Chapter Fifteen
Sara's mouth opened to answer, her throat worked as if forming words, but no sound came. She snapped her betraying lips shut quickly.
Nick swallowed hard in his anxiety. He licked his lips, glanced away, glanced back.
Sara cleared her throat, took a deep breath, tried again.
"Yes!" she said. "Of course I'll marry you."
Nick's face broke into a huge, very relieved grin. He reached inside his suit pocket and pulled out a small black velvet box. With his eyes on Sara's face, he lifted the lid, revealing the solitaire one-karat diamond platinum ring.
"Oh my God," Sara's voice was barely a whisper, one tear slipped down her cheek as Nick slipped the ring onto her finger.
Gil Grissom sighed deeply at checked his watch. 2:30. Was that 2:30 Las Vegas time, or 2:30 California time? Had he set his watch for Pacific Time yet or not? He shook his head at his own confusion, wondering, not for the first time, what the hell had become of him.
"It's LA time," said a female voice from across the isle.
It took Grissom a moment to realize she was speaking to him. He glanced over his shoulder to the woman in the seat across the isle, smiling at him. "I'm sorry?"
"I noticed you set your watch as soon as you boarded…" she smiled pleasantly and swept her dark blonde hair from off her shoulder. "Bad habit of mine, noticing."
Grissom thought she seemed to be apologizing. "Not at all," he said and her knitted brow told him he had guessed wrong. "It's not a bad habit at all," he explained, quickly recovering. "It's how I make a living."
"Really?" she said and tucked her fingers under her chin, leaning in closer toward him. "What do you do?"
Long after the candles had extinguished themselves and the untouched dinner plates had grown cold; pale rays of the early dawn poured in from the balcony window across the bed and over two very sleepy people trying very hard not to succumb; trying to stretch these moments, these precious moments that would never, ever come again no matter the path their lives took.
Whispering to each other in between yawns and silent pauses where sleep almost triumphed, they shared thoughts and wishes of what their lives together might bring them.
"What do you want Sara?"
She sighed deeply and blinked several times, willing her eyes to stay open as she snuggled deeper in to the crook between his neck and shoulder. "I want," she paused to force her brain to function. "I want to get stuck in snowy Christmas traffic with you when we go visit your parents. I want to spend long lazy Sunday afternoons in bed with you. I want to worry about you when you come home late." Nick's breathing became deep and even as she spoke. "I want to have crazy monkey sex in each one of the morgue drawers."
He didn't respond.
"With Hodges," she added, gigging.
It took him a second. "What?"
Sara laughed, "Just wanted to know if you were still awake."
"I am now," he said and shifted his body slightly, pulling her closer. "What about kids?"
Sara, who had never had really felt the pangs of maternal longing, and had never even considered the possibility of having a child with Grissom, now suddenly realized that it might not be so bad. "Yeah," she said quietly under the weight of the realization, "I think I do."
They were silent as each thought about the child their combined DNA would create. "One thing's for sure, he'll be the smartest kid in school," Sara said.
"Athletic and handsome, with a suburb aptitude for science," Nick continued as if filling out an order form for God.
"Win all the Science Fairs," Sara added.
"He'll probably start bring home bugs when he's two," Nick said and immediately wished he hadn't mentioned bugs.
Sara's body stiffened just for a moment before she caught it and made herself relax. She ignored the comment, lifted her chin kissing him lightly on the lips and rolled over on to her other side, her back to him.
Damn it Stokes Nick thought to himself. You should have said lizards. He moved his arm, gently resting his hand on Sara's thigh.
Her arm moved in response, reaching back behind her, her fingertips finding his wrist and slowly moving down until she intertwined her fingers with his. It was her left hand, and he could feel the weight of the engagement ring. Nick slid his other arm underneath her, wrapping it around her waist.
They each fell into a peaceful sleep, dreaming of Science Fair blue ribbons, baseball trophies and a little boy with big brown eyes and shaggy chestnut hair.
The blonde woman on Grissom's flight was Renee Taylor, and, as it turned out, she happened to be flying to Hawaii with a layover in LA as well.
They sat in a corner of a bar in the nearly deserted LAX, a bored bartender idly wiping down the bar with a rag that looked like it had last been washed sometime around World War II.
Grissom sipped his gin and tonic as he talked. He found himself repeating the same stories he'd told Mike the cab driver on the ride back to Vegas. Grissom stared into his glass and shook his head slowly. It wasn't so long ago when everything was good; Sara had been his, and all had been right with the world. Boy Gil, when you screw up, you really screw up.
Renee leaned into the table, her weight on her elbows, absently twirling her finger around the red stir stick in her own dink. She watched him pull into himself, and wondered, not for the first time, what he was thinking about.
"So," she said in an attempt to draw him back out and continue the conversation, "seminar?"
Grissom blinked and looked up. "I'm sorry?"
"Are you headed to Hawaii for a seminar?"
"Um." He swallowed. The one difference between the stories he'd told Mike during that cab ride and what he'd told Renee over his gin and tonic was the depth of his reminiscing about Sara. "Um," he repeated, "no."
She cocked an eyebrow at him, a silent Go on.
He took a deep breath, "I'm headed to breakup a honeymoon."
She was surprised to say the least.
He told her about his and Sara's romance, the joy and the annoyance of keeping it a secret. She sat back in the chair.
He told her about the proposal, the wedding decisions, about his leaving for Minnesota. She crossed her arms over her chest.
He told her about the snowstorm, the proxy groom idea, and how no one had bothered to mention it to the minister, resulting in his Sara becoming Mrs. Stokes. She put her fingers to her lips in an attempt to hide a small smile.
He told her he was an ass, that he didn't go after to Sara when she ran, that he made idiotic accusations when she came home and how only Brass was smart enough to run her credit cards and found her…them in Hawaii.
Having reached the end of the story, Grissom was quiet and slugged back the rest of his drink, signaling the bartender for another with a wave of his arm.
Renee stared into her own drink; two ice cubes floating in the amber liquid, tinkled against the short glass, as she absorbed all that he had just told her. After a few moments she said "And now you're going to Hawaii to break up their honeymoon and get her back?" She didn't look up and meet Grissom's eyes.
"That's correct," Grissom answered, reaching up to take the drink from the bored bartender even before the man was near the table.
The bed was empty when Nick woke up. He sat up quickly, and ran his palm over Sara's side of the bed; it was cool to the touch. She'd risen long ago enough that her body heat had dissipated from the sheets. Putting his feet on the floor, he got out of bed and surveyed the room. The shopping bags from Victoria's Secret still laid upon the chest of drawers, and the copy of Vanity Fair she'd bought at the Vegas airport sat underneath her sunglasses. And the unopened bag of banana chips lay on top of the devoured bag of mini Snickers, most of which Sara had eaten. Then something out of place caught his eye. The phone cord was stretched out across the carpet, leading out onto the balcony, where, he suddenly realized, the drapes had been drawn.
Sara sat on the balcony, the phone sitting on the table next to her. She shaded her eyes and smiled brightly at him as he pulled back the edge of the drapes and slid the door open. "Good morning," she greeted and hoped up throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him lightly on the mouth.
"Morning. How long have you been up?"
Sara shrugged and sat back down. "An hour maybe."
Nick pointed at the phone with his chin as he sat. "Who'd you call?"
Sara grinned at him over the table and offending phone. "You're not the only one with a surprise."
"Aloha, and thank you for flying Paradise Air," the short stewardess said to Grissom as he passed her as he disembarked. He was still fighting off the fog of not enough sleep, uncomfortable or not, and could only think of making his way through the airport to the outside, finding a taxi, and getting to Sara.
"Gil…?" A voice broke through his concentration and he was half way down the boarding ramp before he turned around to see Renee waving and jogging to catch up with him.
"Renee, I'm…" he began
"In a hurry, I know. But," she reached into her purse and pulled out a business card, handing it to him. "I wanted you to have this. A girl can't hear a story like the one you told me and not hear the ending. You call and tell me the rest, or I'll be wondering the rest of my life."
Grissom took the card and smiled at her as he slipped it into his pocket next to his wallet. "All right."
They could hear the knock on the door even over the spray of the shower and their giggling. "I'll get it," Nick said chivalrously and wrapped a towel around his waist before he padded out of the bathroom toward the door. Rubbing his hair with a different towel he opened the door with his other hand.
"Hello Nick," Grissom said.
Nick moved the towel away from his head thinking his ears must be playing ticks on him, it couldn't be… but it was. Gil Grissom stood in the doorway of his honeymoon suite.
"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked.
Before Nick could answer, Sara began to sing, "Oh baby do you know what that's worth, oooo heaven is a place on Earth."
And Grissom put a quick two and two together realizing his worst fears had materialized.
Ever since Brass had told him they were in Hawaii, Grissom kept telling himself it was possible that Nick had merely accompanied Sara; being the proverbial the shoulder she had needed to cry on. They were sharing a room, yes, but a room with twin beds.
Looking past Nick, Grissom saw a queen bed with rumpled sheets and a dripping wet Nick Stokes obviously straight out of an interrupted shower, a shower Sara was obviously still in.
Evidence doesn't lie.
Grissom swallowed hard, and lifted his chin determinedly.
Both men heard the shower shut off, Nick turned away, leaving the door open and headed for the bathroom. "Sar," he said softly as he opened the bathroom door. "Grissom's here."
"Who?" She asked, and might as well have shot a bullet into Grissom. The bathroom sink faucet shut off and Sara repeated, "I'm sorry Honey, I didn't hear you."
"I said, Grissom's here." Nick said, his voice low, and deflated.
And suddenly, there she was, in the bathroom doorway, looking confused, mad, surprised, and maybe, just maybe, a little happy to see him.
"What're you doing here?"
"I came for you." Grissom inclined his head toward the hall. "Can we talk?"
Nick sat silently on the bed as Sara got quickly dressed and met Grissom at the doorway. She turned to look at him just as she closed the door behind her and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
And then she was gone.
It was a few minutes before Nick made his way onto the balcony and leaned against the railing. As he watched the waves blanket the shore then quickly retreat, his mind drifted over the past few days. She'd been happy, hadn't she? He'd been so sure she'd fallen in love with him, surely her accepting his proposal hadn't been an act of revenge against Grissom.
People moved across the sand, tourists, families, locals; the beach swarmed with bodies, people laughing and playing in the ocean, people just as happy as he had been just a few minutes ago.
He was suddenly very tired and truly amazed at how things can change so quickly by a surprise visitor.
A surprise.
He sat down in the chair Sara had been sitting in earlier and looked at the phone still perched on the table.
"You're not the only one with a surprise."
No. She couldn't have. Even if Nick had wanted to believe it, there was no way Sara could have called Grissom and he'd show up less than an hour later. It wasn't possible, and besides, he told himself, she wouldn't have called him.
Nick looked out onto the beach again, and saw them. Both out of place, Sara in her jeans and Grissom out of place on a beach no matter what he was wearing. As he watched, Nick read their body language. They stood face-to-face, Grissom's hands moved about in the air as he spoke and Sara had her arms crossed over her chest; that was good. But then, Grissom's hand stopped suddenly and dropped to his sides. Sara's stance relaxed, her arms unfolding, one hand moving toward Grissom's shoulder.
As he watched, Nick's wife and fiancé kissed the cheek of another man.
He couldn't watch anymore. Nick went back into the room, sat on the bed, and waited for the inevitable.
About ten minutes later Sara came back into the room and sat gently down on the bed next to him. "Hey," she said gently.
"Hey," he answered and swallowed hard, steeling himself.
"Griss said to tell you goodbye."
Nick glanced over at her. "Goodbye?"
"Yeah, he's headed back to the airport, catch the next plane home."
"Are you… are you going to meet him there?" Nick asked, and glanced away, even though his mind was screaming at him to stop.
Sara's brow furrowed with confusion. "Meet him…? We'll see him when we go back to work."
We. She said 'we'. "Sar, I don't… I don't understand." His mind was screaming shut up you idiot, shut up.
She reached up with one hand, turning his face toward her. "I was going to tell him that I while I would always love him, I'm in love with you, but I didn't have to. He did all the talking, said that he had flown here intending to get me back, but when he heard me singing in the shower, he realized that he had never made me that happy. So he's going back to Vegas."
"But…" Nick stammered, "your surprise…" He pointed behind them toward the balcony and the phone.
Sara's gaze followed and she realized what he was talking about. "Oh my God." She jumped up and looked at her watch. "I almost forgot, but we still have time, hurry up and get dressed."
It was a hike. Sara's surprise turned out to be a hike through twisted vines and trees. Beautiful yes, but not exactly what he had the energy for after little sleep and a very brief but intense half hour when he thought he was losing the love of his life.
"Almost there," the guide called back over his shoulder, and a few minutes later the jungle opened up to a clearing, in the middle of which sat the most beautiful waterfall Nick had ever seen.
Leslie, the larger than life room service waiter and the cashier from the gift shop, whose name was Cassie, were both waiting for them when they arrived. Cassie was bouncing on her toes and Leslie clapped Nick on the back.
Nick thought it a bit odd that people from the hotel were there, seemingly waiting on them and glanced over at Sara. "Hon, what're we doing here?"
"Getting married," she said simply.
"Huh?"
Sara stopped walking. "This morning, I called Cassie and explained that we wanted to get married. She told me about this place, and I thought it was perfect. Cassie arranged the whole thing for us."
"There's a path that leads behind the waterfall." Cassie grinned and continued to bounce on her toes.
"Who's going to…"
"Me." Leslie spoke up. "I'm an ordained minister."
Nick blinked.
"Nick…" Sara put a hand on his chest, "this is ok, isn't it?"
He blinked again and looked at her. "Damn right, let's do it."
The sun streamed through the cascade of water, bathing them in streams of soft light, as droplets of spray tickled their skin. Cassie had made a halo of pink roses for Sara to wear, and Nick thought she looked angelic.
Leslie stood in front of them, holding an open copy of the Bible, he was so big, the book looked like it belonged in a dollhouse.
"Do you, Sara, take this man to be your lawful husband? To love, honor and cherish, till death do you part?"
Sara gazed at Nick. "I do."
"And do you Gill Grissom…"
Both Nick and Sara turned at stared at Leslie.
The big man threw his head back and laughed. "Sorry dude," he reached over and clapped Nick on the shoulder again, "She told us the whole story, I had to say it."
Sara cocked an eyebrow in a way that Nick knew for a fact could force even the most hardened criminal into confessing.
Leslie cleared his throat. "Just a joke. Sorry." He straightened himself up. "And do you, Nick take this woman as your lawful wife? To love, honor and cherish, till death do you part?"
"I do." Nick said with a smile.
And they lived happily ever after….
Fin
a/n: Thank you so much for your reviews, your patience and your prodding. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sunset