Grissom and Sara welcomed a new morning together, for the first time in years. They'd been awake for a little while now but still hadn't left the bed. Sitting upright, together, they found themselves catching up on everything that had transpired in their lives since they'd last shared such intimacy.
He told her all about buying the boat and the house. The missions he worked with the Shark Protection Agency. The consulting work he did occasionally for the Environmental Protection Agency. He told her about how his mother had been.
"What did she think after we split up… really?"
"She didn't say I told you so, if that's what you're asking."
She pursed back a smile, "Sure she didn't."
"What about you?"
"The Vegas crime rate kept me busy enough. After Nick left last year, things became… different. Greg and I are still as close as ever but I looked around and the family we once had there was all but gone. Brass retired, Catherine left. The new team was really great though. And actually…" She bit back another smile, "I have a suspicion that Morgan and Greg are dating."
"He wouldn't have told you?"
She simply shrugged in return.
An amused look took hold of his features, "It would make Ecklie his father-in-law."
She nodded with the same level of amusement, "Maybe that's why he's hiding it, too."
"We would't know much about that." His eyes flickered up at her toward the end of his statement. "It was a little fun, wasn't it? The sneaking around?"
"Very." She confirmed. "Speaking of which, Natalie was up for parole last month, but it was denied."
He shook his head in disbelief, "She should have been given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole."
Sara readjusted her back against the pillows, her eyes drifting around the bedroom a bit. And then she spotted it.
"You have the framed bee and monarch butterfly." She spoke with disbelief. Her eyes fixated on the pair of pinned and preserved insects hung on the wall. She squinted her eyes as she looked back at him. "If you felt this way all along, why'd you do it?"
He looked down at the bedsheet draped over his lap. His fingers fidgeting together a bit.
"You were so sad, Sara." He finally confessed after a long moment passed by, "And being in Vegas became too difficult for me. I saw Warrick every where I went." His head hung low again, thinking of his fallen friend. "Losing Warrick was the first real loss I'd ever gone through. When my dad died, I was just a kid. But Warrick… I loved him, Sara. And the guilt of being unable to save him was just too much to bare."
"You should have told me." She said softly in response.
"You were loving the job again. I didn't want to take you away from that. I just… I thought that if I released you, it would fix things for you."
"And what about you?"
"I wasn't thinking much about that at the time. I just felt convinced that this was what I could do for you, to let you be happy again. And when I ran into Doug Wilson that last time I was in town, it just confirmed it all for me."
His eyes flashed upward in surprise again as he felt her warm touch on his cheek. He leaned his head into to hand.
"Don't do that again, okay?" She gave a half smile as she spoke, eyes softly probing into his, "I'm happiest when I'm with you."
He smiled just as softly, "Okay." He agreed through a mere whisper. She leaned in and kissed his lips. Brushing hers softly against his. Her hands stroking the scruff of his beard, the curls at the edge of his hairline, the back of his neck.
The morning continued on in a lazy fashion. Bare limbs intertwined under soft sheets. Smiles and light kisses and gazing into each others eyes.
"I can't remember the last time I stayed in bed past 9." He spoke as he caressed her face again.
"Well, what's on the agenda?"
"The plan was to be in Santa Monica for a few days before setting sail again up the coast to Monterrey. There's a wild life conservation effort underway that I am advising on." He looked her over again, taking in her face, her bare body, the warmth of her skin under his touch. "But…" He began again with slight hesitation, "we can discuss what would be best for us moving forward. I can give up the boat, the life at sea."
She shook her head against the pillow and inched her body closer to his, her naked legs wrapping around his, hands beginning to roam in spaces undiscovered since the night before. His breath began to get shallow.
"That sounds like a great plan."
"Yeah?" He smiled with admiration.
"Yeah."
She moved her hand lower still, all the while keeping her eyes on his. A smile forming on her lips as she felt his body responding to her touch.
November 2015
Almost two months lapsed as Grissom and Sara found their new footing together. Their relationship did not end up picking up where they left off. No, it was something new entirely. They showed up differently for each other then they ever thought to previously. And any hesitancy, double talk, and indirect or cryptic ways of communicating, seemed but a faint memory.
Something else was different too. Grissom noticed it on day three of their reunion. She wasn't his student anymore. She was his superior in many ways now. She'd made it further in their shared career then he had before he exited. And it had been so long now since they worked together in that capacity. The foundation of their original relationship had blossomed during the years that he mentored her. The years he was her supervisor.
He liked thinking of that version of themselves from time to time. When she was vying for his love but he was too stubborn in his fear to let her get too close. Constantly seeking him out. Looking for excuses to volley their shared commodity back and forth with ease, intellect. She looked up to him back then. Really looked up to him. Admired him.
But the field had shifted since then. The dynamic was new. And he rather liked this updated version.
And now, they were sailing back from Monterey Bay where they had been for the the last month and half. Back to Santa Monica. Grissom sat up top, steering. He scanned the boat. She'd been standing right next to him not ten minutes ago.
He locked the wheel and made his way down the stairs to the ship's main deck. That's where he found her.
"Sara?" He watched as she spun back around and heaved over the boat's side. Expelling her stomach contents into the ocean.
When she was done she straightened herself out, touching the back of her hand against her mouth. She shook her head of the feeling.
"That's the fourth time this week."
"Today."
"Forth time today?" He said a bit shocked. "Sea sick?"
She shook her head, "It doesn't feel like sea sickness." She shrugged. "I'm sure it's nothing. How far out are—" She cut herself off, spinning around just in time.
He walked closer to her and put his hand on her back. "We're an hour out." He spoke as he held her hair back for her. "Go below deck, it feels smoother down there. Lay down."
"I'm fine." She spoke when she was finally through.
"Please." He looked at her sternly. Knowing very well that she needed to be pushed to take care of herself. To listen to her body.
"Yeah, okay." She replied begrudgingly. He placed his arms around her to guide her downstairs.
Nearly an hour later Grissom returned downstairs to find her sitting up in bed, reading, of course.
"You're supposed to be resting."
"I am." She smirked.
He walked to her and sat on the edge next to her. The back of his hand rested against her forehead, "You don't feel warm."
"I feel fine, really."
"What are you reading?"
She smiled a bit wider as she held up the book for him to see the cover. "You kept it."
He nodded in return. It was the copy of Moby Dick that Sara owned as a child. That she'd given to him for his birthday a year or two into dating. The drawing of a harpooned whale she'd drawn in fifth grade being used as a book mark. She'd found it in his night stand when she was rummaging around for anything to read. Right next to the photo of them in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
"I always liked your notes in the margins." He shrugged. A sweet silence hung between them as she closed the book and ran her hand over the cover.
"I also found this." She spoke as she held up the Golden Gate Bridge photo. "You know I tore apart the house looking for this."
He smiled shyly, "We're docked." He spoke after a long while.
Sara returned back to their cottage to find Grissom in the front yard tending to the whimsical, over grown, and bustling garden. He'd chosen specific plants to attract some of his favorite indigenous insects.
She parked the car and joined him in the yard. His goofy straw hat perched upon his head as he tended to the Nectar and Pollen plants meant to attract the Western Honey Bee and various Lady Beetle species.
"Hi." She spoke once she was standing over him. He was flipping through an old, warn, journal. "What's this?"
"It was my dad's." He responded without looking up, his fingers still working their way through the pages. "I've been working on recreating the garden he planted in our yard when I was young. He kept copious notes."
She smiled at the idea. Her love of plants and vegetation fit so perfectly within his love of bugs. But in this moment, she only first realized how much she would have gotten along with Gil's father. She began to let herself imagine what that in-law situation might have been like. How perhaps his dad's presence would off set the tension Betty seemed so comfortable in with her.
After a while Grissom looked up, squinting at her, "What have you been up to?" She'd been gone already when he got out of the shower this morning.
"I went to the doctor. The nausea hasn't been getting any better."
"What did they say?" He pulled off his garden gloves as he stood. Then wiped some dirt off his knees before giving her his full attention.
She took in his appearance for a moment while she thought of a way to respond. He looked well rested. His blue eyes were soft, skin was sun kissed. Then she noted the dirt on his cheek and chose to wipe it off.
"Dirt. From the garden." She offered as she wiped her thumb over his cheek, removing the dirt. She smiled as he softened into her touch. "In a sense, I have a parasite."
"A parasite?" He repeated, scrunching up his face in confusion, "From being out at sea?Balatidium coli? Naegleria flowleri?"
"No, nothing like that." She shook her head. She was enjoying letting this play out a little. She honestly didn't really believe it herself.
"It was four across on last week's crossword." She offered.
"A riddle?" He spoke in surprise as he searched the corners of his mind for the image of last week's crossword, "Four across was… an eight letter word for a swollen pause…" He watched her nod in very small movements, "Pregnant." He recalled out loud.
She nodded again.
"So the doctor—"
"Said I'm pregnant." She spoke with a ripe mix of confirmation and disbelief. Only then, once it was spelled out completely, did the flicker of realization cross his features.
"Are you saying you're pregnant?" He asked with all the trappings of complete and utter bewilderment.
She nodded as she bit back a smile. Eyebrow's high as she shook her head and shrugged. "Seven weeks." She offered.
"You're seven weeks pregnant?"
"I'm seven weeks pregnant." She confirmed, enjoying the short circuiting playing through his whole being. She'd had the drive back to let the surprise settle within her.
His straw hat fell to the ground behind him as his hand ran over his face and back through his hair.
"But we tried… for a while. I thought we couldn't…"
"I know." She nodded. She'd also been shocked given that piece of their history. After all this time had passed, she'd expected the opposite. "The doctor didn't have a guess on that one. Only perhaps that my body needed the extra time after all those decades taking birth control." She'd been completely off the pill since the moth the pair had begun trying—four years ago.
She watched as the gears in his head began to churn. His face stuck in a distant gaze.
"Gil." She spoke after some time had passed, snapping him out of his thoughts and causing his attention to direct back to her. "I'm pregnant."
"You are pregnant." He confirmed by repeating her statement back. "You are seven weeks pregnant." He spoke again, and by the third time, the corners of his mouth started to curl upward, "You're pregnant."
She nodded again, "Gil. I'm pregnant."
He brought his hand up to her face and cupped her cheek. Bringing his face closer to her now. "We're going to have a child." He spoke and watched as water welled within her eyes. He pulled her into him and hugged her tightly.
July 2016
Grissom looked down at the little bundle squirming in his arms, wrapped tightly in a soft white blanket. He rested his back against the inclined hospital bed as he scooted in closer to Sara who's eyes were squarely locked on the baby in his arms.
They'd been transferred up to the recovery room an hour ago and had been sat like this ever since. Sara's head leaned against Grissom's shoulder.
"I'm completely awestruck." He spoke in a soft hush. "Of you. Of her." He smiled as the baby began to make small chirping-like sounds.
"If I didn't feel my stitches so keenly," She spoke through a quiet smile, "I'd think I must be dreaming." She looked up at him, watching his eyes take in every inch of his child.
He turned his head in her direction and took her in. "Sara…" He spoke softly before brushing his lips against hers for a fleeting moment. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you."
The pair gazed back down at their daughter. Born with a full head of brown hair and sweet little features.
"Have we decided on a name?" They looked up as a nurse entered the room.
He looked at Sara who simply nodded in confirmation, sharing a silent conversation.
"Aurora Dorian Grissom."
The nurse wrote the baby's name on the whiteboard on the wall. "Beautiful."
They'd discussed names only briefly. And it was Grissom who'd come up with the name Aurora. He'd suggested as the two gazed at the northern lights when Sara was still early enough in her pregnancy that they were able to sail far north to see it.
Dorian was Sara's contribution. Meaning gift from the sea.
They returned their attention to their daughter once more who was beginning to stir. Sara leaned her head against Grissom's shoulder, sinking into him as the little girl's eyes fluttered open, gazing back at her parents.