Don't Be a Bad Boy

Chapter Four

4 - COFFEE

"Anything new?" Nick asked. He had just stepped into the breakroom where Sara and Warrick had already taken possession of the couch, their heads laying on the back, eyes closed. "What'dyou guys do, sleep here?"
Warrick lifted his head. "Nope. Just resting the eyes."
"And you, Sara? Didn't sleep again? You know you gotta turn off that radio once in a while."
Sara's eyes opened more slowly than Warrick's and her head came up with an audible crack in her neck.
"Ouch!" Nick commented.
"Leave me alone, Nicki. That police scanner helps keep me on my toes."
Nick took a seat at the table and picked up the remote control, turning the channel to the news. "Tell me, how can you be on your toes if you're too tired to even keep your head up?"
"Go away, Nicki," Sara grumbled, as she stumbled toward the coffee machine. "Fuck!"
"What?"
"No coffee made. That really sucks. There should always be coffee made."
"Well, be my guest," Nick said.
Sara grunted an opinion and began rummaging through the cupboards for the filters and coffee grounds.
"Hey guys!" came Greg's ultra-cheery voice from the hall.
"Greg!" Sara called, running over to him and lacing an arm around his neck. "Greg, my man. How'ya doing?"
Greg turned his eyes toward Sara's too-big smile and tried to ease himself from her too stanch embrace. "I'm fine. What do you want?"
"Greggo, boy. Where's your coffee?" she demanded, the smile suddenly gone to be replaced by a look of such seriousness that Greg had to turne his entire face toward her as though seeing her for the first time.
"Uh, my coffee."
Sara tightened her arm around his shoulders, bringing a fisted hand up under his chin. "Greg. I need coffee. Now."
He shook his head. "Uh-uh. It's my special blend. Imported straight from South America."
Sara brought her face close to Greg's and smiled again, only this time her smile reminded him of an animal determined to get her prey. And this time her prey was either Greg's coffee, or Greg himself. He decided coffee was replaceable, he was not. "Third cupboard on the left, top shelf." Sara let him go so quickly he almost fell. "Just don't take it all, kay?"
Warrick whooped and jumped from the couch to join Sara at the coffee machine, sticking his nose in the bag and taking a good whiff.
"And don't take all the smell from it, guys!" came Greg's plaintive voice as he disappeared down the hall. "I'll be back for my cups, and there'd better be some left!"
"Ah man, this is heaven," Nick chimed. "Greg's coffee's the best."
"You're telling us!"
"Telling us what?" came Grissom's voice.
All three heads came up at once, with guilty looks on their faces.
"Oh, Sara charmed Greg into giving up his special blend'," Warrick said. "It's percolating right now."
Grissom craned his neck ever so slightly toward the machine, lightly sniffing the air and, finding it to his satisfaction, nodded his head, mumbled something incoherent and placed his piles of papers on the table. "Whose ready to work?" he asked.
"Not til after coffee," Sara said, leaning against the counter and watching the coffee pot like a bird of prey, coffee cup held firmly in hand.
Grissom stared at her over the rim of his glasses perched precariously on the tip of his nose but decidedly, wisely enough, to say nothing. "Where's Catherine?"
"Don't know," Nick said.
"Haven't seen her," Warrick added.
Sara said nothing, and continued to stare at the coffee machine. The pot was only half way full. She considered stealing' some but the smell of burnt coffee – even Greg's – was not something she wanted to be smelling right now. So she waited.
"That'd better be coffee I smell," came Catherine's voice as she rushed into the room, and proceeded to dump her cup of instant coffee in the sink and plunk a new cup on the counter.
"Yeah, it's Greg's special blend'," Warrick said.
Catherine turned a wide eye to Warrick. "How'd that happen?"
Warrick looked pointedly at Sara. "Her charms, what else?"
Catherine looked at Sara, an eyebrow raised.
Sara shrugged. "I wanted coffee. Greg's coffee. So I got it. End of story. Now stop staring at me until I've had at least one cup."
"Are we working as CSIs or as coffee pickers here?" Grissom said, his voice letting them know exactly what he thought about their seeming newfound obsession with coffee.
"HA!" Sara exclaimed and yanked the coffee pot from its burner, sloshing a few drops on the counter.
"Hey! Be careful with that," Nick said. "That's rich stuff!"
"Don't I know it," Sara mumbled as she filled her own cup and put the pot back on the counter to go to the fridge.
"Well, you could have at least poured us some," Nick said.
"Pour it yourself. You are a big boy, right?" Sara smiled at him, bringing her cup to her lips and taking a sip. She sighed loudly and slid into a chair by Grissom. "Ready to work, boss."
Grissom graced her with a glance. "Well, that makes two of us," he said.
The others joined around the table with their own respective cups before them and Grissom passed out assignments. They read them as they savoured their coffee, too slowly it seemed to Grissom.
Then one by one, they filed out the door, their case cards in hand and coffees transferred to portable cups. Sara stopped by the door just in time to see Grissom over by the counter, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Couldn't resist, uh?"
Grissom spun around, his eyes wide with surprise. "Sara! I, uh Aren't you supposed to be gone?"
"I was just leaving!" she said with a grin and a wink and disappeared around corner.

~*~

Copyright © 2003 Anansay