Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone for the reviews and the birthday good wishes! Let me tell you, they totally made my day even better. Enjoy this new chapter!
Someone Else's Star
by Kristen Elizabeth
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning. – Ivy Baker Priest
October 2000
"Sara, everyone gets married on the beach. The Japanese Tea Gardens are ten times prettier, and not nearly so clichéd. Oh, can you imagine the photographs? The two of you standing on one of those little curved bridges, with the babbling brook running underneath your feet…"
Pulling the phone away from her ear, Sara let Matt's mother continue. She flipped a page in her forensics journal. It could be anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour before her input was requested, if it ever was.
When she was done with the article, she put the journal aside and lifted the phone back up to her ear.
"…not that Tahoe isn't a perfectly romantic place to have your honeymoon, but think about it this way: this is the place where you will have your first relations as man and wife. Wouldn't you rather go somewhere exotic like Hawaii or the Caribbean? Oh! Maybe abroad! Italy...or Spain…"
She interjected a quick, "Uh-huh," and moved the phone away again. This time, she reached for her laptop.
Sara,
Would I be displaying my age if I said the idea of training yet another fresh-faced academy grad has me exhausted already? She starts tomorrow night. At the very least, I'll get a pint of blood out of the deal.
Grissom
Balancing the phone on her shoulder…Matt's mother had moved on to the bridesmaid's dresses…Sara started typing.
Dear Grissom,
Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese. – Billie Burke
Show her an autopsy. But only write her off if she faints. Puke doesn't count. If it did, I'd be out of a job.
Sara
Once again, she found herself in the middle of an internal debate. Was the quote too on the nose, making too pointed of a comment on the irrelevancy of the age difference that only seemed to bother him? Should she take it out and maintain the status quo, or leave it in and give it a chance to make him think twice?
Her heartwon the battle, and she left it in.
Eventually, though, Sara's attention had to return to her future mother-in-law, whether she liked it or not. "Lucy, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short and start getting ready for work."
"I know you love your job, Sara, but I have to say it again…the kind of hours you work coupled with the fact that half the time you're working while Matt's sleeping and you barely get to see each other…it worries me. A marriage needs a strong foundation and in the first year, that can only come from being together. If you're not…"
It was a familiar discussion and one that Sara didn't have time for. Fortunately she heard the front door opening just then as Matt returned home. "I really have to go now. We'll talk soon. Bye!"
She hung up just as Matt entered the room. "Who was that?" he asked.
"Your mother. She wants us to consummate our marriage in Europe."
"Thank you for sparing me." He dropped a kiss on her forehead as he walked by the couch. Too late, Sara realized Grissom's email was still open on her laptop screen. She rushed to explain, but Matt spoke first. "You told me you didn't hear from him all that often."
"I don't." She sighed. He didn't deserve to have his intelligence insulted. "Okay. We write each other maybe once or twice a week. Depending on life."
"Life?"
Sara tried to shrug nonchalantly. "Yeah. Some weeks we have more to talk about than others."
Matt started to walk away, but then thought better of it and turned around. "You're supposed to talk about life with me, Sara."
"And I do," she countered, setting her computer to one side and standing up. "But he and I are in the same line of work, Matt. Of course there are going to be times I find it easier to talk to him. He understands the things I see every day."
"And I can't?"
Sara gave him a strained smile. "Matt, c'mon. When's the last time you saw an entire family slaughtered in their own beds?"
"Never, Sara. I help put people back together; you figure out who broke them past repair. But that doesn't mean I can't hold you after you've seen all that shit, and try to make at least one part of your day good." He paused. "Can Gil Grissom do that?"
She folded her arms awkwardly. "He's my mentor."
"Well. Can't argue with that, I guess." Matt gave her a painfully sad look. "I'm in the mood for pasta. Will you want to eat before work?"
Sara wasn't the least bit hungry now, but she nodded. "Matt," she called out when he turned to go again. He looked back and something in his eyes spoke of his hope that all of his doubts and instinctual fears about her relationship with Grissom were just the product of his own paranoia.
She couldn't tell him. It wasn't the right time to bring up her own doubts and fears about their impending marriage, and the restraints it would put upon her. The invisible tether by which she would forever be tied to one man, while another secretly occupied her heart…already she found herself waging a silent war against it. And he had no clue.
"I'll make a salad," Sara said softly.
They worked side by side, him stirring sauce and boiling linguine while she chopped vegetables and shook together a dressing. As Sara set out plates and silverware, she felt Matt come up behind her. He said nothing, just wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It was an unspoken truce that she accepted by relaxing back against his hard chest.
Grissom's body would be softer, but would he ever offer it so willingly?
Her cell phone rang thirty-six hours later.
Dawn was creeping up on San Francisco; its warm rays played over the bed in which Sara and Matt slept. She was immediately woken by the call, being the lightest of sleepers. Automatically assuming it was work-related, she answered, "Sidle."
"Sara." There was a pause. "It's Gil Grissom."
She sat up in bed and switched the phone to her other ear. It had been a good six months since they'd spoken on the phone. "Grissom, hi. Hey. Um…how…how's it…uh…going?" She quietly slapped her forehead. Her tongue never got twisted around anyone else.
"I woke you up."
"No. Well, yes. It doesn't matter." Sara cast a guilty glance at Matt, still peacefully sleeping beside her. "It's good to hear from you."
His voice sounded tired, almost shell-shocked. "I'm sorry, but I didn't call to catch up." She waited for him to go on. "Something's happened."
She listened, absorbing all the details she could about the tragic shooting of his newest CSI, Holly something. Another of the names in the story was more familiar. Warrick Brown was someone he mentioned in his emails occasionally. She'd even been jealous in the past of the pride he seemed to have in the man. Her green-eyed monster took mean pleasure in hearing just how badly the man appeared to have screwed up.
There was to be an internal investigation, she gathered, and rightfully so. He would need an objective eye, someone not connected with anyone on his shift, or even in his department. She told him this when he finished a few minutes later. If he'd called for her advice, that was it.
She wasn't at all prepared for what he was really after.
"Sara," Grissom said with a note of nervousness in his tone. "I don't need just anyone for this. I need you."
"I've got some vacation time saved up," Sara heard herself telling him before the impact of his statement really hit her. "I'll catch the next flight out."
He let out a breath of what she took for relief. "The lab's on North Tropicana. If I'm not there, the receptionist will tell you where I am." She could almost see him smiling, that damn imperfect smile that had captivated her the very first day they'd met. "Thank you, Sara. Thank you."
"Hey." She tried to keep her words light, even though her heart was beating a million times per second. His 'I need you' had finally registered. "What are friends for?"
Sara hung up the phone and turned back to Matt. He was wide awake. One look at the hard expression on his face told her that he'd heard everything.
"Did he actually snap his fingers, or does he have you so well trained that he doesn't even have to expend that much effort to get you to come on command?"
She flipped the covers off her bare legs with more force than was necessary. Grabbing some clothes from her dresser, she announced, "I'm going to take a shower."
When she emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, he was waiting for her. "Were you even going to wake me up to say goodbye?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Sara snapped as she dug a big shoulder bag out from under the bed.
Matt watched her as she filled it with a few changes of clothing. "Is it ridiculous to ask if you were going to discuss this with me?"
"Matt." She slammed a pack of cigarettes into the bag. "You have no idea what it means to be hand-picked for an investigation by Gil Grissom. To anyone, not just me. And let's remember something. Did you discuss it with me when you signed up for that convention in Orlando over the summer?"
"That's different," he shot back. "There wasn't a woman waiting for me in Florida who I happen to have a past with."
"Grissom and I have no past beyond teacher and student. I'm going to Las Vegas to help him out for a few days. A week at the most." She closed up her bag. "My boss will understand. Why can't you?"
"Your boss isn't in love with you." A long minute stretched by. "Tell me…that's all there is to it. A career thing. A friend thing. Nothing more."
On their first date, nervous and looking for small talk, she'd told him that you could spot a liar by the way they looked off to the side. "It's a career thing." She forced herself to look at him straight on. "A friend thing. Nothing more. I'll be back before you know it."
A light in his eyes went out. "Thanks for the lie."
To Be Continued