In A Song: All I Ask Of You

All I Ask of You pt 11

Sara walked into the lab an hour before shift started, just like always. During her talks with Grissom they had decided to not change anything in their routines that would tip off the rest of the team about their relationship. They had even gotten Sidekicks on personal accounts so they could message and call each other without having a log of it at the lab. She was in the break room when the rest of the team wandered in.

“Well look who’s back. I guess you and Grissom didn’t kill each other at the conference.”

Nick chuckled. “I don’t know Catherine. Griss isn’t here yet so she might have dumped him in a river or something.”

Sara just smirked at them. “No, but I considered it. Especially after he dragged me onto those damn roller coasters.”

Greg laughed. “Oh it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Greg have you ever been on a roller coaster with Grissom?” He shook his head. “Well it’s not something I would recommend. I made the mistake of telling him I had never been on one. You know, trying to back out of it. But no, he drags me on this thing, locks this thing down over my head so I’m stuck there, and then he starts laughing.”

Warrick sat his coffee down. “Oh he didn’t. Not the laugh. The one time I rode with him he did that. Man that laugh borders on evil.”

Grissom stepped around the corner and stuck his head in the break room. “Hey no picking on the boss. I was at least nice.”

Sara looked at him like he was kidding and he defended himself. “Well I was. Did I come in here and tell everyone that the Manhattan Express had Warrick screaming like a girl? No. And I’m sure Greg and Nick would have loved the ammo.”

Grissom walked down to his office grinning the whole way. Once there he sent a text message to Sara and started sorting through his paperwork. Back in the break room everyone was laughing when Sara’s Sidekick beeped. Catherine tried not to look, but the words “From BoyToy” popped out at her. From the smile on Sara’s face this was definitely someone new.

Shift went relatively quickly with just a few new cases coming in. Warrick and Nick caught up on some loose end paperwork while Sara took Greg out on a trick roll. Grissom and Catherine were packing up after processing a break in when his Sidekick beeped. She closed the back of the Denali and saw him grinning from ear to ear. She glanced at the screen and saw “BuggyGal” and groaned. “Don’t tell me there’s another one?”
Grissom looked puzzled. “Another what?”

“Another one of you bug freaks out there.”

“Even outside of the scientific community, liking bugs does not make someone a freak.”

“Whatever. So I assume ‘BuggyGal’ is a woman who is into bugs?” She couldn’t miss the grin. “Well well well. Send you away to a conference and the bug guy winds up meeting a bug girl.”

“Aren’t you the one who has been telling me to get my head out of the microscope? Wouldn’t it make sense that I find someone I have something in common with?”

“Gil you know I’m happy for you. I really am. But when I told you to get your head out of the microscope, I meant for you to pay attention to things that were right in front of you. For God sakes if you wanted a personal life, you didn’t have to go clear across the country to get one. Do you have any idea how long Sara has been just pining away for you? God, wake up and smell the pheromones.”

Grissom just looked at her and climbed into the passenger seat. “I know what you’re saying about Sara, but you know that whole situation wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“Why the hell not? Sara’s a great person, she’s smart, she works just as much as you do, and she’s in the field. That would be perfect for you. You wouldn’t have to worry about your job getting in the way of the relationship. You wouldn’t have to explain why you had a rough day. And you’d be able to work out the same night off for both of you to have some time together. Why you haven’t made a move on her before this is beyond me. I saw you working the Marlin case and how it got to you. You never would have pushed like that if that girl didn’t look exactly like Sara.”

“Cath I’m her supervisor.”

“So what? As long as you’re not the one signing off on her performance evaluations there isn’t a problem. Hell I can do those in my sleep.”

“And let’s not forget I’m fifteen years older than she is.”

“Since when does age matter? Look around Gil. There are a lot of older men with young women. It’s not a big deal.”

Grissom smirked and shook his head. “Let me get this straight. I finally meet someone and get a personal life, and not you’re not only sitting here spouting all the finer qualities of Sara, but you’re encouraging me toward a younger subordinate?”

“Yeah I guess I am.”

“If you felt this way, why didn’t you say something before I met someone?”

Catherine shot him a look that said ‘you’ve got to be kidding’. “Because you didn’t show any interest in having a life before. And for the record I did say something. But knowing you and your antisocial tendencies you probably didn’t catch on.”

They arrived back at the lab to all hell breaking loose. Multiple bodies had been found and no one was going home anytime soon. Catherine restocked her kit and dialed her phone on the way out to her Denali. “Yeah it’s me. I don’t know what the hell happened, but it didn’t work. He’s getting messages from someone calling herself BuggyGal and she’s getting messages from BoyToy. I know it was perfect. We’ll catch up later and figure out what now.”

A few hours later Grissom decided to split the team so they could get some rest. Catherine, Warrick and Greg went home to rest while he, Sara, and Nick kept processing the scene. The bulk of the evidence was processing to trace and DNA by the time Catherine and the boys arrived to take over. Grissom, Nick and Sara had worked 28 hours straight and were all more than ready for some sleep.

Sara’s car was tucked into Grissom’s garage beside his Mercedes hiding it from view. They both had a good laugh over Catherine’s conversation with Grissom about his personal life before they curled around each other to sleep. They had at least one person on their side when their relationship became public knowledge that is if she wasn’t too upset about being kept in the dark.

Warrick and Catherine looked over the victim at the new scene and cringed. She had obviously been there a while and the whole scene was crawling with insects. Catherine reached for her phone and Warrick touched her arm. “You’re not seriously considering calling him.”

“Do you know another entomologist we can call?”

“Cath the man put in 28 straight hours and he’s only been off for six.”

Catherine sighed. She knew Grissom was exhausted and needed to sleep, but she had no choice. She dialed his home number and waited. His answering machine picked up after three rings. She figured he probably turned the phone off so he could sleep, so she dialed his cell. The call was forwarded straight to his voicemail. Now she was concerned. Grissom always answered his cell, no matter what. She left Greg and Sophia at the scene to start processing, and had a cadet start taking photos of the victim and the insects every three minutes until Grissom arrived. She took Warrick and Brass and they headed for Grissom’s townhouse to check on him. Something was definitely wrong.

Grissom’s Denali was in his driveway and there was still no answer on either his house phone or his cell. Brass knocked and got no answer so he used his key and opened the door. Inside he saw something that disturbed him and made him draw his gun. The place was in shambles, at least compared to normal. Books were knocked off the table, Grissom’s briefcase was overturned on the floor, and a lamp was smashed on the floor. He was about to open the door to the bedroom to check it when he heard something that made him stop dead in his tracks. He holstered his gun and quietly exited the townhouse, ushering Catherine and Warrick out. “He’s fine. Let’s go get some coffee and we’ll call him in a few minutes.” Catherine however was not about to be put off and marched back into the townhouse with Warrick on her heels. They were just in the living room when they heard the sound and looked at Brass. The rhythmic thump was unmistakable. Catherine was on her way to the bedroom door to knock and get Grissom’s attention when Warrick stopped her.

“Cath let’s just leave the man alone for a while and call him.”

The part of her that was Grissom’s friend wanted to listen to Warrick’s suggestion. But the part of her that was a CSI said no, he’s needed for work and that’s that. Besides her curiosity over ‘BuggyGal’ was just too much. Before she could take one more step toward the bedroom door they all froze when a scream pierced the air.

“Gil! Oh God!”

Brass cringed when Catherine and Warrick both looked at him. Catherine saw the guilt flash across his face and started to put it all together. “Did that sound like..” She reached for her phone and dialed Sara’s cell number once again. The shrill ring from beside the sofa was a giveaway. Catherine closed her phone and shook her head. She had been talking to Grissom about his personal life and he had her completely snowed. She crept up to the bedroom door and listened for any sign that the couple was still occupied. When she didn’t hear anything she smiled and stepped back slightly from the door. Then she yelled.

“Grissom! We’ve been calling you! Get your pants on and get out here!”

A few minutes later Grissom emerged from the bedroom glaring at the trio in his living room. “What in the hell are you doing here?”

Catherine stood in front of him with her arms folded. “Well if you answered your cell we wouldn’t be here. You always answer your cell and when you didn’t we thought something happened to you. Oh something happened to you all right, and from what we heard when we walked in here I’d be the first one to say good for you and leave you to it. But after you sat right there in the truck and lied to me, oh no. You might as well tell Sara to get out here too. We’ve got another DB, with bugs. Which is why I was calling you in the first place.”

Grissom retreated to his bedroom and returned a few minutes later with another shirt over his t-shirt and Sara in tow. “Just for the record, Catherine, I did not lie to you. You never asked who I was seeing and made your own assumptions.”

“Oh like you couldn’t have told me.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Hey we didn’t tell anyone, and we weren’t planning on it for a while.”

Warrick nodded. “I get it. We’ll keep it on the down low. We won’t out you.”

Sara visibly relaxed. “Good. We’re just trying to work this out and really don’t need to deal with the whole work issue just yet.”

Grissom returned with coffee for himself and Sara. “Exactly. Right now we really don’t need Ecklie sticking his nose in.”

Catherine looked shocked and Grissom explained. “The policy on interoffice relationships isn’t clear, and it’s at his discretion what he does about it. He could do nothing, he could make our lives difficult, or just outright fire one or both of us. We need some time to work out the logistics of this and work before we deal with that. Now are we ready to get out of here?”

Grissom drove with Catherine in his Denali while Sara rode with Warrick and Brass. The cover story was that Grissom was exhausted and didn’t hear his phone. Sara was to have called Catherine to arrange a ride for that night since her car died on her. No one batted an eye about the story when they arrived at the scene. Not even Ecklie who had arrived to pitch in since the whole lab was stretched thin with the multiple found the night before.

Ecklie and Catherine worked a pile of debris near the body. Sofia, Greg, Warrick and Nick did an overlapping spiral sweep of the perimeter leaving Sara to give Grissom a hand with the bugs. No one paid any attention to the small box partially covered by the debris, until Ecklie heard a shrill whistle emanating from it. He grabbed Catherine and was able to yell “Bomb!” seconds before the explosion rocked the scene. Nick and Warrick helped Catherine and Ecklie up after the dust settled. The entire scene was compromised but the crew had bigger problems. Where were Grissom and Sara? The area where they were working was covered in debris and was completely flat. There was no sign of either of them; even their kits were gone. The whole team looked at each other with the same thought. Someone was again targeting CSI and didn’t care who got hurt. Grissom had been a key to unlocking the puzzle of where Nick was, but could the team pull off a second miracle without him?