Indecisions

Part two

Spoiler: Big Middle (though most of the details in that episode are changed)


Gil Grissom reached for the light switch on the wall and turned it on. He looked around. The copy room was just like every other small-business copy room he'd ever been before: windowless and cramped.

It smelled the same, too, he noticed, wincing a little.

Copy rooms were always grubby but this one looked as if a toner cartridge had exploded inside. Every surface was covered with a faint sprinkling of black powder -from the photocopiers to the walls, to the reams of paper piled on the floor.

Beside him, Greg spoke.

"Guy in charge was sloppy," he muttered.

It was because of said 'guy in charge' that they were there; he was the primary suspect in a series of assaults. Gil and Greg had already searched the perp's house, and now they'd come to his workplace, hoping to find some evidence.

"One thing's for sure," Greg added, "We can't use black fingerprinting powder here."

"We'll use red," Gil agreed.

After a brief discussion on who would do what, Greg immediately set out to work on the far side of the room while Gil remained near the door.

Grissom covertly glanced at Greg. He'd been doing that all night, looking for some sign that might prove or disprove John's claims. So far, he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary; Greg was his usual good-natured self, and he was working quietly, (too quietly, perhaps?) and efficiently.

But Gil couldn't rest easily yet; not with John's words still weighing heavily on him.

That John didn't ask for any explanations was fortunate, because Gil couldn't give any; he'd let things go too far with Greg and he still didn't understand why; although hecould pinpoint the moment it all started: Right at the end of a criminal investigation. A man was found dead in a hotel room, and their investigation eventually revealed he'd been accidentally smothered by an overweight woman. Not the bloodiest case he and Greg had ever investigated -not the most disturbing or even the most emotional- yet for some reason it had touched their lives like no other.

Was it because the case drew attention to one of Gil's sensitive spots, (weight)? Maybe. It was the one thing no one ever talked about-not his colleagues, nor Gil himself- yet, all of a sudden, Gil found himself alluding to it often, though mostly in relation to the victim's and the murderer's state of mind. He was only doing it to help their investigation, (or so he told himself)but to Greg, it meant much more. As he later explained, it was the first time Grissom had revealed something personal, and so it was a big deal.

Once Gil opened this door, they started talking about matters that were probably too personal for mere colleagues to discuss, although Gil didn't see it that way; after all, they were merely discussing human nature. That explains why, when Greg casually asked him what kind of person he was most attracted to, Gil didn't hesitate to say that he liked people who didn't judge him.

That Greg might have crossed a line by asking such a personal question didn't occur to Gil till a couple of nights later, when Greg entered Grissom's office, sat, and, after a moment's hesitation, looked at Grissom in the eye and said, "There's something I'd like you to know. I'm not a judgmental person."

Gil didn't reply. He didn't move, either, and this was something that bothered him still; the fact that he stayed. He could have pretended to have an appointment, a call to make, or a witness to interview; he could have simply bolted from the room, just like he did whenever Greg came into his office to chat. Instead, he merely looked at Greg as if he'd been waiting for this moment, and now wanted to hear the rest.

Greg didn't hesitate; he talked -a lot. He talked about his own views on attraction and how open he was topossibilities; then he sat back and looked at Grissom. He was obviously leaving the final decision to the boss.

Gil knew he could -and should- have said something. A simple 'I can't,' would have sufficed; there were plenty of reasons for them not to get involved, after all.

But he didn't say anything. He didn't say yes, he didn't say no. And for Greg, silence meant compliance.

---

"Oh, this guy's an idiot," Greg said suddenly, bringing Gil back to the present.

Gil looked up and noticed that Greg had moved a photocopier in order to examine the boxes piled behind.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yeah," Greg said incredulously. "Condoms."

"Condoms?"

"Can you believe it? I mean, sure, the guy's still living with his mother, it's not like he's gonna keep these in his room. But to put them in here -" He shook his head in disapproval.

Gil frowned.

"What's the problem?"

Greg seemed surprised by the question.

"You know that condoms are made of natural rubber -"

"Uh, huh," Gil nodded, not sure of where Greg was going with this.

"- and rubber degrades when it's exposed to ozone," Greg finished. "Ozone is a gas…?" He paused so Gil could draw his own conclusions, but Grissom impatiently motioned him to go on. "Well, ozone's also that special smell that you noticed the minute we came into this room. In short, you should never store your condoms near a photocopier."

"Oh."

"Oh, yeah," Greg said, and he was smiling placidly, just like he did whenever he had a chance to lecture his CSI colleagues. He looked at Gil in the eye, "Gotta keep your protection protected, you know."

Grissom held Greg's gaze for just a moment, and then he glanced away, his attention drawn to a couple of boxes marked as 'Recycling Material'. He hunched down and opened one. About a dozen toner cartridges were neatly piled inside, all bearing the same 'recycling' note.

Grissom picked up two at random, and wasn't really surprised to find that one felt heavier than the other. Could this be the perp's hiding place? He set the lighter cartridge aside and set out to examine another.

All along, he was aware that Greg was still looking at him.

"I thought you'd appreciate the advice," Greg said casually. "I mean, with your friend in town, and all."

Grissom winced. He didn't reply; he just braced himself for whatever it was that Greg was going to say.

"You slept with him, didn't you?"


TBC

Note: The bit about ozone and photocopiers was taken from the book, 'Condensed Knowledge'.