Her feet felt foreign to her as she walked up the gravel path to Grissom's townhouse. The mulch surrounding the stairs was so very out of place, in stark contrast to the deep blue that the exterior was painted. She wondered if the interior was still that stoic white...
Her feet were leaden and weary unlike the rest of her body which was on fire with anticipation. When she knocked on the door, the wood felt like it was kissing her skin. She rolled her eyes at her own mushiness. 'Really though, get a life,' she told herself.
The door opened to reveal him, relaxed and smiling. Yes, that was when she began to hate him, just a bit; well, she didn't hate him, she just didn't understand how he could be so steady and carefree all of a sudden. 'He'd make a great actor,' she thought and said hello. She felt like she was in a waking dream, some insane world where everything was topsy-turvy.
Surprisingly, he'd chosen o cook, to make dinner in the morning. When she'd switched to nights her eating habits were all screwed up and she found herself eating eggs and toast at two in the afternoon and pasta at seven in the morning. Sara didn't much have a set eating schedule anymore, but she did know one thing-she was damned hungry.
There was no meat, sign one that he meant business. He tended to overlook those tiny details. Various vegetables and spices and dishes were spread across the countertops in his kitchen and she regarded them as rare space tools she had never seen before. Sara Sidle had been hit upside the head with a shiny new frying pan and was seeing stars. The stars spun at the speed of light when she saw the lilies on the table and felt his hand fall to her back, ushering her into his kitchen.
He served vegetarian chili and crisp wheat toast pieces in a big green bowls and she didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to say so she just stared at the food before her. He stared at her as she stared at the beans and tomatoes, looking nearly catatonic. It was all very nearly too much.
"Something wrong," he asked, flicking his toast with an index finger.
Instead of snapping her head up in attention, she kept staring and answered him slowly, "No, no, not at all." Sara paused for a moment, gliding a finger over the neck of her spoon. Of course there was something wrong! How did he not see that there was something wrong? "Okay, yes!" She swirled the spoon around the edge of the bowl, but it didn't go far before catching on a bean and stopping its hiss against the porcelain.
Grissom simply quirked a brow at her and not minding his manner, placed his elbows on the table in front of him. "What?"
"Grissom, everything in the past few weeks has been... insane." Sara nodded and picked at her toast, attempting not to become hysterical. But it was a very thin line to tread... very thin. Sara was insane with indecision. She wanted to jump right in with him, grab the buoy that he had thrown and be tugged in. But on the other hand, she wanted to hold off, wait to see if she could tread the waters without his help. "Insane..."
Grissom blinked slowly and went right on eating, "Not really..."
"Yes, because asking me to accompany you to a wedding and cooking me dinner... breakfast... whatever is very much normal for you." A loud bite of the toast accentuated her words. Sara chewed violently, regretting it when her teeth caught and grated against one another. "Nothing's normal..." she murmured and toyed again with her spoon.
He shrugged and took a bite of his chili. "You don't want to come with me." Grissom reasoned, his voice falling just a tiny bit. It appeared that the chili had become the most interesting thing on the planet as he stared at the beans and sauce, refusing to lift his eyes until she spoke.
She did want to come with him, but that wasn't the point. "Yes, I want to go with you but-"
"Then what's the problem?"
"The problem is, Grissom," she felt like she was speaking with a three year old. Didn't he realize how odd he was acting? "That this is coming out of nowhere." Sara said, pausing to gulp from her glass of water. "I mean, you just up and decide-"
But Grissom was up out of his seat and in front of her and she paused in what was going to be a very solid and coherent argument. Her eyes widened. "What, what did I-" But he was kissing her then and she was so confused and dizzy that she nearly passed out. His lips were more than eager on hers, if somehow trying to prove a point. And they were, they were telling her he meant business.
Sara's eyes fluttered closed as she succumbed to insanity of the situation. Nothing was happening as she had ever expected it to and maybe that was why she felt so giddy. His hands came up to skate over her cheeks and her eyes popped open.
Sara pulled out of the kiss and Grissom stood back, smiling. They looked at each other for a moment, the reality of the situation seeming to kick Grissom in the head. "I can't believe I just did that," he muttered and stared at her. And for some reason those words cracked something inside of her, she knew euphoria was short lived.
"I can't believe I did that," he said again and then smiled. "I want to do it again." So he did, just like that, bent down and swallowed her words. Sara laughed into his mouth when his tongue begged entrance and he too smiled against her lips. Perhaps he'd come to know the strange loveliness of the situation. Perhaps, just maybe his head was spinning too.
She didn't know, didn't care because he was sinking to his knees and holding her face with his hands, kissing her so softly, so passionately. He was some sort of lovely martyr on his knees in front of her, giving and giving.
They kissed, and eventually she sunk to the floor as well and wrapped her hands around his neck, cupped the back of his head, ran her fingers through his hair. The linoleum warmed under their bodies and it was long minutes before Sara realized how much her knees had begun to hurt.
They pulled away, flushed and in awe. "Yeah," she sighed and swallowed. "I'll go with you..."
Grissom stood up and helped her to her feet and simply gazed at her for a minute. Sara didn't quite know what to say or do so she just let him look at her while she tried to get the butterflies in her stomach under control. Grissom stepped forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Thank you," he said and pulled her into a hug.
When Sara got home that evening she went online and made sure that the earth was still spinning on its axis.