Monday, December 1st, 2003
Grissom stared down at the slip of paper in his palm, steadying his nerves. You can do this, he reassured himself, practicing "drawing" the palmed slip from the red and green bowl one more time. Confident that he could pull it off, he rose, carrying the bowl toward the breakroom. He saw the crowd waiting for him, and smiled at the impatience in Catherine's stance as she glanced at her watch.
"Finally!" the strawberry blonde grumbled as Grissom strode into the room and moved over to Jim Brass' side.
"Cath, shift doesn't start for another half hour, I am not late–" the entomologist started, only to be interrupted by his second in command.
"Yeah, but I've got the night off, Gil, and other places to be, so let's hurry this up, okay?"
Warrick and Nick exchanged grins at Catherine's tone, careful not to let her see them.
"All right, all right," Grissom soothed, glancing around the room quickly to ensure that everyone was there. Lab techs . . . Doc and SuperDave . . . all my CSIs . . . okay. "Let me go over the rules really quickly," his eyes locked on Catherine's, telling her not to interrupt, "and we'll get this done. Secret Santa exchange will take place the week prior to the Holiday Ball, so Monday the fifteenth through Friday the nineteenth, with the final gift and reveal to take place at the Ball itself. No specific price limit is set, as per the overwhelming requests I received after last year. And that's also the week we're covering for Dayshift's vacation, so remember it's 4am to 4pm for those five days." He shrugged at the groans that echoed around the room. "We have the next week off this year, and Swing gets the week with New Year's," he reminded the grumbling crowd. "Okay, once you've drawn your name, and made sure didn't draw yourself, you are free to go. Any questions?" Glancing around and seeing no raised hands, he turned and handed the bowl of names to Brass.
"Seems like I've volunteered to oversee your draw this year . . . so Brown, you're up first."
Stepping out of the way and avoiding Catherine's glare as she realized that she was last, Grissom watched as his folks came up for their turns one by one: Warrick Brown, Bobby Dawson, and Jacqui Franco, before Brass called out his own name – Gil Grissom.
For a moment, as he drew out his palmed paper, his eyes caught a look in Jim's that made him think he'd been rumbled, but then the detective chortled at the impatient noises coming from a certain redhead, and Grissom breathed a silent sigh before finishing his ruse, checking the slip and stepping back for the draw to continue.
Brass continued down the list, working his way through the members of the nightshift: David Hodges, Archie Johnson, Ronnie Litre, and David Phillips, who took some good-natured ribbing for drawing his own name as he sheepishly showed his slip to the detective before drawing a new one.
Al Robbins was called next, followed by, Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, Judie Tremont, Mandy Webster and finally Catherine Willows. Grabbing the last slip, making sure it didn't have her name, the strawberry blonde waved as she blew out of the room, her heels clicking rapidly down the hall.
"Next year, Gil, start with 'W' – for my sake?" Jim teased as he clapped his friend on the shoulder before heading out the door to get ready for the night.
Grissom just smiled as he tucked the slip with "Sara Sidle" boldly written on it into his pocket. Step one accomplished, Operation Sidle is under way, he thought as he headed out to collect the case slips for his team.