Well, this chapter was the hardest to write, especially because the last couple of chapters weren't very well-received and I thought about just abandoning the damn thing altogether. But I couldn't, so here it is. Please review if you wish. And beware of complete fluff at the end.
On the flight back to Vegas from Massachusetts, Grissom found himself drifting off in spite of himself. He was both satisfied with how his sabbatical went and incredibly anxious to get back to the lab. His first priority was definitely Sara, but he also wanted to meet this Keppler person he'd been hearing about. He called the lab once or twice while he was gone to check on things and talked to Catherine both times, but she seemed completely preoccupied in a way that was maddeningly frustrating to him. He needed to know what the hell was going on in his lab.
But on the plane, as he drifted off into dream world, he found himself dreaming of Sara, which was strange in of itself. He never dreamed about places or people he knew, it was always something completely abstract and random. He actually kept a dream journal by his bed to record these random acts of subconsciousness. When Sara learned about she had laughed and laughed. But when she looked through it, she looked at every page with complete fascination. She told him that he was the most interesting man she knew. He took it as a compliment.
The dream was simple; he was merely embracing her. He was holding onto her for dear life, and she was clutching his arms tightly. This went on and on and on and he woke up nearly in a cold sweat. Damn, he thought to himself. What the hell was that about?
He didn't have much time to think about it because his plane was landing at McCarren International. He secretly hoped Sara would be there waiting for him, but of course she wasn't. And why should she be? He never called or wrote her, the only thing he did do was send her a cocoon, which he hoped she put in his office. He knew that had been out of left field, but he had to something. Besides, he thought she'd get it when it bloomed.
Grissom took a cab to the lab, bringing all his suitcases into his office. He would go home later; now he had other things on his mind.
The first person who intercepts him on his journey to his office was, unfortunately, Hodges. Grissom respected Hodges' work and thought the man worked miracles with DNA. But he would never tell him that, of course. Honestly, he found Hodges to be completely creepy, and not totally in a harmless way.
Just proving this theory a little more, Hodges revealed that he had taken Grissom's seminar online. He was sufficiently creeped out again by this man, especially after finding out that Hodges was, in fact "Spanky." He took leave of him and finally made it to his office. He let out an audible groan when he saw the piles and piles of mail lying on his desk.
Avoiding the mail, he peeked into a few of his many terrariums and smiled when he comes across the cocoon. Sara did know where to put it. This pleased him greatly.
God, he couldn't wait to see her. The sabbatical really made him think through the things he'd been putting off for so long. While he was at Williams, he didn't bother shaving and grew a pretty impressive beard. He lost a little weight from walking to Williams from his hotel every day. He got plenty of rest and what's more, plenty of chances to just sit and think. He would cut back on work. Maybe he'd become part-time and let Catherine take over for a while. She was ready for it. What he realized was that his feelings for Sara started that very first day they met in San Francisco and had only gotten larger than life from there. He tried to deny it for so very long because he just didn't know any other way. But now? Now he was ready.
But again, there were other things to attend to before he could find Sara. Brass filled him in earlier about the double homicide and the cop from New Jersey. He hesitantly left his office, on a search for the elusive Michael Keppler. He didn't have to go far; Keppler was also roaming the halls. The two men stopped and greeted each other. Keppler complimented Grissom on his fantastic team. Grissom asked him for details about the double homicide and if he knew the cop, since Keppler was also from Trenton, New Jersey. Keppler said, "Do you know how many retired cops there are in Trenton?" Before Grissom could answer, Keppler was already walking away. And Grissom became instantly suspicious.
For the next couple of hours, Grissom gathered information about the double homicide case. He went to a scene Warrick was processing and the two men discussed the case. Grissom asked Warrick about friction in the lab while he was gone, and Warrick said, "Ever heard of reverse forensics?" And now Grissom was more than suspicious, he was downright mad. This Keppler guy came into HIS lab and tried some stupid, risky move like reverse forensics? He thought twice about going part time. He wasn't even gone a month and the lab had some asshole making everybody nervous and putting everyone's careers in jeopardy.
When he got back to lab, he again hesitantly stepped inside his office. He leered at his giant stack of mail. Just as he was about to open one of the packages he received, he got a glimpse of Sara walking down the hall of the lab. Finally! He raced out of his office and said, a little too loudly, "Sara!"
She turned around, total surprise registering in her eyes. He noticed she was, well, a little smelly.
"Hey!" She said, trying hard to look cool and collected. "You're back."
"Yeah," he said. "Yeah"? That was all he could manage to say? Well, there were so many people roaming the halls around them and there were so many things he wanted to say to her. "Yeah" was the only thing he could muster.
She started backing away from him. He walked towards her, which kept her walking away.
"Uh, I've been out at a--at a, um--"
"Garbage dump?" Grissom provided for her. He was greatly amused by how embarrassed she seemed to be. Yes, she was a little...ripe, but to him, she had never looked so completely beautiful. She was like a breath of fresh air to him, ironically enough. He wanted to tell her that, but she just kept backing away from him. He wished she would just stand still for one damn second.
"Yeah, it's so obvious, isn't it?" She finally stopped for a second and took a good look at him. He guessed she was noticing the massive beard he had grown while he was away. "Nice, um--you look good." She then continues to walk away from him. Argh! This was not what he had in mind his first day back.
"Did you put the cocoon in my office?" He asked her. He knew she did, but wanted to gauge how she felt about it.
"Cool, dry, not a lot of light. It seemed like the right place for it."
"I think you're going to be surprised when it hatches," he said.
"I have no doubt," she said in a completely mysterious way that he didn't know how to gauge at all. "I'm gonna go clean up now."
He nodded and said, "See you later."
She stops for a second and says, "Yes, you will." And she walks away, so very far away, way too far away for him.
And he doesn't go after her. He doesn't get to call her and say, "Okay, that wasn't awkward, now come into my office and we'll really talk." Instead, he gets swept up again in the Keppler mess that was taking over the whole lab. Before he landed in Vegas he imagined he would work for a while, talk Sara into leaving early, and they'd go back to his place and camp out for a few hours. That wasn't going to happen. He didn't know when he'd see her again, but soon, that became far from his mind.
Soon, Catherine and Warrick storm into his office and they talk about the case. He learns more about how shady Keppler keeps appearing to be. Nobody had even heard from Keppler for hours, and this was obviously not good. He sent everyone out to investigate further, and spends a little time with his mail. It was all the usual, just a whole month's worth of it. He opens it all, but leaves a mysterious-looking box for last. He was just about to dig into the box when his phone rang. It was Catherine, upset about Keppler's state of mind. She didn't think he had anything to live for and was worried he was going to do something stupid. Grissom sighed. How did Catherine get so emotionally attached to everyone she worked with? And in such a short time, too. He told her that he was sorry about Keppler, but she needed to be focusing on finding the witness to the homicide.
After they hung up, Grissom knew Catherine would focus on trying to find Keppler. This frustrated him, but he got up to go to the scene anyway. It looked like Catherine was going to need him, and he was going to be there.
He found out where Catherine went and drove to the hotel. He arrived to see Catherine running alongside a gurney, a million ambulances and a million cop cars. He assumed Keppler was in the gurney. He raced out of his car to find Catherine a sobbing mess. He sees Keppler getting hooked up to a defribillator and shocked, and it has no effect. They try a few more times to shock him, and there's nothing. One of the paramedics say, "He's gone." Grissom sighed. Catherine cried. Grissom grabbed Catherine by the shoulders and took her away from Keppler's body, letting her cry into his shoulder.
He got Catherine in his car and took her home. She was hesitant--she wanted to go back to the lab, but Grissom wouldn't let her. He said, "Come back tomorrow, Cath. Get some rest. Calm down. Come back, and we'll deal with it, okay?" She nodded and slowly walked inside her house. He knew she'd be okay, she'd been through worse.
As soon as he knew Catherine was safely inside her house, he picked up his cell phone. He dialed Sara. When she answered, he said, "Where are you? I need to see you." She was still at the lab, but Warrick and Nicky were handling what was left of the Frank McCarty case. He tells her to meet him at his townhouse, she readily agrees.
30 minutes later they're inside his townhouse, kissing desperately, not caring they had too many things to say to each other. Grissom knew he should be back at the lab helping Warrick and Nick, but...he just had to take care of this first. This was what was important to him now.
"Sara," he said in between breaths for air, "I need to talk to you!"
Breathlessly, she said, "Yes, you do. Not now." He took that as a cue to shut up. They moved it to the bedroom and their clothes were off in seconds. They made love at a furious pace, when usually it was slow and languid. It seemed like they both had something to prove.
When it was finally over, after what seemed like hours later, Sara lie in Grissom's arms, looking at the ceiling, a slight grin on her face. "So...what was that sabbatical about, exactly? I mean...I know I put you in a tough spot, but I didn't know you'd have to leave for a month to...do whatever it is you did."
He turned to face her. She smiled at him in spite of herself. He knew she was trying to stay cool, but it wasn't exactly working like she planned.
"I realized that I need to figure out what to do about us. It may not seem like it, but Sara...I've lived a certain kind of life for the past 25 years. I've had a romance or two but nothing that really got me excited about anything. When I met you, I knew if I did something about...this...that it would change my life completely. And I wasn't ready for that. And I guess when we started this relationship, I still wasn't completely ready for it. I always let something, a distraction, get in the way of what was really important. And I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I need to do, Sara. I'm thinking about going part-time and letting Catherine take over. Hell, if you want me to retire, I'll do that. I'm ready, Sara. I'm ready for us. I'm ready for you."
Well, he didn't mean it all to come out like that at the same time, but he was glad he finally got it all out of his system.
Sara chuckled. "Wow, I should send you out on sabbatical more often!" She said, playfully pinching his bare arm.
"Gris, I don't need you to retire. I just need you to balance things a little better. Instead of staying for hours after shift, just leave when it's over. Leave things at the office sometimes, you know? We both know how hard that can be, but I'm learning. I'll teach you as we go along. And I'm sorry that I blew up at you that night at the restaurant, but you have to understand - that's what happens in relationships. People get mad, but they get over it. I understand now that you thought I was giving you an ultimatum, and maybe it did sound like that. But I was really just...trying to get your attention."
They both chuckled, and talked for a while about what they could do to improve communication. He felt silly he underestimated Sara's feelings for him, but he was still glad he took the sabbatical. It gave him the clarity of mind to do what he couldn't believe he was about do.
When Sara got up to go to the bathroom, he pulled a small box from his bedside table drawer. He quickly put it on her pillow. When she got back from the bathroom, she noticed the box. Wide-eyed, she picked it up gently and opened it, staring at him in disbelief as she did so. Inside was not an engagement ring from Tiffany's. It was a plastic ring with a butterfly painted on it.
"I don't know the first thing about engagement rings and I thought that maybe you didn't either. I saw that in a gumball machine in Massachusetts and I had to get it for you."
She grinned, that grin that always made his heart take a nosedive.
He got himself out of bed, came over to her side and kneeled down on one foot. She was now giggling like a schoolgirl.
"Sara Sidle, will you...be my butterfly?"
She snorted. "That is cheesy, Gil Grissom. But, of course I will. Of course."
They both knew they had a long road ahead of them and it would probably be paved with rocks instead of concrete, but they didn't care. They were both ready for the next distraction.
Okay, yeah, that was a bit of pure fluff :) But come on, you liked it, didn't you? I think this is the end to my little story, so thanks for reading it. Review if you wish, I'd appreciate it.