Avoidance

The sound of her phone ringing in the distance woke Grace up from a few hours of much needed sleep causing her to let out a loud groan. She grabbed one of the extra pillows in her bed to cover her face with, and hoped the ringing would stop. It didn't. The continuation of Elton John's Don't go breaking my heart echoed through the room, forcing her to stretch out her arm and blindly drag it across the surface of the nightstand to search for her phone. As her hand touched the cold metal she grabbed it forcefully and steered it towards her face. She very slowly pried one eyelid open to see who was calling; Sean.

Without any hesitation and a lot of frustration she declined the call and threw the phone across the room, before burying her head in the pillows again. The soft and warm embrace of the pillows and the faint sound of the ocean caused her to slowly fall back asleep. Thankful for the peace and quiet she smiled slightly, but her small moment of happiness was cut short when the voice of Elton John started again.

Convinced going back to sleep would be impossible, she ripped her duvet of, jumped out of bed and stomped over to where she threw her phone. She picked it up from the floor to see that Sean once again was the one calling. Not in the mood to talk to anyone, she pressed decline and turned the phone completely off.

Suddenly extremely agitated she decided to make the most of her day and head for the bathroom. The sharp light made her eyes sting and she pinched her nose, trying to fight of a headache. She looked into the mirror and the sight of herself almost scared her. Her hair that had once been in a nice bun was now hanging in strands over her shoulders, her eyes was red and glassy and yesterday's mascara was smudged down her cheeks.

"Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!" she said to herself, mortified by her own reflection. She hadn't looked or felt this tired in ages and it was tearing on her will to even leave the house to get some fresh air. Ever since the incident with Steve two weeks earlier she'd been avoiding him. She'd swapped cases with Max if she was handling one he was working, stopped having coffee at Wailana's, sent Tommy to deliver paperwork on previous cases and purposely stayed away from places she knew he frequented.

In need of a shower, she turned it on, stripped out of clothes and stepped in. As the warm stream hit her sore shoulders she instantly felt herself relax, so she just stood for a few minutes before continuing with washing her hair, face and body.

After finishing her shower, Grace did some damage control on her frizzy hair and under moisturized body. Not caring about what to wear she pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans, a dark blue v-neck t-shirt and a pair of beige sandals. Remembering she'd turned her phone of earlier, she picked it up from the floor and turned it back on. She had 7 missed calls and 4 voicemails from Sean and 3 missed calls and 4 texts from Tommy saying her presence is needed at the office.

She quickly stuffed her belongings in her purse and grabbed a banana on her way out the door.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Steve asked Max for the tenth time as he looked at his watch. Ever since the two bodies found in a shallow grave on the north shore was brought in almost an hour ago, Steve and the rest of his team had been waiting at the morgue. Naturally he was the most inpatient one and had been very clear on his wishes to leave, but Max had told them that he didn't have the knowledge or capability to deal with the bodies in the state they were in so they would have to wait for Grace to come in on her day of to even have a chance at getting an id and cause of death.

When Chin and Danny had asked why he was so eager to leave when Grace hadn't even shown up yet he'd told them it was because for every minute spent there was another minute the killer had to get away. Truthfully the reason he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible was because he'd been ignoring Grace ever since his moment of weakness two weeks prior. Seeing as she hadn't been at Wailana's ever since in addition to not work a single case of his it wasn't really difficult to understand she was doing the same thing.

As Max was about to answer him the same thing he had all the other times Steve had asked, the doors were pushed open and Grace walked in. "Sorry I'm late, traffic was shit." She said while throwing her purse in her chair and pulling on her lab coat, intentionally avoiding eye contact with Steve. If it hadn't been for Danny being extra observant of Steve and Grace ever since he'd heard about their hike, no one would have noticed.

Without saying anything else, Grace walked over to the bodies to get a close look at them. "Considering they were buried a few feet underground, based on the level of decomb I'd say they've been there for three weeks, give or take. The mandibles suggest they are both male and the tibias suggests that victim A was between 5'6" and six feet tall, while victim B between 5'2 and 5'4. The teeth suggest victim A is in his early to middle twenties and victim B can't be more than 18-19. Victim A has calcified holes with radial fractures in the left clavicle and scapula which are consistent with ballistic damage." She explained while continuing examining the remains in their current state. "So he was shot to death?" Danny asked, hoping it would be that easy.

"And stabbed, but neither is the cause of death. The wounds healed. They both have a small hole in the back of their cranium, but I'm going to have clean the bones first before I can tell if it's the cause of death or not." She finished and looked up at the group standing in front of her. They all seemed surprised she'd been able to tell all that from a couple half rotten bodies without doing anything else that look at them.

Not wanting to give any of them a chance to ask her why she's not been working any of their cases for so long, Grace quickly excused herself and went looking for Tommy so he could help her clean the bones.

The second Steve and Danny got into the car Steve knew Danny would mention something, anything, about Grace. He thought it would happen the second they drove off, but it took Danny five minutes of excruciating silence before he said anything. "So why are you and the doc avoiding each other?" Knowing no matter how much he changed the topic Danny wouldn't let it go, Steve decided to be completely honest and tell him everything.

"Wait, so let me get this straight. You and Grace had drinks, took a stroll down the beach and then had what sounded like some movie like make out session in the middle of a parking lot and then you haven't said anything to each other since?" Danny asked, to make sure he'd understood everything Steve had just told him. "Pretty much," Steve answered, finally realising how moronic it sounds. It's not like they're in high school, he can't just avoid speaking to her ever again because things are awkward.

"Well I hope you know what you have to do. You have to talk to her, have an adult conversation about what happened and where it leaves you." Hating that his partner was right, Steve just shrugged his shoulders in both response and defeat and looked out the window and pictures how horrifying his future conversation with Grace was going to be like.

Sitting at her desk wrapping up the last of her paperwork, Grace thought back to the conversation she had with Tommy the day before. Obviously he'd told to woman up and talk to Steve. "We're not bloody teenagers, so stop fucking around and talk to him!" he'd said. And he was right. She knew very well that ignoring her problems wouldn't make them go away and the more she thought about it, she wasn't sure she wanted to go away. Even though she wasn't looking for a relationship, especially not with someone who just got out of one, she couldn't get Steve out of her mind not matter how hard she tried.

Her thoughts got interrupted when someone knocked on the door and when she looked up at who it was, she wished she'd taken the paperwork home with her instead. "Do you have a minute?" Steve asked, clearly uncomfortable. "Sure," she replied and put away what she was working on.

"Good work on the case, it's been a while since we closed so fast." He said, clearly trying to ease the tension, but for every step he took into the room it just grew. "I'm just glad I could help and that their family finally got some closure." Feeling super awkward sitting behind the desk looking up at Steve, she got up from her seat, walked around the desk and leaned on it instead.

After a few seconds of awkward silence and avoiding eye contact, Steve finally brought up the elephant in the room. "So I guess we should talk about…" he said, not sure of what to call what happened between them. Most mindblowing kiss of my life came to mind, but he kept it to himself. "Right… that was eh… I don't know what it was… I kinda just felt like it and before I realised what I was doing it was too late. And the three whiskeys didn't really help-" Grace tried to explain, only making it more awkward and uncomfortable.

"You don't have to explain; it was… I don't know what it was, really. All I know is that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and that we can't keep avoiding each other to the end of time." He said in one quick breath, realising he didn't make the air any less tension filled by telling her he'd been thinking about kissing her.

Hearing Steve say he hadn't been able to stop thinking about their kiss made Grace blush. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about it either," she almost whispered. Feeling relieved he wasn't the only one replaying their kiss in his mind, Steve also felt something stir inside him. Something he'd never felt before. "So what now?" he asked, not sure where to go from there. "I don't know."

Now standing face to face with only a few feet between them, they took the time to take a good look at each other. Steve wore his standard black cargo pants, combat boots and only a black t-shirt showing of his muscular arms and chest. His hair was styled in the way it normally was and his eyes, his very blue eyes looked at her in a way she couldn't explain, but it made her feel safe. Grace had put in a little more effort that morning and was wearing a navy blue pencil skirt, black blouse with a v-neck, black mary janes and a gold necklace. Her hair was no longer loose, but in a messy bun and her eyes were looking straight into Steve's.

The longer they kept eye contact, the more electrified the air became and soon the only sounds in the room was their heavy breathing and the air conditioning in the other room. Feeling like she was losing control over herself and her actions Grace crossed her arms over her chest, dragging Steve's attention to her chest raising in sync with her breathing and the slightly visible outline of her bra. He'd never been one to pay specific attention to those types of details, but ever since they got stuck in the elevator he noticed every single detail about Grace and her appearance.

The shrilling sound of Elton John broke the silence, and Grace inwardly cursed herself for not putting her phone on silent. She looked over her shoulder to see who was calling and felt like screaming when caller id said Sean. Quickly she declined the incoming call and put it on silent while she was at it. Knowing he'd keep calling if she didn't answer it at some point, she decided to ignore the voice in the back of her mind telling her to keep ignoring him and show Steve exactly how much she liked kissing him.

"I'm glad we talked," she said and Steve got the memo. She was ignoring whoever was calling and didn't want him to ask about it. Not wanting to push her, he decided it was time to go home even if every fibre of being told him otherwise. "Me too, I'll see you around." He said and gave her a smile and wave before leaving her office.

Fighting everything her mind was currently telling her to do, Grace picked up her phone from her desk and redialled Sean's number. He answered the call after just three rings, "hello?" "You better have a damn good reason for blowing my phone up when I told you I didn't want to talk to you last time!"