Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, this time "unfortunately".
A/N: This is my first-ever non-angsty story, also my first-ever story to include any kind of dialogue, so I am kind of surprised at myself. Another response to Laura Katharine's "beard" challenge, which seems to have really inspired me (so, thanks!). Much love goes to windbound (aka elenerm) for reading this over, giving comments despite my stubbornness, and for putting herself through "fluff!" for me. And sorry about the "s"'s appearing between some paragraphs. I tried to use something else, but the site wouldn't let me.
REWRITTEN
"What?" Sara asked, as Grissom seemingly drifted off, his eyes fixated somewhere on the wall across from the bed, his fingers still lazily drawing circles on her bare shoulder.
"I never properly apologized to you, did I?", Grissom said in a thoughtful voice. "I would say just about 5 minutes ago you did", Sara said with a smirk, but the small smile that generated on his face was short-lived.
"There are so many things over the years that I could have done differently, wanted to do differently", Grissom mused, "but I didn't..."
Sara averted her eyes, momentarily uncomfortable. This was neither the time nor the place for this. Happy as she was in her current relationship with Grissom, there was no denying the pain he had put her through. She had made a conscious choice to not think about it, and she wanted to avoid delving into those issues as long as possible, afraid that it would inevitably plant seeds of resentment into the way she viewed him now. Grissom kept going: "Remember when you brought me that blanket during my experiment for the Shelton case? I would have liked to take you in my arms, wrapping both of us in it. I didn't. Remember the time when you touched my face outside that house, during that case years ago? I...I would have liked to..."
"Do we have to talk about this now?" She desperately tried to stop him, but he didn't seem to be willing to let it go. "I want you to know that I would reverse everything if I could, Sara. Make it right. Do all the things I couldn't do back then. If I could do it all over again, now..."
"Sshhh..."Sara interrupted. "The past is in the past Grissom, we can't rewrite it. That blanket is too small for the two of us anyway, and you have a beard now, it just wouldn't be the same if I touched your cheek. So let's get some sleep now, OK?" They shared a small chuckle at that before Sara closed her eyes, and Grissom followed, a thought later.
ssssssssssss
Sara had been unsuspecting when he said he needed to go to his place to pick up some stuff and that he'd see her at the lab, so she was more shocked than anyone else when Grissom entered the breakroom with his beard completely gone. After successfully fending off a couple of midlife crisis jokes at his expense, he risked a gaze at her as the buzz faded and everyone retreated to their work, and realization slowly dawned upon her when she saw the softness and momentary insecurity in his eyes: he had done it for her.
ssssssssssss
"I liked the beard, you know…" she said in a low voice at the end of the shift, standing like she had done so many times before in his doorway. Grissom didn't respond, just stood up and closed the door. After a quiet moment of shared understanding, he took her right hand and brought it up to his cheek. She caressed his clean-shaven skin slowly once, twice, and a third time, and with a small smile and a shrug, disbelieving she was really doing this, said "chalk, from plaster…". He quietly nodded, never taking his eyes off hers, took her hand by the wrist, barely removing it from his cheek, placed a kiss on her palm, and smiled: "One down…"
