Spoilers: General, if it has aired in the US it may be referenced….Disclaimer: I borrow the CSI's on occasion, but they are not mine… Only their adventures are. Information, when researched, has been found within the public domain unless otherwise stated.
Blue
Grissom was most definitely blue.
That day, more than ten years ago, she had hastily swung her long legs into place in the right side chair of a two-person section at the very front row, determined not to miss a thing that the much-respected Dr. Grissom would be lecturing on. He hadn't turned the crime lab in Las Vegas into the second best in the country by chance, that much she knew. She had stopped by the bookstore on her way over to see if his most recent co-authored entomological reference book had become available yet, but had instead only come away with a fresh notebook and a dual-color pen.
And then there he had been.
And there she had been. Lost, that's where she had been.
Lost in this man's intensely blue eyes that had briefly gazed over her as he had formally introduced himself to the close to four hundred eyes looking back at him in the university lecture hall. Then, just like that, he had started passionately discussing various species of insects and their importance as forensic tools.
She had been lost in the moment under the spell that was Dr. Gil Grissom.
San Francisco – some 10 years earlier…
"You formulate some very educated questions Miss…?"
"Uh, I do?" Sara's eyes shot up from her pretend-mission of leisurely gathering her stuff.
"Indeed you do, Miss Ido!"He didn't know where his sudden playful confidence had come from.
"Oh, Sidle. Sara Sidle…" What had she asked him again?
She glanced down to her notebook for clues, but all she could see there were a jumble of blue doodles and the name Gil written repeatedly, as if she would ever forget.
Oh god, I hope he doesn't read upside down…
His eyes followed hers as her lovely neck again tilted her face to the conversation. Stubborn brown strands of curls sprung disobediently from behind her left ear, and if judged by her quick corrective action it had not been their first offense.
He had never encountered her beauty in all of his life, nor had his heart, apparently, as it tried to make its way up and out of his chest to skip in clear view of those golden-brown eyes.
And she had legs too, and a smile nearly as wide as those legs were long…
"…San Francisco Crime Lab, CSI II," she said upon his mouth opening, as if ready to ask her something else.
"Oh, well we are practically colleagues then, Miss Sidle. Coffee?" Where did that come from?
"Sara," she invited.
"Gil," he accepted.
"Okay…Grissom," her smile a tad self-conscious, "Coffee sounds good."
What had he gotten himself into? She was definitely so very young…and dangerously attractive.
It had become their little habit of sorts, if discussing forensics and bugs and old cases over coffee three days in a row after his lectures could be considered a habit. Probably more like an oddity to most, but then they were not like most.
In fact, they were rather different, which is what made them so much alike.
"What?"
She slurred through the syllable, feeling her face flush in response to the amused expression fixed on her.
"Do you always take coffee with your sugar?" he teased innocently.
She looked into the dark amber-colored java in front of her, the busy liquid a concoction of flavors and colors swirling around.
Or was that her head spinning?
"—How do you live without the ocean?" Sara's question had come from the vast Pacific, as it sparkled in the far distance.
"I live in the dark. It's hard to miss what one is not used to seeing everyday, isn't it?"
If only he had known then how wrong that statement would prove to be.
"I suppose… You must not remember the unique smell off of the ocean breeze then, or else you would be missing it, especially when it's dark."
She saw her own eyes reflected true-to-color in her coffee, but she didn't know exactly when the blue of his eyes had become indistinguishable from that of the Pacific behind him. She finished her cup quickly, closing her eyes briefly, and her reflection was no longer. She never would get tired of looking in his eyes.
"I've got to head back to work, they probably think I got attacked by some of your bugs at this point," she said in a quaint voice, not wanting to leave in the least.
"Well, you better get there before me then, so I don't get blamed for the disappearance of their lovely CSI."
He didn't know eyebrows could be so…mesmerizing.
"I'm meeting with Moby", he said with a triumphant smile at her obvious surprise.
"As a matter of fact I think I will have to buy him a drink later, to give him a chance to explain to me how he forgot to mention that he has such a brilliant CSI on his team."
She had almost asked him to have dinner with her at the pier later, but was relieved she hadn't. But maybe—
"Do you need a ride to the lab? I'm in the county vehicle; Bob wouldn't want it any other way."
"Thank you, I would like that. Shall we?"
"…so when I threatened to reveal to the entire dayshift how he became known as Moby, he relented." Grissom's eyes gleamed as he revisited yesterday's conversation with his old pal.
He looked so adorably boyish when his face was filled with laughter…
"I've heard it took him some getting used to, keeping his meals down that is, when he first started at the coroner's office," Sara responded with a grin, picturing her supervisor's now larger than average midsection.
"I guess moving to the crime lab changed that, huh?"
He scoffed.
"Nah, food, beer; it didn't matter. He would still be as white as the bodies he was examining; I would always have to do the dirty work for him. So when that didn't pass, he moved on to the PD. Wise choice, wouldn't you say?"
"Oh very, and you?" her eyes met his and stayed there.
"I was tired of doing Moby's work," he glowered, unable to hide the smirk on his face. "Actually, I missed being outside and in the field, so when a position opened up at the Las Vegas Crime lab I bode farewell to LA and welcomed the quirks of desert entomofauna."
Their meals had long since been finished and they had even ordered dessert and coffee, which had taken longer than it should.
Yet neither one of them had noticed.
Moby had recommended this restaurant on the Bay to him yesterday, after he had complained about having only one more day left in San Francisco and still not having had a chance to see the ocean. He hadn't mentioned his intentions of taking Sara there, but then they weren't old buddies for nothing.
"But you don't miss the ocean?" Her eyes had glazed over, looking a bit sad.
From early childhood on the blue of the ocean had always been there to calm her when she needed calming and envelope her when she was lonely. In winter, when the trees drop their leaves and the sun gives way to the dark, the ocean is still alive and there.
She can count on the dark blue body to always be.
"Let's go smell the ocean breeze," he said, looking at her as her face brightened.
The misty breeze spiraled through her now disobedient curls, sometimes brushing them up against his right cheek and ear. They were leaning on the railing under the pier illumination, looking at the myriad of moving lights on the dark Bay surface. While taking in the salty air and the scent and warmth of her, he had realized for maybe the first time ever that Gil Grissom would come to miss the ocean, and all that the ocean had come to signify…
When she had dropped him at the airport the next day, per Moby's orders, they had hardly spoken. Not because they hadn't wanted to, but because they had nothing to say. He had fished out his own well-used copy of his newest entomology volume, written his address and phone numbers in it together with a little note, and handed it over to her. Then he was gone.
February – Whisper your wish to a butterfly and it will be carried aloft to the Great Spirit, who will surely grant that wish
(Native American legend).
Las Vegas – anno 2005
She hurled the soaked blue paper towels at her trashcan with a purpose and went on to wipe down the chair.
Out of the corner of her left eye a familiar entomology book demanded her attention and she flipped it off the shelf effortlessly and dusted it off briefly. It had been a long time since it had been opened…a long time ago she had opened it everyday.
'Thanks for showing me your bright blue ocean. – Grissom'
Tearfully she looked down at her still wet and crumpled blue watercolor canvas and could not help but wonder what color would be next…