Title: Bothersome
Author: ScullyAsTrinity
Rating: PG
Disclaimer:mumbles drunkenly from the floor: Ownin' em... money. Yay.
Summary: Grissom doesn't feel like bothering... with a lot of things. Challenge response.
A/N: Challenge from Holly: A Nerf football, a stuffed lizard, the quote"Were you dropped on your head as a small child, Grissom", and an entire pot of Greg's Blue Hawaiian, shattered on the floor.
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Paperwork was just another bother to add to the top of his list of things to complete. Piles of it threatened to topple over and either suffocate him or lead to his death through blood loss at the overwhelming volume of paper cuts he would incur.
Gil sighed, wondering where to begin. He picked up a file and flipped it open, training his eyes on the paper, forcing himself to read over mundane details.
"Were you dropped on your head as a small child, Grissom" Catherine shrieked, tearing hell into his office, once more without knocking. Her eyes were blazing balls of pure fury as she slapped a large, rather frightening looking folder down on his desk. "Is that why you can't remember things? Simple things, Grissom. Simple things."
Slowly, he plucked his glasses from his head and raised her head to meet hers. Grissom was slightly shaken by her entrance, but did nothing to show it. He wasn't going to bother adding fuel to the fire and chose to approach the situation with a certain amount of delicacy.
"Pardon" He asked, the beginnings of a migraine tickling the base of his skull. Catherine's screeching wasn't something he liked hearing on his better days; now, his patience was being held by an extremely thin tether.
Catherine huffed and smacked her hands over her eyes, steadying her breathing. "Okay" She began, clasping her hands in front of her, approaching the situation with care. She was talking to Gil Grissom; often times, speaking with her supervisor was like speaking to her daughter-nothing got through. "I told you." Cath came around the chair and plopped herself down in front of him. "Last week." Her finger poking the file on the desk. "That I needed this signed off on by..."
Grissom bit his lip and sat back a bit, waiting for her to fly off again. "Yesterday, Grissom. Yesterday. Now, I need you to call D.A. Screnton and inform him why I didn't have the evidence ready for him... today."
"Why can't you just"
"Because, Gil. It was your case. You were the primary. I can't present your case unless you sign off on it" Catherine crossed her legs, prepared to argue with him for the long haul if necessary. For such a brilliant man, there were certain areas in which Gil Grissom was incredibly daft... and everyone knew it... even him.
"Wait, you're presenting my case. Why are you"
"Gil! Jesus! You asked me to! Three weeks ago, we switched off on cases because I did the interviews and you thought... oh god. Tell me you remembered my case. Gil..."
Grissom's face was blank as his mind skimmed his mental filing cabinet. "The smash and grab down in Pahruhmp, right" Catherine nodded hesitantly at his assessment. "Then yes, last week. Took a half an hour, was done with it." Grissom tossed his classes back on his face and picked up the dictionary-like folder from his desk and opened it in front of him.
Catherine smiled and hopped up from the chair, her blonde hair bouncing enthusiastically with her. "Forms are on top, leave it in my box when you're done and don't forget to call Screnton" And with that she was gone and Gil sighed-
"Oh and before you hear it from someone else, Greg's coffee is up for grabs in the break room." Grissom watched as she once again disappeared around the corner. Grissom took one look at the forms in front of him and decided that they could wait, especially if Greg happened to be brewing a pot of Blue Hawaiian.
Gil got up and walked to the break room, a man on a mission for a good cup of coffee. What he encountered when he got to the break room was a picture of relaxation. Nick and Warrick tossing a neon green Nerf football back and forth, discussing the recent Astros game. He would have told them to stop, but it was Friday and it was a slow night, and to tell the truth he really didn't care in the first place, so he didn't bother.
Greg was busy mixing Splenda slowly into his styrofoam cup of bliss, as if it were a delicate experiment. Odd guy. Catherine had managed to finagle herself a cup as well, adding half and half to hers far less delicately than Greg was.
And Sara, Sara was sprawled out on the break room couch, clutching a book in front of her face, brow knit in concentration. She nodded at something she picked up from the text and bit her lip, probably committing the fact to memory.
Grissom stood at the door for a moment, before walking into the room, being greeted by his co-workers. Warrick, Greg and Nick all called out their hello's, where as Sara managed a grunt and shifted in her seat, acknowledging his presence.
"Help yourself boss." Greg said, sending him a goofy smile. Grissom didn't bother telling him that he'd intended to anyway, because it didn't matter.
Catherine saw him walk over and gave him a stern look, as if chastising him for not staying in his office to suffer through his paperwork. She nudged him with her hip and moved to throw herself into a seat near Greg. "Hey Greggo, Lindsay wrote you a thank you card. For the birthday gift. I left it in my car though, I'll bring it in later."
She intercepted a pass from Warrick and sent the Nerf ball sailing towards Sara, who caught it without looking up from her book and tossed it back to Greg. He caught it, barely, and sent it over to Warrick again.
"Oh yeah? Which was her favorite" Greg asked, satisfied with his mixing job, settling back to speak with Cat.
Catherine smirked and sipped the coffee. "Well, first off, she didn't need any more stuffed animals, so thanks for that Greg, much less an entire collection of stuffed reptiles. She and her cousin have been having wars with them, bears against reptiles. It's loud." She smirked and he bowed in his seat. "But... her favorite is Jimmy, the Gecko. He's cute enough to sleep in her bunk, but deadly enough to attack Sniffy, the black bear. And that, apparently, is why she always wins."
Grissom listened on with amusement; figured that Greg would go overboard on a gift, he did go overboard with everything else. His wardrobe being the obvious example.
Gil poured out a liberal amount of Blue Hawaiian, not bothering with the sugar. Grissom also didn't bother with the cream, choosing to drink his coffee black. He moved to the table and sat down, grabbing the New York Times off the counter on the ay, flipping it open to the crossword puzzle and settling in for the challenge.
Three and a half minutes later, a loud crashing sound snapped him from his reverie. Everyone turned to see the Nerf ball smash into the coffee pot, knocking it, and what was left of Greg's special brew, to the floor. Greg, for a moment, looked on in horror, before he shrieked a Nick and Warrick in such a voice that made Grissom cringe. He looked down at the wreckage of the relatively new coffee pot and wanted to yell.
Everyone waited for him to yell.
But he didn't bother.
"Clean that up." He ordered, and went back to the crossword puzzle. Everyone's brows shot up at his reaction, but said nothing. Nick and Warrick moved to help Greg clean up, and Sara returned to her book, lying back on the couch, propping her feet up. Grissom looked at her, so sweet, he smiled and penciled in the word 'cacophony' and sipped the remnants of his coffee.
He tossed the cup, got up, and went back to his office to sign off on the papers that Catherine needed. Once seated he picked up a pen and intended to attack the stack with gusto.
That is, until a form appeared in his doorway, sending a long shadow over his desk. "Hey, I uh, you got a minute" Sara asked, book dangling from her long fingers as if it were a purse. Figures, Sara was the type of woman who would rather carry a book with her wherever she went than carry a cumbersome purse.
"Depends." He began, a slight smirk in place.
She smiled slightly and ambled into his office, free hand stroking over the back of the visitor's chair. "I just... don't want to be a bother."
Grissom smiled thinly and placed his pen down back on the desk. He turned an attentive ear to her as she began to speak.
She wasn't a bother.