Disclaimer: They're not mine.
Rating: T or PG-13 for drug-mentioning and swearing. Let me know if you think it should be higher.
Summary: 'Zwischenzug' – a chess move made to play for time. GCR
And here's some more – this one's particularly short, but there are a few really long chapters coming up, so I guess it all balances out in the end. Thank you to the reviewers of chapter nine, ibreak4CSI, DrusillaBraun, Liz00, Anne Herbold, gabiroba, Anaharath, Lakeland, Peaky, Erica and Teliko. x3. Update coming soon, but for now – Enjoy! Love LJ xXx
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Zwischenzug. Chapter Ten. A Truce
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(Now)
From inside the car, sat behind the steering wheel, Grissom could see Catherine still stood on the doorstep. He reached his hand out to turn the keys in the ignition but didn't. What had been the point of this at all? He'd come over to try to explain and they'd ended up at each others throats. It never used to be this way – even when things were complicated, they never fought this hard.
After a few moments, he saw Catherine uncross her arms, step off the doorstep and walk slowly down the driveway towards him. It amused him to think of how they approached each other like one might approach a dangerous animal, but he looked at her and said nothing as she opened the car door and climbed in beside him.
"What's happened to us?" she murmured with a small smile.
Gil glanced across at her and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he replied. "We used to be… close."
She turned to face him. "I miss that," she said honestly.
"Me too."
Gil sat quietly in their little sealed-in space and smiled at the moment of peace between them.
"We still have to talk, don't we?" he realised. Catherine stretched against the seat and sighed.
"Yep."
"Okay," he said. He'd spent twenty-five years with Catherine learning to be strong enough to take everything she dealt him – he reckoned he could last out the day if it meant they could still have moments like this – tiny glimpses of how it used to be between them before they were divided by tension and unspoken hurt.
"But not now," she said in a decisive voice. She softly touched his arm. "Come inside, Gil," she asked him. "We can make some breakfast or something."
He breathed a laugh and relaxed a little.
"Is it safe to be in a room full of frying pans and knives and things together?" he joked lightly.
"I think we can risk it," she said, smiling. Her hand squeezed his shoulder a little and he knew that, when it came to trying to fix things with Catherine, there would never be a 'last time'.
"Okay." Gil opened the car door and got out. He stood on the driveway for a moment or two and turned his face up to the growing morning light that swelled orange and pink at the end of her road. Then he locked his car and followed Catherine in, shutting the door behind him as she clattered pots and pans in the kitchen.
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