The next day was a bit of a blur for Gil Grissom. He had a few meetings scheduled throughout the day including a consultation with Mr. Crow at the SFCL. That meeting he found himself looking forward to for some reason.
At 3p.m. he walked into the SF crime lab and was quickly greeted by the receptionist.
"I'm here to see Dave Crow."
She accepted his credentials and provided Grissom with a visitors badge. "Take a seat." She motioned to the waiting area, "He should be out shortly."
Down the hall Sara walked alongside a co-worker of hers, Jeffery Tucker. He was a few years her senior but their camaraderie never felt its age gap.
"Look, Sara. All I'm saying is that if the husband did it, he wouldn't just leave the body in the backyard. There would be some sort of freight attempt at a clean up."
"Let's see what the evidence says." She handed him the evidence bag containing a DNA sample for the afore mentioned husband.
The two walked through the lab halls.
"I've got to check my messages." Jeff said to Sara and turned the corner near reception.
"Alright." She looked at her watch. "Can you finish up the rest of processing? There's a lecture at the conference I want to try and make."
"I forgot about that. You came in early to grab a case before heading to the conference? You are such a nerd." He teased playfully as they rounded the corner to reception.
"Dr. Grissom." She halted.
Jeff snapped his head toward the reception waiting area to see the man Sara was addressing.
Grissom stood to greet her.
"Dr. Grissom, this is my colleague, Jeff Tucker." Sara introduced her co-worker without taking her eyes off of Grissom's piercing blue ones.
"How do you do." Grissom extended his hand to Tucker.
"Dr. Grissom. You name is familiar."
"That because he's our consultant for the day." Dave Crow chimed in and extended his hand. "It's excellent to see you again."
"Likewise." Grissom smiled politely.
"I see you've already met Jeff, he's an excellent CSI Level 3. And this is Ms. Sidle, CSI Level 2."
"Yes. We've met." Grissom smiled, returning his attention to the younger woman. "Ms. Sidle attended my lecture at the conference yesterday."
"Ah of course." Dave moved to Sara and gave her a tight side-hug. "Isn't she the greatest."
"She's his favorite CSI." Tucker pretend whispered to Grissom.
"Now, now. I don't play favorites." Dave defended. "But if I did, she would be." He smiled easily as Sara blushed.
She cleared her through awkwardly, "I should get going if I'm to make it to the next set of lectures." Sara said in an effort to slip away. "Jeff, give me a call if you need an extra hand with the processing. I also dropped of the trace work about an hour ago so that should be wrapping up soon." She turned her attention the man beside him, "Dr. Grissom, It was pleasure running into you. I'm sure we'll cross paths at the conference again."
He gave her a small smile and a nod.
She smiled back and turned on her heels to exist through the double doors. Grissom couldn't help but to let his eyes follow as she disappeared through site only to be brought back to reality by Crow's voice.
"Lets chat in my office." He suggested and the two walked through the hall to enter the catty cornered office.
"She is very impressive." Grissom started awkwardly.
"Sara? Like you wouldn't believe. She was working for the coroner's office when I found her. She wanted to be a medical examiner." He laughed a little, "She would have been great at that too. She's got a keen sense of biology, physiology, but her true gift is in physics. Thats how I convinced her to switch over to field work. More of a chance to put that schooling to use." Dave smiled like a proud parent.
"You've really taken her under your wing it seems."
"She's got such potential." He gushed. "Sara's the kind of worker that will give you 130% on her worst days. And she's great energy for the team. It's like having a curve breaker in class, you know? She sets the standard so high for everyone that they all have to rise to the occasion too." Dave leaned in a bit, "Some of my more senior CSI's can't even keep up. Isn't that something?"
"It is." Grissom's infatuation for Sara didn't seem to be fizzling.
"Well anyway, enough about Sara." Dave redirected the conversation to the true purpose of their meeting—consulting on the labs shortcomings and scalability issues as they continue to grow. But somehow, the topic seemed to keep coming back to Sara.
"That's where Sara comes in." Dave continued, "She brings cases to a whole new level of depth with her knowledge of physics... It's interesting too," Dave began to go off on another Sara-centric tangent, "She has a much different view on life than some of the other CSI's here."
"How so?" Grissom inquired, finally able to get a word in edge-wise, though honestly, Grissom enjoyed listening much more than talking.
"Well, she graduated high school at 16 and went straight to Harvard. She moved across the country at 16 years old and attended one the most prestigious schools in the country. She never had an adolescence. She became an adult at 16. What were you doing at 16? All I cared about at that age was what girl to ask to the school dance." Dave laughed again, "And then Berkley."
Grissom shifted a bit uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't realized just how bright this young woman was. The conversation again took a turn to more professional matters. Grissom received a tour of the lab and met with a few other directors. All in all the meeting lasted about 2 hours.
As they parted, Dave extended Grissom an open invitation to come back whenever he'd like. The two shook hands and he left the building.
Grissom made his way back to the conference. He didn't have plans to sit in on any further lectures, but his feet took him there anyway in hopes of running into Sara again. He sat outside the building sipping his coffee and observing fellow criminalists. An hour past and he still had not seen her. But he was content to sit there in silence none the less.
He didn't see her again that day which left him feeling more disappointed than he cared to admit to himself. The next day was the last day of the conference—a half day. There would be one last opportunity to see her then.
The next morning welcomed Sara with warm sun seeping through the blinds. She stretched herself out of bed and got ready for the day. Her thoughts kept circling back to Dr. Grissom. She couldn't stop thinking of him, his blue eyes, that boyish grin, his seemingly infinite knowledge. She silently hoped to bump into him one last time before he made his way back to Vegas.
She walked the few blocks to the conference center. The air was warm with a light breeze that made it bearable. She entered the building and looked at the directory to find the location of the last lecture she planned to attend. It's topic centered on entomology and Sara was surprised that Dr. Grissom wasn't the one speaking given his doctoral level knowledge of the topic.
"Sara." Her name danced on his tongue effortlessly and she could hear the excited surprise in the inflection. She turned to see Dr. Grissom there, smiling back at her.
"It's me." She quipped back. "It's so nice to see you. Did you enjoy your time at the SF lab yesterday? Dave is great."
"He seems to think the same of you." This caused Sara to turn a few shades red. "He's quite fond of you, you know."
"He's a great mentor" Her modesty pushed forward.
Grissom smiled knowingly, "I'm glad I bumped into you." He suddenly felt very awkward around her.
"You are?" She mused, flashing a gap-toothed grin his way.
"What are you up to now?"
"Well, I was just planning to attend this entomology lecture. It's an area I'm not too familiar with."
"With Gerard? You should save your time."
"Are you offering yours?" She asked in such as flirtatious way that even surprised her.
"Sure. I can teach you a bit about entomology. But it comes at a price."
"What's that?"
"You have to show me around San Francisco." He paused, "I'm always here on business, and have never had the pleasure of actually experiencing the city." he said by way of explanation.
"Deal." She flashed him another toothy grin. The two made their way out the conference doors. She took him on a trolly ride to the downtown area. Walked him through the market district, pointing out some significant sites as they went along. He kept is promise and passed along some beginner knowledge of entomology to her trying his best to steer clear of the more difficult latin. That is until she chimed in and corrected his latin for him.
"You know latin?" His surprise evident in his tone.
"A bit. Not impressively well, but I took it in high school."
"It's impressive to me." He smiled at her as she shyly looked the other way. He looked down at his watch, "My flight is in two hours." He said a bit sadly.
"Well you can't leave without seeing the Golden Gate." She stated mater-of-factly as she lead him in the right direction. They reached their destination about twenty minutes later. She stood in front of him, the Golden Gate behind her.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"Breath taking." He replied, but he wasn't talking about the acclaimed structure behind her. He watched as she turned back around to view the bridge. A halo of light outlining her shape.
A vendor approached the two and asked if they'd like their photo taken. Sara immediately went to wave off the tourist-vulture but was cut-off by Grissom who said, "Sure, why not?" He moved toward her, putting his hand on the small of her back—an excuse to touch her, he realized. He was now very aware of how close they were to each other. Her warm lavender scent filling his senses. Heat rose through her body like a shockwave at the touch of his hand on her back. She leaned into him and smiled for the photo, knees feeling a bit wobbly.
Grissom moved away to tip the vendor and Sara suddenly felt lonely without his immediate touch. Grissom took the photo from the vendor, handing it to Sara.
"A little momento?" She accepted and thumbed over the image before pulling out a pen from her pack and scrawling her phone number and email address on it. She handed it back to him. His fingers purposefully touching hers as he took the photo.
"Keep in touch." He agreed before getting into a cab easily flagged down and departing for the airport.