiciously.
Grissom rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll buy," he sighed, causing the three younger men to exchange high-fives and declarations of, "Hell yeah, free food!"
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At the end of shift, Grissom and Sara piled into his SUV to head off to their favorite diner for breakfast. Grissom rubbed his face tiredly before reaching for Sara's hand. "I'm sorry about letting you take all the grilling in the break room," he winced.
"Yeah, that pretty much sucked," she said, rolling her eyes and then softening. "But you more or less made up for it with that…uh…amazing declaration of love," she said, eyes wide. "What was that, by the way? That is just SO not your style," she said plainly.
"And proposing to a woman after three days is my style?" he shot back with a grin. She ceded his point with a tilted head and raised eyebrows, and he continued. "I already told you, Sara," he said in a low voice. "I'm tired of the old Grissom. He tried not to get hurt, but he got hurt anyway. So I figure, what the hell?"
It was then that Grissom confessed something to her that absolutely knocked her socks off. He wanted a wedding. A real, live, actual wedding. "If that's okay with you," he said shyly, afraid she would shoot him down.
Sara, for her part, was shocked beyond belief. This introverted, incredibly private, middle-aged man actually wanted to stand in front of a bunch of people and declare his undying love for her?
Reading her expression for what it was, he smiled and elaborated. "Sara…" he struggled with the right words. "I guess the only way to say this is that after waiting so many years to take a chance like this, I just have this…this desire to do it right." He shrugged helplessly, once again at a loss for words.
She was touched beyond words and shook her head in disbelief for a moment before stuttering, "Yeah…yeah, sure, Griss…if you want a wedding, we can have a wedding." She paused. "I just have absolutely zero idea how to go about planning something like that."
He looked at her lovingly. "I didn't say I wanted a huge wedding—just a wedding," he comforted. "And besides," he snorted, "I have a feeling that Catherine will be, uh, more than willing to take over for you."
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Breakfast with the gang plus Brass was a fun, chatty affair, with everyone still abuzz over the completely unexpected engagement of their boss and their resident physicist. The engagement seemed to have loosened Grissom up almost to the point of a semi-normal human being. Almost.
Catherine and the guys were particularly enthusiastic when it was revealed that Grissom and Sara had decided to have an actual wedding ("a small one," Sara had emphasized) instead of heading to the nearest Justice of the Peace. And true to Grissom's prediction, Catherine eagerly volunteered to involve herself in every aspect of planning. "Hell, I'll plan the thing for you!" she had gushed happily.
When breakfast was finished, the seven friends began to stand, still engrossed in two or three different conversations. As Grissom spoke with Brass and Catherine, he noticed Nick and Sara stepping away from the group, engrossed in their own discussion. Nick's eyes were intense as he spoke in a low voice, seemingly oblivious to Sara's hard gaze and clenched jaw. 'What are they talking about?' Grissom wondered to himself, eyebrows furrowing.
"Gil!" Catherine's fingers snapped in his face, jerking him from his thoughts. Tearing his eyes away from his obviously distraught fiancée, he turned his attention back to his two best friends.
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"Sara, come here," Nick said in a low voice as they stood up.
Sara groaned inwardly; she knew what this was about and had no desire to discuss it again, but Nick Stokes was nothing if not persistent. Stepping toward him, her jaw tightened unconsciously.
"Sara, listen, I don't know why, but it's weighing on me. You've got tell him," he murmured. "I just…I don't know, Grissom is so intense, I just feel like if you wait to tell him, he'll somehow feel betrayed." Nick clenched his teeth in frustration at his inability to form coherent thoughts. With slumping shoulders and a sigh, he said, "Look, Sar, you just need to tell him, ok? I mean, come on, he's Grissom—he's loved you forever and he's not going to care. But he needs to know."
Sara set her jaw. "Right, Nick. He needs to know. He needs to know that the woman he's marrying is damaged goods—passed from man to man, all with the help of mommy dearest" She snorted bitterly.
"Sara!" Nick hissed angrily. "I don't ever want to hear you refer to yourself in that way again," he said in a low and angry growl. Sara was taken aback by his venomous reaction to her words.
"Uh…"
"I mean it, Sar," he said, a little softer. "You are too good for that. What happened wasn't your fault."
"No, but it doesn't mean that Grissom needs to know about it. He'll never look at me the same way again."
"Sara," he began, pleadingly.
"Stop it, Nicky," she said, in a determined but not unkind voice. "If I decide that it would be prudent for him to know, then I'll tell him," she said, just as she felt hands on her waist.
"Tell me what?" Grissom said from over her right shoulder.
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::cackles wildly:: HAHAHAHA, Leslie!!!!! Take THAT!