8

When he woke up the next morning, Sara was still curled up in his arms. They hadn't moved the whole night. He wanted to get up and make her breakfast, but there was no way he wanted to let her go. Instead, he watched her sleep. She looked so peaceful, lying there next to him. To him, it was the most natural thing in the world to wake up next to her. It was all he ever wanted out of life. He just had to figure out how to make this work. There were definite policies in place at work about this sort of thing. He just needed someone to find out what they were. Catherine would do it. That would be on his list of things to do today.

But until then, he just wanted to lose himself in the woman he held in his arms. She was so beautiful. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she was. The silk pajamas she wore left little to the imagination. They showed every curve. She obviously wore no underwear, bra or panties. The high curve of her hip intoxicated him as he let his eyes travel to the depths of her waist. The slight curve of her breasts intrigued him, but her neck was what he loved. She had the sexiest neck in the world. He wanted to just bury his face in her neck and kiss every inch of it. Besides her eyes, it was her best feature. Followed very closely by her tush.

She stirred and woke him from his fantasy. "Good morning, Beautiful."

"Good morning." He kissed her forehead, and then tried to move to her lips. Sara immediately moved her hand to her mouth. "No, I have to brush first."

Grissom chuckled, but gave in to her quirk. "This is the best morning of my life."

"It is?"

"Yes, it is. I mean, how many men can actually say they woke up with their arms wrapped around the woman they love?"

"Believe it or not, Grissom, romance still is alive in Las Vegas. There are a lot of people that live happily ever after."

"Good. I don't like to stand out in a crowd. Breakfast?"

"Yes, but first…"

"I know; you have to brush your teeth."

"And I have to pee."

Grissom laughed out loud as Sara rolled away and ran in the bathroom. He got up and went straight to the kitchen. His first goal in the morning was coffee, then the bathroom. After the bathroom, he headed straight for the front door. Did Sara even have the daily paper delivered? He was pleased when he opened the door to find the paper on her mat. Back inside, he threw the paper on the table and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. He found Sara already there, pouring coffee.

When she handed him his cup, "Thank you. Now can I have my kiss?"

Without answering, she planted a minty-flavored kiss on his lips. "Hmm, have I told you how much I love your beard?"

"No, but note taken."

"Good. So, how about breakfast?"

"I was thinking about French toast, eggs and this bacon stuff you have in the freezer."

"Grissom?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not used to eating like this all the time. I was thinking more like toast and fruit."

"Okay. I'm sor…I mean, I just like to make sure I'm taking care of you."

"You are taking care of me. Let's make a deal. During the next few weeks, little breakfasts during the week and bigger breakfasts on the weekends. Deal?"

"Does that mean we're, uh, going to be spending a lot of mornings together?"

She sauntered over to him, "Is there someone else you'd rather spend your mornings with?"

He snaked an arm around her waist, careful not to spill his coffee, "Definitely not."

She tilted her head and gave him a quirky smile, "Good. Then deal?"

"Deal."

"You got toast. I'll do the fruit."

After they made breakfast together, they went to eat at the table. He broke their silence, "Do you watch the news in the mornings?"

"Uh, no, not usually. It's mostly depressing to me, but if you'd like, I'm not against it."

"Thank you." He got up to turn the television on and turned the volume down low.

When he got back to the table, she continued, "Besides, I'm usually sleeping at this time. I don't know when you usually sleep, but I stay up for a couple hours after shift, then I go to bed."

"Uh, I don't really have a pattern. To be honest, I've probably gotten more sleep with you than I have in the past month."

"Grissom! You have to sleep to stay healthy."

"Sara, I am healthy. I am just one of those people who doesn't need a lot of sleep. Besides, I usually work when I'm at home."

"This vacation is really a difference for you. I thought I was a work-a-holic, but you have gone way over the top."

"Well, I guess I just never had anything better to do."

"And now?"

"Now…let's just say that I won't need to bring work home anymore."

"Good."

"Uh, Sara?"

"Yeah?"

"Since we're talking about work, I'd like to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"I was thinking this morning while I was watching you sleep and…"

"You were, uh, watching me sleep?"

"Yes, but that's not the point. The point is, that I was thinking of giving Catherine a call. I was going to just do it myself, but then I thought maybe I should talk to you about it first."

"Uh, Grissom, you can talk to Catherine any time you want. You don't need to talk to me about who your friends are."

Grissom chuckled, "No. I mean I was going to call Catherine today to see if she could get a copy of the, uh, policies that would involve us."

"Oh."

"I just thought that we should at least find out now what we're up against, and maybe how we could get around it."

"Uh, Grissom, that means Catherine's gonna know everything. I mean, I know she was here last night, but that only means she saw us go on a date…hmm…that's nice…anyway, what I'm saying is, she's gonna know that this is something a little more serious than just friends spending time together."

Grissom put the paper down, reached his hand across the table to Sara, and explained, "Sara, you know, I've been thinking a lot since last night. Since…well since I woke up and saw the light, I've made a lot of decisions. And I've decided that I just don't care. I've spent too long trying to hide this, and I'm not going to hide it any more. I don't know if I'm ready to print it on a billboard on I-95, but I know that I'm ready to talk to Catherine. After we figure out how this will work with the information she can give us, I'll be ready to tell the rest of the team."

"Uh…I…I don't know what to say."

"Well, you can tell me whether calling Catherine is okay with you."

"Umm…yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Do you mind if I call now?"

"That's fine."

In seconds, Grissom was up and across the room to the phone. When he came back to the table, he had his hand over the speaker part of the phone. "She said she could get us the info then bring it by tonight. Should I invite her for dinner?"

"Sure, that's fine with me."

He walked away again and came back smiling. "What are you smiling about?"

"No reason."

"Grissom!"

"Okay, fine. It's because Catherine said she'd only come to dinner if she wouldn't be interrupting anything."

"And that makes you smile?"

Matter-of-factly, he answered, "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because…well because I've never had anything to be interrupted before." Sara got a big grin on her face. "See, now you're smiling. And that makes me smile, too."

"Good. So what are our plans for today?"

"Well, I told Catherine to be here at six. So, besides that, I have no idea. I guess we need to figure out what we're making for dinner."

"Grissom…uh…I don't really cook. I microwave."

"Yes, I know that. That's why I thought we might need to go to the grocery store or get some things from my place. I'm amazed at how much food you have that doesn't need to be cooked. It's a healthy snack-food heaven in your kitchen. But I was thinking maybe sauce. No meat of course."

"Sauce?"

"Yes, you know, on pasta. You serve it with garlic bread and a salad."

"Oh, spaghetti. Why do you call it sauce?"

"Because that's what it is, Sara."

"Noooo, the sauce is the red stuff on top of the pasta. The pasta and sauce combined makes spaghetti."

"Pa-tah-toe, Poe-tae-toe."

"Nice. So, we're having sauce slash spaghetti for dinner. I guess we will have to go to the store. I have nothing here to make sauce. I do have stuff to make the salad but we'll have to get a loaf of bread, too."

"Okay…so, the dinner menu is set and the menu for today includes a trip to the grocery store. What else?"

"We should probably go pick up a bottle of wine, too."

"And, uh, I believe I will need to go by my place."

"Are you staying?"

"Staying where?"

"Here."

"That depends."

"On?"

"Whether I'm invited."

"You, Grissom, can stay…forever."

"Hmm….", Grissom got a far-away look in his eyes. Forever sounded good to him. "Then I'll need to go home and pack."

"We could go to your place if you'd rather."

"No, we've already told Catherine that dinner is here tonight. So, for tonight, we'll stay here. Maybe you could just pack a bag to take to my place and you could leave it there for when you need it."

"Okay. I'm going to go take a shower and pack while you finish the paper and watch the news."

"I think I'll just jump in the shower at my place. I, uh, don't think vanilla will smell as good on me as it does you."

"You looked in my shower?"

"No, I just know what you smell like."

"Oh."