Fic: Where You Lead

Title: Where You Lead
Fandom: CSI (Grissom/Sara)
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,497
Spoilers: Through Goodbye and Good Luck.
Author's Note: Written for microgirl8225 in bestkeptprivate's Secret Santa. She asked for something fluffy, and while I can never write complete fluff, I hope this is enough. Immense gratitude to kosmickway and eveningdreamer for betaing.



I've lived with my people for a while now. I’m not sure how long exactly, dogs don't have good memories for things like that. No, we remember the treats, the tummy rubs, the long walks at midnight when our people come home from work exhausted and yet they take us anyway. What's more, I remember that my person rescued me from a life I don't like to think about.

My person's name is Gil Grissom. When I first met him he lived alone. He was away a lot – I stayed alone at night most of the time, but my days were spent being a devoted companion to my new best friend. Right from the beginning of our relationship there was always someone else around. She came over with dinner a lot, and sometimes she slept over and took me to daycare in the morning. It was hard for me to share my newfound home and best friend with another person, but by the time she began sharing his bed permanently and moved her things in with us, I knew that Sara Sidle was one of a kind, and that she was quickly becoming one of my people.

My favorite days were the ones when they picked me up from daycare together and we would just lounge around at home. Sara treated me well. She’d feed me scraps of the Chinese take out they’d brought with them, and I’d rest my head on Grissom’s knee while they watched a movie or spread paper out across the bedroom floor and talked about it for hours. The days Sara came alone were pretty special too. She’d bring treats and drive me to the park across town for a long walk. Grissom was still my favorite and she knew it – loyalty isn’t something that can be bought; but Sara was an important part of my life too.

Then one day they didn’t come home. The telephone kept ringing. The next-door neighbor came over a few times to feed me and take me outside, and I spent the night alone on their bed. Something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Finally Grissom came home, but barely gave me a second glance. He started going through the closet for Sara's clothes; he ignored the phone, he didn't touch the newspapers on the porch. That was when I knew: something had happened to Sara.

She came home a few days later wrapped in bandages like I'd been after going to the vet. She was quiet and slept a lot, so I stayed with her, on the bed, on the couch, in the kitchen. Sara needed me. After awhile, her bandages disappeared, and things went mostly back to normal. Except they didn't laugh as much, and though Grissom didn't know it, Sara would sit up for hours when she should have been sleeping. She’d watch people on tv or stare out the window deep in thought. She tried to smile, especially around Grissom, but her dark eyes were sad.

Then Sara disappeared.

I knew she was leaving when she came home from early and packed a suitcase. She was crying, she scratched my ears in the special way only she knows how to, and I tried to lick away her tears, which only seemed to make her cry more. Grissom came home a mess. He forgot to feed me. He forgot to feed himself. After a few days I realized that Sara wasn't coming home.

Grissom didn't take any of it very well. He spent more time than ever locked up in his study. I would lie on the floor watching him work, wishing there was something I could do to make him feel better. We still went on long walks, but they didn’t seem to be fun to him anymore. Gone were the field trips to the park, and the special treats from the bakery down the street. I had never realized how much Sara had had to do with all of the things I loved until she was gone. I missed her. So did he.

Time passed. The weather got colder, and people started decorating their houses with lights and giant funny looking plastic snowmen. I loved to attack the snowmen on our walks, which seemed to amuse Grissom more than it did our neighbors. He didn’t put up a tree though, or any lights.

The day it got dark really early Grissom came home and spent the night in his study like he'd done every night since Sara left. Except this time, it was different. He was standing straighter and was moving more quickly, he seemed to be in a hurry for something. He typed something up on the box with lights he sometimes used and packed a bag. I followed him from room to room and lay down, observing his strange behavior. Then, once the bag was packed, he crouched down to my level and scratched my ears.

"Let's go get her, Hank," he said. "Let's go get Sara." I perked my ears, wondering if I’d heard correctly: it was the first time he’d said her name since she left. I jumped up and barked my agreement. Finally.

We went for a car ride and Grissom stopped at a long flat building to give someone the paper he'd made at home. Then we got to an airport, where I was checked into an area with several other dogs and cats. Grissom assured me he’d see me soon. After a few hours we were reunited in a place I didn’t recognize, where it was colder than I'd ever been before. There was fluffy white stuff on the ground which was fun to roll around in, and I wished we’d brought a ball that I could have played with in what Grissom called ‘snow’. I wondered if maybe Sara would have one for me. Grissom found himself another car and we drove off down a big busy road.

We arrived at a small house with a big yard. Grissom parked the car out front, and was clearly nervous as he sat in the car for several minutes just staring at the house. I knew this must be where Sara lived now. I whined and pawed at his arm, excited to see her. At last he decided to get out of the car, taking me with him.

He told me to sit, then rang the doorbell. It wasn't Sara who answered, but a woman who looked a lot like her. She was older and shorter with much lighter hair. She looked at us, and a big smile crossed her face.

Then Sara came to the door. She looked tired and a little bit sad, but her eyes lit up when she saw us. I stayed sitting, knowing this was Grissom's moment, watching carefully. He didn't reach out to her, just wordlessly handed her a copy of the paper he'd typed earlier.

"I gave Ecklie an early Christmas present," he said. She looked over the paper, then back up at him.

"You resigned?" It was barely a whisper.

"I don't want to live without you, Sara."

Tears filled her eyes, but I think they were good tears, because then she was in his arms and he was holding her like he'd never let go again. I whimpered and nudged the leg of her jeans with my nose because I'd missed her too, and she reached one hand down from the hug to scratch my ears. I was in heaven.

"I missed you so much, and … I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry…"

"Don't apologize." He was choked up. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

I saw her smile, and it was like the sun coming out. She took his hand.

"Come in."

I followed my people into the house. This was my family, reunited, happy, safe.

**

I've lived with my people in a new city for a while now. I’m not sure how long exactly, but it doesn’t matter. I remember the long walks to the park in the winter with a tennis ball and the snow, and playing at the lake in the summer.

My favorite times are the quiet times we spend as a family in our new house; the times when Grissom cooks dinner after work while Sara's marking papers at the kitchen table. The times when they sit on the back deck, talking softly as I run through the yard. Or when we're all lying in bed at night and Sara falls asleep reading. Grissom gently takes her book from her lap and places it on the nightstand, turns off the lamp and kisses her forehead, the ring on his left hand brushing lightly against her arm. He tells her he loves her. As he rolls over to sleep I sigh and wriggle closer to Sara's feet.

Most of all, there’s happiness. It’s not always traditional, or pretty, but it’s theirs and it’s mine.