AUTHORS NOTE: This is my first time writing for CSI so I'm sorry if it's pants. I've always been a CSI fan since it first came out and I've always shipped Catherine/Grissom so I decided it was time to write them! I'm using a prompt table that's being used over on the Taggart archive.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, they belong to Jerry Bruckheimer.

Prompt 1 #Love

He was in love with Catherine.

He didn't know when he'd first realised it but god now that he knew about it; he was reminded of it at every turn. She just had to smile at him across the meeting room, come find him to talk to him about a piece of evidence or just hunt him down at the end of the day to wish him good night. They'd always been close friends and he knew that if it wasn't for her friendship then he probably would be socially adept and would only ever hang out with his bugs.

Her laughter did things to his heartbeat that he couldn't even explain and he knew that no one would understand if he tried to talk to them about but then again, who would he talk to about his problem?

Warrick would be all macho about it and tell him to go for it. Nick would give him the same advance but be more subtle and romantic about it because it fits in with his small town appeal. Greg would take great amusement in teasing him about finally getting a life and then he would laugh about it even more but he'd probably tell him to just go for it. While Sara would, he paused to think about Sara, she'd be devastated because it was obvious that she liked him. She made it loud and clear but he didn't feel that way about her at all.

"Grissom," he looked up at the door and smiled at the beautiful redhead that had been the image of his desires for days now. She looked at him and he realised that he hadn't said anything to her causing him to smile shyly.

"Oh sorry, hi," he said taking off his glasses and looking up at her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Catherine smiled over at him and walked into the office, marching straight up to the desk as if not even caring that he normally didn't like people being in his office because it was his space. She rested on the end of his table and looked over at him. "I came to see if you were going to leave this office any time soon?" She teased and he smiled as he looked down at the little paperwork he had left.

"If I had a decent offer then probably but I love my work too much," he answered seriously and she just laughed as she stood up, moving over to his coat rack and grabbing his coat.

"Then I'm making an offer of breakfast?"

"Are we meeting the team?" He asked accepting his coat and she turned to look at him, eyebrows raised and he immediately understood the look. "Not that I need the team to be there. I'm more than happy to have breakfast with just you." He offered her a crooked smile and she just laughed, her arm linking through his before resting against the nook of his elbow.

"It's a good thing we've been together so long, Griss or I'd take offence." She teased causing him to laugh and it was genuine.

There had only been single tables free at their favourite breakfast spot and Grissom had wanted to leave to find somewhere else but Catherine had said they'd just drag a chair over because she loved the pancakes in this place too much to leave. Grissom hadn't argued because he knew how much she loved the pancakes but he hadn't realised they'd be squashed up on a small table, their knees knocking at every moment.

"Why do they even have tables that seat one?" Catherine finally asked after one too many times of her pancakes flying onto Grissom's plate, his smile of amusement slowly fading with each time. She dropped her knife and fork deciding to rip the pancake up with her fingers instead but she hadn't thought through the syrup that was now running down her fingers.

"Well a poor guy that wanted to come eat on his own would have to stare at an empty chair. It totally reads stood up even if he is just a guy that's eating alone," he said thoughtfully and she stopped munching her pancake and looked at him, a sad smile on her face but he couldn't help but think of how beautiful she looked wearing that expression.

"Something tells me thats more personal than observation, Gil." She stated and he looked over at her. The shock was that she'd used his first name and he just smiled.

"Well you know how unsocial I am, Catherine." He said thinking of how many times she'd brought that up to him. He knew now that was because he'd only wanted to be sociable with her but she was in an on off relationship with Ed all the time and then after his death, she seemed to always be in relationships. He didn't know she had the time but damn, she found it!

She smiled over at him and nodded, "true story." Put down the pancake that she didn't want, she stared at her sticky hands and decided to lick off most of the syrup before wiping it off with a napkin. Placing one of the digits into her mouth, she started to lick the syrup off and even though Grissom knew that it was an innocent act, he couldn't help but think of how much havoc it caused on him. When she'd done, she put some bills down on the table after arguing that it was her date. Grissom had eventually caved but it was obvious that he'd eventually give her the money back some way.

Standing outside, she put on her sunglasses and looked over at him. "Well I think we'd best go home and get some sleep before we end up back at work." She smiled reaching over and pressing a kiss to his cheek before starting to walk away. His cheek burned from where she'd placed the kiss and he watched after her. He didn't know what made him do it but he called after her. She stopped and turned round to look at him.

"Catherine, I know this is a bad time but I don't know if there will be another chance for me to ever feel this brave again. I don't even care anymore if the feelings aren't reciprocated but..."

"Gil?" She said deciding to cut off his rambling so that he didn't go on forever and lose his train of thought which would then probably make him lose his bravado to whatever he wanted to say. He looked up at her.

"I love you." He admitted. "I don't know when it happened or how it happened but I just know it has and it's been killing me inside watching you while feeling what I felt. I'll understand if you never want me to mention it again but I just had to..." his sentence was cut off by her pressing a kiss against his lips, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and her hands teasing the tips of his hair. He froze at first at her bravado but eventually relaxed and joined in with the kiss, his hands moving to her hips. When they broke off for air, she rested her forehead against his and one of her hands snaked round to curve around his cheek. "Does this mean...?"

"It means I've loved you for so long too but I couldn't read how you felt and didn't want to ruin a perfect friendship." She whispered against his lips, pressing a quick kiss to them. "I sensed that something was starting to change in you but I didn't know if you'd ever tell me."

He laughed. No one had ever known him as well as Catherine and as he held onto her in the middle of Las Vegas, he realised that he was happy to have her as his best friend and now his lover.