A/N: Sorry for the wait. Life caught up with me for a moment there. Again!
P.O.V: Sara once again.
Disclaimers: You already know the drill by now I suppose. They're not mine except for Gareth.
Chp. 23.
The next morning I woke up, spooned against Gil and engulfed in his embrace, having not slept that well. My sleep had been filled with bad dreams about my childhood. It had been those of my father hitting my mother, hearing the screams in my dream too, and pictures of Gareth and me running to our hideout, and at one point I woke up sobbing waking up Gil in the process. He was so sweet and he made me tell him about my nightmare, talking it out so to speak, and then he did what he could do to comfort me, while whispering loving words as I drifted off to sleep again. It was scary because I hadn't had any nightmares, since I started to sleep in the arms of Gil. Everything had come rushing into my mind, after seeing my father's grave, and seeing the old haunts again.
I'm jolted out of my thoughts, as Gils hand starts caressing my bare shoulder, alerting me of the fact, that he's awake too. I sigh as I turn around in his grasp and that done, I'm met with his tousled appearance, and blue eyes bleary from sleep. When my eyes meet his, there's a look of concern in them, as he removes a strand of my hair from my face, then he cups my face with said hand.
"Hi." He runs his thumb along my cheekbone as he says that.
"Hey." I only say enjoying his caresses.
"Slept alright?" He asks me.
"Yes I finally did." I nod a bit as I say this.
"That's great." He says. "It wasn't funny waking up to your thrashing around. You really had me scared there."
"That was how it was, before I started to sleep in your arms, Sweetie." Gil knows about the nightmares, and reason why they stopped, so I need not to explain. "I believe everything came back to me, because we went to Tamales Bay yesterday."
"I believe so." He says kissing my forehead.
Just then my cell phone beeps to let me know that I have a text message. Gil lets go of me, and I roll around to grab it from the nightstand. After looking at the display, I point to it and mouth "Gareth" to Gil who nods.
"Sara, Jacqui and I were just talking about breakfast. Why don't we meet in the dining hall in about half an hour? Love Gareth."
"He and Jacqui want to know, if breakfast in an hour and a half is okay?" I asks Gil with a big smile, brought forth by the "us" factor he uses in regard of him and Jacqui.
"That sounds suitable." Gil says in agreement, as I flop onto my stomach, and then starts to type my reply back.
"Gareth, I just asked Gil, and we both think sounds like a good plan. We'll meet you both downstairs in an hour and a half. Love Sara"
Half an hour later Gil and I, hand in hand, walks into the dining room. Once we've spotted our two companions, and the makes our way to them. Gar and Jacqui is sitting close to one another, and she has her arm around him. Both of them looking a bit worse for the wear, but the one looking the worst of the two, was indeed my brother. I guess that he didn't sleep that well either. When Gil and I arrived at their table, they both looked up at us, and put on different facial expressions. Gareth put on a look of concern, when his eyes fell on my face, where as Jacqui's took on an expression of embarrassment, as her eyes collided with the one of her boss. She was clearly still a bit uneasy, about being around her boss outside of work. So when this "being around the boss outside of work", happened to be at a hotel in San Francisco, and not somewhere in Vegas, not really used to it yet this has to be a bit weird. Gil just smiled at her as Gareth pulled out of her grasp, and came around the table to me, where he pulled me into a hug. Gil let go of my hand, and sat down in a chair, across fro Jacqui.
"Did you have nightmares?" He asks me. I nod for a yes. "I had nightmares too."
"I dreamt about the house, about the screams, hitting, and us running to the hideout." I say as we pull away from each other.
"That was what I was dreaming about too." He tells me. "But I'm okay now. Jacqui and I talked it through, and then I was able to sleep again."
After hearing that I glance at Jacqui, noticing that Gil does the same, and when she notices her boss glance, her face turns almost purple of embarrassment. When Gil pats her hand, she looks down shyly. Neither Gil nor I feel like chuckle over her behavior, but my brother lets out a tiny chuckle, takes his place beside her again, and slips his arm around her shoulder. He says something we can't here to her, then she nods and he kiss her temple. That causes her to blush again, as she shrugs and shakes her head over her own behavior. When I have taken my seat a waiter comes over. He hands us some menus. Digging out his little notepad, from his breast pocket, he takes orders from us of what we wants to drink. That task done, he leaves us to peruse our menus, and to decide what we want for breakfast. I open my menu, flip to the breakfast section, and try to decide what I want.
That late afternoon I'm carrying a box of Gars stuff, from his small place, to this small truck we have rented. We have been by his storage room, to empty that out, so now we're here, emptying this place out, and loading the truck, so we'll be ready to leave early tomorrow. We need to get home, so we'll be ready for our shift tomorrow night.
The boys take the more heavy stuff, like the bed, the dresser, the couch, a few tables and the closets. Us girls takes the light stuff, as in boxes, chairs etc, everything that we can take on single handedly handle or take on together. We're done in an hour, so after that we decide to head back to the hotel. We have already from home decided, that we would head out for dinner, on our last night in San Francisco, so we have packed us some fancy dinner related clothes, except for Gareth who had his fancy clothes at his place. So when we steps into the hotel lobby, he is carrying the garment bag, in where his suit is. We had to inspect it, since it hasn't been in use for a long time, and the suit looked no worst for the closet waiting. We have about an hour, before we need to get ready, so we use that one for relaxation, resting our bodies from the haul of moving.
Three hours later we're all seated inside the restaurant, going through the main course. Gil looks absolutely gorgeous in his suit, Gareth looks dazzling, and Jacqui looks absolutely stunning in her dress. I'm sure that my brother's already told her that she looks beautiful. When Gil had told her that she looks stunning, she had smiled shyly as she quietly said: "Thanks Grissom." She must be getting over being awkward around him, and not blushing madly, whenever my brother gives her affection in public, as in front of Grissom her boss mostly.
After eating our desserts, I spot the dance floor, at the same time Gil does. I suddenly have an urge to dancing, so I look pleadingly at Gil, trying to convey what I want, without having to make it obvious by open my mouth. He apparently get my silent pleading, because he stands up.
"Care to join me on the dance floor, Ms. Sidle?" He asks holding out his right hand.
"Indeed I do, Mr. Grissom." I say smiling slipping my left hand into his. He gently pulls me to my feet and then leads the way to the dance floor. I look over my shoulder, only to see that Gareth follows Gil's lead, as he stands up and holds his hand towards Jacqui. A few seconds after Gil and I have reached the dance floor, we are joined by Gareth and Jacqui.
The band plays some soft jazz, and I settle comfortably into the arms of Gil, and we sway softly to the low beat. After a few songs, Gar taps Gils shoulder. He is standing there with Jacqui at his side.
"Can you spare your big brother a dance?" He asks me.
"Sure I can." I say as I'm being released by Gil and handed over to Gar.
That leaves Jacqui all alone, but not for long, since Gil begins to swing her around. She looks tense at first, but soon she looses up. After a few dances we swap back to our respective significant others. Once both Gil and I happen to steal a glance at Gareth and Jacqui, we're witnesses to something so sweet: We witness the first public kiss by them, a looks that speaks volumes, and that is the highlights of that evening. It seems to me that my dear older brother is falling in love too.
The next day we head home back home to Las Vegas, leaving San Francisco and bad memories behind. We will only be coming back if we are to visit someone like our foster parents. Las Vegas will for now on be the only home for both Gareth and I, and we're really happy about that.
I finally got done with their San Francisco trip. More to come, since I have some greatideas to further storylines.
So how did I do?