Disclaimer: These CSI characters do not belong to me. 'nough said!
Pairing: Grissom/Sara.
Rating: T.
Spoilers: If it's on TV, it's game
Summary: GSR. Pre-canon, pre-Vegas, pre-everything. Can a mere bet prevent two people from falling for each other?
A/N: Enjoy and comments are always welcome! Thanks for reading! Peace…
The Bet
Author: litbuff
Chapter 01
"You have gotten to go to this lecture!" Sara's partner, Josie Mendez, tossed the brochure across the table at her. "The guy's pretty dull but he got the best looking ass money can buy!"
Sara picked up the pamphlet and rolled her eyes at Josie. "Why would I want to waste my time at a seminar about a bunch of dead bugs and a dull lecturer with a good looking ass?"
"Because he's safe." Josie mused at her friend. "Word on the street is he's a player. He flirts, he bats his pretty blues at you, he's not interested in commitments, and he leaves town when the lecture is over."
"Safe?"
"Hey, you're the one who doesn't care for long-term commitment remember?"
Yeah, she remembered. Sara remembered every long-term commitment that ended with the boyfriend either cheated on her or told her that they needed "time-out" from each other. To this day, Sara still had no clue what the hell "time-out" meant in a relationship. In the end, she had concluded that she was not cut out for long-term commitment and just settled for a night of good companionship and left it at that. At least her heart would stay intact and everyone would be happy.
"How do you know so much about this guy?" Sara was piqued by Josie's description of the mysterious entomologist.
"Let's just say that there's an underground bet going on among some of the female attendees of his lectures to see who can score and snag him off the market." Josie winked knowingly at Sara.
"That's just sad!" Sara gave her a horrified expression. "Sorry but no guy is worth that kind of attention, nice ass or not."
Josie laughed out loud at Sara. "Trust me, you haven't seen this one. He's worth it!"
Their conversation was interrupted by the voice of their supervisor, Joe Maddox, who poked his head into their shared office at the San Francisco Crime Lab, "Ladies, time to roll!"
"Yeah, yeah." Josie got up and turned to face Sara, "You're coming or not?"
Gil Grissom didn't know why he kept on giving these lectures when he knew damn well that only half of the attendees were actually interested in the material. The rest were either trying to meet some graduating prerequisites or… here because of The Bet.
Yeah, he knew about that underground bet. He wasn't sure if he should be flattered or offended. He did find out about it by pure accident though. Two years ago, one of his female students became quite overzealous with his class and practically stalked him while he was here at Berkeley. To pacify her, he had accepted her invitation to lunch. To his surprise, she had asked him to come home with her and he had gently refused. That was when the tears came and the truth confessed. It was Greek pledge week and some genius had came up with the idea of "Take home a visiting Professor" as a recruiting requirement for new members. And he happened to be that "visiting Professor".
When he returned several months later for another lecture, team Greek had turned into team Greek versus team Grads. Somehow during his period of absence, the "Take home a visiting Professor" had morphed into "Take home Professor Grissom". The graduate TAs were a lot more sophisticated than their Greek counterparts in trying to get to him. They seduced him with their intelligence and he was astounded by their enthusiasm. He found himself quite captivated with their games and silently played along, though he stopped short of the "Take home" part. Inwardly, he had hoped that all of these flirtations could somehow endear them into learning more about his beloved bugs.
As time went by, his lecture series had become pretty popular and his buddy over at the San Francisco Crime Lab had recommended the classes for the CSIs and members of SFPD. Enter team SFPD, a group of dedicated professional women who would not take "no" for an answer. They approached his classes, and him, like they would their jobs, very seriously. Being an occasional consultant for the San Francisco Crime Lab, he had worked along side with some of these women and had diplomatically gone out with some of them after hour, but always in a group. He wasn't afraid of losing his self-control; it was them that he was afraid of.
As he prepared for today's lecture, he scanned the class roster and groaned inwardly at some of the names he recognized. He quickly shoved the roster to the side and took out his notes as students began entering the lecture hall.
"Hello Dr. Grissom!" One female attendee greeted him as she filed passed him.
"Hello Amie." Grissom nodded in reply to her greeting, remembering her from team SFPD. He then smiled at each one of Amie's law enforcement colleagues as they flirted their way across his podium and sashayed to their seats. Ahh… the gang over at SFPD had recruited a new member for his lecture. This new girl though seemed different from the others. As she followed her companions parading in front of him, she gave him a knowing grin that somehow grabbed at his curiosity.
She was taller than her buddies, brunette with sparkling brown eyes and lips that demanded attention. What the hell he was thinking? He turned away quickly. This girl was dangerous. She looked so young yet with hints of maturity beyond her years etched indiscernibly across her face. He followed her movements out of the corner of his eye as she took a seat in the front row with her PD friends.
So, they had upped the ante with this new girl. He hadn't had a problem with this bet before and he wasn't planning on having any now. He shook his head at the absurdity of it all and turned to face his audience. And tried very hard all through his lecture not to think about that young brunette sitting quietly drinking in his every word.
TBC