A/N:
On the road again. š
I hope I didn't actually scare (m)any people away from the last scene of the previous chapter! I thought it was nice and loving š (and, you know, lusting!), but I wanted to make sure everyone had the content information to make the choices with which they were most comfortable! š
Fall 2015. Marina del Rey, California.
Wise men say
"Only fools rush in"
But I can't help
Falling in love with you
ā Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss, and Hugo E. Peretti, "Can't Help Falling in Love."
Kiss and Make-Up
A few days had passed since their arrival in Marina del Rey, and Sara and Grissom had reacquainted themselves with each other more than a few times in Grissom's childhood bedroom, as well as in the shower. It was after they had, on the afternoon of their third full day in Marina del Rey, reacquainted themselves in Grissom's father's old greenhouseāand Sara had begun to fear what the neighbors had heardāthat she raised this as a concern with Grissom.
"I'm afraid your mother knows what we're doing."
"Sara, I'm 59 years old. I think I'm old enough for my mother to know I'm getting laid." Grissom went back to trying to get laid again.
"Look, I had to be there while your mother discussed our sex life once, and that was already one time too many for me." Sara wasn't having any of it.
He was only half paying attention to what she was saying. After the incident in the greenhouse, they had gone back to reading together in the backyard. They were squashed onto one of Betty's wooden lounge chairs, but they didn't know they were squashed. It wouldn't have seemed possible, but, in the immediate aftermath of their reunion, they were exhibiting even less respect for each other's personal space than before. So they were very squashed together, and he felt she was again wearing too much clothing. He was trying to figure out how to remedy the clothing situation.
"Gil!" she exclaimed, swatting his hand away from her shirt. If he had his way, she'd be topless in the middle of his mother's backyard. She wasn't having that. He'd already managed it once that day, and that was what had led to the admittedly very enjoyable, but not very discreet, incident in the greenhouse. (Ever since their reunion, they'd been anything but discreet.)
He thought maybe he should try a more direct approach, so he rerouted his efforts south toā
"GIL!" She swatted his hand again.
He wasn't getting anywhere with his project, so he tried to pay better attention to what she was saying. "Okay, so what do you suggest?" he asked.
"Well, we already know we're going to need to reconfigure the Ishmael a bit for it to be comfortable for two people, so that's not ideal. I'm afraid your mother's going to think there's something wrong with us if we keep, er, getting reacquainted here. And spending a bunch of money for a hotel in San Francisco then never leaving the room seems like a bit of a waste."
"I still haven't heard a proposal, Sara."
"Well, I do have a very nice house with a very nice bed we chose ourselves. It's a four and half-hour drive. We could stay a week or two. We wouldn't even have to tell anyone we were thereā¦."
"You book the rental car. I'll tell my mom we're leaving."
The next morning, Sara; Grissom; and their much beloved and much missed fur-child, Hank, set out for Las Vegas.
Fall 2015. Marina del Rey, California. (Still.)
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin
If I can't help
Falling in love with you?
ā Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss, and Hugo E. Peretti, "Can't Help Falling in Love."
Howl: An Interlude
Earlier, while packing up their (meager) belongings before leaving for Las Vegas, Sara had noted a small, rather tattered-looking book at the bottom of Grissom's bag. She held it up and asked him why he had it with him there.
Grissom spoke a line from the poem whose name the book bore: "[W]ho crashed through their minds in jail waiting for impossible criminals with golden heads and the charm of reality in their hearts who sang sweet blues to Alcatraz." He paused before continuing on to the next line. "[W]ho retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit, or Rocky Mount to tender Buddha or Tangiers to boys or Southern Pacific to the black locomotive or Harvard to Narcissus to Woodlawn to the daisychain or grave."
"Oh, Gilbert, you sweet-talker, you," Sara teased him.
This time, he smirked at her.
Sara decided to challenge him. She flipped the pages and quoted a line from a different section of the poem.
Grissom then quoted the line that followed the one Sara had given. They repeated this several times.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I didn't realize you were that into Ginsberg."
"I'm not, really. I mean, not specifically."
"So why have you been hauling this thing around? It looks like it's gone places. And you have it memorized."
The answer should have been obvious, but to Sara at that time it wasn't. "It's the first thing you ever gave me."
"You know, I gave it to you so you'd have something to remember me by."
"I guess it worked."
"Better keep it then." She puckered her lips at him slightly and made sure the book had a safe spot in the bag.
Fall 2015. Marina del Rey, California; Los Angeles County, California; I-10 E, California; and I-15 N, California to Nevada.
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand
Take my whole life, too
For I can't help
Falling in love with you
ā Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss, and Hugo E. Peretti, "Can't Help Falling in Love."
Two (but Really Three) for the Road
They had decided to split the trip. Grissom was navigating them through Los Angeles while Sara drove, then in Barstow they would switch. Meanwhile, in the backseat, Hank contributed his soft snuffles and snores to the ambience.
As she drove them out of the city, Sara kept glancing at the boxer in the rear-view mirror. "Is your mom really okay with this?" she asked for what may not have been the two-hundredth but may well have been the twentieth time.
"Yes."
"I mean, it seems almost unbelievable, but he's actually lived in Marina del Rey longer than he lived in Vegas."
"I know," Grissom said wistfully, thinking of all the time he'd missed, not just with the best woman he'd ever know, but also with the best dog he'd ever had. "It was never meant to be that way." They'd never meant to leave him so longājust as they'd never meant for so many of the events of the previous six years. One thing has simply led to another, until they had somehow eachāall three of themābeen living separate lives. "None of it was."
"I know," Sara said quietly, as she reached over and squeezed his hand in reassurance.
"I mean, we talked about itāonce we got settled and everythingā¦." He sighed.
"I know, Gil. I know." She gave his hand another squeeze.
"Anyway, initially Mom liked that he helped keep her active. But she told me she'd had to hire a dog walker a couple months ago. You know he still pulls a bit, even at his age, and he's such a big guy, so she didn't feel safe taking him on the city streets anymore. She didn't say anything about it until this visit, though."
"But she's going to be all alone now."
"You know how involved in the community she still is. And she told me she was thinking of rescuing an animal of her own. The Best Friends Pet Adoption Center is only about a fifteen-minute drive from the house. She's thinking of adopting an older dogāa small older dog. Maybe even an older cat."
At the mention of cats, Hank stopped snoring and half raised his head.
"Oh my gosh." Sara saw the hint of movement in the rear-view mirror. "Go back to sleep, you goof!" She laughed.
Grissom again smiled at having finally reunited the animal lover he most loved with the animal she most loved. "She said it was fate."
"Fate?"
"Yeahāfate that brought Hank to her at a period when they could enjoy their time togetherāfate that brought the three of us back together now."
"Fate?" Sara repeated.
"Yeah, I justā" He stopped short as he looked over at Sara, who was trying not to laugh.
"Betty Grissom said it was fate?" Sara was still trying not to laugh. "She really is going soft in her old age."
Grissom chuckled. "I'll tell her you said that."
"You absolutely will not!" Sara exclaimed.
"No. I won't." He chuckled again.
"She'd email me pictures, you know, even after the divorce."
"Pictures of him?"
"Yup. In one she'd even put him in a bow tie for New Year's Eve."
"Wow. She really has gone soft."
"I'll tell her you said that."
"Funny girl."
The car was stopped, so Sara quickly adjusted the rear-view mirror to get a better view of the dog in the backseat. "And you really think Hank's going to be okay with all this change at his age?"
At the mention of his name, the boxer again raised his head, before performing a slow stretch and propping his legs up on the back of the rear seats, so his body now reached from one rear door to the other in the small rental car. Then he lightly thudded his tail as he went back to sleep.
"Oh, I think he's going to be just great."
"So fate?"
"Fate."
As he'd directed her out of the city, Grissom had flipped through the book of CDs he'd taken with him from the Ishmael. They'd gone back to the boat the day before, after deciding to make a return to Vegas, to make sure everything was as it should be in preparation for their potentially extended absence.
Once Sara had gotten them out on the open road, Grissom popped in his album of choice, and the opening strains of Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" filled the air. Graceland was a perfect road trip album.
"You know, Simon has called this his favorite song he's ever written. He said it devolved down to hope and dread. He said he saw the world as a balance between the two but coming down on the side of hope," Grissom remarked.
Sara smiled. He'd already told her that many years before, but she'd missed all his quotations and trivia.
When the chorus repeated, Grissom sang along to the woman beside him, the woman he loved. "These are the days of miracle and wonder / This is the long distance call / The way the camera follows us in slo-mo / The way we look to us all." He continued his serenade with the next verse of the chorus. "The way we look to a distant constellation / That's dying in the corner of the sky / These are the days of miracle and wonder / And don't cry baby, don't cry / Don't, don't cry." The second time around, he emphasized, "These are the days of miracle and wonder," so Sara looked over at him in amusement, and he winked at her. She laughed.
Once Grissom's time to drive came, Sara pulled out the book that had already been sitting at the bottom of her bag when she'd stuffed in much of the contents of her locker back in Vegas. She kicked off her new sandals, stretched her legs up on the dash in front of the passenger seat, and started to read, occasionally glancing out the window or over at Grissom.
The road was pretty straight then, so Grissom reached over and intertwined Sara's spare hand with his. He tried to avoid looking at her nearly endless, almost entirely bare legs; this drive was going to require a lot of concentration.
Having taken control of the car stereo, Sara put in Chronicles by Steve Winwood, and, when "Higher Love" came on, they both sang alongāalbeit somewhat more softlyājust because they could. "Think about it, there must be a higher love / Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above / Without it, life is wasted time / Look inside your heart, and I'll look inside mine."
Of course, they thought themselves a little ridiculous, and they couldn't quite look at each other or bring themselves to acknowledge they were doing it; Grissom kept his eyes on the road ahead, while Sara was resting her head on the side of the partially open front passenger window. Nevertheless, they were, finally, once again both on the same journeyāthe same open roadāthe same adventureāand it all felt good.
Sara was avoiding all the discs of Italian operas. After Chronicles, she chose Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits. This time, Grissom sang "Here Comes My Girl" to her. "But when she puts her arms around me / I can somehow rise above it / Yeah, man when I got that little girl standin' right by my side / You know, I can tell the whole wide world to shove it, hey / Here comes my girl / Here comes my girl / Yeah, and she looks so right / She is all I need tonight."
By this point, Sara was beginning to think about how absurd her ex-husband could be. When Grissom purposely looked over at her while performing his latest serenade ("I got that little girl standin' right by my side"āSara was no one's little girl, not even Grissom's, and he knew it), Sara narrowed her eyes and looked at him a little like she wanted to shove him out the car window. Sara didn't want to shove him out a window, though; Sara wanted him.
Grissom glanced over again and smirked at her. Sara was adorable when she looked at him like that. Sara was always adorable. Returning his eyes to the road ahead, he told her, as he'd told her more times that week than he could count, that he loved her.
Even after all these years, he still couldn't quite believe how much he loved her. He'd always thought a love like this was something that only existed in storybooks, but somehow they had it; they'd had it for years, even when they couldn't see it.
Until he'd met Sara, Grissom had never experienced love, not in a romantic sense; until he'd met Sara, Grissom had never really understood what it meant to want someone. Grissom wanted Sara. He considered pulling the car over to the next deserted side road he could see from the highway, but he didn't think she'd go for it.
Meanwhile, Sara bit her lip and tried to resist kissing Grissom while he was driving the car; she truly loved how absurd he could be. Oh, god, she loved him. This surely was some kind of storybook love.
He was now smiling smugly, and Sara still wanted to wipe that big fat smug smile off his face with her mouth. She shook her head and tried not to think about how much she wanted to jump him. They had at least another hour left in their journey, and she wasn't about to have them discovered on some side road in the middle of nowhere by some local sheriff or highway patrol.
Sara had subconsciously been waiting years for this homecoming without believing it would ever come to pass. She again looked over at the man beside her, the man she loved, who was still holding her hand. She could wait a little longer.
Then Grissom moved his hand, and Sara realized he was going to help her with the wait. As Grissom progressed his movements, Sara finally dropped her book and relaxed further into her seat; she was going to enjoy the ride.
On that day, as they drove back to Las Vegas, Sara Sidle thought life itself was pretty good. As Gil Grissom reflected on his trip to Vegas the previous week, looked over at the woman sitting in the car next to him, and compared his present feelings to his feelings on that earlier day, he too thought life was looking pretty good.
NEXT UP: NEXT CHAPTER: FALL 2015. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA.
NOTES
On the first thing she ever gave him:
This happened way back in chapter 7 of my first story, if you'd like a refresher on Sara's gift!
On fate, and the best dog they ever had:
The idea of a post-"Immortality" (16) Grissom-Sara-Hank reunion became part of my headcanon after reading addictedtostorytelling's beautiful (and tear-inducing) story "And Argos Lifts His Head" (on AO3). That, plus the fact that my heart dog (ā¤ļøš¶) died of a fast-acting cancer just after his sixth birthday and reuniting with him would be one of my greatest dreams come true, dictated that this series was going to need to feature a GSH reunion.
As I noted previously, my dogs have all been the kind of easygoing pups who would adapt well to this change in circumstances, and I have to headcanon the same for Hank becauseā¦ wellā¦ because I just have to. Lucky for me, this is my story, and thus, you know, so be it. *Taps magic fairy wand.* I imagine that Betty reported Hank had been doing very well with her and that Sara and Grissom thought it fairer to Hank to leave him with Betty in Marina del Rey as king of the neighbourhood than to drag him to Paris.
On Best Friends:
"Best Friends, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, operates the nation's largest sanctuary for homeless animals and provides adoption, spay/neuter, and educational programs." Get more information from: bestfriendsdotorg. šš¶
On "The Boy in the Bubble":
Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1, 2013, Plymouth, UK, Scarecrow Press, Inc., p 246.
This is also my favourite Paul Simon song.
SOUNDTRACK LISTING
Kina Grannis. "Can't Help Falling in Love."
Vampire Weekend. "This Life."*
Paul Simon. "The Boy in the Bubble."
Paul Simon. "Graceland."
Steve Winwood. "Higher Love."
Kygo & Whitney Houston. "Higher Love."**
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. "Here Comes My Girl."
*Although the overall meaning of this song is not exactly right for our two lovely science nerds, it has the exact sound/vibe I imagine for their road trip. The opening verse is pretty good, too:
Baby, I know pain is as natural as the rain
I just thought it didn't rain in California
Baby, I know love isn't what I thought it was
'Cause I've never known a love like this before ya
**JF shared a link to this cover of "Higher Love" in January 2022āi.e., back when I was over-analyzing every single one of her tweetsāand of course I tried to wring meaning from her choice.
(You can listen to these songs in my playlist for this series, which can be found by searching my username on Spotify.)
A/N:
I started posting this series of stories on AO3 exactly one year ago (September 21, 2022). (Of course I very quickly realized that I needed to be posting it here on FFN, too! š) In some ways it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride for me. I've truly enjoyed spending time in the minds of my two favourite science nerds (and with all of you). š If you've made it this far in the series/story (whether you've been here since the beginning or are just now catching up), I hope you too have enjoyed the journey thus far. Thank you so very, very, very much for reading. The next chapter should be up in under a week; I hope you'll enjoy it! š