Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or any of its characters.

Chapter 1

The young, light brown haired woman walked into the Las Vegas Crime lab. She hadn't stepped foot in the building since that day four months ago when she delivered the letter to Gil Grissom, her father. Since that time she and Grissom had spent as much time as they could together. Which really wasn't a lot since they were both so busy with their jobs. Today, she was here to bring Grissom one of his entomology books he had left at her house. Otherwise, she wouldn't be here.

She stepped up to the front desk. "Is Gil Grissom available?" she asked the woman behind the desk, feeling a small sense of déjà vu.

"May I tell him who's here?" the woman asked.

"Alex Hart," she answered.

The woman picked up a phone and dialed Grissom's extension. After a brief exchange on the phone the woman looked at Alex. "He'll be out in a few minutes. You can wait in the lobby area."

"Ok, thank you," Alex smiled, and started to walk to the lobby.

As she walked, Alex flipped through the book in her hands, not paying attention to where she was going. She thought about how much time Grissom must spend here and wondered why he hadn't asked her to come by sooner. She had wanted to meet some of his co-workers after all he had said about them, but to date, she'd only met two; Greg being the first and Catherine being the second. And her meeting Catherine was purely by accident—a car accident.

It had been about two months ago and Alex's fault. She was pulling into the parking lot of a local spa when sunlight reflected off a windshield of a parked car, temporarily blinding Alex. She never saw Catherine backing out until she hit her.

This is just what I needed, Alex thought as she got out of the car to inspect the damage. "I'm so sorry!" she said, as the slightly older, reddish-blonde haired woman came around her car to inspect the damage. "I didn't see you."

"It's alright," Catherine replied. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," Alex replied. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright. Looks like the cars aren't so bad either," She said, pointing at the damage, which was nothing more than a small dent. Alex had only hit the corner of the bumper.

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "Let me still give you my information." Alex dug around in her purse and pulled out a pre-filled card with all her information on it. She liked being prepared. She handed it to Catherine.

Catherine looked it and something clicked. She had thought the young woman looked familiar and when she saw her name, she knew. "Gil Grissom's Alex Hart?" Catherine asked.

Alex was taken aback. She really hadn't considered the notion that Grissom had told other people about her. Sometimes it was the obvious that escaped her. "Yes," she replied. "You know Gil?"

"Know him?" Catherine answered. "He's half my life! Catherine Willows, Las Vegas crime lab." She stuck out her hand for Alex to shake.

"Ms. Willows!" Alex excitedly shook her hand. "It's such a pleasure to meet you! Gil's told me so much about you."

"It's all lies," Catherine smiled. "Please, call me Catherine. And I've heard some about you too."

Alex blushed slightly. She knew it was a good sign that Grissom was talking about her. She also knew this opportunity to get another person's perspective on Grissom wouldn't come again soon, and quickly took hold of it. "Would you like to have lunch?"

Now it was Catherine's turn to be taken aback. "Well…" she looked at her watch. She did have a lot of questions about Alex that she never felt comfortable asking Grissom. "Sure," she said. "Where would you like to go?"

An hour later they were sitting, eating salads at a non-descript Vegas restaurant. They had done some get-to-know-you chitchat, but Catherine could feel the questions she really wanted to ask, burning inside.

"So, can I ask you something personal?" Catherine asked.

"Sure, ask anything you want," Alex replied giving her permission.

"What happened between Grissom and your mother?" Catherine got right to the point.

Alex took a drink of her water, pausing for a moment before answering. "The story, as far as I know, is mom went to LA for the summer, where she met Gil. They fell in love. She came back east, found out she was pregnant. Her mother freaked out and isolated her. Mom didn't do so well during the pregnancy so she couldn't really put up much of a fight. She was so mad at my grandmother that she never told her who my father was. She died giving birth. Twenty-something year later I find my mom's old diary and a letter she wrote Grissom. Then I found him." Alex smiled at her succinctness.

Catherine was speechless. She wasn't sure if it was because she didn't know what to say or if it was that there was nothing to say. Grissom had never told her that Olivia had died. "Wow," is all that finally came out.

Alex shrugged then smiled again. "It's life."

Then continued their lunch and shared more about their lives. Since then, they'd actually shared about half a dozen lunches and gotten to know one another pretty well. Alex was not what Catherine had expected. Catherine had thought Alex would've been a younger, female version of Grissom, but that was not the case. Alex did have some of his traits, extremely intelligent, odd sense of humor, and a love of science and order. However, Alex seemed more approachable. Catherine felt as if she could ask Alex anything, a feeling she had never had with Gil.

Alex found Catherine to be everything Gil had said; smart, funny, and a genuinely nice person. At one of their lunches she'd even had a chance to meet Lindsay. Alex had found a friend despite the age difference.

As Alex was walking lost in her remembrance, Greg was also walking down the hall, eying a report. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going either. He was fuming at the fact he had gotten called in on his first Friday off in months. And to top it all off, he had a date, also his first in months. They ran into one another. Greg dropping the report he was holding.

Alex bent down to help pick it up, not seeing whom she bumped into. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"My fault." Greg replied, crouching to pick up his report.

Her hand brushed against his, she pulled it away quickly, looking up to see whom she was helping. "I wasn't paying…" her voice trailed off as she saw him.

Greg had finally looked up as well. Their faces were only inches apart. Their eyes met and they held each other's gaze. Both were silent. Neither knew what to say.