Disclaimers: Not mine

Spoilers: Nope

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SACRIFICES

(Chapter 7 - An Unoriginal Sacrifice)

"Hey Grissom, I pulled up David Skee's file like you asked me to and..." Warrick walked into the office and immediately sensed that he didn't quite have his supervisor's attention. Looking up, his suspicions were confirmed, "Grissom?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Grissom shook his head and seemed startled to find Warrick in his office, "Oh...Warrick, what is it?"

"David Skee's file." Warrick held up the folder in his hand and gave it to Grissom, who reached out for it, the dazed look still on his face. "You were right about his past record. With his history, Brass can at least bring him in for some questions. I don't think we can do anything else without more evidence."

Grissom, who didn't answer immediately, seemed completely absorbed in the folder of information. When a minute elapsed, he looked up at Warrick with a look of authority, "Get Brass to bring him in for questioning. We can't do much else without more evidence."

A little confused by Grissom's simple repetition of what he had just said, Warrick paused before asking, "Are you ok?"

"Of course I am, why do you ask?"

"Well you just said exactly what I just said a minute before."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you."

"Yeah, I guess not." Taking the folder back, Warrick began heading out the door. Before he got out into the hallway, he turned back around, "This wouldn't have anything to do with Cath and the guy from day shift, would it?"

His back stiffened but Grissom tried his best not to let on how he truly felt, "I don't know what you mean."

Reentering the office, Warrick closed the door, knowing Grissom's need for privacy, "C'mon Grissom, I saw the look on your face this afternoon when you saw Catherine with Alex Smithson at the diner."

Grissom stayed silent, choosing to move around some papers on his desk instead of answering.

"You're not jealous, are you?"

At this, Grissom looked up at him again, "First of all, I am not jealous. Second of all, I don't think I have to explain anything to you, Warrick."

"Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight. The last thing I wanna do is to get in your business cuz I know how much you hate it. But you know what? Is it worth being all stubborn if it means you're gonna lose your best friend?"

Again, Warrick's comment was met with silence.

"I didn't get it at first. I didn't understand why you let Catherine take Ecklie's job. For a while there, I actually thought you did this for Catherine's career. But now I know the truth. You didn't do this for anyone but yourself."

"I think this has gone far enough..."

"You think you've made an incredibly brave and righteous sacrifice when in reality, what you did was and still is nothing but an unoriginal sacrifice that a million people before you have made already."

"Warrick..."

"Yell at me like you did to Nick. Get out your aggressions. But you're only angry at us cuz you know what we say is the truth."

"Warrick, if you really don't want to pick a fight with me, I suggest you leave right now. All the time you just wasted could've been put into the many cases we still need to solve.

"You're right, I did waste a lot of my time here." Warrick turned on his heels and left the office.

*To be continued*