Chapter One

Catherine sat. She sat in Grissom's office. Why Grissom's office? She could choose to be anywhere else, but she wanted to see him for some reason. No reason at all. She blushed, thinking about the embarrassment of him walking into his office, seeing Catherine, asking why she was here, and she wouldn't have an answer. She stood to get up only to have Grissom walk in carrying four or five text books with a bug cage stacked on top. Typical Grissom.

He went on doing what he would've done whether she was there or not. He put the books away, put the cage down, shuffled through a few papers, and Catherine started to get pissed off.

"You're not going to even acknowledge my presence? Not going to ask me why I'm here?"

"I wasn't going to, but why are you here?"

"What? I'm not allowed to be here? I thought we were friends, Gil."

Grissom looked at her above his glasses, tilting his head to give her that look. The 'why are you torturing me?' look. Catherine returned the look with her gorgeous smile. The smile where she had to tilt her head slightly and let her strawberry-golden hair shimmer in the light.

"So what've you got for me today?" she said nodding her head and gesturing towards the file on his desk.

"Why don't you tell me?"

"I didn't read your file. That's something Sara would do…"

Grissom looked at Catherine again. Blue eyes to blue eyes.

"I didn't read your file... but if you don't mind, I'd like to help you with the homicide on Tropicana. Make Warrick and Nicky take the one on Maryland. They're friends, they'd want to work together… oh and send Sara with them; I really don't want her to come with us…"

Again Grissom stared; blue to blue.

"I got my own copy from Ecklie," Catherine said.

Grissom rolled his eyes, "Since when did you become supervisor?

"Grissom, I've said it once, I'll say it again; I'm you're right hand, and you're left. I'm also your eyes when it comes to social workings with the lab, and your mouth when it comes to being political. Grissom," she put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one side, "I've had control of the lab longer than you have." She said matter-of-factly.

Grissom took her words into consideration, and ended up nodding in agreement.

"Grissom! You're not supposed to agree with me on that… stick up for yourself!" Catherine laughed.

"Cath, I'm pretty sure you've already taken care of that for me too, 'hun," he answered. 'Hun'. Where'd that come from? "Can I have my chair back?"

Catherine realized she was standing in front of his desk chair.

"Yeah, but where will I sit?"

"I don't care…"

"Gil!" she said slapping his arm, "that's mean. I know you care where I sit. How about… here." She said sitting on top of his desk with her legs dangling.

"Fine," he said sitting down at his chair realizing he was now at eye level with Catherine's stomach. Flat stomach, he couldn't help but notice.

"So we're both early… what should we do?" Catherine asked after a couple seconds of just staring blankly at each other. There had been a lot of stares between them lately. Just staring. They don't even have to talk. They could just sit in a room together for hours and look at each other.

"What do you want to do?" Grissom asked, watching the petite woman in front of him.

Sex. Catherine thought.

"How about some riddles?"

Good save, Cath. Where did sex come from? Catherine thought to herself.

"You don't like riddles, Cat…" Grissom called her Cat. Another piece of evidence confirming their closeness. 'Cat'; the name only Grissom is allowed to say. Not even her ex-husband was allowed to call her that. Not that he didn't, though. There was a lot of things Eddie wasn't allowed to do that he did anyway; beating her, going into drunken rages, cheating on her, just to name a few. Another sign of the friendship, or something more, between Catherine and Gil. Gil was always there, and when he would call her 'Cat', it would redeem the meaning of the nickname.

"Actually, I never did hate them. I just liked to make fun of you because I thought they were cute. That's all. Just pickling on you…"

"Uh-huh."

"Ooh, but I have one for you… What is so fragile that when you say its name you break it?"

"Silence."

"Damn! Okay… How do you throw a ball so it travels a short distance, stops, and travels the same distance without it bouncing off of anything?"

"Throw it in the air."

"Shit, Gil. Okay you try some. I've been practicing my riddle-solving skills. I'm getting good…"

"What goes around the world, but stays in a corner?"

"A stamp!"

"Okay… The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it, and the man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?"

"Ooh, kinda dark, isn't it? But it's a coffin."

"'kay, what gains a head at night just to lose one in the morning?"

"Pillow."

Now it was becoming a challenge.

"What can run, but never walks, has a mouth, but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?"

"A river."

"Pronounced as one letter, and written with three, two letters there are, and two only in me. I'm double, I'm single, I'm black, blue and gray, I'm read from both ends, and the same either way. What am I?"

"An eye"

"Good job, Cath, you've obviously done your homework," he said handing her the file with the information for their case, "I'm proud I have passed this riddle deciphering power to you."

"I live to make you proud," Catherine said sarcastically while she was reading the file. Pretending to be genuinely confused at something in the file as they walked out of the office, Catherine asked, "I know some months have 30 days, and some have 31, but which have 28?"

"February," Grissom responded simply and proudly, yet questioning to himself why Catherine wouldn't know something like that.

"No. Gil, you're slipping," she said putting her hand on his shoulder to stop him, "All of the months have 28," she said walking ahead of him; daring him to follow her. Catherine out-riddled Grissom. Impossible. Impossible, yet true.


respond please. Without reviews i feel like i have no purpose

-kerry