Connections
Author: LC
Pairing: G/C
Rating: G
A/N: Came up with this during a layover and wrote it on the plane. Hope you like it. It's the first G/C thing I've been moved to write in a long time.

Gil Grissom slung his carry on bag over his should and steadied himself. He hated the moving sidewalks at the airport, but he always managed to find himself on one. It was like the child in him overruled his inner adult and he had no control. He was almost to the end when he looked up and saw a flash of blond on the conveyor going the opposite way. It took a moment for him to register who she was and by the time she had, she had passed.

"Catherine," he shouted, balancing his bag and trying to move in the opposite direction that his "sidewalk" was moving. "Cath."

Finally she spun around, smiled and yelled, "Gil."

"Stay right there, I'll meet you on your end," he said finally giving up and jumping over the rail and off of the moving monstrosity.

By the time she had come to the end of her ride he was there to meet her. She hugged him gently and the two old friends stood there and looked at each other for a moment before Catherine finally broke the silence.

"I knew I'd run into you one day. I just didn't think it would take five years," she said.

He smiled at her. She was as beautiful as ever. Time had stood still for her and she still had the same glint of excitement in her eyes as she had had five years earlier.

"Do you have time to get some coffee?" he asked.

Catherine looked at her watch and nodded, "Sure, my flight doesn't leave for another hour."

"Good," he replied and started to walk to the little café he frequented often when he had a layover at the Atlanta airport. "So where are you headed?"

"Back to Vegas. I was at a conference in Cincinnati. What about you?" she asked, entering the café at his side. He held out a chair for her and she thanked him.

Grissom sat across from her, his hands folded on the table. "I'm heading back to DC. I went out to California for my mother's funeral," he told her, unable to look her in the eye.

"I'm sorry, Gil."

"She was sick for a long time...so what have you been up to?" he asked wanting to change the subject.

"You know, same as always. I'm heading up the dayshift unit now. Nick's got graveyard. I miss the adrenaline of working the Strip at night, but I can't complain. What about you? If figured you would be running the country by now," she said, sipping the latte she had ordered.

"Yeah. DC's a different animal than Vegas, but working for Homeland Security is interesting. I have learned a whole new angle on forensics," he said, putting another low cal sweetener packet in his coffee.

Catherine looked at him for a moment, wondering if she should bring up the reason he left town in the first place.

"So, Grissom, are you going to ask me about her?" she finally asked.

"No," he answered.

"You know she left Vegas," Catherine said, treading lightly.

"I know...and I haven't seen you in five years and I don't want to talk about Sara," he answered.

"Fine, so did you miss me," she asked, trying to lighten things up.

"Of course, Ms. Willows. How could I not?" he answered smiling. He looked at her intensely for a moment.

"Well, you could have called," she replied.

"Cath, I told you when I left that I needed some time. And weeks turned into months and into years and it just became easier," he said.

"To run away," she said.

"Call it what you will," he said.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out between the two of you, I know how hard it is to loose the love of your life," she said seriously.

"I loved Sara, but once we got together we realized that we were better as friends," he said, opening up more to her in that one sentence than in all of her years of knowing him. "But she was not the love of my life."

"I'm sorry. I just assumed...." She said. "I assumed that she was the reason you left."

"She was," he replied. "I knew better than to get involved with a coworker. I brought her to Vegas and I knew that we couldn't work together after the breakup we had. I didn't think it would be fair for her to have to leave, so when I was offered the DC job, I took it."

"She left soon after," Catherine said.

Yeah, how's Lindsay?" he asked, trying to change the subject again.

Catherine smiled at the mention of her daughter's name, "She's fine. She's trying to decide what college to go to next year. She has it narrowed down to almost a dozen, but she still has time to decide."

"Lindsay going to college? Now that makes me feel old," Grissom said, running his hand through his ever more graying hair. "I remember when she was born."

"You feel old? I gave birth to her. My baby going off to college doesn't seem possible," Catherine said.

"You don't look a day older than the day she was born. I remember coming to the hospital to see you. You looked so beautiful sitting there holding this perfect pink bundle," he said, remembering. "I don't think I have ever seen a woman look more beautiful than you did that day."

"Well, aren't you the flatterer," Catherine said. "This is a whole new side to you."

"I've tried to change for the better," he replied. "And I've always thought you were beautiful. I was just never comfortable saying it."

"So do you have someone special in your life," she asked, finishing her latte.

"Yes, her name is Gail. She's beautiful. She's very special." He said, smiling at the thought.

"She's very luck to have you," Catherine replied, happy that he was happy.

"I'm very lucky to have her. She's very rare. There are only a few hundred of her species left in the world," he replied.

"Gail is a spider, isn't she?" Catherine asked.

"Yes," he answered.

"Figures," Catherine said under her breath but loud enough for him to hear.

"Never could get you to like my spiders could I?" he asked.

"No and my opinion hasn't changed over the years either," she answered.

"I guess we're not all as into personal growth as I am," he said sarcastically.

"Gil Grissom poster child for personal growth," Catherine teased.

"Yeah," he said with a laugh.

Catherine looked at her watch, "I hate to do this, but I have to go. I can't miss my flight."

Grissom looked at her. He wanted more time with her. He wanted to tell her things; he wanted to listen to her voice; he wanted to be with her for just a little longer.

"Me too," he said, getting up and laying a ten on the table. "It was good to see you."

"You too. Let's not make it so many years next time though?" she said, hopefully.

Grissom took out a pen and a piece of paper and wrote his name and number on it and stuck it in her bag.

"Call me," he said as he walked her back to the spot where they had met. "It's been too long.

"Ok," she said thoughtfully. Catherine leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Take care of your self.

"You too," he said, as he got back on the moving sidewalk and she walked in the other direction.

Catherine thought about everything that had just happened. He certainly wasn't the same closed off Gil she had known all of those years back in Vegas. He was more open and lighthearted. She got to her gate just in time to get on her plane. It would be a long flight and she was thankful that the plane was only half full and she had a whole row to herself. She put her carryon on the seat next to her and pulled out a bottle of water and a book. She never saw the piece of paper fall out. The one with Gil Grissom's number and a message that read, "You are the love of my life."