April 2006
It was nearly a year since the two got together. Things were rocky at first, both would admit this. While the initial commencement of their relationship had been a heated and passionate event, the weeks and months succeeding it had been awkward and tension filled. It had taken a while for Grissom to get into the hang of being with someone, caring for someone, taking someone else into consideration. And for Sara, she had struggled with letting him in further, opening up to him about how she was feeling. Eventually though, they met somewhere in the middle and things became good, very good.
They spent the vast majority of their time outside of the lab together now, and most of the time in the lab together as well. Things between the two were comfortable. Sure, they still had their moments. Grissom found it hard to find the right words to express himself while Sara continued to over talk enough for the both of them.
This particular day at work was a first for them. The scene was a wedding. A prominent lawyer was killed at her son's wedding reception and it was all hands on deck. He had never given much thought to marriage at all, ever really. The idea of him as a husband had just never crossed his mind. And for the first time ever, he found himself thinking about it, whether the idea of that would be for him. Whether or not he could see himself being that person for Sara.
He watched as she stood at the alter, looking around for evidence. Her beauty breath taking. Just thinking about the idea of marriage was a huge step for Grissom personally, even though he knew he wasn't nearly ready for that yet.
The scene had taken the team 11 hours to process. And that 11 hours of work vanished in 11 minutes at the realization that Nick's car, the car that had every scrap of evidence collected inside of it, was stolen.
The team now sat in the break room, filling out IA report briefings and discussing the case together to rack their memories. Sara was first,
"So there we were at Cupid's kiss. A nuptial Neverland where the cheese factor was dangerously high and the flowers were obviously fake. Can the love be real when the flowers aren't?"
"You really have a thing about weddings, don't you?" Nick interjected.
She did, Sara realized. She had never really taken the time to sit down and mull over her feelings on the matter, but she realized that she did have a thing about weddings. She was never one of those girls to fawn over the imaginary scenario of their future husband and wedding. Sara realized that she would be completely content to never be married. Her parents' marriage outcome was the only reason she needed to site for this.
"Hey, this is a pretty crazy ass situation hu?" The brides brother spoke to Sara after peeling the other drunk groomsman off of her.
"They say it's good luck if it rains on your wedding day..." He continued, "What do you think about a dead body?"
"What do you think?"
"I think my sister's better off... You ever thin about getting married?"
Sara's face contoured in shock by the question from the man standing before her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Grissom walking their way and hoped he hadn't heard the question. The two had never talked about their views on marriage and she was hoping to keep it that way for a long time.
"I think Bryce could make an honest woman out of you." Sara giggled at his statement.
"Should I put flirting in the case file?" Nick spoke.
"I was printing. He was flirting." This was good. She thought. She had Grissom had been so careful that it was clear no one suspected a thing.
Grissom was next to recall that day's scene.
"Spring is but a song. Where love and laughter are not wrong. Blossoms of desire do belong and harmonia Axyridis fly along."
Sara smiled to herself realizing the vast differences on their views. Here, Grissom retold the romantic imagery he perceived upon arriving at the scene. Sara had seen quite the opposite.
Hours later they were all gathered in the break room once again. Grissom entered the room,
"You paged?"
"We think that each of the brides maids is responsible for killing her. Not individually, but each played a role, in kahootz." Greg spoke as he muted the news.
Grissom took a seat at the table, "Did you know, that the original duty of the brides maid was to act as a human shield against the bride's enemies?"
"Women would dress similar to the bride in an effort to confuse and outsmart evil spirits that might try to overtake her on her wedding day." Sara interjected. Grissom nodded.
"Wow. For someone who is anti-wedding you certainly do know a lot about it." Nick's sarcasm was thick as a playful grin danced on his face.
"I am not anti wedding..." She spoke a bit awkwardly, "I'm just anti stupid. You know, people who do things for the sake of tradition with no clue as to why.." Sara could feel herself blush a little. She made a point not to make eye contact with Grissom, afraid of what she might find laying there in his expression.
"Anyway..." Grissom diverted the conversation. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we?"
Later that night Grissom found himself laying in Sara's bed, pondering about her comments earlier in the day.
"Why are you so anti-wedding?" He asked from his reclined position. Sara emerged from the bathroom, dabbing her face with a washcloth.
She shrugged, "I'm really not anti-wedding..." She tried, not knowing how to compartmentalize her true feelings into a concise answer.
Her response didn't seem to sooth his curiosity. She made her way to the bed and squeezed out a handful of lotion from the bottler on the nightstand. She rubbed the lotion onto her legs, pusher her silk robe up as she did.
"I guess... part of it is the feminist side," she tried, "Woman are forced to give up their name, their identity and succumb to the life their husband wants for them."
"That's an interesting view," He thought about what she had said, "I suppose some may counter that by pointing out that marriage is a display of commitment, love and partnership."
"Some people? Or you?" She smiled as she moved onto the other leg to lather up with lotion. His eyes watched as her hands ran up and down her leg, slowly massaging it in. His mouth slightly agape, he didn't respond.
"Gil?"
"Hm?" He snapped out of his daze as she laughed her low husky laugh at him.
He grabbed her hand and yanked her toward him, pulling her down to the bed, the bottle of lotion fell to the floor.
"What has gotten into you?" She laughed.
He wasn't sure, but in that moment his feelings were so intense that he just had to have her. He pulled at the satin belt holding her robe closed to let the silk fall to her sides. His eyes turned a shade darker at the realization that she wore nothing underneath it.
May 2006
Grissom and Sara rode to Caprice Unlimited together, following a lead in the case involving a male DB who turned up dead after having what seemed to be the best night of his life.
The car ride was about 20 minutes from the lab. Sara fiddled with the stereo trying to find a good station to listen to.
"Will you pick something and stick with it?" Grissom finally said, "You always circle through the stations three times before just leaving it on the first one you heard." He smiled.
"If it were up to you we'd listen to classical music everywhere we went." She retorted.
"Whats wrong with that?"
"Nothing." She smiled, leaving the knob tuned to the first station they heard after cycling through three times, exactly like he said.
They sat in silence for a few minutes until Grissom broke it, "You know..." he started awkwardly. She could hear the hesitation in his tone, the hesitation that was only there when he began to talk about 'us' the 'relationship' usually something meaningful and thoughtful. She waited patiently to hear what he had to say as he racked his mind for the right words.
"It's been about a year now."
"Excuse me?" She cocked her head to the side, unsure of what he was talking about.
"Since we've... you know." He motioned between the two of them and suddenly Sara understood what he was saying.
"Has it really?" The shock in her voice was loud and clear.
They pulled up to Caprice Unlimited and got out of the car. They didn't speak another word of it.
"Gil Grissom, this is Sara Sidle, we're with the Las Vegas Crime Lab."
"Anthony Caprice... there's no crime here."
"...their idealized woman, submissive but in control. Becomes the geisha."
"I get it." Grissom spoke with revolution, "you're one of those companies that stages fantasies right? Everything appears real but has all been crafted in advance?"
"It takes weeks to craft these scenarios. I learn everything I can about my client's wants. His desires. All without him even knowing." Grissom subconsciously glanced toward Sara. "Secret wants, desires. They have... a kind of electricity."
"They're often much more visible then we would want them to be." He continued. Sara furrowed her brow and glanced toward Grissom now.
"And Jeff Powell's evening?" Grissom inquired. "The girl, the car, the billiards."
"Everybody likes to be in control. You don't have to be rich to want that." He walked to the printer and handed Sara a piece of paper. "Here's Mr. Powell's schedule, timed down to the minute."
"And his murder?"
"Tragic. But it's not in my script. Now if you'll excuse me I have a hot tub to calibrate." Mr. Caprice turned to walk away. He made it a few steps before turning back around, "Oh, and may all your dreams come true." He shot a look between the two. Sara watched as he walked off, Grissom watched Sara.
"What do you think about that?" Sara spoke as they neared the lab.
"About?"
"Desires are often much more visible than we'd like them to be." She repeated Caprice's words nearly verbatim.
"We work side by side with trained observers, none of which seem to have any inclination to our... situation." He offered.
"What's your fantasy?" She teased as he pulled the car into the lot.
"You." His tone very matter-of-fact.
It was moments like this, where he would say something so incredibly endearing, sweet, romantic, and deliver it in such a mundane tone that it could easily go missed. It reminded her of the time he had told her he was only interested in beauty after meeting her.
They made there way to the layout room where the team mulled over the case's details.
"Any guy would help a beautiful woman in distress, right?" Nick spoke and turned toward Grissom for validation.
"Some guys are intimidated by beauty." Grissom eyes laid into Sara. She scrunched her face in confusion. "Or fear rejection," He continued. Sara shook her head and looked down at the file in front of her.
After all this time together, she still couldn't figure out why Grissom chose such a public forum to hint at his feelings to her. Why couldn't he just talk about it with her, in private?
"...They probably just thought they taught him a lesson." Catherine finished relaying the cases' events as the team sat around the break room table.
"They did." Grissom spoke, "Don't confuse reality with fantasy." Sara's eyes lifted up and found his from across the table. She pursed her lips in a smile, knowingly.
"But you have to admit," Greg spoke up, "That whole fantasy night thing was a pretty cool gift from a very generous boss." Greg directed his final words as Grissom with a wide grin plastered to his face.
"Greg... don't you have a birthday coming up?" Sara smiled with amusement.
"Why yes, Sara. I do."
She turned her direction back toward Grissom, the two exchanging a look.
"I'm thinking ear shredding rock, a beautiful model, boat loads of sushi and... latex?" Cather guessed.
Greg just simply smiled, "That was last year."
"I think fantasies are best kept private." He looked deep into Sara's eyes as he spoke.
The team left, leaving Grissom and Sara alone in the room. Exchanging knowing looks.