Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Category: General/Romance
Archive: FF.net and here. Anywhere else ask first, I might say yes.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, just borrowing for fun. Please don't sue.
Summary: Ludicrous story, but go with me on it. Grissom and Sara are stuck overnight in the dessert due to set of missing keys.
Chapter 1
1. Hold hands.
2. Eat lifesavers.
3. Piss away the coyotes.
4. Bodyslam each other.
5. Scratch that personal itch.
The extremely decomposed body was found in the desert just before 6pm by three teenage boys who had been riding four wheelers all afternoon. Sara and Grissom made the 50 mile highway drive and then
continued another 12 miles on dirt roads out to the scene. By then it was almost 7:30pm. When they got there, David was finishing up and talking to the officer at the scene. He was waiting for Sara
and Grissom to arrive so he could transport the body.
"We're not going to have much daylight," Grissom said, looking up at the sky.
"We won't need it," Sara said, moving toward the body with her camera. "There's nothing here."
"There's a body," Grissom said sarcastically.
"Well, he's leaving," Sara said, watching David pull the stretcher out of his vehicle.
They worked quickly, looking for tire tracks, drag marks and footprints. Sara found two possible footprints and reproduced them accordingly as evidence, even though she suspected they were from the
boys who found the body. Grissom found some tire tracks nearby, but he wasn't convinced they were related to the body. While he photographed them, David came up behind him.
"Do you need me for anything else?" David asked sheepishly.
"No, David. That'll be it," Grissom said, continuing his work.
"Are you sure you don't want me to wait around for you guys? You're really in the middle of nowhere out here," David asked, looking around at the desert surrounding them.
Sara walked up to David, and patted his shoulder. "It's ok. We're big kids. We'll be fine," she mocked. David blushed intensely. Grissom turned to witness the exchange, cocking an eyebrow at them.
When David got in his car, Grissom told the attending officer he could leave too. He and Sara were just about done. The officer pulled away from the scene after David, leaving them in a cloud of
dust.
The sun began setting before them, and Grissom stood up for a moment to watch it. Sara walked up next to him. "What are you looking at?" she questioned-thinking he noticed something.
He turned and looked at her with a small smirk. "That big orange thing in the sky," he said, pointing out at the horizon. "Pretty, isn't it?" he asked.
She stood next to him, matching his stance almost perfectly. She shrugged silently, finding Grissom's behavior a little odd. They stood there for several minutes, watching the sun go down in a
colorful haze. The clouds that rolled in that afternoon joined in to create a particularly beautiful display. The sky now dusk, Sara said, "We better get this stuff in the car and get out of here.
It's going to be really dark out here soon."
"I thought we were big kids? What, are you scared of the dark?" Grissom asked jokingly.
"Shut up," she said, lifting her kit and heading toward the truck. Sara was surprised to hear him joke with her. It was very unlike Grissom, especially the way things had been between them lately.
She never knew what to expect from him. He could be in a good mood and tease her charmingly, or he could be very stern with her, making her wonder if he hated her.
She went to the truck, and pulled up on the handle. It didn't open. She stood there waiting for him to come over with the keys. When he walked up she turned toward him and said, "It's locked."
"It is?" he asked, wrinkling his eyebrows in confusion.
"Yeah," she nodded.
He put down his kit and patted his pockets. They were empty. "I gave you the keys, didn't I?" he asked.
"No," Sara said clearly. "Why would you give me the keys?" She patted her pockets as well, checking fervently for anything shaped like keys.
"Because I drove out here, and you were going to drive back," he said. His voice was raised just slightly. "I know I gave you those keys," he said shaking his head. Sara opened her kit, and took out
a flashlight. She shined it into the passenger side door, aiming it at the ignition. "They're not in the car," she said quickly. She could not believe this. It was totally dark now. The moon was
completely veiled by the clouds, and they could barely see each other.
"You strike me as a hide-a-key kind of man. Where is it?" Sara asked, trying to hide her anxiety, and shining the flashlight under his chin.
Grissom stared at her blankly. She moved closer to him and put her hand on the arm of his jacket, clenching her jaw. "Where's the hide-a-key, Grissom?" she asked through a forced smile. He just shook
his head at her. "Oh my God," Sara said leaning up against the Tahoe. Sara turned on her flashlight again and began looking around the car on the ground. Grissom got out a flashlight and did the
same. They both searched in silence for a while.
"I cannot believe this," she muttered to herself. "We're never going to find these keys out here!" she said, turning toward his direction. "I can't believe you lost the keys! I mean, seriously.
You're the most organized person I know. You probably fold up your socks and underwear in a straight row don't you?" she rambled angrily.
"I know I gave you those keys-I think you lost them," he said calmly. Suddenly he looked out into the desert, away from them. "Shhh... Did you hear that?" he asked quietly.
"Hear what?" she yelled, looking toward him.
He shushed her loudly, shining his light out into the darkness. He turned around quickly, looking behind him.
"What do you see?" Sara asked nervously.
"Sara," he said calmly. "Get on the roof of the car."
"What?" she asked.
"Now!" he shouted, running up behind her and practically throwing her up on the hood of the car. They scrambled up onto the roof of the car as a pack of coyotes charged at the car,
growling.
"Holy shit!" she shouted, holding on to Grissom for dear life. She began babbling incessantly. "We're going to die out here, aren't we? They're going to find our starved and sun burned bodies on the
roof of this car, and they'll say, ‘well, that's a damn shame, so young, so full of life'." Grissom almost laughed at her ranting. He reached out for her hands and steadied them.
"Hey, calm down," he said, bringing her hands close toward him. "We're not going to die out here." He could feel her heart pounding next to him and her hands were shaking. She didn't say anything for
a few minutes. She was too surprised by him touching her.
She felt awkward letting him hold her hands like that, like she was some scared child. She remembered how he held her hands after the lab exploded; how he caressed them tenderly and made her suspect
once again that he had feelings for her. This time she gently pulled her hands away from him, but still stayed very close to him. "Where did these wolves come from?" she asked, pulling up her knees
and looking around the car into the darkness.
"They're not wolves Sara, they're canis latrans-desert coyotes. I don't understand why they charged at us though. Coyotes don't usually attack humans," Grissom said calmly.
"Then what the hell was that?" she asked, in no mood for a lecture on coyote behavior.
"I don't know. They must have thought we had food or something. That was very uncharacteristic. They should be more scared of us than we are of them," Grissom said. Even in the dark, Sara could
picture the exact puzzled expression that was on his face.
Sara took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a little, even though she could still hear coyotes nearby. Grissom pulled out his cell phone, knowing full well he would have no service in the desert.
He felt obligated to check. He saw the green backlight flashing NO SERVICE instantly and tucked it back into his jacket pocket. "Well, I'm sure David will wonder where we are eventually," he said
plainly.
"Eventually?" she asked. "Like when, tomorrow sometime? That guy doesn't notice much unless it involves a corpse, Grissom."
"Well, I'm sure he'll notice if you're missing," he said. Sara swore she detected a hint of jealousy.
"Right. I guess I could just sit here and wait for my knight with shining scalpel to come save me," Sara said sarcastically.
"Hey, don't I count? I did just save you from a pack of hungry coyotes."
"Yeah, but you don't have a crush on me like he does," Sara said, without thinking. She regretted her words instantly. Even in the dark, she could feel the tension and awkwardness. Grissom was
silent. Sara was so grateful for the darkness, hiding her embarrassment.
"It's making me nuts that we can't move on this evidence," Grissom said, changing the subject. "It's time sensitive."
"How are a couple tire tracks and some foot prints time sensitive?" Sara asked.
"They're time sensitive to the victim's family," Grissom said seriously.
"Well, unless you can magically open the locked doors and hotwire the car, that evidence isn't going anywhere," Sara said, turning her face in his direction. "How do you know the guy didn't just die
accidentally somehow? You're always thinking the worst," she rattled.
He squinted, momentarily considering what she said. "Like how? He went out for a walk by himself in the desert and just dropped dead?" Sara started to laugh, seeing his point. "Oh, I don't know," she
muttered, shaking her head in mock disgust. She shivered slightly, feeling a breeze blow through the valley.
"Are you wearing a jacket?" Grissom asked, reaching over and touching her forearm. He sounded like he was talking directly into her ear. Sara turned toward him and scooted a bit away from him.
"No, it's in the back of the car," she said, laughing lightly at her predicament and shaking her head. She had a long sleeved shirt on, but it was thin and cotton. She was cold already, and the sun
had just gone down.
"Here," Grissom said, unzipping his forensics jacket.
"No, don't do that. I'll be alright," Sara said.
"Just take it," Grissom argued, pulling his arms out and handing it to her. "I don't want to be responsible for your mild hypothermia," he continued.
She didn't want to argue with him, so she put his jacket on, appreciating the warmth immediately. "How cold do you think it's going to get out here tonight?" Sara asked.
"Well, if those clouds stick around, it won't get that bad. Maybe upper 40's. If they clear out, we could be looking at freezing temperatures," Grissom said, reclining back on the roof of the
car.
"Great," Sara said, watching his form stretch out before her. In the darkness she felt free to stare at him all she wanted, even if she couldn't see much. She thought for a moment about the night she
asked him to have dinner with her. It had been awkward, and she tripped over her words clumsily. He was uncomfortable too, clearly feeling something for her but unsure what to do about it. Grissom
shifted a bit, drawing her attention back to the present. Sara decided to lie down next to him. She chuckled lightly at the twist of fate, both of them stuck out here alone, together, in the middle
of the dessert. She stretched out next to him on her back.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"I was just thinking that I bet you'd rather be stuck out here with anyone else on the planet but me."
"Why do you think that?" he asked, turning toward her.
"I don't know," she muttered. She stared at the clouds over the moon for a moment. "Because things are weird between us now," she continued, fully regretting bringing up this topic of
conversation.
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