Transitions by LosingInTranslation

Chapter 4

Warrick was still smarting from the talking to he had gotten from Grissom when he and Nick returned from their last case of the night. So, the note he found on his locker was not a welcome event. As he opened it up to find familiar and comforting handwriting, his shoulders sagged with his relief. After he changed his shirt and grabbed his bag from the locker, he slammed the door and headed off for the morgue.

He decided Stephanie probably had some questions for him about dinner or something, and knew that she would be working late (as usual). He just hoped that whatever she wanted did not take long, as he only had a little more time left to get to his place to pick up his car and get the rest of his stuff before he would have to deal with the other occupant after her shift. So, when he walked into Stephanie’s office, he was a little taken aback by the suitcases and cartons he found there.

As he stood there trying to make sense of the scene before him, someone walked up behind him and spoke, “She came by about an hour ago. Says the rest is in your car, which is in the parking lot.” Stephanie put a caring hand on his shoulder before continuing, “I guess she didn’t want a scene either.”

Warrick hung his head and showed his defeat, “I shouldn’t be surprised, but this.” He motioned at the items cluttering his friend’s office, “Pretty much puts the nail in the coffin, huh?”

Stephanie wrapped an arm around her friend and held him to her side for comfort. “She ran into Thomas and asked if you were staying with us… I guess she decided this arrangement had a bigger impact.”

Warrick looked up with a questioning expression on his face. “I don’t get it.”

“Thomas has been off duty since four, but she made a scene of bringing all your stuff here?” Her words struck him hard. He realized that his wife was trying to embarrass him with their breakup by bringing it to his work; the thing she claimed was the reason for the end of their marriage.

“I’m sorry you guys are mixed up in this thing.” Warrick was devastated by the breakup, but more by Tina’s actions since their last fight.

Stephanie pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it Warrick, “I know it’s the last thing on your mind right now, but this guy is good.”

He took the card and read it: Stephan Tompkins, Attorney at Law, Divorce and Family Law. Warrick visibly cringed at the notion, “Aww… I’m not ready for this.”

“I know, which is why I called him for you earlier. Steph and I have been friends since college. And he wanted you to know that there were already papers filed in this case.” Stephanie held her friend a little closer with the revelation.

“What?!” His indignation was beginning to boil to the surface.

“The day before your argument.” Her words sank into his soul, and it brought to the front of his consciousness the argument that sparked his departure from their home.

“Give me one good reason why I should throw away my whole career, Tina!”

The woman stomped across the room to stand toe to toe with him, “Because it is ruining our marriage!”

“What marriage?! You spend all of your down time with your girlfriends! You haven’t been home or with me on a day off in two months!” His anger was boiling over with each word.

She threw up her arms and stalked back to the chair, “Puh-lease! Like you’re ever here! You’d just take another shift anyways.”

“Well, if I didn’t work all the OT we’d never pay our bills, damnit!”

“If you had a decent job we wouldn’t have that problem!”

“If I had a decent wife it wouldn’t be a problem either!”

“Maybe I would be a better wife if my husband didn’t spend all his time with that skanky hoe of a stripper!”

He jumped to his feet and stood over her for effect, “Oh please woman! There has never been anything between us… Not like you and Dr. Grab-Ass!” She tried to push him away by force, but he stood his ground.

“THAT’S IT!!! I want you out of here!” She stormed to the door and ripped it open, “Get the Fuck out of MY house!”

He reached into the closet and tore his duffle bag out, “That’s the best thing I’ve heard out of you in months!”

Warrick was shaking his head at the memory, “She started that fight the moment she walked in the door and found me there. I must’ve screwed up her plans for the night.” He shook himself out of the fog of remembrance and looked around the room. “Well, I’m gonna have to make two trips to get this stuff out of here.”

Stephanie patted his arm, “Not at all, Thomas should be here any minute with a buddy’s truck. They’ll pull right up to the receiving bay, cart all this stuff out and you guys can head straight to the townhouse.” Warrick looked slightly relieved, but Stephanie could see there was something else bothering him, “Oh, and don’t worry about everyone knowing. They were all out in the field, and the dayshift crew was already in the lab, so no one there was the wiser. I just told them the rest of my stuff from San Fran had arrived.”

Warrick turned to see the smiling face of his friend and actually felt okay for the first time that day, “You’re the best.” He gave her a tender peck on the cheek to show his appreciation.

“Hey watch it, buddy.” Thomas came striding into the room behind them, “I got papers on that one.” His face was filled with his good humor when he came up to the two people in the office.

Warrick put his hands up in mock defeat, “I’m innocent. I swear.”

“Somehow, I doubt that very seriously.” Carter was the next to enter the room, “Damn, brother…” He gestured at the volume of suitcases, “You must have a serious style addiction, Slick.” Carter was never a man to let a serious situation go undiffused with his own brand of homespun humor, which was probably why he was Stephanie and Thomas’ dearest friend.

The three men hoisted up all of the bags in one trip and cleared them out of the office. As they were loading the bags into the truck waiting in the receiving bay, Greg and David had arrived with a new body.

Once the truck pulled out of David’s spot and the van replaced it, Greg jumped out and went straight to Stephanie in hopes of getting the dirt on what was going on. “Hey, Steph… What’s up with all the luggage?”

Stephanie turned to David (who had been there when the bags were delivered and knew what was going on), and winked, “Budget cuts.”

Greg gave her a comical expression, “Budget cuts?”

“Yep, we’ve been reduced to using mafia body disposal methods. Do you know where I can get my hands on some concrete?” Greg did an exaggerated double take and when he turned back to Stephanie she was already walking back inside and David was chuckling at his shock.

Chapter 5

At around ten in the morning, she had finally succumbed to sleep, so when she stirred at a little after one in the afternoon and found that she was still alone in bed, Sara got up and went on a search and destroy mission. She had purposely waited up for him since this was the start of their one shared day off, and she did not like wasting even a few minutes of it. During the work week, they had to maintain a certain professional distance, and they had both decided to adjust their schedules so that they each had a day off to themselves. But on that shared day, Sara sometimes found it hard to get enough of him.

She was about to leave the bedroom when she had a second thought, Maybe there was someone else out there. The last thing she needed was to walk out dressed in a teddy when Gil was having a heart to heart with Jim Brass or Catherine. So, she walked over to the chair on the opposite side of the room and slipped into her robe which had been lying there before heading back to the door. When her bare feet hit the stone tile floor she was instantly chilled. One of these days I should get some slippers. That thought instantly brought out the image of Gil sitting on the living room couch with a book in front of him, dressed in his robe and slippers. It seemed silly, but the first time she had seen him like that, she truly felt at home in this place. Living together had been a frightening prospect for her, but the transition appeared to be working. Most of the time. They were both so fiercely independent that there were bound to be problems, but so far each one had been handled swiftly, and with a generous amount of makeup sex things seemed to smooth over well.

After peeking in the bathroom to see that he had not fallen asleep in the tub again, she continued out into the living area to complete her mission. As soon as she swept her gaze across the room, her eyes stopped at the desk in the corner. There she found him, hunched over the computer. Moving closer, she realized that he was actually asleep. His head was lolled slightly to the side and his mouth was hanging open. She had to stifle the giggles threatening to spring forth from her mouth at the sight of him.

Sara decided to take pity on him this time, and walked around the desk to turn him around in his chair. First, she carefully removed his glasses, folded them up and placed them on the desk. Next, she bent down and removed the work loafers she had long despised, even after Gil had explained that they kept his feet from getting sore all day. She thought they just looked goofy, so when they first started going places as a couple she was relieved to see that he would wear different shoes on their dates. The socks were the next things to be quietly removed, and she placed them inside the shoes so they would not get lost. Then she sat up on her knees and started to unbutton his jacket and then his shirt. She knew it was going to be hard to actually wake him up, so getting him mostly undressed before she even tried would make the march to the bedroom much easier. The last thing she did before making an attempt at waking him was to unfasten his belt and remove it. That was probably the easiest task in undressing him, as she had gotten a lot of practice as of late. Satisfied that she had done all she could before she got him out of the chair, she stood back up and then leaned down to speak directly into his ear.

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Somewhere in the fog of his sleep deprived mind, he felt something warm. The warmth kept repeating the same thing, and eventually he realized that they were words and the warmth was breath carrying those words to his ear. Once more the words came, and that time they broke through the haze, “Dr. Grissom, you need to come to bed now.”

“Mmmmmm,” was all he was able to muster. He felt his body rise from the chair. He felt a hand gently guiding him somewhere and his body followed. As he trudged to wherever the hand was pushing him, he felt like his load was getting lighter and the air was getting cooler. When his leg hit a soft surface and his body came to halt, the warmth spoke to him again and he found his hands pulling something out of his trouser pockets. The hand then turned him around so that the back of his legs were resting against the soft surface. He felt his trousers fall away from his body. The hand pressed firmly into the center of his chest and he found himself falling backwards, but instead of an abrupt stop, he felt the gentle embrace of the soft surface. The last thing he sensed was the warmth tenderly enveloping him in its own embrace.

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One eye painfully opened to the afternoon sun escaping through the shutters and attempting to burn his face. Grissom then felt something shifting in the bed behind him. Sara had managed to fall asleep on his back, with one arm tucked up under his and her hand was unconsciously stroking his chest. He had one leg hanging slightly off the bed and his arm was flailed out with the hand resting on something hard. When he hazarded a look up, he realized it was the alarm clock on the night stand. It would seem that someone wanted them to be awake at four in the afternoon, but his hand had other ideas. That movement was enough to stir the woman at his back. Correction; on my back.

He held perfectly still, hoping not to wake her further. That is, until I can figure out how I got here. In his mind, everything was a complete blur beginning right after the unfortunate altercations which ended his shift the morning before. He knew it was late by the time he left CSI headquarters, and he knew he was not in the best of moods, but he was too tired to drive it off before coming home. He also remembered thinking that Sara was going to be upset at him for being so late on their one day off together, but it had been a horrible day. Between Ecklie starting his campaign to finish him at CSI, the patrol captain taking his own initiative to deal with a situation that had already been dealt with and the whole mess with Warrick, Grissom was no longer sure any of it was worth the headaches anymore.

He was genuinely worried about Warrick, but if the younger man was refusing to talk about it with him, there was not a whole lot he could do about it. Maybe I should have Catherine talk to him? She was always better at the people stuff than me. That thought was instantly put on the back burner as the delicate creature beside him stirred once more. She appeared to be soundly asleep, so he took the risk of trying to turn her away from him. Gently, he began to roll back towards her and she took the cue perfectly as she then rolled away from him and onto her other side. The move gave him his first look at her since he had arrived home and it made his heart sink: she had been waiting for him. The teddy that she was wearing was his first indication, but as he looked around the room and saw the half burned candles everywhere he knew that he had ruined something she had planned for him. I seem to have a knack for that.

He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed and that was when he realized he was no longer dressed. He was not able to even remember getting home, let alone undressed. Was I drinking? He checked his breath for the tell tale signs, but found none. He was about to get up from the bed when he heard a muffled and throaty voice speaking to him from the other side of the bed.

“Don’t even think about it, Bugman.”

He turned back to look at Sara, but she had not even moved from the position he had rolled her to in order to speak to him, “Think about what?” He tried to act innocently.

“Getting out of this bed.”

“Well, you’re the one who set the alarm, so I figure-…”

“Augh! I knew I forgot something.” She flipped over suddenly and caught him off guard. “You have to return a call to some, anthropologist somewhere.”

He chuckled at her disheveled appearance and her sleep clouded mind, “Well, that will be easy to do… I mean, with information like that.”

She pushed the hair out of her eyes, shot him one of those infamous glares and said, “Watch it, buddy. I haven’t had coffee or sex yet, so you’re walking on thin ice here.” She flopped back down in the bed and held a hand up to her eyes, “There’s a message on the pad by the phone.” He got up to go look for the message and when he entered the hall he heard her call out to him, “And you better have at least one of the two aforementioned items for me when you get back in here.”

He chuckled as he padded in his bare feet out to the phone. He was far from a shining star in the morning, but Sara made him look practically perky by comparison. She was not good at waking up, and it just endeared her to him even more.

Grissom found the note easily enough, but his glasses were another issue altogether. He looked around the room in the hopes of spotting them, but without his glasses his chances were slim. Finally, in desperation he called back to the bedroom, “Sara, have you seen where I left my glasses?”

The only answer he received was a single word, “Desk.” With that clue, he made his way over to the corner where his desk was at and there he spied the missing glasses. When he grabbed at them, the computer screen came out of sleep mode and he suddenly remembered what happened when he had gotten home: staring at him was a database of open positions for various PhD fields. It was the first time he had ever considered doing anything other than his current profession and was not even sure now if it was what he wanted. When he heard her bare feet slapping the floor as she trudged down the hallway, he quickly closed the window on the computer. “Oh good, you found them.”

“Yeah, why don’t you go back to bed… I won’t be long.” He smiled at her, trying to hide his discomfort, but he realized quickly that he had failed miserably.

“Right, and what was that for?”

He stood up, leaned over the corner of the desk and kissed her forehead, “Nothing for now. I’ll return the call and come right back to bed… Promise.”

She turned and headed into the kitchen and straight for the fridge, “Fine, I’ll just get it out of you later.” As she blindly walked past him on her way back to the bedroom she was drinking from the bottle of apple juice she had retrieved from the fridge. Before he had picked up the phone he heard her call back to him, “And I still expect one of the two when you get done.”

He had to hold back his laughter at her offhand statement as the phone had already started to ring. It was quickly answered on the other end, “Ah, yes, this is Gil Gris-… Oh, she has?... No, that won’t be necessary… Could you please just let her know that I will try again in the morning?... Thank you, yes… Good evening.” Gil put the receiver down and looked off into nothingness for a few moments, until a ding sounded from his computer and he found an email showing at his inbox. He did not have many personal contacts, and since Sara’s arrival in Las Vegas he was not accustomed to receiving many personal emails anymore. When he peeked at the sender’s address he knew exactly who it was and decided to check the email before he returned to bed.

From: T. Brennan <t.brennan@jeffersonian.institute.org>

Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 5:01PM

To: Dr. G. Grissom <g.grissom@email.com>

Subject: Recent Query

Dr. G.

I noticed a query regarding an entomology fellowship at large and immediately thought of you. You had mentioned having issues with your current position at the last conference we attended and I wanted to make sure I passed this on to you. Call me when you wake up. I also left a message on your voicemail, but who knows if you check it that often.

Until then,

-T

PS-Are you starting a private practice? Grissom and Sidle sounds like a P.I. agency.

Grissom was immediately struck by the irony of the email and its timing. Someone must have been reading his mind. However, the email had done wonders for his spirits and with the lightening of his mood, he was reminded that there was an amazingly beautiful creature waiting (somewhat impatiently) for him in the bedroom. He shut down his email and got up from the computer.

As he was getting ready to head back to the bedroom, his stomach growled at him. He looked at the clock on the wall and realized it had probably been close to eighteen hours since he last ate. It would not do for him to lose steam in the middle of the act due to malnutrition, so he turned and headed for the kitchen to find something quick to eat before rejoining Sara in bed. When he opened the refrigerator door he instantly remembered what it was he was supposed to have done on his way home from work: the grocery shopping. It was not only the emptiness of the fridge telling him what he had forgotten, but also the note taped inside with Sara’s chicken scratch handwriting; Did you forget something, Dear? He took the note down and found more writing on the back; Get some juice and check the box on the counter.

It was eerie enough the way he and Sara always seemed to be in sync with their work, but he found her ability to read him personally a little disconcerting from time to time. This was one of those times, but he did as he was instructed and removed a bottle of juice for himself and turned around to find the box on the counter. Once he spotted the familiar box from the European bakery, he made quick work to look inside. Cinnamon Streusel Muffins!

A great many things had changed in his life since he finally welcomed Sara Sidle into his heart completely. His worst day with her was still better than his best day without her. He looked forward to his days off and every minute away from the lab, as long as it was spent with her. He had finally learned the true meaning of relaxation. He developed an appreciation for vegetarian dishes (though he still was unsure about tofu). He knew what happiness was and worked hard to make sure he never lost it. But most of all, he had become completely addicted to cinnamon.

When Sara first found the little European bakery, she had brought home the normal stuff; rustic breads and croissants. However, on her second trip to the little place, she had been overwhelmed by her sweet tooth and that was when she found the confection that would always melt his heart; Cinnamon Streusel Muffins. Ever since their first night together, cinnamon had been their own private joke. And when she brought home those muffins, it meant only one thing; he had better be ready for her. So, he quickly tucked the box under his arm and trotted back to the bedroom.

He found her in the bed, under the sheets and propped up on her elbows waiting for him, “Took you long enough.”

He smiled sideways at her, because once again, she had anticipated his actions. He bowed slightly to her, “You have my sincerest apologies, my love.”

“Whatever.” She threw open the sheets to show him where he needed to be, “Just get over here with those.”

It took only two strides for him to go from the door to the bed in an instant. His speed of action might have fooled others into thinking he was a younger man, but in fact, it was simply his love for her that made him feel like a younger man.

When he set the box down on the bed he looked over at her and could not help but notice that she was no longer wearing the teddy from before. “Sara?” She looked up at him and he continued, “You changed?”

She took a quick peek under the cover and then looked back him with an impish expression, “Nope.”

“Okay… Well, you took off what you had on before.” His words came out sounding like a whine, and it surprised him a little.

“Awww… Sorry, babe, but those things have a shelf life, and it was way past due.” She patted his arm showing her mock sympathy. “If you want the full package, you’re gonna have to make it to the bedroom before I fall asleep waiting for you.”

She reached for the box, but he pulled it away from her, “No fair!”

He glinted at her appraisingly before he spoke, “I thought these were part of the full package?” She glared at him and he could not help but laugh. He sunk back into the bed with her and pulled her up onto his chest. “Sorry, I had a bad morning, and everything happened at once. I wasn’t in any kind of mood that I wanted to share with you, so I tried driving around a little, but I was just too tired and came home. I was still restless and figured I would do a little research before coming to bed.” With his free arm he pulled one of the muffins out of the box and held it tantalizingly in front of her mouth, “Forgive me?”

She went to take a small bite of the muffin, but he pulled it just out of her reach, so she gave in, “This time.” He moved the muffin closer again so that she could finally have her bite and once she was smiling as she chewed the morsel, he took his own bite and savored the flavor audibly.

“Mmmmm… I do enjoy these muffins.” He swallowed his mouthful and noticed that she was eyeing the muffin for a second bite, but he also noticed that she still had some crumbs at the corner of her mouth and that just would not do. He moved the muffin well out her reach and before she could see what he was doing, he leaned his head forward and pressed his mouth to the crumbs on her face and quickly licked them away. It was not long before they were engaging in one of those weak kneed kisses he was fast making a trademark of their relationship. When he finally pulled back, she was desperately trying to maintain the contact. “But I think I enjoy them on you so much more.”

His words brought a flush to her cheeks that he found even more alluring. She reached for the muffin and brought it and his hand close to her mouth. She took a large bite that time and also brought his index finger into her mouth before she let his hand go. The warm feeling of her lips wrapped around his finger was enough to elicit a small groan from his throat.

She released his hand and he found her once again chewing through her crooked smile. He took one more bite of the muffin (hoping that it would be enough to satiate his stomach until further business was concluded), then dropped it into the box and pushed the box onto the floor.

Once his attention was fully on her, he immediately felt her tongue on his chest. She was removing the fallen crumbs she found there and the sensation of her warm tongue dancing over his chest was bringing him immense amounts of pleasure. When he went to take her into his arms he found her pulling back from him and it was surprising. She shook her head at him and waggled her finger, “Nah-ah… It’s my turn, remember?” Then it was his turn to blush. She pulled herself up into a seated position over his torso and then took his arms and pushed them up over his head. “You just lie back and let me have some fun.” Her words came out in a sultry and wanton melody to his ears, and he was never so glad to have taken steps to save his hearing than he was when she was talking to him in bed.

When he saw her face again, she was covering his mouth with the deepest of kisses and as he welcomed the invasion of her tongue with the kiss he became aware that one of her hands was intertwined in his curls of silver hair. The kiss seemed to last forever and when the stars were starting to form at the corners of his vision, he understood that he had forgotten to breathe again. As much as she claimed his kisses would throw her off balance, whenever she took the initiative he seemed to lose sight of the need for respiration.

He was given a reprieve when she broke her hold on his mouth and began to trail her mouth down his neck. However, his first moan of the day came when he felt her tweak his nipple between her thumb and index finger. He never ceased to be amazed at the way she could arouse him in ways that no woman had ever done before, and when her mouth closed over the other nipple his back arched in the explosion of desire that came over him. However, she was a fair woman, and she devoted equal time to both nipples and his arousal was already building up steam. She returned her attention to his mouth and smiled into the kiss when she pushed back and felt the effect her lips already had on the man below her. “Like that do you?” He tried to respond, but by that point he was beyond verbal communication, and so he simply groaned into her mouth as she deepened her kiss again.

Again, she began to move southward with her lips trailing hungry kisses all along the way. When she reached his soft belly she stopped just long enough to give attention to his belly button. He had always been self conscious about his midsection, but she had never showed him any sorrow over his middle aged physique. When she nipped at the skin below his navel he was shocked to find that it too was giving him immeasurable pleasure. Is there no end to the ways she can turn me on?

He did not have time to ponder that question any longer than it took him conjure it, because she was slithering down the length of him, and when he felt her tongue dancing its way down his abdomen his whole body cried out for what he felt was coming next. His muscles tensed the instant she ran her tongue down the full length of his nearly erect shaft. Then she took him into her hand, giving herself access to the other side and ran her tongue along that as well.

His mind was exploding with desire and he knew if he did not do some quick thinking he was not going to last very long, and that simply would not do. As she took him into her warm and waiting mouth he began to recite the elements of the periodic table, in order, including atomic weights, in his head hoping to stave off the impending explosion until the right time. So focused on maintaining his erection, he failed to notice the devilish look she gave him when she sat up again. He felt her crawling back up the length of his body and when she captured his mouth in yet another mind blowing kiss he was relieved to have survived so far.

However, his relief and her mouth kept him from noticing what she was preparing next. So, when he felt her plant one hand firmly on his chest, he was completely shocked as she guided herself onto him with the other. In one swift maneuver he was buried deep inside her as she leaned back, arching into the thrust. When he looked on her, he found her head thrown back in her own ecstasy. He so desperately wanted to hold her to him as she began to rock back and forth on him, but they had made this promise and he had to honor his part of the deal. He could only lie there and enjoy the ride, and a ride it was going to be. She directed every rise and fall, every rocking motion and every slide across his chest.

As he looked up at her, he could see the sheen of perspiration forming over her body with her efforts, and he was thrilled by it. She was beautiful to him in every way and at all times, but when he could see the effect their lovemaking had on her, his heart was full.

He was doing everything in his power to hold out as long as it took her to reach her own climax. When he felt the quivering in her walls around him he finally gave himself leave to fall into the abyss. Within a minute he was arching his back and thrusting his hips up into her. When she finally fell down onto his chest, her breathing was rough and ragged and he could feel the slickness of her skin. As her breathing began to slow, he regained his capacity for speech, “Can I put my arms around you now?”

She heaved a few more heated breaths before answering with her face still pressed into the nape of his neck, “You better, or I’m liable to fall off.”

Chapter 10

Stephan Tompkins was having trouble remembering the last time he had seen this side of seven in the morning as he made his way through the parking garage of his office building that Tuesday. As he gathered his belongings for the exceptionally early day he remarked to no one in particular, “If she wasn’t such a good friend…”

He shook his head while he balanced the travel coffee cup with his newspaper and briefcase when he pressed the button for the elevator. And as he made his way up to his office on the top floor of the building, he thought about the years he had shared with his good friend Stephanie. She was the only person to still lecture him about his lifestyle on a regular basis. In fact, he decided she was probably the only person who still believed he had any redeeming qualities at all.

Without a doubt, he knew that he was not what most would consider a moral man, but Stephanie saw through the bravado and knew him by his heart. She looked past his womanizing and saw that he never made any pretenses at being a one woman man, but always maintained his honesty in his romantic dealings. She knew he never let anyone get too close, not because he was cold hearted, but because he was so careful with his own heart. She encouraged him to not be so closed off, because she did not want him to spend his life alone. He had always joked that he could never be alone as long as she stayed his friend, but secretly he feared the truth of her words nearly as much as his fear of being hurt.

No, Stephan Tompkins was not a good man by most standards, but he was a fantastic lawyer. He only took cases he believed in, and he used the lucrative divorce cases he won over the years to finance the pro-bono work he did with children’s services. His ultimate goal was to insure that no child should be left alone to deal with the abuse and neglect he had witnessed in his lifetime. Stephanie was also the only person he had ever felt safe enough with to talk to about that part of his life. She knew what drove him and she had been the one he went to when the demons would come, and she was the one he turned to when his cases did not close successfully.

They had met the first week of their first semester at UC-Berkeley in the library. She was checking out their forensics collection and he was checking out one of the librarians. She had watched him trying to make time with the young woman for about ten minutes before she walked up to stand beside him and she gave him a quick jab with her elbow to change his focus as she called over to the librarian and said, “So, how are the women’s studies events here at the library?”

When the other woman had gone into significant detail regarding the events and had even winked at the younger woman, Stephan finally realized what had been going on and hung his head. Stephanie then placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and told him that she just could not bear watching him waste so much time practicing all those moves on a woman that was far more interested in what was between her legs than his. They had been best friends ever since that afternoon.

Her dark humor and amazing wit kept him on his toes, and she never let him slide for anything. For his part, he always tried to look out for her, and did his level best to keep her laughing whenever things were getting too heavy for her. But today he was getting an even better chance to repay his friend by helping out someone she knew.

Stephan had met the man and his soon-to-be-ex-wife at the wedding a few months ago, but it was not until he started investigating the relationship (at the request of his friend) that he realized just how bad off the poor guy really was. In addition to the indications of infidelity he found in his first quick inquiries, the wife had managed to max out his credit. However, her credit showed not a scratch on it, and in fact had improved since her marriage to the man. Stephan knew the signs all too well, and he was not looking forward to dropping the bomb on the man that morning. So, when the elevator opened up, he took a very deep breath before stepping off towards his office.

Taking another breath before he pushed through the doors of his office, he found three faces waiting for him: his receptionist, his dear friend and his new client. “Well, that’s a heartening thing to find this early in the day.” He turned to his receptionist after winking at his friend, “Cindy, please tell me you’ve been taking care of these fine people?”

“Of course, Mr. Tompkins.” The beautiful young woman was quick with her smile and her answer.

Stephanie rose from her seat and Warrick followed her action, but then Stephanie walked up to the man and wrapped her arms around him. “Scoundrel through and through, but damn if you still don’t look good doing it.”

He returned the hug and gave her a peck on the cheek, “Flattery will get you everywhere, my love.” He turned in her arms and faced Warrick’s direction, “Mr. Brown, sorry to see you again under these circumstances, but I am very happy to offer my assistance.” He gestured toward his private office, “Please, let’s get this thing started.”

All three made their way into the office, with Warrick and Stephanie taking their seats in the guest chairs at the front of his desk. Stephan took his own chair and then took a file out of his briefcase to set down in front of him. “Mr. Br-…”

“Please, call me Warrick.” Warrick leaned forward uncomfortably in his seat, “This thing is hard enough without feelin’ like I’m in the principal’s office.”

Stephan smiled through his chuckle, “That’s good. You’re gonna need that sense of humor and humility to make it through something like this.” He looked at his friend and smirked, “First off… Let me tell you that there is no way in the world you can afford me, so, if I so much as see a check with your name cross my desk, I’m going to be very offended.”

Warrick was instantly uncomfortable with that idea. “Hey, I’m not lookin’ for any chari-…”

“Please, this is no charity case… You and your reputation are quite familiar to me. I actually do a great deal of legal work for the community center where you have been something of a hero figure for the kids there.” Stephan was being completely serious and Warrick was a little shocked at a divorce attorney being involved with the same community center.

“I don’t get it, I thought you were a divorce attorney… Those people don’t use divorce attorneys.” Warrick looked to Stephanie for some kind of answer, but she was smirking at his confusion.

“He doesn’t advertise it, ‘Rick, but Steph is a bit of crusader for children’s advocacy. You could say that Vegas divorce finances his superhero alter-ego.” Warrick was beginning to understand what had happened: he had been setup.

“So, this was rigged?”

Stephan sat back in his chair and gestured outward, “Hey, it’s Vegas, baby… It’s all rigged.” When Warrick snickered at the obvious statement, the man leaned forward again and picked up the folder once more, “When Steph called me, I took some liberties.” He handed Warrick the folder and waited for him to get started. “I won’t lie to you, it’s not pretty. However, it is something we can get you out from under, if you’re willing to tow the line.”

Warrick flipped through the contents of the folder and his good humor began to fade very quickly. When he gripped his forehead and started to fight the tears that were threatening to spring forth, Stephanie moved closer to him and tried to give him some comfort. His voice croaked out his next words, “You got all this in less than a week?”

“I’m afraid she doesn’t seem to have much faith in your being able to put two and two together… Or getting an attorney.” That last statement was too much for Warrick and he had to know what was behind it.

“What do you mean by that?”

Stephan took a deep breath and Stephanie held his shoulders a little tighter. “As I said, I took some liberties… One of those was to place her under surveillance.” He waited for those words to sink in to the man seated in his office and once he was certain that he was ready, Stephan continued. “She’s made some statements to the effect that she believed you were just going to rollover and not know what happened until you were skewered in the end.” Warrick simply sat there shaking his head, completely dumbfounded that he could have been so mistaken about the woman he had married. “Warrick, I promise you, that if you are willing to follow my advice, I will set everything right. You will be able to walk away from this thing like it never happened.”

There was a long silence after Stephan made his promise, but then Warrick sat up and looked the man directly in the eyes as he spoke, “There’s no walkin’ away from this, and I’m always gonna know it happened.”

Chapter 11

Two nights without any new cases should have delighted everyone, because it meant the city was behaving itself. However, everyone was on edge that night, and they were hopeful there was at least something for them to process. When Grissom and Catherine walked into the Break Room to start the shift, the anticipation was palpable.

“Okay, I’ve got a suspicious circs at the UNLV Botany Lab, and Nick, I want you to take this one.” Grissom did not wait on formalities that night, but went right to work. Nick was happy to be able to get out of the lab, so it did not matter what kind of case it was at all. “Sara, you and Catherine are with Brass tonight. He has a possible poisoning at the Stratosphere, but he’ll give you the rest of the details when you get to the scene.”

Catherine handed Sara the assignment sheet, “Brass promises we won’t have a chance to get bored.” The catlike expression on her face drew a crooked smile from Sara.

“Why does that scare me?”

“Because it should.” Grissom did not miss a beat and did not stop, “Warrick, I need you to run Greg through his last proficiency tonight. If it doesn’t happen now, he’s got six more months of babysitting.” With the chorus of groans going through the room, Grissom felt his point had been made.

“C’mon, guys… I’m not that bad. Am I?” Greg put on his best hurt puppy look and spread it across the room.

They all looked at each other, nodded and said, in unison, “Worse.”

Greg sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in a defensive and sullen posture, “Gee thanks, guys.”

Grissom cleared his throat to get their attention, “If I can finish?” When everyone turned their focus back to him, he continued, “Fine, Warrick there is a mock case set up over at the body farm. They know you’re coming, so just take their cues and run him through the paces, please?”

“No problem, Gris… I’ll make sure junior is ready for the bigs.” Warrick tousled Greg’s hair to show the younger man there were no hard feelings.

“Okay, that’s it.” He got ready to turn and leave the room and then thought of one last thing to say, “Oh, and Nick?... If you run into any trouble over at UNLV, feel free to call me.”

“What for, Boss?” Nick was curious about his comment.

“Well, I do know a few things about Botany… And most of the professors in the science department.” Grissom’s look gave Nick his answer as well and he blushed. “If you need me.”

“Right… I know where to find you.” Nick shied away from further attention.

They all took that as an opportunity to escape and started gathering up their things to get going on their cases. Sara nudged Catherine as she got up from the table. When Catherine winked at her, they both shared their realization. They walked out of the room with a knowing look between them, and once they were well out of hearing distance to anyone, Catherine spoke their suspicions, “Sounds to me like someone is missing the field a little bit.”

“You have no idea.” Sara shook her head with her observation, “The man is driving me crazy. I have to go through every scene with him after every shift. But do you know what he was doing the other night?” She did not wait for Catherine to ask before answering her own question, “He was looking through the fellowship database.”

That was too much for Catherine to leave unanswered, “You have GOT to be kidding me? Can you imagine him in a purely academic environment… He’d be a wreck.”

“Don’t I know it.” The two women laughed at the idea of Gil Grissom as an academic, but they also held onto the knowledge that they were both concerned for the man and his state of mind. The rest of their conversation, as they loaded up the Tahoe, would have been considered small talk by most standards.

After getting into the SUV and they pulled out of the parking lot, Catherine finally worked up the nerve to ask the questions that had been plaguing her lately. “So, how are you guys doing anyway?”

Sara did not seem surprised by her question, nor was she concerned. “Who, me and Grissom? We’re fine.” She shrugged her shoulders, knowing that Catherine was just being the typical concerned friend. “We both work too much and we’re being careful to make sure we both have enough space, but the friction has been minimal. Especially considering our history.”

“I’m sorry.” It was Catherine’s turn to shrug with her answer, “I don’t mean to pry, it’s just he made a comment last week that got me thinking.”

Sara turned to her briefly in surprise, “What did he say?”

“Something about you not talking to him.” Catherine played it off as nothing as she hoped to find out what the trouble was between them.

“What day was that?” Sara thought she had a line on the day, but she wanted to confirm her suspicions.

“Ah… Friday morning? Kind of late in the day as I recall.”

“Figures.” Sara kept her answer cryptic and that only served to feed Catherine’s curiosity.

“Oh, don’t leave me hanging like that.” Catherine was more than intrigued by that time.

“Sorry… That was the start of our day off together.” Sara had to hide the smile that was playing across her face and a blush rose on her cheeks. “I, um, well… I had plans for the day.”

Then it was Catherine who was blushing. “Enough said.” Catherine needed something else to change the subject because the last thing she wanted was to be thinking about Grissom’s sex life. That was when she remembered the other thing that was bothering her. “So, how’s Warrick doing? I mean, he seems to be pretty on edge, but he’s trying to keep it under wraps.”

Sara shrugged off the question. She knew that Warrick was struggling to keep everything under control, and after his meeting with the lawyer, she was surprised at how well he was doing. “Yeah, well he’s got a lot on his plate right now.”

The only answer Catherine could come up with was, “Yeah.” She let it drop, but that was something of a bombshell. Only Sara didn’t seem to think so. Catherine had not heard anything about Warrick having trouble, so she had to assume that Sara had. And it was obvious from her tone that she assumed Catherine did know what had happened. That lead her to believe that it was probably trouble at home, and after her reaction to his marriage, she was the last person Warrick would talk to about that kind of thing. She was worried, because Sara seemed fairly resigned to his plight. Just how long has it been going on?

Chapter 15

The mirrors were all fogged up. There were towels stacked up on the little table beside the tub. The clothes were thrown into various corners of the room. And the faint sounds of water lapping at the sides of the tub filled the air. With his head resting on the little blowup pillow at the edge of the tub, Gil Grissom was perfectly content to sit that way forever. With her head resting on his chest, his arms wrapped around her and the water nearly up to her neck, Sara was not complaining either.

He broke the silence with a thought, “You want to hear something funny?”

She took in a deep breath and asked, “Funny; ha ha, or funny; oh?”

He craned his neck to try and see her face, “Would the answer be different?”

She smiled, in the way that always made his blood pump faster, “Not really… I just wanted to be prepared for which. So, go ahead.” He squeezed her a little tighter with her response.

“Well, before you… I had never actually used this tub.”

She pulled his right hand up to her mouth and kissed it, “I know.”

This caused him to bristle a little, because he did not understand how she could have known, “Is that so?”

Sensing that her answer had caused him some concern, she wriggled out of his embrace, reached up over her head and pulled herself up a bit by wrapping her arms around his neck, “Don’t get edgy… The first time I set it up for us, there was about an inch of dust in the thing, Gil.”

He rested his chin into her shoulder and blushed at her answer, “Oh.”

That time she laughed, “Don’t worry, honey… There’s only room for one neat freak in this relationship. And we all know it’s not you.”

She relaxed her hold around his neck and as her hands trailed down he took one into his mouth to suckle the fingertips for a moment, “Sara?”

“Mmmm hmmm?”

“We should probably get you out of this tub.” He then held her hand away from his eyes enough to get a good look at her pruned fingertips.

She sighed heavily, “Twice isn’t enough? I mean, we do still have to sleep before work tonight.”

He chuckled at her response. “All current evidence to the contrary,” he looked around the room at the damage caused by their first coupling of the day. “That is not the only thing I think about around you.” He wrapped his arms back around her torso, and she turned in them to get a better look at his face.

“Really?”

“Don’t get me wrong… It is my first and foremost priority at all times.” He paused to enjoy the lustful gaze she was giving him, “But, I am also concerned for your well-being, and those fingers are fairly well pruned.”

She looked at her fingers and had to concede the point. “Oh, all right.” She slid over to the other side of the tub and stood up. Grissom watched as the water sluiced off of her in little streams over her every curve. He was mesmerized by the display, but when she bent down to grab one of the towels he found the air escaping his lungs. And apparently, it was audible, because Sara turned to find him transfixed on her naked form and she blushed. “Gil!”

He looked down momentarily and a blush rose on his own cheeks at having been caught, but his answer rescued him, “I’m sorry, but you do take my breath away.” He stood up next to her and took Sara into his arms, planting a deep and passionate kiss on her lips.

When he finally pulled back to gaze on her face once more, he found that she had her eyes closed and her face seemed to have been freeze framed at the moment of his kiss. As her eyes slowly fluttered open she leaned forward and whispered into his ear, “You’re not so bad yourself.”

As she clung to him in the cooling air of the bathroom, he leaned down and grabbed another towel to wrap around her shoulders. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms to keep her warm, even as he was starting to feel the chill in the air himself. Sara took that as a sign and spoke up, “Okay, we have two options, as I see it.”

“I’m listening.”

“We can either get back in the water and re-think the whole sleep thing…”

Grissom raised an eyebrow at the hidden meaning in her words, “Or?”

“Or, we can dry off and go to bed, hoping we both have enough sense to get at least a little sleep, since we already have to get up early.” Sara pulled the towel she was holding between them, and put it around his shoulders and held him tightly to her.

He pulled back from her embrace with a questioning look on his face, “We have to get up early?”

“Gris! Remember, you told Steph that you’d take Thomas to the airport for his conference?”

“Oh yeah… That was this week?” The raise of his eyebrow told her that he was just kidding, but she still had trouble dealing with his forgetfulness from time to time. She pulled away from his arms and stepped out of the tub. Grissom was left standing there in surprise, “I guess this means we’re going to bed now.”

“Sorry, the moment has passed.” She grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around her as she took the one from her shoulders and started drying her hair. He shrugged and grabbed another towel as he too stepped from the tub, wrapping it around his waist. “So, can you believe this stuff with Warrick?” She had made her way over to the counter and was taking out her brush when he came up behind her and took it from her hands.

“I know…” He began to run the brush gently through her hair as they talked. “It’s really tearing him up, I guess.”

“Nick told me that she had him served at the bar the other night… Can you believe that?” Sara was still getting used to sharing her life with Grissom, but she had to admit that the little intimacies they seemed to have found delighted her in every way. This was one of her favorite little rituals. He was so gentle, and always seemed to relish the contact that they shared when he performed this small act. The only problem she had with it was that sometimes she got so caught up in the sensations that she forgot what else she was doing.

“Stephanie took her to see that lawyer friend of hers.” She scrunched up her nose, trying to recall if she had met the man, “You met him at the wedding reception… I believe you called him oily?”

“Oh yeah! He’s a divorce lawyer? Figures.” She rolled her eyes to punctuate her comment and Grissom chuckled.

“Well, Stephie trusts him and they’ve been friends for years. I checked him out, and he does have a rather impressive trial record.” Sara should not have been surprised by this move, but for some reason, whenever Grissom did something like that it always caught her off guard. She turned around and put her arms around his neck before kissing him gently, “Does this mean the moment has returned?”

She smiled from the side of her mouth and said, “Not exactly. But it does mean that I am always amazed at all the ways I can love you.”

He leaned his forehead to hers and wrapped his own arms around her tightly, “I say the same thing, every day, but it always comes out more like a prayer when I do it.”

Chapter 16

Sara and Grissom pulled up in the driveway at the O’Halloran townhouse. It was about six thirty that night, and the sun had already begun to leave them more quickly since September had fallen on Vegas.

Before either one had a chance to get out of the Denali, the young occupants of the townhouse were exiting through the garage. Thomas was carrying a pilot case and a garment bag, while Stephanie was dressed in her standard scrubs, carrying two cups of coffee.

As she watched Thomas head to the back of the Denali, Sara released her seat belt, leaned over to the driver seat, and kissed Grissom goodnight. This was her night off, and he still had to go to work, after having dinner with Thomas and dropping him off at the airport. Sara had made plans for dinner with Stephanie, so this was where she was getting out.

“Have fun tonight… And don’t be late, again.” Her admonition held a hint of suggestiveness that brought a slight blush to Grissom’s cheeks and he nodded his understanding.

He took her hand in his, held it up to his mouth and laid a chaste kiss upon the top of it, “As you wish, my love.” She giggled slightly at the display and then jumped down from the passenger seat, just in time to look at the back of the SUV and see a serious goodbye kiss being exchanged between Stephanie and Thomas. Not wanting to intrude, she looked back into the Denali and motioned for Grissom to be patient.

Grissom rolled his eyes, and smirked, “Kids.” Sara raised an eyebrow at his comment and he just laughed at the irony of his remark, for he had often felt like a kid as he and Sara continued to explore “this.”

The smile was still on his face when Stephanie poked her head into the SUV, “Thanks for doing this Uncle Gil… I don’t get too many chances to spend time with Sara, and this conference was a last minute deal.”

He nodded his head as Thomas slipped past both women to climb into the Denali. “Not a problem. Besides, it gives Thomas and I the chance to share grievances on the way to the airport.” Thomas looked almost stricken with that statement and quickly turned back to Stephanie.

“I swear, I have no idea what he’s talking about, Honey.” Stephanie and Sara both laughed and then Sara slammed the door on him as Stephanie handed her the other coffee cup.

As the SUV drove away, Stephanie put an arm around Sara and they walked into the house through the garage. “I see you’ve made excellent progress with him lately.”

Sara was a little confused by the suggestion, “What do you mean?”

“Are you kidding?” Stephanie laughed, “I’ve known him most of my life and he doesn’t even like it when I kiss him in public!”

Sara blushed a bit at the statement, “Yeah, well, there’s still nothing at work, but with you guys, he just feels a lot more comfortable, I guess.”

“Honey, that was a lot more than comfort I saw.” She winked and bumped Sara with her hip before letting go of her shoulder and headed for the door.

But Sara just had to get the last word in, “Like you have any room to talk there, Hot Lips.” And they both laughed at the exchange.

As they walked into the house, Sara was instantly assaulted with the most amazing aromas, and when they rounded the corner into the kitchen area she realized that Stephanie’s dinner invitation meant she was cooking dinner. “I sure hope you’re hungry.”

“Well, if I wasn’t when I got here, I sure would be catching a whiff of that!” Sara was absolutely delighted by the smells of whatever Stephanie had been cooking.

“Oh good! Because I got a little crazy this afternoon…” She took survey of the kitchen and walked over to the refrigerator, “I picked up some of that white tea you liked so much, and chilled it in the fridge.”

“That’s really sweet… You didn’t need to go through that much trouble, Stephie.” Sara held a hand up to her mouth as soon as she had spoken the nickname on accident. She had heard Gil use it so often lately that it simply slipped out. The straightening of the young woman’s back and the expression on her face when she turned around showed Sara she was less than thrilled at its use. “I am so sorry… It’s just, Gil doesn’t really call you anything else and I-…”

Stephanie held up a hand to stop her, “It’s okay… I was um… I was just a little thrown by it. I mean, I ah, I don’t even let, ah… Thomas doesn’t even use that name.” That caused Sara’s heart to pound a bit harder. She knew there was probably a reason for the name’s limited use, but obviously their relationship had not progressed that far yet. And with the slip, she was not sure it would get there any time soon.

Stephanie moved to the stove and removed a couple of the pans from the flames and reached into the cabinet for some plates. She then started to dish the food out onto the plates in a silent and careful manner. Sara was struggling to find a way to break the silence, but her mind was still reeling from the notion that she had just caused the young woman a great deal of pain.

Finally, Sara simply let her instincts take over and she walked up to stand beside the woman and tenderly laid a hand on the middle of her back. “Is there anything I can do?” She felt the woman tense the instant her hand made contact, but then she felt something very unfamiliar; Stephanie sagged. It was as though that pain was something she had held onto for a very long time and Sara’s mistake, along with her gesture of support, were the keys needed to unlock the doors holding her pain inside.

When she eventually turned and looked at Sara, she was completely unprepared for the sight she beheld. The amazingly optimistic, bubbly and jubilant Stephanie had tears streaming down her face. In an uncharacteristic move, Sara did not hold back and immediately put her arms around the young woman, letting her release whatever it was that was torturing her so deeply.

Very much to her surprise, Stephanie yielded to the affection. And even though she was easily five inches taller than Sara, it felt as though she had shrunk with her release, as she laid her head on Sara’s shoulder and held her tight while she sobbed. Sara instantly realized that she knew what the younger woman was feeling: She was grieving!

Sara had felt enough grief in her lifetime to recognize the effects, and she was quite certain that was what Stephanie was feeling in those moments. Sara stroked her back and tried to offer solace to the woman who was quickly becoming much more enigmatic to her by the moment. She had managed to bury her pain so deeply, Sara never received even the slightest hint it was there, and it furthered her conclusion that Stephanie and Grissom were indeed kindred souls.

She could feel the tide was turning and that Stephanie was slowly regaining her composure, so when she began to pull away, Sara was prepared. She reached over as Stephanie released her grip and grabbed a paper towel from the rack to hand her. Stephanie softly took the towel and wiped away the tears and when she drew in a deep breath, Sara returned her hand to the middle of the younger woman’s back, “Sorry about that… It’s just this conference came at a really bad time.” Once the tears were wiped away, Stephanie returned to preparing the plates.

Sara sensed that she needed a few moments to gather herself together, so she stepped away and went to the cabinet to retrieve some glasses. “Where are we setting this up?” Sara was working to give her the space she needed to sort herself out. Sara was used to that part of the personality; all too well.

Stephanie steadied herself on the counter and took a deep breath before answering, “Living room… Nothing formal tonight.” The words were hard to speak and Sara sensed the pain in each syllable, but she took the glasses down and got the tea from the fridge before walking out into the living room.

Just as she set the items down, Stephanie was entering the room with the two plates and two napkin rolls containing their silverware. “I hope you like portabellas.”

Sara smiled at the mention of one of her favorite foods, “Are you kidding? Sometimes I can’t get enough of them.”

Stephanie was able to offer her a meek smile in return, before setting the plates down on the coffee table, “Well, these are braised and grilled, served on rustic bread from that bakery you recommended. Some artichoke hearts in a white cream and butter sauce and I threw in some seasoned butter beans for extra protein. Oh wait!” She looked as though she remembered something and disappeared into the kitchen again. When she came back out she had two small plates of greens in her hands, “I also made a mixed green salad with currants and pecans… I hope you like currants.” She had a concerned look on her face, but Sara simply smiled again to reassure her that everything was fine.

“Sounds wonderful… When did you sleep today?” Sara shook her head at all the preparations, and decided that Stephanie really did express hyperactive tendencies the way Nick had commented recently, but she also suspected that this might be something else altogether.

Stephanie just shrugged and sat down next to Sara on the couch and handed her the salad before digging into her own plate. Sara noticed that the salad already had a dressing on it, so she decided that it might be a good way to keep the conversation going, “What kind of dressing is this, Stephanie?”

“Oh! Sorry, it’s a combination of oils and just a splash of balsamic vinegar; flax seed, canola and sesame oils.” She watched as Sara took her first bite and smiled broadly as she chewed.

“Wow… That really has an amazing flavor. I’ll have to get you to give that recipe to Gil.” Stephanie gave her a puzzled look following her request. “What, Gil hasn’t told you what a horrible cook I am?”

“How can you be a vegetarian and not know how to cook?” Stephanie was dead serious and it made Sara smile from the side of her mouth.

“It’s Vegas… I can name at least three twenty-four hour Vegan places across the city. Plus, most Thai and Chinese food is vegetarian, so I’m set.” Stephanie shook her head at the humor of Sara’s logic.

“Sorry, but that stuff is total poison if consumed in any quantity. At least, the stuff they serve the anglos is lethal. I’m not a vegetarian, but I couldn’t survive on take-out for more than a couple days.” Sara looked at her with a quizzical expression. She was always surprised by the things she learned about Stephanie, but this had to be one of the big ones.

“So, you really don’t eat out that much?” Sara asked just before she took the last bite of her salad, enjoying the sweetness of the currants mixed with the nutty flavor of the dressing.

“Once a week, when Catherine and I meet for a meal before shift on Sunday night. And maybe something during the week when I end up pulling a double and Thomas can’t bring me anything.” Stephanie put down her empty salad plate and then slid onto the floor to start on the main portion of her dinner. As Sara digested that information Stephanie poured them both a glass of the nearly clear tea.

Sara noticed that Stephanie had moved to the floor and decided that she should join her there, to avoid making the mess she was sure she would have managed with her face that far from the plate. Stephanie smiled as she joined her on the floor, and set about to attack her portabella mushroom. “Well, it seems to be working for you. I think you might be the healthiest person I know.”

“Thomas thinks I need to cut loose a little more. But he’s just afraid I’ll get too obsessive about it again.” She plunked a large bite of the mushroom and bread into her mouth and Sara realized she had just shared another interesting piece of the puzzle that was Stephanie. After she had finished chewing, she continued, “I was still a little crazy about food when we met, and he’s heard all the horror stories from Steph? So, anyway, he makes sure to harp on me now and then.”

Sara could not let that one slide, “Was there a problem before?” She made sure to take her own bite and look away, in case her question caught Stephanie unaware.

“Only because I was being a total Nazi about everything. It was when I was playing collegiate ball. I was so obsessed with keeping my lean muscle mass up that I sort of forgot that chicks kind of need a little body fat to function normally. Had some trouble with hypoglycemia and lactic acidosis for a while after that, but once I broke the cycle it all evened out.” She paused a moment to contemplate something and took a drink of tea before continuing, “The amennorhea took the longest to go away though. Which is probably why Thomas is such a nag about it. Try explaining that one to a boyfriend who is totally freaking out every month.” Stephanie let a small chuckle escape and it heartened Sara to know that she was dealing with sharing that information fairly well.

“I can imagine… But it didn’t progress any further than that?”

Stephanie quickly swallowed the bite in her mouth and answered the question, “God no! I have a complete and total lack of vanity, once I realized that my eating habits were affecting my ability to play ball, I totally backed off. The team doc said it wasn’t uncommon for female athletes to go overboard with their training like that, but he saw it most in gymnastics and track.” She paused to wash down her last mouthful. “He also said the male wrestlers were the worst, especially when they were trying to make weight. Then he told me most of the girls were on his doorstep freaked out about being pregnant the first time the amennorhea showed up, so that usually shocked them out of it fast. It wasn’t an issue for me.”

“No fella at the time?” Sara asked before plopping the next morsel into her mouth.

“Better than that… I was still a virgin,” Sara nearly choked on her dinner at the matter of fact way she had mentioned that information. “And I’d never been what you would call regular, so there were none of those red flags for me. Not until I passed out at practice with the most horrible extremity and upper abdominal cramping ever.” Sara nodded, having recognized the symptoms of the lactic acidosis and hypoglycemia, but there was something she needed to ask about that other tidbit.

“So, how old were you then?”

Stephanie looked up after she had put another forkful of the butter beans into her mouth and worked to discern her answer. “Um, my last year, didn’t play the first year, because of my age, so that put me at eighteen or nineteen… Almost nineteen, because we were in the Sweet Sixteen that year.”

Sara smiled as she continued to chew on her food, and then she remarked, “Which explains why Nick has been walking funny since that pickup game the other night?” Sara’s upturned eyebrow was enough to elicit a small laugh from Stephanie.

“Yeah, I guess I am still a little competitive… But I also work at staying in shape. It helps me keep my edge and increases my stamina… For a lot of things.” Stephanie’s faraway look and suggestive tone brought a slight blush to Sara’s cheeks, but it also reminded her of another question she had been wanting to ask.

“So, how old were you when you started dating Thomas?”

Stephanie did not hesitate to answer, “That following fall when I started med school.” Sara stared at her blankly for a moment, trying to process all that information into a coherent thought and when Stephanie looked over and watched her expression she laughed, “Yeah, that’s what it means.”

“So, he’s the only guy you’ve ever been with?” Sara was completely shocked. She truly did not think anyone did that kind of thing anymore.

“Well, it’s not exactly easy for a six foot plus, incredibly athletic girl, who is also two to three years younger than the other youngest person in class, smarter than most of the teachers and not afraid to show it, with a cop for a father to get a date.” It was Sara’s turn to laugh that time. She remembered back to her own school days and how difficult it was for her to date, so she could only imagine the trouble Stephanie had. “See? Even you, the self-professed science geek would have been laughing at me. I had to get all the way to L.A. before I could at least get away from the cop father thing… And at least by then I was over eighteen, so I wasn’t jail bait anymore.”

“I’m sorry… I really shouldn’t be laughing, but-…”

“Thomas always says he got the only supermodel wallflower in existence, but he exaggerates, badly… Man, if it hadn’t been for my best friend in college, I wouldn’t have even been on a date before I’d met Thomas. Thankfully, Steph took pity on me from time to time, and conned his frat buddies into taking me to various functions.” Stephanie shrugged and shook her head as she took another bite from her plate.

Things had been going along smoothly, so Sara decided to test the waters, “So, why did Thomas have to go out for this conference?”

She took a deep breath before answering, “One of the attendings had to cancel because his wife was showing signs of labor. Thomas volunteered to go… Trying to make points with the chief, I think.” Sara saw the sadness return to her face and was sorry for having brought it up.

“Sorry, I guess it’s not really my pla-…”

Stephanie put a hand on her forearm to stop her, “It’s not that… It’s just, my Mom doesn’t even know that I still do this. It would hurt her… And Thomas… just wasn’t looking at the calendar, I guess.” Sara put her right hand over Stephanie’s and squeezed it. Stephanie smiled faintly at her for the gesture. “And I’m sure you’re totally lost, since I know Uncle Gil doesn’t talk about it.”

That comment had Sara’s undivided attention, “What do you mean?”

Stephanie took a deep breath, pushed her plate away and took a long drink from her glass before she exhaled sharply and began to speak, “Did you know that I’m not really an only child?” Sara only shook her head to indicate she did not know that. “Has Uncle Gil ever talked to you about his trouble with cases that involve kids?” Sara’s breath was caught tightly in her chest by the lump that had just come up in her throat, but she only shook her head again in response. “Yeah, I kinda figured he hadn’t.”

There was a silence that hung in the air for quite a while before Sara heard Stephanie draw in another deep breath. When she looked over, Stephanie was reaching into the end table’s drawer and pulled out a small picture frame. She took another steeling breath, turned it over, and gazed at the picture it held for a few agonizing moments before Stephanie passed the frame to her in total silence.

It took a moment before Sara dared to look down at the image, and when she did all the air in her chest gushed out at once with what she beheld there. In the picture, she instantly recognized Gil, but he was much younger and he was walking with another man who was taller and older than him. Between them, a tall, but obviously young girl walked holding their hands in hers. But the thing that impacted Sara the most was the tiny little boy that sat perched atop Gil’s shoulders. They were all smiling, but the little boy seemed to be practically beaming, and with that mop of red curls on his head, she could tell that it probably bounced as they walked. She deduced from his size that he was probably no more than three or four years old in the picture. Sara’s heart was in danger of bursting, because she knew this was not going to be a pleasant story.

“That’s my little brother.” She paused, and Sara saw the tears trickle down her cheek before she wiped them away and continued, “Michael Gilbert MacInnerney. Pop didn’t want a junior, even though Mom insisted on naming him Michael. She said we could call him Mickey, but everyone just called him Little Mac.” Stephanie almost smiled at the memory, but her sadness appeared to overwhelm it, and it died there on her face.

“Uncle Gil was there when he was born, because Pop was in the middle of some hostage thing, or something. So, when it came time for them to fill out the birth certificate, Mom and Pop both agreed his middle name should be Gilbert. Uncle Gil said it was cruel and unusual punishment, and when I asked him what that was, he told me to look it up in the constitution.” That time, a small chuckle left her throat, and Sara had to admit it was a completely Grissom thing to have said.

“Anyway, we had three and half amazing years together. He was really smart, but his speech impediment was worse than mine. He had a lisp AND he couldn’t say his R’s at all, so he sounded like a lispy Bostonian. Uncle Gil called him his ‘Little Boston Bean.’” There was a faint smile on Sara’s face with that revelation. “So, anyway, he was the first one to call me Stephie, because he just couldn’t manage the whole thing. Of course, when he said it, it sounded more like ‘Shtuffy’, but I didn’t care.”

Stephanie took another sip from her glass as the memory flooded her eyes with tears once more. “Mom was only teaching one or two classes after Little Mac was born, because she said we were more than a handful to keep track of without adding a few hundred more kids into the mix. And most of the time we stayed with Pop or Uncle Gil when she had a class. Uncle Gil was teaching and getting one of his degrees back then, so he was usually on campus, or at our house. When either of them couldn’t be there, they dropped Little Mac at the campus day care for that hour or so. I usually stayed at a friend’s house after school on those days. This was before the days of taking your kids to work, so arrangements had to be made on those rare occasions.”

Sara sensed that the story was about to turn ugly and she wrapped her arms around herself in preparation. “Uncle Gil got called in by the State Patrol on some case that involved bugs on a body they found, and Pop went with him, so they were gone for a few days. Mom told me to stay at my friend Simon’s after school that day and that Pop and Uncle Gil would be home that night and would pick me up on their way to the house, and I should be very good for Simon’s mother while I was there. Which translated to, ‘the woman has enough trouble with Simon, so don’t go pulling any pranks while you’re there, you little troublemaker.’ I had something of a reputation when I was a kid, but I swear it wasn’t all me.”

Stephanie stopped a moment, giving Sara a slight reprieve from the onslaught of pain before she continued, “Pop and Uncle Gil picked me up that afternoon and we waited for Mom to get home with Little Mac, so we could all go out for supper. Uncle Gil was showing me the two new butterfly specimens he had found while they were gone, and Pop was checking in with the station house. So, when Mom got home, Pop was the only one downstairs, but when we heard her scream I was completely frozen. Uncle Gil made me stay in my room and he ran downstairs. I stayed right there, for a really long time, and didn’t even move from the chair I was sitting in. I still had the magnifying glass in my hand when Mom came rushing into my room. She held me really tight and cried and told me she loved me over and over again. If I hadn’t been scared before, I sure was then, because, up to that point, I had never seen either of my parents cry before.” She paused once again, her voice was faltering, and she took another sip from her tea.

Sara was crying by that point, and she was terrified of completely breaking down from the unbelievable things Stephanie was telling her. She had always known that it must have been something horrific to have caused Grissom to be so sensitive with any cases involving children, but she had truly underestimated how terrible it had been.

“After that, everything was pretty crazy. And the only thing they ever told me was that my baby brother was gone to heaven and that I should never go with anyone but the three of them, ever.” Stephanie stopped again, but this time it was to wipe her tears away again.

“Mom quit teaching and I didn’t see her for a long time. She was home, but she never came out of her room. That was one of the hardest parts of the whole thing for me.” The tears flowed freely and Sara joined her then. She was not sure what came over her, but she reached over, put an arm around Stephanie and pulled her closer. The younger woman immediately laid her head down on Sara’s shoulder and she could instantly tell that Stephanie had gained some comfort from the move.

They sat in that position for a few moments longer, and Sara knew that Stephanie was simply trying to find the energy to continue her story. And so, Sara waited for her to be ready for the rest of the gut wrenching tale. “I think that’s when Uncle Gil became my whole world.” She chuckled a little at that thought, “He lived on our couch forever. Pop took a leave of absence to take care of Mom, but he stayed in Michael’s room, and I never saw my Mom. Pop would only tell me that she was very sad and that we had to give her some time. Uncle Gil made all my meals, had a lunch ready for me every morning, did the laundry, helped me with my homework, took me to my lessons, watched all my games and went to any meetings at school. He was everything to me while my parents struggled with Michael’s death, and I loved him for every minute of it.”

Sara now had a total understanding about the relationship Gil shared with his goddaughter. She had long suspected that there was so much more to their comfort with each other than met the eye, and with that knowledge Sara realized she had come to love him even more.

There was more that had been left unsaid that bothered Sara about the whole ordeal and she felt compelled to ask the questions, “Steph… What happened to your brother?”

“The most I ever heard was that someone took Michael from the day care, posing as his uncle and they found him dead that night. But I only overheard that part at the memorial. My parents never talked about it, and neither did Uncle Gil, so I never asked any questions. I suppose I could’ve looked it up when I got older, but I didn’t think I could handle it. I saw what it did to my family, and that was more than enough for me.” Stephanie wiped away the tears that were fading away, but Sara had one more question.

“What about you?”

Stephanie scrunched up her brow in confusion and asked, “What do you mean?”

“You told me how your parents were affected and what they had to go through to make it out of that time. You told me what Gil did… But what about you, Steph? What did you do? How did you feel?” Sara continued to hold Stephanie close to her, because she felt that it was going to be important, if the woman was able to answer her question.

“Me?” She took a deep breath before the next words came out, “I went to school, I went to lessons, I went to practice and I did my homework. Never missed a single day.”

Sara instantly understood that Stephanie had learned another of Gil’s traits; the way he would simply shut down and became stoic when things were just too hard to handle. And that knowledge broke her heart. “No wonder this is still eating at you… What does Thomas usually do?”

She sighed heavily and answered as best as she could, “Mostly, he’s just there. He tries to stay out of the way, cleans up the broken glass, and never lets me get too far over the edge.”

To Sara, that was the worst thing she could have said. That was exactly what she had been doing with Grissom for years. No wonder these two have so much trouble expressing their pain… They’re both afraid no one would be there for them in the end. “Have you ever told him what really happened?”

She sniffed a little before answering, “Sort of… He knows my brother died.”

“Haven’t you ever talked about this with anyone else?”

“My friend, Steph… Um, Stephan, that lawyer guy you met at the wedding reception?” Stephanie tried to look up at Sara’s face, but was not quite ready to leave the comfort of her willing shoulder.

“Right, the one helping Warrick with his divorce. So, why did you tell him?” Sara was trying to understand the situation better.

“Other than you… Nobody else has ever asked.” And, for not the first time that night, Sara’s heart was broken with her words. The girl lying on her shoulder had waited for someone to actually ask about her pain, but until that happened she held it all inside and let it eat at her. Sara made a promise to herself in that moment, she would never let something like that remain unresolved or unspoken ever again.

“Stephanie, I probably know as well as anybody, that when you hold all that stuff inside, it only tears you up. You have to find some way to talk about this stuff with someone.” Sara stroked the other woman’s arm as she spoke, hoping to provide her with some additional comfort.

When she sat up and looked Sara in the eye, Stephanie simply said, “I think I just did.”

Chapter 18

The morgue seemed strangely quiet as Catherine walked into the room. There were no bodies, at least no new ones, since it was a burglary night, but there was usually some kind of activity or sound in there. That changed very quickly.

CRASH “Son of a bitch!”

Catherine took a deep breath and turned for the office where the sound came from. “Must be something in the air tonight,” she said as she shook her head.

When she peeked around the corner, she found Stephanie seated at her desk, with her head in her hands and a large metal tray lying on the floor against the wall. Catherine took one look at the young woman and the sight pulled at her heart a little. She could tell Stephanie was in pain, but Catherine had not had any luck in finding out what that was yet, so she deduced it was much worse than she could have imagined. She planned on saying something to Gil about what she had noticed, but after his meeting with Ecklie, Catherine knew that was no longer an option.

Catherine cleared her throat to announce her presence, but Stephanie had not moved an inch. “Is it that bad, kiddo?”

“You have no idea.” The small voice that came from the young woman pulled at those heart strings once more.

Catherine came into the room and took the chair in front of the desk before she spoke again. As she took her seat, Stephanie looked up into Catherine’s gaze and that was when the lump rose in her throat. The young coroner’s eyes were rimmed with red, but her face was pale, and Catherine was certain that she had been crying recently. “Well, you’ve got my undivided attention.”

“If only that would help.” Catherine immediately knew that the young woman was serious, but that they were not talking about the same things. “Until I can get my hands on those research notes, I’m never gonna figure out what killed this man.”

“Since when is that your concern, Steph?”

“Adler had one of the finest minds in all of Botany, possibly in all of life science, and there has to be a legitimate reason for his death, Catherine.” Stephanie’s voice had a dangerous quality to it that Catherine instantly recognized.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong… It’s just that there’s only so much you can do, Steph.” Catherine leaned back, just a bit, knowing she was in a precarious position with the conversation.

“You think I don’t know that?!” Her anger was boiling to the surface. “You think I don’t know what I am and am not capable of?”

Catherine took a deep breath, she knew saying the wrong thing at that moment could make things ten times worse, so she chose her words very carefully. “Stephanie, I’m not saying anything like that.” Catherine took her time with her answer, “I’m just worried about how this case is affecting you.”

The words hit their mark, and Catherine could see the young woman’s anger deflate. “I’m sorry, Cath.” It was Stephanie’s turn to breathe deeply that time, and when she had regained her composure, she spoke. “It’s just a really bad week.” Stephanie sunk back into the seat and let her head fall backwards until she was looking at the ceiling.

“I gathered as much.” Catherine decided to use a bit of humor to try and lighten the mood, and so she added, “Just try to keep it to a minimum on Thursday nights, okay?”

Stephanie chuckled, but kept her face away from view, “Uncle Gil that bad tonight?”

Catherine shrugged, “With Ecklie on his ass, and that whole business at the Body Farm yesterday… And it’s Thursday night.” She waited for Stephanie to meet her gaze again, and when she did Catherine said her final peace, “I just wish those two would wise up faster.”

Stephanie laughed that time, “Yeah, I’ve been saying the same thing… But I have something of an inside track on that one.”

That little nugget was too much for Catherine, and her feline nature was instantly on alert. “Oh, now you can’t go dropping hints like that and leaving me hanging, kid.”

Stephanie gave her a sly sideways glance before the smile broke out on her face, “Sorry, but I had to promise someone that I wasn’t going to say anything.”

If Catherine had been standing, she would have had her hand on her hip when she spoke next, “Like that ever stopped us before. Who is this ‘someone?’”

“Oh, just my old ASL instructor.” Stephanie flipped the vague comment to her and Catherine’s brow was up in an instant.

“Gil?” She was confused by the comment, because Gil was the only person she knew of who knew ASL that could have taught Stephanie the language.

“I didn’t learn ASL until med school, so that would be a no.” Catherine realized Stephanie was enjoying tormenting her.

Having reached the end of her patience after spending most of her shift keeping the team in one piece after Gil’s outburst, she could no longer stand the guessing game. “Stephanie, I am not in any kind of m-…”

“Mary called me to make sure she could get a ride from the airport when she gets here.” Catherine screwed up her face, as she tried to figure out who Stephanie was referring to with her answer. “C’mon Catherine, how can you not know who Gil’s Mom is?”

The light turned on in her head and she shot Stephanie with a look of complete shock, “His MOM is coming out? When?”

Stephanie shrugged, “Grandma Mary didn’t say when, she just wanted to make sure I could help her out, because she wanted to surprise Uncle Gil, and she didn’t want to stay at his place either.”

“Wow! I had no idea… I mean, so Gil doesn’t even know yet?” Catherine was still processing the information.

“I don’t think I can say… Let’s just leave it at knowing that when Mary gets here, things could get really interesting.” The look on Stephanie’s face was practically impish, but Catherine knew the conversation was over, and her investigation was just beginning.

Something like this deserved careful research, and Catherine was going to learn every detail she could possibly discern. I have a feeling that Gil doesn’t stand a chance… With Steph AND his mother on his case; he’s toast.

Chapter 19

After starting out his shift with the scene in the Break Room and then learning that all efforts to get any more information or evidence from the university had failed, Nick was at his rope’s end. The problem was, the only person he could turn to had holed himself up in his office and he was afraid of walking into a time bomb situation. He blew out one last long, hard breath and knocked on the door. “What?” was the voice that came from the other side. It was not angry, but it was flat. Nick could only hope that he would be well received; Well, at least that I don’t get my head shot off anyway.

Quietly under his breath he said, “Here goes nothin’,” and he pushed through the door. “Hey Grissom, you got a couple minutes?”

The man’s head popped up upon hearing Nick’s voice and he gestured for him to step inside and take a seat. “What did you need, Nick?”

Nick shrugged a little, made his way to the chair, and took a seat before answering his boss. Grissom used the time to take off his glasses and cleared his mind of the madness of paperwork which had been holding his attention. “Well, it’s this case at UNLV. I’ve hit a brick wall, and Sofia can’t seem to find a judge who’ll give us any paper.”

Grissom furrowed his brow as he tried to make sense of Nick’s statement. “What are you trying to get?”

“Well, when I was looking through the photos, I noticed that there was a void on the table where he was found: about the same shape and size as the other journal books that were on the shelves in there.” Nick was trying to explain himself, and hoped Grissom would be able to offer some assistance.

“And you went back to get the journals, but they weren’t there, right?” Nick gave him an awestruck look and shook his head.

“How do you do that?” His crooked smile matched that of his boss and he chuckled.

“I just know how possessive the university research system is, at times.” Grissom shrugged as he gave his answer. “So, you were hoping I could make a call and see about getting access to those journals, right?”

Nick demurred at the question, but that was exactly what he had been hoping. “Well, you said you had some connections there.” Grissom nodded and then looked at his watch.

“Hmmm… Still a little early to be calling Walter, but as soon as the sun comes up, I’ll be sure to give him a call.” He looked over the desk at Nick before adding his next comment, “But I can’t make any guarantees… Adler was a renowned botanist, and his journals are like gold to the university now. None of his research can be saved, but his journals could prove useful to whomever they manage to replace him with. There might even be a bidding war just to view those journals.”

It was Nick’s turn to screw up his face into a question mark. “I don’t get it. Why would they be so valuable?”

“The man dealt in unknown plant life, and with all the money being made in the pharmacology industry from many of these plants, there is a great deal of competition for research dollars right now. Adler was working on a fully funded grant from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world.” Grissom paused for a moment when he realized that even if Nick had the journals, he was not entirely certain that the man had the ability to understand the notes. “Nick? What do you want the journals for anyway?”

Nick saw the look on Grissom’s face and immediately knew his boss was concerned he did not have the smarts to be able to read those journals. Nick just laughed at the notion before answering, “No worries, Boss… I was gonna process them, just in case they might have the agent itself, but Stephanie was gonna read through ‘em for any leads on the agent.”

Grissom nodded his head with his understanding. He knew that Stephanie had been dabbling in botany since she was a little girl, and he knew that she was probably better suited to help Nick, quite possibly more than anyone else. “So, Stephanie has time to help you out on this one?”

“Yeah, it’s been kinda quiet in the morgue this week, and with them losing another coroner, she’s been working a bunch of hours. And she said she’s got some experience with the whole plant thing.” Nick knew that Grissom did not need anything else to worry about, so he kept his concerns about Stephanie’s unusual interest in the case to himself. He almost thought she had become a little too fixated on the case, but with Grissom’s outburst earlier, Nick decided that he would talk to Catherine or Warrick about it later. He thought that if she could just get those journals, she might be able to finally find some closure on the case.

“Well, you could not have a better resource on the topic.” Grissom smiled with the memory that bubbled to the surface of his consciousness. “If you could see the garden at her mother’s house, you’d understand. In the fifth grade, she did a Mendelian genetics experiment with Sweet Peas for the science fair. She spent nearly a year, cross pollinating Sweet Peas, and recording all of her techniques and results. In the process, she managed to create a new variety of the flower.” Nick listened to Grissom go on, and realized just how proud he was of the young woman. Nick knew the two appeared to have a strong relationship, but he had always wondered about the dynamics of it. Listening to Grissom, he knew that not only were they close, there was also an admiration there. “After that, her mother’s garden became her laboratory playground. It is still one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon.” The corners of Grissom’s mouth turned up for the first time that night.

Nick smiled at the man’s obvious pride. “Good to see you still got some of that left, Boss.”

Grissom raised his brow at the remark, “What do you mean?”

Nick was instantly self-conscious of his words. “Well, I ah… I mean, after, uh, ya know, earlier.”

Grissom nodded once he understood Nick’s frame of reference, “Ah… That.”

Nick pursed his lips and nodded his head as well. “So, is it really that bad?”

“No…” He paused and Nick relaxed for a moment, until Grissom added, “It’s actually worse.” That statement made the air in the room seem to disappear for Nick. Grissom did not joke about things like that, so he knew the man was being serious.

“The word around the building is that Ecklie wanted to fire them both… Is there any truth to that?”

Grissom sat back in his chair and let a deep sigh escape his mouth. “I’m afraid so.”

Nick could tell the man was still struggling with the realities of the situation. “Man… Is that guy trying to kill the lab or what?” Nick just shook his head in disbelief.

Grissom scratched at the beard on his chin, as though he was struggling with that answer, “I honestly don’t know, Nick.”

They both sat in silence for a few minutes. Nick was trying desperately to make sense of the whole thing, but the only thing that kept coming to mind was that Ecklie was a completely incompetent asshole. “So, what stopped him this time, Boss?”

“The last of my credibility.” Nick felt the sting of the air as it left his lungs. Grissom had never been that open about anything before, and he knew that if the man had let that slip, his meeting must have been even more intense than any of the rumors let on.

“I, ah, um… Grissom, what happened?” Nick was truly worried at that point.

“I called in some favors with the director at the farm… Made some promises to the Mayor… Gave some assurances to the director… Pretty much sold my soul to the devil.” Grissom’s voice was a total monotone throughout his vague explanation.

Nick was having a hard time digesting all the information that came at him. Grissom had put his neck on the line to save the careers of his friends and teammates. Grissom had risked his own career for their benefit and yet he had not thrown that into their faces earlier. In that moment, Nick realized that there were probably a great many things Grissom had done to protect the people who worked for him. With all the things that he and the team had been through, and yet none of them ever really had to pay for them over the years, any questions Nick may have had about Grissom’s dedication to the people on their team were instantly washed away in his mind.

Chapter 20

It managed to only take one phone call before Gil was able make some headway in acquiring Professor Adler’s journals and pertinent papers. Fortunately, he still had some clout at the university and they took his personal word that the papers would be protected while in his custody. They sent them over by messenger service first thing that same morning and he wanted to deliver them to Stephanie himself before leaving for the day. He hoped that it would be the one thing that went right with his last shift of the week. He was already going to be catching hell for getting home late, but he hoped that the reason would get him off the hook.

Gil had been surprised when Sara told him that she and Stephanie were having dinner together. But at the same time it was immensely satisfying to know the two main women in his life were making an honest effort at creating a personal relationship outside of their connection to him. Having Stephanie living so close to him again had given Gil the courage to take an honest look at his life. So, in many ways, she was infinitely responsible for his new relationship with Sara. That was why he had gone so far out on the limb to get those papers, because he knew it meant something to Stephanie to give Professor Adler’s death some closure.

At first, he had trouble understanding why she would be so adamant about his case, but after talking to her mother about it, he learned that Adler had been one of her professors in her first year of college. Elizabeth had explained that the man was once a source of great understanding for Stephanie, as he had also been considered a prodigy. That information both relieved and worried Gil. Stephanie was taking the case personally, and he knew that was never a good idea.

Before he had a chance to dwell on it too much, the elevator doors opened and he found Catherine standing there. She held the doors for him as he pushed the hand truck out of the elevator, but instead of getting on the elevator, she stood there with a serious look on her face. “Was there something you needed, Catherine?”

She gestured at the boxes he was pushing and asked, “What’s all that?”

“Papers from the professor’s research. I was able to pull a few strings to get them released.” He was pleased with himself, but he was afraid it had shown on his face, so he was certain to keep his tone serious.

Catherine actually looked somewhat relieved, and Gil deduced that she too had been concerned about Stephanie’s interest in the case. “Good… Maybe we can get that one off her plate now.” Catherine regarded him with a look that he had seen before; sympathy. However, in the past he had seen it when she was talking to him about getting his head out. This time, he thought it had another meaning. “Gil, is everything okay with her? I mean, she’s taking this one pretty hard, don’t you think?”

There it was. He tilted his head to the side and shrugged, “Yes, I had those same concerns. But it would appear she knew the man. He was her advisor at Berkeley when she first started there.”

Understanding played across Catherine’s face and she nodded as she spoke, “That makes so much more sense.” Then her face took a pensive expression and Gil knew she was working something else out in her head. “But there has to be more than that. Are you sure she’s doing alright?”

He thought about that question for a moment, and he was starting to understand where Catherine’s concern was coming from. “Well, I suppose she’s just got a lot going on. What with the case, helping Warrick, the hours she’s putting in because of another staffing problem and then Thomas having to go away, she’s probably just feeling the pressure.”

“How long is Thomas gone?” He was glad that she had skipped over the issues with Warrick. He had not intended to mention it, but he knew it was weighing heavy on Stephanie, because of how involved she had been in helping Warrick as he dealt with his crumbling marriage. And Catherine was the last person he wanted to talk to about that topic.

“Sunday night.” Gil understood the pain she was feeling. They may not have been together as long as Stephanie and Thomas had, but he could not imagine spending even a day away from Sara anymore. The thought alone gave him a pain and an emptiness he never wanted to experience.

“Well, I’ll see if I can’t get her to come over for dinner or something Saturday night.” Gil smiled at her suggestion and knew what it was like to be given the “Lindsay Treatment” on several occasions in the past. The girl was good at helping to keep your mind off of your troubles. Much like her mother, in that respect.

“Sounds like a good idea to me… I can remember being availed of that technique a few times, myself.” A smile cracked Catherine’s face and her eyes lit up with the memory.

Catherine looked at her watch and sighed, “Well, I need to be getting some sleep… I’m having dinner with the parents tonight.” Gil nodded at her admission. He knew that things had been progressing with Catherine and her new family dynamic through Stephanie. He also knew it took a serious effort on Catherine’s part.

Catherine felt betrayed by her parents, and if there was one thing Gil knew about his friend, it was that she had an overdeveloped sense of betrayal. It was going to take her a long time to get past those feelings, and Gil only wished her the best. He knew what it was to grow up without a father and he hoped she would recognize the golden opportunity she had been given, but he had not yet been able to bring himself to tell her that. She’s doing fine on her own… She doesn’t need the guilt that would bring to make her see this opportunity.

“I’m not far behind you… I just wanted to get this taken care of before heading home.” He smiled at her as she stepped into the elevator and tapped at her watch with a sly grin on her face.

“Better not keep her waiting this time… She does have a temper, you know.” The doors closed on her last word and left Gil chuckling to himself as he started pushing the hand truck towards the Autopsy Room doors.

When he entered the room and looked towards her office, Gil found Stephanie doing pull-ups on the bar she had gotten installed in the door frame. He admired her athleticism, but he also recognized that it was her natural response to stress. Fortunately for her, Stephanie’s parents were able to cope with her astoundingly active nature as a child, lest she have been classified as a hyperactive child and shelved away without further regard for her amazing intelligence.

He once asked Elizabeth how Stephanie was able to concentrate at school, and not become disruptive to the other students with the frenetic pace she seemed to always approach every task. Her mother explained that Stephanie was given a puzzle before leaving for school everyday, and when she found that she had a free moment, or she was bored with something the class was struggling with, that she was to work on the puzzle. Stephanie was more of a puzzle fanatic than Gil ever was, and the amazing amount of attention that she would devote to solving puzzles had always excited him, so he knew it was the perfect tool for helping her to maintain focus.

However, when something was truly bothering Stephanie, she needed more than an intellectual distraction; she needed to have a physical release. She began playing basketball at age five, when she ended up accompanying her father to a crime scene at a local high school. The other officers were trying to keep her distracted and so they had taken her to the gym. Mac told him that by the time he had finished organizing the personnel at the scene, and had gone looking for her so they could continue to their afternoon, he was told that she wanted five more minutes to finish her game. Apparently, one of the officers had taught her how to play the game “Horse.” But Stephanie felt that was a baby word, prompting them to changed it to “Elephant.” While Mac watched his little girl shooting the ball from atop another officer’s shoulders, he realized that she was actually winning. He signed her up for the team at the Boys and Girls Club the next day.

When Mac first relayed the story to both Gil and his wife, he remarked that Stephanie had been sullen when they arrived, but by the time he returned to her, she was smiling and giggling like she had not a care in the world. They all agreed basketball would be an excellent outlet for her energy and would help her to learn the value of teamwork, but as was always the case, she ended up with the kids a few years older than her. However, this time it was because of her height and physical ability, instead of her intellect.

Gil cleared his throat, letting her know he was standing there and she stopped as she hung from the bar with her knees still pulled up. She simply dangled there for a moment, clearing her head of the thoughts that must have been troubling her as he entered, and then smiled at him. “Hey Gil. Whatcha got there?”

He cocked his head to the side a moment and tried to play down what he had brought to her, “Oh nothing… Just something that might work a little better than pull-ups.”

Stephanie finally dropped her legs to the floor and stood up. She walked over to him to get a closer look at the boxes on his hand truck. “What is it?”

The left corner of his mouth turned up and he said, “Just the journals, invoices, bills of lading, lab notes and itineraries from the last six months of Adler’s research.”

“Are you serious?!” Her eyes immediately lit up with her excitement, and it was exactly what Gil needed to see.

“I cashed in a couple favors, and they were just delivered to my office a few minutes ago.” His smile broadened across his whole face when he could feel the relief pouring off of her.

“I could kiss you right now, but I just ate some pickled garlic, and no one needs that.” He shook his head and chuckled at the face she made when she spoke.

“Yes, that would be hard to explain to Sara, I think.”

She looked down at her watch and then gave him a startled expression, “You need to get the hell out of here or she’s gonna kill me!”

Gil was shocked at her exclamation, “Why would she do that?”

She did not stop to explain, instead, she got behind him and started shoving him out the door. “Just get out of here!” He laughed at her insistence and when they got to the door she stopped pushing and he turned around to place a gentle kiss on her forehead. When his lips touched the skin there, he thought that it felt a little warm. “Steph?”

“No stalling. Just move.” She was smiling, but he was a little concerned.

“Are you feeling okay?” He laid the back of his hand on her cheek and continued, “You’re a little warm.”

She took his hand from her face and shrugged, “That happens when you do about a hundred pull-ups, Uncle Gil… Now get out of here.”

He relented and shrugged before turning back away, “Okay, but you go home and get some sleep as soon as Doc gets in. I don’t want you getting sick because you’ve pushed yourself too hard.”

“Roger that… Now scram!” She was smiling when he turned to see her as he backed into the elevator, so he returned the smile. He decided that she must have been right, and that he was simply being the over-protective uncle again. It was a role he was well rehearsed in, so he often fell back into it quite naturally.

Gil was glad that Catherine was going to be occupying her on Saturday. And he was going to suggest that he and Sara look in on her that night as well. He looked down at his own watch as he exited the elevator; If I’m still alive that is.

Chapter 21

His level of exhaustion kept his mind from registering that the entire house was dark as Grissom walked through the front hallway. He dumped his keys, phone and wallet into the tray at the edge of the breakfast bar and rounded the corner on his way to the fridge. It had been a long shift, and as he stood in front of the open door he realized how bone weary he had gotten. The whole week had been an exercise in patience and stamina. Grissom tried to sort out what he wanted to drink and why the week had been so hard on his resolve. He stretched his neck from side to side and settled on a honey-wheat beer from the back of the fridge. As the air escaped the bottle when he removed the cap, he let loose a deep sigh.

As he trudged from the kitchen into the living area, Grissom finally realized that all the blinds had been closed and there was barely any light in the room at all. He decided that Sara had probably gone to bed after giving up on waiting for him. Grissom was going to stretch out on the couch to finish his beer before heading off to bed himself. He just wanted a few minutes of peace to clear his head, and his old couch had been a longtime partner in those endeavors over the years. This new couch had not been broken in yet, so he hoped it would prove itself as something more useful than the hassle it was to get into the townhouse.

The only thing he wanted was to get the last vestiges of his horrible day out of his head before joining Sara in bed. Grissom did not like bringing his work into that part of their world, and once he stepped inside the bedroom he shared with Sara he never wanted anything weighing him down. That was the silent promise he made to himself when he and Sara began their relationship, and he always kept his promises.

The problem was that sometimes he did not even known what it was weighing him down. That was the trouble he was facing as he kicked off his loafers and prepared to sink down into the sofa. He felt like a heavy blanket had been weighing over him throughout the shift, and his interactions with his superiors, while horrific in their own right, were not the real cause for his foul mood. He had to admit the one day a week he worked without Sara was never pleasant, but even that was not the source of what was dragging him down that night. Grissom thought if he could just retreat into his mind for a little while, that he might be able to pinpoint the source of his particular agony.

Grissom put the beer down on the coffee table and turned to drop down onto the sofa when a tiny ray of light squeezing through a bent slat in the blinds fell onto the face of another person already on the couch. He turned his head to the side as he watched the vacant face of the woman he loved, as she stared out at the closed window.

“Sara?” His voice was tentative, because she had not spoken or stirred since he entered the house, and that worried him. A lump rose in his throat and he worried that something horrible had occurred, so his next words came out in a stilted timber, “Honey, are you okay?”

His worry moved up to a panic, and he cautiously sat down next to her on the couch and laid his hand over one of the knees she had drawn up to her chest before speaking again, “Sara, what is it?”

Slowly, she turned her head to regard him as he sat waiting for the worst. Her face remained blank, completely devoid of emotion and it deeply frightened him. Grissom had no idea what would have driven her to such a flaccid expression, but his mind was perfectly capable of creating a surprising number scenarios to tear his heart into shreds.

When she finally stirred from her stupor, she simply laid her head down on his trembling shoulder and sighed. The contact gave Grissom some hope, and the warmth radiated down into his heart as he continued to wait for her to speak. His heart was beating much faster and he was certain his blood pressure had risen as well.

The silence was deafening to him and it roared in his ears like a thunderstorm on the ocean. He felt as though he was drowning in the silence and the only thing keeping his head above the tide was the feel of her head on his shoulder. His breath caught in his throat when she snaked her arm in around his elbow and held onto his arm with both hands. When she heaved a deep sigh, he continued to hold his breath in the fear that he might not be able to draw in another one when the words finally fell from her lips.

“Stop it.” Her words were soft and almost timid. His mind raced with the hundreds of meanings behind her words and what could have caused her to retreat into the darkness, but before it went completely over the edge she held him closer and spoke again, “Gil, don’t… Don’t go there… Ever.”

He knew what she meant and he tried to calm down, but there was always that niggling doubt, deep in the back of his mind, that she would one day walk away from him. She had proven to him in a million ways she was not going anywhere, but the doubt always managed to stay alive, even when he thought he had buried it for good. He had no idea what it was going to take to finally snuff it out, just that he needed to figure out what it was before he created his own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Grissom took in a deep, calming breath, and was finally able to find his voice again. “What is it, Sara?”

She exhaled sharply, then picked up his arm and put it over her shoulder so that she could snuggle in closer to him. He tightened his arm around her and pushed the hair back away from her face. As his hand brushed her cheek, it was moist and he knew then that she had been crying. He tensed at the idea of her in that much pain. She must have sensed his tension, because she looked up at him and then kissed his cheek tenderly. “It’s not that, Gil… It’s just-…”

He held her close to him, stroked her hair for a moment and kissed her forehead. “Sorry, I’m still working on that one. Steph was right… Having all your dreams come true takes some getting used to.” Grissom felt as though Sara had shrunk away from him at the mention of Stephanie’s name and that worried him. He debated about asking her if something happened at their dinner, but he sensed that Sara was working up to something and he did not want to interfere with her disclosure. Instead, he brought his opposite hand up to her face and tilted her head up to his gaze. “Talk to me?”

Her eyes were filled with a pain that Grissom could not recall seeing there before, and he knew he had to take it away at all costs. A single tear blinked out of her eye and she parted her lips to speak, but the words seemed to have gotten lost as she looked into his eyes and she turned away from him. When she buried her face into his chest and started to sniffle, he knew that she was crying again. He held her tightly and shook his head as he spoke, “Sara, honey… Please talk to me.”

Her sobs seemed to cease with his final plea and she drew in a deep, reassuring breath before turning her head to rest it on his shoulder. “I want to… I just-… I just don’t know what more I can do.”

Her answer had him playing a thousand different scenarios in his head, but none of them made sense and so he was forced to ask her what she meant. “I don’t understand, Sara. What do you think you have to do?”

His words sparked indignation in her and he knew it the moment she pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. “Obviously there is something I still have to do before you’ll trust me. So, either tell me what it is or tell me goodbye.” His face became a mass of confusion, fear and hurt.

Grissom knew he trusted no one the way he trusted Sara, but she was operating under the impression that he did not trust her. He knew it had to be his fault if she felt that way. “Sara, I-…”

“I can’t leave you, so you’ll have to be the one to leave, Gil. I just don’t know what else I can do to make you trust me.” She buried her face in her hands as she leaned forward onto the arms propped on top of her knees. Sara was in anguish and there was only one person who could bring her any relief. The problem was that he had no idea what was going on.

Grissom brought his hand forward and laid it on the back of her head, stroking her hair to try and provide her with some comfort as he worked up something to say. “Sara, I do trust you… More tha-…”

“Then why do you still think I’ll leave you every time something happens?!”

He could not deny her logic, but he also could not deny his natural instincts. Grissom was still having trouble believing that she loved him as much as he loved and needed her. His logical mind and his heart told him that he owned the keys to her heart, but that dark corner of his mind continued to whisper doubts to him. “Sara… I’ve been-… I’m not used to trusting my heart. And though logic tells me you’re here for good, that doubt still has some purchase in the darkest corners of my mind. Sometimes, it has a loud voice and overrules what my heart tells me is true.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before putting words to his next thoughts. “Sara, I trust you with my soul, probably more than I have ever trusted anyone else in my life.”

She reached over the coffee table, withdrew a thick manila envelope from the other side and tossed it back at him before slapping him with her next words, “Then how can you look for another job without even mentioning it to me?”

He removed the envelope from his lap and saw the return address: The Jeffersonian Institute, Washington, D.C. All of the air left his lungs when he understood what was happening. Sara believed he was trying to leave her, and that he had not shared any of his thoughts about changing his career path with her only made it worse. “That’s not what this is Sara, I swear.”

“Look at the back before you say anything else.” Her words cut him to the quick and he flipped over the envelope to find a handwritten note.

Grissom took his reading glasses out of his pocket and looked down to read the note on the envelope:

G-

Here’s the offer for the fellowship… Hope to see you soon… Too much to catch up on.

Always,

-T

There was nothing ambiguous about the note and Grissom knew exactly why Sara thought he was abandoning her. He had no idea that his friend would take his emailed response as a signal that he, indeed, wanted the position, but the fact that she took the initiative to secure the offer for him should not have surprised him. His friend had long felt his working at the Las Vegas Crime Lab was a terrible waste of his talents (which struck him as odd since she spent so much of her time working for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to identify remains around the world). However, he did not have time to dwell on the motives of his friend at the moment, because he had to explain himself to the woman seated on the couch with him.

“Sara, I am not trying to leave you… She mentioned the fellowship to me last week and I guess she spoke with the director to make me an offer. I get offers like this all the time.” And while that statement was true, he was not ready to admit that he was actually entertaining the notion of pursuing those offers since his last confrontation with Ecklie. There was more than enough damage control for him to deal with, without bringing his mid-life crisis into the mix as well. “I’ve actually had several offers this week alone.” That was also true. Ever since the lab rankings report had been released, Grissom had been offered jobs in several cities, but they were all director positions, and he never wanted to be a director.

She did not lift her head from her hands, and her muffled words were almost indecipherable, but with his trained ear, he was able to make it out. “Why is she trying to get you out to D.C. then?”

“She’s been after me to get out of the municipal crime labs since she was a grad student. She’s a firm believer in pure science; which I find amusing, considering her close relationship with the FBI in IDing human remains.” He almost chuckled at the thought, but the gravity of the situation did not allow him that luxury.

“What does she do?”

He felt some comfort in the fact that he could understand her words better, which meant she no longer had her face buried in her hands. “Oh, well she’s a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian. But she also does a great deal of consultant and ad hoc work around the world.

Her next words had trouble escaping her throat, “Is it T-…”

Grissom’s mind exploded with the answer before she even asked the question, “God No! It’s not Terri.” He had been so caught up in his own doubts that he had completely forgotten about the possibility of Sara having doubts.

He watched as she sighed at his answer, as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Who is it?”

“A former student, colleague and a general pain in the neck. And she is quite possibly the only person I know who is worse with people than I am; which is most likely the reason she and I get along so well.” That time he did chuckle a little, because he knew his statement to be more truthful than either of them would like to admit. “Temperance sticks to research and the dead for a reason.”

Sara’s head popped up at the mention of the woman’s name and she turned to regard Grissom with a question, “Brennan?”

He looked at her with a startled expression, “Yes, as a matter of fact… How do you know her?”

“I don’t, really… I just attended a lecture she gave in Cambridge, but I do know someone who works for her.” Sara’s voice still held some of the surprise she was experiencing.

Grissom filed away that bit of information for later reference, because he had other things to do before he and Sara were finished with their conversation. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, but she turned her head away from him again. “Sara, I wouldn’t do anything without talking it over with you… I promise.”

“But you’ve obviously talked to someone about it… Why didn’t you feel you could trust me with this?” Her conclusion pained him, because he had kept his doubts from her out of some foolish idea of protecting her from his depression. However, he quickly understood that his attempts to spare her any pain had caused a rift to form between them: a rift that he had unwittingly created and desperately needed to repair.

He leaned forward on the couch and attempted to find her gaze, because it was the kind of statement that could never be said to the back of someone’s head for the full weight of it to be understood. “Sara…” She turned her head upon hearing his voice so close to her ear, and he continued, “It was never about not trusting you… I just didn’t want to hurt you, and I certainly didn’t want you worrying about something that I wasn’t even sure about yet. I’m just… I’m having trouble with my position at the lab right now… You know that, without my having to say a word about it.”

He looked deep into her eyes with his next statement, “But I would never entertain something so monumental without your involvement. I am not leaving you, ever. It would be tantamount to committing suicide for me. No man can live without his heart, and you have mine; forever.” He knew in an instant that his words had made an impact, because Sara turned and reached for him. He drew her into a close embrace and felt some of the tension easing out of her as they sat there in each other’s arms.

His fear and torment had taxed him after such a trying day. With Sara firmly in his arms, he leaned back into the couch, working to get them both into a reclining position. Sara sensed his motives and followed his cues, rolling onto his chest as they fell back into the sofa. However, Grissom had the sneaking suspicion they were not done talking and so he kissed the top of her head and asked, “I know we both agreed this wouldn’t be easy, but does it always have to be this hard?” He felt her jaw move against his chest and knew instinctively that she was chewing on her lip as she struggled with something else she wanted to say.

He decided it was time to ask about her night, because he knew that there was something else which had brought her to the fragile state he found her in when he entered their home. “So, how’d your dinner go?”

She nuzzled into his chest before responding, as though she was seeking out more comfort before discussing the elephant that was sitting in their living room. “The dinner was good.”

“What did you have?”

“Grilled portabellas over rustic bread, some artichoke hearts and seasoned butter beans. It was really very good. Maybe I should get her to teach me a little cooking.” Sara was working up her nerve, so Grissom decided to play along.

“You could just pay attention when I’m cooking… It would be the same thing.”

He could feel her scrunching up her nose with her confusion before she asked what he had meant by that. “I don’t get it.”

He chuckled a little at her statement. “Well, she was about eight or nine when I started taking culinary classes… She went with me to every class, so I imagine it would be the same as taking lessons from me.” He felt her whole body stiffen at his mention of Stephanie and it worried him. “What is it, Sara?”

She pushed up off of his chest and looked him dead in the eye. The seriousness that played across her face told him she was ready to talk about whatever it was that seemed to be darkening her spirits that night. “Are you sure you trust me, Gil?”

His breath caught in his throat when she asked him for reassurance and he knew he needed to go all the way on the tangent. “Sara, I trust you with my heart and soul. I have placed more trust in you than I have ever done with another living soul.” His last thought was to himself, But maybe it hasn’t been enough.

She took a deep breath and broke his gaze by looking down, “Then why haven’t you ever told me about Michael?”

His brow furrowed with deep lines to show his complete confusion. “I talk about him all the time… Mac has been at the top of my mind since Stephie arrived in Vegas… How can you-…”

She shook her head and stopped him from speaking with the touch of her finger to his lips. “Not her father, Gil… Her brother.”

In an instant, his entire world melted away from him and time no longer had any meaning. His mind was impacted with a tremendous wave of anguish at the mere mention of the boy, and his heart began to ache with the same unbearable agony he experienced that fateful day so long ago.

It was such a long tim-… It was sixteen years ago… Today.

When his mind finally worked its way out of the whirlwind of emotions he instantly registered that he was sitting smack dab in the middle of the anniversary of the day that changed his life forever. In his mind’s eye he was transported back to that night when he discovered the bruised, battered and mangled body of that precious little boy; of the faces of his dearest friends as he was forced to tell them that their only son was gone; of the terrified and heartbroken face of his eight year old goddaughter as she struggled to understand something no child should be forced to endure; of the months stolen from that little girl as her parents struggled to come to terms with their grief; of the countless hours he spent protecting and caring for that little girl to prevent the same fate befalling her, and of the unspoken grief he forced down into the dark recesses of his own heart. His entire body began to tremble with the sudden emergence of those memories; memories he never felt he had the strength to deal with on his own.

He was lost to those memories and he was only brought back by the insistent voice of a woman as she repeated his name over and over again, until he was brought back into the present. “Gil… Gil… Gil… Gil, talk to me!”

“I ah… Um… I…” He struggled to breathe in the air that he was certain no longer existed in the room. “How did… When did you… Where did y-you hear ab-about that?”

Sara was completely unprepared for what she witnessed as she asked Gil about the boy. What she saw scared her more than she could have ever imagined. The terror and the agony she saw playing through his eyes made her heart contract with the knowledge that she had just caused him immeasurable pain.

She had always known that he was not good at dealing with difficult subjects, but it was not until that moment that she understood he not only avoided them, but he pushed them completely out of his conscious mind. Once she understood that fact, she realized another more frightening fact; he had never dealt with the boy’s death. Gil was reacting as though his grief was just as strong as the day it happened, and while the horrible grief she had witnessed from Stephanie the evening before had been overwhelming, his agony was tenfold more powerful in the absence of any kind of closure for him.

Instinctively, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and clutched him to her as close as she was able before she answered his timid and stuttered question. “Stephanie… She was having a rough night because of it, and she told me what she knew, which wasn’t much.” She did not look up from her embrace of him, but she felt him choking back a sob for a moment. “She’s never really dealt with it, Gil… And I’m guessing from your reaction that she took that cue from you?”

“I um… I did… I mean… She was so youn-… I was so y-… It was jus-…” Words were failing him and Sara wanted to cry, simply because he was having so much trouble saying even one sentence clearly. Instead, she rolled off of him and sat back down on the edge of the sofa where his feet were resting. She took his left hand in order to lead him to sit up and then she guided him to lie back down with his head in her lap. She knew that he needed support to deal with those memories, and it was her turn to give him comfort. Once his head was resting atop her lap, she began to stroke his hair gently, stopping only to softly caress his ear or cheek for a moment before returning her attention to the calming motions of running her fingers through his curly hair.

She leaned over and kissed his temple before whispering to him, “Take your time… I’m not going anywhere.”

There was something in the way she spoke to him that made Gil relax just a bit before he expelled the breath that he had apparently been holding. “Sara, I don’t know where to-… Well… Is she okay?”

Sara shook her head. Leave it to Grissom to worry about someone else first. “You saw her… What do you think?”

He took her right hand and kissed it tenderly, “That she’s trying to lose herself in her work.” He turned his gaze up at Sara for a moment, “Did I have to teach her all my bad habits?”

A fragile smile appeared on her lips and she answered with the most heartening thing she could have, given the circumstances, “She says that it wasn’t so much teaching as imprinting.” He nodded at her analysis of the situation.

“What did she tell you?”

Sara shrugged, because there just was not much to tell him. Stephanie experienced the tragedy as a child, and she had never gotten up the nerve to learn anything about it as an adult, so she still had a child’s perspective of the whole thing. “Not much really… She was young, and she says she’s never been able to bring herself to research it at all.”

He nodded once again. If anyone was going to be able to tell her what had happened, it would have to be him. “I can believe that… It was the worst year of all of our lives.”

Sara returned to stroking his hair and she could feel him relishing in the contact as he dealt with those long buried demons. “What really happened, Gil?”

He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly to ready himself for the tragic tale. “Michael was… He was a… Such a beautiful child.”

Sara interrupted him, hoping her information would be welcome news, “I know… I saw a picture.”

He turned in her lap and looked up at her with a bewildered expression, “But how? We got rid of all the photos.”

“Not all… Stephanie hid one from you… She still keeps it hidden in a drawer.” Sara was still confused by the loss of the photos, so she felt compelled to ask about it. “Why did you get rid of the pictures?”

He rolled back over to stare out into the living room, unable to bear her gaze as he explained his actions during that horrific time in his life. “You have to understand… Beth was not herself. Neither was Mac, really. They both blamed themselves for what happened, which was ludicrous, but that was how they felt. Beth fell into a horrible depression… We even had to have her admitted to the hospital for a while, because we were afraid of what she might do. I told Stephanie that she was sleeping in her room, but the fact was she was in a catatonic state for more than a month. She couldn’t even make it to the funeral. Before she came home from the hospital, Mac and I collected all the photos and put them away. He kept the door to Michael’s room locked and everything else in the house that had been the boy’s was taken out. We operated under the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ principle.”

Sara had to wipe away her own tears as she listened to him talk about the tragedy. “So, Stephanie never knew what was really happening?”

“I guess not… Mac and Beth didn’t want her to have to deal with the realities of it, and I respected their wishes. Mac spent all of his time with Beth or sitting up in Michael’s room. He took a leave of absence from the PD and Beth stopped teaching for a long time. It was probably six months before she could spend more than five minutes out of her room, so I stayed there for Stephanie. I hung all my clothes in the laundry room, slept on the couch and when I wasn’t teaching a class or working on my Ph.D., I was with Stephanie. Actually, I recall her coming to class or the lab with me on several occasions, as well. I made sure she got to all her classes, lessons, practices and games. I cooked for her, and washed her clothes. We did our homework together every night. She became my whole world, and I did everything I could think of to care for and protect her. But, I was so young, and had never been around many children growing up, so I really had no idea what I was doing most of the time. I’m sure I’ve scarred her for life, but there wasn’t anyone else there and I couldn’t leave her to deal with her parents alone. Not when they were both so consumed by their own grief.” He shifted uneasily and brought his hand up to his face to try and wipe away the tears that had fallen. However, the moisture had already made its way to Sara’s lap, so she knew that he was crying. “It was my own guilt that made me feel the need to make things right for her.”

That statement made Sara’s heart jump into her throat. “But Gil, how could you have blamed yo-…”

“Why did I have Mac come with me to Redding? Why did I have to stop for lunch, instead of just going straight home? Why didn’t I drive that extra thirty minutes to pick up Michael before Beth got out of class?” His words came out like accusations and Sara knew that he had been holding onto that pain for a very long time. “I was being selfish with my time, Sara… And that precious little boy paid the price for my conceit.”

She reached down and cradled his head in her arms and gently rocked him as she tried to calm him down from such a revelation, “Shhhhh… You can’t blame yourself, Gil… It just happened, and you have no idea what would have happened if you had changed any of those things.”

They stayed like that for a while; Gil weeping quietly as Sara tried desperately to console his wounded spirit. But, he finally found the strength to continue. He needed to finish his tale, he just did not know how.

She could tell that he was on the verge of another revelation, so she decided to get another piece of the puzzle. “Gil, what really happened to Michael? Stephanie only overheard someone say that he was taken from the day-care by someone posing as his uncle and that he had died.”

His voice took on a monotone quality, and Sara knew that he was speaking on autopilot at that point. “The year before, I had helped Mac with a child abuse case. Kid was found in a landfill and we IDed him from the Social Services records, which led us to the father. We had been able to positively match the impression of his boot heel to the skull fractures on his son’s body. Mac made the arrest, and that was the last we heard of it, until after Michael-…” The words caught in his throat and he had to swallow before he could continue, “Had been found... Seems he had a good lawyer and was sent to the state hospital, where he was declared cured ten months later. It was then he started stalking the family. And the only member of the family that was vulnerable to him at anytime was Michael, for that one hour a week that he might be at the campus day care center. Everyone else was either with another member of law enforcement, or surrounded by people in general. Michael was just a victim of opportunity for that guy.”

He paused a moment and Sara took the opportunity to place a gentle kiss on his cheek as she leaned down again. “We picked up Stephie on our way to the house after our trip. I was so anxious to show her the new specimens I had found on the trip that I couldn’t wait to see her.”

Sara gave him a chance to catch his breath again by revealing something about her conversation with Stephanie. “Yeah, she remembers that. She keeps those butterflies with the picture of Michael.” When he turned to look at her again, she could see a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and it was too much for her; a tear escaped.

When the tear fell onto his face, he wiped it up, to make it mingle with his own, and then he brought his fingers to his own lips and kissed them. His next move endeared him to her even further. He touched his fingers to her lips in a gesture of sharing that touched her deeply.

“Really?”

She just nodded her answer, for fear that her voice would fail her since her heart was so full of emotion in that moment.

“That’s good to know…”

He turned back to face away from her as he continued. “Beth told us to not worry about Michael because it was arts and crafts day at the day care, and Michael would be having such a good time. The bastard chose that as the time to take the boy. He had managed to steal an SFPD ball cap and showed up telling the day care people that he was the boy’s uncle. Michael didn’t want to go, but the day care worker had already dealt with numerous children who would rather slop around in the paint than go home that afternoon, so she didn’t think anything of Michael throwing a fit about the man. When Beth arrived, she was told the boy’s ‘uncle’ had picked him up. And even though Beth knew she had told me not to, she figured I had done my own thing anyway, so she stopped at the market and then went home.”

He inhaled sharply and then deliberately blew out the breath in a long string before he could continue. “I was upstairs with Stephie when she got home. When Mac asked her where Michael was, she screamed. I made Stephie stay where she was, and then ran downstairs to find out what was going on. They were both shell-shocked, and for some reason, I kicked into autopilot. I think that was the first time I had ever really done that, and sadly, it would not be the last time. I got the PD involved, they were at the day care before I had even gotten off the phone. I had a description in under twenty minutes, and I told the other officers about the Dad and got his court appointed social worker on the phone to find out where he was, which was when I learned he wasn’t taking his meds. It didn’t take me long to figure out what he had planned and, for some reason, I went straight to the park near the campus where we would take the kids all the time.”

She felt his whole body turn rigid and Sara knew the worst was coming. “My God, Sara… It was the most hideous thing I had ever seen. My entire mind left me in that instant, and I’m sure I contaminated the scene, but all I could think about was keeping him from being left like that. They actually had to ID the body from the dental records, because my recognizing the clump of hair that was left wasn’t enough for court. Sara, there wasn’t a square inch of his body that wasn’t t-…” That was his breaking point and he began to sob violently.

Sara did her best to hold him to her, but he was inconsolable in a moment of sheer agonizing grief. His whole body shook with each sob and Sara, too, was crying at that point. To know Gil had been carrying those horrific images around in his head for years broke her heart. To know he carried the burden of that boy’s torn and battered body with him, buried so deeply he had never shared the story tore her apart.

She had always known whatever it was that made any case involving a child torture to him had to have been the most horrendous thing she could imagine. But never in her wildest machinations could she have imagined something so unbelievably devastating as was the source of his pain.

They stayed like that for a long while, until he was finally able to let loose of his grip around her legs. But, instead of leaving the couch, when Sara stood up, he just laid out on his stomach, and buried his face in his arms as she wiggled into the space between him and the back of the couch, so that she could continue to offer him whatever comfort she could provide. They finally fell into sleep as she slowly rubbed circles over his back and his whimpers finally died away.

Both of them needed sleep after such a long and emotionally draining day. As she drifted off into slumber, Sara thought to herself that there would be plenty of time for them to recover when they woke up later. We have the rest of our lives for healing old wounds, together.

Chapter 24

Slowly, consciousness began to make its way into Grissom’s mind. Before he opened his eyes, he drew in a deep, reviving breath. As his body rose with the cleansing breath, he felt the slight weight of someone on his back. That was when he realized he was laying face down on the sofa with Sara asleep on his back, and he was happy. Waking up after reliving the most horrific chapter of his life, he might have thought he would feel like he had been through a meat grinder, but with Sara so close to him he only felt warmth and relief. His body drew in another deep breath and he opened his eyes, only that time, he felt Sara stirring as well. When she inhaled sharply, he could feel her chest rise and fall against his back and he smiled.

Before he knew what was happening, Sara had jumped up off the couch in a single move, “Oh God, are you okay?!” She was down on her knees looking into his eyes with great concern.

He rolled onto his side and smiled, “I’m fi-…”

“I mean I just spent…” She looked at her watch, “Oh God… Six and half hours laying on your back on the couch. Are you sure your back is okay?” He chuckled at her worry for his health and smiled broadly.

He propped his head up on his bent arm and laughed, “Sara, I’m fine… In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.” He leaned forward and kissed her right on the tip of her nose. “And I’m very glad we got the new couch.”

The worry immediately drained from her features and she screwed up her mouth into one of those crooked smirks that always melted his heart, “I don’t think we’d both fit on the old one.”

He raised an eyebrow and added, “No, I don’t believe so… And I was never able to lay on it except on my back anyway.”

It was her turn to lean forward that time and she gently pressed her lips to his. “Are you okay?” She held her face close to his as she spoke, and her breath was warm on his skin.

He smiled against her closeness and then he closed his eyes before he spoke, “I always thought this would put me on the floor, but I feel oddly relaxed right now.” When he opened his eyes again he found her luminous smile waiting for him and a single tear falling down her cheek. He reached out with his finger and caught the tear before it fell from her jaw. Then he kissed her tenderly. “Thank you for having the courage to make me do that… I don’t think I would have ever done it on my own.”

She pressed her forehead to his and sighed, “I’m not sure bravery had anything to do with it.”

That was too much for Grissom to process lying down, so he quickly sat up and drew her up to sit on the sofa beside him. When she took her place beside him, Grissom pulled his arm over her head and pulled her close to him. Sara nuzzled into his embrace and placed her right hand on his chest when she released another deep sigh, “In fact, I’m pretty sure it was motivated by fear.”

Grissom pursed his mouth with her admission and tilted his head to the side, “Well, whatever it was, I’m fairly certain I owe you.” He reached down and brought her chin up so that he could look into those amber pools of beauty as he spoke, “I haven’t felt this good in a very long time, Sara. And you are the reason for it.” Her electric smile was his reward for those words, and his heart swelled with emotion once again. “So, now that we have that out of the way, what is our agenda for the day?”

Sara smiled, leaned over to pull his shirt open a little and then sniffed, “Well, first you need a shower.” He blushed at her suggestion, but she continued before he could respond, “And I’ll make some breakfast while you’re in there.”

“Are we sure that’s a wise thing to do?” His raised eyebrow, along with his subtle dismissal of her cooking prowess earned him a poke in the ribs. “Oww… Well, I was just thinking that maybe we should go out for breakfast instead.”

“Sure you were… But why do you want to go out?” She got up from the couch and then turned to help him up.

He took her hands, but he stood up mostly on his own, because he was always worried his weight would drag her down. And that is only effective under certain circumstances. He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, “Well, I like showing you off…” He was cut short on his joke by the look on her face that showed him she was not buying it. “Okay, well, I was thinking maybe we could swing by and check on Stephanie… I’m a little worried about her.”

That set better with Sara and she smirked. “That’s better… But we’d have to go to the lab to do that.”

Grissom gave her a puzzled look and asked, “Why the lab?”

Sara shrugged, “She’s covering for Doc this weekend.”

Grissom exhaled sharply and seemed to have slumped a little with her comment, “I suppose I should have known that… She does seem to have picked up on a lot of my bad habits.”

Sara laid her head down against his chest and sighed, “It’s not that bad, Gil. Besides, she and I had a great talk. I think she just needs to get some closure on that professor case and she’ll be fine.” Sara appeared to mull that over in her mind a bit before she spoke again, “Although, I’m having a little trouble understanding why it’s so important to her.”

Grissom laid his head on hers and explained, “Well, she knew the man… He was her advisor for a while at Berkeley, and she was one of his research assistants as well.”

“Well, then I guess that makes more sense.” She looked up at him again, “But I really don’t want to go to the lab tonight, because you know we’ll get stuck there.”

He nodded his head at her conclusion, and he had to agree with her, “You’re right… I’ll take you in tomorrow and check in on her then.”

The corner of her mouth turned up and she chuckled, “Strike two… I’m only on-call for tomorrow. Warrick is working with the weekend crew tomorrow.”

A smirk made it onto Grissom’s face as he watched her delight in teasing him. “Well then, Miss Sidle… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your current schedule.”

She smiled up at him through her pursed lips and then said, “Is that so, Dr. Grissom?”

“Yes…” He pulled her closer to him and said, “I am not enjoying this little arrangement, and I think your time would be better spent on a different schedule.”

Sara was unable to contain the knowing smirk that came to her lips, “And what about having some space?”

He met her with a crooked smile and said, “The only ‘space’ I’m interested in anymore, is the one I am in right now.”

A slight blush rose on her cheeks as she responded to him, “I see… So, is this my boss talking, or that other guy?”

Grissom looked into the air, as though he were searching for the answer there and then dropped his gaze squarely onto her countenance. “Both… The boss has had complaints about the disruptions being caused at work from this scheduling conflict.” He kissed her forehead, and continued, “And that other guy is miserable two days a week without you.”

Sara giggled at his explanation and laid her head on his shoulder before giving him her answer, “Well, I suppose that means I’m outnumbered… That is, if you’re both in agreement?”

“Actually, the entire shift is in agreement… So, not only are you outnumbered, but you’re surrounded.”

“Then I suppose there’s nothing left for me to do, but make it a unanimous verdict.” Her bright and electrifying smile warmed him from the inside out, and he responded by catching her in a passionate kiss. Capturing her mouth with a tender, but commanding exchange, Grissom sealed the deal. He knew instantly that she was in complete agreement when he felt her weight fall against his arms and her knees began to give way. If she had been holding anything in that moment, she would most certainly have dropped it.

As they finally came up for air again, he slowly released her weight when her feet finally found solid purchase on the floor. “So, now that all old business is squared away, I’d like to suggest we adjourn to the shower.”

“Are you implying that-…”

“You did spend six hours curled up on my back, and according to you, I am in dire need of bathing.” His face took on an innocent expression, but the twinkle in his eye showed purely devilish intentions. “Besides, I might get lonely in there.”

“And what about breakfast?” Sara enjoyed teasing him when he played his little games.

“I have…” He paused and bent his head down to kiss at the crook of her neck before he continued, “Other appetites at the moment.” His kisses made their way around her neck to her throat, while his hands kept busy undoing the front of her shirt. His attentions were quickly rewarded when he felt her hands making their way up his back, with his shirt being pulled up with them. He decided that if they were ever going to make it to the shower, he had better get them pointed in the right direction and so that was just what he did.

Grissom reached his arms up and Sara pulled his shirt off the rest of the way, but then he took her hands in his, kissed them and pulled her down the hall to the bathroom. He was rewarded, once again, for his efforts with the deliciously seductive smile Sara graced him with as they took those steps toward the bathroom.

Once inside the bathroom, their clothes were quickly shed and he reached into the shower stall to start the water with Sara’s arms wrapped tightly around his waist from behind. He had learned very early on that once they had reached such a state, it was nearly impossible for them to be separated for even a moment of time.

He turned around in her embrace and they once again kissed with a fiery intensity, until he could feel the steam from the shower hitting his back. Grissom reached down and took hold of one of her knees and drew it up along his side until it rested atop his hip. Instinctively, she gripped him with the leg and he hoisted her up into his arms, bringing her with him into the shower stall.

Busy with exploring her body once again, the last thing on Grissom’s mind was actually washing anything on his body, but Sara saw things differently. She squeezed out the shampoo into her hand and began to work it through his hair, just as he was trailing fervent kisses down from her neck to her chest. When she was done, she moved so that the water sluiced over his head to wash away the shampoo. After putting the conditioner in her hand, she used the other one to lead him back to her mouth for more attention, and then she massaged the conditioner into his hair and his beard. Once again, she moved him back into the stream of the showerhead and he was ready for the next phase of the shower.

Grissom was pleasantly surprised when Sara pinned him against the glass of the shower stall and began to run her hands all over his body. It took him a moment to register that she was actually soaping him up because the feeling of her hands roaming his flesh was very distracting. It was especially effective when she ran her hands over his buttocks, squeezed them tightly and then drifted around to the front. If he had not already been sporting the beginnings of one heck of an erection, he most certainly would have been as she slowly and deliberating stroked his manhood in her soapy hands. He was unable to stop the low moan that escaped from his throat, but his reward was a deep and passionate kiss from the amazing creature before him.

Suddenly, the sensations that Sara was inciting throughout his body became too much for him, and Grissom took her into his arms and returned her kiss with an almost desperate and even more passionate one. The maneuver sent them on a collision course with the opposite wall and they struck it with a thud. Quickly, they were so caught up in the turning tides of their passion that they groped about the flesh of the other in a desperation that seemed almost unreal to them both. Sara found herself being raised up against the wall, only to come resting down onto the ledge, with her legs wrapping themselves around Grissom’s hips. The water and steam completely enveloped them, but the steam from the shower was no match for the heat being generated by their own lust.

With his lips and tongue, Grissom made his way from her mouth to her jaw, down her throat to her collarbone, and then he brought them to bear devotedly to her chest. By the time he had touched his tongue to her nipple, she was already building up from the sheer intensity of their passion and she arched into him as he took the breast into his mouth. He nibbled and sucked and teased at her breasts until he felt her hands holding his head tightly by the hair. She was already close, and when he pulled away from her for a moment, he could hear her whimpers over the din of the rushing water and it caused him to smile with a devilish glint in his eyes.

He reclaimed her mouth once again and their tongues were enjoying a lively duel when he felt her suck in a lungful of air as his fingers reached down and brushed across the hidden nub at the junction of her thighs. Her whole body tensed under the careful attention of his fingers as he stroked and caressed her at the core.

As his mouth made its way back down the front of her body, he licked and sucked and nibbled across every inch of her flesh, and he could feel the heat swelling in her body as he went. And by the time his mouth had nearly reached the end of its southward journey, her hips were rolling in a rhythm that he had become all too familiar with by then.

He knew exactly what his next move would be, and he took a deep breath before sliding his fingers down along the length of her folds, making sure that his timing was perfect before he inserted his finger into her center at the exact moment that he began to nibble at that wonderful hidden nub. His prize for such a feat came instantaneously as Sara began to writhe and contract in her ecstasy almost immediately. She cried out, using words that under most circumstances he would have frowned upon, but in that moment they delighted and excited him to no end.

On most occasions Grissom would have waited until the tide had subsided before bringing her back to the brink, but Sara sensed in him an urgency that he seldom demonstrated. Grissom liked control, and that included every aspect of his life. However, she felt in her soul that something had changed in him and he was throwing control out the window for the first time.

She was still deep in the throes of an amazing climax when she felt him shift and come back up to wrap an arm around her, and before she knew it, he was buried into her all the way to the hilt. The sensation was unbelievable and she felt herself building up into another orgasm on top of the one she had not even finished with yet. Her muscles were still contracting around him, and with each thrust into her core she was closer and closer to going over the edge. When she began to feel her legs and body tremble with the beginnings of another climax, she bit her lip, hoping to hold it off just little longer. But it was simply beyond her abilities, and as she cried out yet again she felt herself being sent straight into oblivion as wave after wave of pure pleasure washed over her.

So lost in the sensations that were rippling throughout her body, she did not even notice until Grissom cried out that he too was going over the brink. Her body, still trembling and the muscles contracting, drained him of every drop and they found themselves pinned to the wall of the shower, their chests heaving with the passage of their ragged breaths: Sara; pinned by the weight of Grissom’s body, and Grissom; by his inability to carry his weight on his own legs.

They leaned there for a while, as the water and steam surrounded them, hoping to catch their breaths and make the entire world stop spinning in the wrong direction long enough for them to able to move once again. Grissom was the first to find the ability to move and he reached over to shut off the water. He made sure that Sara was able to stand on her own two feet again before he opened the stall doors and reached around for a towel. He quickly dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his waist before reaching for a bath sheet as he guided Sara out of the shower stall.

He wrapped the bath sheet around her shoulders and began to gently pat her dry. Then he grabbed a smaller towel and attempted to dry her hair a little bit before letting it rest around her neck. He held the ends of the smaller towel in his fists and then kissed her tenderly on the forehead, followed immediately by a chaste and gentle kiss on the lips.

She smiled against the tender mercies he showed her, and he returned the smile with a sideways grin that demonstrated his understanding. Next, he leaned down and put one arm behind her knees and the other across her back at the shoulders and carefully picked her up into his arms. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck as he turned to take them into the bedroom and she began to place tender kisses on his lips as they made their way to the bed.

With a delicate deliberateness, he laid her down upon their bed and crawled up beside her to lie at her side. She rolled toward him and he picked up his arm to allow her access to her favorite resting position; with her head on his shoulder and her left arm over his chest. Content in everything, Sara released a deep and satisfying sigh, “How do you do that?”

His face held a smirk and he had to stifle the chuckle that waited in his throat at her choice of endearment, “Do what?”

“I don’t know…” She exhaled sharply and nuzzled into his neck. “You seem to have this unique ability to find new ways to turn me out every time.” She punctuated her statement with a few well placed kisses along the edge of his neck where it met his beard.

“Mmmmm…” He closed his eyes against the sensation of her hot breath and moist lips against his skin. “The same could be said about you, my dear.” He could feel her smile against his skin and it sent little tendrils of pleasure through his mind.

He relaxed his hold on her as she wriggled her way over part of his chest, and he was about to relax completely when he felt her tongue snake out over his left nipple. That simple gesture made his whole body come alive again. “Like that?”

He lifted his head to find her smiling at him with a dangerous quality to her gaze. “Ahh, yes… But I think you might be wasting your talents, my love.”

She wrapped her mouth around the teat of his nipple and sucked it in and over her teeth, once again sending those warm and delightful ripples through his mind and body. “Are you sure about that?”

The last thing he wanted to do was to disappoint Sara, but what they had accomplished in the shower was not something he could manage a repeat performance of in such of short span of time. However, his mind was the one telling him that, and his body seemed to have a much different idea. Before he knew what was happening she had rolled on top of him, losing her towel along the way, and with her weight pressing into his groin as she drew up her knees and dropped herself into a seated position with her hands firmly planted in his chest, Grissom knew that she also had other ideas. The lusty smile he found on her face as he looked up to see her straddled atop him was enough for him to know that she was planning to enjoy herself no matter what he had decided.

Sara began to wiggle down the length of his body, and he felt the familiar twitching begin as her body moved over his, so when she reached for his towel, he lifted his hips up slightly to assist her in her plans. The last thing he consciously remembered was seeing that delicious smile playing across her face once again. Everything after that was all his body, because his mind was being completely blown away by what was happening.

She leaned over and started to trail her lips and tongue down his belly, stopping a moment to pay tribute to his navel where she nipped softly at the tender skin there. Her hands were roaming over his body as she moved southward and when one of them grasped him, he arched up into her hold of him. But instead of a run of the mill stroking, she pressed his growing erection upwards, into his belly and bent lower.

When her tongue touched to the base of his scrotum he nearly lost all control of his body, bucking his hips upwards at the amazingly erotic sensation. But she was only just getting started and she licked her way up the dividing line of his sac, stopping only to apply a small amount of suction every few centimeters. As her tongue began to make its way up the length of his shaft he truly was lost to ecstasy, but he soon understood it was just the beginning. When she released his manhood from his belly, he was sent completely over the edge as she dipped her head over his rapidly swelling member and sucked the head straight into her mouth. His vision blurred to a pin point as he felt her take him into her mouth and stroke him at the base with her hand.

Time lost all meaning, and his brain completely shut down, so that only autonomic functions could progress. Fortunately for him, that included his sexual arousal. His vocal chords were obviously tied in there as well, because the sounds that were springing forth from his throat were unrecognizable to him, and the closest description might have been guttural grunting.

When the grunts started to become louder and were joined by pained whimpers, Sara began to move again. When he felt the void of her touch, his eyes sought her out and he found her sliding up his hips to straddle him in the most intimate of ways. She quickly lowered herself into him, giving him purchase deep into her core and the sensation of it caused him to cry out her name, “Oh God, Sara!” And before he had a chance to recover from that, she was rocking back and forth over him, taking him deep inside and using the muscles of her inner walls to grasp him tighter with each rhythmic motion. When he felt the twitching begin in his groin, she stepped up the pace, holding him tightly between her thighs and pressing her hands into his chest for balance. Before he knew it, his mind exploded into a million tiny pieces and he was releasing another climax as she used her center to drain him in totality.

Sara collapsed onto his chest and pushed her legs back out onto the bed. Both of their bodies were now slick with perspiration and sex, but there would not be any movement from them for a while. They laid there, in each others arms, for a few minutes, their breaths ragged and hot from the expending of so much sexual energy. That time, Grissom was the first to speak, “Mmmmmm… How do you do that?”

She giggled and nuzzled into his neck before she said, “Do what?”

“Make me feel like the only man in the world for you.” He turned his head and kissed her on the forehead when he spoke.

Once again, he could feel her smile against his flesh, and she said, “Well, that’s easy… It’s because you are the only one for me, Dr. Grissom.”

Chapter 25

Daylight was already waning once again by the time anyone stirred in the home of Nick Stokes. The volume of alcohol consumed by those three men should have been illegal, and punishable by imprisonment. However, the only punishment that Warrick received was the throbbing pain in his head and the unquenchable cotton mouth that he was suffering through as he winced with the sound of each drop of water through the coffee maker. He had been woken up by the sounds of heavy footfalls rushing past his head and the unmistakable treat of hearing another person hurling their stomach contents into a porcelain fixture.

He had not been sure if it was Nick or Greg that ran past him as he hung off the edge of the couch, but the groans that followed the reverse gears in the bathroom let him know it was Greg. And with great reluctance, he lifted his head from the couch with one eye open, only to find Nick sprawled from arm to arm in his giant overstuffed chair. Warrick knew that no one was going to recover without coffee, so he made it his mission to start the lifeblood flowing on that day.

When the smell started to drift away from the coffee maker and out into the living room, Nick finally stirred from his awkward sleeping position and stumbled to his feet. He yawned widely and then grabbed his head to shunt away the pain that followed his yawn. “Damn! That hurts.”

“I feel ya, brother.” Warrick looked up to find Nick trudging into the kitchen and then he took the seat opposite him at the breakfast bar. He pushed the bottle of Tylenol across the counter towards Nick, “Coffee’ll be ready soon, but that’ll get you started, man.”

Nick looked at him through seriously squinted eyes and fumbled for the bottle of pain reliever. Once he had it in his hands, the sounds of Greg’s digestive pyrotechnics caught his immediate attention, “Aww, man… Little buddy’s got it bad, huh?”

Warrick nodded slightly, “Yeah, been at it about an hour.”

Nick slugged back two of the Tylenol dry and said, “Note to self: Never let Greggo party with biker chicks.”

The two men were chuckling when they heard a faint voice coming from the bathroom, “That’s not funny.” There was a pause, but then they heard the voice say, “And you could have told me they were lesbian biker chicks, ya know.”

Both men were laughing that time, but Nick turned and called out, “Bro, don’t make me laugh so hard when I’m hungover.” When he returned his gaze to the counter, he found Warrick pouring two cups of coffee and it gave him cause to smile. “Aww, man… That’s gonna taste so good.”

“Tell me about it.” They were both taking their first sips when a blaring noise shook them to their cores. When Warrick looked down, he reluctantly realized that it was his pager going off. “Fuck!”

“You gotta be kiddin’ me?! No way they’re callin’ you in already!”

Warrick clumsily took the pager off of his belt and brought it up to his eyes, squinting through the alcohol fog over his brain and said, “Nah… Just Steph.” He dropped the pager onto the counter top, “Looks like she got stuck in the lab today… She needs me to pick up some stuff for her before I go in tonight.”

Nick nodded as he took another drink of his coffee, but it was quickly followed by a puzzled expression, “How come she didn’t just call you, bro?”

Warrick shrugged off his concern. “One of those things is her phone charger.”

Nick demurred to his answer. “So, how’s it workin’ out? Ya know, you being over there and all…”

Warrick’s expression showed his acceptance. “Oddly enough… It’s been great. Playin’ pickup games with Thomas at two in the morning. Steph’s got this way in the kitchen, man… I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve already put on weight just being there a couple weeks. And honestly, I haven’t felt that welcome someplace in quite a while. Plus, Stephanie has been a huge help with the divorce stuff.”

Nick’s expression had turned pensive. “So, you’re really goin’ through with it?”

“Are you kidding me? The bitch has been cheatin’ on me, runnin’ up bills and then tried to walk away with my damn savings?! You better believe I’m goin’ through with it!” Warrick’s anger appeared to be a good cure for a hangover, because after his outburst, his headache seemed to have vanished.

“Damn, bro… I had no idea it was that bad.” Nick shook his head with disbelief at the depths his friend’s marriage had fallen apart in a couple of weeks. “Well, you know I got your back if you need anything, man.”

“Thanks, man… My lawyer’s pretty sure it won’t ever see the inside of a court. He’s got so much dirt on that bitch, you could plant her.” Warrick had been holding much of that anger in check until Nick brought it up. He already felt like a burden on Thomas and Stephanie, so he did not want to show too much of his anger. But there, with Nick, he felt safe expressing his hatred for the woman that had robbed him of more than a year of his life. “I just can’t believe I screwed up that bad, Nick.”

“Don’t sweat it, bro… Love makes us all do some pretty stupid stuff now and then.”

Warrick looked up at Nick spoke with his eyes slightly squinted, “Like fallin’ for hookers?”

Nick laughed and then agreed, “Yeah, like fallin’ for hookers… Or makin’ puppy dog eyes at someone who’s in love with somebody else for years.” Nick had said that last part loud enough to insure that Greg had heard him.

“That’s not funny, either… You guys could have told me that, too.” Greg’s voice sounded less muffled, so they assumed he had opened the bathroom door.

“Dude! Everyone told you not to waste your time… Even Cath told you to back down, man.” Nick hollered back to the bathroom.

It was silent for a minute and then they heard Greg say, “Oh yeah… Nick’s right, Warrick. Love turns you into an idiot.” The two men in the kitchen laughed at the younger man’s response.

Warrick drained the last of the coffee from his cup and looked down at his watch, “Well, as much as I would love to watch football and hang out with you two hooligans… I gotta get cleaned up, grab that stuff for Steph and some dinner for both of us before gettin’ to work tonight.” He pointed at Nick and asked, “Rain check on the football for next weekend?”

Nick smiled and said, “You got it, bro. Take care now.”

Warrick answered him as he was walking out the door, “Always do, my brother… I always do.”

Chapter 26

Catherine had begun to worry about Stephanie from the first time her call went straight through to voicemail. It was not like the young woman to turn off her cell phone, and when she called the house, it also just rang until the answering machine picked up. She did not want to seem overly concerned or protective, so she just kept calling and waited for Stephanie to return one of her calls.

By four that afternoon, concern turned into worry, and Catherine tried calling Gil to find out if he had talked to Stephanie, but his phone was turned off as well. When Lindsey asked her mother what was wrong, Catherine simply said that she was worried about Stephanie being alone for the weekend, and that was when Lindsey suggested that they just pack up and go over there to get her. She told her mother that they could take her out to dinner at the health place she had gone to with her volleyball team the week before, and Catherine thanked God once again for giving her such an amazing daughter.

As they were pulling up in the driveway, Catherine had a sinking feeling deep in her gut. There was another car in the drive, and she was certain that she knew whose car it was, but she did not want to jump to any conclusions. The moment her car stopped, Lindsey was on the pavement and headed for the backdoor. “I’ll get her, Mom… You stay here.” For once, Catherine was eternally grateful for Lindsey’s independent streak.

Lindsey practically ran to the back door of the townhouse and almost ran right into Warrick as he was exiting the door. “Whoa! Where’s the fire, Linds?”

“Wow! Sorry, ‘Rick… What’re you doing here?” Lindsey smiled at the man who had always been a friend to her as she was growing up.

“I had to get some stuff for Stephanie before I went to work tonight… What’re you doin’ here?” Warrick smiled at the girl, because her smile was infectious; Just like her mother.

“Mom was being a worry-wart and wanted to check on Steph, so we were gonna take her out to dinner.”

Warrick nodded and then told her why that was not going to work, “Well, that probably would’ve been nice… But Steph’s already at work. She got called in early.”

Lindsey’s face instantly turned into a scowl, “Dang… I was looking forward to talking to her, too.”

“Sorry ‘bout tha-…”

Lindsey interrupted him before he could finish his statement, “Hey! Why don’t you come with us instead?!”

Warrick tried hard not to wince at her suggestion. He had mostly managed to avoid Catherine since his marriage began falling apart. Not because of her disapproval, but because she had warned him it would come to this from the beginning. The last thing he wanted was for someone to tell him, “told ya so.” He tried to come up with some kind of valid reason for refusing the girl’s offer, but he was drawing a total blank. So, he stumbled through a lame excuse instead, “Ya know, Linds… Your Moms might have some other plans or maybe sh-…”

“Mom’ll love the idea… You lock up and I’ll go ask her.” And with that she disappeared out the back gate. She had not given him any way to back out of the dinner, and Warrick was nervous.

When he reached the driveway, he found Lindsey hanging out of the driver’s side window talking animatedly with her mother. As he got closer he could hear a few snippets of their dialogue, and it sounded to him like Catherine was not really interested in having dinner with him. So, when he did finally reach her car, he was fully prepared to be gracious and kind, and to offer her an out on Lindsey’s plan. “Hey, Cath.”

Catherine nodded as Lindsey stepped back from the car to let the “grown ups” talk a bit. “Warrick… What are you up to tonight?”

“Just running an errand before work.” Warrick was working up the nerve.

“So, Steph got called in?” It was obvious to Warrick that she was trying to avoid a real conversation with him as well.

“Um, yeah… That’s what she said.”

Catherine simply shook her head in disgust and said, “Then I wonder why her phone is turned off.”

Warrick grinned, since he knew then what was causing Catherine’s foul mood, so he held up the charger he had been requested to retrieve for his friend, “Probably because she needed this.” As soon as Catherine recognized the object he was holding up she blushed and smiled.

Warrick smiled back, because he could not help it, and then he tried to remember the last time he had seen her really smile. Since his marriage, he had truly missed the close friendship he and Catherine once shared, and seeing her smile only reminded him of that loss even more. “Well, I hear my daughter has invited you to have dinner with us.”

“Yeah, and don’t sweat it if you’d rath-…”

“Don’t be silly… Come on, she’s been dying to show me this place, so I might as well have some backup… Just in case it sucks.” Her smile was a bit more guarded that time, but along with Lindsey’s shining face it still warmed his heart a bit.

He got so caught up in the smiles he was being assaulted with that he found himself nodding his head, “Okay, I give. I never could resist you two.”

Lindsey was the first to respond, “Sweet! I’ll ride in the back.” The young girl practically skipped to her side of the car when Warrick held up his hands.

“Whoa now… I still have to get to work… Why don’t I just follow you ladies over there?” Warrick was trying to keep the invitation as loose as possible, just in case things got ugly with Catherine later on.

“Cool! I’ll use Mom’s phone in case you get lost.” Lindsey did not give either adult a chance to argue as she raced around the car and jumped inside.

Warrick shook his head and laughed at the girl’s enthusiasm, but he got into his car and prepared to follow the two fair-haired dynamos. When Catherine pulled out of the driveway, Warrick was right behind her, and managed to stay close to her all the way over to the restaurant.

When he saw the name of the restaurant, he knew instantly why Lindsey had wanted to take Stephanie to it. It was called the Healthy Habitrail Restaurant. Warrick was laughing as he exited his car and walked to the front of the restaurant, meeting Catherine and Lindsey. “Gerbil food, huh?” He asked the two women.

Catherine laughed out loud at his question. “I said the same thing when we pulled in!”

They walked up to the door together and Warrick moved forward to hold it open for the ladies. “After you.” Both of them blushed slightly at his gesture and the smile that he flashed at them.

The trio walked to the register to pay for their meals. Catherine insisted on paying for Warrick as well, and after a mild disagreement he finally acquiesced. But only on the condition that he got to pick up the check the next time.

They made their way through the various areas of the buffet lines, until each was satisfied they had what they wanted on their trays, before taking their seats at a booth in the back. After all the plates and such were transferred to the table, Warrick took the trays away and placed them on the wait station beside the booth, in order to make room.

When he sat back down, he was shaking his head and chuckling at the volume of food that Lindsey had sitting in front of her. “Are you sure you can handle all that, girl?”

“I might even get up for some more!” Lindsey was completely serious and Warrick continued to shake his head at the idea that such a skinny kid could put away that much food.

Catherine was matching his gesture, but she had something to add to it as well. “Between volleyball and hitting another growth spurt, the kid is gonna eat me out of house and home.”

“Mo-om!” Lindsey looked practically horrified at her mother’s admission.

“Hey, Linds… If you can do it and look that good, you got it made.” Warrick’s compliment stopped Lindsey in her tracks and she had to look away when the blush began to rise in her cheeks.

After Warrick’s remark, the three sat in silence as they ate for a little while. Lindsey was the first to recover her ability to speak, and she did not hesitate to dig right into the tough questions. “Hey, Warrick... How come you have keys to Steph and Thomas’ place?”

Warrick and Catherine both nearly choked on their food as Lindsey continued to devour her own feast. Warrick wiped his mouth off with his napkin and took a drink from his glass. “Uh, well… I’ve been stayin’ over there lately, so they got me a key.”

His answer made Catherine’s radar perk up instantly and she wondered why he had been staying with them. She suspected that he had been having trouble at home, but she never expected it to be serious enough for him to need a safe haven in his friends’ home, let alone having to stay there on a regular basis. She was saved from having to say anything by her daughter, again. “Those guys are so cool, huh? Did you know Thomas has been helping me with my algebra homework? And Steph is proofreading my essays for me?”

Warrick was glad for the reprieve from having to disclose anymore about his situation to the girl. He was also glad that the subject had been changed, because he had long dreaded the moment when Catherine finally gave him her “told ya so” lecture about his hasty marriage. “Yeah, Thomas said you’ve been raidin’ his library a lot. And Steph says you’re becomin’ quite the writer.”

“Well, I’m nowhere near as good as her though. And she’s like ten times smarter than I could ever be, so sometimes I have to get her to explain things a couple times.” Lindsey screwed up her mouth to the side of her face to show her frustration.

He chuckled at her comment, but he had something to add to that as well, “I don’t know how to tell you this, Linds… But Steph is like ten times smarter than pretty much everybody. Just ask Grissom.”

Lindsey shook her head to show her disbelief of Warrick’s statement. “No way! NOBODY is smarter than Gil!”

That was too much for Catherine and Warrick, and they both burst out laughing, However Catherine was the one to answer that one, “Honey, trust me… Gil is just older than Steph, not smarter.”

Lindsey kept shaking her head as she finished the last bite of pasta from her last plate and stood up from her seat. “Sorry, Mom… I’m not buying that one.” She stacked up her plates and put them on the wait station beside them before turning back to the grown ups in her booth, “I’m gonna get some fruit and yogurt… You guys want anything?”

Warrick shook his head and patted his belly, “None for me… I’m gonna have to be rolled out of here as it is.” As Lindsey walked away from the booth Warrick was still chuckling a little. “Man, she’s still got it bad for the bug man, huh?”

Catherine shook her head as she wiped her mouth and finished chewing that last bite of food. “Oh yeah… Gil will always be her first. I think you and Thomas are tied for second now, though.”

“Me?” Warrick could not believe what Catherine had said, because it just seemed ludicrous.

“Are you kidding?! You always compliment her, show her attention and smile at her with those pearly whites… What girl wouldn’t get caught up in that charm?” Catherine had not meant to say that last part, but she had to admit it certainly was the truth. Warrick Brown was good for a girl’s ego.

It was Warrick’s turn to blush then, and he was left speechless by Catherine’s remark. He was saved from having to respond by Lindsey’s return to the table with a bowl filled with different fruits and a healthy portion of yogurt. When both adults stared at her and her large bowl of food, she looked to both of them and asked, “What?!”

Catherine threw up her hands and simply said, “Nothing! Enjoy, Linds.”

While Lindsey finished her dessert she watched the tennis match, shop talk conversation that her mother and Warrick shared. After a while, she realized they were not going to talk about anything meaningful with her sitting there. So, she quickly finished her dessert and then turned to her mother to ask a question, “Hey, Mom… Can I put a take out box together for Warrick to take to Steph for dinner?”

Catherine demurred to her suggestion and nodded her head as she dug into her purse for her credit card, “That’s a great idea, honey… Here take this up to the register and get moving. I don’t want us to make Warrick late for work.”

Lindsey jumped up from the table and took the card from her mother before rushing off to accomplish her task. When Catherine turned back to look at Warrick, he was shaking his head in disbelief, “Man, that girl has grown up… You gotta be proud, Cath.”

Catherine tilted her head to the side and said, “Yeah, but we still have a long way to go before I can breathe easier. Though, it’s days like this that give me a whole lotta hope that I’m doing an okay job with her.”

“You’re doing a great job, Cath. Lindsey is an amazing kid, and she’s got her Mom to thank for all of it.” Warrick’s words held enough emotion that Catherine felt a few tears welling up in her eyes and she had to turn away as she smiled at his compliment to prevent from actually breaking down.

They both watched Lindsey for a while as she flitted from one station to the next, carefully assembling a fitting dinner for Stephanie. Warrick was unable to stop himself from making his comment, “Hey, Cath?”

“Yeah?”

“I, ah, just wanted to thank you… Ya know, for not giving me that whole ‘told ya so’ thing about me and Tina.” As he spoke, Catherine felt like the air had evaporated from the entire restaurant. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?!

He exhaled sharply and she thought it looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “I mean, I know you thought I was makin’ a huge mistake… You were probably the only one who told me that straight out. And I wasn’t exactly gracious about your honesty, so I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was about that.” He stopped, almost like he was waiting for her to speak, but she was simply not capable of speech in that moment. “Anyway, thanks for not rubbin’ the divorce in my face.”

When he said the word divorce, Catherine’s jaw literally hit the table with her shock, but she somehow found the ability to speak, and she spoke with volume. “YOU’RE GETTING A DIVORCE?!”

He turned to face her in surprise and his face was practically ashen when he spoke to her in a loud whisper. “You didn’t know?!”

She lowered her voice for her next exclamation, “Obviously fucking not!”

He sunk back against the booth and sighed, “Man! I thought for sure someone else had told you the way you been acting.” He shook his head in disbelief and embarrassment, “I’m sorry, Cath… I guess I just figured Grissom or Steph would have told you.”

Catherine adamantly denied that notion with the shaking of her head, “No… Neither of them.” She thought about that fact and came to a conclusion about it, “They probably figured the other one of you had told me. Which makes my conversation with Sara earlier this week make so much more sense now.” She just kept trying to shake the confusion away, but she had a question that was begging for an answer, “When?”

He winced as he answered her, “Just over two weeks… We had what I thought was a fight, only to find out she’d already filed earlier that day. And then Stephanie’s lawyer friend found out all kinds of other shit she’d been pulling. It’s a huge mess, Catherine, and if it weren’t for Steph and Thomas, I’m not sure I’d be gettin’ through this thing.”

As he shook his head, Catherine could tell that the ordeal had been taking its toll on his resolve, and his confidence. While she processed that information, she finally understood where his frustration and short temper had been coming from as of late, why he had been looking so tired and why he had been spending so much time with Stephanie.

Without realizing it, Catherine had reached over the table and laid her hand on his forearm when she spoke, “You’ll get through this, Warrick. You’ve got a pretty amazing support system behind you, so I can’t imagine it happening any other way.”

He sighed again, and she could see that his eyes had gotten glassy, “Thanks… That means more than you can imagine.”

Chapter 28

The street lights were just starting to come to life as Warrick drove into work. The days were starting to get shorter, and soon it would be pitch black when he made it into the Crime Lab parking lot for his shift. But for the time being, he enjoyed still having a bit of daylight to accompany him on his drive to the lab every night.

He thought about his conversation with Catherine at dinner, and lamented about the status of his life. Warrick was also worried that he had probably offended Catherine by not talking to her himself, but he guessed that in many ways he had been afraid of receiving her disappointment more than anything and so he had purposely avoided discussing the dissolution of his marriage with her. He had long admired Catherine for her strength, for her courage and for her spirit. She never seemed to let anything get her too far down without picking herself back up, every time. He also valued her opinion, and he had known from the beginning that she had not approved of his hasty marriage, so when it had finally fallen apart he was sure she would let him know he had screwed up. Instead, she seemed to be genuinely concerned for him, and in fact offered him her support.

When it came right down to it, the only person who was really disappointed was him. Warrick always believed that he would never take the plunge until he knew it was right. But when the rubber hit the road, he acted from fear and a sense of desperation. After what had happened to Nick, Warrick became convinced that life was too short to be cautious and he made what he hoped at the time would not be the biggest mistake of his life. The worst part of the whole thing was that he had known it was a mistake from the beginning, but he tried to convince himself he could make it work. If only our hearts listened to our heads, it might’ve worked. The fact was his heart was never really in it, and his only consolation came from the fact that his grandmother was not alive to see what he had done.

As he thought about his grandmother, he tried to imagine what her reaction would have been to his marriage. And the one thing he knew for certain was that the back of his head would probably still hurt and she would still be clucking at him as she shook her head whenever she saw him. Grandmoms never had to say much, but I always got the point. But if Warrick Brown knew anything, it was that his grandmother was probably looking down on him and doing just that anyway. She had always loved her little “work in progress,” and he had always known that, without a doubt.

His car pulled into the lot and he went straight to the first line of spaces. He was the shift supervisor for the night, and that meant he got to park up front. That was the only perk to his every other week assignment. He and Sara had been trading off Saturday Night Supervisor duty for a couple of months, and at least once a month he would cover for her as well. He enjoyed the responsibility, and he knew it would be a long time coming before he was any other kind of supervisor at the lab. Between Ecklie and having some pretty hefty competition with Grissom and Catherine, he knew he was far enough down the pole to have a while to wait for the chance, but he would not want to be anywhere else either. He learned so much working with Grissom that he had never even considered going to another lab. And, although he enjoyed working with her, Warrick had to admit that Catherine, while a great administrator, was not a great supervisor. He never felt like he was learning anything, or bettering his skills as a CSI when he worked under her. But with Grissom, there was always something to learn and there were always new things to discover about himself and his skills.

His next thought struck him as funny and he chuckled to himself as he got out of the car. Sara does that, too. Sara was another one of those people that challenged you to be a better CSI, even if she was also learning right there alongside you. She was always thirsting to advance her own knowledge, and she had a way of teaching someone else the same things she was learning, at the same time. He knew, without a doubt, that Greg would not be even half the CSI he was without the time he had spent working with Sara during his first training phase. And if Nick was willing to admit it, he would say the same thing about himself. Everyone learned something from Sara, including Grissom. Especially Grissom.

Warrick walked up to the reception desk, grabbed the assignment sheets from the clerk working there and started going through them. That was when he realized he had forgotten to pick up Stephanie’s dinner from the passenger seat of his car, so he turned back around to get it. As he was exiting the building he ran into Detective Sofia Curtis.

“It can’t be that bad already.”

Warrick regarded her with a puzzled expression, “Huh?”

“Shift hasn’t even started yet… So, can it be so bad that you’re already leaving?” She gave him a tempered smile and he just shook his head.

“Nah… I forgot something in my car. You get the short straw this weekend?”

She leaned her head to the side as she walked in the door, “Something like that… I’ll probably see you out there. Later.”

Warrick shook his head as he walked back to his car. There was a mystery that needed to be left to someone else to figure out. When the woman had been on days, she had been as politic as Ecklie on any given day. It was rumored that she had covered his ass on numerous occasions, in the hopes that it would put her in the right place at the right time to be promoted. However, when the moment finally came, she had grown a conscience and done the un-politic thing; in other words, the right thing, and that move cost her dearly. Not only had she been passed over for promotion, she was actually demoted, but in the end she could not stomach the change of stature and she left the lab.

When she showed up a few months later as a detective everyone was completely shocked. Everyone but Sara, that is. When Warrick had questioned her about why she had not bwaseen surprised by the move, Sara simply said that she had always suspected Sofia was nothing more than a status junkie, and without being able to make supervisor as a CSI, what better way to improve her status than to be a hero cop and prove everyone wrong about her. Warrick chuckled at that thought. Leave it to the second most socially inept person in the lab to be able to peg someone so close to the mark like that.

With the restaurant bag in hand, Warrick made his way back inside and headed straight for the break room to hand out assignments. There were only two cases, and neither one was going to take long to process the scenes, so he sent the weekend guys off to the bigger of the two; a hit and run on the strip, while he was going to head out for the trick roll at the Golden Nugget. But first, he had to get the dinner down to Stephanie and check up on her, as he had been so ordered by Thomas and Catherine.

Thomas had called him that afternoon, when he was unable to reach her on the cellphone. So, he had to make sure she was okay and that she called Thomas back ASAP, lest the poor man lose his mind any further. Catherine had also been pretty worried about Stephanie, and Warrick had to admit that the young doctor had been acting poorly all week. Her temper was short and he noticed that she had not been sleeping a great deal as well.

When he questioned Thomas earlier in the week, he had been told that she was just in a mood and he should not make anything out of it. He also knew that she was having issues with the Adler case, and after finding out that she had known the man, it made a little more sense to him, but he was still concerned.

Once he pushed through the doors of the morgue, he was surprised to find the place completely dark. That was, except for the faint light that was escaping through the bottom of her office door. She had shut the place down; including closing up the blinds to her office and shutting the door. Stephanie never did any of those things. Even when she was changing her scrubs in her office, the door was never closed, because he learned that most everyone had happened by there as she was changing. Well, everyone but Hodges. And not for lack of trying… The little weasel.

He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer, but all he heard was the shuffle of papers, so he had to assume that she was wearing her headphones again and he opened the door a crack to confirm his suspicions. There she was, seated at her desk, surrounded by papers, folders and journals, and wearing her headphones. What he was not prepared for was her pallor. She was pale and flushed at the same time and there were horribly dark circles under her eyes. He could only assume that she had not left her office since some time Friday, and that was when he knew he had to say something to his friend.

He walked up to the desk and knocked on it to get her attention away from the book she was skimming through. When her gaze slowly made its way up to his face she nodded and removed the headphones. “Hey,” was the only word that escaped her throat before she was overcome in a monumental yawn. Once finished, she rubbed her eyes and face and added, “What’s up?” before she was lost in another yawn.

“You… Obviously…” He put the bag down on top of the cabinet beside her desk and continued, “So, when was the last time you slept?”

She squinted up at him and thought about her answer a moment before asking, “What day is it?”

Warrick shook his head and said, “That’s what I thought.” He put the plastic bag with her dinner into the fridge on the other side of the room and then pulled the charger out of the small duffle bag. “Plug in your phone and get over here.” He handed her the charger and she sagged a bit.

“Oh yeah… I guess I should charge the thing before Thomas sends out the National Guard, huh?” The last word was drowned out partially by the next yawn that came over her.

“Don’t forget Catherine and Grissom, too.” Warrick’s face showed his dislike for the situation she was in, but she seemed to be oblivious to him. When she started coughing, he was unable to hide the shock on his face. “When did that start?”

She cleared her throat and said, “It’s all the dust and crap on this stuff… It’s kicked up my allergies and a little of my asthma.”

“There’s no such thing as a little asthma. You have an inhaler?” He was genuinely concerned at that point.

Before she could answer, another yawn worked its way out, but as the phone signaled that it was plugged in with a bleat, she answered, “Yeah, and I just took some more Benadryl, so I can’t seem to stop yawning.” She was rubbing her hand into her face again, as though she was desperately trying to stay awake.

“And maybe ‘cause you probably haven’t slept a wink since Thursday.” Warrick shook his head again and gestured for her to come closer to him, “Get over here, girl.” Without thinking about it, she walked toward him and he moved to get out of her way so she could sit on the couch that had been moved into her office recently. “Now, you’re gonna let that Benadryl work its magic and catch some Z’s for a while. And when I get back from my scene, I’m gonna take you home.”

“I only have a few more journa-…” She started to cough again, and the sputtering sounds she made as she coughed seriously worried Warrick. She was breathing more heavily after the coughing, “A few more journals, to ah, go through, so I’ll ah, just do that and then I’ll ah, go home… Okay?”

“When I get back, you’re going home… Finished or not. Thomas is gonna kill me as it is.” Warrick took his jacket off and bunched it up to put behind her head and then picked up her feet and put them on the couch as well. He looked around the room searching for something, “Hey, where’s that blanket Gris brought in here?”

She pointed at the file cabinet in the corner, “Bottom drawer, under ‘warm’.” Warrick shot her a disapproving glance and she chuckled, “Just kidding… Bottom drawer is a pain in the neck for me, so I only put crap in there I rarely us-…” Her coughing started up again, and Warrick began to think that he should call someone to come and get her.

As though she had sensed what he was thinking, she pointed an accusatory finger at him, “You call anyone and I’m gonna shoot you. It’s just my allergies and the asthma, why do you think I’m such a Nazi about dust at the house?”

Warrick could not help himself and he chuckled at her admonition, “Yeah, well, now that I see the results, I’ll be dusting too.” He pulled the blanket out of the file cabinet and spread it out over her, tucking it under her chin as a final gesture. “Now, get some sleep and if you get hungry, Lindsey got you some dinner from that health food place she found.”

“Aw man… I wanted to go over there with her. What’s it called again?” She coughed again, but that time it was more controlled.

“The Healthy Habitrail, if you can believe it.” Warrick was still laughing about that name.

“Why does that word sound familiar?”

Warrick screwed up his face into a question, “Habitrail?”

“Yeah, it sounds vaguely familiar.”

“I think you just handed me my AARP card, Steph.” Warrick shook his head in disgust, “Plastic hamster and gerbil habitats, kind of like Space Lab modules.”

“Oh yeah! One of the professors at Stanford had one in his office. I would always stop by there to see his pets when I visited Mom at school.” She snuggled down into the blanket. “So, the food is in the fridge?”

“Yeah, and this old man is gonna hurry back here to get you sorted out before he gets shipped off to the nursing home.” He turned and headed for the door, “And I’m serious, now… Sleep… I’ll be back to take you home later, because you obviously can’t drive like that.” She nodded and then closed her eyes as yet another yawn took over her face.

Warrick walked out of the office and made a promise to himself to get back to the lab as quickly as he could.

Chapter 30

Sofia had finally finished up with her onsite interviews of witnesses at the armed robbery scene and glanced down at her watch. It was already five in the morning, and she still needed to get to all the paperwork from the three scenes she was called to overnight. When she looked over at the counter she found Warrick Brown anxiously looking at his own watch and obviously distraught about something.

She had heard the rumors about his marriage being on the rocks and she obviously heard about the incident at the Body Farm earlier in the week, but his attitude throughout the whole night had been one of impatience and frustration. It was almost as though he had somewhere better to be, and in her experience, none of Gil’s people ever approached their job in such a blaizé fashion.

As she walked over to him, Sofia noticed that he was making another phone call, and so she waited to speak up until he had closed the phone with a grunt. “Problems?”

He looked behind him to find her standing there and said, “Huh? Oh, no, nothing, really.”

“Well, if we’re boring you tonight…” Sofia’s sense of humor was often mistaken as vitriole, but Warrick was far too distracted to make that connection.

“Nah… I just wasn’t planning on being out in the field all night.” He got back to work lifting prints from the counter as he talked with her.

“Wanted to sit back in a chair and prop your feet up?” She did not seem capable of leaving the sarcasm behind when she spoke.

“Not hardly… I was just hoping to get back to the lab, so I could check on O’Halloran.” Warrick did not stop what he was doing as he spoke with Sofia, but his words belied the vibe he was sending out.

“Is she still at the lab?” Sofia was shocked to hear that the young medical examiner was still on duty.

“Yeah, when I got in she was, but I was gonna run her home after the first call.” He looked up and into his kit for another tape lift sheet, “Just hasn’t worked out that way yet.”

“Why doesn’t she just call her husband? Or Gil, for that matter?” Sofia was confused as to why Warrick would need to take on that responsibility.

Warrick kept working, and did not ever make eye contact with her, which was starting to get on her nerves. “Yeah, Thomas is away at a surgical conference and Steph’d kill me if I called Grissom.” Warrick labeled and sealed the last of his print lifts, closed up the jar of print powder, stashed his brush, collected all of his evidence envelopes and locked up his case. “And that should be it for m-…” He was interrupted by his pager going off alerting him to another call from dispatch. “Damnit!” He grabbed at the pager and looked at the message.

“So, where’re we headed now?” Sofia asked with a slightly amused tone in her voice.

Warrick’s face was the picture of confusion as he read the display, “Next door.” He walked around the corner of the galleria shop and found a gang of security guards and three more uniformed officers.

“Damn, that was fast!” One of the uniforms exclaimed.

Warrick waved the officer off and waited for Sofia to call in to dispatch that they were on the scene. “Yeah, we’re both here… No, don’t worry about it, we can handle it.” She shrugged at Warrick and said, “I’ll find out the situation, you should get that evidence to the car, boxed and secured before you gather the evidence for this one.”

“Thanks, that’ll give me some time to make a few calls, too.” Sofia watched him make his way to the stairs as he struggled with all of his gear and the cellphone he was trying to use, and smirked at the sight before turning her attention back to the assemblage behind her.

“Okay fellas, what’ve we got here?” She asked with her hands on her hips.

The oldest of the guards (who was still likely to only be in his mid-twenties) was the one to step forward and offer his recounting of the situation. “Well, we had roped off the area and were standing post over there,” he pointed to the end of the walkway for the casino’s galleria. “Mike here noticed something on the ground in front of the shop next to your burglary scene and he and I went to check it out. We found the glass smashed and the displays in disarray, but the security sensor was still in tact, so it didn’t set off any alarms. We figured it was a professional job.” The man seemed quite proud of his analysis, but there was something about the whole thing that seemed out of place for Sofia.

“’A professional job?’” She motioned at the shop, “At a novelty shop? What were they after? Giant fuzzy dice, or the ‘I lost my ass in Vegas’ boxers with the plastic buttocks on them?” Sofia shook her head at the ridiculousness of their conclusion and looked around the area little more closely.

The scene should have been telling her that it was just a simple smash and grab, but there was something off about the whole thing. That was when the janitor showed up with his brooms and bin for collecting the glass.

The man’s face showed his intense frustration and then he spoke, “Jesus Christ, Manny! I broke a fuckin’ window, it ain’t a capital crime, ya paranoid little prick.”

The uniforms were struggling to keep their laughter at bay while the senior member called the false alarm in to dispatch. Sofia simply shook her head and threw her hands up as she walked away. If there was one thing she could not stomach anymore, it was gross incompetence. She had experienced enough of that to last her a lifetime when she worked alongside Conrad Ecklie. His final exercise in stupidity was what had taken her away from criminalistics and back to her first love of criminology.

As she made her way out of the galleria and the casino, and back out to her car, she thought about the reasons she had become a crime scene investigator in the first place. It had been her parents worry about her being a cop that halted her progression into being a detective. She also deduced that there would be greater opportunities for advancement in crime scene investigations than as a detective, simply because she was a woman. And if there was one thing she knew about herself, it was that she relished in accolades.

In the end, the politics, the compromises, the ineptitude all became too much for her when it was all shoved into her face following her demotion. She watched the worst man for the job sail through the advancement system, while the people best able to run an efficient and highly effective lab were being cow-towed and admonished for their efforts. But she knew in her heart, that was only part of the reason for her departure.

If she was honest with herself, she knew that she still craved the thrill of the hunt and the rush that came with taking a case through from beginning to end. A CSI never got that rush, because once the evidence had been processed, they were no longer in the loop. So, she took those last two classes she needed for her criminology degree, qualified on the shooting range, passed her physical tests and became a proud member of the Las Vegas Police Department Detective Bureau. As she approached Warrick’s vehicle in the parking garage, she smiled. She was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing, and that kind of satisfaction was rare.

When Sofia rounded the corner of the Yukon she could hear that Warrick was on the phone. She held back to give him the appearance of privacy, even though the volume he spoke in prevented the reality of it.

“Yeah, Cath… I have no idea when I’m gonna get out-… I’M IN A GARAGE… YEAH… CAN YOU SWING BY AND PICK HER UP FOR ME?... RIGHT… THANKS… I OWE YOU… LATER.” Warrick was shaking his head as he closed up his phone and reached into the back of the Yukon to pull out another collection kit.

Sofia sauntered to the back of the car and leaned up against the back door when she spoke, “You can go ahead and pack it in.”

Warrick’s neck snapped his head around to meet her gaze and she could see that he was surprised to find her there. “Why?”

“False alarm… Or, more accurately, no alarm.” Sofia smirked at her vague explanation and Warrick’s confusion.

“I don’t get it.”

“A janitor broke a window when he was cleaning the floor and had left to get something to clean up the glass when the rent-a-cops came on the scene… They had quite the tale prepared for our amusement, but it was nothing after all.” She could see that he had been visibly relieved to hear her news. “I already called it in to dispatch, and they said the day guy was already on the clock, so you’re officially off the hook.”

Warrick looked up into the air and held out his hands, “Thank You!” He turned back to the car and started securing his equipment for the trip back to the lab.

“Hey, since you’re done for the night… You wanna grab a drink or something? Ya know, decompress a little?” Sofia was on a fishing expedition, Sometimes you can land a big one that way.

Warrick shrugged and spoke out of the side of his mouth, “Nah…” He looked at his watch before continuing, “If I can get this stuff back before those other turkeys take off, then it can be processed and I can be out of the lab on time for a change… I still want to check on Stephanie.”

Sofia was becoming suspicious of his connection to the new coroner, so she dug a little deeper. “You two seem to be spending a lot of time together lately.”

Warrick paid no attention to her motives or even seemed to care about her questions when he responded, “That’s what happens when you live in somebody’s house.”

Sofia regarded him with an expression of understanding, “So, I guess that means the rumors are true?”

Warrick shrugged again, “If you’re talking about the one where I’m gettin’ a divorce, then yeah… That one about me becoming a headliner at the Orpheus; that’s total crap.”

Sofia laughed at his attempt to diffuse the situation, “That’s good… I’ll see what I can do to keep that one rolling then. A little misdirection might help keep the wolves at bay for a while.”

Warrick tilted his head to the side and said, “Nah, I think my status as the lab goat should take care of that one.”

Sofia had wondered if the things she had heard about Body Farm incident were as bad as was being reported. She guessed from his statement that they were true. “Tough break on that one, huh?”

He shrugged as he secured his case with the strap, “I’m not so much worried about me…” He turned to finally face Sofia as he continued, “More what it’s doin’ to Grissom.”

She nodded at his response, “Yeah… I hear he got nailed pretty hard on that one. And coming so close on the heels of the thing with Sara didn’t help.”

Warrick regarded her with a puzzled expression and asked, “Wha’d’you mean?”

“You didn’t hear?” She was shocked that his team had not heard about Gil’s altercation with Ecklie when the man had learned about his relationship with Sara. “Ecklie went ballistic on Gil when he found out about he and Sara being together. I hear he even recommended to Burdick that Gil be terminated for it.”

Warrick pursed his mouth and shook his head in a gesture of disgust. “Man! That prick just doesn’t know when to quit, huh?” He slammed the back doors to the Yukon closed. “I mean, it’s not bad enough the lab lost its ranking, but now we gotta worry about Ecklie completely screwing us over, AGAIN?!”

Sofia could tell the man was genuinely upset at hearing her news, and it had only reaffirmed her belief that Gil’s people would lay down their lives for him, if only he were to ask. “Yeah, I heard about the rankings” She decided to throw one more thing out there and see what Warrick’s reaction would be. “I also heard that Gil’s been getting offers since the report came out.”

“Offers? Like, JOB offers?”

“I’m sure he gets them all the time… I mean, the man does have the reputation and the clout to work wherever he wanted, but I think a few of the labs sensed the blood in the water and figured they could lure him away.” She shrugged a little, trying to downplay her next bombshell, “A friend of mine in Miami said they practically offered him the moon and a boat to come down and run their lab. Seems they’ve been having some in-house troubles, and seriously need someone to reign in the madness down there.”

Warrick shook his head, “That doesn’t make sense… They’ve got good people down there.”

“Yeah, but their lab could use some help. They have a good guy for the field, but the lab is falling apart.” Sofia was well aware of their investigative staff’s quality, but she had been hearing some horror stories through the grapevine about the rest of the division.

“Yeah, well, I used to wonder what kept him out here, but now? He’s got too many ties. I can’t see him packing up and going anywhere else.” Sofia had to admit that she often wondered why Grissom had stayed in Las Vegas after Ecklie was appointed the assistant director, but after working with him, and some of his people, she knew that his loyalties to them ran deeper than he was likely to ever admit, even to himself.

Warrick looked down and then appeared to have remembered something. He checked his watch and became a little hurried. “Hey, sorry to dish and run, but I need to get this stuff back to the lab… Thanks for the info and I’ll catch ya later.”

And without further pomp or circumstance, he hopped into the Yukon and pulled away from Sofia, leaving her to sort through the information she had obtained during their conversation. She was still processing the information when she got to her car and was paged once again.

She picked up her phone and dialed in to dispatch as she opened her car door and got inside. “Dispatch… It’s Curtis… Yeah, I can pick it up… No problem… I’m like five minutes from the lab anyway… En route now… Bye.”

Chapter 31

Jim Brass was in a foul mood. He planned to spend a quiet weekend by himself out at the lake, but his plans had not worked from the moment he said go. When he got to the rustic fishing cabin, he found that the roof had received the gift of a skylight (thanks to a fallen tree), the fireplace had become home to a rather large nest of squirrels, and from the beer bottles strewn everywhere he deduced that some of the local youth had chosen his place as their party hangout. He had a half a mind to get one of the CSI’s out there to print the place and have half of the high school brought in for questioning, but the place was really not worth the trouble it would have taken.

So, without his favorite rest spot, he settled for camping out in one of the cabins operated by the State Parks Department. The trouble was that it appeared they did not understand the need for an old man to be able to sleep at night, because they stuck him right between two cabins filled with loud and obnoxious college kids. If he had brought his gun, he might have been tempted to use it Friday night. Instead, he did a little fishing in the morning and then packed it in that afternoon when the winds descended on the area and made him draw comparisons to a certain movie with a scowling woman riding a bicycle through the air. By the time he reached the lights of Vegas Saturday night the only thing he had on his mind was sleeping in his own bed and not coming back out until Sunday night.

However, there was a serious flaw to that logic. The whole reason he had left for the weekend in the first place was that his house was being fumigated and it would be another twenty four hours before it was safe. He thought about calling Gil and seeing if he could crash there. But then he realized he would have to explain what was happening at his place, and he did not believe the man who raced cockroaches for fun would be too keen about his killing off a mess of their insect compatriots. He finally decided to just get a room at the hotel down the way from the lab, sleep those precious hours until the middle of the afternoon and then head off for another fun shift with the LVPD.

Those plans were not working out very well either. The hotel was full up with lousy conventioneers and after several frustrating hours of trying to sleep, he had given up and filed his grievances with the hotel management. They refunded him his money and he was on his way once again.

Since he was so close to the lab, he figured he would swing by there and see who was around. He also thought that he might be able to wrangle an invitation to a friendly couch from another wayward night walker. He had no idea when he walked into the building that the first part of his weekend would actually end up being the best part.

As soon as he climbed out of his car he found himself standing nearly toe to toe with Warrick Brown. “Hey ‘Rick… You got the shift tonight?”

Warrick regarded him with a slightly amused befuddlement, “What the hell are you doin’ here?”

“Nice to see you, too.” Brass gave him that sneering smile which was his trademark.

“You know what I mean… You were taking a couple days at the lake, weren’t you?”

Brass shrugged and held the front door open for Warrick, who was carrying a few evidence boxes. “Yeah, well it would seem the fates had other ideas for me.”

Warrick headed straight for the Temporary Evidence Vault with Brass in tow for the whole journey. “That doesn’t sound good. Did you at least get a chance to relax at all?”

The older man turned his chin to the side and slightly up to show his discomfort, “Not exactly… That was pretty much an exercise in futility this weekend.”

Warrick started logging in his evidence from the three calls he had been out on that night as he and Brass kept talking. “Damn… That’s too bad.” Then Warrick remembered something and asked, “You’re place is still quarantined, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” He fiddled with his ear as he explained, “I thought about giving Gil a holler, but then I would have to cop to murdering a few hundred of his closest friends.”

Warrick laughed at Brass’ description of his fumigation, “Yeah, that wouldn’t go over too good, huh?” As Warrick was logging the last box into the evidence locker he had another thought, “Well, if you don’t mind a little couch surfing, you can take the futon in the den over at Steph and Thomas’. I’ve gotta see if Cath got to her before now, and then head home to keep an eye on her until Thomas gets in tonight. But it’ll be quiet, no teenagers, decent beer in the fridge, and I can testify to the comfort level of that futon.”

Brass smiled and patted Warrick on the shoulder, “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all weekend.”

Warrick laughed, put the evidence log back in its place and turned to let Brass pass him as he shut off the light, and closed the door behind them. He checked the knob to make sure it had locked and they started down the hallway. “Hold on… I need to release the weekend guys and grab something from the Break Room.” Warrick ducked into the room, and Brass could hear him say a few words to the two guys in there before he came back out with two paper cups of coffee in his hands. He handed one to Brass and then took a drink from his. “Figured we’d need these just to get to the house.” Brass smirked at the younger man’s logic and the gesture.

As they started down the hallway to the elevator, Warrick pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit redial. Brass could hear a decidedly feminine voice pick up on the other end. “Hey Cath, where’re you at?” When they rounded the corner and were standing in front of the elevator they had their answer.

“When did you get back to the lab?” The blonde haired CSI had a hand on her hip and a slightly haughty expression on her face as she closed up her phone to regard the two men.

“Just now… My last scene ended up being a bust, but I didn’t want to call you until I was officially off the grid.” Warrick smiled at Catherine and tried to hide his embarrassment from his friends.

“Oh well, Lindsey spent the night at a friend’s, so I’ve been up all night getting some stuff done. And it’s not like I haven’t been worrying about Steph the whole time anyway.” Brass was confused by her statement as the trio stepped onto the elevator.

“Did I miss something?” He asked in all earnestness.

“Oh, just that Thomas is out of town, she’s still obsessing over that professor case and, according to Warrick, she’s gotten some kind of cold or something.” Brass just nodded his head. He knew too well that Catherine was a good friend, and when she worried about you, you had better be prepared to listen to what she had to say, because she would not let it go. He had been the recipient of that attention before, so he felt a little sorry for the young doctor.

As the elevator doors opened up, they found the morgue completely dark, except for the scattered emergency lighting system units and the exit signs. Catherine was having a hard time remembering the last time the morgue had been so quiet and dark. It was always a little dark around there, but that was just so they could work with all the equipment and keep the temperatures down. However, this was a completely different kind of dark and she found it actually creeped her out a little.

“Yeah, I got the same vibe when I was down here earlier. Just feels weird like this, huh?” Warrick was the one to bring it up. “County Coroner put us on divert for the weekend because of the staffing trouble, and Steph shut everything down to conserve energy and cut down on the noise. She’s holed up in her office with the blinds drawn.” He crossed the hall and pushed his way through the doors to the Autopsy Room so that they could make their way to Stephanie’s office.

As the others came into the room, Warrick flipped on the light switch and remarked to himself that the flicker of the fluorescent lights actually added to the creepy feelings everyone was experiencing. He tried to shake it, knowing that Catherine was already keyed up with worry about Stephanie, so he did not need to add to that with his own uneasiness.

The trio started walking through the room and he was the first one to reach the closed door to her office. He turned the handle and pushed gently on the door, hoping that Stephanie was still asleep on the couch. Warrick cautiously peeked into the room and saw no one on the couch, so he pushed the door open a little further. When the door stopped short of opening, he realized there was something holding it back. He looked down to find the source of the barrier and his mind shattered into a million fragments.

The clock on the wall showed that it was six in the morning and on the floor, Stephanie laid sprawled, unconscious, bleeding from the head, with an inhaler in one hand and a broken injector pen in the other. The morgue was completely silent.

Chapter 34

Sara closed the phone and stared down at her hands. She felt completely numb. In the time it took for a phone call to be made, their lives were about to be shattered into a million little shards. She struggled with what she was going to do. No, not what… Just how?… How do you tell the man you love that-… No!

She refused to let herself even think such a thing. If they were going to make it through this thing, then she knew she would have to stay strong. Stay strong for Gil… Stay strong for Thomas… Stay strong for Warrick… She had to stay strong.

Sara sucked in a long breath and set her shoulders. She knew what had to be done, and she was going to bear that weight. She was going to be that strength.

When she reached the bedroom door, she looked in and saw that Gil had already turned down her side of the bed. He was sitting up in bed, their bed, under the covers, as he finished off the last pages of his pulp novel. She was glad that he felt comfortable enough with her to share his guilty pleasures, and she was grateful that their weekend had been happy and full and peaceful. She worried the revelation of such a painful part of his life would destroy him, but she had been delighted in his recovery and they spent the weekend reveling in his newfound peace. As she took her first step into the bedroom, she knew that peace had been shattered.

“Hey, you don’t have to go in, do you?” His smile nearly broke her resolve. She had grown used to his comfortable smiles, and she would miss them.

“No.” She walked over to the dresser and she opened one of the lower drawers to retrieve of pair of drawstring pants. Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

When he noticed what she was doing he put his book down on the nightstand and leaned forward. “Sara… What’s going on?”

She did not turn around. Instead, she leaned down and stepped into her pants. When she pulled them up, she said, “Can you get dressed?”

He was about to ask another question, but it died on his lips, and instead he pushed back his covers and said, “I can… Can you tell me why?” She did not dare to look into his eyes yet, because she knew that the worry had already landed there.

“Get dressed first.” She opened another drawer and pulled out one of her many, long sleeved, fitted, tie-dye shirts. Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

She heard the springs in the bed shift as he rose from it and padded over to the closet. “Where are we going?”

“Just dress comfortably, please.” Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

“Okay…” She could hear the hangars slide over the rod in the closet as he made his choice.

She reached into his shirt drawer and took out one of his long sleeved golf shirts. She held it in her hands and took another deep breath. She handed him the shirt from behind her as she felt him approaching the dresser. She felt his fingers graze over her own as he took the shirt from her hand. “Loafers or sneakers?” She asked as she braced herself on the dresser, just above his sock drawer.

He pressed a hand against the small of her back and spoke softly, “I’ve already got my shoes on.”

She turned away from him and went to the closet to dig out a pair of those funky sport sandals that always made Gil laugh. They were comfortable and she needed that. Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

“Don’t forget your phone and your wallet.” She walked away from him and out into the hallway.

It was a few moments before she would hear him walking across the stone floor to the living area where she stood. She knew that the moment she told him what was happening he would be a complete mess. She knew he would not be able to do even the simplest task, which meant she had to choke back everything to insure that they would be able to make it to the hospital. And so, she waited. She forced down her pain. She forced down her worry. She forced down her fear. The only thing she could do was to care for the man that she loved more than life itself.

Sara went to the hall closet and took out their jackets. She also removed the small duffle bag she kept stashed there for emergencies. It had a fleece throw blanket, a small travel pillow, a few peanut butter granola bars, an old sweatshirt, and a couple pairs of wool socks. She had another bag, filled with the same things in the trunk of her car. Sara was as much of a boy scout as Gil, sometimes, but she knew that the contents of the bag would help them to be more comfortable at the hospital. Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

She was so caught up in maintaining her calm, she missed the sound of his feet on the tile as he came to stand directly behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder and she tensed; not because she was frightened, but because Sara feared she might fall apart with the contact. He reached over her and took the bag as she pulled it down from the shelf in the closet. “Here, let me get that.”

Forcing herself to relax her shoulders, she blew out a breath and said, “Thanks.” She closed her eyes for a split second and prepared for the worst. Jim would be there any moment and she had to break the news before he got there.

“So, when are you planning to tell me what’s going on?” As she turned into his words, their eyes met and she could actually feel the worry that was pouring out from those azure pools.

She took his hand and led him over to the stools at the breakfast bar. He took the cue and braced himself on the closest one, but he never let go of her hand as he did. She grabbed hold of his hand with both of hers and held it up to her chest. “Gil… Jim is going to be here in any minute.”

With her words and her gestures, his face began to contort into a scowl of pain and his eyes filled with tears. She knew he had taken her cues perfectly. He knew her well enough to know that she was preparing him for something heavy. And the moment she had spoken Jim’s name his jaw had clinched tightly. “No… Not-…” His words were spoken through clinched teeth and he choked on each syllable as he spoke them. “Who?”

She pulled him close to her, held him in her arms and waited until he was settled there before she brought her head down beside his ear and whispered the name into his ear.

No matter how much they claimed to be prepared for the realities of their professions (the inherent dangers that everyone around them faced), they were never ready for it when it was thrust upon them.

She held him tightly, stroking his back as the sobs wracked through his body while they waited for Jim to arrive. He desperately needed her comfort as they waited. Comfort was going to be important in their next endeavor.

Chapter 37

They were moved to the family room on the third floor, told that she was being moved to the ICU, and that the doctor would be with them shortly. They were still waiting for any word about her condition, because no one in the emergency room would talk to them. It was half past eight o’clock in the morning and they were desperate for any information by that time, so when the doctor finally made it into the family room, they were beyond ready. However, they were not prepared for the pained face of Dr. Carter Wilbanks as he looked up and into the eyes of the other people who cared for his patient.

“Okay, first off, whoever had that epipen, ya probly saved her life.” He looked around the room and saw a relieved expression on the face of the blonde woman in the back corner, hanging back from the others. He did not recognize her, but he had to admit that he was a tad preoccupied in that moment.

“Next, we seem to have her stabilized, in a manner of speaking…” He blew out a sharp breath before he continued, “She’s had a serious reaction to something and we cain’t seem to isolate it. We just know the histamines in her system are off the charts.” He brought up the clipboard he held in his right hand and flipped a page. “The head lac isn’t bad, but she’s got a nice goose egg, so she’s likely ta have a concussion.” He looked through a few more things and then he sought out a face he knew well, “Who was the last one ta see’er?”

Warrick swallowed hard, but kept his gaze on his own feet, “That’d be me.”

“Was she having trouble with her breathing then? Coughing? Sneezing? What?” Carter was looking for something that would help him figure out the source of her ailment.

Warrick nodded, “Yeah, she used her inhaler and she said she had just taken a couple Benadryl. She was pretty beat… I don’t think she’d slept since some time Thursday.”

Carter acknowledged his account and made a couple of notes on his clipboard before he spoke, “Well, that’s not unusual…” He finished his notes and then sighed, “I gotta be honest with you folks… We’ve got nothing when it comes to finding the source of this, we just know it’s still in her system somehow. Without keeping her loaded up on steroids and epinephrine and anti-histamines, she starts to degrade almost immediately. And I’ve seen her normal allergy attacks… This is nuthin’ like I’ve ever seen… Not even in the ER.”

Both Catherine and Grissom were hunched over in their chairs. Sara sat beside Grissom and leaned over his back as she did everything she could to soothe him. Warrick was nearly mimicking her with Catherine, but with a little more distance. Brass continued to pace in his own little spot, and Sofia tried to process all of the information that was being presented, to break it down and analyze it.

Sara looked around the room and then at Carter. She was the only one who seemed able to speak in that moment, “So, how long can you keep her dosed up like that?… Before it becomes an issue?”

Carter pulled his hand down around his chin, obviously he was trying to calculate that answer in his head. “Well, given her size, her health, and stock stubbornness, I’d say we’ve got a couple hours to play with… After that, I’m gonna have to get her offa that epi, or it’ll destroy her heart. The steroids give us a few days, but the longer they’re in her system the more damage they can cause.” Everyone understood what he was saying. In a few hours, things would get a lot worse.

Sara was again the only one capable of speech. “Thank you, Carter… Get back to her and let us know if there’s a change.”

“Alright… I’m doing everything I can, y’all… I promise.” His face betrayed his immense pain for the task. Sara got up, motioned for Brass to sit next to Grissom and crossed the room to Carter.

She put a hand on his shoulder and said, “We know… You’re doing your best and that’s all we can ask… Thank you.” The man looked into her eyes and his gratitude at her gesture showed through his pain.

As he turned to leave the room, she followed him out into the corridor. “I think this might be related to a case she’s been working on… I’ll see if we can’t ge-…” Carter cut her off.

“The professor from UNLV?”

Sara regarded him with a questioning look, “Yes, you know about that case?”

He nodded with a distracted look on his face, “Yeah… I tried treating him when they brought him in… I’m gonna pull the file and see what I cain’t figure out.” He started to rush off down the hallway, but called back to Sara, “Have the nurses page me if y’all figure anything else out, awright?” She shook her head and watched him disappear down the hall.

Sara pulled out her phone and dialed a number. She had her own ideas about what she could do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

His mind was slowly coming back to consciousness, and he was not exactly happy about it. His drinking binge with his friends had wreaked havoc on his sleep schedule and he needed to be fresh for his shift that night. So, when he realized it was his phone that was ringing, he groaned loudly.

“Stokes.” His voice held all the properties of sleep, and the word croaked from his throat.

“Nick, I need you to work a scene.” At first, it sounded like Sara’s voice, but there was a strange quality to it that was not terribly familiar to him.

“Sara? Is that you?”

“Yeah, how fast can you get to the lab?” He wondered why Sara would be calling him to a scene.

“I thought Warrick had Saturday super powers this week…” He looked over at his alarm clock and said, “And those ended like two hours ago.”

“I don’t have time… I need to you to get to the lab to process a scene. It’s critical.” Her tone was deliberate and painfully calm.

“Alright, alright, just hold up-…”

“No time… Get Greg and I’ll have Sofia meet you guys over there-…” He decided that something truly horrible must have happened for such a response.

“Sara, you’re not making any sense… Where’s the scene? What’s up?”

“You need to process the morgue.”

“The morgue?! What the-…”

“Stephanie’s in the hospital…”

“Adler…”

“Adler…”

They both were on the same page.

“Okay, I’ll get Haz-mat on the horn, Greg is still at my place, so I’ll bring him with me.” His mind began to roil with everything that he needed to do to accomplish the task set before him

“Nick… No one but you in Steph’s office.” He understood what she was saying. He was the only one she trusted. The only one she could trust, other than herself, to save Stephanie. To save Grissom.

“You got it Sara… But if this is in the morgue, it’s probably in the lab…” His mind suddenly clicked with another possibility.

“It’s airborne…”

“It’s airborne…”

He and Sara were in perfect sync and their minds were both processing at the same time. That meant only one thing to him, the situation was truly critical because there was no information. He had to get the information.

“I’ll have to get the whole lab shut down… Can Gris-… Nevermind… I’ll handle it, Sara.” He knew Grissom would not be able to help him, and he knew he was on his own. He had to come to the plate with his A game, or things were about to get a whole lot worse.

“Nick…” He could hear the tremor in her voice, “Thanks.” He knew she was close to breaking, but she was struggling to stay strong for the others. Hold on, Sara… I’m gonna do this… I’m not givin’ up.

“Thank me when I find the agent.” The line shut down and he stared off into nothingness for only a moment. Then he jumped out of bed, threw on his clothes, yelled for Greg to rollout, and then started making calls.

Time was his biggest enemy in that moment, and he was not about to lose to anyone or anything for something as precious as the life of one of their own. They had not failed him and he was not about to fail them.

Chapter 38

The figures of yellow clad workers filled every room. They tested every duct and intake in the entire building. Nothing but the normal trace amounts of air pollutants were found anywhere, but they changed the filters on each and every vent in the place, just to be safe. The morgue had been sealed shut and the door had a clean room entryway put into place. Nick Stokes was getting his suit triple checked by CSI turned detective Sofia Curtis.

She was nervously re-securing every seal on his suit, making absolutely certain nothing was getting into his haz-mat suit. “Okay, since they haven’t found anything in the building out of the ordinary, Ecklie is going to re-open it, but this level is in shut down mode.” He nodded as she re-did his hood seal for the fourth time as she spoke, “All the bodies have been transported, because it’s gonna start getting warm in there, since they shut off the ventilation system to this floor. Got it?”

“Check.” Nick nodded his understanding, but before she could check the filter on the chest of his suit, yet again, he put a gloved hand on her shoulder, “Just be ready in case I have any questions… I’m gonna need some help from you and Greggo…” He waited for the younger man to respond via the headset inside his suit.

“Ten four, Nicky… Wendy and I are at the terminals, ready to go.”

“Alright… I’m goin’ in… Fire up those databases, because I’m flyin’ blind on this plant stuff, guys.” Nick turned away from Sofia and started to make his way into the morgue. However, he was stopped cold by Doc Robbins.

“Hold it, Nick.” When Nick turned to regard the voice calling out to him, he found the doctor already wearing a haz-mat suit.

“Doc, you don-…”

“It’s my morgue, and my people… I’m going in there… And you can give me her symptoms while Sofia seals my suit.” He turned back to allow another woman to walk up alongside him. “And my wife Judy is going to try and remember her botany classes before becoming a pharmaceutical technician… She works for the same company that sponsored Adler’s research, so she has access to some info we don’t.” The woman nodded at the people in the hall and sat down in a chair beside the power outlet to plug in her laptop.

Nick started rattling off everything he had gotten from the hospital and tried to make sense of it as he spoke, “Ah, airway constriction, coughing, extreme fatigue, restlessness, lungs are filling with flui-…”

“Wait, is it fluid, or is it mucus?” The doctor appeared to be on to something.

Nick looked up with a start, “They didn’t say… But from Warrick’s description, I’d say it’s at least starting out as mucus.”

The doctor waited for his wife to finish typing in a few things and then she spoke, “There are more than a dozen possibilities, based on his most recent report. Respiratory suppression is common for many of the specimens he had been working with in the field.”

Sofia double checked Robbins last seal and the two men headed into the morgue. Nick held his sensor out and used it to scan the room, but nothing was registering, so he nodded and they continued toward the office. With no unusual readings coming from the sensor, they broke the threshold of the office. Both men stood stock still as they gazed upon the scene; the displaced furniture, the debris, the blood. It was all a little unnerving and they had to force themselves to concentrate.

Methodically, they worked through the scene, and once Nick was satisfied there were no airborne agents in the room, he decided to give Sofia the heads up. “Okay, call Ecklie, and let him know that the airborne threat is nil.

“Got it.”

Nick looked around and found that the computer was still on, so he moved to get in front of it. “Hey Greg, is Archie around?”

“Just came in to help out… Whaddya need?” Archie’s voice came back at him.

“Can you connect into her terminal and let me know when her last entry was made?” Nick decided they might need to create a timeline of events and he figured that might be the easiest way.

“Is it on?”

“Yeah, it’s on… But it mighta got bumped when the medics were in here, and I need to know when the last active entry was made.”

“No, sweat… Just give me a sec and I’ll…” His words stopped, but Nick could make out the sounds of his keystrokes as they madly tapped out a frantic rhythm. “Got it… Last entry was oh five fifty-eight.” His voice dropped to a monotone, “‘Adler was hiding his actual location, using equations from known botanical laws to alter coordinates. Paranoia is now full-blown. Seemed to be tracing a family of ferns into the southern mountains of Honduras. Group known for respiratory effects. Need specimens to test for properties. Need analysis data of recent specimens for conclusion. Possible histamine source from spores found in most fern groups.’ And after that there’s a key strike, but no more real entries.”

Nick mulled the entries over in his head and as he made the connection between her notes and the evidence, he turned to find the doctor holding up a journal.

“The fern spores are in the journals…”

The two men worked fast. They sealed the journal, with it open to the page containing the pressed fern specimen, and then fought their way back out of the morgue to where Mrs. Robbins was frantically searching for answers in her database. “Nancy, here’s the entry for the specimen… Is there anything about it in your databanks?”

She looked up at the classification of the species and the family of ferns that the man had been tracking and then entered a few more clicks before she raised her head again. “Got it! The spores from this species were thought to have been the source of a specific poison once prevalent in Central America, but thought to have been wiped out by the slash and burn farming techniques being used there. They were thought to have been ground into a powder and then blown into the face of the desired target to promote suffering and or death in that target, depending on the concentration of the spores to the powder. Referred to as, ‘The Drowning Death.’ Chief symptoms were airway and vascular constriction.”

All four looked at each other for a moment, letting the information sink in a little further. However, it was the doctor who spoke first. “Get me to that hospital… NOW!”

Chapter 45

The number of people in the room had diminished, but the guest list was still rather large. When Carter left to go back on duty in the ER he had taken Elizabeth to the doctors’ lounge to let her lie down for a little while. Greg and Nick had drifted in and out all night, bringing updates to Grissom and Catherine about the cases they worked over the course of the shift. Sofia had finally gone home after Brass offered to take her when he left sometime following their midnight rowel with the night nurse.

Thomas never left his spot beside her bed, but Sara had wrapped the fleece throw around his shoulders as he drifted off to sleep. Stephan was leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up on the edge of the bed’s footboard and his hands across his belly. Grissom was stretched out on the spouse’s bench they had dragged into the room with Sara nestled under his arm and on his chest. She drifted in and out of sleep, and occasionally sat up to check in on “the boys” (as she had been referring to the men assembled there most of the night). Warrick was sitting up in the chair by the door, but he was kept from changing his position or moving in any meaningful way by the fact that Catherine was wound tightly around his right arm and had rested her head upon his shoulder in the chair next to him. She was dead asleep, and he was not willing to disturb her slumber by doing anything as trivial as restoring circulation to his limbs until she woke up again.

The men had already exhausted their baseball repertoires, since none of them still had a team in the pennant race. So, they had reverted back to the age old practice of telling tall tales. Grissom had gotten the ball rolling by regaling them with his recounting of Stephanie’s first baseball game, which included her informing him that no human being should ever be allowed to consume something as disgusting as a hot dog (which Sara had agreed with, wholeheartedly). That led to Thomas telling them about her first visit to his bachelor pad when they started dating, and why it was also her only visit.

When he finished his tale of the kitchen from hell and the bathroom of doom, he remembered a story he had heard before and asked Stephan about his side of the tale. “Hey, Stephan… I’ve heard an interesting version of your first meeting with Stephanie… How much of it was true?”

Stephan chuffed at the question, “More than probably I wish it was, I’m sure. A day I’m not likely to ever forget.”

Grissom shifted when Sara nuzzled in closer to him and then sighed as she settled down again. He patted her arm and moved a lock of hair away from her face when he spoke, “I’d be interested to hear that story, myself… I am quite certain that I’ve only heard the white-washed version.”

Stephan chuckled with Grissom’s request, and so he complied as he continued rocking back and forth on the two legs of his chair. “Well, it was the first week of the semester, and I had seen this girl go into the library. She was very attractive, and I had just gotten out of the Army (and therefore cocky), so I figured I’d give it my best shot. Turned out she was one of the librarians, and we all know the stereotype there.”

He paused long enough to get a few nods around the room. “I had probably spent like thirty minutes putting all my best moves on this babe.” Thomas shook his head at the man’s description. “I was striking out on every pitch, and then I feel this shadow fall over the place and I find this Amazon chick standing next to me, and she gives me this weird look. I was still trying to figure out what was going on when she starts talking to this librarian I’m trying to score points with. Before I knew what was up, this librarian chick is fawning all over the Amazon chick. I was just about to walk away from the whole thing, but even I had to admit it was, you know, kind of hot.” Stephan had put his hands behind his head with that thought and rocked a little deeper on the chair.

Warrick was unable to contain his laughter, but it only pushed the man forward to finish telling them the story. “So, the librarian walks away and the Amazon nudges me and says, ‘Sorry, man… But it was just too painful watching you try to make time with a woman far more interested in what I got between my legs than what you do.’ I nearly hit the floor laughing when she said that… Got us both thrown out of the library, but not before the librarian slipped her a phone number.”

With everyone laughing at Stephan’s story, no one noticed the extra movement in the room. Sara had stirred from her sleep and looked around the room at the men as they tried, in vain, to laugh quietly. However, something caught her attention. Over by Thomas, she saw something move and she sat up on the bench and focused more closely on the movement. Grissom stifled his laughter when he felt her rise away from him. “Sara, what is it?”

She wrinkled up her nose and squinted. “This stuff is still new to me, but I think it was something about the child scoring more than the something hero.”

Grissom shook his head and chuckled at her state of grogginess, “Go back to sleep… I think you’re dreaming.”

Sara pushed away from him and stood up to stretch, “You’re the expert… Why don’t you tell me?”

Grissom looked up into her face and asked, “Tell you what?”

Sara shrugged at him, “Whatever it was Steph was signing.” She pointed over at the bed where Stephanie was moving her hands in a very deliberate manner. “Okay, that one I got. And there’s no way I’m repeating it.” Grissom and Thomas were instantly to their feet as Stephan nearly fell backwards onto the floor from his precarious position, but was caught by a still semi-groggy Sara. Warrick quickly, but gently worked to rouse Catherine.

Stephanie was still moving her hands, slowly, but with great care and purpose. The others crowded around the bed and Grissom kept shaking his head. But not with disbelief, he was trying to make out what she was attempting to tell them. He was having trouble seeing everything her hands were doing and so he asked Stephan, “Flip on the lights. I can’t see what she’s saying.”

The younger man immediately complied with the request, and once the lights flashed on, they all had to squint away the pain from the sudden brightness. At first, Stephanie’s eyes were closed, but her hands continued moving in very specific patterns. Grissom finally understood and began to nod. “Okay, it’s okay… We already got that… Al and Nick found your notes.” He kept nodding, but his face began to take on another quality, one of confusion, “Wait, what was that last part?” She moved her hands in the same pattern again at his request. “Right… Same family as Redwood… Antihistamines, steroids and vasodialators.” His face contorted into another question as he struggled to understand what she was signing to him. “Wait… No Steph… I’m the wrong kind of doctor for this conversation.” He watched as she used extremely deliberate hand gestures. “Oh right, translate for Thomas.” He waited for her to ask with her hands the questions she had and then he spoke them to Thomas. “She wants to know if they gave her any…” He paused and then shook his head, showing that he was not understanding her. She began to use her fingers to spell out what she was trying to say, “Oh! Any diuretics… to reduce the fluid volume.”

“Not at first, because we were worried about too much strain on the circulatory system after the epi.” Thomas shook his head and looked pleadingly into her eyes when he saw the fear there, “Until they knew what the source was, it was the only way they could keep you from crashing.”

She waited for a couple of breaths to cycle through the ventilator before she continued to speak with her hands again. Grissom watched as she manipulated her hands and fingers into the proper signs as she communicated to him her questions. “Um, she wants to know what… An-ti-bio-tic… What antibiotic they have her on.”

Thomas shook his head and shrugged, “Ah, none… Why?”

“She says that she tore her…” Grissom shook his head and gestured that he could not understand what she was trying to say. “Stephie, I’m not getting it… Wait… What was that?” She began to spell out exactly what she was trying to relay, but it took a great deal longer. “Oh! She says she knows she tore the lining in her throat, but she thinks it might have gone deeper. She’s afraid of a… an infection… because she’s… very allergic… to that family of… of ferns… And all… the mucus… could get… create an infection.” Grissom looked to Thomas for confirmation that he understood, but what he found was Carter standing in the doorway.

“Well, now it looks ta me like I’m being replaced ‘round here.” Carter walked up to the bedside, with Warrick and Catherine having moved back to let him get in closer. Everyone in the room was finally hit with the enormity of Stephanie’s revival, and the emotion was showing on each and every face.

Stephanie began to sign something else, but Carter cut her off. “I figured as much… Now that she’s awake, we’ll never get a moment’s peace until she bullies her way into a discharge.” The man smiled through his jibe, as did the others in the room.

Before Carter could say another word or do anything, Stephanie signed something else to him. However, unlike everything she had previously signed, her final gesture needed no interpretation. And to signify that, the whole room began to roar with laughter: laughter and intense relief.

Chapter 47

As he cautiously approached the room, he could hear the faint sounds of her coughing. It sounded much more subdued than it had when he left in the late morning hours the day before, but it was still obvious she was having difficulty. However, he was oddly surprised by the sight he beheld as he poked his head in through the door. Stephanie was sitting up in the bed, an oxygen tube wrapped tightly around her head and sitting just under her nose, a mister of some kind was busily dousing her with humidified air, and between coughs she attempted to drink from a thermos being held, alternately, by Sara, who was standing beside the bed. It looked to him as though she had finally turned the corner and his heart felt a great deal lighter because of it.

She spotted him at the doorway and motioned for him to come closer. That was when he realized Thomas and Grissom were nowhere to be found. Instead, he found Stephanie’s mother asleep on the spouse’s bench, with a blanket pulled over her and only Sara keeping vigil at her bedside. Warrick gestured around the room, but kept his voice low as he asked, “Did I miss the breakfast order? Or did you finally kick them all out?”

Stephanie shook her head as she strained to control her coughing for a moment. The frustration in her eyes prompted Sara to speak for her and she said, “Grissom finally convinced Thomas to at least go home, shower and change clothes. He figured the kid would fall asleep by the time he got back to their place.” Sara spoke softly, but she kept her attention on Stephanie. When she handed her another tissue and held up the waste can for her to toss the last one, Warrick realized that the two had developed an oddly symbiotic rhythm to the situation.

He held up the bag in his hand and shrugged, “Then I guess this won’t be necessary.”

Stephanie was still coughing and she motioned something to Sara and then Sara relayed the question to Warrick. “She wants to know what’s in the bag.”

Warrick shook his head as he responded, “Just some clothes he aske-…” He stopped speaking when he noticed Stephanie motioning for him to give her the bag with a demanding gesture. “Yes, ma’am!” He chuckled and shook his head in disbelief at her insistence, but he also figured that he would have had the same idea if he had been dressed in a hospital gown.

She gave the thermos back to Sara and immediately began to rifle through the bag. She quickly found a t-shirt to her liking and pulled it out to lay on her lap. Next, she found a pair of shorts that also held some promise. However, she found Sara shaking her head in contrast to that decision. “Catheter and Nurse Ratchet… I think you’re gonna have to settle for just the t-shirt.” She again motioned something to Sara and it left her laughing through her hand, which was held up to her mouth. “Sorry… But she really does swear like a sailor when she signs.”

Warrick tilted his head to the side and remarked, “She’s not exactly saintly any other time, either.” He then thought of a question that had been bothering him for some time and had to ask, “And since when do you know sign language?”

Sara just shrugged off his question, “Not long.”

“And how do you know all the swear words?”

She shrugged at him again and then looked conspiratorially at Stephanie, “It’s her fault… That’s what she started with.”

He could not help but laugh. The two women had obviously been growing quite close since Sara’s relationship with Stephanie’s uncle started, but he had no idea they had gotten that close. “Why does you two teaching each other anything scare the hell out of me?”

“Because you are a wise man.” Grissom chose that moment to make his way past Warrick as he walked over to place a gentle kiss on Sara’s cheek, he took the thermos from her hands and motioned for her to sit down. “Which reminds me… When did you start taking ASL lessons?”

Sara sat back in the chair beside the bed and shrugged her shoulders. “Not long, but I figured it wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

Grissom was confused as to why she would have thought such a thing. “Whatever for?”

“Eventually, I’ll have to meet your mother… I thought it only proper to be able to talk to the woman…” She cocked an eyebrow and then added, “Without you, that is.”

Grissom shot her a pointed look and exclaimed, “Why am I worried, now?”

Stephanie chuckled, sputtered and then managed to squeak out the words, “Because you are a wise man.”

After they all laughed at Stephanie’s return volley of his earlier joke, he felt compelled to ask a question regarding the other mystery there, “And just where did you learn ASL?”

There were a few more coughs and a couple of careful breaths before she answered, “Same place you did.”

He shook his head and considered her answer to be comical and confusing. “Well, that’s ridiculous… I learned it from my mother.” He was met with a nod of her head and was visibly blown away by her answer. “What in the world would have possessed you to have her give you ASL lessons? And when did you see her? The last time she came to San Francisco to see me, you were only… What, ten or eleven years old?”

She took in a few more calming breaths, leaned back into the pillows when the accompanying coughs did not surface and then quietly remarked, “I lived… in L.A. for seven years, Uncle Gil…” She paused, took in another breath, stifled a small cough and then continued, “And she is… the only… grandmother I’ve… ever had.”

Grissom nearly lost the swallow of coffee he had just taken into his mouth, and had to bring a napkin up to his face to wipe away the bits that escaped. “What?!”

Stephanie smiled at him through her weary expression, “Hey, she’s the… one who started it.”

Grissom gave her one of his disapproving looks and asked, “Started what?”

She took in another breath, sputtered a bit, spit something out into the tissue and aimed it at the waste bin Sara had picked up for her to toss it into. Grissom found Sara’s hand at his back and he turned to find a box of tissues being handed to him. He took the cue and pulled one out of the box to hand to Stephanie. She took the tissue and settled back down as she explained, “Graduation… From Berkeley… Told me to call her Grandma Mary, since I was… likely to be… her only… grandchild.”

Grissom stood there in astonishment at the audacity of his mother and more so because he had no idea that a relationship had been established between her and Stephanie. However, before he could respond to the revelation, Stephanie had one more thing to add, “And she… wants to know… when… the…” Her words were stunted by her breathing, but also by the fact that she was slowly drifting off to sleep. “The… wedding is…” All the air escaped his lungs in that moment and his face had turned a ghostly white.

He had not spoken to his mother about Sara, more than a passing remark since they began their new relationship, and so he was completely surprised to learn she knew more than she ever let on and that Stephanie was responsible for that knowledge. Just what have those two been cooking up all this time?

Before he had a chance to deal with all the implications of that knowledge he was shaken once again by a groggy voice from the other side of the room. “I wouldn’t mind knowing that one myself…” Elizabeth stirred from her slumber to pin him to the board on the subject, “I have a cruise I want to plan, but I wouldn’t want to miss anything so monumental.”

He turned to look at Sara, who was leaning back in the recliner with her eyes half closed, to gauge her reaction. At first, he was hopeful that she had actually slept through the little exchange, but when her lips parted and she began to speak, he knew he was doomed. “Don’t look at me… I’m not that kind of girl.”

Warrick could do nothing, except stand there and hope they kept the focus on Grissom and forgot he was even in the room. But that hope was lost as well, when Stephanie woke with a cough and regarded him as he stood motionless in the center of the room. “Hey… Do you need anyone to… go with you… to-tomorrow?”

It took him a minute to process that question, but then he realized she was referring to his appointment with the lawyers in the afternoon. He was not looking forward to such a wonderful experience, but he also wanted to avoid any more scenes like the one Catherine had unwittingly walked into yesterday morning. “Ah… I’m sure I can-…”

She started coughing out loud again, and they came in such a quick succession that the alarms from the monitors started going off. Sara jumped up to switch them off and moved behind the young woman to pound firmly on her back, as she reached down and handed Stephanie an emesis basin. Stephanie continued to cough violently and then she choked, coughed again and he could see her take in a deep, sharp breath of air. Her chest was heaving from the exertion, but she was able to finally spit something semi-solid into the basin as she hunched forward. Warrick started to back out of the room, but was halted by Stephanie holding up her hand to signal him to stay. After a few more moments, her breathing seemed to calm back down, and Sara helped her to lie back in the bed once more.

Sara gestured for him to grab the wet washcloth from the bowl on the other side of the bed and to hand it to her. He picked it up and then took it to the small sink on that side of the bed to run some fresh water in it. Warrick carefully wrung it out and handed it over to Sara, who wiped down Stephanie’s cheeks before folding the washcloth and laying it over her forehead to cool her down. Warrick watched the display intently, memorizing each gesture and movement, because he knew someone else would have to take over at some point. He could see the exhaustion building up in Sara’s eyes, and he decided that he owed the young woman at least as much care as she had given him during the difficult time he had been experiencing. Just when he thought Stephanie was drifting off to sleep once more, she put a hand on his forearm and whispered, “Take her home… Please?”

Sara obviously heard the young woman’s request and she had something to say about it, “I’m fine… I’ve had more sle-…” Stephanie halted her with her hand gestures and Sara could not find a reason to argue with what the woman had said to her, and so she finally acquiesced. “Fine… But I’m just going home to shower and change, got it?”

Stephanie winked at Warrick and then said, again in a whisper, “Thank God… I can… smell her… from here.”

Chapter 49

Warrick hated wearing a suit. He always felt like he was wearing his grandfather’s clothes when he wore a suit. However, Stephan had been adamant that he dress appropriately for their first settlement meeting. Stephan went into great detail about what to expect from the first meeting; informal, with a mediator and not a judge, both parties, both sets of lawyers and a stenographer. They were going to make their first offer, the other side would come in with a counter-offer and then the negotiations would commence.

There was only one part that held any apprehension for him. Warrick was going to have to explain the reasons for the dissolution of the marriage to the mediator, and show just cause for anything of a substantial nature. Substantial? How’s a lying, cheating, thieving and unhinged, vindictive bitch for substantial?

His thoughts and his nervousness led to him being oblivious to the arrival of another party to the room. When the man came up to stand beside him, he was instantly shaken from his thoughts, “Grissom? What’re you doing here?”

The man, dressed in his best court suit, simply shrugged off the question, “The girls thought you could use a little moral support.” Grissom half-smiled from the corner of his mouth, “Steph, Sara, Elizabeth, and apparently my mother, who was on the computer talking to Stephanie…” He regarded Warrick with a conciliatory smirk, “It would appear that you are fast becoming a part of this highly unorthodox family.”

Both men took seats on the furniture in the waiting area as Warrick nodded his head and chuckled, "Yeah, and I haven’t quite figured out if that’s a good thing yet.”

Grissom smirked and tilted his head to side, “Neither have I.”

Before either man had a chance to discuss the topic further, Stephan came out into the waiting area and guided them both into his conference room. As the doors closed behind them, Stephan started explaining everything that would happen once Tina arrived with her lawyers.

“First off… Do you mind if I talk in front of Dr. Grissom?” Stephan asked Warrick his question, as he showed his respect for Stephanie’s uncle.

“Ah, yeah… Grissom’s probably one of the few people I’d trust with this stuff.” Warrick nodded at Stephan, but his words were most definitely meant to express his feelings to Grissom. The older man nodded solemnly at the honor which had been bestowed upon him.

“Great… So, first and foremost, I need to you remain totally and completely calm… No matter what is being said, or by whom. Got it?” Stephan took a seat on the same side of the table where he directed the gentlemen to sit.

Warrick blew out a careful breath and said, “I have a feeling that’s gonna be easier said than done, huh?”

Stephan shook his head and answered coolly, “There’s no telling what stunts they’re going to try and pull, and I just need to know that you aren’t going to lose your cool.” He turned to Grissom and asked, “Do you think you can help to keep him from getting too hot under the collar?”

Grissom nodded at the request, “I will do my best.”

“Great.” Stephan fumbled through some of his notes and then found a folder that he passed over to Warrick. “Okay, now this is the settlement proposal I am submitting. We talked about the terms of this last week, but I wanted to refresh your memory, after everything that’s happened.”

Warrick took the folder and started leafing through the pages. “Yeah, I looked over the copy you gave me last week when I got up… Besides, I trust you.”

The man chuckled at Warrick’s response and felt compelled to answer him with a question, “You’re so sure you can trust a lawyer?”

“Are you kiddin’ me?” Warrick huffed at the implication, “You’ve got the fear of Stephanie in you… No chance I can’t trust you.” All three men nodded their heads in agreement on that one.

As they sat at the conference table waiting for Tina and her lawyers to show up for their meeting, the three men caught each other up on their individual experiences with Stephanie over the course of the day. Grissom told them about his concern over all the women in his life possibly working to conspire against him. Warrick remarked about how Stephanie was lying in her hospital bed directing who should be helping him deal with the events of the day, and he wondered where she found the strength to be so involved in everyone’s lives. Stephan informed both of them that when it came to his friend, it made life much easier to just nod and agree whenever possible. “You guys have to remember, Steph and me have been in this relationship for more than ten years… And I didn’t even know my own parents that long.”

Warrick shook his head as he tried to figure out how those two had ever become friends, “I’m still havin’ a hard time figurin’ out how you guys became friends in the first place.”

“You and me both!” They all laughed again at his exclamation. “My frat brothers used to ride my ass about hanging out with the kid… And even more when I’d get one of ‘em to take her to a Greek function. They couldn’t figure out why a guy who spent all his time chasing skirts would waste so much time on a girl who wasn’t givin’ it for no one.” Stephan suddenly realized that he was not just talking to a couple of buddies, but also to Stephanie’s uncle. “Sorry, about that Dr. Grissom… It's ju-…”

“Not a problem… She’s more blunt than that most of the time, so it really shouldn’t bother me.” Grissom was being honest with the man, but he was also gracious enough to let him slide on the faux pas.

“Anyway, the guys used to joke, that we made an unusual pair of stiffs… Ya know, because I always was, ya know… And she wasn’t, ya know.” The conversation seemed to be somewhat difficult, but Grissom smirked and turned his head in amusement. “But Stephanie turned it around on them… Said we were ‘a couple of Stephs’ instead. I think she’s really the only one who calls me that, too.” He chuckled at his own thoughts. “Most of the guys would screw up my name and just call me ‘Steve.’ Or they’d mess with my last name and call me ‘Tom.’ But not Steph; me and her were named for saints, so she never screwed it up.”

The other two men enjoyed listening to Stephan explain his relationship with Stephanie. They both felt a closer connection with the lawyer once they realized just how much he cared for her. And Grissom felt better knowing that there had been someone else around to look after his goddaughter after he moved away. He had always remarked that Stephanie required far more attention than any two parents could hope to spare for a child, and once he understood that Stephan felt a certain responsibility for the young woman he had once been so responsible for, it warmed his heart to the younger man.

However, their tender exchange of information was short lived when the intercom on the table went off, signaling the arrival of the other parties to the action at hand. Stephan’s receptionist ushered the group into the conference room, and they were quickly followed by the negotiator and the stenographer. But before they could get started, two of Stephan’s associates from the office filed into the room and took up their stations along the table beside Stephan. Grissom had to admit, it was an impressive sight to behold, and had he been in other circumstances, he would have been duly intimidated by the display.

Stephan gestured at the other attorneys that he was about to turn on the recording device and they motioned for him to continue. “Offices of Tompkins and Brashear, attorney of record for Warrick Brown is Stephan Tompkins, Esquire and his staff… Attorney of record for Martina Brown is Anthony Gianese and his staff… Court appointed mediator is Margaretta Sanchez… Stenographer is Annabeth Peretti-Danner. Time and date will be recorded in the transcript.” Stephan motioned for the mediator to give her instructions, and they all settled in for a long afternoon of negotiations.

Chapter 51

“Ms. Sanchez, as you can see, there are substantial liabilities that have been generated during the course of this union, none of which were initiated by my client, Mr. Brown. What we are proposing is that Mr. Brown take over the loan liabilities on the automobiles, one of which was already the sole property of Mr. Brown prior to the union, and as such they become his property to dispense as he sees fit. The lease on the condominium can be transferred to Mrs. Brown, if she sees fit, but that his name will no longer be associated with said condominium. Mr. Brown will assume the liability for the credit account ending in two four seven nine, but all other accounts, taken out by Mrs. Brown over the course of the union, with Mr. Brown listed as secondary, would become the sole propriety of Mrs. Brown, since the debt incurred can be attributed directly to her individual spending, as is outlined in the documents we are submitting to the court.” Stephan’s outline of the proposal was interrupted by the voices from the opposing counsel side of the table. “I’m sorry, is there a problem?”

“Damn right, there is!” Tina spoke out of turn and he could tell that her anger was genuine.

Her attorney was quick to try and quiet his client, but it was really not working, “Mrs. Brown, we need to wait until Mr. Tompkins has finished and then we can-…”

“That’s bullshit! He’s gonna pay.”

The mediator was the next to speak up, “Mr. Gianese, we may not be in a court at the moment, but please advise your client that everything she says during this meeting will be presented to the judge, should this action make it into a courtroom.”

There were a few more heated words exchanged between the two, but, eventually, she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, somewhat silently at the people assembled there. Stephan never liked dealing with this aspect of a divorce, because the first meeting always ended up turning into a fiasco, with heated words exchanged on both sides. However, so far, his client seemed to be keeping his cool

“If I may continue?” Stephan regarded the opposing counsel, as well as the mediator. “Very well… The matters of personal property have already been dispensed with in the phase before Mr. Brown secured legal counsel. Is it a correct understanding to believe that these matters are closed, in reference to this action?” Stephan waited for all the parties to nod and he motioned for Warrick to speak his affirmation.

“Yeah, I got all I needed. It’s closed for me.” Warrick’s words were tight, but the emotion was closely held in.

“Mrs. Brown is also in agreement… On the issue of personal property.” The attorney made sure to interject his last qualifying statement, which told Stephan that nothing else was being agreed to, yet.

“To conclude, there is limited physical property, specifically the financial obligation on the condominium lease and the loans on the two vehicles. Mr. Brown is willing to cede rights to the condominium and its contents, for the responsibility of the automobiles, as long as they remain in his physical possession.”

Tina started up again, shaking her head as she said, “Nuh-huh… He is not gettin’ my Lexus.”

Stephan addressed the woman directly, that time, “With all due respect, Mrs. Brown… My client is the owner of record on the title and the lien, so ownership has never been in question in regards to the authorities on that matter.” The woman had no answer for his retort, and that was what Stephan was going for in the first place. He had not built his reputation by being a nice guy, and when it came to negotiations, he was anything but.

He returned his focus to the mediator and continued making his presentation, “And as I have indicated, this settlement is more than fair, considering the mitigating factors involved in the dissolution of this union, which, should the action make it into a courtroom, we are fully prepared to present, in detail.” He looked over at the opposing counsel and added one more nail to the coffin, “And it is our belief that a judge would be far less accommodating to Mrs. Brown’s situation, given those factors.” Stephan nodded at opposing counsel and then to the mediator before he took his seat and acknowledged that he had presented his proposal for settlement.

The lead attorney for the opposing counsel had a few terse words to share with his client before he held up his hands and motioned for the woman to be silent. As he stood up to address the people assembled for the settlement meeting, he removed a group of folders from his briefcase. “Ms. Sanchez, it is our belief that the proposed settlement from Mr. Brown’s attorney might be considered fair, if he had not shouldered any of the blame for the dissolution of this union. However, it is the contention of my client that Mr. Brown did indeed violate his oath of marriage by engaging in an inappropriate relationship for the duration of the union.”

Grissom kept his hand firmly on Warrick’s forearm, but even through his suit jacket and shirt, he could feel the younger man’s anger begin to burn through him. His whole body was tensed and Grissom feared what his final reaction was going to be, so he did his best to keep his own demeanor as calm as possible. When the opposing counsel handed copies of the folder to Stephan and the mediator, Grissom became unsure of just what Warrick’s attorney was going to do. He watched as Stephan flipped through the pages contained in the folder and could visibly see his anger rising. However, he was completely shocked by the scene that followed.

“Mr. Tompkins, does your client have a response to this apparently supported accusation?” The mediator was also looking through the folder and Grissom thought he caught the glimpse of a photograph, so he was very curious to find out what was in the it, but he would have to keep his curiosity to himself as Stephan flung the folder into the wall with such a force that it sent the pages scattering across the floor.

“No, because I refuse to subject him to the malicious and indecent gestures of opposing counsel to manipulate the facts!” If they had been in a cartoon, Stephan would have been turning red like a thermometer and steam would have been jetting from his ears.

“I am sorry, but I have a hard time understanding how you can comment on this matter without conferring with your client, Mr. Tompkins… Would you care to elaborate?” Ms. Sanchez regarded him with a curious glare.

“I can comment on the matter, because I happened to have been present when those photographs were taken… When they were taken, illegally, I might add, in a private hospital, in a private room, only days ago, as we waited to learn whether or not my dearest friend would live through a horrifying medical emergency. THAT is how I am able to comment, Ms. Sanchez.” Grissom thought the man would have already begun using a string of colorful expletives, but he seemed to have perfected the art of legalese through anger. “I can comment, because Mr. Brown also happens to be friends with the young woman who was lying in that ICU bed fighting for her life, as Mrs. Brown abused her position at the hospital to unethically, and illegally obtain photographs of a group of friends and family struggling to survive through unimaginable torment while they watched someone they loved fight for every breath of life she had left in her body!” His rage was seething from every pore in his being, but he still managed to show his professionalism throughout the experience. “I can comment, Ms. Sanchez, because I have never before in my professional life witnessed a more heinous display of callous disregard for the ethics of our legal system as I have seen here today.”

The anger appeared to be contagious, because the mediator turned to the opposing counsel and questioned him, “Mr. Gianese, am I to understand that these photographs are of such a recent nature as to have been obtained following the Brown’s petition for the dissolution of this union?”

Opposing counsel appeared to be genuinely concerned about their position by that point and he fumbled over his explanation. “Ah, well, it has been a long held suspicion on the part of my client that Mr. Brown has continued to engage in a relationship with the woman in question prior to, during and obviously, from those photographs, immediately following their marriage.”

That statement was too much for Warrick and he threw his head back in his disgust. “What?!” Grissom held onto his arm and Stephan put his hand out in front of Warrick to keep him from saying anything further.

Stephan turned to speak with the mediator, ignoring the opposing counsel altogether. “Ms. Sanchez, I can say unequivocally that the only ‘relationship’ my client has had with Ms. Willows is that of a friend and colleague of many years. And by an act of providence, the supervisor and friend of both my client and Ms. Willows happens to be in the room today, acting in a supportive capacity to my client.” Stephan turned to Grissom and asked him a question that he was completely unprepared for. “Dr. Grissom… In all your years of working with Mr. Brown and Ms. Willows, can you say, in all honesty, that they have never, to your knowledge, as their friend, colleague and superior, engaged in a relationship outside the normal scope of their work together?”

Grissom swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and struggled to answer the question through his shock. “No, to my knowledge, as a dear friend of Ms. Willows, as well as my work with both, Ms. Willows and Mr. Brown, have I ever known them to be engaged in a relationship outside the parameters of our work together.”

Stephan continued to ask questions of the man, and he worried tremendously that he would ask the wrong one, “How long have you been acquainted with Mr. Brown?”

“Since he worked as my intern one summer, while he was attending UNLV. Approximately ten years, I believe.” Grissom relaxed, because that was the right question.

“And how long have you been acquainted with Ms. Willows?” That question came from the mediator, and Grissom’s worry amplified.

“Since my arrival in Las Vegas, more than twelve years ago.” The questions were becoming unnerving, and Grissom held his breath, hoping the next one would not cause him to say anything damaging.

“And in that time, was there anything that led you to believe that either party ever engaged in a relationship, outside of friendship, without your express knowledge?”

Grissom heaved a sigh of relief, because the question had not crossed the line, and he shook his head as he answered Stephan, “No, never once. They have shown only the highest respect for each other as colleagues and in recent events as good friends.”

Grissom turned to the mediator and felt the need to expound, “If I may?” He waited for her permission to continue, “Thank you… Warrick Brown has shown nothing but the strongest character to me over the years. He has overcome a difficult upbringing, dealt with some rather ugly aspects of human existence and has always managed to emerge with a kind and caring spirit. And over the last few months, I have come to understand what those things have cost him, as well as the deeper root of his character. I consider him to be an exemplary employee, a talented colleague and a deeply moral human being. It has been my privilege and honor to count this man as a friend to myself and my family…” Grissom paused and then turned to the opposing counsel when he continued to speak, “And it was my family that has obviously been desecrated by the avarice of another during these proceedings. I can assure Mr. Gianese that I will be filing a personal complaint with the Nevada State Bar Association for the acts perpetrated against my family with the taking of those photographs. And on a personal note, Mrs. Brown, you are extremely fortunate that my goddaughter is not here in this room right now to have witnessed your indecency, because God help you if she was.”

Chapter 52

Within ten minutes of Sara’s arrival, as they sat in the room waiting for the folks from respiratory medicine to come up to transport her, Stephanie had slowly turned into a trembling mess. Catherine and Elizabeth were both becoming very concerned, but Sara appeared to be oddly calm in the face of this obvious setback. As the trembling turned into tremors Elizabeth disregarded Stephanie’s wishes and called the nurse.

“Mo-o-om… it’ssss… not… thhhhhhhat… bad.” Stephanie was bravely trying to struggle through the tremors.

Sara smiled and walked over to the bed. “When did they start the oral prednisone?”

Stephanie looked up into her eyes with gratitude, knowing that someone understood, “Jussssst… bbbbbefore… you… ggggggot… here.”

Her knowing smile helped Stephanie to calm down just a bit. And when the nurse came in to respond to the call, it was Sara who spoke, “She’s just reacting to the prednisone… Can she get some juice or some broth or something? Her blood sugar is probably low.” The nurse gave her a knowing nod and went off in search of some juice.

Catherine threw up her hands in defeat and had to ask, “Okay, I give… How’n the hell did you know that?!”

Sara rubbed Stephanie’s back as she sat on the edge of the bed beside her and shrugged her answer, “Ah, well, um, one of the girls at the group home had really bad asthma and they’d put her on that stuff all the time.” She looked at Stephanie as she spoke, so as not to see the expressions of the others in the room, “And I guess I just got used to it.”

The nurse returned with a couple of juice boxes and Sara helped Stephanie to hold one while she sipped on the straw. Elizabeth relaxed a bit more and sat back down. She had picked up her cross stitch and began to work the needle and floss again when she finally spoke, “So, how long was it for you?”

Sara looked up from Stephanie and frowned at the question. “I’m sorry?”

“I was there from five until almost nine, so I had nearly four straight years… Parochial school for the remainder.” Elizabeth spoke with a language only a few understood. Sara was one of those few.

“Almost six… Did a few months in foster, at first.” Sara’s answer was quiet, and Catherine dropped into the chair behind her with disbelief.

“I was fortunate in that respect… I was taken in by one of the teachers at the school. Very progressive for its time, since she was a single woman.” Elizabeth never looked up from her stitching as she spoke, granting Sara a modicum of dignity as they shared stories. “I had the standard Benedictines… And you?”

“Ah, Sisters of Notre Dame… Until high school, and then they sent me to the Jesuits.” Sara kept her voice down and her gaze on Stephanie. Catherine could not fathom how she had been around Sara for more than six years and had never known about her childhood. She decided that the woman had actually been better at hiding things than Grissom ever was.

“I didn’t know the Jesuits started taking girls-…”

“Oh no… I took the bus over there every day… Sister Genevieve didn’t figure I’d make much of a school teacher or a secretary,” Stephanie nearly choked on her juice when Sara had said that. “So, she made arrangements for me to go to the Jesuit prep school during the day.” She looked at Stephanie and had to smirk at the expression she found on the woman’s face. “Stop it… I’m not that bad.”

“Depends entirely on the subject.” Grissom and Warrick came walking into the room and brought the conversation to a standstill. “What were we talking about?”

Stephanie smiled with a mischievousness that would have melted metal, “Misss… Sidle the… sssschoolteacher.” Grissom visibly shuddered at the implication as he came to stand beside Sara at Stephanie’s bed and she nudged him with her elbow for good measure.

“That would mean we have progressed to the nun stories, already… You must be bored.” That one earned him another shot to the ribs. “Okay, what are we doing now?”

“Waiting for someone from respiratory to come and get her.” Catherine spoke with a nervous timber to her voice as Warrick came to stand beside her chair.

“And wonder-… wondering… how it… it went.” Stephanie gestured at Warrick for an answer.

“Don’t ask.” The expression on his face told her a lot, but she was not budging. “I’m serious… Don’t ask.”

“Okay… But can I sssay… one thhhing?” He rolled his eyes and then nodded that she could, “Dayum!” She shook her head at him and then her hand with a bent wrist to show her appreciation for his appearance. “Good thing for Thomasss I met… himmm before… you.” She was coughing a little as she finished, but the real effect was on Warrick, who was blushing over his whole head.

“Obviously you’re feelin’ better.” Warrick tried to play off the compliment and hide his embarrassment, but it was not working.

“Well, gimmmme a couple… daysss and… ditch the… football hero… and I’ll ssshow you.” She was enjoying teasing her friend, even if it was making him blush all over, and the rest of the room was laughing at his predicament.

“What’s all this laughing about? Don’t you know hospitals are serious business?!” Thomas came blowing into the room, and Sara moved herself and Grissom away from the bed to make room for him. He immediately went to his wife and gave her a kiss before he spoke again. He stood back a second to get a better look at her and then tilted his head down to ask, “Prednisone?” She nodded meekly and he wrapped his arms around her for a quick and comforting embrace. “The rest of you should watch out, though… She gets a little racy when she takes that stuff…” He looked around the room at the other faces there and stopped when he found a deeply blushing Warrick, “But I can tell I’m a little late with that warning, huh?”

Everyone laughed again and Warrick nodded with his complete agreement. “Don’t worry, man… I’ll protect ya.” Thomas winked to add emphasis to his joke, and the room was in full laughter again.

“So, why were you not here taking care of her?” Grissom was ribbing the young doctor.

“Ah, well, I was sent on a secret and terribly important mission… And to show the severity of my assigned task, I had to take Carter with me.” Thomas flashed a devilish smile around the room as he took on a comical stance. “We had to traverse the rush hour traffic of Vegas, scale the arrivals platform at McCarran, conquer the beast that is baggage claim and then slay the evils of airport security to capture our most precious prize!”

Stephanie shook her head at his obvious embellishments. “But here you are… And no prize.”

He shrugged and dropped down onto the side of the bed as he wrapped an arm around her back and said, “Yeah, well, she ran into someone she knew down in the lobby, so Carter hung back while I came up here.”

“Here?” Stephanie was very confused with his answer.

“Yeah… A customer… Client... Whatever they call ‘em… And you know Carter, he loves to schmooze with those artsy fartsy types.” Thomas pulled her in closer and saw that she had an unfinished juice box in her hands, “Finish that… It’ll help with the shakes.”

Grissom had gotten his fill of the suspense and so he felt compelled to ask, “So, who did you pick up at the airport?”

Thomas looked at Grissom with a surprised expression on his face and then turned quickly to his wife, “He doesn’t know?!” Stephanie shook her head and he dropped his jaw in response. “You’re kidding, right?”

Shaking her head, she answered, “You think he’d be asking… if he did?”

“You are sooooo busted.” Thomas just kept shaking his head in disbelief.

“Shut up… and help me… into the chair. I’m tired of… waiting for them.” Stephanie finished the last of the juice and set it down on the table as she tried to turn in the bed. He got up and then grabbed her legs to bring them around to hang from the edge of the bed.

“What’s going on?” Grissom was growing very concerned about what was transpiring, but he was not getting any answers either. “Elizabeth, what has she done?”

Elizabeth had moved over to grab the tubes and wires as Thomas leaned down to get a good hold around Stephanie before lifting her from the bed. “I can honestly say that I have no idea.”

As Thomas and Elizabeth worked to get Stephanie into the wheelchair, Grissom turned around and glared at Catherine, “And what about you?”

Catherine looked like a deer caught in the headlights when his gaze fell onto her. “Don’t look at me! I’m out of the loop on this one.”

He sent his gaze across the room and eventually back to Stephanie who was moving her hands around in a peculiar fashion. And so he focused his attention on her, but she was looking out of the door, still moving her hands around.

By the time it registered in his mind that she was actually signing to someone, he pulled his gaze back to capture the rest of the room, but his eyes were drawn to the doorway where Dr. Wilbanks stood with an older woman on his arm.

Grissom’s jaw practically dropped to the floor and his face had gone completely white. “Mom!” And as though in honor of the guest, the whole room went silent.

Chapter 53

Catherine was still nursing her cup of coffee as she walked through the halls of Desert Palms Hospital. It was a hellish shift the night before, and she had not been able to stop in to see Stephanie when her shift finally came to an end. When she woke up that afternoon she had taken Lindsay to her volleyball practice and then headed straight for the hospital. She was dying to find out about Stephanie’s latest plot and the surprise arrival of Grissom’s mother in Las Vegas, so she was somewhat distracted as she made her way through the hospital corridor.

Her distraction became problematic as she rounded the corner on her way to the respiratory unit and came face to face with a dangerous thing; Tina Brown. As they collided Catherine was taking a drink from her cup which sent the coffee all down the front of her, and she was forced to stand back to try to shake the hot liquid off of her hands and blouse. Catherine was about to apologize for the collision when she was struck with harsh words coming from the woman before her. “No Way! There is no damn way you’re gonna come trampin’ through my hospital like you own the place.”

At first, Catherine was shocked by the woman’s outburst, but she was able to recover quickly once she understood who it was that was shouting at her, “Look, I’m not intereste-…”

“Shut up, bitch… You don’t talk to me.” The rage Catherine saw in the woman’s eyes startled her, but not enough to cause her to lose her own defenses.

“Watch it… Just walk away and go about your business, lady.” Catherine warned the woman as calmly as she could without coming unglued herself.

“You walk away! I am not gonna be told nothing by no skank ass hoe.” The woman took a step toward Catherine, bringing the confrontation to an even more dangerous place.

Catherine, however, was not about to back down from anything. “Have you lost your mind?!” The woman’s face turned two more shades of pissed off with Catherine’s question, but there was still no sign of fear in the brassy criminalist. “Back the fuck off and go back to work, lady. You do not want to tangle with me.”

When the security guards arrived at the scene, the two women were nose to nose and it was obvious neither was going to back down from the fight. The two men took up their positions and the senior guard took the initiative to speak, “Ladies, what seems to be the problem here?”

“Other than one of your nurses getting up in my business?” Catherine fired the first shot, but never took her eyes off of the fuming woman in front of her.

The guard was about to step between the women, when his face changed from blank to one of recognition. “Catherine Willows?”

Catherine was shook from her anger by the voice speaking to her and she looked away, meeting the guard’s gaze. “Yeah… Do I know you?”

The man shrugged and said, “Sort of… Bentley, Jack Bentley from Traffic…” Catherine relaxed a little once she realized just who the man was and she gave him a weak smile to show it. “I’m the one that picked up your daughter when she was hitchhiking.”

“Figures…” Tina was not about to disengage from her attack, and she confronted the guards. “You guys gonna stand there and chit chat, or are you gonna toss this bitch from the hospital?”

The man was shocked at the use of language, and he turned to face the woman who had used it. “I’m sorry… Why would I be doing that?” Tina stood there in shock at the man’s response, and he took the opportunity to continue. “Sam, you wanna escort Ms. Brown back to the ER, and I’ll get housekeeping up here for the mess.”

The other guard took the woman by the back of the arm and attempted to pull her away from the scene of the altercation. “You have got to be kiddin’ me?! I work here, dammit!”

Both men shook their heads at the woman’s assertion, but it was Bentley who spoke again, “And so does Dr. O’Halloran.” The man’s tone became very dark, “But those pictures you took are likely to change some of that. So, you should count yourself lucky all we’re gonna do is make you go back to your own department.” Tina could tell she was not getting anywhere and as she turned to walk down the hall in the opposite direction, she pulled her arm from the grasp of the other guard in a huff.

Catherine breathed a deep sigh of relief and then thanked the guard, “Thanks… I really wasn’t in the mood.” The man smiled and she felt compelled to ask him why he seemed so quick to side against Tina. And what pictures? But she thought it best start out with some small talk, “So, you’re not in Traffic anymore?”

“What? Oh, no, I’m still there… This is my moonlight. I gotta kid in college.” Bentley reached over to the nurse’s station beside him and grabbed some paper towels from the dispenser, handing them to Catherine.

She took them from him with a smile and started to sop up some of the spilled coffee. “I understand that one… So, what’s the deal with her?”

He laughed with a strange darkness to his voice, as though he was struggling to deal with something difficult, “Yeah, well, she’s in the middle of this nasty divorce and her old man’s friends with one of our docs. Anyway, the doc’s wife was in ICU and she took a bunch of pictures of her old man with some woman while they were all waiting to find out if the doc’s wife was gonna pull through.”

The man shook his head in disgust, “Can you believe that? These folks are waiting around, not knowin’ if she was gonna live, and that broad has the gall to sneak up and snap pictures…” He looked Catherine in the eye and asked her, “How can anyone be that cold?”

She was so caught up in the things the man had just told her that it took Catherine a moment to realize the man was asking her something. “What?... Oh, yeah, well, in my work, sadly, I’ve seen worse.”

“That’s right, you’re with ID… So, you here on a case?”

“Huh?” Catherine was still distracted by the information she had just been given. “Ah, no… Visiting a friend.”

The man perked up a bit and asked, “Ah, well, I’d be happy to escort you… Who’re you here for?” He reached over to the directory on the nurse’s station to look up the patient name for Catherine.

“Ah, O’Halloran, Stephanie.” She smiled, knowing the man was just trying to extend her a professional courtesy, and it was always a good thing to make nice with the patrolmen whenever possible.

He closed up the book and chuckled. “Well, then you’re about twenty minutes late.” Catherine scrunched up her nose and he smiled as he answered, “I just escorted them out to the car about twenty minutes ago… She was released to home care this afternoon.”

Catherine’s jaw dropped dramatically at his answer. “You have got to be kidding me? How’d that happen?”

The man laughed and said, “Yeah, well, apparently it’s really true about doctors bein’ bad patients. Doctor O’s gonna be mendin’ fences for a while after the little tiff his wife had with the nursing staff this morning.”

For the first time since she had entered the hospital, Catherine laughed out loud and smiled broadly. “Oh yeah, I can see that happening.”

“Well, since you gotta walk through the ER to get out of here… Why don’t I take you to your car?” The man was glad to help and Catherine nodded as they both started back for the elevators.

She had been grateful for Jack Bentley’s concern as he walked her all the way to her car. They talked about their kids and they chatted a bit about the job, but the whole time she was thinking about what he told her regarding Warrick’s wife. When her phone rang as they reached her car, she was grateful for the interruption that would let the man finally leave her in the parking lot. She stepped into her car as she answered the call.

“Willows.”

“Mom, we’re getting out of practice early… Can you come get me?”

Catherine was shook from her thoughts at the sound of her daughter’s voice. “Ah, Linds… What happened?”

“Nothing big… Coach got stuck between a serve and the wall, so he cancelled the rest of practice.”

“Oh God! Is he okay?” Catherine’s face contorted with the thought of the pain that had to have caused.

“Yeah, he’s fine… Just seeing stars, is all… Hey Mom?”

“Yeah, I can come get you, it’ll just tak-…”

“Can you take me to see Steph when you pick me up? I mean, they took her out of ICU right?”

Catherine shook her head, as she tried to keep up with her daughter, “Actually, it looks like they just released her, so she’s at home now.”

“That’s too cool! So, can we take ‘em some dinner or something?”

A smile spread over her face as she realized just how special her daughter truly was in that moment. “Honey, that sounds like a fantastic idea… You pick the place and I’ll be there in a jiffy, okay?” She smiled again as Lindsey said goodbye and then closed her phone.

For a week that started off with such unbelievable tragedy, Catherine was delighted to see the light at the end of the tunnel before the week was even out. All she had left to do was to figure out what that light really meant for her.

Chapter 55

The kitchen was steaming with the activity raging across every surface. Gil had been determined to make his mother’s last night in Las Vegas a memorable one, especially when she consented to grace them with her presence in their home. He was still smarting from her refusal to stay with them while she visited that week, no matter how much sense it made for practicality’s sake. She was his mother, and for the first time since childhood, he wanted to share his life with her.

He was a little concerned about how she would react to Sara, but in the end, they appeared to be hitting it off well. Gil thought Sara’s insistence on learning sign language had probably gone a long way towards the mutual respect they seemed to have found. Of course, I’m sure her relationship with Stephanie probably helped, too.

Gil was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his mother and his goddaughter had been carrying on a close relationship for years without it ever dawning on him. As he thought back across the years, he supposed he should have seen the signs. But, in typical fashion, he had been blind to the interpersonal reactions of the two halves of his family; the real and the acquired.

As he visited with Stephanie over the week, he also recognized that his mother had developed a relationship with Elizabeth. It quickly became apparent the two had been keeping tabs on him quite a bit over the years. Once again, Gil Grissom understood that the women in his life had a deep impact on everything he did and everything he was in life. And apparently, they always seemed to gravitate towards one another to accomplish their goals.

He was shaken from his philosophical analysis by the sounds of someone speaking to him. “I’m sorry, what was that?” He called back over the roar in the kitchen.

Sara came walking out of the hallway with two shirts in her hands and said, “Sorry, I forgot you were still in there… Which shirt do you want me to press?”

He was confused as to why she would be asking. He always sent his shirts to the cleaners, so he had to ask, “Why are you pressing my shirts? What happened to the dry cleaners?”

She smiled at him as though he had lost his mind and gently reminded him, “Because we have spent every waking moment not at work, with your mother and/or Stephanie… Gil, we haven’t been to the cleaners in over a week, so I grabbed these at the store this morning, but they need to be pressed.” She held them up again for him to chose, “Which one?”

He looked from one shirt to the other and then wondered aloud, “Do I have any pants?”

Sara chuckled at his question and then said, “Yes, you have black, and black… You go through more shirts than pants, and I’m still trying to figure that one out. Now, pick a shirt before your mother gets here, please?”

It was his turn to smile at her frustration, and though he was certain she was about to strangle him with one of those shirts, he was unable to stop himself from teasing her. “Hmmm… Maybe I should study that quandary… I mean, why would I be using more shirts than pants in a single day. I could start a daily inventory, and make a corresponding entry for causati-…”

“Fine! You’ll wear whatever I pick out, and like it.” She turned on her heel and stormed back into the bedroom.

Shaking his head, he turned everything down to warm and made sure the food was all set to serve before he walked casually back into the bedroom to find Sara ironing a dark blue shirt and mumbling something to herself in an agitated voice. He moved silently behind her until he was standing inches away from her back and then he leaned his face down until his mouth was right beside her ear. But before he spoke, he placed his hands on the sides of her arms. “Thank you.” The words were soft and they were filled with meaning. She loosened a little under his touch. “For everything.”

He turned her away from the ironing board and took her into his arms. She relaxed when his gaze fell upon her, and then she softened as a tender smile played across her face. Gil returned the smile and then kissed her forehead before he spoke again. “This week… Everything… If it wasn’t for you…” He struggled to put words to his feelings as he looked into her eyes. “I-I couldn’t have survived this alone… Thank you.”

Sara buried her head into his neck and held him closer. “If you’re trying to tell me you want the other shirt… I’m going to hurt you.”

His body shook as he started to laugh, “At this point, I’d wear that ‘I Love Bugs’ t-shirt if you told me to.”

Looking up into his eyes, the corner of her mouth turned up and she said, “Nah, it’s dirty.” The both smiled at the joke, but then Sara turned back to the ironing board and pushed him away, “Now, go finish setting the table and I’ll finish the shirt.”

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The dinner had gone off without a hitch. The food was spectacular, their conversations were light and his mother had been duly impressed by Sara’s burgeoning ASL proficiency. All in all, Gil was delighted with the whole evening, and as he drove his mother back to Stephanie’s and Thomas’ townhouse he carried a satisfied smile on his face.

When they pulled up in front of the house, he got ready to exit the car when he felt her hand on his forearm. As he turned his head to face his mother, he found her carrying a very similar smile on her face. She began to sign to him about how much she enjoyed their evening. She thanked him for making dinner and for giving her the chance to share in a piece of his life. He smiled at that comment, because his mother always had a subtle way of getting her points across to him. However, it was the next thing she did that had him wondering just how well he knew anything about her.

Mary Grissom opened her door and attempted to step out of the car, but Gil was quick to make his way around to the other side so as to assist her. He took her hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm and started walking her to the front door. Just before they reached the door, she stopped and turned to face him. She smiled, reached into her hand bag, pulled out a small velvet satchel and placed it into his palm. As she closed his hand around the satchel she reached up with her other hand and stroked his cheek just before she signed to him, “I think you can handle the responsibility now.”

She left him there on the doorstep to ponder what she was doing.

He looked after her as she entered the house and then he remembered she had placed something in his hand. Gil lifted up the satchel and pulled open the top to look inside. It was dark outside, so he moved closer to the light next to the door and emptied the contents out into his hand. As soon as the light struck the object, Gil’s face squinted into a confused mass and he looked at the closed door as though he was trying to picture his mother standing on the other side.

As his mind pondered all of the possibilities the tiny item could render, his face changed. Then he smiled as he said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Chapter 56

It had been a very long night, and Sara was ready to put away her gear, log the last of the evidence, drop off her photo-cards to A/V and finally clock out for the day. She just had to stop off at the front desk to sign herself back in and tackle those final tasks of the day. As soon as her pen hit the paper Judy, the receptionist, was in front of her asking a question. “Hey Sara… Do you know that guy over there? ‘Cause he’s trying to see Warrick and if it’s just someone here to serve him with more papers I don’t want to bother the poor g-…”

Sara’s gaze went to where Judy was pointing as she tried to ignore the outpouring of words flowing from the woman with rapid fire efficiency. When Sara’s eyes settled on the familiar figure she cut her off. “I’ve got it, Judy.”

Sara made her way across the waiting area to the man dressed in a very expensive, obviously tailored suit and flashed one of those sly smiles, “Well, it must be important…” He turned in time to see the smile still playing on her face. “I mean, to get you out of your ivory tower, and all.”

“It’s only concrete, and I think it’s more gray than ivory.” He flashed his own killer smile and reached out to offer her his hand. “But yes, it is important. I’m just having a little trouble finding Warrick to deliver the news though. I don’t suppose you could help me with that?”

“Aw geez… I wish I could, but he’s out on a scene out in Seven Hills. Probably gonna be pullin’ a double from the sounds of it.” Sara was genuinely sorry for not being able to help.

He shook his head with his disappointment, “Man, I was really hoping to get his signature on these and have them filed by day’s end.”

Before Sara had a chance to come up with anything else, her attention was being drawn to someone calling her name. “Sara… Do you have the combination to Warrick’s locker?”

“Hey Sofia…” Sara was confused as to why the detective would need that information. “Why?”

She smiled at the two as she walked closer to them in the waiting area, “Ah, well, I’m on my way back out to the scene, and the guy’s already run through his spare coveralls at the scene. Real mess out there.” Sara nodded her understanding.

She was about to answer the woman’s question when a thought dawned her. “I can get in his locker… Sofia? Have you met Stephan, yet?”

Sofia smiled as she ducked her gaze to the floor momentarily, “Ah, not formally, no.”

“I’m sorry… Stephan, this is Det. Sofia Curtis.” Sara waited for Stephan to extend his hand to the woman before she continued. “Sofia, this is Stephan Tompkins… He’s Stephanie’s friend from college, and the guy who’s been representing Warrick.” Sara watched as the two shook hands and acknowledged each other’s presence.

“You’re the epi-pen angel… Good to meet you… Under better circumstances, anyway.” Stephan was just being himself, but Sara could sense that he was laying on the charm.

“Just luck really, and thanks.” Sara smirked in the interaction, but she had other plans at the moment.

“Hey Sofia, can you get Stephan out to the scene? He has some papers for Warrick to sign, and if Mohamed won’t come to the mountain, then-…”

“We can bring the mountain to him… Sure, but I’ll warn you, this is not the kind of thing most people are able to handle. I’ve already lost three uniforms, because they couldn’t stomach the mess.” Sofia seemed to be enjoying the conversation a little more than normal.

“I’d have to come straight back to town, so I maybe I could follow you over?” Stephan asked.

“Actually, I rode over with Sanders, so my car is still at the scene. I was going to catch a ride back with the day shift guys who’re going to out to help process.” Sofia looked around for the two men who were supposed to be meeting her there, but found no one.

“Problem solved, then. I’ll just wait for you here and then I’ll drive over there with you.” Stephan smiled at his suggestion and found that Sofia had returned the gesture.

“Right… So, I’ll get his other bag from the locker room and be right back.” Sara smirked and turned to walk back into the lab.

Sofia suddenly realized that Sara had walked away and she looked around for the other woman before calling out to her, “Hold up, Sara… I have to talk to you about something.”

She ran to catch up to Sara, who was still smirking at the whole situation. “So, what did you need?”

“Huh? Oh yeah… How’s O’Halloran doing?”

Sara shook her head and answered, “Oh fine… The family’s all gone now, she’s bored to tears, begging to come back to work and generally driving us all a little crazy, but-…” She was interrupted by the peculiar ringing of her phone to the tune from a show about some cartoon mice, “Speak of the devil… Hey Steph… No, I will not swing by to bring you any case files… No… Yeah, he found me… No… I took care of it… No… No… Ask me again when I’ve had some sleep… No… Look, I’ve go-… Okay… Go take a nap… Goodbye.”

Sofia was chuckling as they reached the temporary evidence vault and Sara opened the door after closing down her phone. “I can see what you mean… What did she keep asking that you said no to?”

“Bringing her case files, case reviews, photo analysis, tox reports, and anything else that popped into her head… The girl is relentless.” Sara shook her head as she logged the evidence into the vault.

“I can imagine… I hear she got tossed from the hospital within a couple days of coming around?” Sofia was doing her best to keep the small talk going.

“Yeah, and poor Thomas had to spend the last week making it up to the nurses… Though, I’m not sure I’d have been any different. Those places make anyone nuts after a while.” Sara chuckled at her own admission and Sofia silently agreed with her.

As Sara stacked the evidence into the crate and closed up the log book she added one more thing, “But she got hers later… Between her mother and Grissom’s, the poor kid didn’t stand a chance at getting away with anything. They totally had her number.” Sara backed out of the evidence vault and shut the door, making sure that it was locked before she started to walk away.

“I bet,” was all that Sofia could come up with to respond to her last comment.

“So, you need Warrick’s other gear from his locker?” Sara shepherded Sofia towards the locker room.

“Ah, yeah, I do… Thanks.” She thought for a moment as they walked came up with something else to keep the conversation moving forward. “So, you said the family has gone?”

“Yeah, Mary left yesterday morning, early and Elizabeth caught a late flight back last night. We’ve got things worked out into shifts for her to call if anything comes up when Thomas is on call at the hospital…” Sara noticed the confused look on Sofia’s face as they entered the locker room and she elaborated, “Doc Robbins and his wife are handling the days, Catherine and Warrick trade off on the afternoons and evenings and Grissom and I handle the overnights.”

Sofia’s expression told Sara that she understood, but she added, “Sounds like you guys have it all worked out… When’s she due back to work?”

Sara squinted as she worked out Warrick combination in her head when she answered in a distracted tone. “Ah, well… Probably not for another week, at least. She’s still coming down from all the drugs they had her on, and plus her immune system has been compromised, so being in the morgue is not really a safe place for her at the moment.” Sara suddenly had the numbers pop into her head and she turned the dial to the appropriate points to open the door with a smile. “That and the fact that the county coroner told her and Doc Robbins point blank he will not have her back in there until she is one hundred percent and well rested… I guess someone showed him and the sheriff her caseloads and her hours reports. So, needless to say, they were not thrilled.”

Sofia nodded her agreement, “Well, I know whenever I’ve had to go down there lately, I never seem to see anyone but her and Robbins… Do we even have other coroners anymore?”

Sara chuffed at the question, “Doesn’t seem like it, huh…” She reached into the locker, pulled out the bag Warrick kept in there, and then she held it out for Sofia to take, “Here ya go.”

“Oh… Yeah, thanks… I guess I better get going then, huh?” Sofia seemed distracted in her answer and that elicited another smile from Sara.

“Yeah, and hey thanks for helping Stephan out… It sounded like he had some good news for Warrick, and I figured the poor guy could use it. Ya know?” Sara could not believe she was actually trying to put Sofia Curtis at ease. Things sure have changed around here lately.

“Definitely… And I guess I’ll see you around later… Have a good one.” Sofia slowly walked away from the locker room.

Sara had to laugh at the whole situation, and that was when Grissom chose to stand in the doorway watching something in the hallway when he spoke, “What was that all about?”

Sara shook her head and said with a grin, “I don’t know for sure. But I can tell you one thing.”

He tilted his head and regarded her with a puzzled expression, “What’s that?”

She spoke through the side of her mouth as she moved to stand beside him and took his arm, “I think Steph is starting to rub off on me.” Grissom gave her a disapproving look and shook his head, not really wanting to know exactly what she had meant by that.

Chapter 57

It had become part of his daily ritual; a trip to the green grocer’s. He never wanted anything to spoil in the fridge should they not have a chance to eat together before shift, so he went to the store each day. Sara repeatedly told him it was not necessary, but he did it anyway. He reveled in her enjoyment of the meals he prepared for them, and he liked using fresh ingredients.

He had been experimenting with new vegetables of late, and the grocer would light up every time he walked through the doors. Mr. Kim told Gil that he was his favorite anglo customer, because he was always trying new things. And, as much as Sara protested his ritual, she did enjoy everything he made with such enthusiasm that he could not help but to continue his daily task.

He looked down into the bag and made sure the Thai Eggplant had remained unbruised on the journey in the backseat of the car. Mr. Kim had assured him it would work wonderfully as the base for a sauce to toss with some rice noodles. Gil thought it would work well with some edamame, water chestnuts and a little bok choy for good measure to accompany the simple veggie burger that Sara had insisted was all she wanted for dinner. Nothing so plain as a “just a veggie burger” for my girl.

His last thought brought a smile to his lips as he hoisted the bag into his arm and walked to the front door of their townhouse. His life had changed immeasurably in just a few short months. He found himself constantly thinking about his life in terms of “before Sara” and “after Sara.” And that thought also brought a smile to his face.

Before Sara, he spent so little time at home that going to the green grocer’s seemed like insanity, and he made do with mostly non-perishables from the supermarket along with some cheese and eggs. After Sara, he kept the staples stocked in abundance and made frequent trips to stores he had not even known existed before.

Before Sara, he had no idea just how many types of vegetarians existed in the world. After Sara, he understood that people choose vegetarianism for a variety of reasons, and not all of them were about the cute and fuzzy creatures of the world.

Before Sara, he had not known what it was to want anything but his work to fill his thoughts. After Sara, he sometimes had to remind himself to keep thinking about work in order to make it through the night, and he could not wait to get home and be with her without restriction.

Before Sara, he never questioned his commitment to his job or his work. After Sara, he sometimes wondered why he was still at the lab, and his focus for the work seemed to be shifting all the time.

As he pulled out his keys to open the door, he remembered that he still had not gone through the fellowship offer from the Jeffersonian. With everything that had happened since its arrival, it remained lost in the shuffle of papers on his desk. He would have to remind himself to go through it in the morning while Sara was checking on Stephanie, and he still owed his colleague a phone call about the offer.

When he entered the cool and dark hallway of the townhouse, he could hear Sara’s voice talking to someone. As he walked toward the kitchen, he quickly realized that she was on the phone. “Right… No, I understand, but that doesn’t ch-… No, I am not being unreas-…” When she saw him round the corner she flashed him an exasperated expression that told him exactly who was on the phone.

As he passed her on the way to the kitchen, he smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “Hold on… He just walked in the door, so I’m gonna put you on speaker.” Sara motioned for his approval and he nodded. When she pressed the speakerphone button on the landline he waited for the fun to begin. “Okay, you’re on speaker now.”

“Hey Uncle Gil… Can you bring me some case files or something?” Sara came up behind him as he put the bag down on the counter and wrapped her arms around his waist as she leaned into his back and laid her head down on his shoulder, obviously in need of some comfort.

“No.” His answer was short and to the point.

“Why not?!”

“Because you are supposed to be recuperating; not working.” He turned his head and leaned back to lay it on Sara’s, showing his understanding of her pain.

“But I’m fine… Really… I can totally do case reviews.” Her voice had gone beyond pleading and was seriously bordering on begging.

“No, you can’t, because you are not working until the doctors say you are back at one hundred percent.” He started to pull all the items from the bag when Sara finally let go of him and started trying to figure out what he bought at the store; her curiosity obviously winning out over her frustration with Stephanie.

“That’s just silly… I’m fin-…” Her objection was cut short when she started coughing a little bit.

“Right… You’re fine all right.”

“That’s not fair… It’s just a little coughing… No big deal.” He could tell she was working to stifle her coughs at that point and he shared a knowing smirk with Sara at the sound.

“I’m confused… Aren’t you supposed to be pestering Catherine about this time?” He moved to the sink with his vegetable selection of the day as he tried to change the subject.

“Actually, it’s Warrick’s turn, but the guys took him out to celebrate.”

Gil’s face morphed into confusion and he had to ask, “Celebrate what?”

“Sara didn’t tell you?”

“How could I? I just found out myself.” Sara spoke up quickly to defend herself.

“Oh yeah.”

“Is someone going to tell me, or do I have to play twenty questions?” Gil stopped what he was doing and actually found himself standing at the sink with his hand on his hip.

“You’re no fun at twenty questions… Since you always have it at five…” He could tell she enjoyed the joke at his expense, but she did continue to explain. “Anyway, they filed the settlement papers for Warrick’s divorce this afternoon. So, the guys took him out to celebrate, which is the other reason why I am sooooo bored. They wouldn’t let me go, because, one, I’m a girl, and two, they were going to some place that guys go to smoke those nasty cigars and I wasn’t allowed to go.”

“So, wait… She actually agreed to the settlement terms?” He was still confused, even though he had the answer.

“Yeah, I guess it was a good thing we sent you to tag along… According to Steph, you scared the piss out of her attorney’s over those pictures.” There was a pause, and Gil used it to try and wrap his brain around her explanation. “Hey, what were in those pictures anyway? Steph wouldn’t tell me… Something about confidentiality, but that doesn’t apply to you.” His face went white when he realized she was expecting an answer from him about the pictures, but he was saved when they heard a beep from her side of the conversation. “Oh crap… I gotta take that call… I finished that other journal article and the publisher wants to talk pictures and junk… Later.” They both heard the click and then the dial tone blasted over the speaker. Sara quickly shut it off, but never once took her eyes off of him.

“So, what pictures?” There it was. He was caught, and there was no way out of it.

He lowered his gaze to the floor and tried to shy away from the question, but she was not buying the act. And, as she cocked an eyebrow at him, he figured he might as well spill it all before things got ugly. “Ah, well, there were some inappropriate pictures taken, and the lawyers tried to use them to get more from the settlement agreement.”

“What kind of pictures?” He should have known she would never back down from something that easy, but it was worth a shot.

“Of Warrick… With someone.” He turned back to the sink, hoping to avoid the angry gaze that he knew would fall over her face.

“WHAT?! With who?”

“From the hospital.”

“When?”

“Last week.” He turned again to watch as she worked out exactly what that meant, and when he saw the understanding fall over her countenance, he answered her suspicions, “Yeah, with Catherine.”

Sara shook her head in disbelief, “Damn… Now that’s low… I mean, I knew she didn’t like Cath, but… Wow.”

Gil’s face betrayed his confusion and so he felt compelled to ask, “Why didn’t she like Catherine?”

“Beyond the obvious reasons?” Gil gave her a disapproving glare with her sarcastic response. “Sorry… Jealousy, I guess… I mean, what with the attraction and all, I guess she thought Cath was a threat.” Sara simply rambled off those words like he understood what she was talking about. However, when she looked up into his face, she realized the error of that assumption. “What, you can’t tell me you didn’t know?”

“Well, I just didn’t think Catherine would have told you about it.” He was shocked that they had progressed in healing their relationship to that point. Gil thought that he was the only one she had confided in about her attraction to the younger man.

“Catherine? No, Warrick… Wait, you mean Cath is attracted to him too?!” That was when Gil realized he had just betrayed a confidence.

He tried to find some way to cure the situation when it suddenly dawned on him that Sara said that Warrick had confided in her. “Wait, Warrick told you he was attracted to Catherine?”

“Well, duh!” She shook her head and chuckled at the notion that not everyone knew how Warrick felt about the outspoken, grand dame of the Investigative Department. “I mean really, Gil… I thought everyone knew about that.”

The more Gil thought about it, the more humorous the situation became in his mind. He chuckled as he said, “Well, there are at least two people who hadn’t… Me, and Catherine.”

Sara leaned back against the breakfast bar and had a good laugh. The whole situation was just too funny not to enjoy the irony of it. “So, you think we’re the only ones who know both sides of this equation?”

“Well, since she hasn’t started scheming yet, I’d say yes.” They both laughed, because they knew who he was referring to. “What should we do about it?”

“I don’t know… Do you think we should interfere like that?” Sara bit her lower lip in a gesture that always showed Gil she was battling with something, but he always found it incredibly endearing.

“Well, they did it for us.” He shrugged his answer.

Sara stood and went straight for the phone. “Who are you calling?”

“Stephanie… This is not the kind of thing you leave to amateurs, so I’m calling in the master.” He let loose a hearty laugh at her answer, knowing that they were getting into dangerous territory.

“I guess if it worked for us, it’s bound to work for them… After all, they haven’t spent six years fighting the inevitable. But I do feel a little sorry for them.”

She turned back to face him as she brought the phone to her ear and asked, “Why do you say that?”

“I was at least looking for you… They don’t even have a clue what’s coming.” His smile said everything to her and she returned it gladly.

“Hey Steph… I think I have a cure for your boredom.”

Chapter 58

“No, you have to curl your fingers under and rock the blade… This isn’t Benihana’s.”

Sara dropped the knife onto the board and turned to Stephanie with her brows squeezed tightly together, about ready to explode. “Are you trying to be that annoying? Because if you are, you can stop now.”

Stephanie laughed, coughed a little and laughed some more before she responded to the challenge. “Look, you aren’t chopping this up for your salad… And if you don’t do it like I say, you’re gonna lose a finger and/or get carpal tunnel by the time you’ve chopped just one ingredient.”

Stephanie stood up slowly, grasping the counter as she gradually walked up beside Sara and moved her hands to sit over Sara’s. “Now, you have to curl your fingers under as they rest on the food to hold it still and to keep this from turning this into a dissection.” Sara gave her a questioning look and Stephanie elaborated. “I only want diced vegetables, not diced Sara. I think Uncle Gil would mind.” They both laughed at her joke and she continued by moving Sara’s hands in a rocking motion with the knife over the peppers on the cutting board. “By rocking the blade over the food you can standardize the size of the pieces and it takes like no effort to cut. See?”

Sara smirked, seeing that Stephanie was indeed correct, and then she bumped the younger woman with her hip. “All right, I got it. Now go sit back down.” Stephanie grinned at the gesture and slowly made her way back to the chair.

As she sat down with a great sigh she looked up to see the concern in Sara’s eyes and shied away from the gaze, “It’s only bad when I move around too much. So, quit it… I’m fine.” She strained through another deep breath and Sara struggled to avert her gaze. “It’s just the asthma, honest.”

Turning back to the task, Sara tried to ease her worry, but it proved more difficult as Stephanie coughed a few more times. “So, how are you planning to deal with that once everyone gets here?”

She chuckled as she thought about that dilemma, “Oh, I figure it’ll be done for me… This is just you and me, and I’m getting mothered enough now… Can you imagine it with everyone here? I mean… I’ll be lucky to go to the bathroom alone.”

Sara could not help it, she bust out laughing at the image evoked by Stephanie’s conclusion, “Yeah, I can see that being a problem… But no one invited Hodges, so you should be safe.”

All Stephanie could muster was a groan and a shake of her head. “Does that guy get along with anyone?” She suddenly got a disgusted look on her face and before Sara could respond, she said, “No wait… I don’t think I want to know… The images would be hard to scrape out of my mind.”

Sara kept chopping away at the peppers, dumping each batch into the bowl as she proceeded to cut through them all. She watched Stephanie from the corner of her eye as she pulled the inhaler from her pocket and took two of the metered doses in with two labored breaths.

Sara was not unfamiliar with the problems of asthma, but she had no experience with the sudden severity that seemed a characteristic of Stephanie’s variety of the ailment. She had even gone so far as to ask Dr. Robbins about the symptoms in order to calm her own fears. When he explained that those people who suffer from allergy induced asthma were often the most adept at understanding their own symptoms she questioned the reason for it, and his answer had not made her feel any better about what she had seen.

He told her that allergy induced asthmatics had the most to lose, since their episodes were often the most life-threatening. That worried her, but she also knew from her previous experiences that remaining calm herself, tended to help the other person get through an episode. Her friend at the group home would work herself up even more if the people around her were freaking out, but if they remained calm and soothing the attacks would subside much quicker. So, she did her best to remain calm, but stayed very attentive.

She watched as Stephanie’s breathing became less tense and it settled her own nerves enough to cause Stephanie to notice. “I said it was just the asthma.”

There was a slight blush to her cheeks at having been caught, “What, I’m not allowed to worry?”

Stephanie shrugged and then one of those dangerous glints came to her eyes. “I don’t know… Hold up your hands.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.” Stephanie was grinning at that point and it caused Sara some concern. But she put the knife down and held up her hands, like a doctor scrubbing up for surgery. “Nope… You’re not allowed yet.”

Sara put her hands down on the counter for balance and shot her an incredulous look, “What have my hands got to do with being worried about you?”

The younger woman shrugged her shoulders again and then said, “Until you get that ring, you’re still just a friend. Only family can worry.” Even if Sara could have, she would not have been able to hide the absolute shock that fell onto her face. “You really should work on that, ya know.”

Sara was still struggling to come up with a response for Stephanie’s suggestion when there was a noise at the front door. With some loud rustling and the sounds of feet on the tiles, Catherine and Lindsey came barreling into view.

“Hey gals! Sorry, but I wasn’t waiting for slowpoke to get to the door…” Catherine winked at Stephanie, “I hope you don’t mind?”

She followed the amused gaze of Stephanie to the slack-jawed face of Sara and surreptitiously dropped the bags she was carrying onto the floor before bringing a determined hand to her hip. “Hey! You weren’t supposed to start the harping until I got here!” Sara was broken from her stupor to then stare at Catherine in agitated disbelief.

“I can’t believe you two!” Sara dropped what she was doing and turned for the sink.

The other women were still laughing as Lindsey rounded the breakfast bar to head for the fridge. She held up one of the bags in her hands and asked, “Should I put these in the fridge, Sara?”

“Go ahead, Linds… I’m afraid Sara’s a little mad and your Mom and me right now.” Stephanie took the other bags from the girl as she gestured for Lindsey to complete her task.

“Figures.” Lindsey seemed to have already learned a valuable lesson about her mother and Stephanie and that just made the women laugh harder. “So, what should I do?”

“You guys brought the apples, right?”

Lindsey nodded enthusiastically, “Oh yeah, fifteen pounds of mixed apples; Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Blush, Jonathan and Golden Delicious. Three pounds each, just like you said.”

“Two stores later! I still don’t why it had to be all those.” Catherine was indignant at what she had considered a meaningless task.

“Well, if you’d gone to the ONE I suggested, that would’ve been it and you wouldn’t be getting here so late.” Stephanie stuck her tongue out at Catherine to finalize the gesture as the older woman started stacking up the other items on the breakfast bar counter. “As it is we’ll be lucky to have this dessert ready in time for tomorrow.” Stephanie started looking through the bag that was sitting beside her on the floor, but she seemed to be unable to find something. “Hey Sara?” She did not answer right away, and so Stephanie asked again, louder, “SARA?”

“What?!” Sara spun around to answer her, still reeling a little from their previous exchange.

“What did we do with those two little boxes I had on the kitchen counter?” Sara’s whole expression changed the moment she realized she had just been given her cue.

“Oh crap! I think I left them there.” She looked positively flushed at the thought, and Catherine gave her a questioning glare. “I was, um… Distracted?”

Catherine shook her head and threw out her hand in disgust, “That distraction wouldn’t have curly hair and blue eyes, would it?” Sara just smiled at Catherine’s question and the older woman knew she had her answer. “C’mon, Linds… Looks like we still have some running around to do.” She grabbed her purse from the stool and turned to Stephanie for further instruction, “What is it and where I am looking for it?”

“Ah, apple peeler/corers… In their boxes, on the kitchen counter, shouldn’t be able to miss ‘em. The guys’ll be out back, so just walk right in.” When Lindsey walked up to follow her mother Stephanie reached out for her hand. “But leave Lindsey here… We can get started on the other stuff so it’s ready for the apples once we have the peelers. S’at okay with you, Linds? Being here with us old ladies?” Stephanie gave the girl a sly wink and Lindsay smiled.

She turned back to her mother and pleaded, “Please, Mom? Steph promised to teach me how to the make the apple dessert.”

Catherine threw up her arms in disgust that time and turned for the door, “Fine! But I better not hear about any funny business.”

Lindsey called after her mother, “Thanks, Mom!” Lindsey turned back to Stephanie when she heard the door slam and said, “Okay, so what ingredients do we need out and what the heck’re you guys scheming on Mom for?” Lindsey thoroughly enjoyed the looks of shock that came from the two older women as she caught them in the act.

Stephanie pulled her into an embrace and kissed her forehead, “I knew I liked this kid!” Lindsey rolled her eyes and Stephanie spoke again, “Okay, we need the big bowl, flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon… And how would you feel about a happier more relaxed mother?”

Lindsey rolled her eyes again and headed for the cupboards as she said, “If you could do that… I’d wash both your cars for a year!”

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Thomas turned the slab of meat over, making sure it was not lacking the desired searing before moving on the next piece. “So, I’m confused… Why didn’t we just take the grill over to your place, again?” He took the bottle of beer being offered to him by Gil and waited for the answer.

“Because I don’t have a yard to use it in…” He could see that Thomas was not buying the excuse and he carried a sheepish look on his face as he took a drink from the bottle in his hand. “And it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Thomas drank from his bottle and shook his head, “Another one of Steph’s schemes… I should’ve known when she stopped bugging me earlier this week that she was up to something.”

Gil tilted his head to one side and smirked, “Well, I think Sara and I may have put her up to this one.”

Thomas reeled back from that admission, and his curiosity was piqued, but before he could say anything, the cell phone in Gil’s pocket went off. He heard the brief exchange and knew the game was afoot. “So, are you gonna clue me in? Or should I just be surprised later?”

Gil gave him a sly look and then asked, “When was Warrick getting up?”

Thomas nodded his head and laughed, knowing that his wife was indeed involved. “I heard the shower running when I got the bucket of corn… Why?”

Gil shrugged as he took another draw from his bottle. Swallowing the mouthful, he said, “We just have a visitor stopping by.”

Cocking his eye brow, Thomas just had to ask, “And that would be something that requires Warrick needing to be awake, right?”

“It certainly wouldn’t hurt.” Thomas laughed at the older man’s delight in the little game he seemed to be involved with and knew without a doubt, that the party was shaping up to be yet another crowning achievement in mischief for his wife. That woman is battin’ a thousand with these damn things!

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It was early October, and Catherine could not help but remark about the oppressive heat which seemed to have fallen on the city that week. The fact she spent most of the day running all over town on various little errands to help with the party that night had not helped in the slightest. She had been late getting to the townhouse because of the heat, since she was feeling less than human after being out in it so much and was in desperate need of a shower when they had finally gotten all of the required items.

As she made her way the few short blocks to Stephanie’s townhouse, she remarked at the differences in homes along the way. They went from the simple and efficient single level pseudo townhouses on Gil’s side of the development to the more family oriented and friendly ones on Stephanie’s side.

It made her wonder why Thomas had chosen such a place to call home for his residency. She thought maybe he had gotten the home, which was far too large for a single man who was never home, because he was a victim of wishful thinking. She wondered if he a life together and maybe even start a family.

Catherine liked the idea that he had been so romantic in his choice of a home, that he made plans for them before he even knew how their lives were going to turn out. And then the pragmatic, logical side of her brain kicked in and she figured he probably settled on the closest place to the hospital he could find and afford. In the end, those were questions best left unanswered, especially since she had pulled up in front of the house.

“Once more, into the brink!” Catherine found herself quoting some obscure thing and she had to shake her head at herself. “Am I really becoming that much like him?” She could not let herself keep thinking that way, so she courageously jumped out of the car and headed for the front door. When she got there, she hoped Stephanie was right and she could just walk right in, because the last thing she needed was to bump into anyone on her little chore. Her nerves were already frazzled from the all the running around, and she needed some of those guards up before dealing with too many people yet.

Thrilled to find the door unlocked, Catherine pushed her way into the wonderfully cool house. She quickly made her way into the kitchen to search for the boxes and much to her delight, they were right there in plain sight. She was about to get away clean, and without so much as a whisper of contact from anyone.

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Warrick was still mad at himself for having slept through his alarm, not once, but twice. He had wanted to be up and ready to help Thomas first thing that afternoon, even though the man told him he was not needed. With everything that had happened over the last few weeks he came to realize just how much he owed the people around him for their support through what he hoped would be the worst period of his life.

However, his shift went on for what felt like forever and he was emotionally drained on top of it. So, when his head finally hit the pillow late that morning, he was ready to sleep for a week, instead of the three hours he planned for himself. When his eyes finally opened, after his other senses woke him up, he realized he had over slept by nearly two hours and it was almost two in the afternoon, and his alarm clock had been turned off at some point. He had no idea how that happened, but what he did know was there was an unbelievable smell wafting into his bedroom window from the backyard, which meant he had not missed out on everything. He quickly hopped into the shower before heading downstairs and trying to at least help finish everything up.

His shower was just the thing he needed, and he was again thankful for the kindnesses of his friends, because he was certain Stephanie and Thomas had the best hot water in all of Vegas. The hot was never short in supply, even when all three of them were getting ready for a shift, and the pressure was just right. And on one occasion he emerged from his bathroom to find someone else was showering in the other bathroom, yet neither the pressure nor the temperature had been affected.

When he finally asked Thomas about this oddity, he was shown the utility room at the bottom of the stairs in their pseudo-basement; they had two hot water heaters. Warrick decided in that moment if he were ever to have a house of his own, there would definitely be two hot water heaters, even if he had to install the second one himself.

He looked outside and could see the two men standing by the grill, and from the way Thomas was nursing that bottle in his hands, he could tell the heat was still in full swing. With the oppressive heat of the last few days, he figured his time would be better spent standing in the sun instead of trying to dry his hair in the house. So, he took one last look in the mirror to make sure the shape was not out of line with his style and once he was satisfied, he wrapped the towel around his neck to catch the remaining drops of water and pulled out a t-shirt to put on once it had dried.

Warrick shut the bedroom door behind him and started for the stairs with a lighter spirit. In that moment, he decided this would be the start of his new life, and whatever that meant, he was going to meet it headlong with a smile on his face. That realization caused him to hitch up his step and he practically ran down the stairs to join his friends in the backyard.

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With a real smile on her face for the first time all day, Catherine scooped up the two boxes containing the peelers and quickly headed back for the front door to make her escape. As she turned she could hear Gil’s laughter drifting in from the backyard and her ear immediately tracked the sound. It truly was good to hear her friend laugh and her smile deepened at the thought of how much happier the man had been since he started his relationship with Sara. She wondered if that was what love was really all about.

She was about to clear the stairs when she realized she was actually going to get away totally unnoticed, and then it happened. Her vision and her progress were stopped dead when she ran face first into a solid mass.

At first she thought her distraction had caused her to smack into the wall, but the mass was not cold plaster. Instead, as she brought her hands up to push away from the mass, they found purchase on a warm, soft and slightly damp surface. That was when she wobbled and suddenly felt other hands wrap around her arms to steady her teetering.

When she looked up the expanse of what she thought might be skin, she found a swath of white fabric that could have been a towel, but with such a close up view and her own shock clouding her vision, she was finding it hard to focus. Her gaze kept following up the mass until it found the end, and at that end she found a startled and concerned familiar face.

“Whoa… Are you okay?” He pulled her back just a little to inspect that she was indeed okay, and she could feel the fabric in his hand press into her arm. She looked at that hand and saw he was carrying a shirt, and when she looked back in front of her she realized it was because he was not wearing one at the time. Warrick moved his head back and forth, checking to make sure he had not hurt her when they collided, and the motion caused a drop of water to fall from his hair. Catherine watched, as though it was in slow motion, as the drop plummeted in the shallow space between them and then shivered as it landed directly onto her collarbone. The shiver turned into a tremble when the drop trailed down her front to slide right into her cleavage.

Warrick became even more concerned that he had caused her harm when she started to tremble, so he moved her over to the chair in the living room. He asked her again, because she had yet to answer him, “Are you okay, Cath? I’m sorry. I guess I wasn’t looking and I didn’t really expect anyb-…”

Catherine had finally found her voice as he frantically tried to assess the situation and she took in a deep breath to speak, “I’m fine… Just scared me, is all… Really, I-I’m fine.” She worked desperately to pull herself back together and then, when she found the courage she stood up, and away from his powerful gaze. “I just need to get these-…” She instantly realized that she no longer had the boxes in her hands and tried to change her focus to find them.

Warrick got up from his crouch and went straight for the boxes scattered on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, “Here, let me get those.” She watched as he took those few steps toward the stairs and then bent over to retrieve the boxes. As he bent over, she suddenly gasped, and then turned to the window to hide the blush she was certain had risen in her cheeks. “Hey, are you sur-…”

“Really, I’m good… I just need to get these over to Steph before she starts screaming.” She quickly took the boxes from his grasp and practically ran for the door. “See ya over there,” she shot back from over her shoulder as she bolted out the door.

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“What?... No, I haven’t seen her yet.” Gil motioned for Thomas to look inside the house as he continued talking on his cellphone. “Thomas is checking now.”

Thomas walked into the garage to find out if Catherine had arrived yet, but he was met by a very confused looking Warrick as he reached out to open the door. “Oh! Hey, man… Did you happen to see Catherine in there?”

Warrick looked back into the house and said, “Uh, yeah… She just took off.”

Thomas wasted no time and took off running for the front of the house which left Warrick still trying to figure out what was going on. He made his way out the back and found Grissom talking animatedly on the phone. “Okay, we’re trying to catch her!... Okay, serving bowls, metal baking tray, box by the dining room table, got it.” Grissom closed up the phone and finally noticed Warrick standing there. “Oh, hey, Warrick… You want to help me get this stuff together for Cath to take back to my place?”

Warrick shrugged and turned to allow Grissom the chance to lead the way. “After you.”

Grissom gave him a curious look as he walked past the younger man, “Is that a new look for you?”

Warrick looked down at his clothes and instantly became embarrassed as he discovered he still had not put his shirt on. When he looked up, he realized he probably embarrassed Catherine and that was why she had run out of the house like that. As he followed Grissom into the house shaking his head, Warrick tried to figure out how he was going to apologize for his screw up. His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of dishware colliding in the kitchen, and as he rounded the corner he found Grissom struggling with a large box. “Here, let me help you with that, Gris.”

Grissom looked up from his task and smiled wryly, “Thanks.” Warrick walked over, bent down to pick up the box and finally understood why Grissom was struggling with it; the box was heavy. “Don’t forget to lift with your legs.”

Warrick glared at his attempt at humor. “So, where’s it going?”

Grissom shrugged and said, “Well, that depends on whether or not Thomas was able to flag Catherine down before she left.”

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Upon reaching the safety of her minivan, Catherine slumped forward in the driver’s seat as she banged her head on the steering wheel. “Jesus, Cath! Get a grip!” She threw her head back and rested it against the seat back and groaned out her frustrations, “Aaaaaaaggghhh!!! What the hell is wrong with you?!” She shut her eyes tight and struggled to gain control of her emotions. “My God! Where is your head?!”

With her eyes closed, she desperately tried to pull herself together, but her mind kept replaying that scene in the house, and her body wanted nothing more than to feel that solid, warm mass under her fingers once more. Just when the images were about to send her down a road she was not ready to take, she nearly came out of her skin as the sound of something slamming into her car jerked her back from inside her own mind.

Her eyes flew open to track the sound, and at her passenger’s window she found a flushed and worried Thomas banging on the glass. She rolled down the window with her hand clutched at her chest and said, “Are you trying to kill me?!”

Thomas blushed once he realized he had just scared the devil out of the woman. He quickly apologized, “Sorry, Cath… But I can’t fit this other stuff in my car and Steph needed it.” She started to breathe more easily and he felt compelled to ask, “Why didn’t you come back and say hi? Gil and I were a little surprised when Warrick said you’d already left.”

Catherine took a deep breath and hoped that her voice did not falter as she answered him, “Sorry, I was just in a hurry. And Steph said I should just grab the stuff and go.”

“That’s okay… Is there something wrong with your phone?” His question confused her completely.

She scrunched up her face and reached for her phone when it suddenly dawned on her what the problem. “Shit! Where’s my phone?”

Thomas laughed at her response, “Linds has it. When Steph tried to call you, it went off in Lindsey’s pocket.”

Catherine shook her head and realized that her mind really was on another planet. “Just goes with the rest of the day.” She unbuckled her seat belt and climbed out of the minivan. “So, what am I toting now?”

Thomas called over his shoulder as he ran back in the house. “I’ll go get it… But you better make room… The box is huge!”

“Why not?! Everything else has sucked today, this will just be the icing on the cake.” She pulled open the back of the minivan with a groan. “It would figure that I JUST put the seats up again, so now I get to crawl around in the back of the van…” Catherine started pulling out the items in the back and transferred them to the back seat as she complained, “Not like I haven’t already had TWO showers today, and I’m still gonna be all sweaty for the damn party.” Once all the items had been transferred, she crawled up into the back of the vehicle and began to fight with retracting the third row of seats to make room for the box. “There better be someone to drive me home tonight, because I’m about to get really fucking drunk.”

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Thomas nearly collided, head first, into a very large and incredibly heavy box. “Whoa!” As he jumped back he realized Warrick was the one handling the box. “Sorry, dude! I guess I should look where I’m runnin’, huh?” The two men laughed at the near catastrophe, but Warrick made the move to get around Thomas.

“Did you catch her?”

“Oh yeah! You want some help with that? It looks heavy.” Thomas added that last part with a wink and Warrick smirked at the man’s sarcasm.

“Nah, I got it, brother… Just stay out of the way, okay?” Warrick could not help but add his own little jibe to the mix.

“You got it… I gotta check the grill anyways.” Thomas turned to head back to the garage door when he decided to shout over his shoulder, “Try not to get tied up out there, man… We got some work to do with the old man, remember?”

Warrick tilted his head and nodded, “Yeah, I remember… Be back shortly.”

As he walked out the front door he shook his head at the idea of the soon to be divorced guy and the kid telling the aging bachelor about getting off the pot and marrying the girl. He chuckled and said to himself, “That’ll be rich.”

Walking down the concrete path towards the street, Warrick immediately found Catherine’s minivan, but he could not see her. The only thing he could see was the back of the van hanging open, so he assumed she was moving the seats around to accommodate the box he was carrying. As the weight of the box, coupled with the astounding afternoon heat began to drag him down a bit, he wondered what was actually in the thing.

When he got closer to the vehicle, he was able to see Catherine’s head in the back of the minivan as she fought with the third row seats. He figured he needed to pick up his pace so he could set the box down and give the diminutive dynamo a little hand in wrangling with the seats. However, he lost all thought as he stood at the back of the van, when his eyes fell upon a sight he was not been expecting.

Catherine was on all fours, struggling with one of the seats, bent over and rocking back and forth on her knees with her shorts stretched tightly over her round bottom. He could see most of her back, as her tank top had started riding up and he knew the heat was getting to her, as well.

When he watched a trickle of perspiration roll down her spine as she sat up for a moment in an attempt to gain leverage over the last seat to be taken down, a single word slipped from his lips. “Damn.”

She was suddenly startled and that was when he realized the word had actually come out of his mouth. With his realization came panic, as she turned at the source of the sound and he nearly lost his grip on the box, forcing him to fight to regain control of it.

“Oh damn! Are you okay?” Catherine scrambled out of the back of the minivan and tried to help him grab hold of the package, only to bring their hands brushing up against each other and made both of them nearly drop the box. “Here… Set it in the van, before we both get killed.”

Warrick somehow managed to make his feet move through what he was sure was concrete wrapped around them. But he still had not found his voice, so he just nodded.

Once the box was safely inside the van, he took in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “Ah, um, thanks. It was, ah, heavy.” He moved away from her nervously as he struggled with each word.

“Right, so… I better get this over there.” Catherine turned around and reached up for the van door, but Warrick’s hands beat hers there and she moved awkwardly to get out of the way.

Warrick closed the door and Catherine was already on the other side of the van, so he stepped up onto the curb. “Yeah, I’ll, ah, see you… Ya know, later.”

Chapter 59

As Warrick opened the door to Grissom’s townhouse his senses were assaulted with all the aromas wafting out. He wanted to stand there and try to identify each smell, but he needed to get out of Thomas and Grissom’s way as they struggled with the large containers of meat and roasted corn on the cob. The men worked their way past him with their heavy burdens and he chuckled at their difficulty. As Thomas passed him, he could not resist the temptation to taunt his friend, “Ya need some help with that, man?”

“Nah, I wouldn’t want you to break a sweat, or nothing.”

Warrick laughed at his friend’s joke, but he felt comfortable enough to add his own comment and said, “Yeah, I usually save that for the ladies, anyway.”

Thomas broke out laughing and it gained the attention of the other people in the house. Lindsey rounded the corner to see what the commotion was about and immediately caught sight of Warrick. “’Rick!”

The girl carefully made her way around Thomas and moved in to hug her friend. “Hey, girl!” He held her back and noticed she was wearing an apron, “What… Did they put you to work, Linds?”

Lindsey stood back and put her hand on her hip (which instantly made him think of her mother) as she said, “Buncha slave drivers!” However, the attitude did not last long, as her face cracked in a giant playful smile, which quickly turned into a delighted giggle when Warrick smiled back at her.

“Riiiight…” He turned her back towards the kitchen and asked, “Well, why don’t you show me what you’ve been up to… So I can make sure nobody’s gonna get sick.”

She shoved him with his crack and shouted into the kitchen, “Steph! ‘Rick thinks we’re gonna make people sick with our cooking.”

As they rounded the corner, Warrick found Stephanie on a chair at the table looking slightly tired, but not tired enough to miss ribbing him for his comment. “Oh yeah? Well, maybe you should ask him about that spare tire he’s got building over there.”

Warrick reeled back as though he had been hurt by the comment, “Ouch… That hurts, yo.”

Thomas came up beside him, put his hand on the man’s belly and rubbed it, “Wow, you ain’t kidding, hun… What’ve we been feeding him?”

Warrick slapped his hand away and said, “Hands off, man… That ain’t for you.” They all laughed at the exchange and Warrick glanced around the room, but he felt something was missing.

He checked behind him and looked into the other room, but it still was not there. His looks had not gone unnoticed. “Looking for something?” Sara’s voice caught his attention and he shyly looked back into the kitchen at his friend.

Before he could figure a way out of answering her question, Lindsey flipped around and started down the hall saying, “Oh crap! I gotta tell Mom to hurry up!”

Warrick felt his cheeks warming a bit, and tried not to think about how the girl had connected who he was looking for when she took off. But when he looked at Sara, she confirmed that she had made the connection. “Cath was pissed at us for making her get that stuff. So, I let her get cleaned up in my bathroom before the party.”

“Oh… Yeah.” Sara could tell he was not really paying attention, so she let him off the hook when Lindsey came back down the hall.

“Hey, Linds… How much longer on the dessert?” Stephanie broke the stalemate in the conversation.

Lindsey looked down at her watch and declared, “Another five minutes and it’s golden.”

Thomas was not willing to let the pun go unnoticed. “Oh man, Linds… You’ve been hanging around Gil way too long, kiddo.”

Grissom gave Thomas an odd expression, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The younger man laughed, as did everyone else, and then Thomas asked Lindsay a question, “Ah, what’re you making, Linds?”

“Golden Apple Bake,” she said with a lopsided grin on her face and Grissom smirked at the joke.

“And it better be worth all the trouble.” Catherine’s voice came from behind Warrick and he was unable to stop himself from spinning around at the sound of it.

Catherine had not noticed him yet, because she was busy smoothing out her top as she called into the kitchen at Sara. “All’s I can say is, it’s a good thing you’re so tiny, Sara.”

Sara looked over the other people gathered around the kitchen and stopped to admire the top that Catherine had picked out. “Hey!” Sara smiled when she recognized the blouse. “You might as well keep that one… I can’t even remember the last time I wore it.”

Warrick was instantly intrigued by the garment, as it was one of those wrap-around tops that tied in the front. But he was more drawn to the fact that it also showed her bare midriff. When she spoke, he had trouble focusing on the words. “Are you kidding? Why the hell not?”

Sara thought about it for a moment and then it became obvious she had just remembered something interesting. “I ah, don’t have Spring Break anymore, so um, the need just hasn’t come up.”

Grissom’s brow turned up and he asked, “Spring Break?” Sara blushed at his question, and she knew he remembered their conversation from years earlier.

Catherine was the one to break the stalemate that time, “Soooo… What else do we need to do?”

Stephanie answered her with a loaded question, “You mean other than the guys setting up the chairs?”

Thomas leaned over and kissed his wife as he responded, “Yeah, yeah, yeah… We get the point. C’mon guys.” He moved back out of the kitchen area to slap his buddy on the back, “We got men’s work to do.”

Stephanie was laughing at their reluctance and she slowly worked to stand up, but when she faltered a little, Catherine was right at her side and holding onto her arm at the elbow. “Hey, are you okay?”

She took a ragged breath and Sara turned from her work in the kitchen at the sound of it, “Catherine, why don’t you take her into the bedroom and let her rest a little before the party gets going.” Catherine nodded and tried to maneuver the younger woman away from the table.

“I’m fine guys… Reall-…” Before she could convince them, she had gotten a little woozy and faltered again.

Sara put her hand on her hip and said, “Yeah, sure…” She and Catherine exchanged knowing nods and Sara moved to put a hand on Lindsey’s shoulder. “Go help your Mom, okay?” Lindsey nodded her head and moved stand on the other side of Stephanie from her mother.

“C’mon, Steph… There’s no way to fight both of ‘em.” Stephanie smiled at the girl’s joke and nodded her head as she finally allowed them to direct her towards the bedroom.

Once they were inside the bedroom, Stephanie turned to Lindsey and asked, “Hey, kid, go check on the dessert, and make sure those guys don’t get distracted, huh?”

“Don’t worry, Steph… I’ll keep ‘em in line.” The girl winked at her friend and then shouted out at her mother as she left the two in the room. “Otherwise Thomas’ll have Warrick playing football with the rolls in five minutes.”

The two women were laughing at the girl’s wisecrack as they watched her head down the hall. Once she was out of ear shot Catherine turned to her friend and asked, “Are you sure you’re okay, kiddo?”

“Yeah, I’m fine really.” Catherine bent over and stacked the pillows up for Stephanie and gave her a look of non-belief. “Seriously… I just needed to get out of that heat for a little bit.”

When Catherine watched her rub at the back of her neck, she realized that Stephanie really did look overheated. With her maternal instincts kicking in she immediately put the back of her hand up to Stephanie’s forehead. She was instantly relieved when she discovered that she was not running a fever, “Okay, but you still need to stay in here and rest for a bit… And I’ll get Sara to turn up the AC.” She pointed at the pillows and motioned for the younger woman to actually lay down. “I’m serious, Steph. We’ll get the rest of it done. You just sit back and relax for a bit, okay?”

Stephanie finally acquiesced and swung her legs up on the bed and lay back onto the stacked pillows. Before Catherine turned to leave, she saw Stephanie take the inhaler out of her pocket and painfully draw in a deep breath to take in the medication. She watched with concern as Stephanie finished with the inhaler and asked her, “So, just the heat, huh?”

“Yeah, that and I think I got a lungful of the flour mixture when I took a towel in the face.” Catherine looked at her in horror and Stephanie held up her hand, “No, it was totally my fault. I started it.” Catherine shook her head and was still worried, “Cath, don’t, I threw it first… Linds was just playing and I don’t want her to feel guilty or anything.”

“She should kno-…”

“No, Cath… It really was my fault, and it’s not a big deal. I’ve got my meds and I just need to sit here a bit and I’ll be just fine.” Stephanie put her hand on Catherine’s forearm and pleaded with her again, “Please, it’s fine.” Catherine nodded and sat down beside her on the bed. “What about you?”

Catherine shook her head and asked with her face scrunched up, “What about me?”

Stephanie tilted her head to the side as she laid it down the pillow, “You were looking pretty upset when you got back from my place… What’s up?”

Catherine thought back to the incident in the house and the images assaulted her again to the point she had to shake her head to focus on the conversation with Stephanie. “Ah, nothing really… Just a frustrating day, is all.”

Stephanie nodded her head and closed her eyes, so Catherine got ready to leave her to her nap when she was stopped cold by the woman’s next question. “Anyone I know?”

“A-I-a-a… What?!” Catherine was practically speechless from the question.

Stephanie opened her eyes and stared into Catherine’s astonished eyes, “It’s an honest question.”

“I-I-I just can’t believe you asked it.” Catherine was still in shock at Stephanie possibly knowing why she had been so distraught when she got back from her place. “Why would you say that?”

Stephanie shrugged and said, “Well, Sara and I were talkin-…”

“Sara?! What did she say?” Catherine became deeply concerned that her confidence had been broken by her once trusted friend, Gil.

“Nothing, just that, I guess, she and Nick had well… Ya know, noticed the tension there.” Stephanie was playing her part perfectly.

“Nick?!” Catherine was railing at the sudden knowledge that she had been the topic of conversation.

“Obviously they must have been right… Since I didn’t even use his name.” Stephanie’s simple statement made Catherine immediately switch from shocked to thoroughly embarrassed, because the girl had a point. She never mentioned anyone in particular, and yet Catherine had responded without question. “So, what’re you gonna do about it?”

She was struck utterly speechless by the question, but not from shock. Instead, it was from the other questions that it brought into her mind. But first and foremost it was the question she had been asked that plagued her mind. What AM I gonna do about it?

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When Lindsey made her way back down the hallway, the guys had just about finished setting up all the extra chairs and they all looked at her as she entered the living room. The girl smirked as she registered all the concerned looks, “She’s fine guys.”

Warrick was the first to speak and he asked, “Hey… When did you get so smart?”

Lindsey smiled for the man as he winked at her with his question, but as much as she hated to admit it, she was her mother’s daughter and she could not let the question go unanswered. “I was born that way… What happened to you?” Everyone howled at her response, and that was when Lindsey noticed there were more people than when she had gone down the hall.

Nick walked up beside her and put his hand on her head, “From the mouths of babes, man.”

He was laughing at Warrick’s plight. That was, until Lindsey turned her wit on him, “Nick… I didn’t know you cared.” The howls returned and that time Nick was blushing as he lifted his hand from her head and shook his own in embarrassment.

Greg walked up to the young girl and held up his hand looking for a high five, which Lindsey was all too happy to provide. “Nice one, Linds!” Greg shoved Nick from behind and decided to join in the fun, “Dude… I knew you were hard up, but fifteen’ll get you five to ten.” Lindsey returned the favor and she and Greg shared another high five before the girl turned and headed for the kitchen.

Once the girl was in the safety of the kitchen, the guys took the opportunity to rib Warrick a little more. Thomas decided to try the high ground, “You know, there are easier ways.”

Warrick shot him a look of confusion, but the others seemed to understand what he meant and laughed. “What’re you talkin’ about, man?” The others laughed again at the man’s disbelief.

“Whatever, man…” Nick played off the whole thing and then turned his attention to Grissom, “So, who all’s gonna be here, Gris?”

Grissom reeled a bit, as his mind tried to play back the guest list, “Ah, well… I think Brass is coming… Doc and his wife should be by later… Probably Stephan, as long as he doesn’t have anything better.” Grissom’s humor was not lost on the men. Stephan’s reputation as a ladies man was far from unknown to them. He was interrupted from his list by the arrival of another.

“Hey, Sara! Where can I help?”

“Obviously, Wendy.” The men chuckled at the conspicuous arrival of the lab’s newest forensic technician. But Grissom then continued, “I believe David mentioned he would be making an appearance.

Wendy keyed into the conversation and provided her own answer, “Yeah, I ran into them on my way here… Sandi said they’d be by after she dropped some stuff off for her professor.”

The men looked at each other trying to figure out who Sandi was when Thomas laughed and gave them the answer, “C’mon, guys… David’s fiancé?” They all reared back as the information clicked in their heads.

Nick, however, could not resist making a comment, “Wow… I guess Archie and Hodges both lose.” They all gave him a questioning look and he answered, “They had a bet going about her being either his imaginary friend or blowup girlfriend.” They were laughing out loud with his revelation

Sara called out from the kitchen, “You guys suck… That is so not funny!”

“Yeah, guys… David’s a sweet guy.” Wendy added her two cents to the reprimand.

Nick felt he had to defend himself, “Hey, I like the guy… Besides, I wasn’t in on the bet.”

They all turned and looked at Warrick for his answer, “Hey! I don’t play that anymore, so don’t even look at me.”

Greg made a move for the stereo and gestured for Grissom’s permission to touch. “Just try to keep it at a low roar, please Greg?”

Greg laughed and shot back, “No sweat, boss… I’m just trying to relieve some of the tension around here… Music is always good to stop people from feeling like they gotta talk too much.”

Wendy could not leave that comment unanswered, “Is that your secret for keeping your foot out of your mouth twenty-four seven?” Greg shot her a look, but immediately turned his attention to the discs already set up in the player.

He was actually impressed with the music he found there, but then he dismissed it as something Sara must have set up ahead of time. Greg could not imagine Grissom being a big fan of The Fray or Shelby Lynne. And he certainly did not see the man as a Rage Against the Machine kind of guy. He also thought that the crowd assembling for the get-together would probably be adverse to that last one, so he searched the rack for a suitable replacement. When he spotted the Diana Krall CD’s, he made his choice and replaced the offending party. Before he turned back, he hit the player for random and set the volume to a conversational level.

The first track to play was a piece of classic Sinatra and it warmed Greg’s soul, but before he had a chance to make a comment he heard Lindsey’s delighted squeal. “Hey! That’s the stuff Nana and Sam dance to!”

Beaming at her joy, Greg took it as a cue and took the girl’s hand, “Well, then get over here, doll face, and we’ll show these stuffed shirts how it’s done.” Lindsey obliged, as she giggled from the expression on Greg’s face and the comical pose he struck when he reached for her hand.

The others looked on as Greg’s noble gesture turned into a comedy of errors, since it appeared he was not the smoothest dancer in the world. And he was obviously not capable of teaching the young girl the steps either. Warrick and Nick bent over laughing at the scene before them, but Lindsey was not about to let them get away with it. She turned to them, full of attitude, and said, “You think you can do better?”

Nick shoved Warrick to the side and said, “I think she’s callin’ you out, bro.”

Warrick nodded his head and walked over to the girl. He gave Greg a pointed tap on the shoulder, “Cuttin’ in, twinkle toes.” Greg bowed a little more deeply than necessary and stepped aside.

He held out his hand and Lindsey put hers into the center of Warrick’s expansive palm. As he closed his fingers, her hand nearly disappeared in his grip, but she let loose a tiny yelp when he pulled her arm and sent her spinning into the crook of his arm and against his side. “That’s the way to do it, little man.” He gave Greg a sly grin and the younger man acquiesced to the master.

Warrick and Lindsay glided around the room, and it seemed like the girl had magically learned to dance in an instant. But as Catherine watched from the hall, she knew from experience that the right partner made all the difference. She smiled as her daughter’s delighted giggles made their way into her ears and her heart.

Her eyes became glassy when her emotions got the better of her as she watched her little girl growing up before her very eyes. So caught up in the pure joy of watching Lindsey, Catherine failed to notice when Gil had come to stand beside her. Until his voice broke through her mind. “Hard to believe that’s the same little girl who didn’t want a birthday party, huh?”

Catherine leaned into her friend and wiped at her eyes, just to make sure the tears had not escaped. “Yeah, and it’s days like this that keep me from strangling her all the other days.” Catherine hoped she could remain unnoticed by her daughter, because she wanted the moment to last a little while longer. But that was short lived as the song drew to a close and Lindsey glanced around the room to find her mother’s gaze.

“Hey, Mom!” Lindsey made a beeline for her mother in the hall. “Warrick’s even better than Sam.” She grabbed her mother by the hands and started dragging her out into the living room, “You gotta try this!”

Catherine fought the pull of her daughter’s arms and her pleading, but her refusals went unheard. And by the time they made it to the center of the room, Catherine noticed that Gil had already moved to take Sara’s hand and they were joining in on the fun. So, when she was pushed to stand directly in front of Warrick, it seemed she was not going to escape the inevitable.

Ever the gentleman, Warrick smiled and said, “Don’t worry… I’ll try to keep my toes to myself.”

She was tense, at first, but when she found they were not the only ones dancing, she relaxed a bit and let herself fall into the music. Before long, she forgot about everything else and was aware only of the smooth sounds of the female singer and the man whose hands were guiding her in the dance.

Time passed slowly and she memorized every touch, every glance, and every sensation that passed between them. She might have gone on like that forever, but the music began to fade and then they were snapped back into reality by the intrusive sound of the doorbell sounding throughout the house.

Reluctantly, they stepped away from each other and the awkwardness was nearly unbearable. However, once again Lindsey intervened when she came up to them, taking both their hands and said, “Isn’t he great, Mom?”

Warrick blushed as Lindsey beamed up at them both and Catherine realized that she could no longer ignore whatever it was that she had been holding in for so long. She needed to sort it all out and finally come clean about what she had been feeling.

“He sure is.”

Chapter 60

As Catherine sat in the Break Room preparing the first cup of coffee for the night, her mind drifted back to the party. It had been so amazing to see everyone together having such a wonderful time after they had been through so much. There were still things needing to be resolved, but that night she became convinced; no matter what, they would be able to get through anything, as long as they had each other.

One time, long ago, she told Gil that he needed to pull his head out of the microscope, because no matter what he wanted, people were making a family around him, But now she had to remind herself of that very same fact. She had let herself become removed from that truth during their time apart at the lab, and after everything they had gone through with Nick, she put up even more barriers to try and protect herself from the pain. However, just like her friend, she needed to have a mirror thrown up in her face to see what she had really done. Catherine had made herself an island, and it might have cost her everything she valued in life.

After watching her daughter coming into her own among the members of that family, she realized she needed to take another look at their relationship. That weekend, they talked about everything; about her father’s death, her grandparents, school, her dreams and her hopes. Catherine was surprised by the things she learned about her daughter during those talks, but more importantly, she was surprised by the things she learned about herself because of Lindsey’s questions. They both came to an understanding after they had finished. They would do what they could to keep their communication lines open, and they discovered that they both just wanted the other one to be happy.

Catherine also learned something else over the weekend; she wanted to share her happiness with someone else. In all of her relationships since Eddie, she never invested much time or effort into them, and she never involved Lindsey with them. And apparently Lindsey had noticed. She told her mother that she should not spend the rest of her life alone. Her wise beyond her years daughter also informed her that she should not live the rest of her life afraid to commit again, just because things did not work out with her father. How’d I get such a smart kid?

She was still clinging onto that thought when someone else came into the Break Room to start their day. Warrick slipped into the room and headed straight for the coffee pot. “Man… Sometimes this town still gets to me.”

She pulled herself out of her head and was able to ask, “What happened?”

Warrick shook his head as he poured the coffee, “Had to detour onto the strip because of some construction, and some hard luck gambler comes rollin’ out into the middle of the road. And then he has the balls to scream at me and slam my on my hood.” He slumped down into the chair beside her, still shaking his head, “I’m tellin’ you, if it wasn’t for the tourists-…”

“There wouldn’t be a Vegas.” Catherine injected the comment she had heard Sam say a million times before to various locals over the years. And Warrick just nodded his head and laughed. “Do any damage?”

“Nah… I got me some serious Detroit steel, so he probably busted his hand for his troubles.” Warrick smiled before taking a drink from his cup.

“Still hard to believe that was your grandmother’s car.” Catherine shook her head at the image of anyone’s grandmother driving around in what could have easily been a muscle car. “But she had some taste.”

“Tell me about it!” Warrick laughed at the humor of the situation and settled in until another thought crossed his mind. “Hey, speaking of her taste… I’ve got a huge favor to ask you.”

Catherine scrunched up her nose, not quite understanding the connection between the two ideas. “What’s that?”

“Well, I was talking with Linds Friday night, and it just kind of came to me…” He reached into his pocket and handed Catherine a card from one of those buildings where you could rent small office spaces or art studios. She turned the card over in her hand and found a space number listed on the back. “Do you have time to meet me there after shift?”

“Should I be worried?”

Warrick laughed, and then said, “Nah, and hopefully you might even like it.”

His answer both confused and intrigued her, but before she could comment any further, they were quickly joined by Nick, Greg and Sara as they piled into the room. “Aw man… When Stephan came in with Sofia, I nearly lost it!” Nick turned to Sara and asked, “Did you know about that?”

Sara grabbed her mug from the strainer and started to fill it with water as she answered, “I didn’t, but I guess Thomas did.”

Greg shrugged as he poured the last of the coffee into Nick’s mug and started setting up a pot of his stash. “I don’t know… Seems right to me, since they’re both just a couple of players, ya know. I mean, we’ve all heard the stories about Stephan. And Sofia?… Well, she’s the same kind of animal, I guess.” They all laughed at Greg’s logic, but none of them could deny it either.

Catherine called over her shoulder to Nick, “Hey Nicky… Has your ego healed from your brush with death?”

Nick reared his head back and guffawed at Catherine’s question, “C’mon! Am I ever gonna be able to forget that one?”

They all looked at each other, smiled, and said in unison, “No!”

“You gotta admit, bro… Those girls had your number. Which reminds me, let’s not give Wendy too much time with Linds from now on… Things could get dangerous ‘round here.” Warrick’s joke had not gone unnoticed by the others in the room, and they all laughed at the memory of their lab tech and the young girl ganging up on Nick to discuss his lack of style when it came to choosing hair cuts.

“At least he finally found a decent barber.” Brass stuck his head in the door and added his own wit to the discussion.

“Hi, Jim… What’s up?” Sara called from over her now steeping cup of tea.

“I need to steal you from the fun… Robbery/Homicide over in Seven Hills.” Brass gestured his apology and Sara nodded.

“Gimme a sec to grab my kit, and I’ll meet you outside.” She quickly poured the contents of her mug into a paper cup and then turned back to smile at everyone as she left, “Sorry to cut this short, but apparently duty calls.” She walked out the door, but then leaned back in to say, “Oh, and tell Archie that pot’s mine… I told them Sandi was real.”

Nick and Greg stared at each other in disbelief, because they could not believe the grief they had taken about the joke, “Can you believe that?!” Nick was shaking his head in disgust.

Catherine sipped from her cup and then added, “Make sure he gives Wendy the money before he leaves, since they went halves on it.”

They were all roaring with laughter as Grissom entered the room with the assignments for the night. “Well, it’s nice to see everyone in such high spirits.” He looked up from the slips in search of someone, but came up empty, “Where’s Sara?”

Catherine spoke up first, “Jim came and got her for a Robbery/Homi-…”

“Homicide in Seven Hills… Got it.” He flipped to the next page and said, “Catherine, you and Nick have a DB along Boulder Highway, near the on-ramp for the five fifteen.” He handed them the slip and moved on to the next, “Warrick, smash and grab at the Lucky U Pawn Shop on Ogden, next to the Lady Luck.” Warrick took the slip without a word and then Grissom looked up at Greg with a sinister smile on his face, “Greg, you’re with me.” The groans from the young man were drowned out by the laughter of everyone else. “DB in a dumpster behind the Fremont.” Grissom’s smile grew wider as he added the last comment, “You might want to change your clothes now.”

Chapter 61

As Catherine made her way to the Locker Room she decided she must have started living right, because they managed to process the body, get back to the lab, send the prints through AFIS and get a hit all within six hours of the shift starting. And after finding out the body had fallen off a truck on its way to the body farm, the only thing she and Nick had to do for the rest of their shift was to catch up on paperwork. Catherine figured that she and Nick probably pulled the best case, since they were the only ones to make it back to the lab before the shift was over. If it were any other morning, she might have called to see if anyone needed help, but she had plans.

When she got to her locker, she found an envelope taped to the door with a hand written note inside it.

Cath-

I’ll be at that address I gave you all morning. Hope you can still swing by when you get off shift.

Thanks,

-WB

Reading the note, she realized Warrick had not only beat her back to the lab, but he had obviously called it a night before they even finished their case. She quickly grabbed her bag from the locker and headed off for the bathroom to freshen up before meeting up with him. As she passed Nick on the way out, she stuck her hand down into her jacket pocket just to make sure she still had the card. She had no idea what she was doing, but at the same time, she really did not care. It was time to stop playing it safe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Catherine rode up in what passed as an elevator to the second floor and when she stepped out she remarked to herself that she finally understood how they were able to rent the spaces for so cheap; This place is a real dump! She had been to flophouses with better conditions, and she silently wondered what in the world would have possessed Warrick to ask her to meet there.

She glanced at the unit numbers to the left and the right, and knew she needed to head left to find the one on the back of the card. Catherine was also extremely grateful she decided not to change clothes, because that meant she still had her sidearm at her waist. As she made her way down the dimly lit hallway, she had to remove her jacket as she began to perspire from the lack of conditioned air, or any air at all for that matter. She figured that must have been one of the other things they skimped on to offer the spaces at such ridiculous prices.

She wiped at the back of her neck thanks to the insane level of heat inside the building and began to seriously question the man’s wisdom at even being in the place, given the conditions. But she continued down the hall, and quickly discerned from the spacing of the numbers that she would be going all the way down the hall. As she neared the end of the dark, narrow and blisteringly hot hallway she began to hear music. It started out faint, but the closer she got to the end of the hall, the louder the music got. It sounded like someone had a radio playing on one of the easy listening stations, because it was a soulful melody that seemed to be just the kind of piano jazz piece she usually heard in her mother’s car.

She looked down at the card once more, and discovered the next space should be her destination. The music appeared to be coming from that space, as it got much louder when she finally reached the door in question. Catherine took in a deep breath, dabbed at her face with the tissue she pulled from her purse, and then knocked on the door.

As soon as her knuckled rapped on the door, the music stopped completely; which struck her as odd somehow. However, that thought would be lost when the door opened to the smiling face of her friend. “Wow! You musta caught a good one tonight.” Warrick turned to allow her entry into the space, looked down at his watch and then said, “I figured you’d be at least another hour, minimum.”

Catherine walked into the room and was instantly blasted with cool air, to which she gasped in response to. Warrick laughed at her reaction, “Ya know, for a native desert rat, you’ve got a lot of trouble with the heat.”

“Well, I grew up around the casinos, so air conditioning is part of my blood now.” The shock of the air conditioning was only the first surprise for Catherine. When she looked around the room, she found a bankers box overflowing with sheet music sitting underneath a brass lamp stand, a large and well-worn black leather sofa, and the suspect air conditioning unit in the window. But her biggest surprise came from the antique upright piano resting against the wall of the tiny space. Catherine tried to spot the radio she heard from the hallway, but there was not one to be found in the whole place. That was when the truth dawned on her. “That was you playing?!”

Warrick blushed at her outburst and nodded his head. “I’m pretty rusty, but since I had to move it here, I really don’t play too much anymore.” She stared at him dumbfounded and he motioned for her to take a seat on the couch. As she sat down, he pulled the stool away from the piano and settled it closer to the couch as he settled on it. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Catherine removed her sidearm, dropping it into her handbag, which she rested onto the floor at her feet. She did not understand him and so when she looked up, she asked, “I don’t get it.”

“I can’t keep it here anymore, because they’ve had too many break ins lately. And those regular storage places aren’t any better.” Catherine nodded and he continued, “I’ve already taken over Steph and Thomas’ garage. And I don’t know when I’m gonna be able to afford a place where I can keep this thing. It’s gonna take me a while to recover from this whole divorce thing, financially.” She could tell Warrick having to tell her that hurt him deeply. “Steph and Thomas have already been so cool, so I wouldn’t even want to ask them about this. Nick’s won’t work either. And Greg’s… Well…”

She stopped him before he could continue, “It’s Greg’s, I know.” She looked at the piano and shrugged, “Well, if you wanted to sell it, I could see if Sa-…”

“I can’t sell it!”

His vehemence scared her, but more importantly, she could tell her words had scared him. “Well, it would solve a big chunk of your fin-…”

“Catherine, I can’t sell it. It was my grandmother’s. It’s all I got left.” And that was her answer. Catherine felt her heart sink when she realized what she had just done. “Look, I’m sorry. I ju-jus-…”

She reached over, put her hand over his forearm to quiet him and said, “What do you need?”

“Well, I ah, was talkin’ to Linds at the party…” He looked up into her eyes and their gazes were locked. “Anyway, she said she’s been taking lessons for a while, but she’s only got a keyboard to practice on at home.”

Catherine shook her head and said, “Yeah, my parent’s were talking about getting her one of the electric pian-…” And that was when she understood what he was trying to do. “Warrick, you cannot give Lindsey a piano!”

“No, but I can loan her mine.” His eyes were pleading with hers and she found her resolve melting fast. “Just until I get back on my feet. And that way she can decide if it’s what she really wants and you won’t be out anything.” He was quickly becoming desperate and Catherine was struggling with the whole concept. “I could even give her some lessons… I just… Catherine, I don’t know what else to do.” He hung his head down in defeat.

She took a deep breath and then moved up to sit on the edge of the sofa. When he had not responded, she took her other hand and tucked it under his chin to bring his gaze back up. However, she had not planned on just how close that would bring his green-eyed gaze to hers and she had to fight the lump forming in her throat because of the raw emotion she felt. She had gotten excruciatingly close to him in that simple gesture of comfort. “I-I just don-don’t know anything anymore.” The last word seemed to trail out of his mouth in a whisper, because they were less than an inch apart, and she could feel his breath as it blew across her face.

The tension between them in that moment was actually palpable, and for Catherine it was almost unbearable. When he started to move forward, to close the gap between them, she knew what she was about to do would be the hardest thing she had ever done in her life. “Stop.”

His eyes opened wide with shock and his whole body began to flush with his embarrassment. He struggled to deal with everything raging in his head and between his distraction and the low volume of her voice, he missed what she said. He was only brought back to the conscious level by the feel of her grasp wrapping tightly around his arm. “I just… I can’t be that thing.”

The pain he saw in her eyes startled him, but it was her words he had trouble understanding. “What?”

She took in a deep breath, but never broke the contact between them. “You’re still going through this whole divorce mess, and it’s going to take you a while to sort through it. Believe me, I know. And I just can’t afford to throw my hopes away on this when I know you’re just trying to get through it.” He understood what she was saying, but not why and the confusion showed on his face. “I can’t be that crazy thing you did to get over her.”

To say he was shocked at her assessment would have been a gross understatement, and to demonstrate his disbelief he reeled back in his seat and then jumped to his feet. She fell back into the sofa from the surprise of his sudden movements.

Warrick started pacing inside the tiny room, with his hand wringing tightly at the back of his neck. He fought to put words to all of the things bouncing around inside his head.

His pacing appeared to be a long term project to Catherine and she thought it would be best if she left him to sort through what had been said and whatever he was thinking. She scooted up to the edge of the couch to rise as she said, “Look… I should get out of here and leave you a-…”

He flew across the room in an instant and had his hands wrapped tightly around her arms, stopping her from going any further. “NO!” The raw and unbridled emotion she saw in his eyes when hers flew up to meet his gaze burned into her soul and she was rendered completely speechless.

As she watched through terrified eyes, his mouth moved, but no sound came. They were unmoved, like statues, for an immeasurable period of time. But it was finally broken when he lowered his chin to his chest and sunk down onto his knees in a heap as he released his hold on her arms. Still dumbfounded by the drama of the moment, Catherine remained stock still, but that would change when she heard the whisper escape his fallen countenance. “She was the crazy thing.”

Not knowing why, Catherine lowered herself back to the couch and reached her hand out to tuck her fingers under his chin as she tried to get him to raise his gaze once more. He only shook his head and whispered again, “She was the crazy thing I did t-… to get over… you.” Each word dripped with pain and Catherine found that her mouth had gone completely dry, leaving her without the ability speak. In fact, with that final word, she had gone completely catatonic. She only held still, almost as though she was afraid a single movement, a single breath would make everything melt away.

Slumped there on the floor, Warrick found he had finally reached the end of his rope. Everything was slipping away from him and he had nothing left to lose any longer. In that darkest moment, his heart had finally spoken for him, in a way he had never allowed before.

The first time, he remained silent, fearing she could never care for him the way he cared for her, and so he settled for another woman. But he had been wrong. When she was about to walk out the door, he knew it would be his last chance, but even then, the words were failing him. He did not know how he could convince her that his heart was hers, and always had been. He could not find the words to tell her that she was in his every waking and sleeping thought. He fought for a way to let her know that he was unable to envision a world without her in it. His heart struggled to tell his mind how to speak the words that would tell her he wanted to spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of anything she could offer him. But mostly he needed to tell her, “It’s always been you.”

His eyes shot up when he realized he had actually spoken those words, and what he found staring back at him, with tears streaming down her face made his heart contract. The fingers that had been resting under his chin began to trace the line of his jaw, and when they raked down the side of his face he found himself leaning into them. Her other hand reached out to wipe across his forehead, and then trailed down the other side of his face as she moved to cradle it in her grasp. He closed his eyes for only a moment, reveling in the warmth of her touch, and he hoped against all hope he never lost that contact.

When his hands came up from his sides, she had not noticed the movement, because her gaze was transfixed on those tortured green eyes. But when they made contact with the sides of her legs she felt an electricity surge into her body that made her keenly aware of his presence there. Her breath caught in her throat as he gathered up the courage to slide his hands further up to rest at her hips, but their eyes never lost contact.

So intent was their shared gaze, she almost failed to register that he was rising up from his crumpled position on the floor to stand on his knees before her. His broad hands continued their ascent up the side of her body until they were holding her shoulders in their firm grasp, and still she could not breakaway from his intense stare.

She was about to speak, but he had one more thing to say that would shatter her whole world. “It’s always gonna be you.” His hands drifted up over her shoulders, along the length of her neck, and rested on each side of her face as he pulled her to him. His lips, soft and unbelievably warm, caressed hers as though he were making a solemn vow to her with only his lips as they pressed into hers.

Somewhere in that tender and intimate gesture, things began to change. Catherine did not know when they changed, but she soon found herself wrapping her arms around his neck, desperate to get just a centimeter closer to him. The kiss suddenly became a hunger they both shared for each other as it deepened into something neither of them had ever experienced before. It overwhelmed them, overtook their senses, until the only thing they were aware of were the desperate caresses of their tongues as they each fought for purchase within the other’s mouth.

Then were was the sound of a pop as their lips finally parted, but Catherine’s gasps grew ragged as she found her neck being assaulted by his lips and she threw her head back at the sensation. That move only gave him a better angle at which to explore her throat, which served to excite her further.

Her hands were going on their own exploration, as they roamed up and down his back. But they kept getting caught up in the shirt he was wearing, so she tried dragging her hands down his back to the hem of his shirt. However, she was stopped when he surged forward, pinning her to the back of the couch by her shoulders as his mouth began to trail from her throat to her collarbones.

With the object of so many of his fantasies within his grasp, Warrick was no longer in control of his actions. With his fear of loss, and fueled by his long denied desires, he wanted nothing but to abandon himself as he devoured the woman beneath him. He felt as though he had waited a lifetime to be in that position and there was nothing to stop him from getting what he wanted, ever again. As his mouth glided over her collarbone and onto her shoulder, he found the strap of her tank top and decided that it was just another obstacle he needed to overcome before he could have what he wanted.

His hands trailed down the length of her body, stopping at her waist, he grabbed at the shirt and tugged it out of her pants, and then pulled it up her back until it reached her neck. He looked up for only a moment, and met her gaze with a feral smile spread over his lips as he saw the wantonness in her heavy lidded eyes. The shirt was off in an instant, and she made no complaints about the action.

Catherine was beyond rational thought once she got a look at his devilish grin. He was a man possessed; possessed with his desire for her, and she was not complaining in the least. She felt every ounce of the passion he was demonstrating for her, and she wanted him as badly as it would appear he wanted her. However, in her current position, she could do little more than hold onto his head as his lips laid claim to her flesh with his rapturous kisses. But that changed quickly when she realized he was moving her down onto the couch with every touch from his powerful hands. The next thing she knew, she was lying flat on the sofa, with only one foot still on the floor. She had always known he was a smooth operator, but it was only in the moment that she understood it held true to other aspects of his life.

Before she knew what was happening, she felt his hot breath grazing over her breast as she turned her head to watch her bra falling to the floor. When his amazing lips suckled at the nipple, her body responded for her by arching her back up and pressing herself into his mouth further. She could feel him smile against the skin of her breast and then he began to work his tongue over the aroused peaks; first one and then the other. She was completely lost in the delicious sensation of his mouth.

Warrick found himself falling into the same rhythm her body was pulsing with under his tender attentions, and it made his breathing grow ragged. He almost became lost in the seductive dance of her body, but he felt the stirrings deep in his loins and knew that he could not go as slow as he wanted. He wanted to go on pleasuring her forever, but his own need was rapidly building and it would no longer be denied.

While his mouth continued to bring her to the crest of arousal, his hands began to work their way further south. When they made contact with the button on her pants, they made quick work of the fasteners and then he tucked his thumbs into the waistband of the pants and her panties as he slowly pulled them down her hips.

Her hands grasped at his back, and for a moment he thought she was trying to stop him from going further. His gaze shot up to meet hers to confirm his suspicions, but she only balled her hands up in the fabric of his shirt. He smiled, finally understanding that she had her own need to feel his skin.

He propped himself up on his hands and leaned forward, making another claim on her mouth as he grinned his way down. Her hands found what they had been looking for and he felt his shirt lift off of his back, and when he lifted up from her mouth the shirt was pulled over his head and then tossed onto the floor to co-mingle with her discarded clothing.

She could finally run her hands over his warm flesh and that alone sent tendrils of arousal steeping through her body. She pressed her fingers into the thick muscle of his back as he made his way down her chest with his tongue. There were so many sensations coursing through her body that she was having trouble individuating them, but they all boiled down to one word; Warrick.

When his touch left her breasts she let loose a whimper, but his touch returned when he pressed his lips into her belly. As his tongue tickled around her navel she nearly exploded from the feeling of intimacy the sensation brought to her soul. However, the real explosion came after she felt the cool breeze of the air conditioner between her legs in the instant before she registered that she was completely naked as his soft, warm lips made contact with her center. She lost conscious thought for, how long, she did not know, but she knew the waves of pleasure crashing over her body left her with little doubt as to what had happened while her mind disintegrated. She gasped as those waves overcame her last defenses and a low, guttural moan escaped her throat.

He felt her whole body shutter with the effects of his mouth within the tender folds of her center and it caused his own arousal to quickly become painful. He reached down to his pants and began to undo the belt and the button when he realized her movements went beyond that of a climax as he was thrust backwards into the arm of the sofa with her mouth pressed firmly to his in a passionate kiss.

Warrick felt her hands fumbling around, and he was brought back into the moment as he understood that her needs were probably just as powerful as his, and he moved his hands to assist her. However, she pushed his hands away and he found she had not been fumbling as badly as he thought as he lost his breath when he felt her hands wrap around him.

Catherine’s next move was to begin stroking him free of his pants, and then she lowered the condom she had produced with her fumbling down the full length of him. He struggled to remain focused as spots began to dance over his vision with the amazing feeling of her hands encompassing him so fully.

Her lips crashed into his once more as she released her grip, planted her hands in the taut muscles of his chest and raised herself up. Warrick knew exactly what was happening and he guided himself into her as her hips began to lower on top of him. In a flash of sheer physical pleasure, he felt himself become buried inside her and his head was thrown back from the sensation.

Catherine’s baser nature had taken over, and the only thought on her mind was having him inside of her. She took the upper hand, and enjoyed the tiny yelp that came from his throat. With her hands buried into his chest, she had enough balance to be able to rock up and down over his full length and breadth. Her body was screaming with the sensations that flooded her, and then her hips began to writhe around him as well, taking him even deeper into her center. The friction being generated from her writhing and rocking, along with his hips thrusting up into her was sending her into another climax and she bit down on her lip to try and fight it back.

She was surprised when she found Warrick reaching up to bring her head down into an even more intensely passionate kiss and she lost complete control of her climax when his tongue pressed into her mouth and his arms wrapped around her as though he was holding on for dear life. When his back and hips began to arch up into her she understood his need to have her in his arms. As the last of their climaxes died out, they were still moving in a synchronous rhythm, one with the other.

Neither of them wanted to move, but she knew it had to happen, and so she had rolled off him, carefully. She had her back to him when she stood up, but he took her hand and turned her back around. When she looked down at him, she could see the desire in his eyes and she knew that it only mirrored her own. As he pulled her back into his arms, she discovered he had already disposed of the condom, and she had to smirk at their combined proficiency in the technical aspects. “Where were you going?” His voice was like smooth bourbon to her ears and she laid her head down onto his chest.

“Mmmm… That A/C is a little much.” She curled up against him for the warmth; both physical and emotional.

He reached for the back of the couch and pulled down the blanket he had folded up on top of it. He opened it up and stretched it over her body, making sure she was completely covered, and then he rubbed up and down her arms and her back, “Better?”

The gesture itself warmed her, but the blanket made it all the more palpable and her only answer was the purr that escaped her throat. “Mmmmmm…”

Warrick smirked at the sound and then blinked his eyes from the sleep that was threatening to overtake him. He brought his wrist up to look at his watch and was surprised to see the time, “Do we need to worry about Lindsey?”

She pushed up from his chest to stare at him in disbelief, “What?!”

“Well, it’s almost time for school… So, I wanted to ma-…”

She shook her head and squinted her eyes as she said, “First off, the fact that you know when she has school is too much. And second… She has an in-service day, so she spent the night with her grandparents, because Sam is putting her to work today.” She continued to shake her head, but a smile crept into the corners of her mouth, “And I still can’t believe you know when she has to be to school.”

He smiled and shrugged at her incredulous stare, “Hey, we’ve been working together for almost ten years… You think I don’t know when you need to get your daughter to school?” She finally nodded at his answer and sunk back down to lay her head on his chest. “Besides, I’ve done my time transporting that precious cargo on occasion.” He paused, and then kissed the top of her head when he continued, “It used to be the only way I knew how to be close to her Moms.”

She chuckled at the realization that Warrick had been such a big a part of her life for so long, and yet she never noticed how much he paid attention to his place in it. He had been there when she could not express her fears to anyone else. He stood by her and up for her through her messy divorce. He had been a true friend to her through it all, and she enjoyed every moment of it, thinking that it would be the only way she could have him in her life. As she rose and fell with his respirations, she could hear his strong and caring heart beating in his chest, and she understood how very wrong she had been.

“Well, if we don’t have any place to be just yet, let’s catch a nap here.” His voice was heavily laden with his exhaustion as he spoke. “Then we can sit down and figure the rest of this thing o-…”

“Bein’ kinda bossy, aren’t you?” She was only teasing him and to show it, she placed a gentle kiss on the skin at the base of his neck.

He smiled at her teasing and answered, “Nah, I just don’t think I’d make it down the elevator, let alone to the cars.”

Catherine felt the same way, but she simply could not let the opportunity pass without comment. “Yeah, well, in light of recent events, I believe you should leave the thinking to me.”

He drowsily giggled at her insinuation and only answered, “Yes, Ma’am.”

She flipped her head over to shake her hair out of the way and then looked out into the room. When her gaze rested on the piano, another thought jumped into her brain. With her final breath, before she drifted off to sleep, she had one last thing to say. “And another thing… I’ll take the piano, but only on one condition.”

His laugh vibrated from his chest into hers at the thought of her even remembering his grandmother’s piano after everything that had happened and then said, “What’s that?”

One of those purely feline smiles spread across her face as he looked down into her dangerously blue eyes, and she said, “You have to come with it.”

EPILOGUE

Three weeks… Three weeks he fought to host the Thanksgiving Dinner at his place; At OUR place, he corrected himself. And in three weeks time, everyone shot down each and every legitimate reason he had for wanting it there; save the one he could not share with them. So, they would be having Thanksgiving Dinner at Catherine’s; Catherine’s and Warrick’s, he corrected himself again. That was certainly an odd turn of events for everyone involved, but even he had to admit that it was long overdue.

He remarked at how quickly the two progressed through their relationship. They had moved in together the very next week and had already slipped into a seamlessly comfortable routine before the month was out. It amazed him how anyone could do something like that. It had taken he and Sara more than a month to seriously discuss the possibility, and only then for practicality’s sake. It was silly to have to drive across town for either of them to change clothes before a shift every day. And wasteful to always take two cars, so it was the only practical solution. His thoughts made him realize that he really was as dense as Catherine had been accusing him of for years. It was only practical, because I couldn’t bear to be without her for a single night once I knew what it was I had been missing.

Three days… For three days he had been furiously scribbling into a notebook, whenever he could steal away a moment to collect his thoughts. The only concession he had been allowed in the arrangements for this first and momentous Thanksgiving Dinner was that he would be afforded the toast before the meal. His mother would have corrected him, and said that he would be giving the blessing. But he felt no right to bless anything, since it would be a blessing for himself, if everything went as he had hoped.

So, for three days he worked diligently preparing exactly what he was going to say. He had gone through several books of quotations and even found a website that would look up keywords for him, but he could not find another soul who had ever felt as he did. How could the great minds of countless centuries fail me for thoughts and words at a time like this?! He was going to have to go it alone on this one, and that thought frightened him more than anything else. And after three days of trying to put to words everything he wanted to make known, all he had to show for it was a notebook that had the remnants of seventy-nine torn pages along the spiral and one coldly, blank page calling out to him with its many taunts.

Three hours… In three hours he had to go to the airport to pick his mother up for her second visit in less than a year. It had been nearly ten years since the last time she even left the California coast, and now she was visiting him in Las Vegas for the second time in almost as many months. However, this trip had been a special request from her son, and he knew she would not deny him. He had taken the entire week off, in preparation for her arrival on Monday, but a last minute emergency at her gallery changed her plans. That gave him three days to worry over what he was going to say to her when they first saw each other. He had hoped to ask her advice during their little visit together, but instead he was left to his own devices, and a nearly depleted spiral notebook of failures. He was certain she would have decrypted his intentions from the moment he requested her presence at the holidays. And he knew she would see it all on his face the moment he saw her at the airport. His mother had been the one woman to always know his mind. Had been.

His pencil pressed firmly into that hideously white sheet of lined paper, his thoughts finally began to pour from his mind and through the lead as it looped across and down the page. Once he understood what he was doing, it became effortless, and as the final words traced themselves onto the paper he closed the cover of the notebook and glanced at the clock on the wall. It’s time.

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The shirt and pants were easy to get by her, but the tie and jacket had been a fight. The shirt was one she bought for him, so he knew she liked it, and he liked the dark almost charcoal quality of the blue in the shirt. The pants; they went well with the shirt. The suit jacket he almost got away with by telling her that it was a little chilly outside, and it did go with the pants, but she insisted that Catherine made a point to say it was to be a casual gathering. In the end, he told her he would take it off after they arrived, and that seemed to win him the argument as they got ready for dinner. The tie, however, had been his biggest problem, because he never wore a tie, unless he was going into court. When he was about to lose the fight altogether, he was forced to lie. He told her that his mother preferred to dress for dinner; more so on special occasions. He would probably pay for that white lie later, but he decided it would be worth it in the end.

So, there they were, riding over to Catherine and Warrick’s for the big Thanksgiving Dinner. Everyone would be there, and with any luck, those who had sacrificed and taken on-call for the night would never get a page. It’s important for everyone to be there, he thought as he checked the rearview mirror for the hundredth time. Sara and his mother had chosen to sit in the back seat so they could talk, and whenever it got quiet, Gil feared for the worst. The thought of Sara having a private conversation with his mother worried him to no end.

When they finally arrived, Gil was surprised to see so many cars lining the streets, but then he remembered that Catherine lived in a neighborhood with a lot of families, so it was to be expected that they, too, would be sharing the holiday with their families. He pulled his car up next to Brass’ squad car, which meant he was on-call tonight, and flipped on his hazard lights to give him time to help Sara and his mother out of the car. He was not sure where he would end up parking and he did not want his mother to walk very far. She might have been a very spry seventy-six, but that did not mean he wished to push his luck.

As he made his way around the car, he was surprised to find Sara had already exited the car and turned to help his mother out. He was mildly embarrassed by her taking over for him, but his mother reached up and touched his cheek as Sara took her arm and they walked to the sidewalk. He signed to her that he should walk them inside before parking the car, but she had waved him on and told him she and Sara would be just fine. And to take further wind out of his argument, Nick walked up behind them and offered to escort the ladies into the party.

As Gil got back in his car and started looking for a place to park it, he was glad to see that Nick had also disregarded Catherine’s admonitions it being a casual affair. He would be able to convince Sara to allow him to keep his jacket, so as to offer support to Nick for also not following the instructions they had been given.

It took him a little while, but around the corner and down the block a bit, he was finally able to find a parking spot. When he realized his pace would cause him to break a sweat, he tried to slow his footsteps as he made his way to Catherine and Warrick’s house. He was forced to go back to the car once, when he realized he had forgotten the wine, but his mind was steadily replaying his carefully crafted toast over and over until he was certain it had become ingrained there. With any luck, he would not have to refer to the crumpled piece of notebook paper in his breast pocket.

He was about to set the case of wine down on the stoop to ring the bell when the door swung open, revealing the smiling face of Catherine’s delightful daughter. Lindsey had obviously been placed there to wait for him and she beamed at his arrival, beckoning him to come inside. “Hey Gil! Sara said you had a heavy load.”

He passed her quickly and held up the case slightly to signal his hello to Jim as he acknowledged his arrival. “Nice! And you pull out all the stops when I can’t even have a drop.” Jim grabbed the other side of the case and helped him to carry it into the kitchen.

Once they set it down on the counter, Gil reached into his jacket pocket and handed his old friend a tall and heavy box. “For after the shift.”

Jim opened the top of the box and halfway pulled up the bottle it contained to reveal the label. “Glenlivet… Almost makes being on-call tonight worth it.” Brass gave his old friend a slap on the back and then had to make one more comment, “So, you moonlighting as a maitre’d at the Pike?” Gil gave him one of his disapproving glares and the man laughed it off as they walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

In the living room, he found his mother and Stephanie on the couch with Lindsey sitting between them as the young girl clumsily tried to fashion her hands around a few basic signs. Sara and Catherine were off to the side having something of an animated conversation, which again worried him. There was something about the women in his life being able to conspire against him that caused him intense concern.

On the other side of the room he found Greg in what looked like a pleasant conversation with Sam and Lily, but considering the young man’s fascination with the lore of Old Vegas, he should not have been surprised by his interest in the older couple. He continued to look around, but he failed to spot Catherine’s sister and her family, so when the woman was about to walk past him he had to ask, “Hey, where’re Nancy and the kids?”

Catherine tilted her head to the side and said, “In-laws this year.” He thought that would be the end of it, but she put her hand on his shoulder and leaned back to whisper to him, “Glad you can follow directions, Dapper Dan.” He demurred to her crack, because it was true, but as he looked around, it would appear that no one followed her instructions for a “casual get-together.”

He was about to join Sara, who was talking to Warrick when his progress across the room was impeded by the gray haired beauty seated near the sofa. “So, Gil… How does it feel?”

He smiled, because he knew exactly what she was asking, even more than Elizabeth did at that moment, “Almost perfect… But you already knew that.” She patted his arm and smiled, so he continued to make his way across the room.

As he reached Sara’s side, Warrick excused himself to check on something in the kitchen and he was left alone, mostly, with the most beautiful woman in the room. She’d chosen to wear a dress that night, because she told him she was not about to outdone by a lousy entomologist. He had tried to explain that he was actually a very good entomologist, but his argument had been cut short by her kiss, and he had forgotten all about it. Until he saw her standing there. “So, a lousy entomologist and failed physicist walk into a part-…” She wrapped her arms through the crook of his arm and pulled him to her, flashing that electric smile at him and he just had to stop talking to kiss her cheek. “Does that mean I’m off the hook for the suit?”

Before she could answer, Catherine had enlisted Nick’s assistance in getting everyone to pay attention, because when Nick cut loose with that whistle, everyone stopped. However, instead of Catherine’s voice, everyone heard Stephanie holler, “I know that sound!” And Nick proceeded to turn about fifty shades of red.

“Yeah, but this time he doesn’t need a lawyer.” Catherine added insult to injury and Nick turned away from the brassy hostess, trying to skulk away to the shadows. “Okay, I think that should conclude the entertainment for the evening… How about we all make our way to the table?”

There was a cacophony of sounds as everyone got up and prepared for the trek into the dining room. The table was filled with foods of every possible variety for the traditions of Thanksgiving. Gil and Warrick began to uncork the bottles of wine so they could begin to pour it into glasses once everyone was seated. It took some doing to get everyone into their seats, but as the two men made their way around the table, the general consensus was that they were all happy to be there. When Gil reached Lindsay’s seat, she eagerly held out her glass, and he gave her a disapproving drop of his gaze. “Oh c’mon!”

Warrick laughed from the other side of the table and proceeded to go back to the cart he had wheeled in with all the wine and reached over the table to hand Gil an unfamiliar bottle. “You don’t even like grape juice, what makes you think the fermented ones are any better.” Lindsay stuck her tongue out at Warrick and he just continued to laugh. “I got you something else.”

Gil took a look at the label and popped the cap off of the top, draped the towel over his arm, and dipped his head to get Lindsay’s attention. “It was a very good year in the Washington orchards, Mademoiselle. I think you’ll find the bouquet quite amusing, and the bubbles will tickle your nose.” When Gil wiggled his nose at her and she laughed. Lindsay reached up to look at the bottle; Sparkling Apple Cider, non-alcoholic. She rolled her eyes, but still let Gil pour the drink into her glass.

Before he continued down the table, he dropped the bottle onto the table in front of her. She’s got a strong constitution, she’ll be able to handle it. He chuckled to himself a bit at his last thought, and for the first time that night, he felt a little bit relaxed.

When he and Warrick finished, he knew that he had finally run out of time. His big moment was about to arrive, and he had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. And as though on cue, Catherine got up and went to his side to offer him a little encouragement. “The troops are waiting for your orders, General.” Her hand on his back was his final signal. His time had come.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Catherine take her seat next to Warrick, who immediately sought out her hand for comfort. He took a deep breath and patted the sheet of folded and crumpled paper in his breast pocket, just to make sure it was still there, if he needed it. In his other hand, he found that someone had slipped his glasses into his palm, and when he looked down, he found Sara’s smiling face. And in that face he found the strength.

He took a deep breath and began, “I think it would be safe to say, this has been a year of transitions, for all of us. In each of our lives, there has been a turning point. However, the thing that struck me as we prepared for this day was the fact that each of those turns pointed each of us towards one another. I found this to be a profound discovery. And I came upon that discovery in the most mundane of circumstances. Suffice it to say, it involved ironing a shirt. Not a single one of us can say we would have made it through these events without one another.

“This may not be profound for most people, but for a group of solitary, determined, driven and often consumed people, that is an unbelievable miracle. And speaking for myself, a miracle somewhere on the order of the formation of the planets and stars.” There was a small chuckle that rolled over the room with his comment, but he only smiled and continued.

“Someone once told me,” he looked pointedly at Catherine as he said his next words. “That I needed to lift my head up out of the microscope and look around. That it didn’t matter if I wanted them to or not, but people were forming a family around me. I don’t think I understood what she meant back then, but I certainly do now. For a large part of my life, it has just been me and Mom and she’ll be the first to say, that sometimes, it was just me. I understood myself, and certainty was important to me. But there was this chemistry professor, and she had sent her husband to talk to the ‘bug kid’ about some case he was stuck on. He showed me a world where I could take uncertainty and decipher its codes into incontrovertible fact and that excited me. But this unlikely pair also showed me something else. They showed me a world of wonder and possibility through the greenest and wildest eyes ever put on this earth, and she called me Uncle Gil.” Stephanie smiled up at him and he delighted at the way her freckles bunched up and made apples on her cheeks. “Through her, I rediscovered my passion for learning and the mysteries of life itself. She taught me how to laugh, at the world and at myself. And when she was thrust back into the proximity of my life it somehow became so much richer. And thankfully, everyone else felt the same way, so that transition was effortless.”

He looked back out at the table and kept going, “Other transitions were not so easy, but through them all, we have grown, not only stronger and wiser, but closer. Some of those growing pains were not what we were looking for,” His glaze dropped to Warrick for a moment. “But we learned from them, and found the next transition to be exactly what we had been looking for.” He could see Catherine lean in closer to Warrick and Lindsey smiling at her mother.

“As I am certain there are those here who can atest, I have never been someone accustomed to change.” There was another wave of chuckles across the table, but he only bowed his head slightly to show his understanding. “But some change is not only necessary, but life sustaining. So, I am trying very hard to be more accepting of change, as long as I can experience it with the people who mean the most to me. Catherine was right, and I know she is so happy to hear those words, but it is the truth.”

The chuckles made him pause a moment. “She was right when she told me there was a family forming around me, and today, and for the rest of my life, I am eternally grateful to you all for being my family. Even when I had my head buried in that microscope, and could not see what my blind ignorance was doing to those people I cared about. So, in the spirit of the day,” he reached down for his glass and held it up in the air, waiting for everyone else to follow suit. Once he saw a glass raised in front of each smiling face he finished his toast. “Thank you all for being the only family anyone could ever hope to be a part of. Thank you.” He brought the glass to his lips and everyone else did the same, but as their glasses lowered he saw the mist in the eyes of several of those present, including his own.

As everyone brought their glasses down to the table, they quickly realized Gil remained standing, so the quiet murmurs started. He took in another deep breath and then his voice had them holding theirs. “And if you all would indulge me this, I would be even more grateful…” His hand subconsciously moved to his right jacket pocket, just to make sure that the delicate satchel was still there. “Believe it or not, I was once foolish and fanciful. The foolishness haunted me most of my life, but I lost touch with that other part of my nature somewhere along the way. When I was young, it caused me to do some pretty outrageous things. As a result of one particularly bad choice, my mother was forced to take action. She told me that when she thought I was ready for the responsibility again, she would give back to me something I had considered very precious. Well, apparently, it had taken me such a long time to reach that pinnacle, I had actually forgotten all about her promise, or even what she had taken from me. It wasn’t something I had any use for as I made my way through life, and she hadn’t seen that I was yet ready for the responsibility, so she continued to safeguard it for me. Seems, for all my supposed maturity and knowledge, my mother still knew what was in my best interest.” He looked down at his mother, and she graced him with a gentle and knowing smile.

“Anyway, during her last visit, when I learned just how much she had been conspiring with a certain red-headed monster,” His glare at Stephanie was met with a mock look of innocence. “I also learned what an amazingly wise woman my mother truly was. She had spent more than a week here and it wasn’t until the last night, that she decided I had finally reached that mark of maturity. There was no big show, or any pomp. She just slipped it into my hand and said very simply, ‘I think you can handle the responsibility now.’” He shook his head to show his disbelief at that moment. “I actually had no idea what she was talking about, because the comment just seemed so out of place.” His mother actually laughed at his show, because she had not witnessed his reaction to her gesture that night, but everyone else laughed because of his confusion.

“When I opened the satchel and looked inside…” He shook his head again, almost laughing at himself. “Well, let’s just say I was not expecting that at the time, and certainly not from her. But as I stared at it and the door she entered to leave me there alone, I had one of those moments of clarity everyone has talked about. It had only ever happened to me once before, and just like the first time I was not prepared for it… And oddly enough, it happened in exactly the same location.” He raised his eyebrows a moment, as he had just made that connection. It also meant that he was straying from his planned dialogue and he needed to reel it in if he was to keep his audience.

“Well, at that point, nearly everyone in my life had come to the same conclusion, but it took my mother pretty much smacking me upside the head before I could connect the same dots. Seems Once again, I had forgotten to…” He looked down at Sara, who was looking up at him in total and sublime confusion. “‘Think outside the box.’” He reached his right hand down into his pocket and slowly brought the satchel out.

She still had no idea what he was doing, but she suddenly felt like the entire world had disappeared, except for the two of them. His eyes positively transfixed on hers, she was almost afraid to look away. From the corner of her eye, she could tell he was moving, but she was still lost in that steely blue gaze. She felt him reach out with his left hand and take her hand in it. As the rest of the world rapidly came back into focus his mouth began to move again.

“I think Mom was right… I’m ready for the responsibility now.” He placed the delicate velvet satchel into the palm of her right hand and waited for her to look at the item. It seemed like a lifetime of waiting before her dark amber gaze broke with his and she looked into her palm. She looked back at him for reassurance and then to her palm once again. As she tilted open the satchel he could not help himself and he whispered, “It was my grandmother’s.”

Sara treated the satchel like a dangerous thing, and cautiously dipped a finger inside to get a look at the contents when all the air rushed out of her lungs the instant her fingertip made contact with it. He was not sure it was a good sign until his vision blurred as she jumped to her feet, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and he felt the collar of his shirt getting damp. He could only assume that was a good thing, but his insecurities told him he had better ask, so he whispered into her ear, “Is that a yes?”

Barely able to speak, she only nodded into his neck with a faint and very muffled affirmative.

He had no idea how long they stood there, but the natives had started to get restless. The next thing he knew someone began to clap, and when the voice followed, he knew exactly who it was. “Well, I think I speak for every one here when I say…” Stephanie motioned for Greg to cover Lindsey’s ears before she continued. “ABOUT FUCKING TIME!”

“Stephanie Gayle!” Elizabeth shouted at her daughter. Catherine smacked her left arm and Thomas got the right, while Warrick reached over Catherine to pop her in the back of the head with his napkin.

“OWWWW” She was holding both arms and squinting from the blow to the head. “What?! Like everyone else wasn’t thinking it?”

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