A/N:
I hope you enjoy the chapter! 💛
Summary: Is this a kissing chapter? 💕 Yes. 💕 Our two lovely science nerds are getting married. 💕 Finally. I don't really know what else to tell you!
Fall 2015. Las Vegas, Nevada.
We will be together, darling, together,
[. . .]
How is it possible to part,
Me from you, you from me?
– Anna Akhmatova, excerpt from "We will be together, darling, together,"
tr. Judith Hemschemeyer.
Our separation is imaginary:
We are inseparable
– Anna Akhmatova, excerpt from Poem without a Hero: A Triptych,
tr. Judith Hemschemeyer.
Come, my love, I'll tell you a tale
Of a boy and girl and their love story
And how he loved her, oh, so much,
And all the charms she did possess.
[. . .]
And how he worshipped the ground she walked on.
When he looked in her eyes, he became obsessed.
[. . .]
He said, "Don't you know I love you, oh, so much,
And lay my heart at the foot of your dress?"
She said, "Don't you know that storybook loves
Always have a happy ending?"
– Mark Knopfler and Willy DeVille, "Storybook Love"
[from The Princess Bride].
Westley: This is true love. You think this happens every day?
– Westley (Cary Elwes) in The Princess Bride.
Not Every Love Story Needs a Wedding, But This One Does
As the time for the wedding ceremony for this his second marriage to one Sara Sidle approached, Gil Grissom was waiting outside in Catherine's backyard with the officiant and the assembled guests: Brass; Al; Nick; Greg; David; Catherine; Lindsey; and, of course, his mother.
Grissom did not expect the last guests to arrive: Eli Brown (son of Grissom's "favorite CSI") and Eli's mother, Tina. Both looked well. They had not been on the guest list, but, though Grissom had not been expecting them, Catherine clearly had. He knew immediately that this was Sara's doing, and, for not the first time in his life, he was speechless.
As the time for the wedding ceremony for this her second marriage to one Gil Grissom approached, Sara Sidle was waiting inside Catherine's house with the stately older gentleman who would be escorting her to meet her groom. Sara had to admit she looked quite nice that day. Catherine had told Sara she was very pleased Sara was finally living up to her potential; Sara felt she should probably be insulted by that but decided to put the thought aside for the moment.
To say that Sara was finally living up to her potential was perhaps an understatement by Catherine. Sara looked gorgeous. Sara looked glamorous. To an outsider, Sara would have looked perhaps not like a movie star but undoubtedly very much like a certain 2005 Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award-winning actress—long, low-cut, sleeveless white dress; long gold necklaces; nicely waved brown hair—you get the picture. Sara was also holding a small but stunning succulent in a small white pot; Catherine had told her this was to be her bouquet.
As Sara stepped outside to meet her groom and the assembled guests, she thought she was ready. She thought she was prepared. Sara did not think of herself as a crier, although she knew she cried on appropriate occasions—after particularly upsetting cases, when reluctantly discussing her tragic childhood, when she thought the love of her life might be involved with someone else.
Sara vaguely recalled she might have cried a bit when Grissom found her in the rainforest. If she had remembered the incident all those years ago in the Amsterdam airport, however, perhaps she would have seen what was coming. But the somewhat cynical Sara Sidle did not realize she would largely be spending the remainder of this her second wedding day trying not to cry.
In the days before the ceremony, Catherine had forbidden Sara from looking into Catherine's backyard; Sara had humored her. When Sara walked outside, Hank's leash in one hand, succulent in the other, she discovered it had been filled in part with potted plants—local plants, plants suited to the desert climate. Large plants sat on the ground and smaller plants stood on tables and other elevated surfaces. The plants could clearly go (or return) to appropriate locations after the wedding. But, for the time-being, they were taking up significant portions of Catherine's large backyard.
Though there would still be room for guests to mingle, the effect around the area where Sara and Grissom were to be married was almost jungle-like in its own strange way. Sara instantly understood she was in, as contradictory as it might sound, a desert rainforest, and she knew whose idea it must have been. Vegetation, she thought. She'd always liked vegetation.
Sara thought she was fine, but then she wasn't, of course. She was a little overcome. She was standing by a bench in Catherine's garden, so she sat down. She thought she might need a moment.
The guests were a little worried. Catherine offered to talk to Sara. Grissom said he'd do it. He went over and crouched down in front of her.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," she replied.
"You doing okay, honey?" He took one of her hands in his.
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah."
"You arranged this."
"Yes."
"The plants."
"Yes."
"You didn't tell me."
"No." At this stage, he could still pull off a surprise.
"It's really nice."
"I'm glad you think so." He paused. "You invited Eli. That was really nice."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. So . . . you want to get married?"
"Yes," she said, but she didn't move.
"Sara?" he followed up.
She couldn't help it. She again couldn't believe he'd gone to so much trouble just to make her happy. She refused to cry, though, so instead, succulent in one hand and Hank's leash in the other, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, quite a bit more forcefully than one might have expected, given the assembled audience.
Eventually, though, both Sara and Grissom must have remembered their audience because together they finally pulled apart a little.
"Marriage, Sara?" Grissom asked, his forehead resting on hers.
"Yeah. Let's do it." Although Sara had never cared much about weddings (even this one), she very much wanted to be married to this man again. She cared about that.
With that, Grissom took Hank's leash and pulled Sara to her feet, and they walked arm in arm, Hank by their side, to where Brass and the others were waiting for them. As Sara and Grissom approached the assembled guests, all present agreed the bride had never looked more beautiful—all, of course, except for the groom, who'd thought she was that beautiful every day since he'd first met her.
Once the pair was standing before Brass, and Sara had handed over her succulent, Catherine realized Sara's lipstick was a little, er, mussed, from the kissing. After all the effort Catherine had put in, she wasn't having that. Catherine had come prepared.
So Catherine stepped up with a tube of Sara's shade and quickly fixed her lipstick, much to everyone's amusement. Catherine was pleased with her efforts. Though she wouldn't have said it aloud, she couldn't help noting that Sara, with her dark hair, pale skin, and nicely rouged lips, resembled the charming Snow White. Except, Catherine thought, maybe she looked a bit more like Princess Aurora—which is to say, the lovely Sleeping Beauty—or even the darling Belle. Catherine tried not to laugh as she pondered the beautiful brunette and the beast who'd had to learn to love and to be loved by her. Regardless of her choice, Catherine would not dare tell Sara any of this—she did not think this particular former CSI would enjoy being compared to a fairytale princess.
Lindsey had requested to present an excerpt from a poem, and Sara and Grissom could hardly deny their personal matchmaker her wish, so she started the wedding ceremony with a reading:
dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)
trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)
honour the past
but welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)
never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)
Brass then gave some opening remarks of his own—something secular he'd gotten off the internet, with no mentions of anyone obeying anyone else. Brass still did not want to get on the wrong side of Sara Sidle.
Sara, however, was paying only a little attention to Brass, as mostly she couldn't stop thinking about how terribly, roguishly handsome her groom looked in his best suit; Sara wasn't above occasionally objectifying her man, even on their wedding day. At 59, Grissom might have been a little older than some (or most) people's ideas of a charming prince, but he wasn't too old to be Sara's. Sara still thought grey hair could be very attractive, thank you very much, although the only grey hair that attracted Sara was Grissom's.
For vows, they had (somewhat despite themselves) decided to start with something traditional (again, though, no obeying) then each to add their own comments at the appropriate times. Sara was, in truth, initially a little distracted by the emotions in her groom's bright blue eyes, but eventually, as he began his own personal comments, she started paying more attention to what he was saying.
"Sara, you know everything I'm about to say, so I guess maybe this is more for the benefit of our assembled guests here. . . ." Grissom looked about at the ten people with whom they'd been willing to share this moment. "For over four decades, I was content with science and the search for justice and my bugs and my work family—even if I didn't realize we were a family at the time." He smiled at his work family. "I never really expected anything else.
"Then, one day in 1998, I met the most beautiful woman—the most beautiful person—I'd ever seen, ever known. I never expected it; I never expected you, Sara. My world changed forever in that moment, though I didn't know it at the time. Even though I spent the better part of a decade denying it, ever since that moment, my life has always been about you. You're more important to me than everything else."
Grissom, who was signing his vows as well as speaking them, hoped his mother, who was already in tears, would be too emotional to parse that particular statement.
"I won't test your patience by saying I don't deserve you, but I will say that I cannot believe my good fortune to have you," he continued. "You're it for me, Sara. You're the only one I've ever loved. You're what my life is about. I love you, I always have loved you, and I always will love you. No matter what life has in store for us, I'll love you till I die." He smiled at her before including one last line. "Sara, darling, you make me happy." He hesitated then added, "Sublimely happy."
Sara, as we've already observed, was (much to her own surprise) having to try very hard not to cry that day. Sara had already noted that kissing Grissom was a pretty good way to stop herself from crying. So, again, she threw her arms around him and kissed him.
The guests were a little less surprised this time, and they were a little amused.
Eventually Sara and Grissom pulled apart. As Grissom had done, Sara began with something traditional before adding her own remarks. Sara would also, to the best of her abilities, be signing her vows.
"Gilbert," she said, and those assembled laughed, because none of them had ever heard her call him that before. "Gilbert, my love, you, too, already know everything I'm about to tell you.
"If anyone else said this I'd think it was ridiculous, but I really believe I began to fall in love with you the moment we met—the moment I first heard your voice, even. Sometimes I feel I've loved you forever, but it's actually only been since I was about 26 and a half years old. Still, that's 17 and a half years, or 40% of my life—I did the math." Of course she had.
"You're the best person I know—the smartest, kindest, gentlest, most caring person I've ever met." Sara had long ago given up the notion that Grissom didn't feel anything, and, above all else, he certainly felt for her. "You are my one and only. You're the only family I've ever really had. You're the only home I've ever really known. You're the only person I've ever really trusted. You're certainly the only one I've ever really loved. You are my first, last, and only choice.
"I love you, Gil. I always have, and I always will. Every day—good ones and bad ones, easy ones and hard ones—I am happy that I get to be with you. I am happy that you are my partner. You make me believe in happy endings. You are my happily ever after."
With this—and I'm sure you'll not be surprised at this point—Sara had to try not to cry, and so instead she kissed him. This was probably for the best, as Grissom himself was about ready to cry at that point. At this third kiss, their guests were still amused but probably no longer surprised in the least.
Eventually, once again, Sara and Grissom pulled apart, and Brass continued with the ceremony, introducing the exchange of rings as a symbol of the happy couple's commitment to one another. "Rings?" he then asked.
"Greg?" Grissom turned to look at the young(ish) Mr. Sanders.
"What?" All eyes were on Greg. "No, I . . . You didn't . . . I don't . . ."
Grissom winked at his bride, whose big brown eyes had turned into saucers. "Just kidding." He fished the rings from his pocket.
Sara shook her head at him; she might have been annoyed, if she hadn't been so sure he was trying to help her get through the remainder of the ceremony without weeping.
As instructed, Grissom placed on Sara's left ring finger her wedding ring, then he repeated the words he and Sara together had prepared: "Sara, I give you this ring as a symbol of my unconditional love, my unfaltering trust, and my undying devotion to you."
Sara then placed on Grissom's left ring finger his wedding ring, and she too repeated the words they together had prepared: "Gil, I give you this ring as a symbol of my unconditional love, my unfaltering trust, and my undying devotion to you."
Once Sara and Grissom had each placed on the other's left ring finger a gold band (the same gold bands Grissom had carried into the rainforest over six and a half years earlier) and confirmed their commitment to one another, Brass finally pronounced them as, once again, married.
Grissom continued looking deep into his bride's wide, wet eyes. "Hi, wife," he mouthed at her.
Sara laughed but otherwise remained entranced by her groom's bright blue eyes. "Hi, husband," she mouthed back at him, before flashing him her brightest, most megawatt smile.
And probably they could have stayed liked that all afternoon, each lost in the lovesick eyes that would always be theirs, except . . . well, except they still had ten of their nearest and dearest watching them quite intently—and quite expectantly.
Eventually Brass cleared his throat. Then he looked at Sara. "Well?"
With that, Sara really kissed her new old husband. Now that first kiss they'd shared, way back all those years ago in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, had been good. It had been great even. As first kisses go, it had been first-rate. But it hadn't really been, in the all-time history of kisses, a contender for the top spot. Sara and Grissom had just met days earlier, after all; they still barely knew each other then.
This kiss, though—when it was held up against all those kisses that, since the invention of the kiss, had been rated the most passionate, the most pure . . . ? This one gave them all a run for their money. This kiss was a contender.
Earlier, the few assembled guests had been a bit surprised that Sara couldn't seem to get down the aisle without kissing, repeatedly, her former and future husband. At this point, though, as she stood there and kept kissing him, and he her, they all didn't really know what to think.
Sara and Grissom were two very private people. So their guests knew Sara and Grissom liked each other, and their guests knew Sara and Grissom loved each other. Their guests knew Sara and Grissom had an intellectual connection. Their guests knew Sara and Grissom had an emotional bond. But, Sara's declarations to Catherine regarding their great sex aside, their guests probably didn't know everything was all so marvelous. Their guests probably didn't know how often Sara and Grissom wanted to jump each other. Their guests probably didn't know how fully Sara and Grissom each wanted to consume and to be consumed by the other.
Eventually, the storybook kiss ended. Greg, who had brought his DSLR camera and had been taking pictures of the ceremony, offered to take some more pictures of the happy couple; Catherine popped open the first, but certainly not the last, bottle of California sparkling wine (because San Francisco); and everyone chatted most joyfully as they awaited the arrival of the many party guests.
UP NEXT: NEXT CHAPTER: FALL 2015. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA. NOT EVERY LOVE STORY NEEDS A WEDDING RECEPTION, BUT THIS ONE DOES.
NOTES
On Sara's wedding look:
In case you don't have the picture imprinted on your brain, this is the cast of CSI at the 2005 SAG awards. I always imagine would choose something rather simple, if she were to choose a wedding dress.
On Grissom's wedding look:
For Grissom, I am picturing his scruffy "Immortality" look (as above and here) but with a good black suit, white dress shirt, and nice tie: this was actually a tux but close enough; this is still technically not a suit but is otherwise pretty perfect; this (tw: Warrick's funeral) has a blue shirt but is otherwise pretty perfect, too; this, this, and this (all the same CSIV ring scene but so cute!) are exactly right, if we picture him six years younger and ever so delightfully scruffier, as in "Immortality" (16).
(Okay, the above notes on our two lovely science nerds' weddings looks were composed with a lot of links, and obviously FFN doesn't give you those links, but you can check them out in the ao3 version of this story, and I will try to post them on Tumblr tomorrow.)
SOUNDTRACK LISTING
Willy DeVille. "Storybook Love."
Hunters & Collectors. "Throw Your Arms Around Me."
(You can listen to the songs in my playlist for this series, which can be found by searching my username on Spotify.)
OTHER REFERENCE(S)
E. E. Cummings. "dive for dreams."
A/N:
Thank you so very much for reading! I really, really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I so, so, so very much appreciate your support on this series of stories! 💛💛💛
If I'm being honest, Sara and Grissom's wedding (this chapter especially, and the two that follow) kind of feels like the climax of this series of stories, for me—and I've been waiting over two years now to post it. (I don't normally think stories require weddings, but, when your OTP was reunited in the rainforests of Costa Rica and then nicely married off only to have the writers wreak havoc, they kind of do, don't they?)
So . . . I don't ever want anyone to feel obligated to comment on anything—I know that fic is an escape and comments are work. I totally (totally, totally, 1000%!) get that vibe! But I also know that I share these stories so I can share my excitement and love for these characters—and that I'll be a little bit crushed not to have anyone to share in the excitement here. So, this being a wedding and all, I made some celebratory wedding (emoji) confetti! If you're at all inclined, you can copy and paste a bit into the comments (no words or decision-making or anything else required)!
💛💒💍 🎇 * ⭐️ 🎊💕🐶 * 🌵💖🌟✨ 🎆 * 🎢❤️🐝🎉💜🐰
⭐️ 🎊💕🐶 * 🌵💖🌟✨ 🎆 * 🎢❤️🐝🎉💜🐰 * 💛💒💍 🎇
🌵💖🌟✨ 🎆 * 🎢❤️🐝🎉💜🐰 * 💛💒💍 🎇 * ⭐️ 🎊💕🐶
🎢❤️🐝🎉💜🐰 * 💛💒💍 🎇 * ⭐️ 🎊💕🐶 * 🌵💖🌟✨ 🎆
(I don't 100% know whether emojis work in the reviews section here, but I feel like these should, given that they show up here in the story? If not, whatever works is good with me!)
P.s. Yesterday (October 13) marked 24 years since Sara Sidle first arrived in Vegas (and on our TV screens) and we got out first glimpse of GSR ("I don't even have to turn around," anyone?), and this weeks marks 17 years since our two lovely science nerds first got engaged (yes, I feel old!), so this feels like an appropriate time to be posting this chapter! 💕 Happy GSR-verseries! 💛
My wedding GIF-set/pseudo-cover art can be found on Tumblr. 💕