Author: Chadini
Pairing: GSR, Brass/Catherine Friendship
Rating: T for language I suppose.
Words: 1,274
Summary: Brass and Catherine go out for a drink and talk about when they first "knew" about Sara and Grissom.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine and if CBS wants to come after me, they can hook up with the Columbia Records and Tapes guy who has been after my ass for years.
A/N: Special thanks to the gracious beta skills of sidlechick87
The prompt for this was LV Metro Event Code 441 – Malicious Destruction of property.
The whole Kid Rock thing at the Palms happened in real life. I was staying at the Palms when Kid Rock's posse and Tommy Lee's posse got in to it all over Pamela Anderson. I think some of it may have happened on my floor (it might have been in front of my door), but I was in town for a wedding and well, you know, it was Vegas…
It had been another long shift.
Catherine was starting to believe that the whole "shift" concept was a big fat joke. The teams have all been working so much overtime and doubles leading to triples that the days are all blending together. Ecklie still hadn't replaced Sara (a decision that Grissom surely played a hand in) and with Ronnie being so green, it was like the lab was two CSIs down instead of just one.
After wrapping up a case today that involved the murder of a tourist who made the mistake of asking for directions, Catherine jumped at Brass' suggestion to go for a drink after work. Sometimes following a day like today, you need to spend time to decompress with people that understand what you are going through.
Catherine had just started sipping on her cosmopolitan when Brass came over and plopped unceremoniously into the comfortable chair across from her.
"Light beer please" Brass motioned to the waitress waving one finger in the air.
"Brass, what are you doing? Watching your girlish figure?" Catherine teased her old friend.
"Ha. Funny" Brass said with a smirk. "So, you couldn't get him to come out?"
Catherine glanced down at her Cosmo. After realizing that it didn't have the answer that she was looking for she opened her mouth to speak, "What do you think? I asked him and unless I was willing to drag him out by his ears…" trailing off to take another sip of her drink.
"Well, was he at least going home?"
"No," Catherine chuckled and with a shrug said, "When I left Gil, he was analyzing some new data about his bees and the effect that close range magnetic fields had on the whole hive thing." She mused.
"Uh huh. What is up with that? " Brass asked as his beer arrived.
"I don't know. I tuned out when he started talking about colony collapse disorder and its potential effect on the future of mankind."
"This place was a good choice Cath." Brass said as he gestured around the room with his beer.
"Yeah, I like the Palms. It's beautiful place, without technically being on the Strip. So…I have a question for you."
"Ok," Brass started, taking a long draw on his beer as he listened carefully.
Catherine finished her drink and motioned to the waitress for another round. "I feel bad asking, but - did you know?"
"Huh? Did I know what?" Brass asked, completely confused by her question.
"You know - about Gil and Sara. I always thought of the team part of my family."
Catherine knew Gil probably better than most other people, so she knew that her old friend wouldn't broadcast his relationship with Sara to the world, but she wasn't the world, the fact that he didn't see it that way hurt her. She practically told him to go for her all those years ago when he sent her that damn plant to get her to stay.
"Did you know about them before she was abducted?"
Brass finished the last of his beer in one gulp, looking for the waitress with his next one.
"Oh. My. God. You knew! You knew!" Catherine shouted, nearly knocking her empty glass off of the table.
At that moment, the waitress arrived with their much needed second round, unsure exactly what she'd walked in on.
"Spill it Brass. Now!" Catherine demanded, furiously pointing her finger at him. The waitress looked back at the table, thankful that she was not at the end of Catherine's anger.
"Okay, okay. It was about a year ago," He sighed, shaking his head.
"A year?!"
"Catherine, please, calm down and let me finish. You can yell at me later"
"Brass! How do you expect me to be calm after dropping that bombshell on me? How did you find out?" Catherine demanded.
Brass swallowed half his beer thinking that he should have order a scotch instead. Maybe he could get the waitress to bring him the bottle. "It was about a year ago that I saw them out on what seemed to be a date. It was here as a matter of fact, upstairs at Alizé." He chuckled watching Catherine on the verge of exploding, desperately trying not to jump in. "I was in the Playboy Suite, for a 419 that ended up being a 441."
"441? Malicious destruction of property?" Catherine asked, now a bit calmer.
"Yeah. Kid Rock's posse had gotten into it with Tommy Lee's posse over Pamela Lee," he said with an eye roll, snorting at the memory. "Anyway - they were all drunk and drugged out and one of the numbskulls went back to the suite and thought Kid Rock was dead. Called 911 to say that there was blood everywhere in the suite and that Kid Rock was dead."
"Wait, what?" Catherine blinked.
"Exactly. It turned out that Kid Rock just wanted to make cherry cokes and stole a bottle of Grenadine to go with his cheeseburger. But ultimately, he decided that it would be more fun to tear apart the entire suite and doused ketchup and Grenadine over everything, including himself. I guess he lost out to Tommy Lee." Brass nodded quickly, excited as he remembered that night.
"Okaaay-uhm- but whatthe hell does this have to do with Gil and Sara?" Catherine was quickly losing patience with the conversation.
"I'm getting there. We wrapped the non-419 up and I decided to go check out the restaurant upstairs, I figured I was here, so why not. Maybe have a drink and get an appetizer or something. And that is when I saw them. They were at a nice romantic table by the window, sharing some dessert."
"Did they see you?" Catherine asked, wide-eyed and now completely enthralled by the conversation.
"Yeah. It was the most uncomfortable thing ever. I looked over as Sara looked up and saw me. She must have kicked Gil under the table or something because he looked over at me as well. The three of us were like a herd of deer trapped in headlights. So, I went over to say hello, and figure out what was really going on."
"I wish I could have seen their faces," Catherine sniggered, secretly wishing that she had been there to catch them instead of Brass.
"When I got over to their table, Sara started babbling about how they came for the Pumpkin Pie Beignets Chai Ice Cream and I made a crack about how people in Vegas don't just eat apple pie anymore. It was horrible - really horrible. But funny. I got out of there as soon as I could. I think we were allrelieved." He said with a huge grin spreading across his face. "I have to tell you," he continued," they seemed really happy. I mean the kind of happy that makes you happy."
"Why Brass, I never thought of you as such a romantic." Catherine mused sweetly.
"I don't know. It was just nice to see that they both had found each other. I can honestly say that I have never seen two people meant to be together more than those two." Brass said into his beer.
"Did you ever talk to Gil or Sara about it afterwards?" Catherine asked.
"No - God no. We never talked about it again. It is the major elephant or beehive in the middle of the room. At least we never talked about it again until, well, you know."
"I just wish he would get his ass out to go and get Sara." Catherine lamented softly.
"So do I." Brass quietly said, "So do I."