I realize that the episode I am using in this story was from the very early seasons of CSI, but I just recently watched this episode and the idea hit me, so I had to write it. If you haven't seen the episode "Jackpot" (from season 4) this story might be a bit confusing. I'll mention aspects of the case throughout, but that's not the story's main focus, so some parts may be unclear for those who haven't seen it. So, sorry in advance if you get a little lost.
This is an AU version of Jackpot so a few (not many, but a few) parts are directly from the episode, while the rest is completely different.
Now the beginning is a little bit long and may be slow but pur-lease bear with me, because I think the set up is necessary for the story and what not.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, if I did the only thing GSR would mean is gun shot residue. (sorry GSR fans!) ;)
"I owe you one?" Oh yeah, he owes me big time! Catherine thought as she plopped herself down in front of Grissom's desk. She had just gotten off the phone with him and was now immediately regretting her agreement to take on his case reviews. She knew that she would just be sitting around waiting for Grissom to give her more information before she could do anything else productive, so working on the intimidating stack before her appeared to be the only thing she could do at the moment, no matter how much she didn't want to. "Is there anything I won't do for this man?" She asked herself bitterly as she pulled a scattered file towards her.
She hadn't been working for more than forty-five minutes when Warrick came into the office. "Hey Cath, I've been looking all over for you," he said, walking in and taking a seat in an unoccupied chair.
Catherine looked up at him and gave him a little half smile, "Sorry, Grissom stuck me with his casework." Warrick leaned back; his hands clasped in front of him, and studied Catherine in amusement. She was always picking up the slack for Gris, and he was always confiding in her. Why they couldn't just wake up and see the attraction was beyond him. "You need something, or are you just going to stare at me for a few more minutes?" Catherine asked with an amused smile as she placed a file on top of the considerably smaller stack.
"Sorry, yeah," he said, slightly embarrassed, "The Lieutenant from Jackpot, Alan Brooks, called to complain about our investigation." Catherine raised an eyebrow at this, but kept quiet so Warrick could continue. "Apparently we are causing, not only a disturbance in the town, but also taking up too many of his officers."
Catherine's brow furrowed, "God, he must be making it hell for Grissom."
"Hey, don't worry, Gris can handle himself," Warrick said reassuringly, "Do you need a hand with these files?" Catherine seemed to be lost in thought and Warrick was about to ask again when a sudden flash of determination illuminated her eyes and she looked up to meet his gaze.
"No thanks… but you could help me with something else." He was almost afraid to ask.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Well, Gil's gonna need all the help he can get out there, and I know enough about the case to where I could handle it. But I'd need you to take over for me here." She looked so unwavering that Warrick probably couldn't have said no even if he wanted to.
"No problem, I'll ask Nick and Sara to help out too."
"Well then," Catherine said standing up, "I guess I'm off to Jackpot."
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Grissom watched as the Deputy of Jackpot drove off, with the body in the back seat. Lieutenant Brooks was walking away with that strut of his and Grissom almost smiled thinking to himself, this man is going to give me hell.
"Man," said Dr. Sterling as they both stood there watching the truck, "that was a hell of a day." He looked over at Grissom, "You need a place to sleep?" Grissom thought for a moment, what he wanted was a place to work, but he knew hotel rooms had tables.
"Yeah, where's your nearest hotel?" As soon as he asked Grissom realized this small town may not even have one. Dr. Sterling pulled out his phone.
"I'll call Pete, the hotel owner, he'll get you set up with a room." Grissom thanked him and waited patiently on the curb while Dr. Sterling set up his room.
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Catherine pulled up into a parking spot outside of one of, what seemed like, five buildings in the town and got out. Before she even had a chance to begin wondering how she was going to go about tracking down Grissom she spied what she guessed was the infamous Lieutenant Brooks. Catherine changed her course and headed in his direction. He caught sight of her and stopped walking, looking at her expectantly.
"Hi," she called as she came up to meet him on the sidewalk. "I'm looking for Gil Grissom." He looked at her suspiciously so she continued, not wanting him to make up any excuses, "I just spoke to him a few hours ago, so I know he's here." Suddenly the Lieutenant's eyes lit up with recognition.
"Ah, you must be Catherine," he said. She lowered her eyebrows curiously but smiled and nodded in response. "Well, he's just down the street actually, I just spoke with him. I can take you over there."
"Okay, thanks," she said, slightly suspicious, but followed him anyway.
Grissom had just finished up his conversation with the vet, who was about to point him in the direction of his hotel when he saw Catherine walking towards him, with the Lieutenant. His first thought was fear that Catherine would find out he had been pretending she was his wife, but he quickly brushed that away, thinking the Lieutenant was not that sharp.
"Hey Cath, what brings you here?" He asked as she approached. She smiled; happy he didn't seem too angry she had decided to tag along.
"Well, I couldn't leave you out here all by yourself now could I?" She said jokingly. Grissom, to her amazement smiled back, not at all perturbed by her forwardness of coming to the scene without being asked. Truth be told he was happy to have a friendly face in the hostile town, and an extra pair of hands would take off an immense amount of pressure. The Lieutenant drug Grissom from these thoughts when he cleared his throat.
"Well, it's getting dark, and I know you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. Perhaps you and your wife should head to your hotel," Lieutenant Brooks said impatiently. Catherine's mouth dropped open slightly and she shot a baffled look at Grissom. Not wanting to cause a scene and have the Lieutenant think even worse of him than he already did, Grissom did not correct him.
"You're absolutely right, we should," Grissom took the bewildered Catherine gently by the arm. "Come along dear," he said and began leading her towards the hotel. Catherine, though confused and now burning for answers, managed to hold back her questions until they were out of earshot.
"What the hell was that all about?" She whispered to him. While, although she wouldn't let herself admit it, the thought of being confused for Gil's wife was not a terrible thing, she was highly confused as to why. Grissom was still trying to think of how he would explain himself, so he decided to buy some time.
"I'll explain when we get to the hotel room," he said as they entered the tiny hotel.
"We won't be sharing a room right?" Catherine asked, worried, "I mean, this isn't exactly the Hilton, I'm sure they have more rooms available."
"That would be suspicious since the Lieutenant thinks we are married," Grissom was regretting his little joke more and more.
"And you didn't correct him because…?"
"Catherine, please, later," he whispered as the hotel owner approached.
"You must be Mr. Grissom;" Peter the hotel owner said cheerily, "Dr. Sterling called and informed me of your arrival." He looked at Catherine curiously, "And who is this lovely lady?"
Catherine looked amusedly at Grissom and said, "Darling, would you like to introduce me?"
"This is my wife," Grissom said, the act of saying his lie out loud causing him to blush.
"Ah, what a lovely couple," said Peter, although it was half-heartedly, for he seemed slightly put-out that Catherine was taken. "You will be in room three, first door on you left down the hall," he said while handing Grissom the key. They said their thanks and made their way to their room. Immediately after they had entered and the door was closed Catherine advanced on Grissom.
"You had better start explaining Gil."
"Well," Grissom paused, for he had been thinking of a way to justify his actions since the Lieutenant had first called Catherine his wife, and he could only come up with: "I had just gotten off the phone with you and Lieutenant Brooks asked me if I was having 'trouble with the wife', I didn't want to tell him that I was running all these background checks and such back home so I just decided not to correct him and let him think that that was whom I was communicating with. Had I known you were going to come I most certainly wouldn't have said that." Grissom waited, hoping she would accept his story and, to his relief, she merely shrugged and set down her bag smiling that mischievous Catherine Willows smile once more.
"And here I thought you really cared." He chuckled in response and then he too set down his equipment. "So," she continued gazing at him intently, "Do you have anything new?"
"As a matter of fact I do," Grissom said, extracting the wadded up piece of paper he had found in the victim's pocket. He went to work unfolding it, Catherine watching over his shoulder, and then, once it had been done, they faxed a copy of it over to Warrick.
"Well, I'm glad I've been such a big help so far," Catherine joke as she stifled a yawn. Her yawn did not go unnoticed by Grissom and, yawns being contagious, he found himself doing the same.
"We can get to work on further investigation when it gets light out, but for now I think we should get some rest," he said. Catherine nodded in agreement, but then bit her bottom lip as she surveyed the room.
"There's only one bed," she observed, "and no couch."
"That's fine, I'll take the chair," Grissom said, although a night sleeping in a tiny armchair did not seem favorable.
"I can't make you sleep in a chair," Catherine said feeling guilty for taking the only available bed.
"But you aren't making me, I am sleeping there of my own accord," Grissom was not apposed to the idea of sleeping in the same bed with Catherine at all, in fact it was this fact that made him worried of what he may do if presented with that predicament.
"Gil, we are both adults and friends, sharing a bed is not a big deal," Catherine said, even thought to her it was an incredibly big deal, "If we each just stick to our own side of the bed it shouldn't be a problem." Her logic, his exhaustion, and the uncomfortable look of the chair won him over and he agreed.
Grissom took his turn getting ready for bed in the little half-bath first. He emerged in a flannel pyjama set and Catherine was glad that she too had packed appropriate sleeping attire. By the time she had finished getting ready Grissom had already claimed the left side of the bed and was turned on his side, facing the wall, apparently asleep. Catherine smiled at this, happy the awkward moment of getting into bed with Grissom would be passed somewhat.
Catherine slowly slipped under the covers on the other side, careful not to disturb her bed partner. She mirrored his sleeping position, her back turned to him and facing the door, putting as much distance between them as possible. She usually slept on her right side, but decided that facing Grissom would just make it even more difficult to fall asleep. Although there was probably a body length between them Catherine could feel the heat from his body, and it was almost driving her wild.
As often as she tried to deny it, or claim to herself it was just a result of her loneliness, Catherine knew deep down she had begun to fall for Grissom. When they had first met she had felt that sort of attraction to him, but had quickly dismissed it as impossible, as he was her supervisor and that sort of relationship would be inappropriate. But they had still grown close over the years. She considered him her best friend, and she was sure he did the same. In truth they were as close as two people could get without being lovers. And that would not be such a bad transition… Catherine quickly tried to push this thought from her mind, but Grissom's presence, so close to her, was making that quite impossible. She sighed and, although it went against her better judgement, rolled over, not able to stand lying on that side another minute.
Catherine dared to open her eyes slowly and saw that Grissom was still in the same position, facing away from her. She closed her eyes again, willing with all her might to let sleep come to her, since she was exhausted, but her mind kept travelling to her sleeping companion.
What Catherine did not know was that Grissom was also still awake, staring at the wall across from him, the exact same thoughts swirling through his mind…
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Catherine slowly felt herself leaving the hazy stages of sleep, but she tried to hang onto it. She had been having a wonderful dream, her sub-conscious taking all her suppressed feelings towards Grissom and creating a dream that would have made the conscious Catherine blush quite a bit. But the dream had begun to reach its end, and it was almost as though Catherine could feel Grissom's arms around her. She smiled and tried to cling to the dream as her mind became clearer and clearer. But, to her surprise, the feeling of Grissom's embrace remained. Her eyes shot open and she looked down and saw that someone's arms were indeed wrapped around her stomach. Grissom must have rolled over in the middle of the night, and she must have scooted closer... While the feeling of his body pressed against hers and his arm encircling her waist was anything but terrible, it was the fear of awkwardness when he woke up that was making Catherine feel apprehensive about the situation. As she tried to slowly slip out from under his arm, her movement caused him to stir, and she froze. He merely sighed and pulled her closer, causing her heart to flutter. Ok, Catherine thought, maybe just waiting until he wakes up is a good plan. And she closed her eyes again, daring to snuggle a little closer, and smiled as she drifted off to sleep once more.
As Catherine began drifting off Grissom began to come to. The realization that he was holding Catherine Willows flush against him was quite surprising, but not in a terrible way… He tried to search for signs that she was awake, but her breathing was slow and even. Grissom's mind was spinning, his analytical and emotional sides arguing. The dominating logical side was telling him to take his arm off of her and get up, avoiding embarrassment and going back to keeping her, and his emotions, at arms length. But there was another side, one that rarely showed itself, the emotional, that was yearning to pull her closer. His internal debate was stirring up other emotions inside of him, ones he always tried to ignore, but were starting to surface more and more lately. His feelings towards Catherine had always been deep, deeper than he cared her to know, or even himself. As of late, however, suppressing his feelings was proving to be almost impossible.
It was at this moment that Catherine sighed quietly in her sleep and tucked her head closer to his body. The feeling of her hair brushing against his neck, and the weight of her head, now tucked under his chin, caused his mind to go blissfully silent for a moment, allowing impulse to take him over. He pulled his head back slightly then lowered his lips to place a soft kiss on the top of her head, before resting his chin on it once more. He allowed himself a few more minutes of just lying there with her, before his Grissom state of mind returned and he slowly took back his arm and got up out of bed, heading to the bathroom to take a shower and clear his head.
The sound of running water caused Catherine to wake up once more, although the absence of Grissom's presence made her heart sink slightly. She opened her eyes, and rolled over, looking at the rumpled bedding next to her and allowed a smile to grace her face. Although she knew she would deny it to herself later, she had just had the best night of sleep she had had in a long time.