Chapter 12

Grissom sat at the table waiting for Sara to return. He thought it would be best to introduce Sara to Terri to let her see that the other woman was no threat to her. And, he thought since he'd be seeing Terri on campus from time to time, it would do her good to meet Sara now that she was a part of his life. What he hadn't expected were the sudden overtures he was receiving from Terri. It was almost as if she had felt threatened by his return to San Francisco, where she knew he would be resuming his friendship with Sara. She increased her interest when she found out he was staying with Sara and once she saw the pregnancy, her advances had actually turned physical. When she reached under the table and placed her hand on his thigh, he almost jumped out of his chair. He didn't know what to say without embarrassing both himself and Sara.

He looked up and saw Sara come back to their table and couldn't have felt more relieved. God, but she was a sight! Her face was a little flushed, giving her that pregnancy glow that he had often heard about and her still slim figure showed off the breasts that were peeking out from the top of her blouse, making his hands itch to either reach over and fondle her or reach over and cover her so no one else could see. They were, after all, his and he wasn't about to share! He smiled at the thought. How many other women had he ever felt so possessive with? None that he could remember; not that he didn't believe in monogamy, he truly did. He had witnessed what a love between a man and woman was with his own parents, even if his father did die young. But he was never so consumed with any other woman as he was with Sara. He looked at her blush and realized she was bothered by her "stain" she had obtained a few minutes earlier. She shouldn't look like that. He found her "accidents" while eating absolutely charming, and if, as she had told him, she only did such things when he was around—he was going to take it as a compliment. He was glad he got under her skin enough to make her lose her concentration to the point of missing her mouth while attempting to put food inside it.

"Would you like me to get your jacket?" Grissom offered quietly. "It might cover it, if you're uncomfortable with it."

"Yes."

He looked at her and wanted nothing more than to reach over and give her a reassuring kiss on the lips at that moment. So what? She had a little stain on her blouse. No one was going to notice it. They'd be looking at her face and the way her eyes sparkled and the mischief in her eyes as she'd look across the table at Terri. They'd be looking at her lovely smile that enchanted anyone she flashed it at. They'd be looking at the magnificent bulge at her center that announced their impending parenthood. No, she wasn't attracting attention because of a little orange spot—it was her beauty and her feistiness that made people take a second look.

He started for the jacket she had left out front and the image of her nearly falling off her chair made him chuckle. At first it sent a rush of fright through him but once he saw she was okay and settled back into her seat he was overcome with relief. Now, the image of her sliding toward him struck him funny. Only Sara could accomplish such a feat. She amazed him.

"Here," Grissom said as he held the jacket for Sara and she slipped her arms into it, wanting to pull her against his chest and kiss her cheek with reassurance. "Is this better?"

"It's fine," she said through clenched teeth.

"What's wrong?" He looked from her to Terri who gave him a demur little smile before picking at her salad again then taking another drink of her wine.

"Nothing's wrong, Gil," Terri told him. "Sit down and enjoy your meal."

"Nothing's wrong?"Gill thought as he looked at the blond woman with suspicion. "Sara looks as if you just slapped her in the face! What did you do to her?"

"Sara?" He asked quietly.

"I—I—no, there's nothing wrong," she said quietly. "The baby's just kicking."

"Italian, again, huh?" He smiled at Sara as he took his seat, seeing how she avoided the issue. He wasn't going to cause her more uncertainty by forcing it. He prepared to resume his meal.

"I beg your pardon," Terri said.

"The baby likes Italian food. It starts kicking when she eats it." He kept his eyes on Sara but she avoided his gaze.

"I see," Terri responded then changed the subject again. "I noticed Professor Sanders is very impressed with your reputation, Gil."

"I wouldn't call it impressed," he told her. "I think he's more impressed with the reputation of the Las Vegas lab than he is with me."

"I can't argue that the lab has its own notoriety but surely you're aware of your own distinction."

"Aren't you rather infamous yourself, Dr. Miller?" Sara asked. "I mean, I see your picture all over the internet. All I've got to do is google you and there ya are—smiling that big smile that's so distinctive."

"I rarely smile for my photographs," Terri said. "I find it undignified to stand there smiling when I'm discussing a corpse."

"Really?" Sara asked with wide eyes. "I wonder why I get the impression that you're smiling all the time. Ya know, sometimes, a person's teeth will pick up on camera and make things look out of whack. But then, I suppose you already know that."

"Good!" Gil thought as he took a bite of his meal. "Serves ya right! I don't know what you did, Terri, but evidently your venom is escaping."

Terri clearly didn't pick up on Sara's little slur. "I suppose so—because I don't smile in my pictures!"

"Yeah—you've said."

Sara smiled back at her then glanced at Grissom, almost as if looking for reassurance. This time when she tried to take a bite of her food, it slipped off the fork but she caught it in her hand before dumping it back on her dish.

"Oh, my," Terri took another sip of her wine and smiled at Sara through her eyes.

Grissom was about to put a fork of bass in his mouth but stopped and put it back on his plate. He looked at the food that already discolored Sara's palm then he got to his feet.

"Let me get something to clean that. I don't think your napkin's going to get it all off. I'll get something with soap." He started off in the direction of the bathroom. He wasn't going to let her feel bad about something he could care less about. So she's a little clumsy tonight. Okay, so she's a little clumsy a little more than just tonight. She's got every right to be. She's very pregnant with his baby and if that alters her motor dexterity, then so be it.

"Gil!" Terri said as she watched him. "Couldn't she simply go to the bathroom and wash it off?"

"I don't mind," Grissom told her. "She should eat. She's been on her feet all day."

Neither woman was at the table when he returned. He looked at how Sara's chair was pushed away from the table. Clearly she left in a rush, not taking the time to push it back in place. He looked at Terri's chair and saw that it was also pushed away from the table, but not as forcefully as Sara's. When he looked more closely he saw some wine had spilled down around the chair. The absence of it on the chair itself told him that Terri had been sitting there when it spilled. The way it landed in a puddle at the front of the chair told him it fell from a high distance but at a slow rate, almost as if it had been drizzled there. He saw the way it ran down the back of the chair, telling the story that it had been above Terri when it spilled.

"Oh boy," he said quietly then nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Terri approaching from behind him.

"That woman's insane!" She hissed and he turned to see the pink stain that ran down over her hair and shoulders.

He looked at the way it ran down the front of her shirt and he smiled when he realized it made Sara's small spill seem miniscule.

"What happened?"

"Sara! Sara's what happened! She became angry because I reminded her why I came to San Francisco and she said horrible things and poured my wine over me and stormed out of here!"

"I'm sorry," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "You've got to understand Sara's been under a tremendous amount of stress lately. Sara's not normally like this at all."

"How would you know? You only knew her a total of two weeks! One before you went back to Vegas and one since you came back here. You don't know "what" she's capable of!"

"Where is she? I need. . ."

"She left! She made her intentions perfectly clear when she humiliated me that she no longer wished to be in our company!"

She grabbed her purse and started out of the restaurant. Grissom followed and paid the bill then stepped outside, stopping upon the realization that his ride was gone. Sara drove them there in her car. He looked at Terri as she was hurrying toward her own car then stopped at the door.

"Terri, I'm sorry this happened. I'll talk to Sara and see what's wrong."

"She's" what's wrong! You're just so captivated by this idea of impending parenthood that you can't see that! We had something, Gil! You know that! And I can understand if you went to Sara to satisfy your needs—that happens with men. But the fact that you're letting it interfere with "our" lives is ridiculous! She's got to accept the inevitable!"

"Terri—anything we may have even approached together—never happened!" Grissom told her with wide eyes.

"What do you mean it never happened? Of course it happened! Look how long we've known each other, Gil! I may not be as fast as your Sara Sidle but she had no right to interfere with our plans. You and I were a couple. If not formally yet, then we certainly were about to be!"

"Terri, if anyone needs to accept anything, it's you. You need to understand that what I have with Sara is more in these measly two weeks than we had in the whole time I've known you. I'm sorry if I've misled you, Terri, but I never intentionally meant to give you the impression that we were going to create some kind of a relationship once you got here. If you recall, I didn't think you were arriving until next spring."

"So, you allowed me to make major changes in my life to accommodate your sessions here in California, all the time knowing you were going to return to her."

"I didn't encourage you to do anything of the sort, Terri. You made that decision on your own. If I encouraged anything it was the possibility of furthering your career, not our relationship. And yeah—I think if it came down to it—you're right. I knew, deep down, the whole time that I'd come back for her; even without the knowledge that we're starting a family."

"You're not starting a family, Gilbert! She's merely having a child. That doesn't mean you have to attach yourself to her hip! I'd be willing to continue seeing you as long as you realize "we" come before anything you could ever share with a mere investigator! Think of what we could accomplish together, Gilbert! Your name attached to mine! There's no place we couldn't go and be recognized for our achievements!"

Grissom looked at her then dropped his gaze. He was getting nowhere. "I need to go find Sara. She must be very upset."

"Aren't you listening to me?"

"Yes, Terri. You're saying that together you and I can go places I have no desire to go. You're saying that your affection for me is so little that you wouldn't care in the least if I kept up my relationship with another woman—as long as I'd come home to our cold bed at night. I don't have a cold bed with Sara! She's warm and comforting—when the heat of her temper doesn't escape—and even that's more inviting than the iciness you're offering."

She stared at him as if he had just poured another glass of wine over her head then got inside her car and drove away. He looked at the sky in frustration then turned and started walking. "Well, if I go home right now, I'll be faced with the wrath of Sara, and deservedly so, but that would accomplish nothing. Instead, I'll take a little time and let her cool off. Let's see, if I walk home, it'll take a little over an hour. That should be enough time to let her calm down. Then I'll prove to her that I was a complete and utter fool for wanting to socialize with someone as emotionally devoid as the woman I exposed her to. I'll prove to her that she has more passion in her eggplant-parmesan-covered palm than Terri has in her entire distant body! I'll go home and prove to her that those magnificent breasts that she kept trying to hide beneath her stained blouse are so enticing that I damned near hurt myself with the hard-on she gave me while we were waiting to eat. I'll go home and prove to her that all she has to do is look at me with those amazingly chocolate eyes and I'm a sucker for anything she wants. Chocolate—that's a thought. I'll take her chocolate."

When he got home he noticed it had taken him nearly two hours. There were no signs of Sara so after depositing the chocolate-covered strawberries in the refrigerator, he looked in her bedroom where he found her sleeping. He tiptoed back to his room. She was probably emotionally drained and needed sleep more than she needed him apologizing all over the place just to convince her that she shouldn't give up on her child's father as an imbecile. He took off his shoes, followed by his suit, trying very hard to remain quiet so as not to awaken her. He checked in on her again, seeing that she had turned her back to the door as she moaned in her sleep, then he returned to his room to go over some documentation he had on several species of dragonfly. Beautiful though they were, his interest wasn't enough to keep him awake as he fell into a doze as he lay spread across his bed. When he woke up he quickly looked at the clock, noting that he had been home for almost another two hours. Well, he wasn't getting any rest here. He knew where he needed to be. Funny how after only a few nights, his body craved hers lying next to his in order to relax.

He quietly entered her room, now only in his tee-shirt and boxers. He saw that there was adequate room for him to simply slide up behind her so put his knee on the mattress in an attempt to do just that. The scream and rapid succession of twisting her body around and giving him a shove that landed him flat on the floor came completely out of nowhere.

"Ow! Dammit, Sara!" Grissom said from where he sat looking up at her.

"Holy shit!" She tried to sit up but rolled like a turtle stuck on its shell until she rolled off the bed and landed on her butt in front of him. But her ire didn't stop there as she grabbed her pillow and started pummeling him with it. "What did you do? Break the damned lock? You kicked in the frickin' door and broke my lock, didn't you? "You're" paying to repair the door! I'm not having that come out of my security deposit!"

He looked at her as she stopped hitting him with the pillow. "What are you talking about? I used my key."

"You can't open the chain lock with your key!" She hit him again. "Wait—why didn't I hear you kick in the door? Hey—how'd you get in? You're like a damned cat burglar!" She hit him again, and then again.

"Would you stop that?" He grabbed the pillow and yanked it out of her hands. "I didn't break in! You didn't have the chain lock on the door when I came in."

"I did so!" She struggled to get to her feet then stormed out of the room to check on the damage he had done to her door, stopping abruptly upon finding the chain still in its slide. "It isn't broken." She turned to look at him with a raised brow as he entered the living room behind her. "How—did—you get in here?"

"I came in while you were sleeping. The chain wasn't on. When did you put it on?"

"I don't know—about. . ." She glanced at the clock. ". . .about an hour ago."

"Well, that explains it. I was home two hours ago."

"No you weren't! I was listening for you." She walked up to him until she was nose-to-nose with him. "You—are—a liar!"

"I'm not lying."

"Then why didn't I hear you?"

"You were sleeping."

"I wasn't sleeping."

"You were. You were fast asleep. So I let you sleep while I went to my room to read."

"Then why didn't you know I came out and locked the door?"

"Because "I" was sleeping."

She stared at him for a moment then dropped her eyes. "Oh."

"So, can we go back to bed now?" He put his hands on her upper arms.

"Wait, "why" did it take you so long to get home? You went home with "her" first—didn't you? You took her home and made her feel better because I poured wine on her head."

"Sara," he sighed. "You took the car."

Her hand went to cover her mouth as she looked at him. "Oh—I forgot! You walked all this way. Why didn't you call me?"

"Would you have come back to get me?"

"Of course!"

"Really?" He looked at her with a raised brow.

"Okay, fine—I probably would've told you to go ride your palomino!" She paused to look at him then chuckled at herself. "Get it? An albino horse with teeth to match!"

"Technically, palominos aren't albinos."

"Oh shut up! I can still send you back to "that" saddle again!"

"See? I wanted to give you time to cool off—and. . ." He took her by the hand and pulled her into the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator and pulled out the container of strawberries. ". . .I wanted to pick these up as a peace offering."

She paused a moment then opened the box. "You walked all the way home—plus over to Cashner's Candy Shop. No wonder it took so long to get here."

She looked inside the box then quickly up at him. He smiled as he took one and placed it against her lips. She moaned with delight as she closed her eyes and bit into it then took his hand and pulled him back to her bedroom.

"What are you doing?" He laughed at her.

"Sharing."

"But it's after midnight."

"You don't want to share?" She sat on the edge of the bed and turned until she was leaning against the headboard and brought her feet up.

He sat on the edge of the mattress and faced her then gave her another bite of the strawberry when he noticed the moisture in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing."

"Something's wrong. What is it?"

"I'm waiting for you to. . ."

"To? What?"

"You're going to chew me out for pouring wine over Terri's head." She leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes then sighed. "Go ahead. I'm ready."

He looked at her and paused, then placed another strawberry against her lips, opening her eyes immediately. She took another bite then he put the box on the nightstand and moved until he was lying on the bed and he pulled her down with him.

"I'm not going to do anything of the kind. You're not in the habit of going out and pouring wine over women's heads. You must've been provoked."

She nodded her head and he thought he saw a tear about to spill. "I was, Gris. She was mean."

He managed to conceal his smile very well as he leaned over and gently kissed her cheek. "I'm sorry."

"And she was insulting." He kissed her ear. "And she said nasty things to hurt me." He kissed her forehead. "And she hated me." He kissed her nose. "And she hated the baby." He kissed her chin. "And she said she hated my clothes. My clothes, Gris! How can someone hate someone because of their clothes?" He kissed her jaw line. "And she said I was easy and she was "really" mean about that! I wasn't easy! Well, maybe I "was," but only with you." He kissed her neck. "And she was ugly with her big teeth and troll nose and eyes. I wish I wouldda had a bone to tie up in her frickin' hair to complete the picture!" This time he dropped his head down and started kissing "her spot" on her throat, bringing a shriek from him as she pulled away. "Hey!"

"Be nice." He rolled over and held her hands against the bed on either side of her pillow as he slid between her legs and looked at her. "You're better than that, Sara. I came home wanting to make you understand that."

"She said you were in bed with her."

His eyes widened on that one. "No. I wasn't."

"She said I slept around and that when you were in "her" bed, you knew you were the only one."

"Really? And what did you say?"

"I told her that you knew you'd certainly know you were the only one because you hadn't been able to pry her frigid legs apart and if you did—you'd have frostbite of the pecker," she told him quietly as she looked at him, then thought a moment and a smile began creeping across her features. "Frostbite of the pecker. I told her that—in public."

He couldn't help but smile back at her then lowered his head until his lips covered hers before pulling back and looking at her again. "Someone that mean deserves it. You don't have to worry about Terri anymore, my love. I more or less told her the same thing as we were leaving."

"You told her she was frigid?"

"In a manner of speaking. I think I told her she was emotionally distant, or crippled, or something such as that and she can't hold a candle next to the warmth of you."

A little sob escaped from her as she dropped her eyes again. "I thought—I thought you'd be horrified at what I did. I thought you'd go running back to Terri's defense."

"Shh. I'm surprised—and a bit shocked—but I'm more horrified at myself for forcing you to go through with meeting Terri. I knew she could be a bit distant. . .but I thought she'd like you like everyone else. The fact that she can't see what's inside of you only shows me how blind she is."

"But she's blind because she's in love with you, Gris."

"No. If she's blind—it's blind ambition. She isn't in love with me. She told me tonight that she and I would go far professionally if we tied our personal lives together, but I could still go on seeing you on the side, if I desired."

"Do you desire?" She asked with another hiccough.

"I desire seeing you out front—not on the side. I don't desire and wouldn't desire anyone who can say they have so little emotion toward another person as to share them." He released her hands only to put his hands on either side of her face as he kissed her. "I want you, Sara."

"I want you, too," she sighed against him as she wrapped her legs around his. "And I won't share."