Poisson D'Avril
PhDelicious
GSR
Rated: T

Disclaimer: I have no actual right to these characters. I'm just borrowing them for a little while. All I get out of this is warm fuzzies from good reviews.

A/N: This part contains spoilers for 6x18: The Unusual Suspect.

Chapter 2

Sara's mind wandered as she dressed for her date with Grissom, their most recent case weighing on her. She'd been duped by a 12 year old girl and had allowed a killer to go free. As she stared at herself in the mirror, fiddling with her hair, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly had motivated Hannah. She'd claimed to hate the fact that their parents had made the family revolve around her, but could that really be enough for her to sacrifice part of her life to get her half-brother out of a murder rap?

Sara was still trying to analyze the actions of a socially outcast genius without projecting her own issues when Grissom stuck his head into their bathroom.

"Ready to go?"

She sighed and turned away from the mirror, trying to bring her focus back to the present.

"Ready as I'm going to be." She stepped towards the door, but he blocked her way, leaning in for a quick kiss. She could see the quick flashes of attraction and approval in his eyes as he took in her outfit. Then he made eye contact and she saw the concern he tried to hide.

"You're worried about Hannah." He made it a statement as he stepped back to allow her to move past him into the hall.

"By all accounts she barely talked to her brother and her parents seemed to dote on her. Why would she risk everything for him?"

"What did she tell you?"

"She said that it was harder to make people believe in something that never happened than it is to hide something that you've done. And that she was going to sell her story and make millions. Griss, she's 12, I can't believe this was all about the money."

"What about Marlon?" Grabbing his keys and wallet from the hall table, he helped her into a light jacket.

"I didn't spend much time with him, but he was quite adamant about his sister's lack of involvement."

"It must have made him angry, everyone suddenly believing he was too stupid to kill someone just because his genius sister said she was the one who did it."

"Shifting the spotlight back to Hannah. You don't think she did this out of jealousy? That family practically revolved around her."

"One can never truly understand another's reasoning. That much pressure on a child so young, especially with her intelligence…I guess we'll just have to wait for the book." As he spoke, Grissom held the passenger door open for Sara. He walked back around the car and slid into the driver's seat. "Dinner?"

They pulled out of the townhouse's parking lot and headed for the bright lights of the Strip.

csicsicsicsi

Grissom was nervous. Dinner had been fabulous with course after course of exquisitely prepared vegetarian food that even he could enjoy, but Sara still seemed tense and distracted. He'd never had good timing, maybe this was a bad idea. What he was about to do was so over the top he knew nobody would believe it. It wasn't that he thought Sara needed or particularly wanted a grand gesture, but that he knew she still had doubts about his intentions. Their past had scared her more than he'd initially realized. He needed to show her that he wasn't ashamed or embarrassed to be with her, be seen with her, but today was looking like a bad choice. He considered trying to find their waiter to call the whole thing off, but he heard a discrete cough behind him and realized that it was already too late.

"For dessert," the waiter placed a small silver tray on the table between Grissom and Sara. "We have a warm chocolate cake, and a coconut panna cotta. Enjoy."

Grissom studied the tray, waiting for Sara to speak. There was a small plate with a well presented slice of chocolate cake and a small bowl holding the coconut topped pudding sitting on either side of a small black velvet box. Time seemed to stop as he waited for Sara to say something, anything.

"Griss?" she asked hesitantly.

He raised his eyes to hers. The tension that she'd been carrying for the past few days had increased and there was a hint of fear behind the surprise. He reached out and lifted the box from the tray. He didn't get down on one knee, but he slid his chair around the table so that he could reach out and stroke his hand gently over her cheek.

"Sara, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and for a long time I was too afraid and too stubborn to admit that, to anyone including myself. I've hurt you so many times over the years that I have no right to sit here and ask this of you. But you're stronger than I ever realized. Every time I pushed you away you came back. I don't want to do that any more. I love you, and if you'll have me, I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Taking a deep breath, he brushed the tears from her cheek, dropped his hand from her face and opened the ring box between them. "Marry me?"

Sara's eyes dropped involuntarily to the ring Grissom was offering her and widened in shock. The ring was beautiful, sizable without being ostentatious, with an oval center stone and two smaller flanking trillions. She reached forward with trembling hands and tried to lift the ring from the box, but her fingers wouldn't obey her commands and she ended up knocking the box from Grissom's grasp. He started to slide from his chair to pick up the ring, which had popped free upon impact with the floor, but Sara beat him to it. Her hands were still shaking as she grasped the ring and slid it on. She placed her hands on Grissom's thighs to steady her while she rose. He looked from the diamonds sparkling on her slim finger up to the smile beaming through a sheen of tears and his heart threatened to burst even though she had yet to speak. She grabbed his hands and tugged him to his feet without stepping back, bringing him flush up against her. Keeping their hands wrapped together, she leaned forward and brushed her lips across his, once, twice, a third time, settling with more force.

The soft sounds of polite clapping and laughter broke Sara out of the moment. She flushed and hid her face against Grissom's neck. He released one of her hands to stroke down her back.

"You know you still haven't answered my question," he teased, whispering in her ear.

Sara pulled back and Grissom could tell she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him.

"Yes. Of course the answer is yes." She threw her arms around Grissom and hugged him tight. "Can we have dessert now?"

csicsicsicsi

It was moments like this that Sara missed having parents the most. As soon as they had returned to the townhouse, Grissom had dropped a quick kiss on her cheek and wandered off into his office to call his mom. Sara circled the living room, brushing her hands over the bookshelves and display cases. She wanted to celebrate with someone. Sure, she could call one of the guys, but she thought it would be more fun to surprise them at work, that way she could see their reactions. That left only one other person on her short list of friends. Sara flipped open her phone and dialed.

"Hello?" came the sleepy response.

"Hi Mel. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"S'ok, I was just taking a quick nap. I'm most of the way through a triple. What's up?"

"I was just calling because I thought you'd want to know that Griss took me out to this fantastic restaurant and..."

"Oh my God! You're engaged…to Gil! Congratulations!" Mel interrupted, sounding considerably more alert.

"Thanks."

"You don't sound as excited as I would've expected. Is something wrong?"

"I think I'm in shock. After all these years, it amazes me that we're dating, let alone living together or engaged. I'm getting everything I've dreamed of having…"

"And it makes you nervous; you want to run before it's too late and you lose everything again."

"I know; I'm being ridiculous. I've been so happy these past few months Mel."

"I really don't think Gil's going anywhere Sara. You stuck around for all these years, trust him to do the same."

Sara sighed, remembering the conversation she'd had with Mel a few months ago, just before Grissom had finally made his move.

CSICSICSICSI

They been back from the hospital for about two hours and they were sitting on Sara's couch eating take-out Chinese when Mel turned the conversation back to Grissom.

"So, you came to Vegas for Grissom. I know you had a fling with him and then things went bad. Why did you stay after that?"

"I love the job, and I get along really well with pretty much everyone at work. I didn't think it would take Grissom so long to figure everything out. Then every time I would start to get too far away, he would do something to pull me back in."

"Only because you let him. You could've just left."

Sara sighed and set aside the carton she'd been eating from. "Honestly I was too scared to leave. As long as I was here I could believe that the reason Grissom and I weren't together was work. If I left I would've always been looking over my shoulder waiting for him to come get me and it would've destroyed me when he didn't."

"And if you'd met someone else?"

"Even if I'd met someone else he wouldn't have had all of me because there always would've been that piece hoping that Grissom would suddenly appear around the next corner. I figured that if I stayed here at least I'd always know when I was going to see him next. And if I could find someone else to make me happy while I was still here then I knew it'd be enough."

"So you never found anyone else?"

"No one important."

"Ah, but that sounds like there was someone," teased Mel, continuing to poke at the food she was no longer eating.

Sara repositioned herself on the couch, pulling her knees into her chest, practically sitting on her heels. "There was someone, once, for a little while."

"What happened?"

"He's a paramedic, so I'd see him occasionally at work. We were just friends at first, but then he asked me to dinner and I had no reason not to go. We dated for a while, getting together when ever we could get the same shifts off. Then I found out he was…using me to cheat on his girlfriend. That was the end of that."

"How'd you find out?"

"They were having lunch together when a woman drove her car into the café. I was one of the people who worked the case."

"You seem to learn a lot of personal stuff second hand from working your cases."

Sara could tell that Mel was trying to lighten the tone but the comment struck a little too close to home, making her think of some of the other things she'd learned during investigations, like the time she'd watched Grissom 'question' that doctor. Something of her thoughts must have shown in her expression, because Mel put down her container and sat forward.

"Sara? What else haven't you told me about?"

CSICSICSICSI

She'd proceeded to tell Mel about how, instead of sticking to the evidence, Grissom had tried to talk a suspect into a confession by giving one of his own. Mel had been supportive, like she was being now. Sara tuned back in to their current conversation to hear Mel continuing to ramble about how she was sure Grissom was serious. She interrupted. "I thought he was serious the first time. He's going so overboard this time, I'm just worried that he's going to change his mind and decide this, me, us, isn't worth the risk. We still haven't told the lab director or the sheriff."

"Have you talked to him about this?"

"A little. It's hard. We've always had trouble talking about the big stuff. We're getting better with practice."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sara noticed Grissom reenter the living room. He seemed to be carrying something. She started to turn towards him, but he moved to stay behind her so she focused on Mel.

"Hey, well I didn't mean to bum you out too bad. You should go celebrate. I just got paged; my tox results are in. I'll call you back after I've had some sleep."

"Thanks Mel. Good luck with your case."

Mel hung up and Sara flipped her phone closed. She would've turned but there was no point as Grissom stepped up to slide his arms around her. She looked down and saw that the object she'd noticed before was a bottle of champagne. He bent and placed a light kiss on her neck.

"I thought we could celebrate a little."

Sara turned in his arms and pressed her lips, open and seeking, to his in a much more intimate exchange than she'd allowed herself at dinner. When they were both breathless, Grissom pulled back slightly.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Yes"

"Well then…" He moved his arm from her waist and gestured with the bottle. "I want to see if this tastes different when I lick it off of you."

Sara squirmed, torn between the erotic image and the less tasteful reality. "Griss that's going to be so gross later. I'll be sticky everywhere."

"Don't worry. I promise to let you shower afterwards."

Tbc… Next up work. Anyone want to write me champagne smut?