Budding

Chapter Three

The heat in New Orleans was unbearable. It wasn't like the dry heat they had in Las Vegas…it was a humid, heavy, meat tenderizing heat for mosquitoes heat. In the evenings, it only got hotter, and it didn't help that Catherine and Warrick had been running around investigating the back waters and swamps all day. They were looking forward to air conditioning at the hotel.

"Sorry, the central air went out," the owner said.

Catherine had a fan put in her room. It was a good thing she brought her cotton underwear and silk nightshirt.

Warrick happened to walk by, and the slats on her door were opened. He could see her laying in the bed enjoying the monopoly she had of fresh cool air. He could see her hair blowing as the fan went back and forth. Her long, smooth legs were bare up to her mid thigh, and the rest of her body was covered in a red silk shirt. Her legs shifted and now she had her right knee up and her left down.

Warrick slowly brought himself to walk away.

***

Catherine tapped her swivel against the edges of her coffee cup.

"Warrick, I need you to be honest with me," she said as she sat up straighter in her chair.

"Okay," he said with a smile.

"That night, in New Orleans," she started with a grin. "When the air went out at the hotel, were you watching me through the slats of my door?"

Warrick chuckled and looked away.

"Honesty is the best policy," Catherine teased.

"Okay, yes, I was," he admitted. "And I liked what I saw."

"I kind of sensed you there," she said. "I don't think you've ever seen my legs before that."

"Nope, I hadn't," he chuckled. "You have beautiful legs."

"Thank you," she said.

They sat in silence for a bit before striking up another conversation.

"So, do you think that we should take the money?" Catherine asked.

Warrick shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Cath, we can't continue what those people did way back when…its not only our asses, but our careers on the line…you know that it's illegal, what we're doing right?"

"Yeah, but what if it was your daughter?" Catherine asked with fire in her eyes. "Or someone you loved deeply? Wouldn't you want justice?"

"Yeah, but Catherine, the law is the law," Warrick said firmly.

"Well, the law we live under sucks," Catherine said with venom. "It takes breaking the law to enforce it."

"Catherine," Warrick said. "Okay, even if we do go through with this, who's to say that we're not going to get caught? What if this is a setup?"

"Well, that's a chance we'll have to take," Catherine said. "I'm going to do this with or without you."

"No, Cath," he said. "I won't let you do this alone. I love you."

Catherine looked at him with wide eyes. Warrick couldn't believe he blurted it out.

"You do?" She asked.

"Yes," he said, taking her hands in his. "Yes, I love you."

Catherine chuckled.

"I love you too," she said.

***

Sara was left with the daunting task of finding the original scene of the head on collision. She didn't want to think about that at the moment, she had to get some rest. She was at home, for once, and really starting to enjoy it.

She began to think about Grissom. They were supposed to be working the case together, but he was hardly around to investigate it, so it may as well have been her case. Grissom was indeed an enigma to her. There were things that she knew about him, and things that she didn't know about him that she wished to know about him. She wanted him more than he would ever know.

She rolled her eyes and thought about something else. Catherine and Warrick.

There was definitely something going on between those two; they had been acting differently. According to lab gossip, what they had going on was hot and heavy. Sara could plainly see it-in their eyes, there was something that betrayed something much more than friendship. For now, the only reliable source was a lab tech by the name of Vicki who had a cousin who just so happened to be an employee at the hotel Catherine and Warrick were staying in.

Apparently (and according to Vicki via her cousin) Warrick and Catherine had gotten themselves into something and they didn't know what exactly. According to Vicki's cousin, the last two nights they spent in New Orleans was spent with each other in Catherine's room; she even claimed that she saw a little bit of action through the thinly opened slats in the door.

But then again, how reliable were Vicki and her cousin?

Sara admitted to herself that she was jealous of them. She wished that she was in a relationship as deep as Catherine and Warrick's was on all levels: friendship, love, and support.

She and Grissom never shared that kind of bond. Their feelings for each other were known, and it made communication that much harder between them. Sara seriously began to wonder if a life of love was in her future. Her only obstacle was that she wouldn't just settle on anybody; she wanted to be with Grissom, and he wouldn't have her.