I Like Our Odds (A Marriage Story)
By: FlowerPotBloom
Summary: What are the odds that two lovelorn addicts make a marriage work? WS AU-ish post-Viva Las Vegas, spoilers for Down The Drain Warrick and Sara have found common ground and love together while in recovery from their respective addictions. Together, they navigate marriage, their changed relationships with their friends, and family dynamics.
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, nor any of its characters. They are the sole creative property of Anthony Zuiker.
~one~
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Warrick awakened to the mouthwatering, glorious smell of applewood smoked bacon. He turned over in bed and glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was nearing one o'clock in the afternoon, and he sighed, not really wanting to leave the bed because he was still foggy with fatigue, but the bacon was calling him. Before getting married, there were two things that got him out of bed: coffee, and applewood smoked bacon. Now, the order was this: his beautiful, feisty wife's wake up kiss to his cheek, then coffee, and then applewood smoked bacon.
He pushed the covers off of himself, then threw his legs over the side of the bed. He stretched, then got up and went to use the bathroom.
Once he finished, he headed down the hallway and around the corner into the kitchen.
Sara was clad in one of her slinky silk floral robes at the stove, flipping what appeared to be a perfectly golden grilled (dairy-free) cheese sandwich in the skillet.
He came up behind her and began kissing along her neck, one arm wrapping around her waist, and his other hand sliding into her robe, into her lace-hem camisole, gently groping her breast.
"Hi husband," she smiled.
"Hi wife," he husked into her ear. "I enjoyed you earlier…"
"Mmm," she purred, reveling in his sweet kisses. "I enjoyed you as well."
She turned slightly and kissed him softly.
"I smell bacon," he said.
"That is because I made you lunch," she said, turning the burner off. "A grilled cheese with bacon. It's on the table with a cup of coffee."
"Thanks, babe," he said appreciatively. "You and bacon…"
She plated her grilled cheese, then she turned and kissed him.
"It was absolutely revolting," she sighed, feigning distress. "But I endured…because I love you."
He kissed her sweetly. "I love you too. I appreciate you."
"Thank you," she smiled.
They went over to the table and sat down to their respective lunches.
Warrick took a big bite out of his sandwich, nodding his approval.
"Good?" Sara asked.
"Yeah," he grinned. "I am a lucky man…I married me a woman who can cook."
She smirked. "It's just a grilled sandwich, sweetheart."
"One damn good grilled sandwich," he complimented. "I like your cooking, babe. Even the vegetarian stuff you make."
"Thank you," she said. "You're a really good sport when it comes to my vegetarian recipes."
"It's different, but good," he said.
They ate in companionable silence for a moment, then Sara spoke.
"Mm, 'Rick, did you make our appointment at the bank?" Sara asked as she chewed a piece of her grilled cheese.
"I did," he said, taking a sip of coffee. "We're set up for next Thursday at three o'clock. You're still comfortable with a joint account?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "I know that it's a big step, but we love and trust each other. I think ultimately, having a joint account will keep us both accountable, prioritized, and focused."
Warrick sighed. "I know that you trust us…I trust us…but I'm going to be honest with you, babe: I don't trust me."
Sara reached across the table and laced her fingers with his. "You haven't gambled in two years, 'Rick. I know how much you struggle with temptation, you battle it everyday with dignity, and you resist with God's help. And the end result is that you're two years sober. You have the most incredible self-restraint I've ever seen, and I admire that in you, I love that about you. You're very responsible, more than you give yourself credit for. I love and trust you."
His wife's words gave him both comfort and confidence.
He looked at their joined hands, and he gently caressed his thumb over hers.
Their journey to the altar had been sweet, and intense, and neither one of them ever wanted to take that journey, nor the blessing of their marriage, for granted.
They married six weeks ago in an intimate wedding Mass, with Warrick's overjoyed grandmother, Mama Gert, Aunt Bertha, Aunt Aimee and Uncle Vernon, cousin Judah, gambler's anonymous sponsor Kyle, and childhood friend Nathaniel, and Sara's best friend from her Harvard days, Nattie, and a Todd, Elva, and Mike, her former coworkers from San Francisco.
Warrick and Sara felt more than a little guilty about not telling Grissom, Catherine, Nick, and Greg about their nuptials, but their fear of reprimand and their team being broken up by the administration at work was strong enough to override the guilt, even as they knew that their dear friends would be discreet. So far, their marriage had been feasible to conceal at work; Warrick and Sara were consummate professionals, there were no longing looks, secret rendezvous, or teasing touches, even when they were paired off together, they drove separate cars to work, and they only wore their rings on their off hours, no matter how much not wearing their rings pained them. Sara had (mostly) moved in with Warrick, she still had her apartment, and parked her car in Warrick's garage should their coworkers happen by while she was there.
Yes, they'd made it this far, and their friends were none the wiser, but they knew that they had to reveal their marriage at some point, they just couldn't agree on how. Sara thought that they should tell the team over a nice brunch, butter them up with her cinnamon raisin waffles and fruit bowl, getting them nice and full and too sleepy to react badly before the big reveal, while Warrick thought they should get them happy with beers, hot wings, and nachos at the Cosmic Bowl and then ride the good times to the reveal. They were still discussing their options, not knowing that their time to reveal their secret would be coming sooner, rather than later.
They finished their lunch, then they cleaned off the table and put the dishes into the dishwasher.
Once that task was finished, Warrick gently brought his wife into his arms and kissed her languid and deep. She moaned into their kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck.
She yelped in surprise, then purred when he hoisted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to their bedroom, another round of making love to her on his mind.
Nick pulled up to Warrick's house in his black Ford F150 and parked on the street.
He whistled Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" as he turned the engine off and got out and headed up walkway to the front door and rang the doorbell, still whistling.
He waited…
Another ring of the doorbell.
Still waited…and waited.
"What the hell, man, seriously?" Nick hissed, taking out his cell phone and dialing Warrick's number.
Warrick's phone went to voicemail.
Nick called again, and got voicemail.
Nick's annoyance was quickly morphing into concern; it wasn't like Warrick to not answer at all, especially when they had plans for golf this afternoon.
Nick banged on the door.
"Warrick! It's Nick! You okay, man?"
After a few moments, Warrick opened up the door.
"What the hell, man? I was starting to worry."
"Oh, hey, sorry," Warrick said.
"And you're not even ready to go!"
"Go where?"
"Tee time, remember? Three o'clock? If you hurry up, we can still make it."
Warrick looked at him for a moment, then he remembered.
"That's right…Nick, man, I forgot," he said, rubbing a hand over his face. His left hand…the hand that bore his gold wedding band, which glinted in the sunlight and caught Nick's eye. "I'm sorry."
"Eh, you're forgiven for that," Nick said quickly, his mind suddenly laser focused. "What I possibly can't forgive is you not telling me about your wedding."
"What're you talking about?"
"I'm talkin' about that ring on your finger!"
Dammit, Warrick thought.
"Damn…"
"So you kept this from me, the team, on purpose?"
"Nick, it's complicated," Warrick explained. "Come in."
Nick stepped in.
"When did this happen?" Nick asked. "Why is it complicated? And you've never talked about marriage before…man, this is crazy!"
"I know, I know," Warrick said, then he sighed. "We were planning on telling everyone soon, just not, this soon. Ah shit…"
In the bedroom, Sara was hot and bothered and nervous as hell because Nick was at the front door, and here she was hiding.
She couldn't hear the conversation at the front of the house, and she hoped, prayed that Warrick was on his toes with the…-lies. That's what it would be: lies.
What was that man doing? It shouldn't be taking this long to shoo Nick away!
After another few minutes, Warrick returned.
"It's about time," she huffed.
"Babe, I'm so sorry," he said, going over to the bathroom and grabbing her silk robe off the hook. He returned to the bed and held it open for her, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
"What are you doing?" She questioned.
"I messed up," he explained. "Nick is out there…he saw my ring."
"Really?" She lamented as she got up and put her arms through the sleeves over her robe before closing it and tying it.
"I completely forgot that I was supposed to go golfing with Nick this afternoon."
"Oh Warrick…"
"I'm sorry, babe, we planned it like, three weeks ago…"
"After all this time," she groaned. "Okay, well…we had a good run."
In the living room, Nick was pacing.
How about that? His best friend went and got married, and said nothing! Nick was more disappointed than angry about the fact that he wasn't by Warrick's side as as he made this huge decision, this commitment.
Who was the bride? What was she like?
After a few more minutes, Nick's question was answered, and he was in utter shock as Warrick and Sara walked out to the living room hand in hand.
"You and Sara?!" Nick exclaimed. "What?! When the hell-so you two were dating? For how long? Where and when did you get married? Why? Just…what?"
"Okay, take a breath, Nicky, you're making me anxious," Sara said.
"I need a drink," Nick said as he sat down on the couch. "A stiff drink."
"Well all we've got is soda, juice, water, milk, and tea," Warrick said.
"No alcohol?" Nick questioned. "Don't tell me y'all are Mormons too?"
"Of course not," Sara said. "I'll get you some-"
"Milk," Nick requested. "Milk. I-I'm getting nervous indigestion…"
Sara went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the dish rack and she opened up the fridge and grabbed the milk. She poured some, then she replaced it back in the fridge.
She came back to the living room and handed Nick his glass of milk.
"Here you go," she said.
He took it gratefully and he gulped it down, then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and he took a deep breath.
"Explain, please."
Warrick sat down in the chair across from the couch, and Sara sat on the arm of the chair.
"Okay," Warrick began. "It all started about six months ago."
"I was in a really bad place emotionally, physically, and spiritually," Sara said. "I'm an alcoholic. I was drinking heavily to deal with the stress of work, and stuff from my past and loneliness. I ended up getting pulled over for DUI."
"What?" Nick asked. "When did that happen?"
"The night we went to celebrate your almost-promotion back in April," she said. "I had too much and got behind the wheel. Totally stupid and irresponsible. That's when I realized that I had a serious problem. I wasn't charged, but I was placed on leave."
"Wow," he said. "How'd we miss it, Sara? If I had known…"
"I'm very good at bottling things up and pretending like things are okay," she said. "Brass was the only one who really knew the state I was in. I didn't want to believe that I had a problem, but when I got my DUI, I knew that I needed help. Anyway, I started going to therapy and AA meetings at St. Joseph's."
"And they have Gambler's Anonymous meetings at St. Joseph's," Warrick filled in. "The groups meet the same evening. Sara was there one night, and we started talking."
"We started going to meetings together and getting coffee and talking afterward," Sara continued. "After a few weeks of just that, we started to see each other differently, affectionately. Warrick checked in on me, made sure I ate, and then he asked me out on a date. Our first date was going to Mass with his aunt and then lunch."
"We both realized that we had something together," Warrick said. "Things progressed for us fast…"
"We were dating, but also working on ourselves, reigniting our love for the faith, praying together and separately, going to confession, talking with our priest. God really blessed us during those months we dated. In the process, Warrick and I fell in love, and we both wanted our relationship to be a commitment. We married six weeks ago, on August fourteenth."
Nick nodded. "That's a beautiful love story…you could've told us, you know. You can trust us."
"We know that," Warrick said. "But we didn't want to hurt the team. If administration knows about our marriage, they'll split the team up. We hated not telling you guys, but we didn't want to lose our team. You guys are family."
"I get it," Nick said, smiling as he looked at them. "So I guess congratulations are in order. I'm happy for you two."
"Thanks, man," Warrick said.
"You do realize that once you two tell Catherine she'll probably want a whole separate re-do of the wedding, just for her benefit, right?"
Sara laughed. "That I don't doubt."
"We cool, Nick?" Warrick asked.
"Yeah, we're cool," Nick chuckled as he stood up. "But you still owe me a golf game."
"Right," Warrick chuckled as he stood up. "Wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to kick your ass."
"Oh yeah, sure, you just keep tellin' yourself that," Nick teased as he shook his best friend's hand. "Seriously, man, congratulations to both of you. You two be good to each other."
Sara came up beside her husband and hooked her arm in his, a smile on her face. "We will."
Warrick and Sara walked Nick out, and then once the door closed, they both let out a sigh of relief.
"That went better than I expected," Sara said.
"Yeah," Warrick agreed as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
She kissed him. "Take me back to bed."
"You read my mind," he said, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her back to their marriage bed.
Thanks for reading! More to come! Please leave a review, it would be much appreciated!