Day by Day part 2
By: Manigault
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This new realization was beyond strange to Grissom as he nervously watched Sara return from the bathroom and settle into her chair without speaking a single word to him.
He stood abruptly and reached for her coffee container. At her startled expression, he said in defense. "It's cold. I thought that I'd re-heat it in the microwave."
Sara watched him through narrowed eyes and then looked back at the stack of cases and smirked. He probably was afraid that she'd bail out on him and leave him with all of this paperwork. Not bright, considering he'd ordered her to help and as he liked to inform her, he was the supervisor.
Grissom returned the steaming coffee to her and pulled his chair over closer to her own. Jumping back slightly, Sara eyed him with uneasiness. He shrugged slightly and pretended to read something on the notes in front of her.
"You could have asked to see these notes, Grissom." Sara pushed them closer to him as she scooted her chair a little away.
Grissom cast her an unreadable look before pulling his own case over and pointing to a paragraph. "It appears that we have a match." He reached for her notes and pointed out another paragraph. "Read this."
Sara pulled the report back over and read where he pointed. She then reached for his notes and did the same. "I suppose we have a match." She smiled, but was directed at the paper. Grissom wanted that smile and regretted that she was wasting it on the table and paper. He tried to draw her attention back to him by making a smart comment.
"One down and a hundred or so to go." Okay, not so bright. The smile fled from her face and she set the current case in a different spot before reaching for the next case.
"Well, let's keep working." Sara started to hand him half of the paperwork as they had been doing, when he a thought occurred to her. "Grissom? Why are we splitting these reports? Why don't you take the next case and I'll go over this one?"
Grissom tried to think of a resonable argument. He honestly couldn't think of anything that sounded plausible. With a disgruntled sigh he reached for the next one and they worked in silence for the next hour.
"So, it looks like you haven't budged since we left." Nick lingered in the doorway and couldn't help the teasing grin that tilted the corners of his mouth.
Sara rubbed her eyes and glared in the direction of the exuberant investigator. Warrick was more sympathetic. "Don't listen to him, Sara. You should have seen Nicky get attacked by this cat when we walked into the house."
"Hey." Nick rubbed his still sore arm. "It wasn't funny."
Sara laughed, her face softening. Catherine joined them inside the break room in time to see Grissom watching Sara with a shuttered expression.
"The research going well?" She included them both in her gaze.
Sara replied after several seconds elapsed and it was clear that Grissom would not.
"Wonderful. We have one match." She glanced at Grissom and smiled. "And only a hundred or so left."
Grissom visibly started. He looked from her face back to the case in front of him and hoped that she'd not seen him catch his breath. She took his disinterest as ignoring her comment. The smile fled her lips and she turned her attention back to her own case.
Catherine shook her head and marveled that two intelligent people could be so dense when it came to feelings. She caught Warrick's eye and he gave her a shrug.
"Anyone want to order pizza? Nick suggested. He pulled out a chair next to Sara and teasingly bumped her with his shoulder.
Grinning back at him, Sara was relieved of the break. "Sure, are you buying?"
"I don't have cat scratch fever, Sara." Nick mock glared over at Warrick. "He's buying."
"Since when?" Warrick took a chair on the other side of Grissom who was pretending to not listen to the friendly banter. "Hey, Gris, you want to buy us a pizza?"
"Okay."
Silence dropped over the room as all eyes flew to Grissom in shock.
"You're joking Grissom?" Nick finally managed.
Grissom removed his glasses and placed them carefully on the stack of cases. Keeping his eyes averted from Sara, he looked at everyone else in turn.
"Have I ever bought you all dinner before?"
"Well, yeah." Nick admitted, and then added almost beneath his breath. "But not for the past year."
Grissom tapped his glasses on the table. "Well, this year is going to be different." He glanced over at Sara without thinking about it and then back to Warrick. "I'm buying so you can all order whatever you want." He then excused himself to get something from his office, leaving his team to marvel over whatever they wanted regarding his change of attitude.
TBC