Chapter 97

You'll Get the Idea

The office seemed empty already. With the help of Greg and Nick, Gil had managed to almost wipe his office out entirely, throwing most things into boxes with reckless abandon, and anything delicate was packaged carefully, taped into large boxes. He was sure his Denali would never accommodate it all. Sara offered the use of her car for anything extra, the rest could be retrieved at the start of next shift.

"Office seems so empty," Greg said looking around, "doesn't even seem like the same office anymore…"

Gil shrugged, "it's just a room," he said, and he felt a strange sadness seeing the room so bare, nothing but the desk, chair and a lamp. A bunch of boxes piled up against the wall waiting to be transported out of the lab for good. To be honest, Gil hadn't even begun to think of where he was going to put them all at home.

They moved a good portion of the boxes into Gil's car, the backseats stacked with boxes, the passengers seat accommodating two boxes seatbelted there securely, and the trunk had as much as it could take.

Gil closed the trunk of his car with a little sigh, he heard the scuff of Greg's shoes as the young man came up behind him.

"Sara gave me her car keys and I've loaded her car with as much as it can take. If you want a hand, I can take some stuff in my car," Greg offered.

"It's fine, Greg. The rest I can take when the next shift ends. It's no problem."

"I spoke with Cath on the way down, she says take as long as you need in getting the rest of the stuff out of her new office," Greg teased.

Gil smiled a little, "nice to know she hasn't already become territorial."

"I can't believe you're not my boss anymore…" Greg admitted, he leaned on the car casually, and gave a slight sigh, "it was kinda…cool."

"I thought I made you nervous," Gil responded.

"You do. At least you weren't as distracting as Cath though," Greg grinned. "I'm gonna miss not having to answer to you anymore."

"Hey, it's not like I'm going anywhere. Think of it as a transition from working for me, to working beside me."

"Will do."

Gil looked at his watch, "end of shift Greg," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Greg gave a yawn, "I'll catch you at the start of next shift, CSI Grissom."

Gil watched Greg go and smirked a little. The sadness of losing his rank was still with him, but there was also the relief of a great weight taken off his shoulders. His responsibilities had been cut in half, and that meant less stress, and hopefully more sleep.

Who am I kidding? He thought as he climbed into the car, groaning at the oppressive heat inside. The only way I'm going to get more sleep is if I can resolve this problem with Sara. I have to stop taking her proposal rejections to heart, otherwise I'm never going to sleep again.

Gil rolled down the windows, cool air sifted in and he let his arm rest on the window for a moment, and let the car sit in the parking lot for a few moments before getting ready to start the engine.

"Hey, you," he heard a voice at the passengers side window, and he glanced to his side to see Sara leaning in, her eyes hidden by dark sunglasses, her hair gently swaying in the breeze.

"Hey, yourself," he leaned on the steering wheel.

"You look…happy," Sara commented.

"You have NO idea," Gil grinned, and she grinned right back at him. For the first time that day her smile seemed the most genuine he'd seen yet. In the sunlight, she looked incredibly stunning. He felt himself stir just looking at her. "Did Greg give you the car keys back?" he asked.

"Yeah," she jingled her car keys. "I have a car full of all your crap and I'm ready to transport it all."

"Meet you at my house," he smiled, and started the car, waited until she moved away from the window, drove off, leaving her to follow.

The drive home was serene, the sun had risen, and rays of gold coloured the street his house was on. He parked his car in the driveway and unloaded the boxes, carrying them into his home, lining most of them along a bare wall in the living room until he decided what to do with them.

"Where are you going to put this stuff, anyway?" he heard Sara's voice, she was coming through the front door – which he'd left open. She was carrying a large box, she had to stop and balance it on her knee for a moment before continuing across the hall.

"I don't know. If I can't find any storage space here, I could always rent somewhere to keep it. Or I could sell a lot of it on Ebay."

"Will you need the money?" Sara asked in concern, she placed the box down, stacking it on top of a few others of equal size.

"Never," he responded. "Even if the pay as a CSI is considerably less than my pay as a supervisor, I'll always be able to keep my head above water. Besides, I have savings…and I do make quite an income teaching at seminars."

"Plus there's my income," she headed towards the front door to go outside and retrieve more boxes.

Gil ran after her to help her, "Your income?"

Sara moved to her car, leaning into the back seat to get out another box. As he approached she handed him the box, "You expect me to live here rent free and not pay my share of the bills?"

He stared at her over the top of the box she'd handed him. "Excuse me?"

"What? You changed your mind about me living here now?"

"No, I'm just trying to remember when you actually told me you would move in," he answered, slightly taken aback by her nonchalance.

"I'm telling you now," Sara looked at him strangely, "did…you not understand that?" she asked.

"I…" he began, but couldn't find anything to finish the thoughts with.

"C'mon, lets get the rest of this stuff inside," she grabbed another box from her car and headed towards the house in front of him.

Gil grinned and followed her in, "So…you're moving in?"

"Why are you asking questions you already know the answer to?" Sara glanced over her shoulder.

He didn't have an answer. Together, without really speaking to each other, they retrieved all the boxes from both cars and lined them against the wall.

"You have too much crap," Sara commented finally, as they were standing looking at the boxes stacked against the wall.

"I know. And we still have to move all your crap in," he teased, nudging her playfully.

Sara folded her arms pretending to be indignant, "at least my crap is colourful and decorative, and doesn't contain dead animal specimens," she made a face.

Gil merely smiled.

"Gil…" Sara sighed, "baby…you're not…I mean…" she struggled with the words, "you are okay with being demoted and stuff…" she turned directly towards him and took his hands.

"Definitely."

"If you're not, you can tell me, you know that, right? I won't judge you if you're upset. I know your work was your whole life…"

"I'm not fired, I'm demoted. I'd rather be out in the field than behind a desk. I told you, I like this new arrangement."

"This is all my fault, you know," Sara admitted. "Before we were together, your work was fine, your job was secure…"

"And my life was empty and meaningless," Gil squeezed her hands. "I got my priorities straight. There's more important things than life than my job. I won't lie and say my job isn't important to me, and I won't lie and say I don't feel slightly sad that everything is changing. But…at the same time, I couldn't be more happy. So what if I lost my job as supervisor. I get to do something I really love again…and I get to be with you. I get to have my cake and eat it."

"Only if I say so," Sara teased, she released his hands from her grip.

"Looks like I won't be the one wearing the pants in this relationship," he teased right back.

Sara took his face in her hands, leaned up and pecked his lips softly, "if you change your mind, all of us will fight to get you your job as supervisor back…"

"No, don't," he slipped his arms around her. "Why do you think I'm having a hard time with this."

"I don't know…maybe because you've been set in your ways for so long."

"I know I have. And I got sick of it. Do you know how long I spent wanting to change and not having the courage to do it?" he asked.

Sara met his eyes. In the streams of sunlight filtering through the blinds, she'd never looked more beautiful to him as she did right then.

"Because of you…I've found the courage to do more than I ever thought I could."

"You didn't just change for me, did you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side a little, her lips slightly pouted unintentionally.

"I changed for me and you," he pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply, not wanting to have this discussion anymore. He backed her up to the uncomfortable couch under the window, and gently eased her down to it.

"Wow, you should get demoted more often," Sara murmured when she broke the kiss to take a breath.

Gil laughed softly into her neck in between applying gentle kisses there, "y'know," he said softly, using one finger to gently undo each button on her eggshell blue button down shirt. "Before you…there was a lot of things I'd never done…" he breathed softly on her mouth before taking her lips momentarily for another kiss.

"Sexually?" she asked seeming to get the gist of what he was saying.

"Mmmhmm," he kissed her jaw, "In fact…even talking about it was…severely embarrassing."

"It isn't now?" she asked, running her fingers through his hair.

"At this moment, no," he undid the last button and opened her shirt, he trailed kisses down to her upper chest, fingers deftly working to unbutton and unzip her pants. "Never made love against a wall before…never in the shower before…never without protection…" he trailed kisses down her stomach, tugging her pants down as he went. "Those were things I just never did. Not that I didn't have the chance, and not that I never wanted to either," he tossed her pants aside and moved back up to assault her lips with hard kisses again.

Sara broke the kiss, breathless, "are you going anywhere with this little 'never did' speech?"

"I'm getting there," he kissed the valley between her breasts, kissed the small satin rose in the centre of her lavender bra. "There's only two things I vowed to myself I would never do…for private…and obvious reasons…of which I won't go into right now," he hooked his index fingers in the waistband of her matching panties and slid them down slowly.

"Uh huh?" she watched him discard her underwear with her pants, her eyes were half closed, her lips slightly swollen from his hard kisses.

"One of those two thingsis anal sex," he ran his hands down her satiny thighs, "And the other…" he chewed his lip, sliding his hands under her knees to pull her closer to the edge of the couch, he kissed her naval and began trailing kisses further down. "You'll get the idea."

Okay, I'll probably get screamed at by some people for ending the chapter there, while others will probably be thankful (Since I know most don't like to read through those sort of scenes, lol.) Still some should be happy that she's moving in with him. :)

Thanks to the people who keep reviewing! Ahhhhhhh 3 chapters to go...lol. Can you believe it? Almost 100 chapters.

Ash