Catherine stared at the phone wide-eyed, as though Grissom could see her through it. "You had them do what?"

"Well," he said defensively, "I couldn't think of any other way to keep her out of the way. What would you have suggested?"

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe tell her that you have a surprise for her and you need her out of the house while you prepare it?"

Grissom laughed derisively. "And you think she would stay away if I told her that? Uh-uh, Cath, she'd be sneaking back into the house just to prove she could do it, let alone to see what I was doing." He shifted the load he held in his left arm and said, "Listen, Catherine. I did it, it's done with. If she hates me, she hates me and I'll come to work tomorrow with another handprint on my face. Honestly, though, I think she'll be so pleased with the surprise that she won't mind how I arranged things."

Catherine snorted loudly. "Just keep telling yourself that." She wondered whether he was driving, and how he was managing this multi-tasking if he was. "Are you driving, Grissom? I hope you're being careful, because it would suck to have to explain to Sara that yeah, Grissom had a great surprise planned, but he ended up splattered all over the road with the surprise next to him. Oh, and hey, Gris?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't come running to me if she beats the hell out of you," she snickered. "Now I'm gonna go start setting everything up. How long till you get here?"

"About an hour, give or take. I've got to stop by the jewelry store and pick up my order, then I'll be home. Just try to get everything sorted out and organized and when I get there I'll help you arrange it all. And Catherine?"

"Yep."

"Don't break anything, and don't scare the spider."

She harrumphed and hung up the phone, then turned to face the mess that was currently occupying Grissom's living room. Everything was out of her car, and it looked like even more stuff than it had when she'd purchased it all. With a sigh, she stepped into the room and began to sort things into piles.

Grissom parked the car and walked into Ca' d'Oro. He'd never been in this store and he tried not to look dazzled by the sheer quantity of diamonds, gold, and platinum scattered around the room. He wished he'd asked Catherine to do this also, because he felt like a fool coming into this store to check out and pay for the jewelry that he'd ordered.

He was getting strange looks from the customers, he noticed, and he hadn't even had the item brought out. Looking around, he offered reassuring smiles to the open-mouthed people surrounding. Shifting the load in his arms again nervously, he walked to a counter. "Hi, I'm here to pick up a custom order? It should be under the name 'Gil Grissom'."

The clerk checked a clipboard and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Grissom, we've just finished your piece. Let me get Jack for you, since he handled the order." He motioned to a slightly older man who was leaning against a wall, apparently supervising the room.

The man walked over and nodded. He stuck out a hand for Grissom to shake, then pulled it back embarrassedly when he realized that Grissom didn't have a free hand. "Jack Morton, at your service. Are you Mr. Grissom?"

"Yes. I had a friend put in an order here this morning, and she said . . ."

"Yes, yes, Mr. Grissom. I remember it, believe me. We rarely get such unusual orders, especially with a rush request. And rarely are they presented by such beautiful woman who have been given carte blanche by person they represent." He smiled widely and added, "Give me five minutes and I'll go get it for you. I assume you'll want to evaluate it before you pay?"

Grissom nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was hoping to do."

"Ok, then, I'll be right back."

The man was back in less than five minutes, proudly bearing Grissom's purchase on a velvet pillow.

Twenty minutes after that, Grissom smiled and nodded at the friendly man. "This is exactly right. Thank you very much, it's beautiful work. How much do I owe you?"

"Well," the jeweler said sotto voce, "why don't we go back to one of the private rooms to discuss that."

Grissom had a good idea what that meant, but he only nodded and followed Jack Morton toward the back of the store.

Elsewhere and later…

            Sara tried again to get her wrists untied from the nylon rope that held them behind her back. Failing that, she shouted another threat at Nick. "You are SO DEAD! I'm going to personally make sure you never get a date again, and then I'm going to tell Greg you have a crush on him, and then I'm going to get Grissom to fire you . . ."

            "Whoa," Warrick whispered to his friend, laughing quietly. "I think the woman's a little peeved."

            "I'll show you peeved, you idiot! I can hear you guys talking up there, you know! You have no right to laugh, Warrick, because you're in just as deep a pile of shit as Nick is!" She kicked the back of Warrick's seat so hard that she thought for a second that she'd broken something in her foot.

"Sorry, Sidle," Warrick said innocently, rubbing his back where her foot had nearly made it through the layers of upholstery. "This was Nick's idea, I swear. He had to threaten me to make me go along with it."

"Dirty lying bastards!"

"Well, yeah," Nick admitted, giving in to the humor of the situation. "We are that. Well, except the 'dirty' and 'bastards' parts. But yeah, I'll admit that we do lie occasionally." He grinned, though he was aware that Sara couldn't see it through her blindfold.

"I hate you! I hate you both! Why won't you just freaking tell me what's going on? I'm tied up and blindfolded as it is, it's not like I can escape whatever you have planned for me. You're both wusses, you're afraid of what I'll do to you when I get out of these damn ropes!"

The two men in the front seat of the car exchanged apprehensive glances. "Damn right we're afraid," Nick said. "But we're just pawns this time, it's not our fault." He swung the car to a stop outside the townhouse and shifted into "Park." Eyeing the woman in the backseat, he decided that "nice" was the way to go right now. "Okay, Sara honey, we're here."

"Where's 'here,' you asshole?"

Hmm, apparently she wasn't as good at following driving routes as they had been afraid. Whether or not she knew where she was, though, she was still angry as hell, so Nick decided to let Warrick lead her up the walk and into the house. He motioned for the taller man to take her and was answered by a dangerous look.

Warrick took Sara's arm, avoiding both the boot she was trying to break his foot with and the elbow that was flying around in the vicinity of his nose. "Come on, Sara, chill out. We're here, your ordeal is almost over, so how about a few kind words for your unwilling captors?"

"Bite me," she enunciated clearly, but allowed herself to be pulled up to the door and pushed inside when Warrick opened it.

Once they had her inside the house, Nick untied her hands but kept a good grip on them so she couldn't pull off the blindfold yet. "Soon, Sara," he whispered to her, then stepped back as far as his arm would allow.

Nick and Warrick met the eyes of Catherine, who was alternately gaping at Sara, smirking at the men, and looking around the corner to the kitchen to see if Grissom was ready. "Are you ready, Sara?"

"Catherine! You too? What the hell is this? Why am I tied up?"

Catherine laughed. "You'll know soon. Are you ready to find out what this is all about?"

"YES!"

Catherine nodded and motioned to Nick to pull off the handkerchief that covered Sara's eyes.

Before he had it off, though, a yelp came from the kitchen, then Grissom's distinctive voice shouted, "Shit! Damn dog peed on me!"

Taking advantage of Nick's hand dropping in surprise, Sara pulled the blindfold the rest of the way off and surveyed the room. "Dog? What in the hell is going on here, Grissom?"