5.

It was quarter past one when Sara went into the dinner, she wanted to meet Doug. Or Doug wanted to meet her, it was his idea they had lunch together, she only decided where. And to make it obvious, she wasn't in a hurry and wasn't desperate to meet him, she let him wait for a few minutes.

"I knew you'd come."

Not the reaction she hoped for and not the words she wanted to hear. How did he knew she'd come? What made him so sure about himself?

"Stop being so arrogant, Doug."

"I'm not arrogant, I know you. Did you reach your husband?"

"Did you find out more about the case?" It wasn't his business if she reached Grissom or not. And no, she didn't Her call went straight to voicemail again. And yes, she was mad and disappointed her husband didn't answer his phone. One more day and she'd call his employer and ask, if everything was all right. Something could be wrong, he could be injured and nobody called her.

"You still don't like talking about your private life."

"It's none of your business."

"It used to be my business. Your husband wasn't here for a while, so I've heard, very strange. How can he stay away? He's married to a wonderful woman, what can be more interested or important than being here with you?"

"He has work to do."

"We all have work to do, but when you're married, you make time for your wife."

"Are you married too? Or how do you know?" She turned tables. Why talk about her private life when they could talk about his? He didn't want to talk about their case, good, they could talk about what happened to him in the last thirteen years.

"Divorced, I know mistakes, I know where they end."

"So you learnt from your mistakes."

"Actually I learnt from her mistakes."

"Why is it all the time the woman, who makes the mistakes?"

"Not all the time, only in my case. In your case it's your husband."

"So what did she do? Which mistakes?"

"Like your husband, she was more away than home. FBI agent, traveled around the country, came barely back to San Francisco. This can work out for a month, maybe two, but sooner or later the one left behind gets nervous, angry because there are no calls, no messages. And when you find out, there are no calls and messages because your partner is busy not only with work, but with a colleague, the marriage is over and the experiment long distance relationship failed." He said in a light tone, but Sara could see some sorrow in his eyes. He wasn't the only one, who knew the other well enough.

"I'm sorry for that."

"There must be a reason for it, she wasn't the right one, I guess."

Was Grissom the right one for her? Until today she never doubted this, he was the only man she ever truly loved and she was the only woman, he ever really loved. They were meant for each other, at least that was what they both thought. Think? Why were there a few doubts? Where did they come from?

"Does somebody waits for you in San Francisco?" Why did she ask this? It wasn't important to her if there was somebody or not.

"No."

"You're on the roads a lot, aren't you? Must be hard to be involved then."

"At the moment, yes. I could change it, but as long as I've no reason for it, I continue to travel the country. It's interesting, you see new places and sometimes you meet people, you haven't seen for a while." His old self-assured smile was back. "Your team was quite surprised we share a past. How much do they know?"

"We worked in San Francisco together, that's it and it's all they need to know."

"You like to keep your private life private, like nobody knew about us."

"It wasn't their business."

"So they don't have to know about us - not back in San Francisco and not here, having lunch together. Will you tell your husband?"

"Stop worrying about my marriage, Grissom and me are fine." Hopefully she sounded as sure about it as she wanted.

"Okay, okay." He smiled and she knew, she sounded not very convincing. Maybe it was a mistake to meet Doug here for lunch.


Back home she checked her cell phone and found a message from Grissom. Her husband finally answered all her messages, even when he didn't call, only sent a text message, but it was better than nothing, was it? Hello Dear, sorry to keep you hanging this long, I'm very busy but I promise I'll be back home soon & surprise you. Love Gil. He will be back home soon? These six words made her feel like it was Christmas and her birthday on the same day. Grissom was about to come home. Probably he had no time to get in touch with her because he worked so hard to get a few days off and be with her. It was worth waiting for these words. Grissom planned to come back home.

He also planned a surprise. What kind of surprise? Whatever it was, it had to be nice. Her husband was about to come home. She took her cell phone and dialed his number. Maybe she got lucky again and reached him, could talk to him. No, voicemail again.

"Hi, it's me, I read your message. You're coming home? Believe me, this is the best message in a while. When will you be here? I miss you. Call me and tell me when I can pick you up at the airport. Love you."

Grissom was about to come home. After all this time, he'd be soon with her. He said soon. The question was, how soon was soon? Hopefully very soon, she missed him and the last couple of days, she had thought a couple of times about taking a week off and fly down to South America and see him. No need anymore, he was on his way to her. More or less.

Another question that came up to her was, if she hadn't have her cell phone on mute, she could have heard the message coming in and call Grissom immediately. Maybe they could have talked for a few minutes, she wanted to hear his voice again - and she wasn't talking about the recording of his voice on voicemail.