Sorry for the laaaaaaate update. I did start writing this while I was at Joey’s…and then stopped when I got home, so I’ve tried to make this one extra long, compared to my other chapters anyway. So this is dedicated to Joey and Ben for kicking my arse into gear.

Sara opened her door early the next morning to find Gil Grissom grinning at her.

“You do realise what time it is don’t you?” she said wearily. His grin faulted but didn’t vanish completely and he glanced at his watch.

“It’s 6:00am and if we want to get to the theme park and beat all the queues you’d better get a move on.” She stared at him blankly.

“Uh…am I missing something here?” leaning against the door frame she closed her eyes.

“Oh yeah,” he continued. “I’m taking you to a theme park and then to dinner this evening. Go get ready.” He said, holding up a pair of tickets and flashing her another cheeky smile. Sara eyed the tickets and then looked at him, drearily.

“You want me to go to a theme park at stupid o’clock in the morning?” she mumbled.

“Come on, we’re usually still at work now anyway.” He reasoned.

She rolled her eyes and groaned “You’re serious aren’t you?” He nodded enthusiastically at her. He grabbed her shoulders, turned her to face the room and gently pushed her in.

“Get dressed.” He said cheerfully and pulled her door closed. Sara stood staring at her bed, wondering just what had happened in the last few seconds. “Go on!” she heard through the closed door.

“Alright, fine, don’t get your boxers in a twist.” She yelled back and then smiled to herself at the image in her brain.

“Stop picturing that!”

Sara blushed, gathered some clothes and rushed into the bathroom.

Sara reappeared a few minutes later to find Grissom leaning up the opposite wall, arms folded across his chest. His gaze lifted to look at her, now finally fully dressed, although her eyes betrayed her exhaustion. He pushed himself off the wall and walked up to her.

“Sara, if you’re really not up to this you don’t have to come.” He said solemnly.

“I’m fine, I just need to wake up a bit first.” She said as she firmly rubbed her eyes. “Just answer me something though, why are we going to a theme park and why are you taking me to dinner?” she stopped her eye rubbing and looked him straight in the eye.

“Well…I was thinking about what you said last night and you’re right, you can’t be expected to decide your future in one night, I’ve put you through a lot and I’m styling a change…so I’m trying to earn brownie points I suppose.” He shrugged, trying to judge her reaction.

“Oh.” She said. “Can’t say I was expecting that.” She chuckled. “But thank you for being so honest with me.” She beamed at him as she held out her hand, which he took immediately. Their fingers entwined they began walking down the hallway.

After stepping off the boat they walked for about half an hour before coming to a huge gate with a ‘Closed’ sign on it. Sara gaped at it.

“When you said we’d beat the queues I didn’t expect this.” She groaned. “So it isn’t open yet? We’ve got to wait?”

“Not exactly.” Grissom said and rapped his knuckles on the gate. A few seconds later, a small door that was cut out of the gate opened and a tanned man with curly blonde hair tied back in a ponytail poked his head around it.

“Ah, Gil, you’re here, and you brought a lady.” He gave Grissom a hearty handshake and then pecked Sara on the cheek.

“Ben, this is Sara.” He grinned. “Are we ok to come in?”

“Of course!” Ben said enthusiastically and disappeared behind the door. “The park doesn’t open for another hour and a half but if you tell me where you want to go I’ll go and start things up for you.” He said and bounded off through a door on the left, leaving Sara looking at Grissom, still not quite up to speed.

“Griss, what’s going on?” Sara asked.

“Well, Ben is an old friend and he owns this park, so I called him this morning and asked if we could have a private viewing before all the tourists got here.” Grissom winked at her. “So we’ve got an hour to do whatever we want before the park opens.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a rollercoaster entitled ‘Heavus Maximus’.

“Oh well that sounds delightful.” Sara said sarcastically. Grissom gave her a look and tugged her forwards.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds; it’s the baby of the park.” He said. Sara still looked unsure so he squeezed her hand and smiled. “I’ll look after you, I promise.”

“Ugh! Why did you have to say that?” she smirked. “Come on then, you man child.”

“Great!” they made their way to the ride with Ben not far behind. As they got nearer to the ride, Sara noticed that the track was far bigger than she had originally thought with a few track twists and what must have been a two hundred foot drop at the beginning. She gulped but carried on walking.

Once they had been strapped in and Sara had been reassured that everything would be fine, Grissom grabbed her hand and winked at her.

“Feel free to cut off the circulation if you need to.” He said kindly. Sara was about to reply when the coaster jolted forwards suddenly and started moving, making Sara let out a short squeal and clawing at Grissom’s hand. Ben gave them both a thumbs up as they went past and began to roll up the ramp before the drop. Sara’s nails were etching into Grissom’s hand as they rounded the track and looked down on the rest of the park.

“Oh my God!” Sara gasped and Grissom winced. The coaster paused at the pinnacle of the drop and Sara thought they were stuck, until they slowly rolled over the edge and gravity did its job. Grissom yelled happily and Sara shrieked like a peacock the rest of the way around the track, particularly on the twisty parts and the upside down loop. They finally arrived back at the beginning and Sara was glued to her seat, her eyes wide and hair a mess. Grissom on the other hand had a huge grin plastered on his face, which faltered slightly when he flexed his hand.

The bars that were holding them in lifted and Sara jumped out straight away. Grissom climbed out slowly and joined her on the platform smiling.

“Fun huh?” he said. Sara glared at him but Ben interrupted..

“How awesome is that ride?” he said, bouncing up to them. “I didn’t think you’d take your girlfriend on the biggest ride in the park straight away Gil.” Sara’s jaw dropped.

“Biggest?!” she turned to Grissom and whacked him on the arm. “You complete bastard!” she nearly shouted.

“I knew if I’d told you it was the biggest you wouldn’t have gone on it.” He defended.

“Damn right I wouldn’t have!” she shouted, failing to hide a smirk.

“Uh, guys? Don’t want to break up the domestic but the park opens in forty-five minutes so if you wanna go on anything else we’d better get going.” Ben spoke up, smiling at the couple. “And for the record Sara, you did alright for your first time on this beauty, Gil hurled during his.” He winked at her.

“Oh really?” she turned her head to Grissom again, who was now looking embarrassedly at the floor. “Was the big ol’ coaster too much for little Gilbert’s belly?” she mocked in a baby voice, grinning wickedly.

“Aww now don’t bully him.” Ben snickered. “Save that for the bedroom eh?”

“Benjamin!” Grissom growled and Ben chuckled before running off to sort things out around the park.

“I apologise for him, he’s a little…extroverted.” Grissom sighed.

“Don’t worry about it, at least we’ve got some of the awkwardness out of the way.” She smiled at him. “Now, where’s the water rides?”

“Morning.” Nick said to Catherine, Greg and Warrick as he joined them at the table they were eating at.

“Morning? Try afternoon, lightweight.” Greg said, making Warrick chuckle.

“This is coming from the One-Sip Wonder?” Nick threw back at him. Greg smirked at him and the other two laughed.

“Whatever Stokes.”

“Ooh, crippling come back, that’s almost as good as ‘I know you are but what am I.’” said Nick, pouring himself some coffee.

“Alright children,” Catherine interjected. “play nice.”

“Yes mom.” Greg said quietly, and then dodged Catherine’s hand as it aimed for his head.

“God forbid I should ever have a child like you!” she said loudly, making a few people turn in their seats.

“Anyway,” Warrick said, drawing attention away from the squabbling pair. “anyone seen Grissom or Sara yet? It’s not like them to sleep this long.”

“I think I heard them go out early this morning.” Catherine said, finally giving up on trying to swat Greg. “You were dead to the world of course, hogging all the covers.” She realised how much she’d said far too late as Nick choked on his coffee and Greg dropped his fork.

“Did I just hear that right?” Nick said gruffly.

“Sounded like Catherine said Warrick was hogging the covers.” Said Greg.

“Well what I meant was-”

“You and Warrick are doin’ it?” Nick grinned at her.

Catherine’s cheeks turned red and Warrick was smiling guiltily.

“No way!” Greg shouted. “They’re doing it!” this sentence made more people turn around and stare at them. He simply beamed back at them.

“Yes, fine, we’re ‘doing it’ as you so delicately put it,” Catherine sighed. “can we drop it now?”

“For now, we’re totally gonna grill you later, and I’m sure Sara and Grissom will do the same when they get here.” Nick said.

“Whatever, Man Whore.” Warrick laughed.

“Damn, what is it with all these excellent come backs?”

“Wow, who knew getting soaked to the bone could be so much fun?” Sara said, giggling as they stepped off the log flume, entitled ‘Splash of Doom’, for the fourth time.

“There’s drying machine things over here.” Grissom pointed to a small booth next to the photo shop. “Do you want to check out our photo first?” she nodded and they made their way over to the kiosk with several TV screens mounted on the walls. They waited for a few seconds, and then spotted their own section of the picture. Sara sat in the front of the ride with Grissom behind her, holding her around the waist, both beaming from ear to ear.

“That’s a nice picture.” Sara said, fishing out her purse from her bag.

“Hey, you better not be getting money out.” Grissom said, reaching for his own wallet.

“Damn right.” Ben said, appearing around the corner and motioning to the tall woman behind the counter. “These two get their picture free, alright? Guests.” He said. The woman nodded and began printing out the picture.

“Oh, no, Ben you can’t do that.” Sara said.

“The hell I can’t.” he said, smiling. “Any friend of Gil’s is a friend of mine, and my friends do not pay in my park.” He handed her the printout of their picture and grinned. “And if anyone tells you differently, just tell ‘em to call me.” He poked his thumb into his chest as if to prove his point.

“Thank you Ben.” Grissom said, shaking the man’s hand.

“Don’t sweat it brother. Now come on, you two gotta be hungry after all this.” He said, beginning to walk away.

“Just a sec, we need to get dry first.”

“Sure, I’ll go get you some food, I’ll be at the hut around the corner, just here.” He pointed in the direction he was walking. “Oh, and around the side of that heater is a number pad, type in 5253 and the hash key and expect to be dry in around three to five minutes.” He began to walk away when Gil called him.

“Can, um, you order us both veggie burgers instead of normal ones? Please?” After drawing his brows together for a moment, Ben gave the thumbs up to them both and disappeared again.

“He’s a good friend, very generous.” Sara said, leading the way to the drying booth.

“Yeah.” Grissom agreed. “We’ve been friends since we were teenagers and all of this has been his dream since.” He smiled and located the keypad Ben had spoken of, tapping in the code the machine roared to life. He gestured for Sara to get in first. She stepped in and began drying her hair expecting Grissom to follow her in, but he stood outside.

“Why are you out there? It’s a two person dryer.” She said, ruffling her hair in the warm gusts of air. Grissom shrugged. “Get in here.” She turned around to dry her back and Grissom stepped in tentatively. His hair was only a little damp so he simply stood there waiting for his clothes to dry, watching Sara running her hands through her own hair. He badly wanted to reach out and do that for her, he had woken up to her hair splayed across his chest before now, but that was different. Perhaps not having an excuse to touch it made it harder for him to resist.

At any rate, he was simply standing there, letting the hot air wash over him, staring at the back of Sara’s head. She turned suddenly and noticed him staring. “Griss, you gotta move around to get dry properly.”

“Um…” he stared at her blankly.

“Ugh, here.” She ruffled his hair slightly to get the underneath dry and then started turning him around. “Got it?” she chuckled and went back to drying her hair.

They stood in silence for a few moments and then Grissom turned back to Sara. “So, uh, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?” he asked her.

“Wasn’t this all your idea? Shouldn’t you be making the decisions?” she smiled.

“I’m offering you the choice, the rollercoaster clearly wasn’t a good idea-”

“Yeah it was.” She interrupted him.

“No, it wasn’t.” he chuckled. “You practically burst my eardrums screaming and then gave me a dead arm.” Sara looked embarrassed. “Don’t worry about it, but the point is, I want us to do something together that we’ll both enjoy.”

Sara raised her eyebrows in an ‘oh really?’ fashion and he started backpedalling, thankfully Sara saved him before he could do any damage.

“I know what you meant Grissom, the opportunity was just too good.” She grinned. Grissom’s face relaxed and he let out a breath of laughter.

“So now we’ve got our double entendre of the day out of the way. What do you want to do?”

“Well,” Sara thought for a moment. “I’ve heard there’s a Mini Golf course somewhere in this area.”

“Sounds good, we’ll go and get some food and then ask Ben where the golf course is.”

Ben excused himself from having lunch with them, claiming the need to get back to work, but as he turned to leave he gave Grissom a cheeky wink and an eyebrow wiggle. So Grissom and Sara sat on an empty bench while they ate their fries and veggie burgers.

“I thought you said veggie burgers were the ‘embodiment of the devil and therefore pure evil’?” She hid her smirk as his ears turned slightly pink. Buying time he chewed his mouthful very slowly, then took a large gulp of his soda.

“I did, but I thought it would be rude to make you watch me eat a real burger. So I’m sucking it up. That and mind over body- I’m pretending that it’s a hamburger.” He gave her a little grin.

Touched that he finally remembered that she was a vegetarian, and taking it into consideration when choosing his own food, Sara smiled sweetly at him. “Thank you.” She almost whispered.

They finished their food in companionable silence and made their way to the miniature golf course.

“You know I’ve never played mini golf.”

Grissom stared at her. “Never? As in never ever?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know how to play it.”

Again, he stared at her. “well I’m going to have to teach you then aren’t I?” he pushed a gate open and allowed her through first.

Once Grissom had retrieved the clubs and a golf ball each (red for him and purple for Sara) they made their way to the first green and were faced with…

“A giant monkey?” Sara giggled as the great blue mechanical monkey slowly swished it’s tail back and forth between its legs.

“Yeah, it’s one of the things to get past, you have to get the ball into the hole past the monkeys legs and the tail, so you have to time it. Here,” he placed his ball on the rubber matting and took aim. The ball sailed through the monkeys legs, narrowly missing the tail and hit the ridge on the other side of the hole, slowing it and ricocheting it back into the hole. Grissom turned to Sara grinning while she stared at him. “now you try.”

Sara did as Grissom had done and brought the club up and swung it so the ball flew through the air and over the shoulder of the monkey, landing with a feeble bounce next to the hole. Sara beamed happily.

“Well, I suppose technically that was one shot.” Grissom chuckled. “But you gotta keep the ball on the ground.”

“Hey give me a break, I’m a beginner.” She said, dodging around the swinging tail on her way to the ball.

There were eight holes in total and by the fifth Grissom was seven under par whereas Sara was twelve over, and getting very pissed off.

“God dammit!” she cursed as her ball, once again, hit the windmill after her forth shot at it. “Griss, I can’t do it! I graduated Harvard with a Honours Degree in Physics but I can’t work out how the hell to get this damn ball through the damn windmill…things!” she kicked the head of her club and glared at the ball as it rolled back towards her.

“Alright, calm down.” Grissom stopped her launching her club at the ‘damn windmill’ by grabbing her wrist and standing behind her. “Ok, now keep your left hand there and give me your right, that’s it, put it directly underneath your right hand. That’s your grip, now spread your feet a bit more.” Sara did so and relaxed into Grissom’s embrace, letting him lead the show. He still had his hands on hers and you couldn’t have slid a ruler between them. “Right, now raise the club to about knee height, that’s it, and follow through.” He helped her swing the club so the ball flowed forwards, passing through the windmill and plopping straight into the hole. “There you go, easy.” He whispered into her ear and she shivered. Feeling brave, he tentatively kissed her neck just below the ear. When he heard no objection but a sigh of content, he moved further down her neck.

“Griss…”

Grissom spun her around, the club flew to the ground and he crushed his mouth to hers, pulling her roughly against his chest. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her hand found its way into his salt and pepper curls.

After a few minutes of groping and tonsil tennis, Grissom pulled away.

“Sara-”

“Grissom I swear to God if your next words are anything like ‘We shouldn’t have done that.’ I will shove that club so far up your-” he silenced her with another kiss.

“I think the time for talking has long since passed.”

TBC

B/N: Hey guys! I had to FORCE her to do this… I was damn close to tying her to the bed with her laptop! Unfortunately I didn’t have to (next time Smoose) and funny story… certain aspects of this are from us two at a theme park when she was here… the screaming like a peacock was my dad, I think I cut the circulation off from her arm on the pirate ship (I REALLY hate that one… it goes like 5,000 feet in the air!!) and the drying booths were stupid! Made my hair turn into an afro!! I LOOKED LIKE MY MUUUUUUM!!

Anyways, all of this hasn’t been beta’ed because this week has been a nightmare, I’ve been trying to sort out stuff for the V festival (which is where I am when this is going to be posted) so I couldn’t do it before the deadline (right now it’s 00:20 and I’m up at 5:30am to get ready to go to said festival)… now you may ask why does it have a deadline? why this weekend? Well dear friends… I shall tell you…

IT’S GRISSOM’S BIIIIIRTHDAAAAAAAAY! so.. everyone… 1..2..3..4

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR GILBEAR! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOU!!

Now review because I haven’t slept much these past few days, and I’m awake at a stupid time… for you guys! yes YOU! (and Grissom) now love this chapter or DIIIE!!

--falls asleep at keyboard—

A/N: Christ Jo, your own little fic as a note there, and you did NOT force me to do it, I was going to…eventually. Also, another minor thing, AS Level results. 3 U’s and an E. Yeah, I suck. Everyone in the UK knows what that means, but to everyone else, basically an E is the VERY last pass grade and a U is so poor it’s not worth a grade, so I have to re-enter into the first year again. I’m swapping Law and Biology for History and Media plainly because Biology sucks donkey ass and Law is getting STUPIDLY hard and next year is going to be harder apparently. Anyway, I knew I was gonna do shite so I’m not bothered, c'est la vie.

I did this chapter with Grissom’s birthday in mind, so guess what his present from Sara is. Get in my son!