Thanks again to anyone sticking with the series! I really appreciate it. The only chapter I have left is Catherine and I'm hoping to get it up tomorrow sometime. Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoy!
It was a normal Tuesday night in Vegas and Grissom and Sara had decided to stay in. They walked Hank at the local park and were currently cuddled up on the couch watching an old movie.
"I like this," Grissom said while stroking Sara's hair, "nights off that we can just relax and not worry about anything."
Sara leaned up and kissed Grissom while running her fingers through his hair, "me too honey, me too."
She laid her head back down on his chest and relaxed continuing to watch the movie. After about 20 minutes Sara's stomach started to growl. "Hmm..hungry are we?" Grissom laughed.
"Yeah I guess so," Sara smiled, "what do you want for dinner tonight?"
"I don't care dear; you're the one that's hungry"
"Why don't we make some lasagna? We could use your mother's recipe that you love so much."
"That sounds like a great idea."
A half an hour later Grissom was pouring two glasses or red wine while Sara was setting the rest of the table. Looking up Sara noticed him starring at her, "what?" she asked, "stop starring at me!"
"You're beautiful you know."
Sara blushed a mumbled a thank you before continuing to set the table.
He waited until she was finished setting the table before approaching her with their glasses of wine. Stopping in front of her he held out a glass which she gladly accepted. Both smiled before taking a sip. "I love you Sara."
She stepped closer setting her glass down and reaching her arms around his neck. She placed her lips lightly against his before adding more pressure. Pulling back slightly she sighed, "and I love you Gil, so much."
They sat quietly enjoying their dinner of vegetarian lasagna, salad and homemade garlic bread; music softly flowed throughout the house as few words were spoken or needed.
Both of their heads shot up at the sound of the doorbell and Hank ran toward the front door. "Who on Earth could that be?" Grissom asked.
"How should I know Gil? Technically this is your house."
"Hmm…good point." Grissom smiled before getting up to answer the door.
Sara started to stand, but Grissom motioned for her stay seated. He planned to quickly get rid of whoever was at the door and return to their dinner; it was probably just one the neighbor kids wanting to sell something.
Grissom opened the door preparing to see some kids, so when his eyes came to land on the face of Jim Brass he was quite surprised.
"Hey there Gil," Brass smiled, "I figured you forgot about our poker night so I brought the food and drinks myself." Brass had a box of pizza and a bottle of scotch in each hand waiting to be let in. "Well are you gonna let me in or are we going to play on your porch?"
"Right, Jim…about the poker, uh," Grissom stuttered trying to find an excuse so Brass would not want to come in. "You see I have this race, uh yea this cockroach race coming up, and I have them training on the table so…there's no room to play poker tonight."
"Come on Gil, we only do this once or twice a month. I don't mind waiting a little while so you can clean up the roach mess. I've got all the time in the world and a nice bottle of scotch."
Brass pushed his way into the house and headed for the kitchen. He smelled garlic bread and hoped there was some left over; it would go good with his pizza. "Man Gil, why did you make an entire pan of lasagna? You got a lady friend in here you don't want me to see?" Brass laughed at his own joke and headed toward the table.
It took Jim Brass, lead detective, about 2.4 seconds to realize that Gil Grissom was not eating dinner alone. "Sara?"
"Shit," was her reply. "Hey Jim, what are you doing here?"
"Me? I'm here for poker. What exactly are YOU doing here for is the better question."
"I can explain. See, what happened was…well….you see one time about, oh a year ago, I…"
"Hold on, a YEAR ago?"
"Are you gonna let me tell the story or not?" Sara questioned.
"Jim, I can explain," Grissom said coming into the dinning room, "You see…"
"Apparently I don't SEE. How in the hell did this happen?"
"Are you mad?" Sara asked nervously.
"No cookie, I'm not mad. I just want to find out how I missed this, for a year!" He laughed. "It's about damned time by the way."
"Well as I was saying," Grissom interrupted, "About a year ago I came to the realization that I was an idiot."
"Ha, like that was something new," Brass muttered under his breath.
"Jim are you going to let me explain or are you going to keep throwing out side comments?"
"I'm sorry, go on."
"Thank you," Grissom said making his way across the room to Sara's side. "So I came to the realization, and it only took about a week to muster up the courage to actually do something about it. I was worried Sara wasn't interested anymore, and more than that I was afraid I would lose the courage and her…forever.
"So one night I showed up at her doorstep with five roses, a box of chocolates and my collection of classic movies."
"Wow Gil, way to be romantic. Five roses, you couldn't at least spring for half a dozen." Looking at Sara he added, "And you accepted that? I hope he came with more flowers later."
"Actually Jim, those five were all I needed. Gil explained that there was one rose for each year I had been in Vegas. He said that there was one to represent each year that he love me, but couldn't find the words to explain at the time. It was the only apology I needed."
"And here I thought he was just being cheap," smirked Brass. "So that's it then huh? Happily together ever since?"
"Yeah right," huffed Grissom. "It took me three weeks to take her on a proper date, two months to actually say 'I love you', seven fights about where were staying that night, and about 48 dates cancelled because of work."
Jim took in all the information before turning to Sara, "Cookie, are you happy?"
"More than I ever could have imagined. Gil makes me very happy," Sara said while smiling up at Grissom and wrapping her arms around him.
"Good. As long it stays this way then, I will never have to kick your ass Gil. But let me tell you, the moment you hurt her I swear to God, you won't even…"
"Jim, I think he gets the idea."
"Yea, ok. Well then I guess I'm gonna take off. I'm sorry I interrupted your dinner."
"Jim wait!" Grissom said, "I've uh, been teaching Sara to play, if you want we can serve you up a plate and play after."
"Really?"
"Yea!" Sara smiled, "I mean, as long as you're ready to get your ass kicked."
"Bring it on Cookie, bring it."
The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and joking around.
"Sara?"
"Yeah Jim?"
"You're not invited to the next poker night. You're better than Gil is and I prefer to keep my money."
Sara laughed and hugged him saying goodnight. "I love you kiddo, you let me know if I ever need to pull my gun on this old guys behind."
"I love you too Jim. And thanks, but I've got a gun of my own if he screws up that bad."
"I can hear you both you know," Grissom added.
"We know," they replied in union.
Brass ended up losing a total of $32, but the knowledge that his best friend had finally gotten his stuff together and settled down with Sara was completely worth the loss of his money.
