DISCLAIMER: Don't Own it. No Money Made... Just for fun and enjoyment.

A/N: Wedding Day! Stay tuned for the final post where I make a point to showoff a little tribute I slipped into a previous chapter, and then go down the list... One more chapter after this... I still can't believe I've managed to pull it off:p

REVIEWS: Thanks to all who have reviewed.


Chapter 49

The air was already beginning to cool and they were less than an hour away from the desired sunset. The guests were milling about the grounds of the Braun estate, waiting for the main event to start in the next few minutes. Half of the night shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab was wandering around in small circles of conversations, as was a sizeable portion of the emergency room and surgical staff of Desert Palms Hospital.

Warrick Brown and his wife Tina were engaged in polite conversation with a couple who had recently moved out of state, but were in town for the wedding. Warrick noticed a short, blonde-haired, young girl walking in and out of the circles of people as they chatted, as though she was looking for something, or someone. He instantly recognized the girl as Catherine's daughter Lindsey. They had made friends many years ago, on her various visits to the lab.

When she passed beside him, she instantly recognized the man as well, "Hey, Warrick."

"Hey, Linds… Shouldn't you be back with the bride, girl?" He put a gentle hand on her shoulder as he spoke.

"Yeah, but Mom sent me out to look for Sara… Have you seen her?" Lindsey kept looking around at the different groups of people trying to spot the woman.

Warrick craned his neck around and spotted the woman having an animated discussion with Nick over by the fountain. He leaned over and tried to point her out to Lindsey from her vantage point, "Follow the end of my finger… She's by the fountain talking to Nick."

Lindsey trailed her gaze down the length of his arm, and when her eyes finally caught sight of Sara she gave him a smile. "Thanks, 'Rick… Save me a dance later?" The delightful dimples on her freckled face always turned up the corners of Warrick's mouth.

He nodded his head, "Got you on my dance card, Linds. Don't forget me."

"No way!" And she trotted off in the direction of the person she had been sent to find.

Warrick turned back to his wife, who was giving him a questioning glare, "Don't look at me like that… She's been my girl longer than you." He screwed up his mouth stroked his chin as he tried to calculate the time, "'Bout six or seven years, easy. I think it's the dimples."

Jim Brass chose that moment to walk up to them and make a comment, "And here I thought it was those freckles."

Warrick gave Jim a nudge, "Nah, you must have me confused with one of her other boyfriends… I think Grissom was the freckle junkie." The two men had a good laugh at their inside joke, and everyone just smiled at the exchange.

Lindsey broke through the crowd right in front of Nick, who slowed her down and held her back from falling down, "Careful, Linds… You're gonna wreck that pretty dress before the weddin', and I'm not gonna be able to save you from your Mom."

She gave him an exasperated frown, "Nobody can save me from Mom, ever." Sara and Nick both laughed at Lindsey's gestures and gave each other a knowing look, because if they had told the girl she looked and sounded just like her mother in that instant, the shrieks would have been deafening. No fourteen year old girl wants to know they act like their mother. "Hey Sara? Mom sent me to get you."

Sara held a hand to her chest in her surprise, "Me? Really?"

"Yeah, and she'll kill me if I don't hurry." Lindsey was being dead serious, so Sara took her at her word.

"Since we don't want bloodshed today, I'll follow you there." Lindsey was visibly relieved and took Sara's hand to lead her back to the room where her mother was hiding away from the crowd gathered there.

Lindsey knew that today was a big deal. Her mother had even gotten her grandfather to let them use his house for the wedding; And she never asked Sam for ANYTHING. Lindsey really liked Stephanie and Thomas and she was truly excited when they asked her to be their flower girl / ring bearer for the wedding. She also really enjoyed that she felt like she had someone to talk to about her mother. Stephanie was much easier to talk to than her grandmother or her aunt, and she was also a good friend to her mother, which Lindsey figured could only be a good thing.

As she tugged Sara through the people, to the back of the pool house, where her mother and Stephanie were getting ready for the wedding, she hoped that Sara could fix the problem they were having. She did not know why her mother needed Sara. Lindsey always thought her mother was the only one who could figure Gil out, but she guessed things must have changed.

Just before they got to the pool house door, she ran into her grandmother and grandfather who were obviously glad to see her in her new dress. "Lindsey, honey, you look so pretty!"

Lindsey looked back to see Sara smiling, "I was going to say the same thing, but she kind of dragged me out of the crowd too soon… Lindsey, why don't you stay here." Sara smiled at Lily and Sam and made her excuse to leave, "I'm sure I can find my way now." She nodded at the older couple and slid past them, leaving them to admire Lindsey and her dress.

Sara got to the door and knocked when she found it locked. The voice that called out to her was familiar and sounded very coarse, "Who is it?"

"Cath, it's me."

The door swung open violently and she was pulled into the room in a gust, "Thank God!"

Sara was trying to catch her breath from the greeting, and then she saw Stephanie in her dress with a horrified expression on her face. "Well, I'd love to say you look amazing, but what's up with the face?"

Stephanie came rushing up to her and took Sara's hands into hers, "Sara, you have got to help me, please?"

Sara looked around the room and was still trying to figure out what was going on, "Yeah, sure… Wha'dya need?"

"It's Uncle Gil." A lump instantly rose in Sara's throat.

When neither woman responded right away, she begged for an answer, "What about him? Is he okay?"

"You mean you haven't seen him?" Catherine had asked the question, but the pain of the words came from Stephanie's eyes.

"No, Nick and I had a call that ran late and I rode over here with him… Where's Grissom?" Sara was beginning to understand the problem.

"Your guess is as good as ours… His home phone goes straight to voicemail and he's not answering his cell." Catherine was throwing up her arms with her explanation. "I even had Dispatch page him… NOTHING!"

Sara took a deep breath and tried to piece it all together, when something dawned on her. "Does his cell go straight to voice?"

Catherine looked as though she never considered that his cellphone had not gone straight to voicemail, which meant it was still on. That was when panic began to fill her eyes, "You don't think he-…"

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions." She was trying to be the voice of reason, as it was obvious these two women had gone well past that point already. She looked at her wristwatch, "Okay, so how much time do we have?"

"I'm supposed to be walking down the aisle in fifteen minutes." That did not give her much time to work with.

"Okay… I'll get you an answer in ten." Sara walked out of the pool house with her cellphone in hand. She quickly dialed a number and then hit the extension, "Hey Archie! Give me a GPS location on Grissom's cell, right now… No, I don't have time for small talk… Yes, I'm at the wedding… Sorry, Arch, but I really need th-… You do?.. Where?... Are fucking kidding me?... No, sorry Archie… Yeah, I'll get you some cake… Bye." Sara shook her head and looked around for some way to make it to the front gate and back in under ten minutes. Son of a bitch! Why do you make things so hard? She suddenly spotted a gardener with a golf cart and a light went off. She ran over to the elderly man and shouted at him, "Hey! Does that thing haul?"

"Huh?" The man looked completely confused.

"Look, I don't have time to explain… I need to get to the front gate and back in under ten minutes… Can you help me?" The seriousness of her expression must have hit home, because he just got into the driver seat and motioned for her to get in, which she did. In an instant they were barreling down the impossibly long drive to the front gate. He signaled for the guard to open the gate and she waited for what seemed like an eternity for it to open.

Once she got outside of the gate, she looked from right to left, in search of his hiding spot, but instead she found him just sitting there on a rock, right outside the gate to the left. The guard came up to her and spoke, "Hey lady… He's been there for like an hour… He drove in maybe an hour and half ago and then came walking out here and just sat down on that rock." She gave him a sad look and he just had to ask, "I hope that ain't the groom."

Sara had to laugh when she responded, "Not hardly. But thanks." She walked over to him and he finally noticed that she was there. "Have you lost your mind, Grissom?"

He just hung his head again and mumbled, "Probably."

"Well, pick it up at the front desk and let's get out of here." She walked up and stood in front of him before she reached in and removed his phone from his jacket pocket, and re-dialed the number which had called his phone an amazing number of times. "… Hey Cath… Tell Stephanie to just get ready… I'll have him there in a few. I promise… One way or another." She closed up the phone and returned it to his pocket. Then she took his chin in her hand and held up his face so that she could look into his eyes, "Now, what the hell were you thinking?"

His eyes became filled with unshed tears as he spoke, "I just couldn't be that hypocrite, Sara."

"What are you talking about?" Sara was dumbfounded by his response.

"How can I present her to marry someone? Me?"

Sara shook her head and shook away his questions, "You're right." He looked almost as though he had just been shot, but she continued, "It shouldn't be you, it should be her father, but he's not here anymore. You are… And she wants you there, more than anyone."

"But-…"

"But nothing, Gil… Do you love that girl?" Sara was quickly losing her patience with him.

"You know I do, but that's wh-…"

"Then quit being a selfish asshole and remember that today has nothing to do with you, unless you fuck it up." Sara stood tall and crossed her arms over her chest, her indignity at his actions shining through clearly.

Much to her complete and total shock, he started laughing. Sara turned and glared at him, her confusion evident on her face. "What's so funny?"

"Me… You… I think I know why this all happened like this now." Sara was absolutely flabbergasted at his answer, and it was glaringly apparent in her eyes when he stood up and took her into his arms. "I don't even think Catherine would have had the courage to put me in my place like that." He looked down at his watch and suddenly realized what he was about to do. "How sweaty are we going to be running back to the house to get there in time?" He was starting to remove his jacket when she suddenly realized that he had changed his mind faster than she had been able to keep up, but she had a surprise of her own to spring on him.

"Leave it on." She started straightening his tie and smoothing out his suit jacket. And then she took his hand to lead him around to the other side of the gate. "Your chariot awaits."

They both laughed at the sight of the golf cart with the flatbed across the back. The gardener must have sensed something and he gave them a look before he spoke, "With both of you, it'll go smoother if you sit in the back." He jumped out and threw a blanket over the tail of his golf cart, to keep their clothes from getting dirty.

Grissom hoisted Sara up onto the back end of the cart and then climbed up himself. The gardener immediately took off with the same speed in which he had arrived there and both Sara and Grissom were laughing at their situation. Without a thought, or any regard for their visibility, he wrapped his arm around her and gave her one of those kisses that she had claimed made it impossible for her to hold anything while in the throws of what she called "Grissom Kisses." But he was completely living in the moment and when the cart came to an abrupt stop, he was greeted with a rather interesting sound; applause.

Sara turned her face away from the small crowd of people who had watched them arrive at the garden to avoid showing the amazing blush burning on her cheeks at that moment. Grissom simply leaned over and whispered into her ear, "I guess we've been outed." And then he kissed her tenderly on the cheek before hopping off the back of the cart and turning to help her down as well.

She was still blushing furiously, but she had to admit that at least they did not have hide any longer or have to tell the story a million times. Sara wrapped her arms around his neck as he helped her to the ground and leaned in to whisper into his ear, "Does this mean the layout table is now up for discussion?"

That time it was Grissom whose face warmed with an intense blush, but he was able to recover well enough to give her a response, "Ah, no… But I'll make it up to you, in other ways." He punctuated it with a raise of his eyebrow that Sara mirrored to show her interest. "Now, if you'll excuse me." He kissed her quickly on the cheek before turning for the pool house, "I have a bride to deal with… Wish me luck."

Sara laughed at the comical expression on his face, as he ran off to deal with the wrath of the waiting bride, but when she walked over to join the other guests, she was blushing all over again. Their quips, whistles and laughter made her acutely aware of just how many people had been rooting for them over the years.

The only mystery she found was in the utterly confused face of Nick, as she joined her team to take their seats. He was practically ashen with his shock, and Sara was unable to resist making a comment, "Is there a problem, Nicky?" Warrick threw back his head and laughed at the catlike pose and expression she used to emphasize her question.

Nick shook his head, as though the whole thing could be cleared up like an Etch-A-Sketch, and then he spoke, "Well… I thought he was… I mean isn't he involved with… You know, um."

They all looked at him like he had three heads, and he was speaking Sanskrit, "Spit it out, Nicky." Brass was always one to get right to the point.

"I thought he was with Stephanie's Mom." They all had their mouths hanging open at his completely ludicrous conclusion. "Well, why else would he be givin' her away?" That was what brought the laughter out in full force.

But it was Brass that had the last word when he slapped Nick on the back, "Someone get this man a razor… Obviously all that hair's gotten in the way."