The Evaluation

Summary: When the team are asked to separate supervisor evaluations on Gil, this is what happens…

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI; if I did, there'd be a relationship or two in the team.

"These evaluations are to be handed to me by the end of the week," Gil said to everyone before he handed out their assignments for the night. "And please be honest."

Everyone looked down at the pieces of paper they'd been given and smiled. They all had the same thought running through their heads; 'This was going to be fun.'

"Right. Cath, Warrick, Nick; you have a DB in the desert. Victim drowned. Brass is waiting for you. Sara; you're with me on a rape case. I know you don't like them, that's why I'm with you. See you at the end of shift," Gil walked out the room to go put paperwork on his desk for after shift.

"Guys, what are we going to put? That Gil's a very good supervisor but not all there?" Cath asked, drawing laughs from her fellow CSI's.

"How about 'amazing human being, but completely insane?' " Sara said.

"That sounds about right," Nick commented, standing up to go to his scene with Warrick and Cath in toe, "Good luck out there Sara, and phone me if you need me."

"Will do," she said, leaning back in her seat, not wanting to leave the safety of the break room.

She jumped when she heard Gil re-enter the room. "Sorry," he muttered.

"It's OK," Sara said, looking at the form in front of her. 'What am I going to put about Gil? That I'm in love with my supervisor?' she thought. She knew that this evaluation was going to be hard to write.

"We'd better go," he knelt down by the side of her chair and put his free hand on her arm, she flinched under his touch. "I know this is going to be hard for you, but you have to stay professional. I can't have you compromising the case."

"I know Gil, so why did you put me on this case?" she looked at his eyes and saw they were moist.

"Because I know you can do this. I know you can stay professional. I know you've grown stronger since the last rape case."

"You know a lot," she said, smiling when he grinned.

By the end of shift, Sara was drained; physically, mentally and emotionally. All she wanted to do was go home, and sleep for a few hours until she had to go back to work. But Nick wasn't having any of it.

"You've got to come to breakfast. Since Gil said he wasn't going, we're going to work on our evaluations, help each other and support each other. I know that this is going to open a lot of old wounds for you."

"Fine Nick. You don't half push."

"I know, sweetie, but it's for your own good," Nick said, putting his arm around her and steering her towards his SUV. He opened the door for her and walked around to the driver's side.

When they pulled up at the café; Greg, Cath and Warrick were already there, waiting for the other two to arrive.

"Come on, I'm starving," Greg moaned when they sat down.

"We're not eating till we get these sorted," Cath said, getting her form out and taking a look at it. The others followed suit.

"Right, 'Name of supervisor'.That's easy.Gilbert Grissom," Warrick said, writing down Gil's full name.

"'Shift' Graveyard," Nick said, writing that down too.

Ten minutes later, everyone was still writing, but Sara hadn't even picked up her form.

"Sara, what's wrong?" Nick said, noticing her reaction to the others.

"I don't know what to put about Gil and I know for a fact that everyone else is going to write basically the same thing."

"So why don't we all write one together?" Greg asked the others.

"That's a great idea!" Cath agreed.

When Gil walked into his office that night, he spotted a manila, unsealed envelope on his desk. On top of it was a note.

He picked up the note and read it. It said, "Gil, we know you're not supposed to read the evaluations, but we want you to read ours. We didn't see the point of writing five different ones so only wrote one. It basically sums up how we see you and how you do your job. We'll see you at the start of shift. Signed - The Graveyard Shift x."

Gil put the note into his shirt pocket and picked up the envelope. He pulled out the flimsy piece of paper and spotted a pencilled explanation as to why there was only one.

Underneath was a filled out form, with another added piece of paper attached.

He read it once through, not believing what he was reading, so he read it again. The second time around, tears brimmed to the surface of his eyes, one or two spilling out onto the paper, and put the form back in the envelope.

Gil looked at the clock and noticed that it was 7:50pm. Shift was going to start in ten minutes. He picked up the assignments for that evening and made his way to the break room.

When Gil got there, everyone looked at him expectedly. Realising that someone was going to ask in a minute, he said, "Thank you. It really meant a lot to me." Tears spilled out of his eyes once more.

Sara got up and walked to his side. "It's how we see our friend," she said, putting her arm around his shoulders. He looked at her and smiled.

"Can I talk to you after shift? I want to tell you something," Gil whispered so only Sara could hear. She nodded in a silent reply.

Gil handed out their assignments for that evening. No one was suspicious when Gil put Sara with him again. They always seemed to work together lately.

Sara met Gil in his office after shift. She hoped whatever he had to tell her would be as quick and as painless as possible. Gil had a way of pissing her off a lot.

When Gil hadn't spoke for ten minutes, Sara decided to break the ice for him. "Gil, what's going on?"

"I read the evaluation and I could tell when it was you talking. There was so much pride and love in those words, that's what made me cry," Gil said, not looking at Sara directly.

Sara didn't know what to say to that (A.N. – Neither did I) so chose to stay quiet. Gil finally looked at her and saw her deep in thought.

"What you thinking of?" he asked, hoping it was something he wanted to hear.

"Just thinking about when I first arrived. My life was simple, easy, but since, it's painful and hard, which is why I'm an over worker."

"And I'm the cause of that…" he muttered to himself, but didn't care if Sara overheard.

"So what was it you wanted to tell me?" Sara said, getting straight to the point.

"This is going to be easy for me to say, and I know you'll probably run out the room because I've messed you about so much…" Gil said. Sara cut in.

"Gil, you're rambling."

"Yes, I do that when I'm nervous. Anyway, I wanted to ask you, if you, er, wanted to go to dinner tomorrow night? We both have the night off," Gil asked, catching Sara's eye contact.

The look in her eye and facial expression showed that she was shocked at the invite, but her body language was telling Gil otherwise.

"Well?" Gil asked.

"Erm…OK." Sara smiled at Gil and walked to the door. "See you tonight at work," she said before walking out the room to go join the others for breakfast.

Gil looked over at the envelope which the evaluation was currently occupying. He reached over and pulled it out.

He read it again, this time, taking his time with it and looking for underlying meanings. His team weren't stupid and they'd try to say something through something else, but he found nothing.

Gil got up and walked to his office door, turned the light off and locked the door behind him. He was certainly looking forward to the shift tonight.

Lying on his desk was the evaluation that he'd send tonight.

The Evaluation –

Supervisor evaluation form

Name of Supervisor: Gilbert Grissom

Shift: Night (Graveyard)

We want you to look at your supervisor's style of work, how he interacts with people, what his specialist subject is, etc.

Due in Sunday…

When asked to write an evaluation on Gil, we thought it was pointless to write five separate ones when they'd all be identical. We're going to ignore the 'Help' topics at the top and write it our own way.

Some have us have worked with Gil for quite a few years, some have worked with Gil for just a few years, but we all know him well enough to be able to write this.

During these years, we've seen that Gil takes his job very seriously. He'd rather stay at work, than have a social life. We know that this isn't healthy, but he concentrates when he's on the job, keeps his mind open and looks at the evidence.

His love of bugs has solved so many cases over the years, so that when there are bugs on a crime scene, we immediately call Gil.

We don't really know what to say anymore, this was easier when they were separate. No one can find anything to agree on, except the bug bit.

Catherine Willows – When I started working with Gil, I thought he was a stubborn fool, but he was really smart and he loved his job, so I became friends with him. Jim Brass was supervisor at the time, and work was hard, but Gil was always there to stop me from going crazy.

Warrick Brown – Gil helped me out of a tight spot a few years ago and I'm eternally grateful for that. Gil's love of the job is fantastic. He makes sure that we keep an open mind and not lose concentration. He gives us cases that seem hard to us, but he knows we can do them, and we do. I love how he believes in us, even though we don't believe in ourselves at the time.

Nick Stokes – Working with Gil Grissom was an honour at first, but then after three years, I wondered why I was being punished. His constant quoting of life is phenomenal. How does he remember them all? It drives us crazy, but many times, it's helped us go back to the evidence and re-evaluate what we've found, leading to an arrest and the case solved.

Greg Sanders ­– I know I'm not supposed to write as he's not my supervisor yet, but I thought I'd add that this man is fantastic. You'd be crazy to get rid of him because everyone else would walk out.

Sara Sidle – I met Gil a while back at a seminar in San Francisco, where I was learning to become a CSI. When he called, I gladly accepted the opportunity to work with him, and the position became permanent. I find it hard to concentrate on cases that involve rape victims or children, but Gil's always there to nudge me in the right direction, to keep me on track. I'm so glad I accepted that job, because it gave me a chance to get out there and do something with myself. I'm grateful that Gil chose me.

So there you have it, Gil's evaluation. It took us three hours to write, so enjoy it.

Signed – The Graveyard Shift.