Fandom: CSI Rating: R Pairing: G/S Summary: A sequel to Rollercoaster, which really should be read first. Disclaimer: Some of the characters and situations in this story belong to Alliance Atlantis, CBS, Anthony Zuicker and other entities, and I do not have permission to borrow them.  Others strongly resemble characters that sort of belong to ABC, though I seriously doubt anyone cares at this point.  The rest belong to me, and if you want to play with them, you have to ask me first.  No infringement is intended in any way, and this story is not for profit.  Any errors are mine, all mine, no you can't have any.   Spoilers: general fifth season through "Unbearable" Note: This is an AU futurefic that includes a number of original characters.      ********* Grissom woke to the sound of childish voices, raised in what he first thought was excitement, but as his mind sharpened he realized that Kimmy’s near-yell was spawned by annoyance.  The Ed’s voice cut across the sound, hissing at them in true displeasure to be quiet, there were guests in the house.   Grissom lifted his head from the pillow, focusing on Sara across the room; she was pulling on slacks, and gave him a slightly embarrassed shrug.  “Sorry about them.”    He smiled, but it turned into a yawn that he smothered behind one hand.  “That’s okay.”   Sara fastened the button, and gave him a slightly suspicious look.  “What’s so funny?”   Grissom stretched, conscious of a small smug pleasure at the way Sara’s eyes lingered on him, and ended up with his arms folded behind his head.  “They’re just such a contrast.  When I was a kid, our house was quiet most of the time.  No siblings to pester, and my mother never noticed if I made noise.”   Sara took a blouse from her carry-on and gave him a thoughtful look.  “No point in doing it if it wasn’t going to annoy her?”   He chuckled, pleased also at her insight.  “Exactly.”  He shrugged.  “It did come in handy when I got my first hi-fi, though.”   Sara’s laugh was muffled by her top as she pulled it over her head.  “Well,” she said, tugging the hem into place and smoothing down her hair, “there’s been a slight change of plans for the day.”   “Oh?”   “Yeah.  Joey got invited to a day at the beach, and he’s really excited.  Ed said he could go if you say it’s all right, since he has a prior obligation.”   Grissom blinked.  “Of course, it’s no problem.”  He cocked a brow at her.  “Did you really think I’d mind?”   Sara scoffed.  “Nah.  But Ed insisted I ask.”  She regarded him for a moment.  “Do you want to get up for church?  I know you were awake last night for a while.”   “Not particularly, no,” Grissom admitted.  He wasn’t that tired, but he felt lazy and contented and not at all like hurrying to get ready.   “All right.  I’m gonna tell Joey he can go.”  Sara slipped out the door, and Grissom rolled over in bed, debating getting up now or waiting until everyone had left.  As he lay there, he heard Joey’s unmuffled shout of joy, and then Sara and Ed; their words were indistinct, but they seemed to be discussing something, Sara questioning and Ed insisting.  Then the conversation tailed off.   Realizing he was thirsty, Grissom got out of bed, finding his robe to make his way to the bathroom.  He drank two glasses of water, and decided to brush his teeth since he was already there; as he applied paste to the brush he heard Sara’s family leaving, their voices abruptly cut off by the closing of the front door.  The quiet, as he walked back to the guest room, seemed almost unnatural, but he let out a soft, slightly guilty breath of relief.  He liked them very much, but he simply wasn’t used to being around so many people for so many hours at a stretch.   Stepping into the bedroom, he was startled to find Sara there, pulling off her blouse in a reversal of her previous actions.  “Sara?  I thought you were going to church?”   Sara draped the blouse over the chair that held her carry-on and grinned at him, mischievous.  “I was, but Ed convinced me to stay here.”  Off came the slacks, and Grissom leaned against the doorframe, happy to watch.  “So I figured I could find something else to do.”   Grissom waited for her to reach for more casual clothing, but instead she reached for him instead, taking hold of the lapels of his robe and pivoting neatly.  Grissom found himself on the mattress with Sara on top of him, and grinned back, hands finding her waist.  “I take it you’d like some help with that?”        When he woke again, Grissom opened his eyes to Sara, who was lying curled on her side, watching him peacefully  He couldn’t resist closing the inches between them to kiss her once more, silently grateful that she was there in his life.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”   She gave him a droll look.  “It was next to me, technically, and don’t apologize.  You’re out of whack with your schedule.”   “True.”  Grissom let his hand slide down from her shoulder to her hip, a gentle caress.  “How long was I out?”   Sara raised her head to glance past him at the clock.  “About forty minutes.  The gang’ll be back from church soon.”   Grissom sighed heavily to make her smile.  “Guess we’d better get dressed, then.”   They were clothed and sipping coffee in the kitchen when Ed and Kimmy returned, Gracie in tow; the latter was wearing a forest-green dress that set off her hair nicely.  Kimmy bounced right over to Sara, her sundress fluttering.  “When are we going?”   Sara grinned at her niece and smoothed back a strand of hair that had come loose from Kimmy’s braid.  “As soon as you wash your hands, okay?”   “Okay!”  Kimmy sped off, and Ed snorted gently.   “It’s amazing how quickly she does something when she wants something else.  When will you guys be back?”   Sara glanced at Grissom, and he shrugged, setting his mug aside.  “Probably not until five or so.  We’ll call if we’re going to be later.”   “Sounds good,” Gracie said, leaving Ed’s side and beginning to rummage in the kitchen cupboards.  “We’ll save you some coffee cake.”   Sara pretended to pout.  “If you’re making coffee cake, maybe I don’t want to go after all.”   Grissom snickered, and leaned over to whisper in her ear.  “I could ask her for the recipe.”   Sara cocked her head.  “Oh, all right then.  Maybe you can talk her into giving it up.”   “It’s a secret family recipe,” Gracie demurred over her shoulder, eyes twinkling as she set a mixing bowl on the counter.  “I’m charged to protect it on pain of death.”   Sara laughed, and drank more coffee.  Having stayed in bed so late, they had decided to skip breakfast in favor of brunch, but Grissom felt his stomach growling, and hoped Kimmy wouldn’t dawdle.   But she emerged a few minutes later, cheeks pink with excitement at going out to lunch with her aunt and Dr. G--all the more so, Grissom suspected, because her brother had gone to the beach instead.  “I’m ready!”   “Have a good time,” Ed told her affectionately, and saw them to the door, tossing his sister the keys to his minivan, but Grissom saw him turning back towards the kitchen before they’d even closed the van’s doors.   “Remember what I told you, kiddo?” Sara asked cheerfully as she backed the van out of the driveway.   Kimmy, securely belted into the passenger seat next to her, nodded.  “I have to look at Mrs. Grissom when I talk, and I don’t have to yell.”   “Right,” Sara confirmed, and Grissom caught her eye in the rear view mirror and winked, which made her dimple.   “Do you want to know how to say ‘How are you?’ in ASL?” Grissom asked, and Kimmy twisted in her seat, looking eager.  He ended up teaching her several more signs in between giving Sara directions, and reviewing what Kimmy remembered; Joey had been the one more interested in learning back in Virginia.   When they arrived at Verde Ridge, Sara merely pulled the car into the driveway in front of the main doors, and Grissom got out to fetch Rosalie.  Just like the day before, she was waiting for him in the lobby, smiling widely with excitement.  Grissom signed in, and on the way out to the car told her that Joey hadn’t come along.   “I hope I can meet him some other time,” Rosalie said, not at all perturbed, and let Grissom help her into the vehicle.   As on Friday, Kimmy turned suddenly shy as Rosalie settled herself in the center seat, and only signed a greeting when Sara prompted her, but Rosalie just smiled back at the girl and returned it.   Rosalie reached forward to pat Sara’s arm, but they couldn’t converse since Sara was driving, so Grissom chatted with his mother as they made their way to the restaurant.  Once they got out, however, Rosalie gave Sara a firm kiss on the cheek.  “I’m so glad that you’ve decided to get married,” she said, beaming, and Sara blushed, which Grissom found adorable.  “You are everything he needs, and I will be so proud to have you for a daughter-in-law.”   Sara blushed a deeper pink, but returned the embrace.  “Thank you,” she managed.  “Your son is…”  Her gaze flickered to him and then back.  “…Everything I want, and I’m honored to join your family.”   Grissom found his own cheeks heating at her words, and handed his mother her cane.  She took it from him with a wink, and they went inside.   There was a bit of a wait despite their reservations, and Grissom knew his mother was bursting to talk with Sara, but instead she turned her attention to Kimmy and asked her a few gentle questions.  Kimmy grew less stiff as she found that she and Rosalie could understand each other, and ventured a few shy comments beyond her answers before the hostess came to seat them.   But they had barely placed their orders when Rosalie shot Grissom a challenging look, and turned to Sara.  “So, when is the wedding, dear?”   Sara’s eyes widened, and Grissom knew his ears were going red.  Kimmy, however, giggled.  “Yeah, Aunt Sara, everybody wants to know.”   Grissom raised his hands, but before he could rebuke his mother, Sara took a deep breath.  “We haven’t really decided,” she said calmly, apparently not trusting her voice.  “It’ll take a little time to arrange time off.  But before Thanksgiving, I think.”  She glanced at Grissom, as if waiting for him to contradict her, but--startled and delighted--he gave her an encouraging look instead.  That soon?  I hope so…   Her raised brows told him that she’d get in a little revenge later, but she smiled back at Rosalie, who was obviously pleased.  “And where are you going for your honeymoon?” his mother asked.   It wasn’t something Grissom had considered as more than an abstract, but the idea exploded across his mind, filling it with visions of Sara in a thousand different places--hiking in the Cascades, swimming in a warm ocean, walking down a Paris street…wrapped in his arms in someplace very, very far away from Las Vegas and both their cellphones.   “We haven’t decided,” he repeated, drawing Rosalie’s attention away from Sara, who was blushing again.  “What would you recommend, Mom?”   His ploy worked; Rosalie went into restrained raptures about various spots, some of which she had visited in recent years.  Most of them were art-related, including Firenze and Amsterdam, and Sara seemed genuinely interested, but Grissom noticed that Kimmy was starting to get bored.   Fortunately, their food arrived, and the conversation became more general, with Kimmy describing the travails of their move and then telling Rosalie about living near D.C.  She had lost her self-consciousness, and was remembering to face Rosalie when she spoke, which Grissom could tell charmed his mother.  He smiled at them both, and felt Sara’s fingers brush his under the table.   Lunch with Grissom’s mother was fun, Sara decided, though on reflection she felt that it was a good thing that Joey hadn’t come along this time; he was a bundle of energy at the best of times, and Rosalie’s strength was clearly flagging a little as Grissom helped her back into the van.  They had finished lunch and finally gone to the Museum of the American West, which had something for everyone, but they hadn’t had time to go through all of it.  Now, as she drove them back to Verde Ridge, she talked quietly with Kimmy while Grissom and Rosalie conversed in the middle seat.   If they hadn’t been stopped at a light, Sara wouldn’t have glanced in the rear view mirror at that precise moment, and wouldn’t have seen Grissom’s face go taut with half-stifled dismay at some comment by Rosalie, but she did see it, and turned to look more closely.  But Grissom gave the merest shake of his head, and Sara turned back, guessing sorrowfully at the reason and acceding to his desire to leave it for the moment.   “Come in for a while,” Rosalie invited as they reached her facility, but Sara shook her head firmly; even if Grissom weren’t troubled, it was obvious from the fatigue in Rosalie’s face that she was too tired for visitors.   “Thank you, but we need to get back.  Next time, maybe.”   Rosalie acceded, and Grissom helped her from the van and into her facility, both of them disappearing from view through the main doors.  Sara sat back, listening to the tick of the hazard flashers and sorrowing.   “Aunt Sara?”  Kimmy’s voice broke her reverie.  “Is there…something funny about Mrs. Grissom?”  Her face was serious.   Sara sighed.  “Yeah.  She has Alzheimer’s disease.  Have you heard of that?”   “It’s something old people get?” Kimmy said cautiously, and Sara nodded.   “Mostly, yeah.  It isn’t contagious, and it doesn’t make them sick; it just makes them confused.”  And belligerent, and sometimes speechless, and other griefs, but there was no need to go into such detail at the moment.  “She’s in the early stages, so she sometimes forgets things or gets confused about what’s going on or where she is.”   “Oh.  Is she going to get better?”   Sara winced internally.  “I don’t think so, sweetie.  There isn’t a cure for Alzheimer’s yet, just some drugs that can help slow it down.”   “Well, maybe somebody’ll figure out a cure for it,” Kimmy said hopefully.   It took almost ten minutes for Grissom to return to the van, and when he did Sara could see the slump in his shoulders, but he climbed back into the car without mentioning the reason.  “My mom thinks you’re a very nice and polite young lady,” he told Kimmy, and smiled when she grinned and blushed.  “She’d like you to come visit sometime, if you want.”   “Ooh, can I, Aunt Sara?”   Sara laughed, and steered the van back onto the street.  “You’ll have to ask your dad--I’m not running things any more, remember?”   The trip back to the Sidle house was filled with Kimmy’s excited chatter; she peppered Grissom with questions about deafness and ASL, which Sara noted he was genuinely pleased to answer.  Always a teacher at heart, she thought fondly.   But his good humor faded when they went inside and Kimmy went off to tell her father and Gracie about her day, finding them on the sun porch.  Sara followed behind Grissom as he went into the guest room, watching from the doorway as he tossed his wallet on the dresser and kicked off his shoes.  When he lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, she came around it and sat on the other side, stretching out her legs and leaning against the headboard.   And she waited.   It didn’t take long.  After perhaps six minutes Grissom sighed, still looking blankly up.  “It was as though we were suddenly having another conversation entirely,” he said, his voice almost a whisper.  “For a second I thought I was the one who was confused.  She doesn’t even realize she’s doing it, Sara.”   With another sigh, he moved, laying his head in her lap like a sleepy child.  Sara began stroking his hair with a light touch, searching for words and not finding any.  Grissom didn’t need to be reminded that Rosalie was safe, and well-looked-after, and loved; he knew those things.  This was a situation in which there was very little comfort, and Sara could find none to offer.   “Do you want to move here?” she asked at last.   Grissom turned his head to look at her, startled, but as their eyes met his expression softened into sadness and understanding, and he lifted a hand to touch her cheek.  “Thank you.  But no.  Not...yet.”   Sara nodded, and turned her head to press a kiss into his palm.   They were silent together for a while, watching the light fade, until finally Joey returned home.  His voice stirred Sara from a sort of peaceful, wistful reverie, and she looked down.   Grissom looked asleep, on his back with his head still in her lap and his hand holding hers down against his chest, but his eyes opened.  “Shall we go see what treasures he’s found?”   They found Joey in the living room with the rest of the family; he was sunburned, salty, and had obviously had a very good day.  He passed around shells--”I found some for everybody!”--and told tales of sea urchins, gulls, and dead fish.  His mouth was stained purple from a last popsicle, and as he gave Gracie a lovely piece of sea glass, Sara glanced over at Grissom with half-hidden amusement.   “High on junk food and sugar,” she said in a low voice.  “I give him about twenty more minutes before he falls over.”   Grissom snorted.  “I’m not taking that bet.”  He accepted a bottle of beer from Ed, who passed another to Sara.  “Isn’t he keeping anything for himself?”   Sara shrugged as Joey emptied his pail for the last few treasures.  “He’s the generous type.”   Her prediction was spot-on; at minute eighteen, Joseph wilted, suddenly running out of energy and words, and Ed scooped him up for a quick wash before bed.  Kimmy, a small pile of shells next to her, was already buried in a book.   “What do you want on your pizza?” Gracie asked, rising, and took orders for pepperoni, green pepper, and anchovies before heading for the kitchen to find the delivery number.  Sara picked up the empty beer bottles.   “The Sunday crossword is on the side table,” she told Grissom, pointing with one of the bottles, and he smirked briefly at her as he picked up the paper.  Sara followed Gracie to dump her load into the recycling bin.   Gracie was lifting the phone from its cradle, and Sara’s eyes widened as she took in a new detail, but she waited until Gracie had placed the order and hung up before speaking.   “Congratulations, by the way.”   Gracie gave her a startled look, then burst out laughing.  “It’s hard to hide a detail from a federal agent.”  She held out her left hand, palm down, and looked at the ring on it with a shy but delighted expression.   Sara grinned hugely, and came over to give her an awkward but sincere hug.  “I guess he just couldn’t stand it any longer.”  The ring was one of those Ed had first looked at, rose gold with tiny emeralds surrounding a diamond, and it suited Gracie’s hand perfectly.   Gracie shrugged, blushing a little.  “He talked me into it--he’s good at that--but we’re not going to get married until I have my degree.”   “Talk about motivation,” Sara teased, and they laughed together.  “Grace, I’m really glad.  You’re good for Ed and I know he’s crazy about you.”   “Thank you,” Gracie said, her smile sincere.  “That means a tremendous amount, Sara.  I’ll admit  that until recently I never...thought this was possible.”  Fading sadness washed across her face, the memory of Danny, but Sara knew it was more in honor than regret by now.   “Yeah, well, I went through the same thing,” Sara admitted.  “Possible is a bigger word than it used to be.”   “This is true,” Gracie agreed, opening the fridge for more beer, and smiling down at her left hand as she did so.   Sara closed her hand to feel the weight of her own band, and its promises, and grinned.                 Chapter 1     Chapter 2     Chapter 3     Chapter 4     Chapter 5     Chapter 6     Chapter 7     Chapter 8     Chapter 9     Chapter 10    Chapter 11     Chapter 12     Chapter 13     Chapter 14     Chapter 15     Chapter 16     Chapter 17    Chapter 18     Chapter 19     Chapter 20     Chapter 21     Chapter 22     Chapter 23     Chapter 24     Chapter 25     Chapter 26     Chapter 27     Chapter 28    Chapter 29     Chapter 30     Chapter 31     Chapter 32     Chapter 33     Chapter 34     Chapter 35     Chapter 36     Chapter 37     Chapter 38     Chapter 39    Chapter 40 CSI Home Feedback