Chapter Two
Saturday
The Day of the Wedding
Catherine opened her eyes with the sound of the alarm, and reached sleepily over, smacking the clock into silence. Tossing the covers off, she padded into the bathroom, then after a few moments, toward the kitchen. The television was on, and it wasn't the usual sounds of morning cartoons or MTV that Lindsay switched back and forth between each morning. Catherine had unconsciously begun keeping track of the amount of time each show was on, and the time with the cartoons was getting shorter and shorter. MTV was winning.
Catherine padded into the living room and found Sara sitting cross-legged on the sofa, her cell phone lying useless in her limp hands. Her head hung, defeated.
"Sar?" Catherine said quietly.
Sara lifted her head, errant strands of brunette hair hooked on to her eyelashes. "We're not supposed to get married," she said quietly.
"What are you talking about?"
Sara used the cell phone cupped in her hands to point toward the television, and Catherine turned her attention toward the screen for the first time. The Weather Channel was doing a segment on the freak snowstorm that had blanketed Minnesota.
"Fate doesn't want Gil and I married, Cath," Sara said quietly.
Catherine sat down on the sofa next to her friend and rubbed Sara's back. "What're you talking about?" she repeated, still not understanding.
"Fifteen years," Sara said simply as if that explained it all. "I've loved him for fifteen years. And Fate has been between us every step of the way." She was silent for a few moments, contemplating what it was she'd done that had pissed off Fate so much. Holding up the cell phone like it was the key piece of evidence for Catherine's inspection, Sara went on. "I can't even get him on the phone, the storm's so bad," she said weakly.
Catherine took a deep breath, contemplating her answer. "Have you ever heard of marriage by proxy, Sara?"
"Proxy?"
"Yeah," Catherine replied, pleased with the interest Sara showed. "Some one stands in for Gil—like Nick did at the rehearsal—but you're legally married to Grissom."
"Really?" Sara was perking up.
"Yeah, really. We'll fool Fate."
Nick stood at the end of the aisle next to Doc Robbins, wearing the black suit and bright emerald green tie Catherine had picked out for him, shuffling his feet nervously.
Catherine emerged first, wearing a cocktail length sea green dress, holding a bouquet of daises and white roses. Despite her efforts, she could not tear her eyes away from Warrick the entire time she walked down the aisle.
The music swelled, and everyone in attendance stood. The doors at the end of the aisle swung open, and Nick felt his breath catch in his throat as he looked up and saw Sara standing there, in her simple but beautiful white wedding dress.
As Sara held tightly on to Brass' arm with one hand, a larger bouquet that matched Catherine's in the other. She didn't see Nick standing there, her mind allowed her to see Grissom. She saw Gil waiting for her as she'd seen him all those times she'd imagined this day. The more substantial Grissom became in her mind, the brighter Sara's smile grew.
As rehearsed, Brass handed Nick Sara's hands. With a peck to her cheek, and a whisper of good luck, he stepped aside, sitting down next to Warrick.
"Friends, family…" the mister began, "We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony."
In the audience, David Hodges let his attention wander. He looked around, taking note of the sly glances Catherine and Warrick exchanged, and the silly smiles each of them wore for the other. Hodges felt a pang of jealousy in the pit of his stomach.
Behind Warrick, the other David, Doc Robbins assistant, pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. As Hodges watched, David glanced to the girl next to him and smiled. Pudgy but pretty, the blonde stared at David with stars in her eyes, and Hodges assumed she must be the finance David was always talking about, but heretofore had been unseen, and had been rumored to be imaginary.
To Hodges right, Wendy sniffled, and took the tissue her redheaded roommate offered. Hodges twitched an eyebrow as his eyes focused on the redhead's legs, and his thoughts drifted to that place he retreated to. The place where he, David Hodges, was irresistible to women. His fantasy of Wendy and the roommate had just begun when Wendy's fist crashed into his shoulder, jolting him back to reality. Hodges realized with a shake of his head that Wendy had caught him staring at her roommate's legs.
Quickly, Hodges moved his head, and he caught the eyes of Conrad Ecklie, sitting behind him and to the left just a bit. The assistant lab director narrowed his eyes at the lab tech and twitched his head toward the end of the aisle, ordering Hodges to keep his attention where it should be.
"Do you," the mister consulted his notes in front of him, "Nick, take Sara to be your lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"
"I do," Nick uttered with a bit of a tremor in his voice.
"And do you, Sara, take Nick, to have and to hold in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"
"I do," Sara said somewhat dreamily, still picturing Grissom standing next to her. And it was Grissom, not Nick, in her minds eye, that turned to Doc Robbins, took the ring and slipped it on her finger.
In the pews, Hodges, who was once again paying attention, cocked a confused eyebrow.
"That which God has joined together, let no man put asunder," the minister began to wrap it up. "You may kiss the bride."
With a glance toward Catherine as to what he should do, Nick shrugged his shoulders, and leaned in, kissing Sara on the cheek.
All eyes were on Nick and Sara, and no one noticed the minister's baffled expression as he pronounced, "Ladies and Gentleman, I present Mr. and Mrs. Stokes."
Everyone that had known Grissom and Sara –with the exception of Hodges and Ecklie- had been waiting for this moment for so long that excitement had grabbed hold of all of them and the applause drowned out the ministers final words.
Catherine stepped up and hugged Sara tightly. Warrick stood and slapped Nick on the shoulder, although why he did, he wasn't sure. As the other attendee's gathered, offering hugs and congratulations, the minister stepped away from the pulpit and handed Nick a piece of paper, indicting with the pen the space in which Nick needed to sign. There was too much celebration noise for Nick to understand what the minister needed signed, and since he was sure the man wasn't trying to sell him a car, Nick signed without a second thought, and barely a second look and handed back the paper.
With lifted arms, the minister made his way through the throng of people, and repeated the process with Sara, and she signed next to Nick's scrawled signature, without really paying much attention to what it was she signed.
"Come on everyone," Warrick hollered above the noise "The reception's at Catherine's house—and she's stocked up on the good stuff!" A jovial cheer rose from the gathered crowd and they slowly made their way out of the chapel, piling into cars and headed to Catherine's.
Music played from the stereo Archie had brought over, keeping time with the clinking of glass as champagne flutes and beer bottles were raised in toast after toast.
Sara tore herself away from the latest group she'd joined in her journey of mingling, and stealthily made her way into Catherine's bathroom for a few minutes of privacy.
Resting her hands on the counter, she hung her head for a moment, and then raised it slowly to look at herself in the mirror. It was a bittersweet day for Sara. She was finally married to the man she loved, and yet he wasn't there with her to join in the celebration.
She missed Grissom.
"Sara?" A voice called quietly from the other side of the closed door.
Sara closed her eyes to her reflection, mentally whispering goodbye to her stolen moment of seclusion. "Yes."
"Hey," Catherine cracked open the door and stuck her head in. "You ok?"
Sara smiled wanly at her friend. "I miss him, Catherine."
Catherine nodded her head knowingly. "I know you do." The older woman stepped into the bathroom and quickly hugged Sara. "It's all overwhelming, isn't it?"
Sara pulled out of the hug. "Just a bit, yes."
"It'll be over soon. Then you can go back to being cranky Sara Sid-…Grissom." Catherine corrected herself.
"Sara Grissom." Sara mused quietly, testing out her new name and held her left hand out, gazing at the diamond on her finger.
"Has a nice ring to it." Catherine said after a moment.
Sara smiled brightly. "Yes. Yes, it does."
With a tilt of her head toward the living room, Catherine chided "You ready to get back to being the bride?"
"Yeah. Hey Cath, have you seen Nicky? I haven't had the chance to thank him properly."
The two women made their way toward the living room, and as they passed the front door, a car pulling up outside caught Catherine's eye and she stopped to look. She assumed it was someone from the lab, arriving to the party late after working a full shift.
She was partly right.
Gil Grissom emerged from the back seat of the car looking that special kind of tired and disheveled that a person gets after a very, very long car ride.
"Hey," Catherine got Sara's attention. "Your husbands here."
"Gil?" Sara pressed her palms up against the glass and gazed out to the walkway. "Gil!" She called out louder and threw open the door running out and jumping into the arms of the man she loved, kissing him passionately.
A moment later, Sara remembered she was mad at him. "You're late" she said sternly.
"We hit traffic in Denver."
"You… you drove?" her mouth fell open with the thought.
"Took a cab actually," Grissom turned to find his driver standing a few feet from them, looking at his shuffling feet, embarrassed by this proximity to their intimate moment. "Meet Mike."
"Mike? The cab driver?" Sara took a moment to run the possibilities of how much a cab would cost from St Paul to Las Vegas.
"He's tired and hungry. I told him he could come in for the reception." Grissom explained.
"Of course, of course." Sara was happy again, the reality of Grissom finally being with her lifting her from her melancholy. She beckoned to Mike with one hand as she took Grissom's arm with the other. "Come on Mike, there's plenty of food."
Catherine watched from inside, and as she saw Grissom and Sara start up the sidewalk she silenced the party with the voice she'd learned in her former profession, with a dash of CSI supervisor thrown in. "Hey, everyone!" An unsteady silence fell as everyone turned to her. She checked over her shoulder, making sure her timing was just right. "Ladies and Gentleman, I present…Mr. and Mrs. Grissom!"
Loud applause broke out, with a few hoots and catcalls interjected as the bride and bona-fide groom came through the door, grinning like fools.
The well-wishers allowed Sara and Grissom to reach almost the center of the living room before they swooped in with another round of hugs and congratulatory slaps to Grissom's back. Mike, the cab driver, hung back near the door, squeezing his baseball cap in his hands.
Hodges emerged from the kitchen, a refreshed glass of champagne in his hand, wondering what the commotion was all about. He sipped the bubbly as he took in the scene, his eyes grazing over the crowd before he saw the epicenter of the ruckus, the bride and the nomadic Grissom. Ah, Hodges thought to himself and drained his glass, the plot thickens. He sauntered toward the happy twosome. He wanted to be in the thick of things when the news broke, or even better, be the one to deliver the news himself.
TBC... THANK YOU for all the wonderful reviews! Keep 'em comin'!