A/N: This part did not go to my wonderful Beta b/c I wanted ot get it posted before I leave for school. Any errors are mine! Sorry! More A/N at the end.


Chapter 6: Midnight Rendevous


Grissom lifted his hand to his face and touched his nose, but he still couldn't see it. He waved it around in front of his face a few times. This was an amazing anomaly to him. He was plunged into complete and utter darkness. It was something he wasn't used to with the blinding lights of Vegas creating false daylight while he was working and the sun invading his hours of sleep. After contemplating the darkness a few more seconds he sat up and fumbled for the light next to his bed. His eyes shut automatically and shied away from its false radiance.


Sighing, he picked up his watch off the night stand and stared at it. 12:48. He was wide awake. He should be sleeping. This time of night he was usually knee deep in a crime scene, logging and processing evidence. His brain was screaming for activity, his body insisted it didn't need rest.


Putting his watch down he reached for the tiny remote control for the impossibly small TV perched in the corner of the room.


~~~~~~~~~~


For over fifty stations, there were actually only three channels. Sara had watched the guided tour of the ship, the guide to the engine room, and seen the headlines on CNN so many times she had them memorized. If she were home she would have gone into work. She leaned her head back against her pillow and fumbled for her watch. 1:03.


Chances were that they'd be in bed now, she mused. While Sara didn't want to run into her friends and have to explain why she wasn't passed out and drugged up on Dramamine, she didn't want to be a prisoner to her own room, either.


Her eyes fell on the phone across from her and she thought about calling Grissom. But what would she say?


"I was awake and bored and you're more stimulating than my drunk friends?"


"Hey boss, do you miss work yet?"


"Hey Griss, come over here and screw my brains out."


Sara shook her head at the last line that made it's way through her brain. Ok, calling Grissom was not a good idea. She knew this was going to be an interesting cruise, but if she couldn't keep her urges to herself, it was going to be hell.


As she swung herself out of bed and searched through the closet she mumbled to herself, "He said no. He said no...."


~~~~~~~~~~


The cold sea breeze was harsher on Sara's face. Instinctively she pulled her sweatshirt tighter around her, wishing she had the foresight to bring another pair of pants. Her legs, clad only in the thin cotton shorts she was planing on sleeping in, started to get tiny goose bumps on them. The ship seemed to be moving faster now, and she could hear the waves crashing against the side of the ship.


Her restlessness had forced her out onto the pool deck. In the dark of night there was a serine quality to the top deck where only hours before there had been gaggles of people in the throes of excitement over their vacations. Her initial reaction to the cool air subsided and she rolled her sleeves up to her elbows. The very front of the boat was cordoned off with yellow caution tape, she could only imagine it was because of the fierce wind or it was being cleaned. She turned and followed the rail to the very back of the ship.


She could see another form leaning at the rail, silhouetted in the moonlight. Approaching slowly, more of his features were revealed in the dim lighting. A smile slid across her face.


"You got a case for me?" Her voice carried over the wind to his ears. If she surprised him, he didn't show it.


He turned his head to the side, only able to see her a little out of the corner of his eye. "I do believe you've already maxed out on overtime for this month, Miss Sidle." Sara laughed and sauntered up next to him, mimicking their position from earlier in the evening. "You couldn't sleep either?" His eyes were studying her face, a hint of a smile on his lips.


"No. And I can now tell you just about anything you want to know about this ship. Like there are seven passenger elevators. Or that the ship weighs forty-five thousand tons." Sara returned his stare, a playful smile on her lips and a airy manner about her.


"Or that our cruising speed is nineteen-point-five knots?"Grissom chimed in. Sara raised her eyebrows at him, Grissom just shrugged.


Suddenly uncomfortable under his gaze, Sara dropped her eyes as her hand went to play with her messy pony tail. The meaning of her movements was not lost on Grissom, but he refused to yield. Sara turned back out to the ocean, resting her chin on folded hands.


"Isn't this amazing and scary at the same time?" Her voice was wistful, and the sparkle had returned to her eyes.


"What do you mean?" Grissom mirrored her position, hoping to better understand.


Sara motioned her hand to encompass the sea. "This. A forty-five thousand ton tin can floating out in the middle of nowhere, the sea and the sky just going on infinitely..." She tipped her head up, then cupped her hands around her face, "and God, just look at all of those stars!"


All Grissom could think was the she was so beautiful reveling in this obscenely scientific moment. So many thoughts crossed his mind in the seconds he stared at her: an explanation of the mathematics and architecture behind the floating "tin can," The fact that the sea and sky would not go on infinitely, but that it was just an optical illusion, how sailors used the horizon line to guide them, but finally settled on just cupping his hands around his eyes and searching the heavens like she was. He felt like a kid again in those few moments, just awed by nature, science, and its simple, hidden beauty.


Sarah turned from her skyward explorations, only to see Grissom mimicking her pose. She drank in his form, only tearing her eyes back to the horizon when he began to move his hands from his face.


His voice came in a whisper. "I don't think I've ever seen so many stars..." He turned to her in time to see her nod her head, her eyes still trained on the ocean. She tipped over the rail a little to get a better look at the white water being churned up by the engines, then leaned back on the rail.


"God, I can't imagine doing it!" Sara was so content in that moment, quietly surrounded by natural beauty and in the best company, that she jumped when she heard Grissom's voice again. His exclamation wasn't loud, but filled with wonderment.


"Doing what?"


"When Christopher Columbus set sail for America he did so with three ships not much larger than our lifeboats and a belief that the world was round, not flat. There was no sonar, no Global Positioning Systems, no maps, nothing. Can you just imagine doing it? Throwing caution to the wind and going thousands of miles out to sea with only a prayer?"


"Well, you know, Christopher Columbus didn't really discover America..." Sara couldn't help but point out his scientific inaccuracy, a smile barely hidden. When she saw the sparkle fade from Grissom's eye, however, she was immediately sorry she did it. She rushed to cover herself. "But I know what you mean. To make a discovery you weren't just risking a reputation, you were risking the lives of your crew and their families. And now we do this for fun."


The sparkle came back to his eyes. "It's slightly safer now, you know. Rates for the contraction of scurvy have severely declined."


Sara's laughter bubbled out of her, and Grissom soon followed. At that moment, they were alone in the infinitely beautiful universe, filled with science and wonder.


(TBC...)


Updates will be few and far between from now on- School starts back up tomorrow and I'll be starting with Orienting the incoming college freshmen. I'm trying to stay consistent with chapters- but don't expect anything right away. Thanks for understanding and all your wonderful reviews!