The Crux of the Matter by Chibiness87
Rating: T for language
Genre: Angst
Length: 1250ish words
Pairing: GSR
Spoilers: Gb&GL
Disclaimer: Not mine

Summary: Grissom lets Catherine know what he thinks of her supervision tactics.

A/N: This started off as a couple of lines in my head, became the basis of a fic, and then the wonderfully patient mingsmommy (whom I really cannot thank enough) helped me turn the dribble it was into this.

Catherine barged into his office, no knocking, and no respect that it was his and not her own, a stack of papers clasped in her hands.

"Gil. Good. I need Sara to sign off on some papers." She held up the files in question. "Can you pass them on to her?"

"No."

"O…kay… Fine. I'll just leave them here for her then." She went to place them on the end of his desk, but stopped when he continued.

"She won't get them."

Catherine's eyebrow raised in confusion. "She won't… why not?"

"She left."

His statement caused her to blink, unsure of the significance to his words. "Well, yeah, I'm not surprised."

"What?! Why?!" His eyes, previously trained on the letter in his grasp, flew up to meet hers, the shock evident in both his tone and gaze.

"Because it's not her shift now… Are you ok, Gil? You look a little pale."

"I uh…"

Catherine's gaze settled on the piece of paper he was studying intently. "Hey, are those the result for…"

Her move broke him from his stupor, and he clasped the letter to him tightly, not wanting her to see what was, in effect, a Dear John letter. "No."

"Right… Okay…" she withdrew her hand slowly. After a couple of second's pause, she brought the conversation back to why she was in his office in the first place. "OK, well, when you see Sara can you at least let her know about the paperwork?" This time she did manage to place the files on the end of his desk, and gave him a pointed stare.

"Sheleft, Catherine! She… oh god…" His knees shook, unable to support his weight as the truth suddenly hit home, and he sank into his chair.

"Grissom! Grissom. Gil?" She reached for him, her eyes taking in his appearance, trying to spot what the cause of his sudden weakness was. Seeing nothing obvious, she asked worriedly, "What's wrong? Do you want me to call Sa…"

"What part of she left are you not getting here?!"

Not realizing how loud his voice had gotten, the two senior members of the team were shocked when they were joined by the remaining investigators of the graveyard shift.

"Griss?"

He looked up vacantly at Nick's concerned tone.

"What's going on, man? We heard you yelling from Wendy's lab…"

Grissom broke the eye contact, his gaze invariably falling on the letter still grasped in his hand. Odd words and phrases floated up at him.

I love you.

Living with ghosts.

Desert.

So sorry.

Self-destruct.

Only home.

Goodbye.

He dropped it as if it had burned him.

Greg was the first to reach it, his eyes skimming the words. His startled eyes met Grissom's, and he shoved the paper at his boss, before turning and stalking away, slamming the door shut behind him.

The other three members of the team looked between their supervisor and the space where the younger man had once stood.

"Look, if this has something to do with the West case, I need to know. I was supervising and…"

"Oh yes. And what a stellar job you did there, Cath!" The sarcasm in his tone made the two other men in the room start in surprise, while it did nothing more than make Catherine's eyes flash with sudden anger.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Grissom looked at her, and she could see the battle of emotions waging in his hard eyes. "Supervise, Catherine. Do you even know what the word means?!"

"Wha-?!" Shocked by his words, Catherine took a step back from him.

"Did you even check up on the progress of the case at all? Even once?!" His fist was clenching and unclenching under the desk with the urge to lash out at something, anything that coursed through him.

"I…" Catherine tried, only to be interrupted again.

"I got more information about what was happening from Sara than I did from you!"

"Now hold on…" Her tone had returned to anger, and the fire in her eyes looked like it would be able to set fire to the building, given half the chance.

"Tell me, did she ask to do the interviews? Did you assign them to her? Or were you so busy caring about your own damned life you couldn't give a shit about anything else?!!" he seethed, his voice no louder than a whisper.

"HEY!" It was apparent to everyone that Grissom had touched a nerve with that statement, and Catherine took a menacing step forward, her body language telling him to stop and cool off. But Grissom was apparently too riled up to be intimidated, and he continued his tirade.

"I know you weren't there when she was interviewing Hannah. What was it? Did it interfere with a hairdresser's appointment?!" Nick and Warrick, all but forgotten now, blinked at each other, shocked at the words coming out of their supervisor's mouth.

"STOP! What is the matter with you?!"

"You should have pulled her from the case!" Grissom's anger was rolling off him in waves so powerful they were almost visible to the naked eye.

"She asked for it! You gave it to her! If it was so damned important she not work it, why didn't you pull her?!" Catherine shot back at him, her finger pointed at his chest in anger.

His voice rose in volume once more. "I didn't have a say!"

"Oh, BULLSHIT, Grissom!" Catherine yelled, her eyes rolling in exasperation.

"You had to supervise, that was all. Just check in once in a while, make sure everything was ok."

From the sidelines Nick and Warrick could detect the slight pain in his tone. Catherine, however, was too caught up in the argument to notice, and her voice was shrill when she next spoke. "Everything was ok…"

"Then how did Marlon end up dead in his cell? How did Sara get the call? Why was Sara the one to tell his sister he was dead?!"

Catherine suddenly realized Grissom had begun to shake slightly. Worried about him, she softened her tone, trying to calm them both down. "Look. I'm sorry. I'll call by on the way home and talk to her…"

"You can't." The anger was disappearing now, pain and sadness taking its place on his face.

"Come on, Gil. You're angry at me for not looking out for her but you wont let me apologize?!" Catherine slanted her brow, trying to understand where he was coming from.

"She LEFT!" The words that had been spoken in anger before were now spoken in nothing but pain.

"Which is why I want to go and talk to her at home!" Exasperation was beginning to take its toll on her, and she left threw her hands up in confusion.

"But she isn't at home!" The words shocked the occupants in the room into silence.

Eventually, Catherine managed to ask in a soft voice, "What do you mean? You said she left. Where would…" She trailed off as the truth hit her. "Oh god. You don't mean left for home left, do you?"

Grissom could do nothing more than shake his head at the question.

"Wait, you mean, she left left?!" The shock in Nick's tone was evident.

Grissom managed a brief nod, before his head collapsed in his hands.

The room lapsed into shocked silence, everyone reeling at the news.

Sara had left.

Disappeared like a shadow into the night.

And suddenly, the world felt like a dark, dismal place.

End.