Budding

Chapter Seventeen

Catherine emerged from the bathroom.

"Warrick," she called softly.

He came around the corner and met her.

"Yeah?" He asked.

She smiled at him, indicating the answer to his question.

"I'm pregnant," she said happily.

He wrapped his arms around her and he kissed her.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she said.

***

Sara knocked lightly on Grissom's door frame.

"Come in," he said.

Sara walked in with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Hey," he said solemnly.

"Hey," she said. "I uh, need you to sign a transfer application."

Grissom looked truly shocked at her words.

"What?" He asked.

"I want a transfer, Grissom," Sara said. "I want to go back to San Francisco."

"Why? You've been doing so well here," he said.

"Grissom, you know that's not the reason I want to leave," Sara said. "Have you conveniently forgotten what you did the other day?"

Grissom sighed. "No, I haven't."

"I can't deal with you any more Grissom," Sara said bitterly. "I've never been depressed in my life about anything and then you showed up and changed my life, changed the way I thought about love and friendship. I have put my life on hold for you Grissom, and I'm the one that's slowly losing my mind while you just sit here and go on with your miserable excuse for a life," she said, full of a quiet rage. "I have no life. I've never been happy here Grissom. I only came to Vegas for you and you kept pushing me away and playing games. I'm done Grissom. I can't do this anymore. I want to move on with my life."

"Sara, I'm not going to let you go, no matter how hard you fight," he said softly.

"Why?" She asked with a mirthless chuckle. "Because the lab needs me?"

"No, because I need you," he said quickly.

Grissom got up and came over to her. Their faces were inches away. He put his hand on her cheek and a tear fell from her face.

"Why are you doing this to me Grissom?" She asked in a whisper that was full of pain.

Grissom got down on his knees.

"Sara, please forgive me," he begged. "I'm asking you to forgive me for not treating you the way you deserve to be treated. Forgive me for not telling you the truth."

Sara was crying harder. "What truth?"

"I love you, Sara Sidle," he admitted. "I love you. I've always loved you, but I was too much of a coward to admit that. I've wasted so much time thinking and wondering when the answer has been right in front of me the whole time. You are the one Sara. You're the woman that I've always loved, desired and wanted."

Sara wiped her tears before kneeling in front of him.

"And I'm sorry too," she said. "I'm sorry for all the mean things I said about you not having feelings and being insensitive," she admitted. "I'm sorry I wasn't very truthful with you either. I pushed and you shoved. I love you so much it hurts. Just thinking about you makes my heart ache because I know that I love you."

Grissom rubbed her cheek, wiping away any tears that had fallen during her confession. He brought her face closer to his and they kissed ever so lightly on the lips. It was a small touch, in stark contrast to the harsh kiss he'd given her days before.

"Would you like to have dinner?" Grissom asked.

"Yes," she said, coming closer to him. "I would like that very much."

***

Nick, Greg, and Sara entered the break room.

"Well look who's back," Greg said with a broad smile when he saw Catherine and Warrick already in the break room.

Catherine, who was not in a joking mood, rolled her eyes and Warrick greeted the much younger man.

"Hey Greg," he said.

Nick didn't say anything to either of them as he sat down at the table.

"It's good to have you both back," Sara said cordially. "The past week has been the pits."

"Swamped?" Warrick asked.

"No, barely any cases," Sara explained. "They've been tossing cases to Ecklie's crew because we were short handed."

"I hope we get something good tonight," Warrick said. "Two weeks with no cases to solve starts to really get you."

Warrick glanced over at Catherine; she was having a hard time controlling her morning and evening sickness. She had been trying not to throw up every time she got nauseous, and sometimes, it would help, but most of the mornings she would rush to the bathroom and throw up. Warrick would never know what kind of nausea she was experiencing, but it was pretty bad. He was surprised that she made it this far without vomiting.

She cradled her forehead in one hand and the other hand was rubbing her stomach. She was taking deep breaths trying to keep her atrocious nausea at bay.

"Catherine, what's the matter?" Nick asked. "You don't look too good."

She gagged and covered her mouth. She got up and rushed to the restroom.

"What's the matter with her?" Nick asked.

"She got a little bit of a stomach virus," Warrick lied, not wanting to reveal everything until she gave the word. "We ate at a seafood restaurant and she had some bad fish. She's been sick ever since and she refuses to go see a doctor." The lies were pouring out.

Nick nodded at this information.

Grissom came in, bearing assignments.

"Good evening," he said. "Nick, you've got a dead body at a skate park, Sara, you and Catherine have a B & E on Golden Pine road, residential area. Where is Catherine?"

"She's in the restroom," Warrick explained. "She's got a virus."

"Then why is she at work?" Grissom asked.

"I tried to convince her to stay home, but she wanted to come in," Warrick said, which happened to be true. He really did try and convince her to stay home and get some rest, but she refused in a not so nice way that made him not pursue the subject any further.

"Warrick, you and I have a robbery gone very wrong," Grissom finished. "Okay, let's hit the road."

Everyone got up to leave. Catherine emerged from the restroom and stopped in her tracks as everyone began to move around.

Warrick spotted her.

"Did you tell them?" She mouthed.

He shook his head no. "You're with Sara," he mouthed back.

"I love you," she mouthed.

"I love you," he mouthed before heading out of the break room.

"I'll call you," she mouthed before they finally broke their love sick gaze.

Catherine entered the break room and grabbed her coat before meeting Sara in the parking lot.

"What's our case?" Catherine asked as she popped a piece of candy into her mouth.

"A B & E," Sara explained.

"Mm," she said sucking the life out of the sour candy. "Sounds like fun."

***

Warrick was inspecting the back of the convenience store when his cell phone rang.

"Warrick," he answered.

"It's me," Catherine said.

He looked around behind him before responding.

"Hey sweetie," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay for now," she sighed. "I'm tired more than anything."

"Do you want to just go ahead and tell them everything over breakfast or something?" He asked.

"Yeah," she sighed again. "We should. I can't hide this pregnancy for long. And stomach viruses don't last for nine months."

Warrick chuckled. "Well they bought it tonight," he said.

"We have to be honest with them honey," she said. "They're our friends."

"I know babe," he said. "Listen, I have to go. I'll see you back at the lab. I love you."

"I love you too," she said before hanging up.

Warrick hung up just as Grissom entered the back.

"What have you got?" Grissom asked.

"Nada," Warrick said, putting the cell phone back in its holder.

***

After a rather long and tedious shift, the team went out for breakfast at Warrick's suggestion.

Catherine picked at her food as her nausea mercilessly took hold of her. She knew that it was about time they told about their relationship. If anything, she knew that Sara would eventually figure out that she was pregnant, so she decided to spare herself that kind of embarrassment and told Warrick that they would reveal their marriage.

"Um, guys," Catherine started. "Warrick and I have something to tell you."

Nick shifted in his chair, prepared to listen to what they had to say. For Nick, it was closure, and he would be able to stop guessing and worrying about his two best friends.

Catherine looked nervously over at Warrick and linked her hand in his before starting.

"The first thing is that," she sighed before continuing. "We eloped."

Catherine pulled out her chain to reveal a ring. She undid the necklace and put her ring on her finger, and Warrick took his out of his pocket and put it on.

Everyone was shocked.

"You two eloped?" Sara asked in awe. "When did that happen?"

"About five months ago," Warrick said.

Nick's jaw dropped. "You two have been married for five months?"

"Yes," Catherine said.

Grissom was thoroughly interested.

"Damn you two hid it good," Sara said. "I mean, I suspected that you two were together, not married."

"This is unbelievable," Nick said. "I suppose the next thing you're going to tell us is that you're having a baby."

Catherine and Warrick looked up from the table with guilty grins.

"Oh no," Nick said. "You're kidding me."

Warrick put his arm around his wife's shoulder and grinned proudly and Catherine patted her stomach.

"This cannot be happening," Nick said. "Why did you keep it a secret for so long?"

"We were afraid," Catherine said. "The rumors were getting worse and when Carvallo came into the picture, it scared the shit out of us."

"Hey, no cussing around baby," Sara teased.

"Shut up Sara," Catherine giggled. "Besides, right now he's just the size of a pea. He doesn't have any ears yet."

"He?" Nick asked.

"I think we're having a boy," Catherine said proudly. "But Warrick wants a girl."

"I'm happy for you two," Grissom said finally. "But you know, you'll have some big adjustments."

"Yeah, we kind of talked about that," Warrick said. "We already bought a house, we just have to move everything in. Lindsay's excited and she's taking everything well."

"As far as work goes for now," Grissom started. "Catherine you know that you won't be able to process scenes any more or go into the labs right?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "Pictures, no hands, paperwork and photo analysis."

"Correct," Grissom said. "Think you can handle that for the next nine months?"

"Yeah," Catherine said. "Look, Nicky, Gris, Sara," she started. "Warrick and I want to apologize for hiding all this from you. We would have told you sooner, but we still had things to figure out ourselves. We really did want to have a proper wedding, but with all the rumors flying around, we didn't want to upset anyone. We would have loved for all of you to be a part of our wedding. Can you ever forgive us?"

"I can't stay mad at you," Nick said with a smile. "I probably would have done the same thing if me and the woman I loved were under that kind of pressure."

"Thanks guys," Catherine said gratefully.