Irrefutable
By: Manigault
Epilogue
I was blown away by the request for an epilogue and it felt very daunting. I'm not sure that I've resolved this to everyone's satisfaction, but it here it is.
Thank you so much for reading this story and for the responses that I received. It means so much!
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Pulling into the garage Grissom shut off the ignition and turned half way around in his seat to observe Sara. After spending the night in the hospital, she had been released and allowed to return home with only a few minor injuries. She was fortunate. They both were, Grissom thought as he studied her bruised and cut face.
Turning towards him, Sara smiled tenderly as she reached across the seat to wrap her fingers around his own. They hadn't spoken about the events of the past few days, both knowing they had time to disect the details after each was satisfied with their own recovery.
This was the first time either of them had been home together since the whole ordeal had begun and the first time Grissom had stepped foot in their home since having the confrontation with Lady Heather.
It had been a busy night as he had settled in beside Sara in her hospital room while his team dragged themselves into work after being reassured that Sara would recover from her injuries. He didn't sleep as he watched Sara and fielded calls from Brass to Catherine updating him on their discoveries as they delved into Lurie's private life. Things had moved quickly after Lurie's body was found by scuba divers and a search warrant of his home was granted to Catherine and Warrick who wasted no time. Catherine wanted her team on top of this if the evidence they found revealed more of Grissom and Sara's private lives than should be known.
Taking a deep breath, Sara waved her hand around the car and then motioned towards the house. "There are cameras everywhere." Her statement was flat and said without emotion, but Grissom sensed the underlying pain that radiated from each word.
Nodding, he squeezed her hand and said softly. "Nick and Greg swept the cars and house. They cleaned everything out and assured me there are no more hidden cameras."
"The garage?"
"Everything."
When she didn't speak and made no move to climb from the car, Grissom asked with a gentleness reserved only for her ears. "Would you feel more comfortable if we went to my townhome or maybe even a hotel? I can reserve a suite in one of the resorts until we decide if we should keep this house or sell it and look for something else."
"You would do that?" Sara felt the tightness in her chest lessen as she absorbed his words and let the meaning sink inside.
"I would do anything for you, Sara, you should know that by now. If that means we sell this place and look for something else then that's what we'll do. You say the word."
Sara kept her eyes trained on his as she nodded slowly and processed what she was feeling. "I know that it's going to be awhile before I can feel like we're not being watched." Her eyes grew wide and she gripped his hand more tightly. "Videos. Grissom, what if he had videos of us making love?"
Grissom looked down and then pulled himself back together enough to face her squarely. "He did. Catherine and Nick found a stash in his home of videos that were all neatly labled. She assured me that she didn't watch them and would do everything possible to be certain that nobody else does either."
Mortified, Sara found herself nodding with a numbness that she felt would take over her life if she allowed it. With this thought came a new resolve that she wouldn't allow Lurie that power.
"Let's go inside." Sara extracted her hand from Grissom's and pushed open the car door to step into the garage. Good memories started to trickle back in and she held onto these as she faced Grissom and offered him a wide smile. "I don't want to talk about any of this for the rest of the day. Okay? I don't want to do anything but stay here with you and be normal."
She moved past Grissom and opened the door to the house, disappearing inside as she turned off the alarm. "I do want to change the alarm code." Her voice drifted back out to him from the interior of the house.
Grissom nodded but made no move towards the steps leading into the house.
"Griss? Are you coming inside?" She had stepped back out into the garage and waited for him to accompany her inside the house.
Grissom pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and looked from it to Sara before saying with an odd hitch to his voice, "I need to make a couple of calls and then I'm leaving my cell turned off and out here in the garage. I don't want to see or hear another cell phone for the next few days."
"That's good. I don't even know where mine is and I haven't missed it." Sara hesitated for a second before looking over her shoulder into the interior of the house. "I'm going to take a long bath."
He heard the hesitation in her voice and wanted to toss his phone aside immediately and follow her inside the house. He didn't want her out of his sight. His decision was interrupted by the ringing of the phone and he sighed heavily, his impulse shelved for the minute as he recognized Brass's number.
"Gil? How's Sara?"
"She's going to be fine, Jim, thanks for asking."
"I won't keep you but I thought that you would want to know what we found out concerning Lady Heather's grandchild."
The words took Grissom by surprise as he leaned against his car for support. "There is actually evidence that Lurie knew where the child is?"
"Apparently so," Brass told him that Catherine and Nick had found many labeled tapes and one of them had the letters L.H.G.C. This one they had watched, wondering if it would tie Lady Heather in with the plan involving Grissom and Sara. "It showed a child in a loving home with a couple outside Vegas. Whether or not this is truly her grandchild I don't know. We're checking it out. The child's name is Gavin and he was adopted. The timeline is right and they boy does have one blue eye and one green one."
"How did he find out about this child? What connection did he have with Heather?" Grissom was intrigued but not enough to leave Sara and go in search of the answers. He would let Brass and his team do the leg work on this one.
"Heather is being transported back here and I plan to question her myself. You want me to call you when she arrives?"
"No!" Grissom gathered himself and frowned at the chuckle that floated along the line. "In fact, I'm turning off my phone so pass the word. Don't panic if you can't reach me for the next day."
"It's not even your phone!" Brass objected but with a note of laughter in his tone. "I'll pass the word. Catherine won't like it, you realize that? Don't freak if she comes pounding on your door."
Grissom turned off the phone and stared at it for a second. It had slipped his mind that he had borrowed this phone. He would send it back tommorrow with a gift basket.
Leaving the phone on the hood of the car he entered the house and took in each room as if he'd been away for a year. It felt so good to be home. He hoped that Sara didn't want to sell, but he would support her decision if that was the direction she decided to take. Moving towards their bedroom he heard the water running and more memories surfaced as he followed the sound of her humming a familiar song. A good sign. She was so tough and if he'd doubted for a second that she would allow this nightmare to overtake her, then it was dispelled as he stood in the doorway of the bathroom and watched her relaxing back in the tub, her face a picture of beauty. His eyes trailed from her face along her arm to the the hand that was slowly moving bubbles along the surface of the bath in lazy circles.
"Everything okay?" Sara's question brought him back to reality as his eyes drifted from the mesmerizing movement of her hand and back to her watchful face.
"I thought that you wanted the rest of the day to be normal?" Grissom kept his voice casual but he stepped forward until he was sitting on the edge of the tub where he could reach out and rub his thumb over her chin.
"I do want it to be normal, but I also need to be certain that everything is okay with us." She moved her hand up to touch the back of his hand as it caressed her face and tried not to wince at the sudden flash of pain that arched across her body with the movement. She was sore all over from being thrown across the lake in the explosion and the doctor had assured her that she would probably be sore and achy for days. She thought of the explosion in the lab several years ago and how it had taken so long to recover, but this was much worse.
Concern transfigured Grissom's face as he recognized the pain that had swept through Sara's eyes. His own body wasn't feeling too sharp after his car accident but he would wait to give Sara the details of his own experiences in getting back to Vegas when she was ready to hear about it.
"I informed Jim that we weren't answering phones for the rest of the day so if they need to reach us they will have to drive out here and beat on the front door."
A fleeting smile from Sara encouraged him that he was right to not make a fuss over her demonstration of pain and the slight tug of her hand on his own brought his attention back to her eyes. "Why don't you make us a drink and I'll be out in fifteen minutes?" Sara hoped her voice was not shaking at the thought of being exposed in her own bathroom. When she had stripped to get into the tub she had to push back both the feeling of being on display and the knowledge that she was recorded on tapes for any prying eye to observe. She trusted Catherine and Jim, but they could do so much aside from destroying evidence to protect her privacy.
Picking up on her uneasiness and feeling slightly offended that she didn't even want him to see her step from the tub, Grissom nodded more shortly than he intended and left her alone in the bathroom. He didn't immediately head to kitchen to make the drink she requested, but made a detour towards the bookshelve where their stereo was situated. Picking a soothing song, he took the time to collect his thoughts and view the situation from Sara's point of view.
In the bathroom, Sara closed her eyes and tried to ignore the hurt she had seen in Grissom's eyes when she had dismissed him. Upset with her own emotions, she steeled her mind from permitting the feelings of being watched and slowly stood up in the tub and stepped over the edge to reach for a towel. 'Lurie is gone. He's not watching me.' She repeated this refrain several times as she wrapped her robe around her body and made her way to the den to find Grissom.
Pausing in the doorway, she saw him standing in front of the stereo, leaning forward as he gripped the shelves on each side, his head bent forward as he appeared to be lost in thought. Moving forward, she ran her hands along his back and felt him jump slightly. He didn't turn to look at her as he spoke.
"I'm sorry for leaving you, Sara. I'm sorry for allowing that predator to enter our home and steal something from us that nobody should have been privy too."
Leaning her forehead against his back, Sara kept rubbing his back as she pondered these words and searched for the reassurance that they both needed. "You didn't do anything wrong, Griss. You tried to help someone in the best way you knew how and I can't fault you for that. You insisted that I turn the alarm system on at all times and I didn't always do that. I allowed that maniac to access our home and invade our privacy. It was me."
Grissom turned and wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her close to his chest. "So much for having a normal day." Relief came to him as he felt her soft chuckle at his comment but it wasn't enough and he pulled back slightly to look into her eyes. "Honey, this isn't your fault," he stared into her eyes and refused to look away until she nodded.
"It's a wake up call, isn't it? We'll be more careful and a whole lot more paranoid for awhile." Another thought occurred to Sara and she lowered her head to his shoulder with a soft shudder. "The lab knows about us. Now that your're home and everything is out in the open how do you think this will play out?"
"I'm sure that we'll be called in for a meeting soon and we'll handle it then, okay? Right now I want to make that drink for us and maybe just settle on the sofa for awhile. Sound good?"
"Perfect."
Sara eased herself onto the sofa and watched Grissom move stiffly around the kitchen. He was hurting, that was obvious to her now that she had time to observe him. "What happened before you came back to Vegas, Gil?"
It must have been the use of his first name, but Grissom dropped the glass in his hand and swore beneath his breath. "Nothing happened. I thought you trusted me?"
Narrowing her eyes at this unexpected reaction, Sara swept her eyes from his head to his toes as she replied. "I meant your sore, almost like you've been in an accident of some type? What did you think I meant?"
Grissom refilled the glass and took his time approaching the sofa where he handed one of the drinks to Sara and looked at his feet with a guilty look. "I thought you were accusing me of being unfaithful to you with Heather. I wasn't," he added the last with a firmness that made her chuckle.
"I do trust you, Gil, and your reaction was the first time that anything else popped into my mind." Sara leaned forward and touched his knee. "Did that bitch come on to you?"
It was Grissom's turn to laugh softly and he moved his own hand to cover hers as he squeezed it slightly. "Not really, no. In fact, I slept in a chair when we were forced to stay at a hotel. She wasn't amused by that, but I told her of our promise."
"That you would never sleep with anyone but me?"
"Absolutely." Grissom's drink sloshed out of his glass as Sara pulled him forward to meet his lips with her own.
"I love you, Gil Grissom."
No other words were neccessary as the normalcy of their lives commenced.
End.
