A/N: I felt the need to devote two full chapters to "The Two Mrs. Grissoms." It was such a revealing episode for their relationship's current state. Things will progress a little faster from here out.
Thanks for all the comments and reviews. Keep them coming :)
Enjoy!
Hodges took a seat at the break room table next to Sara, opposite Catherine.
"I did however, find something on the sheets you collected." He began, "Hair and vaginal contributions. Both from Julia Holden."
"Having sex with one of her students." Catherine raised a brow.
"Maybe Shawn was the one Julia was having sex with in the bathroom."
"Mmmm. Quite deliberating." Hodges mused aloud. Causing Catherine an Sara to exchange an eye roll, "Not unlike, Lady Heather. Clearly Grissom has a yin for sexually adventurous women whose veracious appetites can only be sated by dangerous, unbridled passion."
"Thank you." Sara quickly cut him off, shoving his case file back toward him.
"That is—most of the time. Until he realized that even though you can have sexual satisfaction, it doesn't hold a candle to spirited intellectual conversation" Hodges word vomited trying to dig himself out of a hole, "Not to say that you and Grissom don't have a great sex life. I mean—when you happen to be in the same city. ha" He laughed nervously.
"Isn't that your phone down the hall?" Cather cut in angrily.
"Yes it is! Thank you." Hodges leapt at the chance to leave.
Sara felt hot, humiliated. This whole day was turning from bad to worse. Never before has she spoken so much about her sex life—or ever really. She turned to Catherine, "Grissom and I have great sex." She somewhat blurted in an attempt to redeem her image from Hodges' musing on Grissom's sex life.
"I'm sure you do." Catherine responded simply.
Betty and Sara sat at a small table at the hospital where Julia was recovering from the explosion that had gone of in her office just an hour earlier.
"Do you know what this means?" Sara signed a gesture for Betty, hoping she'd know what Shawn was signing to Julia just now. A sign that she nor the interpreter knew. She signed it again as Betty looked closely.
"Oh yes. That means sweet pea, in LSQ. Quebec sign language."
"Quebec? Shawn is from England. Why would be be speaking LSQ?"
"Maybe he spent some time there? Picked up on the slang?"
"That's possible." She paused and smiled, "When Gil and I first got back from Europe there were a couple phrase that stuck with me too."
"Do you miss it?"
"Europe?"
She shook her head, "Being with your husband." A silence fell between them as the weight of Betty's words sunk into Sara. "What kind of marriage do you have? You barely even see each other. You don't even live in the same town."
"We talk every day. We, we see each other at least once a month..."
Betty cut her off, "That is not a marriage. I lost my husband too soon. But in all the years that we were married we never spent one night apart."
Sara spoke softly in return, "I understand where you're coming from, I do. Gil and I lost our father close to the same age."
"I did not know this." Betty signed with a furrowed expression. She suddenly realized that she knew little at all about Sara other than her profession—a profession she was never thrilled Gil had taken up in the first place. "And your mother."
"Lives in San Fransisco." Sara smiled and nodded, knowing that's all she'd give Betty. There was no need to discuss further about it. "It's unconventional, I know." she continued. "But what Gil and I have works. We love each other, we're a family. And—" She suddenly became sick of having to explain this again, "You know what, if you don't want to be a part of it that's your call." She stood hastily to leave. Betty watched as she walked away.
Betty went to an interpreter she knew well and asked a favor of him, to call her son for her and translate over the phone. He obliged.
"Grissom."
"Dr. Grissom. I have your mother here, she was hoping to get a word with you. Do you mind if I translate?"
"Thats fine. Is everything alright?"
The translator signed Gil's question to Betty. In return she had him tell Gil of the day's events and what had transpired: the explosion at the party, accusing Julia of murder; the blowup Sara just had directed at Betty.
"Mom." Grissom sighed softly, "I know you love Julia, but we haven't been together in well over a decade. And it was only for a few months. I think it's time you treat Sara in a similar way you treat Julia... like family."
"I don't understand what happened between you and Julia. You were very good together." Betty harped on the former part of his sentence.
"I didn't love her." Grissom spoke casually.
"And you love Sara?"
"You know I do. With all of my heart. I know you disapprove of our lifestyle, but we're making it work. You need to trust me. It's not her fault I'm not home. Please don't take that out on her."
Betty conceded, "I see."
"She likes vegetation."
"Excuse me?"
"When you go and apologize."
"Gilbert..."
"I love you both very much, mother. But you can both be stubborn at times." He was generous with these words, in truth they were both stubborn all the time. "Trust me, go to her. It'll be fixed."
"And grandchildren? How will that work when you live worlds apart?"
"One hurdle at a time, mother. I have to go now. We'll speak soon."
"Alright, dear. Be safe."
Later that night, once the evidence had come to a head and the truth was out, Sara released Julia from holding. Sara retreated to an empty office to video call with Grissom. He'd texted her that he'd be free around this time, and she'd agreed assuming that she'd be home by now. But she was not. The lab halls were mostly empty now though, so she did have privacy.
She answer the call and smiled.
"Gilbert." She smiled widely.
"Hello, Dear." He glowed. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it."
"I understand." She paused briefly, "Tell me about your findings."
"The graves were littered with pupae casings. Looks like somebody dumped a ton of Rice Crispies on top of a bunch of halloween skeletons." She laughed softly at his story. "It indicated that it wasn't a proper burial. In the Inca period there was no greater punishment. We think it was meant as a warning: Don't mess with the Mochking."
"Aha." She smiled
"Well anyway, how was your week? What have you need up to?"
"Well. I almost gone blown up—Twice. I accused your ex-girlfriend of murder and, oh, I uh—I told off your mother."
"Oh good. You've kept busy."
"Yeah. See what happens when you stand me up?" She smirked knowingly.
"So you met Julia?"
"I did. She's beautiful." Sara's insecurities were transparent despite her best attempts to hide them.
"No. Julia is pretty, you are belle. L'amour de ma vie."
Sara blushed, "Still, you could have given me a heads up. Or your mother could have...I realized today that the only part of your romantic history that I'm really aware of is the one night you spent with Heather Kessler. A fact that Hodges had no problem shedding some light on."
Grissom laughed at this. A moment of weakness is what he chalked that up to be. He and Heather had grown to have a great friendship filled with mutual respect sine then. If he were to be honest, he'd only let himself succumb to her seduction that night to get Sara off his mind at the time—a time when he was still desperately trying to deny his feelings for her. This he would not tell her though.
"There's no need to harp on the past." He shrugged. "But I guess perhaps we're even now, you did blind side me with Hank Pedigrew."
"Hank?" She gawked, "Gil, that was seven or eight years ago."
"Like I said, no need to harp on the past." He smirked knowingly, letting his smile widen at the sound of her small laugh. A laugh that sent the hairs of his neck standing up straight. A sound that warmed his soul.
But her attention drifted at the sound of a knock on the door. She turned to see Betty there in the threshold.
"Whose that?"
"Uh, it's your mother."
Betty's face lit up at the sight of Grissom on the computer screen. She quickly took a seat beside Sara.
"Hi Mom! You never came to the office when I was working there." He signed and spoke at the same time, the normal routine he'd gotten into when it was just the three of them. "I heard you and Sara had an exciting week." Sara shook her head softly and exhaled as Betty signed something.
"Oh." Betty handed Sara a potted plant, "African Violets. They're beautiful."
"I told her you like vegetation."
"Thank you." She softened, looking at Betty now, "I'm sorry too. Can we start over?"
Grissom grinned at the scene unfolding before him. "When I come back, the three of us will come back to dinner."
"When?" Betty signed.
"Soon." He replied simply, softly.
Betty began to sign again, "I know my worrying can be burdensome. But when do you two have a chance to be intimate? You're never together. I worry about your happiness."
"Your mother... Is talking about our sex life." Sara glanced toward Grissom for help.
"In the Incan society, the elders would pass down their knowledge of sexual pleasure to younger generations. Their stories were documented on their pottery. Little ceramic jars called sex pots."
"Sex pots." Sara reiterated and mimicked the sign gesture.
"Gil's father and I—"
Grissom cut her off, "Sometimes too much." He smiled, "I love you both."
"Love you too." She smiled warmly, "Bye."