To Everything There is a Season

Summary: ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Thanks to Marlou and Nessa for being such wonderful betas. They, along with niff, laura27md, Laura Katharine and mossley, have been wonderful sounding boards concerning this story. Boy, how this evolved …

Oh, and if anyone is questioning it – I don't own CSI.

Things were finally falling smoothly into place after a summer of struggles. Grissom didn't get his men back as he requested – that required too much shifting that just didn't mesh with scheduling. The change would have resulted in robbing manpower from either days or swing shift and even he couldn't fault Ecklie's refusal.

That actually didn't upset him as much as he thought it would.

The lab was changing. After Nick's ordeal it seemed as though everyone was just happy to have the chance to work with each other from time to time. Ecklie became surprisingly tolerable. While their views on the priorities of the lab still differed, the battles with him became few and far between. Their example slowly began to trickle down to the rest of the staff and, for the first time in a long while, work was work and not a battlefield.

It wasn't miraculous, this change. Catherine and Sara still had a lingering animosity but apparently called a cease-fire on their tempers. This really meant that they didn't cross paths and avoided each other as much as possible but when they did, they both put on a professional front. They accepted each other's alpha female persona and silently adapted the policy to agree to disagree. The days when they had the chance to become friends had passed them by and mending this particular bridge remained unlikely.

That didn't upset him too much, either.

Sure, ideally he would have loved for his best friend to be friendly with his lover, but she wasn't his best friend anymore. He didn't know if she was a friend, period. The one thing that did upset him was that he felt that over the course of the past year, he'd lost something special. Catherine had been his friend – for years – and he wondered about his part in her change. Was he an enabler to her new-found disposition or was it there all along?

And then there was Sara. Sweet, beautiful Sara.

The day after they unburied Nick, he had shown up on her doorstep and with little preamble, took her mouth with his own. His mortality … her mortality … the fact that he'd never experienced her touch or her taste - those thoughts guided his ready and confident steps. Few words were spoken by mouth but several were spoken through eyes and touch. It was their time – finally – and they weren't going to let it pass.

She welcomed him into her bed that night and they haven't slept apart since.

He and Sara still had issues and there were times that they both wondered if their decision to live together wasn't a little rushed. But they were working through that – some days were a struggle while others were a living fantasy. This relationship was proof to him that things didn't have to be perfect, that love could survive the 'downs' because the 'ups' were so fabulous and worth striving for.

They were going to be late today, but for once he didn't mind. He'd finally realized that there were things more important than being at work on time – or two hours early. Things like waking Sara in the most sensuous ways and silently making love before whispering 'good evening' - or taking a little longer in the shower because having her wash his hair felt oh-so good.

Even moments like the one he was experiencing this second, watching her scrape the burnt crust off the toast she always insisted she had intended to burn in the first place. Her concentration was adorable and he marveled at the way she treated everything in life with such importance. Including him. He had never felt so loved.

Walking up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and planted a kiss just behind her ear. He closed his eyes as his nose buried itself in her tresses, taking in her scent. He could tell she was smiling – he could feel it in his heart.

Nick was due back today and should already be well into his shift when they would arrive. Hopefully he'd be able to snag a few moments with him and see how the counseling went. With Nick back things could begin to get back to normal and he could finally put all the terror and heartache and wrongdoing behind him. This was the real beginning and he felt as though several weights were lifted from him.

Sara on his arm, Nick well and back at work, civility at the workplace and with any luck, a nice juicy case to sink his teeth into – what more could he ask for?

Today was a great day.

To Be Continued …