Chapter 7
As the days passed while waiting for Tuesday, Alex started to grow skeptical about meeting Gil Grissom. I have too much invested in this already, she thought, shaking her head at herself. Alex had always been an independent person and now her dependency on meeting this man made her uncomfortable.
Alex's grandmother Elizabeth was the only family she'd ever known. She was raised the only child of an only child. She had no aunts, uncles, or cousins and her grandmother was long estranged from the rest of the family. Alex never knew why, her grandmother just didn't talk about it. And Alex didn't even begin to know how to find any of them.
Elizabeth had always pushed Alex to be the best. Alex was sure her grandmother loved her, but there was a hardness about her love. Alex was never sure if it was that Elizabeth blamed her Olivia's death, if Elizabeth was punishing her for Olivia's mistakes, or if it was just the way she was. Whatever the reason, it was the push that Alex needed to finish high school—and college—a year early.
The thought had crossed Alex's mind that maybe it was all of this that made her desire a relationship with Grissom. Maybe it would help her find the family she had never known growing up. Or maybe, she thought, he'll never speak to me again after lunch.
It was late one night or early one morning, depending on how you look at it, when Grissom couldn't sleep. He remembered a picture he had of Olivia that he hadn't seen in over twenty years and he just had to find it.
He grabbed a box out of his storage closet and set it down on his table. As he was sifting through the box, his hand felt a small box. I didn't know I still had that, he thought, pulling out the box. He opened it up and looked inside. Yup, just what I thought it was.
He placed it to the side, not knowing what to do with it yet. It was such a little box, but brought up such a big emotion. He remembered the day he bought it. He remembered the excitement, the uncertainty of the emotion behind it. The disappointment when he never got to give it to her. Maybe I'll give it to Alexandria. What else am I going to do with it?
Grissom was in the lab consumed with documenting the life stages of the insect he had found when Sara asked about a file.
"It's on my desk," Grissom said, giving her permission to search his desk for it, forgetting the file on Alexandria was still on his desk.
"Ok, I'll find it," Sara answered, heading towards Grissom's office.
Sara got to Grissom's office and starting searching his desk for the file. After turning over and shuffling a couple pieces of paper she found it—the file on Alex.
Whoa, she thought, reading the sheet. Majored in Finance with an Emphasis in Accounting and Biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia…Graduated top of her class. Joined the Bureau shortly thereafter. Damn, I knew I should've joined the Bureau, she chastised herself, hitting the desk for emphasis.
Ow! What did I hit? She said, moving a couple more pieces of paper to see the hard object she hit that was definitely not the desk. It was a small, white box. Oh god, she thought, realizing what it was.
She opened the box and her fears were only reaffirmed, a ring box. She opened up the box and was crushed. Inside was a ring, a diamond ring. It was a simple gold band with a single small diamond. He's…he's going to ask her to…
"Did you find that file?" Grissom asked, still looking down at a report in his hands. Sara was still frozen from the shock of finding the ring.
"Sara?" Grissom looked up.
"I-I was just looking for the…" Sara stammered, still holding the ring.
"It's not what it looks like," Grissom started to explain. "Not that it's any of your business." He walked over to the desk and took the ring from Sara, then noticed the file on Alex sitting right in front of her. He was caught between being angry and not wanting to hurt Sara.
"It's really isn't any of my business," Sara said, standing up. "Here's the file I was looking for," She said, grabbing a file from the desk and heading for the door.
"Sara," he was concerned.
She was just about to the door, but quickly turned back to face him. "Grissom, you don't have to explain. You don't owe me anything," and she left.
You don't owe me anything but the time I've wasted pining after you, she thought, fighting back her emotions.
Grissom just stood there holding the ring, watching her leave. He wasn't sure what to say so he didn't say anything.
