Disclaimer: Don't Own. Don't Sue. Do Review.
A/N: Hey, I'm back. I had a great time in London and the break help to inspire me to write along with your reviews. JMNchik21, MissyJane, The Madhatter, Emmy, jhfortier and Moose; you guys rock!! Well I don't want bore you by going on. So R&R and ENJOY!!! - Bex
Grissom got out of the Tahoe and look at the home he hadn't seen in years. He walked up the steps and rapped on the wooden door of the old house.
"Who the hell is it?" barked a rough voice from inside.
"It's Gil Grissom."
There was a silence and then the door opened to reveal Brit Warner. His once handsome face was weather and wrinkled, but still had hints of what it had once been. Dark brown eyes were slightly hidden by two bushy grey eyebrows. His hair still had some brown left in it, but was almost completely silver. And tightly grasped in his hand was a waxed wooden walking stick.
"Gilbert Grissom. You son of a bitch. You don't write, you don't call, but you just turn up on my door step and expect me to be happy to see you?" He demanded angrily, then his frown melted away and he grasped a strong hand onto Grissom shoulder. "It's good to see you Gil. How are you?"
"Good. I'm good Brit," Gris replied returning his grin, "How are you?"
"Still the same grumpy git who gives the authorities hell," He laughed. "Come in. Come in."
He moved aside allowing Gris to enter. Grissom stared at the small, dimly lit living room. There was an old T.V and faded couch. Books were placed on every available surface and pictures of his wife and child stood on the mantelpiece. There were items, which he'd collected over the years, placed in any gaps he could find.
"Sit down. Sit down," Brit ordered. "Now can I get you a drink?"
He hobbled with his cane over to the tiny liquor cabinet and waved a half finished bottle of scotch which sat on top.
"No thanks Brit, I'm working."
"Bah! It's good stuff you know," He informed as he poured himself a glass. "Was given it as a present from someone who still visits. A lovely girl, you know, Jenny Sinclair. Sort of my protégé. You would love her."
Grissom cleared his throat uneasily as Brit limped back to the couch to sit down.
"Actually," Gris began carefully, "That's why I'm here."
Brit's face turned pale and he stared at Grissom with panicked eyes.
"She's not...she's not....not..." He stuttered, not being able to bring himself to say it.
"No. But her husband is."
"Oh god. Poor Jenny," He then stared at Gris, studying his face. "You think she did it, don't you?"
Gris nodded, "She's one of our suspects."
"Bullshit," Brit snapped. "Jenny isn't capable of doing something like that. Do you think I would have taken her on if she was?"
"Maybe you took her on for another reason."
"You think I took her on, cos she reminded me of my kid? Don't you?" He demanded.
Grissom just slowly nodded. He's seen Brit interrogate enough suspects to know that it was useless to try to lie to him.
"I knew it. For your information Gris, I did not choose her because of my daughter, Laura. I met Jenny when she was 18. At that time she was doing her psychology degree. I gave a talk to her class, and she asked all the right questions and gave me all the right answers. I took her on cos I saw potential. I saw that she was intelligent and inquisitive. That's why I took her on."
"But that fact doesn't clear her Brit and you know it," Gris stated.
"And what reason so you have for believing she did it? What's her motive Grissom? Because that's one of the most important things."
"The pressure. The fights with her husband. The money."
Brit snorted, "Every couple fights. I probably didn't help by telling her to get some experience behind her before she started a family. She's always been good with pressure. And she was never after his money."
He took along sip of his drink and turned his hard eyes directly at Grissom.
"You've got to remember that I 'know' people. When that bastard kidnapped my wife and kid, I knew he'd killed them before making his demands. But I ignored my instincts. I ignored my gut feeling. I went after him and came back with two bodies and a bullet in my leg," His voice shook with rage at the memory. "Any way, how can you say you understand human emotions when you can't even sort out your own?"
"What do you mean by that?" Grissom demanded.
"What do you think I mean by that? I mean you and Catherine. I may be retired, but I'm not blind."
Grissom didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth slightly, but shut it straight away. He thought about denying it, but he knew it would be useless. Instead he just stared at Brit.
'Is it really that obvious?' He though.
"You're in love with her Gil, any fool can see that. I knew it the first time I saw the pair of you together. Yet you still haven't told her, have you? She's not still with that asshole of a husband is she?"
"No, he's dead," Gris replied and then off Brit's look, "And no she didn't kill him!"
"Never said she did," Brit denied innocently, but he muttered into his glass, "Won't have blamed her though if she had."
He stood up again and limped over to the mantelpiece. He gingerly picked up a picture of his daughter, a beautiful 14 year old who would forever remain that way.
"Why did you come here Gil?" He asked, staring at his girl.
"I don't really know myself," Gris confessed. "I have a feeling that I'm missing something. I think I'm here to try and understand Jenny better. I guess I'm here to try and work it out."
Brit looked at him with a knowing look and nodded.
"I know what you mean. There's something about that girl which you can't explain, but some how makes her magnetic and draws people to her. Ethan got caught by it. Hell I did too. But really I think we were drawn to each other. Two lonely people looking for company," He looked Grissom right in the eye. "You know what happen to her father?"
"Yes. She told us about her dream."
Brit shook his head slightly, "That isn't a dream. It may come back as one, but it's a memory. She used to always watch for her father to come home from the window. She saw him get stabbed and she was told later that he'd died in hospital. Poor thing."
"Is that why she wanted to become a CSI?" Gris inquired.
"That's her business to tell ya, not mine. If you want to find out the answer, then you'll have to ask her."
A picture in the chaos of Brit's home caught Grissom's eye. He walked over and as carefully as you would hold a child, he picked it up. Staring at the image, he instantly knew where it was taken. In his hand was a picture from Jenny's wedding. It was of her and Brit, who was dressed in a tux and had an arm wrapped around her, both smiling. Grissom turned to Brit, who had noticed which photo he held.
"You gave her away on her wedding day?" Gris asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Brit nodded, "Never got the chance to do it with my own daughter and she never got a chance to let her dad do it."
He gently took the picture off Gris. A small smile touched his lips as he looked at it.
"I should be getting back Brit," Gris said quietly, feeling guilty about interrupting Brit's thoughts.
"I know. You need to get back and hurry up proving Jenny's innocents," He placed the picture back down and smiled at Gris. "Tell my Jenny I said hi. Also tell your Catherine that I say hi to her and Lindsey."
"I will. Bye Brit."
'My Catherine,' Gris thought with a smile as he left, 'If only that was true.'
~*~*~*~*~
Grissom found Catherine in the layout room examining the photos from the crime scene. She didn't notice him as he stood in the doorway watching her. He watched as she ran her tongue along her dry lips. It was simple actions like this that made her so intoxicating to him. He looked away quickly, not wanting her to catch him staring.
Something Brit had said was troubling him. He'd said that any fool could see that he was in love with her. Catherine was definitely no fool, so did that mean she knew?
He decided not to put it off any longer and let out a small cough to let her know that he was there. She looked up on hearing the sound and a brilliant smile spread across her face on seeing who it was.
"Hi," He greeted quietly.
"Hi yourself. Where have you been?"
"To see an old friend," He answered walking up to her, "Brit."
"How is he?"
"He's good. Hasn't changed much. He told me to say hi to you and Lindsey for him."
She paused for a moment then looked Grissom directly in the eye, "Gris, why did you go and see him?"
"I've got a feeling that we're missing something, you know? I just went to talk to him. To try and figure things out."
Cath nodded slightly, "And what did he have to say?'
"That Jenny didn't do it. And I admit I sort of agree with him."
"What's going on Gris?" She demanded giving him a hard look. "You're always telling us not to get emotionally involved in cases. To trust the evidence and nothing else. But right now, you're being really hypocritical."
He averted his gaze. He didn't know how to explain what made Jenny Sinclair different. How to explain the magnetism Brit talked about. Instead he chose an easier option.
"Brit 'knows' people. He knows how they think. How they work. You worked with him long enough to know that."
"I think his judgement is clouded with Jenny. She's only two years younger then his daughter would be."
"I don't think that's the case."
"Even if it isn't Gil, it doesn't clear her."
"Come on Cath, Brit was right about...." He cut himself off, then continued, "About a lot of people."
He had almost said Eddie. That would have been the last thing they need right now. The last thing he wanted was an argument with Catherine or a slap around the face.
'That's because you're a coward,' A voice taunted him. 'Just because you don't want to risk loosing her, even if it's through telling the truth. And yet you're not willing to try to have her. Coward.'
And as if he was agreeing with the voice, he steered the conversation back onto safer grounds.
"Well we need to find Edmund. Has anyone been able to yet?"
"No. But Greg found something you might be interested to know."
"Oh?" Grissom asked, eager for any new information.
"He managed to pull the medical records for everyone who's connected to the case, to see if anyone had been proscribed anything that might have been used. He found that Robert Sinclair's been taking painkillers for a slipped disc and," She handed him a sheet, "Jenny Sinclair used to take Prozac."
He read the sheet.
"But she's been off it since she was 17," He pointed out. "So what does this have to do with the case?"
Catherine shrugged, "Just thought you might want to know. So do you want to go over these files with me again and try to workout what we're missing?"
Grissom tapped his fingers on the desk as he thought through his answer.
"You start without me. There's something I have to do first."
~*~*~*~*~
As he entered the cells, Grissom saw Jenny Sinclair huddled on the bed, reading a Forensics book. And as if sensing his presences, she looked up at him. Her emerald eyes were blood shot and phantom tears still stained her cheeks. She gave him a curious look.
"I guess you're not here either to say I'm free to go. So why are you here?"
"To talk. Where did you get the book from?"
"One of your team gave it to me. Apparently, Estella dropped it off. It was the pretty, brown haired women," Jenny explained.
"You mean Sara?"
She nodded, "Yeah, that's her. You're here to talk about what exactly?"
"I went to see Brit. He says hi," He finished, awkward about such a lame answer.
She just nodded slightly, a small smile touching her lips.
"Anything else?"
He didn't know what it was about her that made him want to open up and to talk to her, not caring what it was just as long as he kept talking. Brit had the same gift, but his seemed to be based on fear he put into others. Her's was through trust and the way she made you feel like you were talking to an old friend, when you had a conversation with her. But either way the gift was very powerful.
"He told me about your dad. What you saw."
She looked away, pained by the memory.
"Is that why you were put on Prozac?"
Her head snapped up. Her eyes seem to scan his face, as if she was trying to workout how he knew about it.
"Yes, among other things," She shrugged.
He sat down on the end of the bed, trying to work her out, wishing that it was as easy as Brit made it seem.
"Is your father why you wanted become a CSI?"
This simple question brought a simple smile to her lips as she answered.
"Yes. I wanted to give other people the closure I never had. But I couldn't afford the course, so I took psychology instead. I figured that if I couldn't solve the cause of their pain, I should at least try to ease it. Then I met Ethan and I told him everything. He seemed, I don't know, impressed and finished paying for my psychology degree, then paid for my Forensic Science as well."
Grissom nodded in understanding and looked at her book.
"I have a test soon," She explained as if she was reading his mind. "Studying is helping to take my mind off things I guess."
They sat there staring at each other with a sort of mutual understanding. Grissom was the first to break the silence.
"I should..."
"Be going? You need to get on with proving my innocents," She finished.
He smiled gently at her and she offered a weak smile in exchange, then buried herself in her book again.
Grissom walked back to find Catherine now in his office. She sat there reading a file, with the other spread out on the desk in front. He sat down next to her and picked up a file. He knew that she knew where he'd been. For hours they sat there, working a silence, comforted by each other's presence. After a while, exhaustion took them over. And if by fate, Grissom fell asleep next to the resting Catherine, with an arm loosely, but protectively, around her shoulders.
A/N: So what do you think? Reviews are very appreciated and I know you love that button, so what are you waiting for? :o)
A/N: Hey, I'm back. I had a great time in London and the break help to inspire me to write along with your reviews. JMNchik21, MissyJane, The Madhatter, Emmy, jhfortier and Moose; you guys rock!! Well I don't want bore you by going on. So R&R and ENJOY!!! - Bex
Grissom got out of the Tahoe and look at the home he hadn't seen in years. He walked up the steps and rapped on the wooden door of the old house.
"Who the hell is it?" barked a rough voice from inside.
"It's Gil Grissom."
There was a silence and then the door opened to reveal Brit Warner. His once handsome face was weather and wrinkled, but still had hints of what it had once been. Dark brown eyes were slightly hidden by two bushy grey eyebrows. His hair still had some brown left in it, but was almost completely silver. And tightly grasped in his hand was a waxed wooden walking stick.
"Gilbert Grissom. You son of a bitch. You don't write, you don't call, but you just turn up on my door step and expect me to be happy to see you?" He demanded angrily, then his frown melted away and he grasped a strong hand onto Grissom shoulder. "It's good to see you Gil. How are you?"
"Good. I'm good Brit," Gris replied returning his grin, "How are you?"
"Still the same grumpy git who gives the authorities hell," He laughed. "Come in. Come in."
He moved aside allowing Gris to enter. Grissom stared at the small, dimly lit living room. There was an old T.V and faded couch. Books were placed on every available surface and pictures of his wife and child stood on the mantelpiece. There were items, which he'd collected over the years, placed in any gaps he could find.
"Sit down. Sit down," Brit ordered. "Now can I get you a drink?"
He hobbled with his cane over to the tiny liquor cabinet and waved a half finished bottle of scotch which sat on top.
"No thanks Brit, I'm working."
"Bah! It's good stuff you know," He informed as he poured himself a glass. "Was given it as a present from someone who still visits. A lovely girl, you know, Jenny Sinclair. Sort of my protégé. You would love her."
Grissom cleared his throat uneasily as Brit limped back to the couch to sit down.
"Actually," Gris began carefully, "That's why I'm here."
Brit's face turned pale and he stared at Grissom with panicked eyes.
"She's not...she's not....not..." He stuttered, not being able to bring himself to say it.
"No. But her husband is."
"Oh god. Poor Jenny," He then stared at Gris, studying his face. "You think she did it, don't you?"
Gris nodded, "She's one of our suspects."
"Bullshit," Brit snapped. "Jenny isn't capable of doing something like that. Do you think I would have taken her on if she was?"
"Maybe you took her on for another reason."
"You think I took her on, cos she reminded me of my kid? Don't you?" He demanded.
Grissom just slowly nodded. He's seen Brit interrogate enough suspects to know that it was useless to try to lie to him.
"I knew it. For your information Gris, I did not choose her because of my daughter, Laura. I met Jenny when she was 18. At that time she was doing her psychology degree. I gave a talk to her class, and she asked all the right questions and gave me all the right answers. I took her on cos I saw potential. I saw that she was intelligent and inquisitive. That's why I took her on."
"But that fact doesn't clear her Brit and you know it," Gris stated.
"And what reason so you have for believing she did it? What's her motive Grissom? Because that's one of the most important things."
"The pressure. The fights with her husband. The money."
Brit snorted, "Every couple fights. I probably didn't help by telling her to get some experience behind her before she started a family. She's always been good with pressure. And she was never after his money."
He took along sip of his drink and turned his hard eyes directly at Grissom.
"You've got to remember that I 'know' people. When that bastard kidnapped my wife and kid, I knew he'd killed them before making his demands. But I ignored my instincts. I ignored my gut feeling. I went after him and came back with two bodies and a bullet in my leg," His voice shook with rage at the memory. "Any way, how can you say you understand human emotions when you can't even sort out your own?"
"What do you mean by that?" Grissom demanded.
"What do you think I mean by that? I mean you and Catherine. I may be retired, but I'm not blind."
Grissom didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth slightly, but shut it straight away. He thought about denying it, but he knew it would be useless. Instead he just stared at Brit.
'Is it really that obvious?' He though.
"You're in love with her Gil, any fool can see that. I knew it the first time I saw the pair of you together. Yet you still haven't told her, have you? She's not still with that asshole of a husband is she?"
"No, he's dead," Gris replied and then off Brit's look, "And no she didn't kill him!"
"Never said she did," Brit denied innocently, but he muttered into his glass, "Won't have blamed her though if she had."
He stood up again and limped over to the mantelpiece. He gingerly picked up a picture of his daughter, a beautiful 14 year old who would forever remain that way.
"Why did you come here Gil?" He asked, staring at his girl.
"I don't really know myself," Gris confessed. "I have a feeling that I'm missing something. I think I'm here to try and understand Jenny better. I guess I'm here to try and work it out."
Brit looked at him with a knowing look and nodded.
"I know what you mean. There's something about that girl which you can't explain, but some how makes her magnetic and draws people to her. Ethan got caught by it. Hell I did too. But really I think we were drawn to each other. Two lonely people looking for company," He looked Grissom right in the eye. "You know what happen to her father?"
"Yes. She told us about her dream."
Brit shook his head slightly, "That isn't a dream. It may come back as one, but it's a memory. She used to always watch for her father to come home from the window. She saw him get stabbed and she was told later that he'd died in hospital. Poor thing."
"Is that why she wanted to become a CSI?" Gris inquired.
"That's her business to tell ya, not mine. If you want to find out the answer, then you'll have to ask her."
A picture in the chaos of Brit's home caught Grissom's eye. He walked over and as carefully as you would hold a child, he picked it up. Staring at the image, he instantly knew where it was taken. In his hand was a picture from Jenny's wedding. It was of her and Brit, who was dressed in a tux and had an arm wrapped around her, both smiling. Grissom turned to Brit, who had noticed which photo he held.
"You gave her away on her wedding day?" Gris asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Brit nodded, "Never got the chance to do it with my own daughter and she never got a chance to let her dad do it."
He gently took the picture off Gris. A small smile touched his lips as he looked at it.
"I should be getting back Brit," Gris said quietly, feeling guilty about interrupting Brit's thoughts.
"I know. You need to get back and hurry up proving Jenny's innocents," He placed the picture back down and smiled at Gris. "Tell my Jenny I said hi. Also tell your Catherine that I say hi to her and Lindsey."
"I will. Bye Brit."
'My Catherine,' Gris thought with a smile as he left, 'If only that was true.'
~*~*~*~*~
Grissom found Catherine in the layout room examining the photos from the crime scene. She didn't notice him as he stood in the doorway watching her. He watched as she ran her tongue along her dry lips. It was simple actions like this that made her so intoxicating to him. He looked away quickly, not wanting her to catch him staring.
Something Brit had said was troubling him. He'd said that any fool could see that he was in love with her. Catherine was definitely no fool, so did that mean she knew?
He decided not to put it off any longer and let out a small cough to let her know that he was there. She looked up on hearing the sound and a brilliant smile spread across her face on seeing who it was.
"Hi," He greeted quietly.
"Hi yourself. Where have you been?"
"To see an old friend," He answered walking up to her, "Brit."
"How is he?"
"He's good. Hasn't changed much. He told me to say hi to you and Lindsey for him."
She paused for a moment then looked Grissom directly in the eye, "Gris, why did you go and see him?"
"I've got a feeling that we're missing something, you know? I just went to talk to him. To try and figure things out."
Cath nodded slightly, "And what did he have to say?'
"That Jenny didn't do it. And I admit I sort of agree with him."
"What's going on Gris?" She demanded giving him a hard look. "You're always telling us not to get emotionally involved in cases. To trust the evidence and nothing else. But right now, you're being really hypocritical."
He averted his gaze. He didn't know how to explain what made Jenny Sinclair different. How to explain the magnetism Brit talked about. Instead he chose an easier option.
"Brit 'knows' people. He knows how they think. How they work. You worked with him long enough to know that."
"I think his judgement is clouded with Jenny. She's only two years younger then his daughter would be."
"I don't think that's the case."
"Even if it isn't Gil, it doesn't clear her."
"Come on Cath, Brit was right about...." He cut himself off, then continued, "About a lot of people."
He had almost said Eddie. That would have been the last thing they need right now. The last thing he wanted was an argument with Catherine or a slap around the face.
'That's because you're a coward,' A voice taunted him. 'Just because you don't want to risk loosing her, even if it's through telling the truth. And yet you're not willing to try to have her. Coward.'
And as if he was agreeing with the voice, he steered the conversation back onto safer grounds.
"Well we need to find Edmund. Has anyone been able to yet?"
"No. But Greg found something you might be interested to know."
"Oh?" Grissom asked, eager for any new information.
"He managed to pull the medical records for everyone who's connected to the case, to see if anyone had been proscribed anything that might have been used. He found that Robert Sinclair's been taking painkillers for a slipped disc and," She handed him a sheet, "Jenny Sinclair used to take Prozac."
He read the sheet.
"But she's been off it since she was 17," He pointed out. "So what does this have to do with the case?"
Catherine shrugged, "Just thought you might want to know. So do you want to go over these files with me again and try to workout what we're missing?"
Grissom tapped his fingers on the desk as he thought through his answer.
"You start without me. There's something I have to do first."
~*~*~*~*~
As he entered the cells, Grissom saw Jenny Sinclair huddled on the bed, reading a Forensics book. And as if sensing his presences, she looked up at him. Her emerald eyes were blood shot and phantom tears still stained her cheeks. She gave him a curious look.
"I guess you're not here either to say I'm free to go. So why are you here?"
"To talk. Where did you get the book from?"
"One of your team gave it to me. Apparently, Estella dropped it off. It was the pretty, brown haired women," Jenny explained.
"You mean Sara?"
She nodded, "Yeah, that's her. You're here to talk about what exactly?"
"I went to see Brit. He says hi," He finished, awkward about such a lame answer.
She just nodded slightly, a small smile touching her lips.
"Anything else?"
He didn't know what it was about her that made him want to open up and to talk to her, not caring what it was just as long as he kept talking. Brit had the same gift, but his seemed to be based on fear he put into others. Her's was through trust and the way she made you feel like you were talking to an old friend, when you had a conversation with her. But either way the gift was very powerful.
"He told me about your dad. What you saw."
She looked away, pained by the memory.
"Is that why you were put on Prozac?"
Her head snapped up. Her eyes seem to scan his face, as if she was trying to workout how he knew about it.
"Yes, among other things," She shrugged.
He sat down on the end of the bed, trying to work her out, wishing that it was as easy as Brit made it seem.
"Is your father why you wanted become a CSI?"
This simple question brought a simple smile to her lips as she answered.
"Yes. I wanted to give other people the closure I never had. But I couldn't afford the course, so I took psychology instead. I figured that if I couldn't solve the cause of their pain, I should at least try to ease it. Then I met Ethan and I told him everything. He seemed, I don't know, impressed and finished paying for my psychology degree, then paid for my Forensic Science as well."
Grissom nodded in understanding and looked at her book.
"I have a test soon," She explained as if she was reading his mind. "Studying is helping to take my mind off things I guess."
They sat there staring at each other with a sort of mutual understanding. Grissom was the first to break the silence.
"I should..."
"Be going? You need to get on with proving my innocents," She finished.
He smiled gently at her and she offered a weak smile in exchange, then buried herself in her book again.
Grissom walked back to find Catherine now in his office. She sat there reading a file, with the other spread out on the desk in front. He sat down next to her and picked up a file. He knew that she knew where he'd been. For hours they sat there, working a silence, comforted by each other's presence. After a while, exhaustion took them over. And if by fate, Grissom fell asleep next to the resting Catherine, with an arm loosely, but protectively, around her shoulders.
A/N: So what do you think? Reviews are very appreciated and I know you love that button, so what are you waiting for? :o)