In a World They Forgot

I'm Too Scared To Know

"Miks, are you sure you're really sure about this?" Greg asked, looking down at me with uncertainty in his dark, loving eyes.

"For the thousandth time Greg, yes! I thought you'd done this before?" I laughed, slinking my arms around his neck and smiling almost flirtatiously up at him.

"I have, but I still get nervous every time." He confessed, rubbing the back of his neck as he moved down my body, hooking his fingers in the elastic resting on my hips as he kept his gaze fixed on my expression.

"Look, stop worrying about this. We both wanted to do this today, so just enjoy it." I told him, leaning over and giving him a short but sweet kiss when he stood back up again.

"Are you ready?" The tall, burly man moved forward to address us both

"I'm up first." I grinned taking my place on the edge as my bungee cord was checked once again, this time by the professional and not Greg

"That was just amazing." I laughed, skipping backwards towards my car, grinning at my boyfriend who was a few paces behind me.

"Had a feeling you'd like it." Greg grinned, reaching out for my hand as we approached the car. “I still can’t believe you’ve never done it before and you’ve lived in Vegas your whole life.”

“I know, I just never thought about it, I guess. I was pretty much a total geek in high school - rarely had my head out of the books.”

“Complete with braces and glasses too, I hope?” He joked, his grin suggesting that he was recalling a horrific photo that my mom and Mikito insisted on hanging in the hallway of their home. It was from a time when my teeth gleamed with silver, my skin was glossier than my hair and my hair had no control over what it did.

"So what are we doing now?" I asked, the adrenaline still coursing through my veins after the bungee jump.

"What do you have in mind?" He replied, leaning against the side of the small Beetle, pulling me into his arms as I scratched my brain for fun activities we could indulge ourselves in.

A smirk slowly grew across my flushed face as a thought crossed my simple mind. "Paintballing!" I screamed, running around to the driver's door and jumping into the seat.

Grissom had given us the weekend off. We had a few vacation days remaining and there was serious concern from the older CSI about how hard we’d been working recently. He had insisted that we both took some time away from the lab before we made ourselves ill. Our usual days off had been countered with the court case and preparing for it, so this was our first ‘real’ vacation from the graveyard shift in quite some time.

Greg had always mentioned how he loved bungee jumping and I'd never tried it, so that was our first plan for the gorgeous Saturday morning after treating ourselves to a big breakfast at the diner the end of our street. It was exactly what I needed to clear the stress of the court case and the recent serial killer from my mind. Not to mention that Greg telling me that he loved me had put me in a more awkward situation with Hodges, and that I really wanted to forget.

"I think you broke my elbow." Greg complained when we left, bright layers of paint colouring our hair and smudged on our skin.

"Suck it up, you big baby." I laughed, shoving him gently.

"Yeah, but Miks, the whole point of paintball is to use the gun to fire the paintballs, not to use the gun as a weapon to injure me!" Greg informed me, feigning seriousness.

"I got carried away." I smirked. “It was the Mission Impossible music they played. It does mad things to me.”

"It definitely did. Now, Miss Romani, kiss the elbow better." He pointed to his left arm, that serious expression still in tact, but only just.