Pairing: slight GS
Summary: Fluff and obsessions with bubble wrap, for the Unbound challenge.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. CBS, Alliance Atlantis, and others own everything. No infringement is intended. Don't sue me. Just spacing out in my own little world.
Spoilers: none
Thank you all for reviewing my stories! I don't know where this one came from. I do admit to loving bubble wrap.
"Okay, I may be missing something, but...what's with the bubble wrap?" Catherine questioned, walking into the break room with Nick and Warrick behind her.
Greg sat at the table, carefully smoothing out sheets of the stuff. When he was done with a sheet, he stacked it reverently on a pile. There were 4 large piles all around him.
Grissom sat at the end of the table, perusing paperwork and drinking coffee. He smirked slightly, looking at Catherine over his glasses, but remained silent.
"We got a huge shipment of glass lab equipment today!" Greg said excitedly. "I was the only one around, so I scored big time!"
Catherine looked at him quizzically. "And you're so enamored with it you're saving the packing material?"
Nick stepped around her, making a beeline for Greg.
"No," Greg stated patiently, "the bubble wrap is the score. Look at all of it!" he gestured towards his stacks.
"Cool!" Nick exclaimed. He reached for a sheet, and Greg promptly slapped his hand. He looked at Greg with a pained expression.
"You should learn how to share, Greggo. Didn't they teach you that in kindergarten?"
Greg got ready to argue, but Grissom pointedly put down his paperwork and gave him his best supervisor glare. Greg relented, and Nick grabbed two sheets, handing one to Warrick.
"I don't get it." said Catherine. "Why covet bubble wrap?"
Sara was at that moment walking by the doorway. She stopped dead in her tracks, and slowly turned her head.
"Did you say…" she began, then she saw the stacks and her eyes got impossibly wide. She walked, trance-like, towards the table.
Grissom watched her amusedly as she beamed at Greg. Greg beamed back and handed her 3 sheets.
"Bubble wrap is the world's best stress reliever." Warrick stated. "Some people get so addicted to popping the bubbles they actually buy the stuff just for fun."
Catherine shook her head. "O…K…"
"Look, just try it!" Greg made a show of pulling a piece off the pile for Catherine. She looked at him like he'd sprouted a new head.
Nick began popping bubbles randomly on his sheet. Warrick frowned. "Dude, that bugs me. You should do it in order, like this." He demonstrated, carefully popping left to right, one row at a time.
Greg stood, took a sheet and twisted it like he was wringing a towel. A cacophony of pops ensued. Sara smiled. Grissom noticed and was jealously annoyed.
"You know, bubble wrap was originally invented as a trendy wallpaper." Grissom stated.
"Well of course it was." Catherine sighed, amidst frenetic popping.
"What?" Grissom asked. Catherine rolled her eyes.
Sara popped her bubbles slowly.
"Did you know they have virtual bubble wrap on the internet?" Nick said, not to be outdone by Grissom's trivia knowledge.
Sara looked at him seriously. "Yeah, I have a really good site for that bookmarked." Warrick, Nick and Greg continued popping, with silly smiles on their faces.
"You know, I saw a TV show once where some nut actually made women's clothes out of this stuff." Catherine remarked.
"I saw that!" Greg exclaimed. He wiggled his eyebrows at Sara. "You were the first girl I thought of. They had a bubble wrap miniskirt and everything."
The guys laughed, and Grissom, his mind suddenly filled with images of Sara clad in scant amounts of bubble wrap, pushed his glasses furiously back up on his nose and picked up his paperwork again.
Sara smiled faintly, still slowly popping her sheet. "I like this kind, you know, with the small bubbles. But the big bubbles are a lot more satisfying." She sighed as everyone nodded sympathetically.
Greg looked pointedly at Grissom. "Yeah, I had some of that, but certain people pulled rank and took it."
Sara stared at Grissom. "You have big bubbles?"
Catherine snorted.
Grissom shifted uncomfortably, his glasses sliding again. Sara decided to play dirty, giving him her best big-eyed sweet look.
He sighed, and took out the sheet of large bubbles he'd been hiding in his lap.
"You mean this?" he held the sheet in one hand carefully, and put his thumb over one of the bubbles. He moved it slowly. His look was total seriousness but his eyes were smiling.
Sara moved to the chair next to him. "Give, Grissom."
Grissom continued to tease her, moving his thumb over the bubble. Finally, there was a resounding POP. He smiled at Sara, and held out the sheet. She smiled back at him. He was absurdly pleased in a juvenile way. It was so worth it.
She reached for the sheet, but suddenly Warrick appeared from nowhere and snatched it. Sara jumped up, narrowing her eyes, and a tug of war was soon on, amidst much snickering and popping from Nick and Greg. The sheet soon gave way, tearing, and Sara promptly fell backwards on her butt onto the floor, giggling hysterically.
Ecklie stopped in his tracks from the hallway. He looked in disbelief to see the entire swing shift and graveyard team in the breakroom, well, minus Sophia, anyway. Greg was doing some kind of weird dance. Nick was laughing and egging him on, and Catherine was grinning and…popping bubbles on some bubble wrap. Grissom was actually smiling, and Sara was curled up on the floor giggling hysterically while Warrick waved another piece of bubble wrap over her head.
Ecklie fumed. He had done his best to break this bunch up, and here they all were again. He stalked into the room.
"What the hell is going on? Sidle, are you alright?"
Sara looked up at him and tried her best to give him a serious expression. "I'm fine," she gasped. "Grissom had the big bubbles, but then Warrick took them away from me."
Ecklie stared at her with his mouth slightly ajar, and then gave them all a disgusted look and left. Sara looked over at Grissom, who was also trying his best to look serious.
She laughed as she threw herself to the floor again.