A/N: OK, the very brief epilogue is kind of cheesy. Perhaps at some point in the future I'll expand on it, but for now…
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The corners of Grissom's lips turned downward as he surveyed the tiny motel. He realized that it was what was to be expected in a small town straddling Interstate 5, yet it still surprised him that Sara had chosen it for her night's stop.
Grissom's palms were sweaty as he knocked on the door of room 22. He suspected that at any moment his heart might pound through his chest wall. This was it; every day, every event of his life had been leading up to this moment. A new sense of purpose had guided him this far, and he would not be turning back.
Unable to sleep, Sara had been lying on the bed reading the evening paper in an attempt to calm her nerves. She wondered mirthlessly what on Earth had made her think that reading about wars, suicide bombers and drunk drivers would help her feel better. The CSI within her startled when she heard a knock at the door. She wasn't expecting visitors. No one even knew she was there. She cautiously peered through the peephole, stunned to see the distorted features of her former employer. The observation that viewing Grissom through a peephole was something akin to viewing him through a funhouse mirror nearly made her laugh out loud. Absurd, yes, but she knew if she didn't laugh she would cry. Damn it! She swore under her breath. Why is he here? What could he say that hasn't already been said? Will he go away if I ignore him?
"Sara…" Grissom called through the door and knocked again. "I'm not going to go away."
What the—? How did he do that? She took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping back from the threshold as she did so. Grissom took this as his cue to enter. He stepped in, and she shut the door behind him. She stared a hole through him as they stood wordlessly, six feet apart.
Now that he suddenly faced with the culmination of his mission, Grissom found it difficult to speak. Despite the fact that he was very well educated and articulate, Sara frequently seemed to have that effect on him. He would become so flummoxed by her presence, his desperate need to say the right thing to her and his fear of saying too much that he would be unable to think of anything to say at all. And, of course, when he finally would find the right words, he would invariably look up to find her gone. But not this time. He was going to tell her all of the things he'd kept bottled up inside, and she was going to listen. Even if he had to Super Glue her feet to the floor.
"Grissom…why are you doing this?" Sara asked wearily.
"I needed to talk to you." The words surprised him when they tumbled out. "I need to tell you what I should have told you a long time ago."
"I'm not sure I want to hear this," she responded candidly.
Grissom had been in the fast lane, but then he took a wrong turn. "Sara, this motel is not in the best neighborhood…"
"You drove 400 miles to tell me I need a better motel?" Sara couldn't believe her ears.
"No, I…well, it's cheap, and not very safe."
"I'm between jobs," she said curtly. For a brief second she had allowed herself to be hopeful, but now it seemed he was already backpedaling.
"When do you start in Sacramento?"
"Not sure. Hopefully Monday, but I have to wait until I get officially cleared by the Shooting Board in Vegas. Is this really why you're here?"
Grissom mentally kicked himself as he rubbed his bearded chin. It was already going badly. What had made him think he could do this? He abruptly amended his fatalistic line of thought. He was here on a mission, and if he succeeded, the seediness of the motel wouldn't matter because he would be there with her. "You're right," he conceded. "It's not about the motel. It's about us." He gestured back and forth between them with his hand. "I want you to come back with me."
"Why?"
"Because I, I…need you in my life."
Sara blinked. She was otherwise unable to react as her brain struggled to process his words.
"I need you," he repeated, surprised at how easily it came once he said the first time.
Sara's self-defense screen popped up again. She wasn't about to let him force her to read between the lines. He was going to have to be very specific. "As what?"
Grissom was caught off-guard. "Excuse me?"
"As what?" She asked again. "As your friend? Your employee? Your—"
"My partner."
Sara turned away from him to face the wall. Here he was offering her exactly what she'd wanted for so long, but now she wasn't sure if she trusted him enough to take it. She needed to get a handle on the myriad of conflicting emotions assailing her. Grissom came to stand behind her, his hands hovering just above her shoulders.
"Sara, I should have done this a long time ago, but I was afraid, so afraid of letting anyone inside. From the moment we met, I've worked very hard to deny that you were already inside. It was that denial that caused all of the problems. It destroyed our friendship."
When he heard the telltale sound of crying, he moved closer to her and lowered his hands to her shoulders, his mouth very near her ear. "I'm through denying, Honey. I know I've hurt you. We've hurt each other. I can't change that, I can't turn back time. But I can promise to spend every day of the rest of my life making it up to you." Already soft, his voice dropped until it was barely a whisper. "I love you, Sara."
"Don't say that," she shook bitterly. "Don't say that…"
"I mean it."
"Maybe you do." She turned to face him. "But what happens tomorrow, or next week, when you let the fear take over again? You'll just push me away again until I'm convenient for you."
"No," he asserted. "That was my old M.O. I'll never push you away again."
"You have no idea how much I want to believe you," she admitted softly.
"I brought something that I hope will be sufficient evidence of my determination and dedication." He reached into his pocket and fished out a small black jeweler's box. Flipping it open, he revealed a diamond ring. "I love you, Sara, and I meant what I said about wanting you to be my partner."
While Sara had thought her emotions were conflicted before, she now knew that that had been the calm before the storm. She was at once, shocked, flattered, nervous, confused, angry, fearful, hopeful and overjoyed.
"Grissom, think this through, okay?" She flipped the box closed and lightly pushed it toward him.
"I have thought this through," he protested calmly.
"How do you go from whatever-the-hell-that-was the last two years to 'let's get married'?"
"It's what I've wanted all along. To spend time with you, to live with you, to make love to you and wake up next to you…to raise children with you. It was the denial and the sublimation of all of that that nearly destroyed us."
Setting the box on the bed, he took both of her hands in his. "Come home with me. If we can't find a way to make things work in the lab, I'll quit."
"You can't quit." Sara shook her head. "You love forensics."
"I love you. I can find another job in forensics, but I can't find another Sara Sidle."
"You are, uh, you're unbelievable," Sara grinned through her drying tears.
"So will you marry me?"
She nodded. "Yes. But not today. I don't want to do anything you're going to regret. If I get married, it'll be forever."
Grissom feigned an injured expression, then cocked an eyebrow playfully. "What about Wednesday?" He removed the ring from its box and slipped it onto her finger. He nearly lost his balance when Sara's lips met his. If it was possible for a single kiss to have multiple meanings, this one did. It began tentatively and chastely, turned wildly needful, and ended up romantically and reverently.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be at work right now?" Sara couldn't believe that the question escaped her lips when there were so many other more pressing questions she needed to ask.
"Catherine's covering. She owes me."
"This motel isn't in the best of neighborhoods," Sara teased. "It's a good thing I have a big strong man to stay with me."
EpilogueGil Grissom and Sara Sidle were married six weeks later. Open, honest communication dramatically improved their professional relationship, as did the deliberate routing of Sara's evaluations and requests through Director Cavallo. In fact, it was he who made the decision to re-hire Sara into the Lead CSI position.