AN: Okay I'm not a native speaker and that's my very first CSIfic. Huge thanks go out to Lynn (Brooklyn) and andy (Andromeda) without whom I would have never written this fic. And thanks for your help, you two are great. And of course thanks to the lovely dana (Grissomsbutterfly) for betaing and thanks to mel (Unspoken) for helping comments. Okay, shutting up now.
This fic is wirtten for the YTDAW weekly Improve Challenge. First and last lines provided.
Disclaimer: I went with Joanna and Anni to the set and the nice TPTB gave me the rights to CSI as a goodbye present. Dream on, CSI's not mine. Nor are the characters. Though if I should ever own Grissom, Dana would get himfor her birthday.LOL
O spiders, planks and other things
A loud cracking noise caught everyone's attention. Catherine and Greg turned around to see a big hole in the wooden floor, where only seconds before, Grissom and Sara had stood.
They had been assigned to a case of vandalism in an old house in the desert. The pile of dead wood which was supposed to be a house did look as if it was built before the first world war. The windows were broken and the dark wood made it look eerie. The floor had creacked with every step the CSIs had made and Greg had joked about the house crashing in on them. This caused the others to send him their darkest death glares. None of the CSIs had felt comfortable going into the broken remainders of the building.
"Grissom could you please get off of me? I can't breathe!" Sara gripped Grissom's arms and tried to shove his weight off of her but couldn't move him one inch.
" I can't move. The planks are holding me down. I hate to say it, but we're stuck." He tried to stay calm but his body pressed so tightly against Sara's that it didn't let him think straight.
He could feel her breasts against his chest, which didn't make it any easier. He tried to distract himself and looked around. He didn't see much because the wooden planks which had crashed down on them, blocked Grissom's vision. The only faint light came through a window near the ceiling.
Sara shifted and suddenly felt a stinging pain shooting through her left wrist. "Ouch!"
"What happened? Are you hurt?" Grissom frowned as he scanned her body for injuries.
At the sight of his adorable expression, Sara forgot about her pain.
"Ouch!" But only so long, till Grissom grasped her wrist and inspected it.
Seeing her flinch, Grissom immediately loosened his grip.
"Sorry, I didn't want to hurt you."
"But you did." Sara looked into those intense stormy blue eyes of his that now held a sad expression in them.
"That was never my intention. I never wanted to hurt you." They both knew that they weren't talking about Sara's wrist anymore. Grissom shifted and looked anywhere but her eyes, he couldn't stand to see the pain he caused her.
"But you sure did enough of that", Sara whispered to herself but still loud enough for him to hear.
"We have to get them out of there before they're going to kill each other." Catherine frowned at the thought of the two of them stuck in the basement of a house that could collapse at any moment. Lately the relationship between the shift supervisor and the CSI had gotten worse and they only talked to each other on rare occasions, which meant: only when they had to. After a rather vigorous shouting match in Grissom's office, they avoided each other and Grissom never paired himself up alone with Sara, about which she didn't complain. Everyone on the team felt the aggressive tension and they silently hoped it would get better soon.
Greg and Catherine had figured that their colleagues were now stuck in the basement, cause it was only a one-story building. They couldn't see them under the debris but they knew that their colleagues were okay, because they could faintly hear their upset voices. It looked as if it wouldn't be too long before those two would start arguing again. Cath wanted to get them out of this damned house before they bit each others heads off.
"We should search for the entrance of the basement. We aren't going to get them out of there any other way." Greg searched for stairs that led to the basement, but didn't get lucky. He and Catherine searched every inch inside the house, every little corner, behind every door, but they didn't find anything except a few bugs and a spider that sent Catherine screaming into Greg's arms.
At a ripping sound, Sara looked up to see what Grissom was doing. He ripped a strip of clothing off of his shirt. After seeing her rather annoyed expression, he explained in a resigned voice.
"Your wrist doesn't look good. It's likely broken, we should steady it." He looked around and found a wooden stick that was big enough to use as a splint for Sara's injured wrist. Carefully, he lifted her arm and secured the splint with the strip of clothing to it, so it wouldn't get worse. All this time Grissom avoided looking into Sara's eyes, but she still saw his pain. Moved by his gentle care and by his affection, Sara felt sorry for having been so harsh.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have been such a bitch ." Sara said. Grissom slowly looked up from what he was doing and stared directly at her. The emotions Sara saw in his eyes shocked her to no end. Next to the sadness, she noticed something she had never seen before in his eyes. An emotion far beyond adoration or affection, an emotion which she never believed she would ever see in his eyes. There she saw sadness and love.
"It's your right, I deserve that. You know I've regretted it ever since…" He paused. An expression of confusion spread over her beautiful features and she gave Grissom a questioning look.
"The dinner invitation, I never meant to say no. I don't know why I did it, though. I am just an old coward who can't admit his feelings."
"A coward you may be, but you're not old." Sara tried to sound humorous but she couldn't ban the sadness out of her voice.
"Am I too late?"
"Catherine look!" Greg's agitated voice yelled through the desert air.
"I think I found something". Indeed, at the backside of the house, two feet in front of Greg, were damaged stairs that led to the basement of the building.
At first Sara wanted to say yes, that she had moved on, but one look into his hopeful eyes broke Sara's wish of vengeance for the hurt he had caused her. "You could never be too late, you old coward." Sara replied in a mischievous but loving tone and took his cheek into her uninjured hand.
"Never." Sara looked into Grissom's eyes that held the same want and passion she was sure she would see in her own, it was as if she was looking into a mirror right now. She didn't dare to breathe, afraid she would break the moment. She lifted her head to Grissom's and touched his lips with hers. But before she could kiss him, Grissom drew his head back and looked at her playfully.
"Did you call me old?" Sara smacked his head and impatiently whispered: "Just kiss me, you bastard." And that he did. He slowly lowered his head to hers and caressed her soft lips with his. She tasted of strawberries and Grissom wanted more. Sara obediently parted her lips as he deepened the kiss.
A sudden screeching sound made them break apart and look to where it had come from. Through a pile of broken planks, they could see a door being opened and two sets of feet walking slowly. They were careful not touch anything in fear they could hurt their friends.
"Grissom? Sara? Can you hear me?"
As he heard Catherine's hopeful voice, Grissom slowly lifted his head, trying to see her.
"We are here Cath. I can't move. I'm stuck under a pile of planks." When Greg and Catherine came into their view, Grissom and Sara both let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.
"Finally! I'm feeling sore. Grissom's heavier than he looks." At that comment, Sara stuck her tongue out at Grissom who didn't even look at her.
"Just get us out of here."
After half an hour of wailing and swearing from Catherine, they had pulled all the dead wood off of the two of them and Grissom helped Sara stand up.
The other two left the room quietly to give their colleagues some time alone.
"You wanna have dinner with me today?" Grissom hopefully asked, with an adorable puppy look on his face.
"Yeah." That was all Sara say and Grissom grinned like and idiot who had just won a million dollars. As Sara turned to walk away, he shouted after her.
"Hey Sara. What was that about me being heavy!"
Sara laughed as she made her way to her car.