Date: July 2006

Title: First Anniversary

Disclaimer: Don’t own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it.

Rating: Adult, NC-17, Smut, Porn… Do I really need to explain anymore?

Pairings: Yo!Bling

Spoilers: I guess thru Season 6 – Though, let’s be honest, we ain’t never gonna see this on screen, so it’s totally wishful thinking.

Summary: Warrick finally gets some paper, but it’s not a warrant.

A/N: This one is actually a little bit of a gift for a friend. And if I’m honest, I haven’t written any smut in weeks, so I think it’s long over due.

First Anniversary

It was supposed to be freezer burned, nasty cake, candlelight and some kind of traditional gift of paper. He had gotten the paper, but it was not any kind of gift. Of course, it really was not an anniversary either, since they had not even made it through the first year.

Sitting on the locker room bench, staring into his open locker and the envelope that curiously peeked out his jacket pocket, Warrick Brown was trying to conjure up the exact moment he had screwed up his life so badly. He needed to know what it was so that he could be damn certain he never got there again.

He was still trying to find that answer when he had some company. “Hey, bro… You missed assignments.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry.” He looked up as Nick pushed past him to get to his own locker. “Had some stuff to take care of before shift.”

“Well,” Nick reached in to his locker and pulled out his vest and jacket before slamming the door. “Get the lead out, you’re on with Cath and Greggo tonight. And the boss lady is in no mood for slackers… If you know what I mean.”

Warrick hung his head and grinned at his friend’s comment. “Right, I’ll be right out… Thanks, man.”

He took one last deep breath, blew it out slowly with his head thrown back and his eyes closed. He just needed one more moment of peace before heading out into the chaos again.

“Ya know… That works a lot better, if your hands aren’t clenched into fists.” Her voice was a surprisingly welcome distraction.

“Probably right.” Warrick reached in and got his vest from the locker as he stood up and then turned to Sara. “You gonna escape the lab tonight, or are you still on max out?”

He was rewarded with a pursed smile and then she corrected him, “I was not on max out, smart guy… I had court and Grissom figured if he made me stay in the lab I’d just go home.”

Shutting his locker up, he gave her a careful smirk, “So, that was just the two of you buttin’ heads, again.”

Sara simply looked away as the blush rose in her cheeks and Warrick used that moment as his chance to escape. The two had come to a kind of silent truce, but there were still subtle conflicts that arose from time to time. Warrick was just happy they were getting along, because anything was an improvement over their recent past.

Once out in the hallway, Warrick made quick work of finding Catherine when she came crashing up into his chest. “Whoa… Where’s the fire?” He held her back at arm’s length to better assess the situation.

“Ah, yeah… Sorry.” She took more than a moment to re-compose herself. “Um, are you ah, ready to go yet?”

He swallowed and nodded his head, “Yeah, Nick said you were in a rush. What’s up?”

“Ah, suspicious circs in the Greek Circle over at Western LVU.”

“Then let’s roll.” He gestured for her to lead the way and then followed her out of the building.

The scene had been a joke, filled with frat boys and sorority girls wasted out of their minds because some morons thought it would be cool to pump nitrous oxide through the air conditioning unit. The morons were easy enough to spot, unconscious and smiling on the floor next to the central air unit in the basement. The hard part was dealing with all the partygoers flopping around the scene. Poor Greg had been pulled on more times than a slot machine at the Rampart, and Catherine had to be rescued twice from a frat boy wave.

In the end, the case was taken care of in an efficient manner and they were all three back at the lab packing up in plenty of time for the shift’s end. Warrick still had to finish some paperwork from another case, so he had left Catherine and Greg to close out the case from that night.

After completing the final report, Warrick closed up the folder in a dramatic manner and blew out a calming breath. He grabbed it up from the table and tucked it under his arm as he made his way to the locker room.

Once he had his jacket, it was time to call it a night, so he made his way to Catherine’s office so he could drop off his paperwork and head home. Looking down at his watch, he realized he was already more than an hour into the next shift and he had to shake his head at having lost track of time.

He found the door to her office open, but it was empty. Warrick was a little surprised that Catherine would have left without shutting up her office. The last thing anyone wanted was Ecklie being able to go through their office when they were gone. So, he dropped his report into her closed case basket and was about to turn to walk out and lock the door when he nearly suffered a heart attack to find her standing within inches of him.

“Damn! When did you learn how to Grissom like that?”

She looked positively ashen at his question and asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Sorry, but you’re the one sneaking up behind me without a sound.”

“And you’re the one in MY office.” Warrick blushed at her intimation and finally broke into a careful smile at his embarrassment.

He moved to the side to let her pass and as she looked down, she found an unfamiliar envelope on the floor. “What’s this?” She crouched down to retrieve the item and turned it over in her hand to read the front, “Hopkins and Baldwin, Attorneys at Law?”

All the color drained right out of Warrick’s face as he realized what she had in her hands. “Oh, hey… That’s mine.” He was flustered and trying desperately to retain his cool. “Probably fell out of my pocket when you took two years off my life.” He reached out and she placed the envelope into his grasp.

Looking away, she returned to making her way behind the desk, but instead of sitting down, she grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair and reached into a drawer for her purse. “So, is this the report for the Pumphrey’s case?”

“Ah, yeah… Signed, sealed and delivered.” Warrick was relieved she had chosen to drop the issue.

“Great… One less thing to look for tomorrow.” She looked around the room quickly and then said, “Well, I need to get out of here before I start throwing things. Twenty seven hours in this place is enough to drive anyone insane.”

Warrick dipped his gaze in an attempt to hide his smirk, because he recognized the well placed jibe at a couple of their team members. He then made his way to the door and held it open for her as she rounded the desk and brushed past him. She had turned to lock the door when he asked, “So, what’d you do with Lindsey? Or is she finally out of the dog house after that last stunt?”

Catherine gave him a careful raise of her eyebrow and answered, “Out of the dog house? Barely… But I didn’t do anything with her. She went camping with my sister and her family for a long weekend. After four days with that crew, she should be ready to tow the line for a least the next semester.”

He nodded his head and smiled. “Goin’ with the ‘You think you got it bad in my home’ route, huh?”

“Does it work?”

He laughed and answered, “Like a charm… One week at my Aunt Bertha’s every summer and Grams had me behavin’ for the rest of the year.”

They both started walking towards the parking lot as they laughed about his admission. Catherine seemed to have finally calmed down now that she was on her way home. “Ugh… I can’t believe I get to go home to a nice quiet house for the next thirty six hours.”

“You got Grissom to take your shift tonight?”

“Actually, no…” She was leery about telling him who, because she was afraid he would be offended. “Nick’s gonna take it tonight. He’s bucking for something, so he offered to run the weekend guys for me.”

“What, you don’t think I’d pitch in, or what?” When she looked up at his face, she relaxed because she could tell he was only kidding.

“Well, I figured since you hadn’t gotten a day off in almost two weeks, you might like to keep yours tonight.” It was the real reason she had looked for someone else to take the shift when it became apparent she was running into a triple.

“Is that how long it’s been?” His smirk told her everything was all right.

They were about to pass Grissom’s office when they heard the man’s voice from behind them. “What are you two still doing here?”

Simultaneously, they both answered, “Paperwork.”

Grissom held up the large stack of folders he had under his arm and tilted his head to the side, “Right.” He was about to angle his way past them and into his office when he called out. “Oh, hey Warrick… How’d it go today? Did you get the rest of it taken care of?”

Catherine fixed him with a questioning glare and unsteadily, Warrick answered. “Ah yeah… I’d say ‘all done, but for the crying’, but honestly I’m just glad to be finished talkin’ to lawyers for now.”

“Well, just remember to see HR next time you get a chance… And bring the decree, they’ll have to see it to change the beneficiary on the insurance.” Grissom walked away from them without another word and delved into the safety of his own office, leaving Warrick there to explain.

“Lawyers, decrees, HR? What’s g-”

Grissom’s voice calling out interrupted her, “Oh, hey… You should ask Catherine, since I bet there’s something I missed about the process. She has more experience with that divorce stuff than I do. Good luck.”

It seemed that no one was supposed to keep the color in their faces that morning, because Catherine’s face had just drained of it again. “Divorce?!”

Warrick hung his head and his shoulders slumped considerably as he begrudgingly nodded his answer.

“I… I mean, w-… Ho-… Wh-…” Catherine was stumbling through the words, but nothing was making it out all the way. She eventually took a deep breath, looked around to see that they were suddenly the objects of scrutiny and took him by the elbow to lead him out the doors once again.

As soon as they hit the daylight of the parking lot, she started again. “Warrick, what happened? I mean, are you okay?”

Exhaling, he nodded his head and said, “Yeah, I’m okay… It just-… I-It didn’t work out.”

“When?” She was still in shock at the news, so the questions were just coming from autopilot.

“We ah, we split up a few months back.” He rubbed at his face for a moment and then explained, “I didn’t want to ah, to-… I wanted to keep it out of the lab. You know how things get twisted around in there, and I just didn’t want to deal with it.”

She shook her head with disbelief and laid it on the table, “The lab is one thing, but we’re your friends, and you couldn’t tell us?!” She immediately saw the guilt playing across his face and she felt like someone had just punched her in the gut. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know?”

He instantly shook his head and answered, “No! I only told Grissom because I knew her lawyers would try to get something from work, and Sara knows because… Well, she went to court with me, for support and-… As a character witness.”

There was another punch. “Sara?”

“Yeah, she knows all my skeletons…” He hung his head with his admission. “She’s already had to investigate me twice, so I figured it was a safer bet using her.”

“But you couldn’t even tell me what you were going through?”

He turned at the sound of someone else coming out of the building and then quietly pulled her to the side to whisper, “Do you really want to do this here? Now?”

Even through her anger she could see the desperation in his eyes and he watched as she slammed her eyes shut and shook her head. “You’re right.” The sense of relief he felt showed across his features, but it was short lived when she looked him square in the eye and said, “Where then?”

“Huh?”

“If not here, then where?” Her expression told him she was not about to let this go on any longer.

“Cath, I-”

“I’m not going anywhere until you answer me.” She stood in a defiant pose, with her arms crossed tightly around her and her jaw firmly set.

Hanging his head back down, he finally relented. “Fine… Ladies’ choice.”

Catherine smiled and then said, “Okay… Follow me; I’ll buy you breakfast.”

Warrick should have known better, but he was beat and just plain worn out from dealing with work and the lawyers and the whole screwed up mess. The whole ride over to Catherine’s house he tried to come up with how he was going to explain himself as quickly as possible.

The fact of the matter was that the last thing he wanted while he was dealing with the end of his marriage was an “I told you so” lecture from Catherine. She had never totally come out and told him she thought he had made a mistake, but he knew her well enough to spot the truth. And then there was that conversation right after she found out.

He was sure she probably had not even thought about that conversation, but truth be told he had thought about it a lot. And if he was brutally honest with himself, he would have to admit those thoughts started long before his marriage began falling apart. In a lot of ways, that confession had been haunting him with the imaginings of a future lost to a misguided, ill-conceived and downright foolish choice fueled only by his fear.

As he followed her into the driveway at her house, he blew out a long breath trying to collect himself for the hell that was about to come down on him. He knew Catherine meant well, and he knew that he owed her an explanation, but he just was not sure he was up to dealing with the consequences of that conversation.

All of that no longer mattered, because she was standing next to his car window rapping on the glass to get his attention. The corner of his mouth turned up in half a grin and he nodded his head as he switched off the engine and moved to exit the car. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Looked like you were a little lost for a minute there.”

“Yeah, well,” he pointed at the house and said, “I thought you were buying me breakfast.”

“Uh huh… I bought the groceries I’m gonna use to cook it with; same thing.” They both laughed and he followed after her as she turned to walk into the house. That was when it hit him; he missed this.

He missed the comfortable friendship they had once shared. That casual easy way they slipped into conversation; the effortless way they could anticipate each other’s actions. There had once been a time when he came to her with everything; when he felt he had a right to come to her with his troubles. But somewhere, that got lost, and for the life of him he could not figure out where and when that happened.

Once they were inside, Catherine pulled a stool out from the back of the breakfast bar and then rounded it to open the refrigerator. “So, are we thinking omelets or French Toast?”

He smiled tentatively, since she had her back to him at that moment, and asked, “You know how to make French Toast?”

She turned back to him, with one arm on the fridge door and the other on her hip raising her eyebrow in a deliberate arc. “Is that an affront to my cooking skills?”

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said, “No, no… No death wish here. I was just thinking maybe that was a little complicated and messy after pullin’ a triple.”

She shrugged and turned back to the fridge. “Not at all. Bread’s already cut, and I have some of the egg stuff leftover from the last time I made it for Linds.” When she turned back around she had a plastic container and a bag of sliced French Bread. “She wanted some before she left with my sister and the kids, so we made a morning of it.”

Warrick watched as she reached up for a skillet off the rack and noticed that she actually seemed pretty comfortable in the kitchen. He never would have thought that about her, and he had to admire her even more because of it. She really does do it all.

As she placed the first pieces of French Toast into the skillet, he continued watching her in silence. He never had any doubts about her talent as a dancer, because she always had an effortless grace to her movements. Even something as mundane as cooking breakfast looked like art when she did it.

“You two doing any better?” He had to say something, or his mind would continue down a dangerous path.

“As much as can be expected with a teenager.” Catherine had her gaze fixed on the skillet as she flipped the pieces when she spoke again. “She misses you.”

That threw him for a loop. He had always enjoyed hanging out with Lindsey when her Mom needed a little extra help, but he never realized it meant anything to the girl. “She thought you’d moved away at one point.”

“What? Why would she think that?” He was completely floored by that statement.

Catherine still had not looked up from the pan when she shrugged. “I guess it was my fault… She said I stopped talking about you last year. Said she figured it out when she saw you at the hospital visiting Brass.”

He sat there trying to make sense from what Catherine was saying, but his mind was going in twelve million different directions and he just could not find his focus. Before he could even make out which side was up, Catherine was setting a plate down in front of him.

“Syrup or preserves?”

He shook his head to clear the cobwebs quickly forming over his brain. “I-I’m sorry, what?”

“Do you want syrup or preserves for your French Toast?”

“What kind of preserves?”

She was standing in front of the open refrigerator when she answered him, “Strawberry and Blueberry.” She grabbed both pots and brought them to the counter top to sit in front of him and then turned back to the fridge.

Warrick put a spoon of each onto his plate and watched as she warmed the syrup briefly in the microwave. When she brought it to the breakfast bar she looked down at his plate and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” He was midway through cutting into his first bite as he looked from his plate to her smiling face.

“It’s nothing really.” She sat down in the stool opposite him across the breakfast bar with a smirk still firmly entrenched on her face.

“Somethin’s givin’ you the giggles… What is it?”

“It’s ah… It’s the way you set up your plate.”

He looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary: French Toast with sprinkles of powdered sugar, one dollop of strawberry preserves on the side of the plate, and one dollop of blueberry preserves two inches away from the strawberry and nothing touching, just like it should be. What could she possibly find amusing about that? “What’s so fu-”

“Lindsey does the exact same thing… Especially the no touching thing. Which is funny because-”

He grinned at her explanation and went back to preparing his first bite by smearing a small amount of strawberry preserves on the piece and then some of the blueberry on the other side.

“…she just puts it all together anyway.” He looked down at the bite he was about to put in his mouth and finally understood why it was all so funny and then laughed alongside her.

After finally consuming that first bite he admitted, “Now you know my worst secret… I am a prissy eater. At least, that’s what my Grams always called it.”

She smiled, the way she always did, and they ate their breakfasts in relative silence. When Warrick looked up out of his empty plate, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and asked, “If you’re still hungry, I can make some more?”

“Nah, I’m good… I mean, it was very good, thanks.”

She placed her napkin over her plate and crossed her arms over her chest, looking very much like a royal about to pass judgment down upon her subjects. “So, I’ve been a good host, you’ve been fed, and I believe we’ve hit my quota for small talk… You ready yet?”

He knew it was all too good to be true, because Catherine never forgets. So, Warrick took a deep breath and prepared for the worse.

“As I’m gonna be, I guess.” He was still not ready to look her in the eye, so he stared at his hand resting on the counter. “I haven’t told anyone about it, really.”

“Sara?”

He smirked at her suspicions, but he knew that would be a sore subject. “Nah, she’s easier than you… She doesn’t ask a lot of questions.” Catherine blushed at his implication.

“You just said, ‘Hey, I’m gettin’ a divorce. Will you testify for me?’ and she just nodded and went about her business?” Catherine always did recover fast, and this was no exception.

“Almost… She let me crash at her apartment the first few nights, asked if there was anything she could do, and did it.”

Catherine’s face morphed into a mass of confusion as she tried to piece together a timeline that made sense, but came up short. Sara had been living with Gil for months, and she could not imagine he had been hiding this from them for so long. “When did all this happen?”

He exhaled sharply, as though the words themselves were going to cause him pain, “The big fight? Just before Brass was shot.”

“My God!”

“Not one of my shining moments. And after that and not knowing if Brass was gonna make it, I just couldn’t face going home, so Sara let me stay at her apartment. By the time I went home, she’d already cleared out.” He was still unable to look in her eyes, so he moved his focus to a blank spot on the wall. “She filed the next day.”

Catherine shook her head in disbelief and they were both silent for a few moments as the whole thing sunk in for them. “Warrick… That was months ago. Why haven’t you told anyone yet?”

He dropped his gaze to the floor with the impact of that question. He had thought about telling everyone a hundred times, but in the end he was just too ashamed to show his friends his failure. He had jumped the gate and rushed headlong into a marriage based completely on fear and a sense of desperation after Nick’s abduction, and even though no one had ever come right out and told him he was making a mistake, he knew they all had to be thinking it.

The only person who had come close to calling him on it was Sara, but even she left him his dignity when she had given him that careful stare. All she did was look at him and said, “If this is what you really want…” He knew exactly what she was saying to him, because she was probably the only person who understood where his hopes had been sitting.

“What can I say, Cath? I screwed up… Big time… And I just didn’t want to hear it from my friends.” He took in a deep breath and blew it out, “With everything else going on, I-I j-just couldn’t deal with it.”

Before he knew what was happening, he was coming dangerously close to losing his cool. His eyes started to cloud over with unshed tears, and his hands began to shake. The feeling of spiraling down into his own pain was distracting enough that he failed to notice that Catherine had made her way around the counter to stand right beside him. The first clue he had that she was there were her fingers barely touching the back of his neck and her arm resting over the back of his shoulder.

“We’re your friends, Warrick… That doesn’t change when you fuck something up. Otherwise, I’d be in a lot of trouble.” He nodded, trying to keep his breakdown in check. But it was all in vain when he finally chanced a look into her eyes. That moment of contact was the final strike at the walls he had been trying to keep in place for months, and once the first tear managed to escape, the rest followed quickly. And there he was, a grown man, weeping and sobbing like a little girl and being cradled in the arms of a woman.

Catherine held him tight and tried to use a soothing tone in her voice as she stroked his face, but the whole scene frightened her all the way to her bones. Warrick, so often the rock on their team, was practically falling apart right there in her arms.

Eventually, his sobs began to subside and his breathing began to return to normal, but still he did not pull away from her embrace. When the silence became too much for her, Catherine had to say something. “See? Still here.”

He chuckled at her attempt to lighten the mood, and lifted himself out of her embrace as he tried to regain his composure. However, that was short-lived when he felt a strong THWACK on the back of his head. “OW!”

“THAT was for not talking to anybody about this crap!”

He was rubbing the spot on his head when he turned to look at Catherine, only to find her standing there with a dangerous smirk on her face. “Right… ‘Cause you’ve been so willing to talk lately.” When he watched the smirk turn straight into a very pained expression, he could not imagine why he had said that to her. “Cath I-”

She held up her hand to stop him, “No…” She then swallowed the lump that had obviously risen in her throat. “I deserved that one.”

Warrick watched as she turned and took a few steps away from him and into the living room. He rubbed at his eyes, hoping it would help fight off the pain they had just seen, but he knew there was only one thing that could do that. Getting up from the stool, he gingerly walked towards her, and he could see she was holding her face with one hand, and the other arm was wrapped tightly around her middle.

Slowly, he came to stand directly behind her and then he cautiously put his hands down onto her shoulders. “Cath…” He could feel her tense under his touch, and it let him know just how far their friendship had crumbled. “I’m sorry… That was, it was, it was unfair.” She started to tremble and it broke his heart just little bit more to know he had caused that pain. “I didn’t m-”

“It’s okay… It’s just…” The words seemed to die in her throat, and her trembling grew stronger. Warrick could not take it any longer, and he decided it was his turn to offer her some comfort, so he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

“It was just harder than I thought it would be.”

His face screwed up into a question mark, because he really had no clue what she was talking about, so he asked, “What’s that?”

“Giving it up.”

Her trembling seemed to stop with those words, as Warrick tried to decipher what they meant. He searched his mind for some kind of clue, and when it finally landed smack dab onto the last real conversation that they had, right after she had learned of his marriage, he actually gasped.

He stood there, with his arms around her, for several moments as his brain tried to wrap itself around her admission. The first time she had told him about her thoughts, he was not in any kind of situation to deal with their implications, but in that moment it all came crashing down on him.

Catherine had told him that he was her fantasy, and never in a million years would he have ever thought that could be a possibility. When she had been made his supervisor, any hope that he may have held out for that chance seemed to evaporate with the Vegas heat. Once, in that damned storm drain, his hopes might have been given wings, but once that promotion came through, he never had even the slightest notion of hope again. Not until that day in the Layout Room, when he confronted her about his marriage, and by then, it was too late.

Warrick had tried to push that confession out of his thoughts from that point forward. Eventually, it became the stuff of subconscious ramblings, but it never completely left him. Just as his now ex-wife had never been able to break her draw to her own ex, he had never been able to put that confession away. There had always been something hanging over his entire marriage. They had never combined bank accounts, he had never put her name on his condo, they still kept their bills separate and the only things showing that they were married was that one piece of paper and two gold bands. If he was really honest with himself, he had never believed it would last. That was what his grandmother would tell him, if he had ever told her about the marriage in the first place.

He told himself that her being in the nursing home, she would probably be confused by the whole thing, so he wanted to wait until she was doing better. The truth was that he was slightly ashamed of the way he had done things and could not bear to see the hurt in her eyes when he told her he had gotten married in a drive-thru chapel. She would have been heartbroken not to have seen her boy married in the church, and he could not bear to ever break her heart again. He had done that enough when he was a boy.

As he thought about his grandmother, he remembered his last visit. She had been in good spirits that day, and was full of questions for him about his life. Wanted to know about his job, his boss, his friends, if “that Nick boy was doing better,” if he was enjoying his condo, if he had gotten the piano in there okay, but there was one question that had him floored.

With bright eyes and a big smile she took his hand and asked him, “When are you gonna bring that girl of yours by to see me, Angel?” As he struggled for breath she went on, “That little girl of hers is just so precious with that gorgeous blonde hair and those dimples… I really don’t know why you two haven’t wised up after all this time.”

His grandmother had only met Catherine and Lindsey a couple of times, years ago, but she had somehow decided that they were together. Had Grams really seen something that I completely missed?

With that realization, Warrick suddenly understood that he really was a fool. He had mistakenly rushed into a marriage of convenience instead of having the guts to go after what he really wanted. Sara had been right all along!

He had let fear rule his actions for the last time. He instantly turned Catherine around with his hands resting on her shoulders, and looked down into her red-rimmed eyes. She looked more frightened than he could ever remember seeing her before, but he had to take his chances when they were offered to him, or he would spend the rest of his life feeling like a fool.

“What if you don’t have to?”

Her trembling was back, but she looked up into his eyes with the confusion showing in hers. She swallowed hard and then asked, “Don’t have to what?”

“Give it up.”

When the tear began to trail down her cheek, he took it as a sign. With his thumb, he reached up and gently wiped it away. Her face turned into the touch and she closed her eyes with the contact. His mind became totally awash in all the possibilities that her actions could imply, so he decided he would hope for the best as he lowered his lips to hers.

As their lips met, any doubts he might have ever had were erased from all existence. There was an electricity that passed between them in that first gentle touch of their lips. When the pressure of their lips began to increase, he moved his hands up from her shoulders to hold her face between them, just to make sure it was truly happening.

Their kiss continued to deepen, and he was beginning to feel a burning in his lungs as they fought to make him take in another breath, but he was not willing to break the contact just yet. When he felt her arms grasp his waist and pull him closer to her, he finally gasped. The contact made his whole body ache for more and his lips immediately and desperately descended upon hers once again. As the kiss intensified, he felt her mouth part ever so slightly and he took it as another sign and began to snake his tongue inside for further exploration. His initiative was rewarded with a strangled whimper from the woman in his grasp.

Their tongues began a sensual battle, caressing and plunging deeper and deeper as they raged on. The kiss was only broken as her hands began to roam over the bare skin of his back when she had managed to get them under his shirt and he was forced to gasp for air once more. He had imagined what her hands would feel like on his bare skin for as long as he had known her, and the reality of the sensation was so much more than his imagination had ever created.

His mouth quickly returned to her, but not to her mouth, he moved her head to one side and began to explore the side of her neck with his lips; his tongue. The taste of her skin was yet another instance where his imagination had paled in comparison to the truth. His other hand began to move down her back and he found that he was desperate for even more contact, so he pulled her in tight to his body which elicited something more than a whimper from her; it was bordering on a moan and it made his pulse race even faster.

Her hands left his back, and she returned his mouth to hers in what could only be called a rapturous kiss. With his breath completely exhausted by the exchange, he was forced to gasp once again, but he held his face against hers and he could feel her heated breath as it moved past his ear making him even more frenzied in his need for her.

Wrapping both of his arms around her, he picked her straight off of the floor, leaving her feet to dangle in the air as his mouth re-ignited its assault. There was only the hint of a yelp from her throat at the surprise of his actions, but she quickly moved her arms to wrap around his neck and head and she deepened the kiss herself, that time.

When his arms struggled to move over her back, she instinctively brought her legs up to hold tightly around his waist, and she was rewarded when his right hand reached down and began to hold her up by her bottom. And when she could feel him moving her back and forth as he looked around the room, she broke their kiss for only a moment to giggle. She knew that he was looking for an appropriate location, and his confusion delighted her.

He leaned his forehead against hers and chuckled, “I guess it is kind of funny, huh? Two grown people acting like a couple of teenage-”

“Bite your tongue!” The last thing she wanted to imagine was her daughter getting that carried away. It was a definite mood breaker. Warrick could only laugh at their precarious situation.

She soon joined him in the laughter. “So, now what?”

He held her tighter, kissed the end of her nose and then smiled, “Is there more to this fantasy thing?”

The heady tone of his voice told her all she needed to hear, and she gave him a decidedly feline smile when she answered, “You better believe it.” She captured his mouth in another kiss and then moved to whisper in his ear. “Last door at the end of the hallway.”

He swung her around and started towards the hall with her giggling into the crook of his neck. But then she tensed a little and he stopped to look into her eyes. “What is it?”

“Um, we ah, need to ah, get my purse.”

He furrowed his brow for just a second when it dawned on him that there were still things you did not leave to chance. “Right…” He swung back around and stalked into the front hall where she had deposited the item in question when they had entered the house.

She reached back and grabbed the purse off the entry table and gave him another goofy look when she returned to look in his eyes. “You seem to be finding a lot of humor in this.”

She looked over the side and onto the floor before returning to his discerning gaze. “I can walk, ya know?”

It was his turn to give her a dangerous raise of his eyebrow and an incendiary grin to go with it. “Not for long.” And he kissed her so deeply that she had to firm up her hold around his neck for fear of falling to earth again before she was ready.

By the time they had reached her bedroom, Warrick was convinced that his imagination was broken somehow, because it had never even come close to conceiving the truth, and they had not even gotten any farther than making out yet. His mind was in for a serious explosion if things kept up at this pace.

When they were standing directly in front of her bed, he felt her legs slowly trail down his sides until they found purchase on the floor once more. He realized that his words must have had an impact on her, because he found that he had to keep his grasp on her waist when she wobbled a bit on her feet. But there was no time for balancing, he needed to have her taste on his tongue once more and he began to devour her neck again making her dump the purse unceremoniously onto the floor.

He stopped only when he felt his shirt being pushed over his shoulders, and moved his arms to allow it to fall to the floor. When her hands splayed over his chest he had to throw his head back at the heat of that sensation. However, he was wholly unprepared for the feel of her lips when they touched the exposed flesh there, and he gasped with the moan that escaped his throat. He was so completely lost in the sensations she was eliciting from her careful ministrations across his chest, that when she teased one of his nipples with her teeth his knees nearly buckled from the force of the desire that rose in his body.

She was so much more than he ever imagined he deserved and he reached down to find her chin and brought it up to place another soul touching kiss upon those luscious lips. Their tongues quickly resumed their dance as his hands made their way down her sides to the hem of her tank top. He slowly and deliberately brought it up her back, making her arch at the ripples of sensation he created in the movement. As they both had to gasp for air once more, he pulled it quickly over her head and brought his hands back down to hold her tight against his chest again.

His hands and fingers continued to trace every curve and hollow of her back as their fiery kisses continued. She was pushing into his every touch, and he could feel the intensity that was passing between them grow with every movement as their bodies danced. When his fingers found the fasteners of her bra, they made quick work and he could feel her shudder a bit once she realized he had released the clasp. This was a line, once crossed, could never be undone, so he looked down into her eyes and put every ounce of his emotion into his eyes as he kissed her tenderly in a gesture of reassurance.

His breath was ragged, but he knew that he could not keep going if she was not completely sure this was the right thing. “We don’t have to g-”

She put a finger on his lips to silence him and then said, “I just want you to be sure. Because I can’t risk this if it isn’t real.”

Her words made his heart swell. She was worried about how he would treat her heart, and it caused the depth of his caring for her to grow exponentially. Warrick knew in that moment that he had to tell her the truth.

He took both of her hands into his and looked into her eyes, hoping that she could see the intensity there. “Catherine… I never thought this...” He squeezed their hands together into the cut of his chest to emphasize his point, “…was possible. That’s why I gave up hope, not because I stopped loving you… I’ve always loved you.”

The air between them stilled, and he watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek. He pulled their hands up and turned hers over to his lips as he kissed the backs of each hand. “Always.”

Catherine slipped her hands up and around his neck pulling him down into a kiss that practically ignited his soul, and one which he was all too happy to return. His own hands had dropped between them and were slowly making their way back up along her sides, causing the skin under his touch to come alive.

When his fingers rested along the bottom line of her ribs he could feel the shiver run through her as he rolled each finger over each rib until they were just centimeters below the tender flesh of her breasts. The sensation of his warm hands and nimble fingers teasing the flesh around the bottom of her breast halted the languishing kisses she had been peppering his chest with and made her gasp for air.

He took full advantage of her momentary distraction to lower his lips to her neck, just as his left hand completed its journey and closed over her right breast, giving it a tender squeeze and causing her to arch her back, throwing herself further into his grasp. Her breathing had changed to almost a pant as he continued to administer to her neck with his lips and her breast with his hand. When he switched sides, simultaneously, he was given the gift of her first full out moan and he smiled against her neck at the sound of his accomplishment.

As he continued to let his lips do more than talk, he started to kick off his shoes, and then he felt her hands trailing down his chest only to stop at the top of his jeans. Before he knew what she was doing, she already had his pants most of the way undone, and he had to release her breast to grab at her hands and still them. His actions were met with a frustrated whimper which he attempted to silence with his lips as he wrapped his arms around her body once again, but this time he was not trying to lift her up, but lay her down.

Once he had her sprawled out on the bed, he took a long look at the woman below. At the sight of her partially clad body, superheated with desire for him, he subconsciously licked his lips, like a lion ready to feast. And she was a feast for him; a feast for the eyes and for his touch. If this was the last thing he ever did in his life, he could die a satisfied man.

Unable to restrain himself any longer, he captured her with all of his might, revealing to her all the passion he held for her. But this time, unimpeded by their height difference as they lay on the bed, his kisses did not end at her neck, but instead they met in the middle where his hand already found its playground teasing her breasts with his touch. When his lips finally made the journey to that tempting flesh he paused, but only for a moment, before they laid claim to the tantalizing flesh. At first, kissing around the nipple in a taunting fashion, making her groan for his touch, and then in an instant he closed his mouth around one of the taut and peaked nubs, making her arch and moan in delight.

With his mouth providing the perfect diversionary assault, his hand began its descent into regions further south. Making quick work of the button and zipper on her slacks, he had completed the first part of his quest without being detected, but that was soon about to change.

Once he managed to push aside her slacks his hand began to work on pure instinct as it glided down over her lace clad mound and his fingers tucked into the junction, cupping her sex with a firm hold. He would have been hard pressed to identify the sound that sprang forth from her throat at the contact, but the way her hips jerked up into his grasp told him it was a good thing.

The warmth he found there was matched only by the moisture and it made him throw caution to the wind as he began stroking her through the fabric; up and down in a steady, deliberate rhythm. He was surprised when she began to rock her hips in the same rhythm, and it gave him the courage he needed to push things even further, as his next stroke had his fingers leading the way underneath the fabric.

With a slow determination, he continued the caresses of his tongue over her breast, paying special attention to each nipple and keeping her flesh teased with each touch and careful breath from his lips. And when his fingers made their way to her folds, parting her gently, without dipping lower, she arched her back so far up that it pressed her chest further into his face. However, instead of pausing to give her a chance to catch her breath, his middle digit pushed in and trailed slowly up through her folds, stopping only when it made contact with her tender nub and causing her to cry out unintelligibly for the first time.

He took that as a sign and returned his lips to her mouth, capturing it in an unbelievably passionate kiss. When his middle finger began to stroke up and down through her folds she was unable to fight the gasp that followed. He took the opportunity she had provided him by plowing deeper into her mouth with his tongue, nearly wrenching the very air from her lungs in the process.

Breathless and panting for air, her entire body flushed with her immense arousal, leaving her incapable of rational thought. That was exactly what he wanted to do to her. He wanted her to feel every ounce of his passion and desire for her; wanted her to never question his love. So, he gave her one more languid kiss upon her lips and then started to trail the warmth of his kisses down her cheek to her neck, along the long and sensual line of her throat, over her collarbone, onto her chest, suckling a moment at each breast before kissing that beautiful space between them, down along the edge of her ribs, across her abdomen to her navel, pausing to nibble at the delicately feminine, rounded flesh below the navel before his hands found holds on either of her hips as he began to slide her remaining clothes all the way down her luscious body. He was ready to show her exactly how much he worshiped her, body and soul.

Her clothes now discarded, he turned to find her right knee raised into an arch and he knew where he was headed next. His warm lips gently kissed the skin on the inside of her knee, and then started to trail down her thigh. However, when he was about to make his way to his intended target, he found her hands on either side of his head, tugging him to come back up.

When he looked up, she pulled him closer and rose up from the bed to meet him there in the center. Her kiss was urgent, needy and took his breath away, distracting him from her intended target. The distraction was not enough to keep him from moaning as her hand closed around him. He had been purposely ignoring the yearnings from his own nether regions, hoping to stave off his want long enough to give her everything he felt she deserved, but it became readily apparent to him that she had other ideas.

Her left hand was holding his head to keep up the pressure of her deep and delicious kisses, but her right one was doing things to him on a much deeper level. Too much more and he was going to waste this golden opportunity, but before he could say anything she gave him a sloppy and wonderful release from their kiss as she sucked his lower lip into her mouth, only to let it pop out.

With their foreheads touching, and their super-heated breaths mixing in the small space, she pressed his erection into his belly, trailing her fingers up along the underside of the shaft and making his vision grow cloudy. Lost in the sensation, he almost missed it when she said, “I need you… Now.”

He did not need to hear that twice, and he started to push her back onto the bed, but she held her hand to the center of his chest to halt his progress. When he looked into her eyes with his utterly confused expression she pointed the floor beside the bed and said, “My purse?”

He had gotten completely lost in the heat of the moment and forgot all about his responsibilities. After this, he vowed to make sure she never had to be their contraception monitor again. He leaned over and retrieved the purse to hand it to her. As he waited for her to find the item in question, he began to kiss at the crook of her neck, unable to keep his mouth from her flesh, finding himself aching for the contact.

Her search began to take on a frantic nature, and at first he thought it was his distraction, but when she exclaimed, “Shit!” he knew that was not the case.

“What is it?” He spoke into her ear, still kissing along the line of her jaw.

“Um…” He was right about the distraction, after all. “I ah, mmmmmm… I only have one left.”

He smiled and felt the embarrassment rising in his cheeks when he brought his face back up to gaze at her. “High expectations?”

Her deep blush and the fear in her eyes let him know that he had gotten to her with his question. “N-no… I-I just mea-”

He silenced her mouth with his lips as his tender kiss caught her up. “I was just foolin’…” He could see the relief in her eyes and they both laughed quietly at the humor of the moment. “We’ll just have to be careful, and then, if you’re still interested-”

“You’re kidding right?” Her raised eyebrow and sideways grin made his heart skip a beat.

It was his turn to shy away from the blush rising in his cheeks and she leaned forward to kiss him once more. “Just try to keep up.” The tone in her voice told him, she was probably only joking halfway, and he chuckled a bit as he nuzzled into her neck and kissed the skin there once more before taking the purse away from her and dropping it onto the floor.

She had the foilpack torn open before his hand came back to her body. And before he could even position himself to lay her back into the bed, she had covered him with the sheath of latex. With their tongues dueling once again on their descent into the mattress, he tried to figure out the exact moment that he had become deserving of such an incredible woman.

He hovered over her, gazing down at her lithe and radiant body, resting the bulk of his weight on his forearms. He tucked his arms under her shoulders and pressed gentle, tender kisses around her face and neck when he felt her left leg slide up the back of his right leg and rubbing her knee against his backside. They were ready, but he was trying to commit the exact moment to memory before he went any further. The look of her hair spread over the pillows, the delicate lines of her throat, the specific scent of her arousal, the heat of her flesh as she became more and more aroused and the feel of her skin as she slid her hands up and down his back and over his chest.

When he felt her hands moving down his abdomen he knew she was done waiting. She pulled him to her with her leg and guided him into her center with her hand. He stood at the brink of paradise, gazing into her wanton eyes; pools of the bluest hue that he was practically lost in them. He placed one last chaste kiss gingerly upon her lips and said, “Thank you… For not giving it up.” And just as she gasped at the meaning of his words, he entered her slowly.

Her gasp transformed into a slightly muffled cry, as she bit down on her lip at the moment of his entrance. At first he thought he had hurt her, but when her hips thrust up to meet him just as her leg gripped him tighter, he knew that it was okay to continue. Once more, he pushed into her a little deeper, eliciting a low moan from her. He waited for her to adjust for only a moment, and when he felt her squeeze around him, he went further.

Two more plunges and he was finally buried in her, and his mind began to dance with light. Having her surrounding him completely was the most exquisite feeling he had ever experienced. When his mind started to fall away into the abyss of his desire, he found that he was stroking in and out of her without any conscious thought. He was making her his on a purely biological level, and it was working in reverse as well. With each rhythmic thrust and parry, she was claiming him and making it impossible for him to ever live without her.

When he was finally able to swim up out of the blackness of his own mind, he could feel her hands kneading over the muscles of his back, desperately trying to get herself closer and closer to him. Finally, he looked down to find her body covered in a glistening sheen of perspiration, a direct result of his effect on her. Leaning his head down, he went to kiss at her neck, but found himself caught up in the scent of her and practically took a bite out of her shoulder as she writhed beneath him.

The sounds erupting from both of their throats were the stuff of wild beasts, but it sounded like a perfect symphony to his ears and it spurred him on in his desire. His thrusts began to escalate; deeper, faster, harder. All to the words that spilled out of her mouth, and fed into his male ego. It also made him push up from his toes and try to find a way to go deeper and deeper into her. Before long, there was so much friction between them, were it not for their perspiration they would surely spontaneously combust. Down and out, up and in, over and over again.

He felt her arms wrap tightly around his back and hold on to him for dear life, just as she began to clamp down around him and quiver with delight and ecstasy, which was all he needed to send him completely over the edge.

His last thrusts were purely from momentum, as apposed to any further bravado. He was completely spent in a way he had never been before. As he huffed and puffed, trying to keep his weight off her, he chuckled as he realized that her earlier challenge may have been true, after all.

At the same time he was reveling in his realization, he could feel her giggling beneath him. He leaned his head down to kiss her lips once more and asked, “What’s so funny?”

She smiled as she tried to kiss him back and said, “You were right.”

He smiled, and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide his delight in her current state. “About?”

She threw her head back a little, exposing her throat to him, which he nibbled at as she answered through her delighted giggle, “Walking.” That made them both laugh, and he kissed her one more time before carefully rolling off of her.

When he got up to go the bathroom and dispose of the condom, he left her lying on the bed with her whole body splayed out across it and her breath still coming in a ragged rhythm. The lack of contact was making him ache, and he quickly rid himself of the condom, found a washcloth and wet it to clean himself up. Then he rinsed it out with warm water and brought it out to her.

She was in that blissful place between waking and sleeping when he returned to the bed, so he took great care to clean her up himself, causing her to turn into him and look up into his eyes. Not wanting to leave her again, he rolled onto his back and tossed the rag into the bathroom sink from the bed with a perfect three point shot. He felt the bed shake as she chuckled at his tender and playful actions.

Her eyelids were growing heavy again, so he rolled back to his side and wrapped his arms around her. She smiled at the contact and then yelped when he rolled her over to lie atop him. When she pushed up off of his chest, she was looking directly into his eyes as he pulled the sheet up over them both. He could tell she had something to say, but it was caught in her throat, so he put his arms back around her and held her tight.

She seemed to relax after that and laid her head down over his heart. His hands moved up and down her back, trying to calm her nerves and increase his contact with her.

Just as he was about to drift off to sleep himself, he felt her draw in a breath, and then she kissed his chest before he heard her whisper, “I’m giving it up now.”

He tensed at the words and brought her chin up so that he could see her face. His expression must have betrayed his hurt because she smiled, kissed him and said, “In the fantasy… I didn’t love you this much.”

The morning after… Or afternoon for the graveyard folks…

A ray of sunlight attacked her eyes and forced her back into the realm of semi-consciousness. When she had bought the house, she got it because there was no morning sun coming into the master bedroom, but she had not even considered that the afternoon sun would be so intense. She was on her third set of window treatments in an attempt to cut the affects of that boiling ball of gas in the sky, and obviously she was going to have to make it four.

She felt strangely disoriented, but better than she had in months. Of course it had also been months since she had a decent amount of sleep. As she breathed in deep, she felt something very odd. Moving her hand to try and identify what is was she brushed her fingers over what felt like a nipple. Her hand stopped instantly, and her brain dropped into overdrive bringing her back into reality.

She raised her head slightly and looked up to find the face of the one man she never thought she would see like that. His eyes were squeezed shut, but he looked be at complete peace for all other appearances. Then she felt his hand lazily stroking her back and it sent shivers up and down her spine.

“No wonder you can’t sleep late.” His voice was low and smooth and brought everything back into perfect focus for her with the warmth that was building throughout her body. He squinted and looked down at her face when he said, “We need to get you some blackout curtains.”

The hint of a smile on his face as he spoke made the warmth immediately turn into heat. She was unable to stop herself and she pushed up to capture his lips in a kiss. When they finally broke apart, he was laughing and it made her smile through the blush that was rising in her face.

He rumbled out, “I didn’t know you felt that strongly about curtains.” She laughed out loud and buried her face back into his chest.

He held her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. “Just making sure it wasn’t a dream?” She nodded silently into his chest and tried to wipe away the tear from her other cheek before it escaped any further. “Yeah, I did that earlier when I moved your hand up to my chest.”

She pushed back up and held him with a questioning glare. “Where was it before you moved it?”

He looked up to the side and fought the grin that was spreading over his face when he looked back down at her with his eyebrow raised up in a conspicuous manner. “Where do you think?”

She instantly dropped her gaze with her embarrassment and muttered, “Sorry about that.”

He chuffed, “I’m not.” And then he kissed her sweetly through their grins. A moment passed between them, and then he brought her back down to lie against him once more.

She sighed, blowing her breath across his chest and causing a slight shiver to go through him. “So, what’s next?”

He took in a deep breath, raising her up with his chest. “Think we can just lie here a while longer?”

She smiled into the center of his chest and said, “Sounds good to me… I’m still trying to feel my legs.” They both laughed drowsily and snuggled in for a little more rest.

They had managed to doze back into a tentative sleep, having adjusted enough in the bed to get away from the offensive sunlight. So, they were both given the shock of their lives when they heard the bellowing voice coming from the front of the house.

“MOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOM, I’M HOME!”

In an instant they were both wide awake and completely panicked.

The voice appeared to be getting closer as it called out again, “MOO-OOM! It’s already after four, you better be getting up!”

Catherine’s face was a complete mask of hysteria, with her teeth clenched tightly together as she grimaced. Warrick’s face was practically ashen with fright.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG They were frozen with fear at the sound of the knock on the bedroom door. Warrick was never so happy about his habit of always closing doors as he was in that moment. “YOU’RE GONNA be late for work if you don’t get a move on.” The voice trailed off as it went back up the hallway and away from Catherine’s bedroom.

She could wait no longer, she had to answer. “I’m up! What are you doing home?!”

“Ha! Fine hello to you, too!” It sounded like she was in the living room that time. “We got totally rained out. Practically a monsoon. So, we just came home.”

Still frozen in place, Catherine hoped to come up with some way out of this situation. She just had to keep her head, and not give Lindsey any kind of indication she was not alone. “Where’s your aunt?”

“Dropped me off after I helped her hang everything up at her place… Said she’d bring my stuff by when it dries out.” Catherine could at least be grateful that her sister and her entire crew were not in her living room right then… Just her daughter.

“You better hit the shower before I do, or you’re gonna be late for work.” That time her voice had shifted into what sounded like the kitchen.

“No work tonight. Go ahead, if you want.” Catherine relaxed just a bit, thinking she had just found her way out.

“Who’d you get to cover? Don’t you normally work Saturday nights?” Her voice seemed slightly distracted. Catherine figured she was probably rummaging through the fridge.

“Nick’s working tonight.” This is taking way too long. Lindsey was bound to start getting suspicious that she had yet to come out. She rolled off of Warrick and out of the bed with a clumsy speed, and Warrick had to suppress his laughter at the sight.

“Cool… Hey, Mom?”

Catherine was throwing on the first things she could find; a pair of jogging pants and a tank top hanging out of the hamper. Why didn’t I do the damn laundry before I went to work?!

“Yeah, Linds?”

“Can we order pizza? There’s nothing in here I want.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess… Go ahead and get in the shower; I’ll order.” There it was, the perfect way to get out of this mess. Warrick quietly got out of the bed and started looking for his own clothes on the floor.

“Already dialing… What’s Warrick want on his pizza?”

It was like someone had pressed the pause button, because they were both frozen into place, not a hint of air passing through either of their lungs, or the room for that matter.

They could hear her talking to the pizza place, as though she was right outside of the bedroom door and then she asked them to hold on a second. “Warrick, what kind of pizza do you want? I already ordered a veggie for me and Mom.”

They turned and looked at each other in total shock. Catherine dropped her chin to her chest in resignation and Warrick simply said, “Ladies’ choice, Linds.”

As she walked away from the door, they could hear her asking for a large pepperoni pizza to go with the other one. Pulling up his pants and fastening them, Warrick walked over to where Catherine was standing in front of her vanity mirror. When he reached her, he put his arms around her from the back and then whispered into her ear, “She certainly doesn’t take after her Dad.”

Catherine turned around in his arms and looked up at him, saying, “Yeah, she’s too smart for MY own good.”

They exchanged a tender kiss and then finished making themselves presentable to the executioner waiting outside the room.

Guiltily, they walked down the hallway, single file. But Warrick was not about to let her take this on by herself. He reached forward and took her hand in his, giving it a firm squeeze, which she happily returned. When they entered the living room, Lindsey was sprawled out on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV and looking like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Catherine cleared her throat, trying to get her daughter’s attention. Lindsey looked away from the television screen only briefly, smiled faintly and went right back to channel surfing.

“Ah…” She held up their joined hands and asked, “Do you wanna talk about this?” Catherine was obviously concerned that Lindsey was not taking the whole thing well.

“Not really.” Lindsey’s face said that the whole notion creeped her out.

“Linds…”

“I don’t need details, Mom…” The girl continued to flip channels and then Warrick started getting nervous. He knew that if Lindsey did not accept them, it could never last long. “I’m just surprised it took you guys this long… I mean really, I thought you guys were supposed to be smart. Seriously, you guys have known each other longer than Gil and Sara for Christ’s sake.”

Warrick looked at Catherine and she stared back at him, both realizing in an instant that they each knew about their friends and each showing it on their faces and with their laughter.

“Pizza should be here in like thirty minutes… I got breadsticks, too.” They were both feeling a little foolish as Lindsey acted like nothing was wrong, or monumental about the two of them being together.

Catherine, looking for something to do, released his hand and turned for the kitchen. “What do you guys want to drink?”

“I’ll take a soda… You know how Aunt Janie is.” Lindsey rolled her eyes at the mention of her aunt.

Warrick was trying to figure out what he should do in this kind of situation, so he chose to just go with the flow. He walked around the chair at the entrance to the living room and sat down saying over his shoulder, “Water’s good with me.”

They could both tell that Catherine was using her task in the kitchen as a way to get herself together. Lindsey took the opportunity to let Warrick off the hook. “Hey, Warrick?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Sara told me about your divorce and everything… I’m sorry.” Then she turned to actually look at him when she added, “Well, not really, but I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

He was slightly confused at her admission, so he had to ask, “What do you mean, ‘not really?’”

She shrugged him off and said, “Well, if you hadn’t gotten a divorce, you wouldn’t be here now.” She looked over his shoulder and towards the kitchen when she muttered her next words, “And Mom wouldn’t be smiling again.”

Warrick decided it had to be genetic, because they seemed to be only two women in the world who could make him blush so much. But he recovered quickly and said, “It’s nice to see both of you smiling again.” That was when Lindsey finally broke her nonplussed façade and broke out in a huge smile; dimples and all.

Catherine walked into the room at just the right moment, because Warrick’s face was flushed with what she decided was happiness and her daughter’s broad and dimpled smile greeted her when she entered with their drinks. “What’d I miss?”

Warrick waited for her to hand Lindsey her soft drink and when she turned to give him one of the bottles of water in her hands, he pulled her down into his lap and gave her a dangerous smile. “I was just thinking…”

“And that required this?” Catherine had fixed him with an almost disapproving glare, but Lindsey’s delighted giggle caught her attention before it developed any further.

“If you ladies aren’t doing anything tomorrow morning…” He waited to see if there were any objections, and finding none, along with Lindsey’s rapt attention, he continued, “If you wouldn’t want to go with me to see my Grams?”

Catherine was confused by the odd request, and when he looked over at Lindsey, he saw the same exact expression mirrored on her face, and he laughed. “She’s been asking about you two…” He paused, seeing them both demur at the suggestion and then he revealed the real reason behind his request. “Seems Linds wasn’t the only one waitin’ for us to wise up.”

REVIEWS/COMMENTS?

RETURN TO BUSTED SERIES

RETURN TO AUTHOR’S CSI PAGE

RETURN TO AUTHOR’S MAIN PAGE