This Is Your Song Chapter Five

Author's Notes: There's a little bad language (one word) at the end of this chapter. I just thought I should warn you because this isn't rated R. Thanks: Thank you to the reverend, you know who you are. To Meg, who is an amazing beta and a wonderful friend. Your beta of this story has gone a long way to making it just plain better. Thank you so much. To Tash, for not freaking out when she got home from France and found this in her inbox.

Gil ended up driving Sara home, but I wasn't surprised it turned out that way. I didn't mind all that much, I just waited at home for Warrick to come back and pick up his Tahoe. I was sure he'd come inside for a little while to chat. I was excited. Odd, but I was. I didn't know why.

Sure enough, a few minutes after Gil left I heard a knock on my front door, and when I opened it Warrick was standing there. "Hey Cath." He said softly, smiling at me almost nervously. I grinned and let him inside.

"Want a drink?" I asked him, motioning to a few Pepsi cans that were still left from the party. He shook his head and took a seat on the sofa.

"I just came back for my Tahoe, you know. Not much time to talk, shift starts soon." His voice was strained, and the words came out forced. I smiled a little and sat beside him, smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles in my dress pants and clearing my throat.

"So how does Nick's truck run? Because he had to bring it in for repairs last week, so I was just wondering." I thought I saw him chuckle silently, but it was so hard to catch that I let it go.

"It runs great." Warrick answered, turning towards me and staring at my face. It should have made me uncomfortable, but it didn't. I was in the middle of getting lost in his eyes when he reached out two fingers and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.

"Good." I said simply. I was at a loss for words, and it was the only thing I could think of. He grinned at me and leaned closer, inhaling a little deeper than necessary and stroking my jaw with his finger.

"Yeah." He whispered, and his breath blew lightly on my face. It smelled like Trident. I felt goose bumps on my arms as he moved his finger from my jaw to my chin, and then to my lips. I wanted to say something or do something, but I felt as if I was frozen.

His hand found its way to my knee and within seconds I had surrendered, letting him kiss me passionately and run his hands up and down my back. Nothing had prepared me for the shock of electricity that ran through me as his lips pressed against mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, loving the smell of his aftershave when I inhaled to catch my breath.

He pulled away from me and looked into my eyes, breathing heavily. "What is it?" I asked him, wordlessly hoping he hadn't changed his mind.

He stared for a few more seconds before shaking his head. "Nothing." He leaned in to kiss me again, but the phone interrupted him.

I glanced at him apologetically and reached over to pick the receiver up, only to change my mind and hang it up again. He grinned.

Later on, I lay on my back against the cool white sheets of my bed, letting the wind blow in from the open window and toss my hair around. I smiled as his hand found mine, and his finger stroked my palm. The air was light and smelled like him. I looked up at the ceiling and counted the tiles. One, two, three...

He sighed softly beside me. His presence was intoxicating. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, locking away the moment.

I didn't want the moment to end, I wanted Warrick to always be beside me, to always be breathing softly in bed next to me. I licked my lips and tasted what was left of the sweetness of his kiss.

The phone on my bedside table rang and I reached over to answer it, feeling his eyes on my back as I greeted the person on the other line.

"Hello." I said jovially, still in some state of ecstacy. The voice was anything but happy, however.

"Where the hell are you, Catherine!" Grissom yelled, and I winced. "Shift started over an hour ago! I've been trying to get a hold of you but you weren't answering the phone. And where's Warrick?"

I thanked God Gil hadn't put two and two together yet. "I am so sorry Gil." I apologized, moving to grab my clothes from off the bedroom floor. "We-...I mean I totally forgot." I looked at Warrick and his eyes widened with recognition.

"Shit." He swore, and jumped out of bed and into his pair of jeans. I struggled to get my blouse on while Gil lectured me and then hung up. I threw the phone on the bed and looked up at Warrick, who was buttoning up his shirt.

"They're going to figure it out." I said simply, and tried to see his expression. He was smiling.

"Even if they do, Cat, it was worth it." He said, and took my hand in his. "It was so totally worth it."

I looked at him with a goofy expression for a few seconds before slipping into my jeans and running outside with him to our Tahoes. I jumped into mine and revved up the engine, cruising out of the driveway. Warrick was driving behind me when suddenly something went wrong and I had to pull over to the side of the road. I glanced quickly at the gas gage and groaned. Warrick's Tahoe came up beside mine and he rolled down his window. I did the same, and stuck my head out. "The damn thing is out of gas." I said, frustrated.

"Alright, it's OK, just come with me." He said, reaching over to open the passenger door. I almost smiled.

"OK, thanks." I was beside him and turning the radio on before I realized it.

"They're definitely going to know we were together now." I said softly, raising my left eyebrow. He looked at me and shrugged, pressing harder on the gas pedal. We passed a 30 miles per hour sign while Warrick was on his way to reaching 50.

"They had to find out sometime." He didn't seem to mind as much as I did. Something was wrong with the way I was feeling. Was it fear that I felt? I didn't recognize the emotion, but it was there. I decided to ignore it, thinking it would go away.

"Well, well, look at what the cat dragged in." Nick commented, swivelling in his office chair. Grissom sat across the table from him, case file in hand. They both looked indignant, but one more than the other. Gil seemed about to burst.

Warrick was the first to speak. "We can explain this." Nick was staring at me, suddenly grinning. I smiled back, thinking he had forgiven me for leaving him with all the night shift work. I was wrong.

"You mean, you can explain why Catherine's shirt is on inside out?" Nick asked, laughing. He had a condescending grin on his face that made my stomach heave. I looked down at my blouse and saw that it was, indeed, on inside out. No wonder it took a little longer to button up than usual.

"I cannot believe you two." Grissom said, holding his forehead up with two fingers. "You both know we're in the middle of one of the biggest cases of our careers, with extra work, and you skip an hour of work for a quick roll in the hay?" He sounded really angry. I told him in my head to take a load off.

I cleared my throat and carefully inspected my fingernails, which, I noted, were painted red. I couldn't think of anything to say but, "I'm sorry we're late, Gil. You can be as pissed as you want at us for that, but the rest is personal."

He didn't look surprised that I had said it, just nodded with a grim expression on his face and told us both to sit down. I put my head in my hands while I listened to Gil talking about the case, reviewing the evidence we had collected.

I saw the way Gil eyed me through his whole speech. He seemed almost disappointed in me, like he hadn't expected me to do something like this. The fact is, I'd been wondering to myself if this wasn't all a little sudden, and his expression only served to further my suspicions..

Nick and Grissom's reaction had helped clear something up for me. That what Warrick and I had done was impulsive, and that it had probably ruined everything. The best way to avoid it ever happening again, that I could think of, was to tell Warrick we should stay friends and nothing more.

While I was preparing to leave to go home, Gil cornered me in the hallway. I sighed and looked at him with a tired expression, ready for a lecture.

"Catherine, don't give me a hard time. I just want to talk to you." He said when I rolled my eyes. "I'm not just your supervisor, I'm your friend, too."

"I really don't want to talk about this." I said in a gruff voice. I was tired, and wanted to go home to think about what everything that had happened tonight. And to sleep. It had been a long shift, and all the personal conflicts that I had going on weren't helping to lower my stress level at all.

He ignored my remark. "Do you really think it's wise to get involved with someone who you work with? I mean, I'm all for you having some fun, but... I've seen the way Warrick looks at you, and I wonder if his feelings are on the same level as yours-"

I interrupted him. "Gil, this is really none of your business." I leaned one hand against the wall beside me and gave him my best glare.
He held up his hands in defense. "I'm just trying to discuss this with you, Catherine. I don't discuss things with many people."

"Why is it that you love to talk about other people I'm fucking, but when it comes to you and I in the sack together, your lips are sealed?" He looked shocked for a second at my language, but I didn't care.

"Damn it, Catherine. You never tried to talk about it with me, either. Besides, that was months ago. Three, to be exact."

"Who's counting?" I asked him, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Things were different then." He was going to keep going, I realized, and sighed. "You and Warrick weren't fatally attracted to each other, and Sara and I weren't..." He trailed off, looking at the wall in front of him instead of into my eyes like he usually did.

"You and Sara weren't playing with the idea of crossing that fine line between friends and lovers." I finished for him. I had calmed down some, and was beginning to understand his earlier concern.

He shook his head. "Sara and I have always been playing with that idea."

I nodded. "You were imagining her when you were with me, weren't you?" I had no idea where it had come from, but I wasn't sorry I had said it. Some of this had to get put out in the open. He looked at me in sympathy, his blue eyes filled with something I didn't recognize.

"No, no, Catherine. I wasn't." He put a hand on my arm. I wasn't sure if I wanted it there or not, but didn't shrug it off. "That night with you was about passion and desire, we were searching for something..." He stopped. "Something we never found. We never found it, did we?"

I decided not to answer. "And with Sara it wouldn't be about passion and desire?" I wondered fleetingly if I was being rude by asking so many questions, but knew I didn't care. I wanted to know.

He looked strangely amused. "It would be different."

Suddenly I understood. "It wouldn't be sex, it would be making love." His face told me he was glad I had said it for him. I felt a release inside of me somewhere, like it was simpler now. Simpler to understand, anyway. But this was, by no means, over. "I'm glad somebody else besides me feels the difference between the two."

He smiled. "Me too." He took my left hand in his and thanked me silently for understanding, without words he thanked me. I squeezed his fingers and smiled back.

I leaned forward. "You love her, don't you?" I asked him quietly, feeling closer to him at that moment than I ever had before. He was my best friend, I knew it for sure then.

Saying nothing, he turned slowly and walked down the hall, away from me. I grinned and did the same, in the opposite direction.

I had no idea what I was going to do about this whole thing with Warrick. Was it a mistake, or was it the best thing I had ever done in my entire life?

Was it sex, or was it making love?