Sorry for the delay. I had a major case of writers block on this one. I'm not overly happy with this chapter but I hope you enjoy it.
Breakfast:
Grissom was rooting through the cupboards looking for something to make breakfast with when there was a tapping at the door. "Greg?" Grissom called to his house guest who showed no signs of leaving despite his wife's assurances that he'd only be there a couple of days, maybe a week ("contractors" she said as she shrugged and kissed him) "That's either the mailman or Sara forgot her key."
"No problem" Greg said as he jumped up and went to the front door.
Greg pulled the door open and was shocked when it was neither the mailman or Sara "Gil! Thank god, I thought I'd be out here all morning. I brought the…Greg?" Catherine looked at him open mouthed "What are you doing here?"
"Hey Catherine!" Greg calls out loudly to alert Grissom who comes out of the kitchen.
"Catherine?" Grissom looks at his old friend perplexed. "What brings you here?"
"Why is Greg here?" She asks instead
"He needed a place to stay." Grissom says adding nothing further. "How can I help you Catherine?" Catherine responds by holding up a bag and Grissom just smiles and heads back into the kitchen leaving Greg and Catherine stood in the hallway.
"I'm uh going to go to bed." He smiles at Catherine awkwardly and then heads up the stairs. Catherine takes a moment to have a quick look around, the last time she was here it was more sterile but she realises that there's something different about the place. There's more than just bugs on the wall, she glances into the lounge and sees the brand new couch, glances at some art books on the coffee table and a few more nick nacks around the place before heading off to the kitchen after Grissom.
"Did you find what you're looking for?" He asks and she laughs before shrugging apologetically.
She doesn't acknowledge it again "Ok, moving past finding Greg in your house which is just weird." Catherine shook her head at Grissom who just raised an eyebrow at her. "It's been a while since we've had breakfast."
"Breakfast?" He cocks an eyebrow at her and she lifts the bag onto the counter.
"Mom has Lindsay" She pulls out vodka, OJ and the ingredients for pancakes. Grissom just smiles and takes the bag. "It's been a while since we had breakfast together."
"You work swings."
"For another week or so." She hands him his screwdriver and he carries on making breakfast encouraging her to keep talking. "I spoke with Ecklie yesterday about reintegrating the shifts."
"Ahhh." Grissom had a feeling that might be why she was here but Catherine makes no further comment about anything Ecklie may have told her.
"I heard you had a dog, where is it?"
"He." Grissom corrects, thinking Sara would be furious if she heard her baby being referred to as an it. "Hank is on a walk." With Sara and explaining that is a bridge that they would cross when they came to it.
"You named your dog Hank?" Catherine looks at him open mouthed
"Why wouldn't I?" He bites back the urge to laugh
"No reason" She just shakes her head and finishes making their drinks
Grissom decides to throw her a bone "He's named after a baseball player." And then because he really can't help himself "Not named after anyone who Sara may have dated."
"That Hank was a dog as well." She gives him a strange look "So Ecklie talked to me about how it's going to work with my promotion and then suddenly going back to night shift where there's already a supervisor…" She pauses and looks at Grissom who is completely blank "I'll be keeping my supervisory responsibilities"
"Good." He already knew this. "You deserved that promotion."
"Thank you, that actually means a lot coming from you." Grissom doesn't respond and instead flips some pancakes onto a plate and hands them to Catherine. "Only for Sara though, apparently you're responsible for everyone else including me." He looks completely impassive, and Catherine realises that he knew this. "You knew?" Grissom shrugs "Why?"
He wondered briefly how Sara would feel and how Catherine would react if he told her that she would responsible for Sara because he was married to her and then remembered that it was a conversation they still needed to have. He was ready to tell everyone and if he was being honest he's not sure what was holding Sara back. "GIL!" Catherine just looked at him and shook her head.
"I guess Conrad felt that you'd be more impartial towards her."
Catherine couldn't help but agree, he clearly had feelings for Sara which she obviously returned but yet nothing ever seemed to come of it, perhaps now that he wasn't doing her evaluations something might happen between them. "I feel like there's more to it than that." There was but Grissom wasn't about to admit that. "I think she's seeing someone." Grissom doesn't respond "You must have noticed?" Still no response "I heard she leaves on time, she's definitely not coming in as early and just seems happier, last time that happened…"
"If Sara is seeing someone that's her business." And his of course, but this sentence seemed to do the trick and Catherine took his cool statement as a sign that he was not going to discuss the matter and that any conversation about who Sara may or may not have been dating.
"Ok it's just last time Sara dated someone it got a little tense and…"
"Catherine." He says with exasperation, he's about to argue his point when he hears a skittering of paws and braces himself for the inevitable storm. Hank charges into the kitchen and jumps at Grissom who enthusiastically greets the dog whilst he listens and looks for Sara.
Having been thoroughly greeted by Grissom he moves over to the new stranger and starts sniffing cautiously at her "Hi." Catherine lets the dog sniff her hand before patting him on the head "You must be Hank." Grissom still looking for Sara before realising she's probably noticed Catherine's car and is hiding somewhere before they have another incident like the one where she revealed their relationship to Brass. Catherine fusses the dog throughout breakfast before leaving mistaking Grissom's nervousness about where Sara is for his usual anti-social behaviour. She leaves but not before warning him not to ruin Sara's happiness about her new relationship.
Later Grissom is sat in bed reading when Sara finally walks into the bedroom. "I was wondering where you got to." The dog follows her in and hops onto his spot at the end of their bed.
"I saw Catherine's car outside and I got a warning text from Greg." She heads over to the dresser and changes. "I waited round the corner until I saw her car leave."
"Have you given any more thought to telling the team?" He asks trying to sound casual but the nervousness is clear in his voice.
"I'm just nervous." She admits and he puts the book down before looking over at her encouraging her to keep talking. "I had some uh, incidents over the last year as you know. The DUI and blowing up at Catherine and Ecklie, I kept my job which I don't think anyone expected and I guess I don't want people thinking it's because we're sleeping together." She snuggles into his side.
"We're more than just sleeping together." He tells her softly as he wraps an arm around her.
"I know." She looks up and smiles at him "What did Catherine want?"
"She thinks you're seeing someone and wanted to see how I was feeling about it." Sara just laughs.
"How do you feel about it?"
"Pretty damn happy about it." She leans down and kisses her.
… … … … … …
Lunch
Nick raises his arm and greets Catherine as she walks into the diner a few days later, she joins them in the booth. "What's the occasion boss lady?" Warrick hands her over a menu "This is a bit fancier than Franks."
"I thought I'd treat my boys to some lunch before we went back to grave." She keeps reading the menu as she speaks.
"How are things going to work when we go back to the nightshift?" Nick asks
"Grissom's the supervisor. I get to keep my office, promotion and apparently responsibility for managing Sara."
"Sara?" Warrick turns to look at Catherine. "Sara who stayed on Grissom's team?"
"Yeah."
"Nobody else?" Warrick asks to which Catherine shakes her head in response. He leans back in his chair "What's that about?"
"She's seeing someone." Nick answers and his lunch companions look over at him. "What it's obvious?" He laughs "She comes to work when she's supposed to, leaves on time from what I heard and doesn't work her days off, last time that happened was when she was dating…"
"Hank" Warrick says like should have realised exactly what was going on.
"I think Grissom is dating someone as well." Catherine adds. "We had breakfast a couple of days ago. He redecorated, there's definitely a woman's touch."
"Grissom and Sara are both seeing someone?" Nick asks "Is it too late to go back into the box?" Catherine and Warrick both stare at him open mouthed "What? Hey sometimes you got laugh about things"
"Whatever you say Nicky." Catherine laughs as she signals for their waitress.
… … … … … …
Dinner
"Honey are you nearly ready?" Grissom calls to Sara in the bathroom as he tries to do up his cufflinks when Sara appears next to him and fastens the errant cuff before he goes over to the bed and pulls on his suit jacket.
"Yeah." She smiles at him and he takes a moment to look over her, Sara doesn't wear a dress very often and Grissom thinks he needs to take her out for more fancy dinners because right now she's absolutely gorgeous. Sara meanwhile takes a moment to appreciate Grissom in a suit and smooths his lapels. "You're looking very handsome tonight Doctor Grissom."
"Thank you Mrs Grissom." He says without thinking and looks up, she meets his eye in the mirror and smirks as she goes to fasten a necklace. "You look beautiful sweetheart." He takes a step forward and whispers against her skin as he places a kiss on her neck and fastens the necklace for her. "Now lets go, we've got reservations and some of us are working tonight."
"Sucks to be you." She laughs as she wraps a shawl around her shoulders and Grissom just laughs in response and follows her out the room. She stops in the lounge to say goodbye to Hank and tells him to be a good boy for Greg.
"Good boys sometimes get doggy bags!" Greg tells her and Grissom shakes his head as he waits outside the room for Sara.
He leads her to his Mercedes and holds the door and helps her into the car, only once inside he turns to her and in the most serious voice he can manage "When is Greg's apartment going to be ready?" Sara just laughs in response which does not fill Grissom with much hope about the situation.
… … … … … …
"Muggs, isn't that a friends of yours?" Sam points to someone behind Catherine's shoulders and Catherine turns around and her mouth drops as she sees Gil Grissom with his hand on Sara Sidle's back as he finishes talking with the host before leading her over to the bar.
"Yeah." She says completely in shock.
Sam signals to the head waiter and asks a few questions whilst Catherine continues to stare open mouthed at Grissom and Sara who are quite clearly on a date.
"That couple by the bar? We're just trying to sort them a table" The waiter had been replaced by the host. "Are they friends of yours Mr Braun?"
"Friends of my daughter. Bring them over to the table, they can join us for drink whilst they wait, add their meal to my account as well" The host nods and walks over to the bar.
"Mr Grissom sir?" He asks as he approaches the couple at the bar. "Sam Braun has invited you both to join his party for a drink." He indicates over to the table and Grissom and Sara look and see an equally surprised Catherine staring back at them before she raises a hand and waves. Grissom looks at Sara who nods and slides off the bar stool grateful for the comforting weight of Grissom's hand on her lower back as they walk over to face Catherine.
As they approach the table Catherine notices the unmistakable glint of a ring on Sara's hand and then catches sight of the matching one on Grissom's finger. "Sam this is Gil Grissom and Sara…" she pauses for a second and catches Sara's eye letting her know they're busted "…Sidle. I work with them."
"Nice to meet you both." Sam smiles "Any friend of Catherine's is a friend of mine." He signals again for the waiter who comes over and takes the drinks orders.
Grissom meets Catherine's eyes the question obvious, he responds by placing a hand over Sara's and squeezing it. "Thank you." He directs the comment to Sam.
Sam nods towards their hands "How long have you two been married?"
Sara looks at Grissom "About six months."
"That's nice." Sam nods "Marriage is special especially when you marry the right person." Sam glances at Catherine before looking back at Grissom and Sara.
"Has it been six months?" Catherine asks surprised "Honestly with these two sometimes you never even know they're together." She gives them a pointed stare.
"We're very private people." Grissom smiles for Sam's benefit even if the comment is clearly for Catherine.
"It's for the best sometimes." Sam tells them before standing "If you'll excuse me a moment." He gets up to the table and goes and greets some people at a table across the restaurant.
Grissom and Sara get exactly 1.2 seconds of peace. "Married?"
"Yeah." Grissom just sips his drink.
"So the other day at breakfast?" Grissom just shrugs in response "This is why I'm Sara's supervisor." Catherine nods.
"We're just trying to keep things private. It's important that nobody thinks Sara is getting preferential treatment."
"Does anyone else know?" Catherine asks "I mean Greg must know since he's staying on your couch…"
"Blame Sara for that." Grissom says grumpily and Sara just shoots him a look.
"I knew it was weird." Catherine laughs. "Anybody else?" Any further conversation is cut off by the host coming over to tell Grissom and Sara that their table is ready.
"Don't think we're done with this conversation." Catherine tells him as they stand to go to their table.
"I didn't for one minute think it was." Grissom tells her as he follows Sara and the host across the restaurant.
… … … … … …
Sara looks at Grissom across their table and smirks "Let's go to the Tangiers for dinner, it'll be nice." She tells him sarcastically.
"I didn't think Catherine and Sam were on dinner terms." He tells her without glancing up from the menu and then adds cheerfully "Besides, they have one of the better Vegetarian selections."
Sara just shakes her head.