"Gil thanks for coming in." Ecklie held the door open as Grissom walked into his office. "I think you know why I called you in here."
"I have a feeling." Grissom took a seat opposite Ecklie's desk.
"I received a report from HR about your change in circumstances." Ecklie stared at Grissom. "How long had that been going on?"
Grissom looked at his watch. "About 26 hours"
"26 hours? I'm asking about how long you and Sara Sidle have had a relationship." Ecklie hated these kind of conversations especially with Grissom who he swears takes great pleasure in being as frustrating as possible.
"Seven years." The nonchalance with which Grissom said it was beyond infuriating.
"You've been in an intimate relationship with Sara for seven years?" He was fairly sure she'd only been working here just under five years.
"We're not in an intimate relationship." He just tilted his head to the side.
"You're not in an intimate relationship with Sara?" Ecklie couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What the hell would you call being married to someone if not an intimate relationship?"
"You're not allowed to be in an intimate relationship with a subordinate unless you're married. Section 47 of the lab regulations"
Suddenly the lightbulb in Ecklie's brain illuminated "Jesus Christ Gil." He shook his head. "Fine. Catherine works with your team more than Harrison on days so she'll be responsible for Sara's evaluations from here on out."
As Grissom goes to leave at the end of the meeting "Conrad, we're keeping this private for the time being." Ecklie just nods, he's not sure he could explain it even if he wanted to discuss Grissom's private life with anyone.
… … … … … …
Grissom stood in the doorway and watched his wife work for a minute (he loved the feeling he got from thinking of her that way). She hadn't yet noticed his presence and he took a moment to just appreciate how beautiful she was and how intense she was as she worked. "Hey." she said softly. On hearing her voice he looked up from where his gaze had dropped to her long legs and found her looking over her shoulder grinning at him.
"What are you working on?" He quickly changed the topic to work which just caused her to smile at him more.
"The string of B&E's at those fancy gated communities out in the Lakes. I found some kind of unknown substance at the last one, I'm just reviewing the others to see if there's anything similar. A few were worked by days and swing. There wasn't enough to run full trace on it" She went back to looking at her pictures. "Hopefully if I find more I'll be able to figure out what it is."
"There's no such thing as the unknown." Their eyes meet "Only the temporarily hidden." She cocks an eyebrow at him in question. "Kirk." He answers the unasked question.
"Kirk who?" She racks her brain trying to think of who he could be quoting.
"James T." He gives her boyish smile and she can't help but laugh. "Would you maybe like to go on a uh date with me?"
Sara laughs again at the absurdity of the situation she was married to the man and here he was asking her on a date, their first date. "I'd like that."
"This afternoon? After we've both had some sleep." He pretended to look at the photos on the desk.
"Ok." He finally looks at her and she gives him a huge smile.
"Ok then. 3pm? I'll pick you up." She nods and he returns the smile and walks out the room.
… … … … … …
Sara paced in her living room it was nearly 3pm and she was waiting for Grissom, they hadn't had a chance to speak since he'd asked her out, she'd sent him a quick text as she was leaving asking what to wear in which he replied and told her it should be casual. She continued to pace whilst she ran her thumb over the smooth metal of her wedding bad, something which she found to be very relaxing.
They'd agreed to keep things quiet at work so that they could figure out their new normal but it meant that she'd leave the ring on her dresser until she got home. Finally there was a knock at the door and she opened it and found Grissom fidgeting nervously in the hallway. "Hi." He smiled and held out a small plant "I brought you a plant."
Sara couldn't help but chuckle and smile at him "I can see that." She took the plant and took a step back "Would you like to come in for a minute." He nodded gratefully.
"You look nice." He said so quietly she almost missed it.
"Thank you." Sara walked back over to him after placing the plant on her coffee table.
"Are you ready?" He asks and she nods, he holds his arm out and allows her to pass placing a hand on the small of his back, she relishes at the warm comfort of the action. The lock clicks behind them as Grissom leads her to his car. She's dying to ask where they're going but she doesn't want to ruin his plans, she's sure if she was supposed to know he'd have told her although with Grissom sometimes if you didn't ask he wasn't going to tell you. So instead they stuck to a safe topic and discussed the progress Sara was making on her B&E.
He pulls into a vacant lot with a food truck. "This is the best Mexican food in Nevada." He tells her confidently. She looks at him confused, they drove half an hour outside of Vegas so that Grissom could take her to a food truck, it was always a surprise with Grissom. "Do you trust me?" His question caught her off guard and she nodded. "Then take a seat." She went and found a quiet table in the shade and waited for Grissom who came over with a tray of food and started placing food on the desk. "Loaded Nachos." He put the nachos on the table "Apple, jalapeno and pickled cabbage coleslaw" He dropped it on the table next to some fried sweet potato, corn on the cob and then some tacos "Red quinoa, green onion and cauliflower with a garlic aioli." He answered the unasked question in her eyes and then smiled "and some soda."
"This all looks fantastic." She reaches for some of the nachos. "What's my share?"
Grissom looks at her like she grew an extra head "It's a date." He said simply like it should be obvious that he would be paying.
"I don't expect you to pay for my meals Griss. I can pay for my own meals"
"Gil" He corrects and she's surprised and he suddenly realises that it came across as harsh. "I'd like it if you called me Gil" Then the sudden burst of confidence he found when they arrived at the food truck seemed to disappear. "If that's ok. If it's not… Sorry…"
She finds his sudden awkwardness endearing so she decides to throw him a bone. "Gil." She tries the name. "It might take some getting used to but I'll try."
"Thank you." He offers a weak smile "I know you don't need me to pay for your meals but I'd like to. I'm a little old fashioned like that." He shrugs apologetically.
"Sorry." She genuinely means it and is worried that she may have ruined this. "This is really good by the way. How did you find this?"
This seems to cheer him up and he offers an aloof smile. "You'll have to wait for the second part of our date to find out." Sara can't help but return the smile and they enjoy the rest of their meal and the churros that he insisted on buying after seeing her eyes follow them as another customer carried them past. "Come on." He tells her as he watches in awe as she scoops some of the remaining Dulce de Leche that covered her churros onto her finger and licking it off. "We're going to be late."
"Late for what?" She looks at him and he again throws her an aloof smile and scoops up their trash. "Gil?" She grimaces, calling him Gil is a little weird but she's not opposed to playing dirty. "Late for what?" He just raises his eyebrow and leads her back to the car, again with his hand on her lower back. "Late for what?" She tries again as he opens the car door for her.
He slides into the drivers seat and drives a little way down the road before turning down a dirt track and leading her to a farm, she looks at the sign as they drive past. "An animal shelter?"
He looks over at her and smiles. "No kill. It's where I got Hank. It's a solar farm as well, they rely on volunteers to help with the animals. I come up and help walk the dogs every other week." He looks over nervously and sees her looking at him with great affection. "Is this ok?"
"More than ok." She reassures him as they pull up. He leads her up to the office hand firmly on her back, she thinks this is becoming one of her favourite gestures from him.
"Gil Grissom!" A cheerful old woman greets as they walk in. "I was wondering if we'd see you today and you brought a friend!"
"Hello Ellie." He greets warmly. "This is my wife Sara." He looks over and smiles at Sara "I'm taking her on our first date."
"Oh how lovely! Newlyweds, that first date after getting married is always special. I remember my first date with Ron, god rest his soul after we got married. It's something special isn't it." She directs the last part of her statement at Sara.
"It really is." She grins at Grissom who just smirks back as they enjoy their private joke.
Grissom and Sara walk around the shelter and Grissom watches as Sara plays with the dogs giving belly rubs and head scratches to her hearts content as they try and wrangle them into leads before taking half the dogs each and leading them around the grounds. "I normally don't come in the day. It's too hot to walk them outside before now." He tells her "So I come in the evening before work so they don't burn their paws." He frowns before schooling his face into something neutral which Sara recognises as a sure sign he's about to say something awkward. "I uh filled in the paperwork for HR and talked to Ecklie."
"Oh." Sara was surprised. "I thought…"
"Ecklie got notified by HR, I didn't tell him." He reassured her. "This is still our thing. I've ruined this haven't I?"
"What?" He's ruined what. "What have you ruined?"
"Our first date." He tells her.
Sara laughs "Griss, maybe bringing Ecklie up isn't the best date conversation but you haven't ruined anything."
"Oh." He perks up immediately and joins their free hands and smiles as he feels her wedding ring against his fingers reminding him that this is real. "Good." They continue to walk the dogs in a companionable silence.
He finally brings her back to the car and drives her home where he walks her to her door, Sara looks like she wants to invite him in but he stops her. "I'm going to go home and take a nap before work. I'll see you later honey." He leans in and kisses her on the lips, the kiss is so light she almost doesn't feel it.
… … … … … …
Sara is sat at the table with a cup of coffee listening to Nick and Warrick tell the story of their most recent shift. "…So this dude who must of smoked half the meth in Clark County ends up on the roof trying to set fire to his genitals, falls off and is dangling off the satellite dish." Greg and sofia laugh.
"Some people would pay a lot of money to see that on the Strip." Sofia laughs.
"Oh no, not much to see. Skinny guy and he was definitely a grower not a shower." Nick chuckles
"You know, that's largely a myth." Sara says. "Most don't actually grow that much."
"The average is 1.5 inches." Grissom announces casually as he walks through the room on his way to the coffee pot.
"Man, Grissom I don't even want to know how you know that." Nick grimaces and he and Warrick leave the break room still laughing.
Grissom just shrugs and smirks so quickly most of the crew miss it but not Sara. She always thought he said these things on purpose to wind up the team sometimes. He catches her eyes and she cocks an eyebrow at him to let him know he's caught. "Assignments. Greg, Sara suspicious death at the Glitter Factory." They stand and walk towards him, Greg taking the assignment slip with a little more gusto than he really should. "Good luck." Grissom whispers in her ear as she walks past. "Sofia you and I have a rape out in Henderson."
… … … … … …
Sara's just settling into bed when her phone rings, she looks at the name on the phone and smiles. "Good morning."
"Hi. Sorry I didn't get a chance to see you after you left."
"Busy night." She agrees.
"How was your scene?"
"You called to ask me about my scene?"
"No."
Grissom doesn't expand any further, she can't help but smile. "It was fine. You know how strip clubs are. Lit up like a Christmas tree under ALS."
Grissom makes a sympathetic sound "Greg behaved I hope?"
"He was like a kid in a candy shop but he was professional."
"I'm glad." Sara could tell he wasn't really into the conversation.
"Gil…" She starts but Grissom cuts her off before she can ask for the real reason he called.
"Would you like to come over for dinner before work?"
"I'd love to."
"Great. It'll be ready for 7."
"See you then."
"Sweet dreams Sara."
"Goodnight Gil."