A/N:

Summary: Still in Vegas. Our two lovely science nerds do some reminiscing (and, to be fair, some contemplating).

I really wrote this chapter for Alex394 on AO3, who I believe was the first person to comment on this series of stories (or any of my stories). This past summer Alex394 noted my mention of Rome (in the Paris chapter). I had always felt like I needed a Roman Holiday chapter but had never been able to figure out how to work it into the story I was telling. But at that time (still back in the summer) I thought about it a little more, rearranged/consolidated a few other chapters, and added this one. It also rather helpfully gives a slight refresher of what happened in the first few chapters of this story, back during the year of honeymoons. I hope you all enjoy it! đź’›

I also want to let you know, before you read this chapter, that Sara's and Grissom's thoughts that "the healing process would be slow" are not meant to tell you that this story will still significantly be focusing on sadder times from the past; rather, this is an acknowledgement that the healing process will implicitly be continuing even as this story switches to focusing predominantly on the happier times yet to come. đź’•

Fall 2015. Las Vegas, Nevada.

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat, the bad company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Julie, I'd do the stars with you any time

– Mark Knopfler [for Dire Straits], "Romeo and Juliet."

Joe Bradley: Now, come on. You're not that drunk.

Princess Ann: If you're so smart, I'm not drunk at all. I'm just being… verrrrrry haaaaappy….

– Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) and Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn), in Roman Holiday.

Correspondent: Which of the cities visited did Your Highness enjoy the most?

General [quietly, prompting her]: Each in its own way...

Princess Ann: Each in its own way was... unforgettable. It would be difficult to [she stops, then her face softens]—Rome; by all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here, in memory, as long as I live.

– Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn), in Roman Holiday.

Sara Sidle: Italy. That's pretty serious.

– Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), in "Primum Non Nocere" (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 02x16).

Roman Holiday

Sara and Grissom had eventually made their way off the kitchen floor and, once dressed, taken Hank out for a late afternoon drive and a frolic at one of his old favorite Vegas dog parks. Afterward, they'd stopped for a leisurely dinner on the dog-friendly patio of their old favorite vegetarian deli. Then they'd returned home, where, almost inevitably, they'd found themselves back where they'd started the day: naked and in their old favorite bed.

Having disentangled herself from their latest intimate encounter, Sara had gone to the bathroom to freshen up then to the kitchen in search of water.

Back in bed, Grissom had turned on a lamp and was inspecting the framed photograph Sara had placed on his bedside table the night before. Despite their current happiness—despite everything Sara had said to him—he was still having trouble shaking the heartache that arose whenever he thought of the disintegration of their marriage. He knew the healing process would be slow.

After returning to the bedroom, Sara placed a glass of chilled sparkling water on Grissom's bedside table as well as one on her own, then she slid her smooth, bare body back against his.

"Thanks," he said, somewhat belatedly, without looking up from the picture he was gripping.

"No problem." She rested her head on his shoulder and looked at the picture with him.

Still he considered the picture, and Sara silently waited.

"It wasn't all bad, was it?" finally he asked.

"What?"

"It wasn't all bad," he said quietly. "Our marriage. It wasn't all bad, right?"

"Gil, I…." She too knew the healing process would be slow, but she took his willingness to ask the question as a sign of progress. She hesitated before looking up at him, though, instead inspecting the fingers of his left hand, which she was now holding in her own. She knew he couldn't help blaming himself for how things had gone; of course, she also knew it was no more his fault than her own.

He gestured with the picture. "There were a lot of good bits, too, right? We were so happy, in the beginning…."

"When we were together, it was perfect." She finally looked up at him. Sara could never have imagined a life so perfect.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Until near the end, that is, when we…."

"Yeah." He sighed.

"When we got near the end, it was like… we'd talk, but we were never really communicating. Even when we were in the same room, there was this gap we couldn't seem to bridge. The words were all just a smokescreen—an attempt to fill the void, to pretend everything was okay. The more we talked…."

"The less we were actually managing to say." He finally looked down at her. "We're doing okay now, though, right? Our communication?"

"Well…." She ran a hand lightly over his chest.

He raised his eyebrows in question.

"We're just starting out now, but… so far, so good." She directed a teasing smile up at him. "I'd like to believe we can learn from our mistakes. I think we're on the right track."

"Good." He paused before returning to his previous stream of thought. "But when we were married—in the beginning, that is…."

"In the beginning…. Those first eight months…. Costa Rica. Nicaragua. The Corn Islands. That canoe trip. The incident we don't tell people about from that canoe trip…."

Grissom laughed.

"Finally getting to meet your mom," Sara continued, "although we both know that could have gone better. But then Chicago—meeting all your Chicago relatives, going to see the Cubs play all those games, dancing on the architecture cruise…."

"Getting upgraded to first class on our flight to Europe after I told the check-in agent it was our honeymoon…."

"Sobbing on your shoulder in the Amsterdam airport when you told me we were going to see the Alhambra. I still remember thinking…. I don't know. I couldn't believe, after all those years I'd spent waiting for you…. I couldn't believe you'd do something like that, just because you wanted to make me happy."

"I'd do anything to make you happy."

"I know."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I do." She turned her head to kiss his shoulder. "And Paris. That whole summer in Paris. It was pretty perfect. That whole year was pretty perfect. I'd never been so happy. I think that was the happiest year of my life."

"Yeah, it really was pretty perfect." He should have been content with that assessment, but he felt something nagging him.

"Of course…."

"What?"

"Well, you could say I'm pretty happy now, too, you know."

"Yeah?"

She rolled back onto her own pillow and started laughing up at the ceiling. "Gil, with all the dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin flooding my brain these days…."

He moved to his side, so he could face her, and rested his right hand at her waist.

She looked over at him. "But, even leaving aside all the non-stop intimacy…." She grinned. "I'm so happy to be here with you—to be anywhere with you."

He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Yeah. Yeah, me, too." He nuzzled his face into her neck.

She smiled as his whiskers lightly brushed against her skin. "You remember when I'd come for those week-long visits to Paris? It was off-season, so most of the tourists were gone. Whenever you weren't teaching, we'd spend our time exploring."

He looked up a little and ran his eyes—and a hand—up and down over some of his preferred spots for exploration. "We made it out of the apartment sometimes, too," he said, as his hand glided over the swell of her right breast.

"Mmmm, yeah." Sara was feeling a little distracted by Grissom's renewed exploration. "But not for the first two or three days at least. You always seemed to be very well stocked up—very conveniently stocked up—on food and drink when I arrived."

"Well, I'm a scientist, Sara. I like to be well prepared for all my—"

"Experiments?"

"Mmmm."

"Well, you are very dedicated to your craft." She again laughed up at the ceiling. "That was such a cozy spot—those were very good times."

"Except for that one time, when I decided to be extra-romantic and surprise you by setting up candles around the bed…."

"Then you also decided to be extra-vigorous, and we almost burned the bed down?"

"You know how zealous I am when it comes to… ah… science, Sara."

"Your enthusiasm never fails to impress me, Gilbert." Truth be told, she was still basking in the afterglow of how much his enthusiasm had most recently impressed her. Well, even more truth be told, these days her life was almost nothing but afterglow.

"But still…. No candles near the bed."

"Definitely no candles near the bed." She looked over at him as she laughed. "But a good memory nonetheless."

"And we'll always have Paris."

"It's true. We will always have Paris." She picked up the framed photograph he'd been holding, which was now resting on the bed. "Then, after your second semester there, before you left Europe, we did this trip."

"I met you at the airport in Rome."

"We were in that beautiful boutique hotel near Piazza Navona. Again, I think it took us several days to get out of the hotel room after we got back there."

"It did. But then we got to wander around the city." He paused. "I remember you kept calling me Joe."

"You kept calling me Princess (Sara) Ann!"

"Yeah, well, you kept tying those little 1950s scarves around your neck, like the ones you wore in Costa Rica, Sara Ann."

Sara laughed. "True. Of course, it didn't help that you weren't exactly being very careful in your attentions to my neck."

"I can't help how simply irresistible your neck is."

"Oh, very smooth. Unlike your neck."

"Hmph."

She reached up and ran the back of a hand over the scruff under his chin. "Which is still completely irresistible."

He kissed her neck. "I'll take your word for that."

Sara closed her eyes as she conjured up more memories of their time in Italy. "Mmmm, remember how good the food was? The pasta? The pizza? So many carbs, but so worth it."

"Definitely worth it."

"Remember when we took the train down to visit Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii, then we spent the night in Naples?"

"I think that Neapolitan margherita was the best pizza I've ever eaten."

"Oh, it was so good. Everything was so good."

"Do you remember when we got the hotel in Rome to make up a picnic? They stuck a bottle of Limoncello in the freezer for us, too?"

"Then we spent the afternoon at the park—Villa Borghese, the gardens—getting drunk off Limoncello. I think I was almost sick."

"You pulled through in the end, if I recall correctly." He lightly squeezed her thigh.

"Oh, believe me, I remember what we did after that. All those yoga classes I kept taking when you weren't around to occupy me were good for something, at least."

"Alcohol always has made you a little extra amorous."

"Like you're one to talk!"

"Fair. Plus I've always liked you a little extra amorous."

"I've noticed."

"'When I think of how you press against me….'" he murmured.

"Well, if you insist…." She rolled to face him and pressed herself yet closer than she had before, intertwining her legs with his, as she was wont to do.

"I, uh…." He was trying not to show how easily the feeling of that bare body of hers still sidetracked his thoughts. "I think we did eight nights in Rome, including the night we spent in Naples."

"Then we took the train up to Florence. Florence was gorgeous. And the gelato…." Sara still had dreams about the gelato. "Cioccolato fondente, bacio, gianduja, caffè, stracciatella, menta…. The sorbetti…. All those flavors…. Fragola, lampone, limone, pesca, pera, ananas…. The gelato was amazing."

"I've never seen someone eat so much gelato."

"Thank you, my misanthropic love. You'd never seen anyone eat that much of anything from over on that pumpkin of yours."

Grissom frowned.

"Oh…." Sara reached up to cup his face with her left hand then stroked his beard with her thumb. "I'm sorry, really. I'm terribly grateful for your pumpkin."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." She began rubbing a foot up and down his calf. "You had space on it for me. I'd have been awfully sad and lonesome if you'd ever learned to share a velvet cushion with someone else."

"I've never wanted anyone else. Pumpkin or velvet cushion—I really don't care, as long as I'm with you, my dearest darling."

"Okay." Sara puckered her lips. "I'll forgive you for the gelato comment."

He leaned his head down and kissed the hair on top of her head. "We took a couple day trips from Florence, too."

"Siena and Assisi."

"Homes of St. Catherine and St. Francis, respectively—patron saints of Italy."

"Not to mention the environment and animals," Sara added, referring to the latter saint. "Pretty important."

"Indeed."

"And Catherine…. She was brave—outspoken. She spoke truth to power."

Grissom nodded. "Very brave." He brushed a piece of hair off her forehead. "And a survivor—she survived near-assassination in Florence."

Sara brought her mind back to their journey. "Siena was beautiful—all those medieval brick buildings—especially the main square. What was the name again?"

"The Piazza del Campo."

"Right. And then Assisi, up in the hills in Umbria…."

"Lots of medieval architecture there, too."

"We did six nights in Florence, I think. Then you wanted to stop in 'fair Verona,' so we did two nights there."

"'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite.'"

She laughed and nestled her head farther down, onto his chest. "Is that sentiment meant for me, Juliet?"

"Yes, dearest."

"Pretty appropriate, I guess, coming from my eco-pirate."

"I do what I can."

"Okay, so then we had four nights in Venice."

"Took a gondola ride, bought some Murano glass…."

"Had coffees in St. Mark's Square…."

"Bellinis at Harry's Bar…."

"I haven't had one of those in forever. We should see if we can track down some white peaches."

"I'll see what I can find."

"Okay," Sara said, but nothing more.

When Grissom looked down, he found her again staring at the framed photograph of them in front of Rome's famed Spanish Steps. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking. I…." She shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts before looking over at him. "We had so many more places we wanted to go, so many adventures, and we'd barely gotten started. Namibia to see the Skeleton Coast—"

"We definitely needed more time in the desert."

"Definitely." Sara laughed. "Cambodia, to see the temples of Angkor. Cairo, to see the pyramids. Kenya, to see the lions in their natural habitat…."

"And the elephants."

"Don't forget the giraffes."

"I'd never forget the giraffes."

She switched continents again. "Up north in Canada to see the polar bears."

"And the aurora borealis. I promised I'd take you to see the aurora borealis."

"That you did."

"We can still do those things, Sara."

"Yeah. I know." She again looked at the picture, finally ready to make her way back to the hard truth. "What I was really thinking, though, was… I—I was so happy when we were together. I think we were so happy when we were together…."

"We were," he confirmed.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know why we thought we didn't deserve to have that all the time…. I mean, it made sense, at first, when you were in Paris and I was here, and it was just supposed to be short-term. It was such a slippery slope, though….

"Sometimes, afterward… it didn't even feel real—like maybe it was just a bad dream, and suddenly I'd wake up and everything would be as it should again—we'd be together again. I'd try to pinpoint the last time everything felt normal—the last time we still felt like us.

"I never could, except of course to say that it all started with us agreeing to live on different continents. But it was so good for so long after that—I didn't figure out how off course we were until we were far too far down that path.

"It made sense, though, at first…." Sara sighed as she wound down her thoughts. "Or at least I thought it made sense, at the time…."

"It did." Grissom again confirmed their shared understanding of events past. "We did talk about it. However I may have felt about it later, it made sense at the time. But once we realized it was going to be longer—once I was leaving Paris—"

"Once we were buying this house—"

"We should have figured something else out."

"Our marriage…. It was good, Gil. Really, really good. It was."

"You mean, until it wasn't…."

"Yeah, but, like I said, when we were together, it was perfect. I've always been happy when we're together—actually together. I'm so happy we are together now."

"Me, too, sweetheart."

"The leaving was the problem. You leaving me. Me leaving you. I just…. Wherever we go, we need to go together. You belong to me. I belong to you. Wherever we go, we belong together."

"Yeah…." He took her hand and looked down at her. "Yeah. Always. We belong together."

She squeezed his hand as she looked back up at him. "Together." Then she reached up to intertwine them further.

Together.

Legs.

Arms.

Lips.

Tongues.

Bodies.

Beings.

Together.

They belonged together.

Later, as they lay once more intertwined together in the almost never-absent afterglow, Grissom held his beloved close and reflected on their conversations of the past few days.

She deserved so much, this woman.

This woman, who'd been through so much….

This woman, who was still the best person he knew….

This woman, who'd restored his faith in the human being….

She deserved—he again thought—everything he could give her, this woman.

He may have lost his way once, but now again he'd found it. And, still, all he wanted was for her to be happy.

Sara, meanwhile, lay there much more serenely, in the arms of the man she loved; Sara understood the truth of the matter.

She was.

UP NEXT: NEXT CHAPTER: FALL 2015. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA.

NOTES

On Catherine of Siena:

Think Pam Adler and "Too Tough to Die" (01x16), not Catherine Willows.

SOUNDTRACK LISTING

R.E.M. "At My Most Beautiful."

The Beach Boys. "God Only Knows."

(You can listen to the songs in my playlist for this series, which can be found by searching my username on Spotify.)

A/N:

Cover art will be available on Tumblr.

I meant to post this chapter at the end of January. The end of January wasn't really great for me; it didn't work out. The end of this month hasn't been terribly great either, but my desire to update has at least won out. So I hope the next chapter will be up in a month, but I can't make any promises. All that being said, I would, as always, love to hear from you: tell me your favourite line from the chapter (if you had one), show me your favourite emojis, tell me how you made the most of this bonus day, tell me your favourite gelato favour, tell me why your month was so sucky/fabulous, tell me whatever (if you like that is—always if you like)! 💛

I hope you had a wonderful February and that you have a wonderful March! đź’› I also hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there are very good things ahead for our two lovely science nerds (đź’•), so I hope you'll be back for the next!