I couldn't leave you without a chapter to warm your Saturday evening, so here it is:

"We do, we do!!" Even Grissom had lent his halfhearted plea to the chorus, so Nick ceremoniously unwrapped the folded piece of paper to read, "Charades."

"Ooh! Ooh! I'm good at charades!" Sara bounced up and down in her seat, causing Grissom to watch her actions with undisguised interest. Nick saw this, and smiled when he saw there was more on the paper.

"Not so fast, Sara--it's got conditions." Sara pouted as Nick read the rest of the words on the paper. "'Charades: each person is acted out by someone else. ex: Warrick acts out Grissom, while the rest try to guess who he's acting like.' That sounds like fun, guys!" Nick was liking his self-declared judgeship even more, now. He completely sucked at charades. He looked around the room, and was happy to see everyone nodding. It looked like this was an approved step along the competition.

"Ok, who wants to go first? I'll whisper the name of the person to you." Nick hoped no one objected to this--he was about to have a lot of fun with Grissom and Sara.

"I'll go--I'm much better at guessing, so I'll get this out of the way." Catherine stood up and walked over to Nick. "This one was mine, Nick--and I have some ideas if you don't mind working with me on this," she whispered to Nick. He nodded slightly, and then turned to everyone else.

"Let me write down everyone's names so I'll be sure not to miss anyone," he said, as he turned back to Catherine and wrote, 'go on, I'm game.'

"Well, what do you think about making this one rigged?" Nick raised an eyebrow at her, then turned around and mimed counting to make sure he'd gotten everyone. He then turned around and made a question mark on the sheet.

"I think Grissom needs a little...encouragement, don't you think?" Nick grinned as he turned to Catherine and whispered in her ear, "go for it!" She turned to his sheet, and quickly marked initials beside everyone's name, writing hers next to Greg's.

"Show time!" Cat winked at Nick and turned to her new audience. "Am I allowed to use props?"

"As long as you don't speak, or write what you're miming, I think that'll be ok," Grissom said. "Just remember, you don't want to make it too easy." Catherine held back a grin at that. Little did he know...

Catherine made a gesture indicating that she was ready to begin. Warrick tossed his watch to Nick, who began timing her.

First, Catherine hung her head down and mussed up her hair a little bit.

"Nick!" shouted Sara with a huge smile on her face. Cat shook her head. Sara knew it would probably be Greg, but she wanted to see what the blonde would act out next, so she held her tongue.

Next, Catherine danced her way over to Sara, laying her head on the brunette's shoulder and gazing up at her eyes with a moony expression on her face.

"Grissom!" yelled Greg, who then turned an unbecoming shade of purple when Grissom shot him a look.

"Greg." Grissom's voice was firm; he knew he was right.

"Correct." Nick held up Warrick's watch. "Your guessing time was 25 seconds, not bad!" Sara held back her feeling of competition. She had known who it was within 5 seconds, but the look on Grissom's face when Greg suggested he was the subject was just too worth it.

Catherine looked at Grissom, who was sitting at the table playing with his glasses, a look of concentration on his face. 'What do you know, it might be working!' She shot Nick a look that meant to hold off on the 'anvil' for a turn, and he nodded in agreement.

"Warrick--you're up." Nick was happy that he was in charge, 'cause there was NO WAY he was allowing his buddy to chose him as a target. He looked down at Catherine's scribbled initials and decided to play a little switcheroo on her as well. "You've got Catherine," Nick whispered to the tall man, who smiled slowly and largely.

"You got it," he replied.

Warrick planned on making this one count, as in taking as much time as he could before making it obvious. First, he crouched down and mimed the collection of a piece of evidence, holding it up in the air and examining it for a second.

"Grissom!" Sara said, grinning at her boss. He'd jumped a little in the air when she'd said his name, and the action had been pretty cute. She thought sure she was right, but Warrick shook his head. 'Damn.'

Warrick's next action was to crouch all the way on the floor, and bare his teeth at the group. They'd all completely forgotten about his comment that Catherine didn't play fair at 'Twister,' and he winked at Catherine. If she called him on it, she'd be as much as admitting that he was right about her biting. He could see the conflict in her face--should she just take the fall and admit it, or subject herself to whatever else he had planned? He switched positions quickly, but not before Greg called out,

"Nick? Is there something you want to be telling us?" The younger man smiled at Nick's discomfort.

"No Greg, there is not." Nick hadn't found that comment very amusing. "I wouldn't be stupid enough to let 'Rick act ME out, now, would I?"

"As much as I would like to imagine Sara crawling on the floor, I doubt she's the answer," Greg said, laughing at the look Grissom sent his way. The night had grown older and he had grown bolder--he didn't think the boss would be as cruel as to fire him over a little playful banter! Sara just gave him a look, and then turned to Warrick so as not to miss anything. He was now pretending to fluff his hair, and before someone could comment that it was her, as there were only two female CSI's in the room...

"Catherine!"

"Correct, Sara. Your time is..." Nick looked at the watch again. "40 seconds." Sara pouted again. She didn't want to lose to Grissom, of all people.

"All right, who's next?" Catherine said, quickly. Nick had obviously gone against her little plan, for some mischievous reason that she would be willing to bet had something to do with Warrick. Nick looked down at his list, and knew he had to save the best for last.

"I'd say... Grissom." Nick smiled at the other man's discomfort. "You knew you'd have to do it sometime, Griss," he said.

"You know," their supervisor started, before being rudely interrupted by Catherine.

"No Sun Zsu quotes from you, get your ass up there!" Grissom scowled, his ploy to bore them out of remembering it was his turn having been foiled by Catherine.

"And no bribing Nick with promotion promises, Grissom--don't let yourself be a hypocrite." Sara giggled behind her hand as Grissom shot her a skeptical look.

"Like I EVER would," he said, catching himself before he stuck his tongue out at her. 'What has come over me tonight?' he asked himself.

"Well, Nick?"

"Since you two seem awfully tight lately," Nick began, giving Grissom a fright as he wondered if anyone had noticed his feelings for Sara. "I think you should have the honor of playing Warrick." Nick hid his smile at his boss's obvious relief. Little did he know that they pretty much all had figured it out by now!

"All right, I'm going to go get a couple props for this one--and no chasing me, no noogies, no nothing, unless you want to get the next 10 decomp cases!" Grissom rushed down to his office and grabbed something out of his desk drawer. It had been a long time since he'd tried this, but he didn't think he was too rusty. Besides, it would be fun to impress his co-workers with something other than obscure trivia.

Grissom stood in front of his audience, and leaned back on the counter with one arm, being careful to avoid the precious cake box. He slipped a hand into his breast pocket and pulled something out that he hid with his other hand. Grissom winked at Catherine as he made a sudden hand gesture--so fast that the crew could barely glimpse the pack of cards that slid neatly from one hand to another, covering almost a foot of distance in the process. He smiled to himself at the look of shock on their faces, and did the motion again, for good measure. He then grinned at Catherine, and walked over to her, holding the pack of cards in one hand. Smoothly, he cut the pack in two, not once touching it with his free hand, as he crouched next to her and draped his arm across the back of her chair.

"Would you like to pick a card, Cat?" he drawled, in his best lazy Warrick impression. With a flick of his wrist, he fanned the cards out for her, and could see the impressed looks of everyone else out of the corner of his eye. It disappointed him that he couldn't see Sara, though. He allowed himself to laugh at the fact that they were all so shocked at his unpredictability that they had completely forgotten they were supposed to be guessing. Grissom stood up, strutted over to the couch where Sara was, and plopped down, stretching his legs out before him. Sara had the oddest look on her face...

Sara had never seen Grissom act so...well... relaxed! It was an incredible turn-on, which was strange to her, considering she sometimes found his focus on his work extremely sexy. Not as sexy as this Grissom, though. Only the thought of enjoying the last piece of cake made her call out,

"Warrick?"

"Correct, Sara, with a time of 30 seconds."

"I thought I was going to have to get up and give Nick a noogie," laughed Grissom from his new seat on the couch next to Sara. That had worked out pretty well, he thought.

"Ok, who's next?" asked Nick. "Greg or Sara?"

TBC