Catherine returned to work part-time after a week off to recover from her attack. She noticed that everyone was being too nice. They were all watching out for her, not letting her do too much. It infuriated her. Storming into Gil's office, she demanded to know what he had told them.
Looking up from a case file, he looked bemused. "What?"
"What did you tell them? They are all walking around me on eggshells and no one will let me do anything! I don't like this, Gil. You know how much I don't like this…"
Gil leaned back in his chair and smiled, listening to her tirade. When she wound down, he tilted his head and grinned at her. "Finished?"
"Yes," she pouted.
"Okay, I didn't tell anybody anything except Cavallo and Jim. One of them must have told the others."
"Where's Jim?" she asked.
"Uh…I'm not sure," he answered nervously. "I think I saw him headed for the morgue."
"The morgue? Jim never goes to the mor…oh, I see what you are doing. You were going to warn him, weren't you?" She stood across from him, hands oh hips and breathing fire.
"Ah…no?"
"Oh yes you were. You men…"she huffed.
Gil couldn't help it. The sight of her standing there so fired up, face flushed, and the tiny little bump that was his babies just beginning to show combined to set him on fire, a very different fire than the one she was breathing. She saw the expression on his face and knew what he was thinking. "Get that look off of your face right now, buster. You and that lusty glint of yours have caused enough problems."
Gil chuckled. "Or what?"
"What do you mean…or what?"
"Get rid of the look or what?"
"Or…oh, hell. I don't know." She threw up her hands and stormed out. She could hear his chuckle as she exited. Anyone in the hall could have read the smile on her face and the gleam in her eyes. She had Gil Grissom eating out of the palm of her hand and was loving every bit of it.
He had just settled back into his chair and picked up the file when his computer beeped. He glanced over to see that he had received an e-mail. Trying to concentrate on the case, he ignored the computer screen. Consequently, the alert remained on his screen while he continued to work on his case.
After awhile he left his desk and headed to Trace to see if the results were in from the clothes that the victim was wearing. While he was in trace, Catherine wandered into his office. When she saw that he wasn't there, she sat behind his desk to wait for him. The e-mail alert blinking on his screen caught her attention. Pregnancy hadn't affected her curiosity and she fought the temptation to open the mail. But she managed to leave it alone.
Gil strolled back into his office, his head in a file, studying the results. "Gil?" she said.
He looked up and smiled at her over the folder. It was a warm smile, one that told her how much he loved her and that he was happy she was there. A lump formed in her throat as she realized how much that meant to her.
He took her customary place at the corner of his desk and gazed down at her. "You are the best thing I've seen all night," he said quietly. Leaning over, his fingers worked their way into her hair, gently parting the strands as they made their way to her scalp, where they transmitted his love and imparted comfort to her. She closed her eyes, drinking in the sensation and living in that one moment. And then she flet his fingers withdraw as she heard him sigh.
She opened her eyes, disappointed at his retreat. He was still looking at her, a small smile at the corners of his mouth. His eyes said what his mouth did not. He wanted them to be somewhere else, a place where they could lock the world out and they could lose themselves in each other. It wasn't lust she saw in his eyes, but it was need. "Save that thought for later," she whispered. His eyes widened, surprised that she had read him so well; and then he let out a soft chuckle. "You know me too well, Mrs. Grissom."
Just the she felt a flutter in her abdomen. Her eyes darted to her stomach and she giggled. "Catherine?" he asked, his eyelids arched.
"The babies are awake," she smiled. "They are moving around in there…here give me your hand, quick." He offered his hand, which she placed over the area of her tummy that was fluttering. "Feel it?"
This was her fifth pregnancy and he was still intrigued by the workings of it all. He kept his hand on her, hoping to feel the lives inside of her, but he only felt the warmth of her. "No, I can't feel anything," he said, a little disappointed.
Catherine covered his hand with her own hand and patted it. "Hey little people, this is your Daddy. He wants to feel you play too." She felt another flutter but when she looked at Gil, she saw that he didn't feel it. "Maybe it's too early," she lamented.
"They must be tiny," he said in awe.
"Yeah, well …they don't feel so tiny."
He looked up at her face, a single tear sitting in the corner of his eye. "Thank you," he mumbled.
"For what?" she asked in surprise.
"For giving me the most beautiful gifts a woman can give a man." The blue of his eyes was so clear and bright. His face was full of honesty and awe, as well as gratitude. And even more, he looked at her with such love that Catherine couldn't speak. So she simply sat there, holding his hand to her tummy a little tighter, fighting back her own tears of awe and gratitude…and love.
They stayed locked in that single, precious moment until his phone rang. He sighed as he glared at it. "Answer it," she said.
"Grissom."
Catherine watched as he changed back into investigator mode, smiling with the knowledge that she was the only person on the planet that ever got to see the Gill Grissom that she had just seen. To everyone else, he was an emotionally repressed, eccentric bug lover with a quirky personality and a penchant for disappearing. She eased out of his chair, motioning for him to sit. He opened his file and jotted whatever information was being conveyed on a blank page at the front. She slipped into her customary spot on his desk and waited, content to watch him.
Finally the call ended and he leaned back in his chair, gazing up at her. "You doing okay…not overdoing it, I mean?"
"I'm okay," she smiled. "No one lets me do anything anyway."
"Good," he smirked. The blinking alert on his screen caught his attention and he frowned.
"Go ahead and open it," she coaxed.
"Its probably nothing," he replied.
"So make it stop blinking, open it."
He clicked the button and the e-mail sprang onto his screen. He sighed deeply, clearly frustrated.
"Who is it from?"
He looked at her cautiously. "Sara."
"Oh." She said very still and he waited for the explosion. But then she smiled. "So read it."
"Ah…she's asking a question about fly larvae."
"For a case?"
"I guess so. Sometimes I think she really is looking for information to help with a case and other times, I just don't know…"
"So answer it."
"But…are you sure?"
"Yeah, I am. I don't trust her one bit, Gil. She's going to make a serious play at some point in time. But I do trust you; I know you would never hurt me, not like that anyway."
She slid off his desk and started out of his office. Stopping at the door she turned around, "go ahead an answer her. Just be careful when you correspond with her, okay?"
"Okay," he smiled. His smile grew as he watched her walk down the hall. He always loved the view from the back.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Okay, so Cath is easing up a little; but is the 'Sara issue' rally resolved? Hmmm...time will tell. Meantime, the little button is down over there somewhere...