Chapter 4: Tossed Around
"I can't believe you missed him again!"
Sara returned to the table, a plate filled with chocolate cake and cookies in hand. She looked at Keri as if she had spouted three heads as she sat back down in her chair. She picked off a piece of chocolate cake and shoved it in her mouth. "Who?" she asked, teeth slightly blackened.
"I swear to God that it's him!" Erika threw up her hands, her words playful, yet insistent.
Sara craned her neck forward, getting slightly annoyed, "WHO?"
As Erika opened her mouth, MB ran up behind her, breathless. "You guys are never gonna guess who I just saw!"
All three turned their attention to her, their minds off of Sara for a second.
"Besides the hot cabin boy who helped you into your room?" Keri smiled mischievously. Sara, Erika, and MB just looked at her, and she shrank back in her chair. "OK, ok, I get the picture... who did you see?"
"Dr. Grissom!"
Sara's jaw dropped.
They stared at each other. Erika and Keri smiled at each other, then spouted "I told ya so!" at the same time, erupting into fits of laughter.
Sara closed her mouth and grumbled to herself. "I'm gonna say this for the last time you guys, Grissom's not here! He's at an Entomology convention." She paused, taking in their looks that ranged from 'yeah, right' to 'What aren't you telling us?" She took a deep breath and began again. "No, really guys. I work with him. We went over this on the ride here. He's not on the ship. Can we please move on to another topic?"
~~~~~~~~~~
Grissom turned away from Danny. He could have sworn he heard someone call his name. A female someone.
It was probably just his hearing playing tricks on him again, though. He turned back to the young man. "Sorry, thought I heard someone calling my name. Go on."
"Oh, well, like I was saying, I'm truly fascinated by their work ethic. I mean, back in that room are probably some of the smartest men in the country, and they're acting like college kids trying to get drunk!" Danny threw up his hands, baffled.
Grissom pondered the young man's objective, and leaned his crossed arms on the rail, watching the New York Skyline, and land, rapidly disappear. "Danny, my boy, it's all about escapism."
"How so?" He looked so innocent, so unexposed to the underbelly of the life of a CSI that Grissom hated to mar his untainted mind.
"The job..." He paused, searching for the right words, "The job can become all encompassing. Every minute of every day you're absorbing information that you might one day use. You become a human encyclopedia and computer. Your mind is constantly working, constantly solving puzzles. It may seem like that's easy to leave at the office, but the mind never stops." Grissom wasn't even stopping for a breath, the words just came tumbling out, as if they had been trapped in him for ages. "It keeps thinking about the evidence while you're at home, while you're making your coffee, while you're shaving. Your mind never rests, even when you want it to. And if it's not enough that the evidence won't leave you alone, once you meet the victims, their families, the suspects, that's all you can see. It's like they follow you around, watching your every move, waiting for you to solve the case. And you can hear them, whispering quietly to you, or sometimes shouting, but you can never quite hear what they're saying. They're trying to tell you something, always looking to give you that last piece of the puzzle. Sometimes you find it, and sometimes you don't. When you solve a case- you feel great, it's over. But even though justice is served, you haven't prevented the crime from happening. When it's left open and unsolved, they still follow you around, and you just know that somewhere out there someone just got away with murder. Figurative or literal. And it's all because you couldn't find the evidence and they may just do it again."
Grissom's eyes grew dark and far away. Danny could only stare and watch the older man get carried into memories. When it was apparent he wasn't going to continue, the silence hung like a pall over them. There was nothing either of them could say, so they just stared at the ocean, watching the engines churn up white trails off of the back of the ship.
After a few minutes, Grissom cleared his throat. "Sorry to, uh, get so heavy on you there. It's just– you have to understand what you're getting into. Every day we see people on the worst days of their lives and it just doesn't go away that easy. Especially when you care. Those guys in there..." Grissom tipped his head to signal the conference room, "...they're workaholics. They deal with the science and the politics and it's running them into the ground. Every once in a while you need to just get– well, to get drop dead drunk and make it go away."
Danny rubbed his face in his hands. "If you don't mind me asking, what about you? You said it's running them into the ground... you work at the number two lab in the country in Sin City for Christ sakes. How do you deal with it?"
"Avoid the politics mostly." Grissom turned to Danny and smiled. "Or at least I try. Plus I have a wonderful team of scientists around me. It's like.... like a family. They're amazing investigators and wonderful friends." Grissom's voice became low and woeful. "It's not always easy, but knowing that there's someone there you can trust who's not vying for your job makes it a little easier." He paused, choking down a lump in his throat. "Even if you don't always tell them that."
Danny stared at the older man in amazement. Of all the stories he's heard about Gruesome Grissom, all the staunch, scientific articles he's read by him, and all of the other uptight examples of entomological professors he'd encountered, not for one minute did he imagine the depth of emotion this man carried. Watching his old professors, he thought that it would be easy to separate himself. He now saw that it was impossible, even for one of the most brilliant minds in the field. Danny smiled at the older man.
"Dr. Grissom?"
"Just Grissom."
"Grissom? Would you let me buy you a drink?" Danny was determined to lighten the mood.
Grissom laughed. "For what? Convincing you to escape forensic entomology while you still can?"
"No. For being honest with me. And reaffirming why I wanted to do this in the first place."
"And why would that be?" Grissom tipped his head.
"It's an exceptionally difficult job, for exceptional people, who want to make a difference the only way they know how." Danny smiled, feeling that he'd finally found a mentor in Grissom. Not only was he an exceptional scientist, but he was a human.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sara lunged across her cabin and grabbed the phone, landing on the floor as the ship lurched with the tide, throwing her off balance. "Sidle," she choked out as she slipped her other sandal on.
"Sassy! Get your ass down to the lounge!" The voice was obviously drunk, and obviously Keri's.
"Ker, I'm almost dressed. I'm not used to this whole dressing up for dinner thing. I'm usually just getting up to go to work now!"Sara sat in the desk char, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder and searching through her still unpacked carry-on.
"Whatever... Look, we're having a blast, and while you went for a nap, I got the cabin numbers of three guys! Three!" Keri changed her tone from exuberant friend to disappointed mother, "if you're not up here in 15 minutes you're going to miss the beginning of the show and all the hot guys are gonna be snatched up! We are DETERMINED to get you a guy for this trip. To get each of us a guy. Fun college days, remember?"
"I know, I know!" Sara dug her arm all the way into the bottom of the bag, finally pulling it back out with a small cosmetic case. "Look, I just have to brush my hair and throw on some make up- then I'll be there, ok?"
"Fine. But any boys I meet until you get here are fair game!"
"Fine, fine! I'll be right there." Sara hung up the phone and stood, looking at herself in the full length mirror. Her hair was down, a slight curl playing at the ends, leaving it to bounce just over her shoulders. Her black skirt ended just below her bare knees, but sported a slit that ran up to the middle of her right thigh. It was sweet and demure one way, and damn sexy if she crossed her legs another way. Her top was a red halter, that showed just a little too much cleavage and most of her back. Flat black sandals encased her feet, and the only jewelry she wore was a sophisticated silver ankle bracelet and her watch.
Content with her appearance, Sara turned back to the dressing table to throw on some make up.
~~~~~~~~~~
Grissom slipped his shoes on and stared in the mirror. His black polo and slacks were casual, yet dressy enough for the evening's show and five course dinner that followed.
He'd accepted Danny's offer for a drink, then bought the next round. He enjoyed the young man's company, but had been up for almost twenty five hours. He'd excused himself back to his room where he'd napped for a few hours before waking up to get ready for dinner.
Night shift was catching up to him. This vacation was going to flip his nights and days. It would be hell getting back to work. He again found himself surprised that it didn't really matter.
Grissom grabbed his wallet and room key and slipped it in his pocket.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sara grabbed her clutch that held her room key and pass card that was the key to paying for anything on the ship, as well as being the ship's ID card, and huffed at her reflection.
If Keri was trying to pick up guys for her, she'd have to kill her.
~~~~~~~~~~
The doors to rooms 4633 and 4635, which faced each other, opened at the same time.
Their respective occupants faced in towards their doors as they closed them.
The occupant of room 4635 turned before his door was totally closed.
The ship hit a wave.
Sara Sidle lost her balance and fell backward. The heavy door of room 4633 fell closed.
The occupant of room 4633 fell into Dr. Gil Grissom. Startled, he wound his arm around her to keep her from falling to the floor.
The wind knocked out of her and her brown hair obscuring his view, they fell back into room 4635.
The ship lurched the other way. The door to room 4635 swung shut.
They both jumped up, talking at the same time, quick to try to move away from one another.
"Are you alright, Miss?"
"I am so sorry, Sir!"
The second their voices filled the room they ceased moving.
Sara turned to face that familiar voice.
Grissom let his hands linger on the woman's elbows as she turned to him, keeping her closer than he would a stranger.
Blue eyes met brown, both startled and surprised.
They muttered each other's names at the same time, afraid that what they were seeing was an illusion, a figment of an over active and wishful imagination.
Sara grasped his forearms to keep her balance as she felt the ship move again.
Grissom pulled away a hand to push her unruly curls behind her ears before cupping her elbow again. He stared at her, emotions playing over his face.
She tipped her head to the right: a question.
He shrugged with a half-smile: an answer.
She shook her head in disbelief and smiled so widely she had to close her eyes.
Grissom let out a chuckle.
Sara looked back up at him, a specific timbre sneaking into her voice, one that he'd heard the day before when she thought she had caught him in a lie. "Entomological convention, huh?"