At her hotel that night Sara simply sat and gazed out at the lights of Vegas. She felt numb inside, her encounter with Grissom causing her more trauma than she had expected.
Not want to marry him, Sara thought painfully. How could he ever believe that? She knew then that it would probably be best if she just disappeared from his life forever, leaving him to his conclusions about why she had left.
Sighing, she fell down upon the queen size bed layered with down comforters and soft sheets and let herself drown in exhaustion, both mental and physical. It didn't matter to her anymore what happened in her life, at least she knew that Gil wasn't in pain over her. He had already come up with an excuse not to think of her anymore, and that was all she needed to know.
The sudden knocking at her door startled her. Sara stood up quickly and walked to the door, peering through the peep-hole. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the face of her visitor. Opening the door, she forced a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Gil." She said softly, taking in the appearance of the man in front of her. He looked disheveled, as though he'd been running. He was breathing heavily and his eyes looked more tired than she had ever seen them.
"I need you, Sara." He said suddenly, reaching out to hold her hands. He stared at her, his eyes full of more emotion than Sara could have ever believed possible from him, and she felt all her defenses and retorts fade away.
"You know I can't stay here." Her hands felt weak and helpless, his strong and warm as they grasped her own.
"I know, but maybe we can compromise...Sara, I would go anywhere with you." He stared down at their joined hands and smiled. "I wanted to believe you didn't want to marry me so that it would make it easier not to think of you anymore, but it was a lie."
The weariness in her eyes brought out the concern in his. "I'm not very good at this...emotion business...I ran up all those stairs to fight the anxiety I had."
"Why are you doing this, why now?" Sara asked, pulling her hands out of his. "I will only hurt you."
She turned from him then, walking back into her room. As she sat tiredly down upon her bed, she saw him close the door and come over to sit beside her.
"Tell me, Sara." He requested, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close to him. "Tell me why you insist on running away from me."
So Sara told him everything, of her fears of self destruction and her hopes to save him from her own tumultuous future. She admitted to just how much she had grieved when she had left him, and how hard it had been.
"I know it was the right choice, no matter how hard it was...I can't chase these ghosts any longer."
It was then that she couldn't hold back her tears any longer, and fell once again into his arms.
When she had emptied herself of her tears, she found that they were now laying side by side on the bed, his arms wrapped faithfully around her body. She smiled at him then.
"So what will we do?"
Gil smiled back at her, pushing a strand of wavy brown hair from her eyes. "We will compromise. I will come with you to San Francisco for a year, if you promise to return with me to Vegas after then."
Sara bit back a grin. "You had this planned out all along, didn't you?"
"Maybe." He leaned in to kiss her forehead gently, then pulled back and his lips curved deviously. "The wedding will be in Lake Tahoe. Small, quiet...and the honeymoon will be spent on a boat on the lake."
"You really have thought of everything!" Sara laughed, sitting up to stare down at him. "And what if I told you I hate Lake Tahoe and am deathly afraid of drowning?"
"I'd call you a liar and quote you when you once told me you loved the lake and craved sex on a boat."
"You're too smart for your own good sometimes." Sighing, she cupped her hand under his chin and leaned in for a kiss.
He responded by pulling her towards him, devouring her mouth with his own. Yes, she thought wildly. This was what she wanted. Nothing else mattered now, because she had Gil.
When she pulled away from the kiss, she stared into his eyes. God, how the blue of them continually surprised her! So honest, so direct...it was incredible how much integrity could live in a man. Her man...
"How did you know what hotel I'd be in?" She asked then, amusement in her eyes.
"I figured you would choose this hotel, because it was the hotel where we had spent our first night together in Vegas...then I flashed my badge and requested to know what room you were staying in. All perfectly good detective work on my part."
"Yes, it was...now, my darling, tell me more about the future..." Sara leaned in and kissed his nose lightly. "I really love to hear you say it."
And that's all for now...this fic is a kind of tester fic for a really long and involved one I'm considering writing...I just really had to write a happier ending to GSR urgently, so that's exactly what this is. I hope you all enjoyed it, short and sweet as it is! Thanks for reading and reviewing! :)