The Loophole

Chapter 2

Sara stood in her shower, laughing until the tears rolled down her cheeks. She was married. She was married to Gil Grissom.

After they'd left the chapel, they'd stared at their shoes, his car, anywhere but each other. He'd finally offered her a ride home, dropping her off with an awkward kiss on the cheek.

She rubbed shampoo between her palms, working up a lather, feeling the alien weight of gold on her ring finger. The thought occurred to her that Grissom may have married her just to have had the opportunity to kiss her once, and she started to laugh again, until her cheeks and abs and heart hurt.

He called her after dusk fell. Somehow he felt more sure of himself at night.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm calling to speak to the little woman."

Sara sighed in relief when she heard the humor in his voice. "Sorry, she's barefoot and in the kitchen right now, she can't come to the phone."

"Ah. Well, please tell her that we have an appointment to meet with Ecklie an hour before shift tonight."

"I will give her that message." She spun a pencil on her counter, willing him not to hang up the phone.

"So." he cleared his throat, and she smiled. "I was wondering. Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?"

She gasped in mock horror. "Dinner? With a married man?"

"Sara." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Work with me here."

"Dinner would be good," she agreed. "When?"

"Wednesday? Seven o'clock? Dinner and a movie?"

She rolled the pencil across the counter, catching it before it fell over the edge. "Depends. What kind of movie?"

"Um." He hadn't thought this far. Flipping through the pages of his newspaper, he read through the listings. "Million Dollar Baby?"

"Saw it."

"Sideways?"

"Saw it."

"Meet the Fockers?"

"Oh dear god, you want to see Meet the Fockers?"

"No, I just wanted to see if you'd seen it. It looks like the rest of the movies are all about tough guys baby-sitting."

"Okay, so just dinner. You'll pick me up?"

"I'll pick you up."

They were both quiet for a long moment, till he spoke. "Hey Sara?"

"Yeah?"

"I would have waited."

She cocked her head. "What?"

"If you hadn't agreed to marry me, I would have waited until you didn't work for me anymore." His voice wavered slightly, betraying his nervousness, and she bit her lip to keep from smiling.

"Now you tell me."

"Gil, Sara, please come in." Ecklie leaned back in his chair, touching his fingertips together and peering at the couple seated in front of him. They were both nervous, though Grissom had an air of defiance about him that made Ecklie uneasy.

"I'll get right to the point, Conrad. Sara and I got married this morning."

Ecklie's eyes flew to their ring fingers, which sported matching gold bands. He breathed in slowly, tapping his fingertips together. "I.see. Well, I won't lie to you, Gil. You've put me in one hell of an awkward spot here."

"I'm not sure I follow," Grissom replied, shaking his head in the pretense of confusion.

"There are rules that we as supervisors must follow," Ecklie said heavily.

Sara spoke up for the first time. "We've broken no rules," she said, her voice even. "You can check the book."

Stifling a sigh, Ecklie pulled out his supervisory manual.

"Page 214," Sara supplied helpfully.

He read over the paragraph once, then twice as realization dawned. "You expect me to believe that you two got married without ever having dated?"

"Oh, we've dated," Grissom said. "Just not each other."

"Nobody's going to buy that, Gil. Nobody just gets married without. testing the waters a few times."

"Careful, Conrad. Your romantic side is showing." Grissom felt the heat rising to his cheeks. "We're willing to submit to polygraph tests, if you feel that it is necessary."

Ecklie sniffed. "Don't be ridiculous." He stared at the words again, growing more and more angry that Grissom had found a loophole.

"So are we done here?" Sara couldn't hide the hard edge to her voice.

Finally he slammed the book shut, making them all jump. "Yeah. We're done."

The rumors spread like wildfire, and Catherine practically ran into his office, grabbing his hand. "Oh my god," she shrieked. "You got married?"

His shrug of concession infuriated her.

"You got married and you didn't tell me? You got married to Sara and you didn't tell me?"

Grissom had the grace to look apologetic. "We couldn't tell anyone, Cath. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It had to be."

A wide smile of understanding slowly spread across her face. "There's a loophole."

"For now," he agreed. "Though I'm sure Ecklie's on the phone with the printers right now, making sure it won't happen again."

"Married," she marveled, shaking her head. "I never thought I'd see the day." Her eyes lit up. "Oh my god, does Greg know?"

A howl of misery was heard down the hall, as Catherine got her answer.

They gathered together in the break room, swing shift and night shift reunited for a bittersweet moment. Catherine and Sofia examined Sara's ring dubiously, while the men squinted at Grissom, trying to figure out how he'd scored a woman like Sara.

"You are going to get her an engagement ring, right, Gil?" Catherine threw over her shoulder. "Gold is not her color, and you've got to make the shotgun wedding up to her."

"I'll get her a ring," he assured, sneaking a glance at Sara. She winked at him shyly, and he closed his eyes for a brief moment, wondering at how fast his life had changed.

Greg banged his head against the wall, making soft thudding noises. "So you. just drove her to a chapel?"

He smiled into his tea. "I just drove her to a chapel."

The younger man shook his head in disbelief. "God, if I had known it was that easy."

"Hey, watch who you're calling easy!" Sara objected, laughing.

She looked over at Grissom, who was running his thumb over his ring, lost in his own world. She knew just how he felt.