This is one of those nonsense chapters - kind of like the weird earlier
chapters. I was in a nonsense mood ;) Thanks for all your great reviews
from the previous two chapters! This is for graveshiftcsi!! I hope I can
'see' you all soon.
Previously:
Grissom watched Catherine walk away. Checking that he had remembered the pen and the newly added map that were currently situated in his pocket, he got into his car. He would have given anything to have breakfast with Catherine that morning, but May 16th was drawing near and if he wanted to make *that* perfect, then what he was about to do was more important than breakfast.
Chapter 18 - Children, Today We'll Be Learning How To Bake Cakes
May 12th - 11:30am
Grissom's Condo
He needed to sleep. Grissom had not felt as tired as he was feeling now for a long while. It seemed that, while his work at CSI soothed him, his recent weekend away with Catherine had drawn all the energy out of his body. He smiled at the thought as he took a cold bottle of mineral water out of his fridge and made his way rather slowly to his bedroom.
Getting changed into a large T-shirt and some cool pyjama bottoms, Grissom threw his duvet aside and clambered into his bed, placing the already half- empty bottle of water on his bedside table. Setting his alarm to awaken him to another night's work, Grissom hauled his duvet over him, sighed deeply and relaxed into his mattress. Knowing that half of his intended deed for May 16th had been fulfilled that morning, he drifted into a well deserved and much needed, relaxing sleep.
5:30pm
Grissom's Bedroom
As Grissom awoke further, the sound of his telephone came rushing louder and clearer into his ears. Slightly annoyed that it was not his alarm that had woken him and that he would still very much appreciate a couple more hours sleep, he reluctantly picked his phone off its hook and answered.
"Hey, Gil..." There was a pause while Grissom's mind slowly caught up with the present. "It's Catherine."
"Yeh, I know." Deciding that this conversation would be far better than a pitiful hour or two more sleep, Grissom sat up in his warm bed and leant against his headboard, picking up his bottle of water after he did so.
"Right. Well I was just wondering if you could do me a favour... I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Ok," Grissom responded hesitantly, deciding to avoid Catherine's question. "What's up?"
"It's nothing big. Lindsey rang a little while ago to tell me she got the top grade in two of her tests today at school, and-"
"What tests were they?" Grissom interrupted.
"Uh, English and history. Anyway, I wanted-"
"Oh, not science?"
"No. So I wanted to bake her some fairy cakes. They're her favourite."
There was a pause as Grissom waited for more to come. When Catherine said nothing more, he asked,
"Where do I come in to all this?"
"Well, Lindsey is at her friend Rachel's now and I was wondering if you wanted to come over and bake with me."
A smile broke Grissom's pursed lips, appreciating Catherine's request for his company.
"Sure, Catherine. I'll come over after I've showered and changed."
"Great and if you could-"
"So, why not science?" Grissom interrupted for a third time.
"Huh?"
"Why didn't Lindsey get top grade in her science test? She's got a stunner of a scientist for a mother. Doesn't she like it? I mean, if I had you for a mother, aside from that being incredibly weird, I bet you anything I would love the subject. She does like it a little bit, right?"
"Relax, Gil. It's nice that you're taking an interest in my daughter but you shouldn't get so worked up."
"I'm not worked up. So why not the science test?"
"Oh, she's got that tomorrow." Catherine allowed a little chuckle to escape from her lips and run down the phone line.
"Oh, thanks for telling me," Grissom said with laughter evident in his voice. "I'll bring my work clothes over so we can go to work straight from yours. That ok?"
"Good idea. Oh and while you're at it could you pick up some self-raising flour and some eggs for me? Thanks, Gil. Ok-"
"I-"
"-then, bye."
Grissom heard the click of Catherine's phone, paused, then smiled as he put his phone onto its receiver, climbed out of his, now cooler, bed and headed for the bathroom.
6:35pm
Catherine's House
Dressed in sweat pants and Lindsey's Harry Potter T-shirt that she had become very fond of, Catherine heard her doorbell ring and waited for Grissom's familiar knock on the door soon after it; a habit he seemed to have picked up.
Making sure her house was presentable as she past through it, Catherine made her way to her front door. Taking in a deep breath with the words, 'we're in Vegas' pumping through her head, she turned the door handle and smiled as she saw her boss standing in the doorway clad in his work clothes and sunglasses, and clutching a plain white plastic bag. Catherine lifted her eyebrows as she took in his appearance.
"What?"
"I hope you brought some other clothes," she said, "baking cakes can be a messy business."
"Oh." Grissom paused; he hadn't thought of that. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Right, well we'll just have to see how you look in my apron then, won't we?"
Pursing his lips to prevent him from smiling at the image of Catherine laughing at him in a short, frilly, pink spotted apron, (he had no idea what Catherine's apron looked like), Grissom stepped into her house as she stepped back, opening the door further, to let him through.
With what felt like fire melting her insides, Catherine followed Grissom through her hall.
"I feel a bit underdressed," she told him with a hint of jest evident in her tone.
Grissom turned around to face her, stopping them both in their tracks in Catherine's living room just in front of her sofa.
"You look lovely."
Catherine looked up at him, her mouth slightly open with an expression of confusion tallying with worry playing upon her features; though she was feeling neither.
"Thank you," she said after a few seconds.
"Any time." Grissom cleared his throat. "I bought the eggs and flour you asked for," he said, holding up the plastic bag.
Catherine chuckled her thanks, remembering their phone conversation. She ignored the bag and stepped around Grissom to make her way to the kitchen.
"You coming?" she shot back at him through the closing kitchen door.
**
It turned out Catherine's apron was a simple long plain white one, with the usual large pocket at the front. Grissom had a similar one himself so there was no awkwardness about wearing it in front of Catherine. He saw that she had already laid out all of the ingredients and equipment on the kitchen side, so he had added the flour and eggs to complete the display.
As he attempted to tie the apron around his back he heard Catherine say, "Pass me the scales, would you?"
When he replied, "Just a second," Catherine looked behind her at him and saw him struggling with his apron.
A smile which displayed the brilliant white of her teeth lit up her face as she said through a delicate laugh, "Let me do that."
Grissom dropped his hands from behind his back as Catherine moved behind him.
"The ties are too long, you should wrap them round your middle."
Grissom felt Catherine's arms snake around his waist from behind him, gripping the ties in her hands. Catherine had not had this much contact with her boss since their last embrace at the Las Vegas boarder. She could feel her breathing rate increase and shut her eyes to try and keep it under the little control she could muster. Neither of them spoke as Catherine performed this task, because both were concentrating on not letting their touch invoke any unwanted, or rather inappropriate, emotions. She swapped the ties over in her hands and pulled them round the opposite sides, to Grissom's back. When Catherine had finished tying the apron she let her hands linger a little longer on his lower back than was necessary as the silence continued to reign over the two colleagues.
"So," she said, preventing her thoughts from travelling any further, "what about those scales?"
**
As Catherine began placing the ingredients into the large mixing bowl, Grissom helped by handing them to her as she called them out.
"Um, ok flour's next."
Grissom opened the new flour bag and held it out to her.
"Oh, wait," Catherine said, looking around for the sieve. "I need the-"
At precisely the wrong moment the top of the flour bag in Grissom's hand collided with Catherine's exclaiming arm and a cloud of flour covered Grissom's face. The bag then toppled over and split, pouring most of its contents over the counter leaving the rest in the bag or for the floor.
Grissom puffed, blowing a mist of flour into the air from around his mouth. Catherine was trying desperately hard not to burst into giggles at seeing Grissom disguised in a mask of white.
"Oh my God, Gil, I am so sorry." Catherine could feel her giggles coming to the surface.
"It's not funny, Catherine."
Grissom had wiped his fingers along his eyes in order to allow him to open them and caused a pattern of three fingers to run across each eye to his temples.
Trying to hold her smile in, Catherine exclaimed, "You look like a racoon!"
"Catherine!"
At that comment Grissom dipped his hand into the mound of flour on the side, scooped some up into his fingers and flicked it at Catherine's face. Anticipating his move, Catherine ducked down. The flour, however, landed itself mainly in her hair. Catherine stood up very straight and glared at Grissom.
"You got flour in my hair." Her tone was deadly; so deadly that Grissom actually took a step back. "You'll pay for that... ... *Master*."
At her words Catherine moved both of her hands down to the side that was providing them with flour and scooped up several ounces, keeping her fingers tight together so nothing fell through them. She advanced slowly on Grissom, who had taken a few more steps back and was now on the opposite side of the kitchen table to Catherine.
"Now, Catherine," he said staring at the mountain of flour in her hands, "you'll get your kitchen messy."
"Never mind," she responded in an instant, and added with a destructive smile, "you're cleaning it up."
Catherine imitated the beginning action of throwing the flour over Grissom so he would shield his face as a natural reaction. When he did so, she raced around the table to where he was, flour in hand, and threw the contents over him as soon as he released his defensive arms. Grissom's earlier shielded face was still pale from the previous lot that had unfortunately hit him, but the ingredient managed to coat this once more. It also thoroughly layered his hair and spread across most of his front, covering Catherine's apron and his clothes in white powder.
Satisfied, and with a huge grin illuminating her face, Catherine beat her hands together sending another puff of white into the air. Grissom looked down at his black clothes, now grey, and said threateningly,
"Speaking of paying people back..."
Grissom, now finding them both at quite a distance from the other side of the kitchen that housed the flour, moved back towards Catherine while her hands were void of any type of ingredient and, despite her pleas for a truce, he continued to make his way to the enormous amount of flour that was resting innocently across the table top.
"Oh no you don't, Gil." Catherine turned her back to him and upped her pace, running towards the white surface. Her aim? To get to the flour. Grissom's aim? To get her *into* the flour. Grissom reached out his arm that was closest to Catherine and grabbed her round her middle.
"No, Grissom, put me down!" Catherine yelled through her squeals and laughter that were filling the room. "Let- let me go!"
With ease Grissom lifted Catherine's feet off the floor and re-positioned himself so that his back was to the flour-house; he was now between it and Catherine.
Catherine felt Grissom's grip around her waist loosen, and she turned around to face him. She had expected him at that point to remove his arm, when he didn't she found herself locked in his grasp. His arm, now a little higher than it previously was, was putting a large but comfortable amount of pressure on Catherine's back causing their bodies to become airtight.
Grissom just simply looked at her. He sent waves of emotion rushing through her veins. She was going to find work hard for a while if this is how he made her feel with a customary look. Catherine could feel her blood begin to pound in her ears and her stomach erupt with desire, despite Grissom's flour coated self.
Grissom's other arm found its way to Catherine's side, and then let the other mirror it. He stepped back slightly from her causing air to rush between their bodies.
"At least you can change your clothes," Grissom said, sending one eyebrow higher than the other, "plus look at my hair!"
"Your hair *does* looks a little whiter than usual, Mr. Grissom," Catherine remarked with a smirk.
Smirking right back, Grissom retorted, "Yeh, I really should get that seen to. Infact, I think I will right now."
Seeing Catherine's eyes widen Grissom brought her further into his arms before she could escape his grip, and shook his head vigorously from side to side sending vast amounts of flour to float down towards Catherine. She pushed Grissom's body away from hers with both hands on his chest, but only after he'd managed to coat her in flour.
"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Grissom said as Catherine shot a look at him, then at the peacefully resting flour. You'll have to get past me first."
"I've got moves you've never seen, *boss*."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that anymore."
Grissom's comment surprised Catherine. Although their weekend wasn't specifically mentioned, both were suddenly plunged into a strange silence. Catherine didn't feel uncomfortable but felt as though she had to avoid looking at Grissom. Her eyes shot to the first thing they could find; the clock.
"Shit!" Her words cracked the silence.
"What?"
"The time. Lindsey's going to be home soon and we haven't even made the mixture yet," she said quickly, rushing to her flour disguised counter.
"Uh, Catherine, I don't know if you've realise but the flour is all over the place. You can't put it in the cake now."
"Well, there's some left in the bag and I have a little bit in the flour pot. Maybe it'll come to the right amount. If not, we can just third the mixture or something."
8:05pm
Whilst Catherine had stirred the mixture, put it into baby cake paper containers and put them into the oven, Grissom had wiped up all the excess flour. They now both stood calmly in the centre of Catherine's kitchen looking rather pleased with the now completed fairy cakes that lay cooling on the side.
"We are going to be so late for work," a flour painted Catherine pointed out to a flour covered Grissom.
"Oh yeh," he agreed, "and *that* won't look suspicious. I'm going to have to go back home and shower... again, and change... again."
"I'm sorry, Gil. I didn't mean for us to have an evening like this."
Grissom smiled affectionately at her. "It's ok. I had... fun."
"Yeh, right," Catherine snorted. "I tell you what, you stay here and have a shower, I'll go to yours and pick up some more clothes. That way we won't really lose any time and Lindsey will get to see you."
Catherine knew she was making excuses for him to stay but managed to persuade herself that this was better and less time consuming than Grissom going back to his place to get ready. He looked suspiciously at her but eventually agreed.
"I'd like to see Lindsey again. Wish her luck in her science test tomorrow."
Catherine rolled her eyes and made her way past Grissom heading towards the stairs. He followed and she led him to her bathroom.
"Towels are in that cupboard. Ok, so I'll see you later." She began to make her way out of the room.
"Catherine?"
"What?"
"Don't you want a key?"
"I already have one."
9:05pm
"We should be at work right now."
Catherine had emerged from the bathroom in her own bedroom, glowing with the look of someone who has just freshly showered, and was making her way across her kitchen floor towards Grissom who was sitting on one of her bar stools at her kitchen counter.
"Lindsey in bed?"
"Yeh," Catherine answered walking further into the kitchen to stand beside Grissom, "I was hoping to spend more time with her tonight but what with me driving to yours and the showers... you know it took me ages to get the flour out of my hair."
"Serves you right for having long hair."
"It's not long, Grissom."
"It's longer than mine."
"Good, I should hope so!"
Catherine turned and started to walk towards her coat and bag that Grissom had lain out on the kitchen table. Grissom lifted himself off the barstool and followed her. Catching up with her he grabbed the left side loophole of Catherine's trousers with his right index finger and middle finger and stopped her walking away. She jerked back as he spun her around smoothly by the loop he had a hold of. Catherine gave Grissom a puzzled look; she was fully aware of his fingers slipping out of the loop and his hand then resting on her hip. Grissom's face looked different to Catherine this time. His expression was showing determination but also anxiety.
"You have some flour on your face," he told her. "There's still little bits around this room, I think."
"Oh, ok thanks," Catherine replied as she began to move to her hall for the mirror.
Grabbing her again and pulling her gently back to him by her wrist, Grissom said, "I'll do it."
Catherine slowly took a few steps towards him, shook her hair out of her face as she looked up at him, and closed her eyes. She felt his fingers glide up her neck, over her jaw and up to her cheek bone where more pressure was applied as Grissom wiped her face clean of flour. Still feeling his hand on her face, Catherine opened her eyes, stared up at him for a few long seconds, then looked down.
"Thanks," she whispered, conscious of his hand beginning to cup her face. She could feel his other hand follow its brother's performance until she was gently forced to look back at him. Their faces were close together and Catherine could once more feel the familiarity of Grissom's breath swim pleasantly over her face. She closed her eyes as she started to see Grissom move closer to her and feel him lift her face towards his with his hands.
"Mommy?"
Catherine's lightening fast reactions caused her to almost sprint away from Grissom. Brushing her hair out of her face once again, she headed towards the kitchen door where her daughter stood.
"What's wrong, baby?" Catherine asked Lindsey tenderly and breathlessly, concerned that her daughter may have witnessed something she shouldn't have.
"I thought I heard voices so I came down. Why are you and Mr. Grissom still here?"
"We're just about to leave, ok, sweetie? You know you have a babysitter so don't worry. Love you, now get some sleep. Goodnight." She kissed her daughter lovingly twice on her forehead and softly turned her towards the stairs by her shoulders.
Taking a deep breath in and trying to comprehend what had just taken place, Catherine watched Lindsey say goodnight to her babysitter, who had positioned herself on the couch after she had arrived twenty minutes ago, and climb the stairs. Just at that moment Grissom's phone started to ring.
*****
Thanks for reading!! Please review and let me know what you thought, what you hoped, what you hope, what you loved, what you didn't, if you were glued to your screen or if you fell asleep half way through etc etc. :D Thank you. ~ Cath
Previously:
Grissom watched Catherine walk away. Checking that he had remembered the pen and the newly added map that were currently situated in his pocket, he got into his car. He would have given anything to have breakfast with Catherine that morning, but May 16th was drawing near and if he wanted to make *that* perfect, then what he was about to do was more important than breakfast.
Chapter 18 - Children, Today We'll Be Learning How To Bake Cakes
May 12th - 11:30am
Grissom's Condo
He needed to sleep. Grissom had not felt as tired as he was feeling now for a long while. It seemed that, while his work at CSI soothed him, his recent weekend away with Catherine had drawn all the energy out of his body. He smiled at the thought as he took a cold bottle of mineral water out of his fridge and made his way rather slowly to his bedroom.
Getting changed into a large T-shirt and some cool pyjama bottoms, Grissom threw his duvet aside and clambered into his bed, placing the already half- empty bottle of water on his bedside table. Setting his alarm to awaken him to another night's work, Grissom hauled his duvet over him, sighed deeply and relaxed into his mattress. Knowing that half of his intended deed for May 16th had been fulfilled that morning, he drifted into a well deserved and much needed, relaxing sleep.
5:30pm
Grissom's Bedroom
As Grissom awoke further, the sound of his telephone came rushing louder and clearer into his ears. Slightly annoyed that it was not his alarm that had woken him and that he would still very much appreciate a couple more hours sleep, he reluctantly picked his phone off its hook and answered.
"Hey, Gil..." There was a pause while Grissom's mind slowly caught up with the present. "It's Catherine."
"Yeh, I know." Deciding that this conversation would be far better than a pitiful hour or two more sleep, Grissom sat up in his warm bed and leant against his headboard, picking up his bottle of water after he did so.
"Right. Well I was just wondering if you could do me a favour... I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Ok," Grissom responded hesitantly, deciding to avoid Catherine's question. "What's up?"
"It's nothing big. Lindsey rang a little while ago to tell me she got the top grade in two of her tests today at school, and-"
"What tests were they?" Grissom interrupted.
"Uh, English and history. Anyway, I wanted-"
"Oh, not science?"
"No. So I wanted to bake her some fairy cakes. They're her favourite."
There was a pause as Grissom waited for more to come. When Catherine said nothing more, he asked,
"Where do I come in to all this?"
"Well, Lindsey is at her friend Rachel's now and I was wondering if you wanted to come over and bake with me."
A smile broke Grissom's pursed lips, appreciating Catherine's request for his company.
"Sure, Catherine. I'll come over after I've showered and changed."
"Great and if you could-"
"So, why not science?" Grissom interrupted for a third time.
"Huh?"
"Why didn't Lindsey get top grade in her science test? She's got a stunner of a scientist for a mother. Doesn't she like it? I mean, if I had you for a mother, aside from that being incredibly weird, I bet you anything I would love the subject. She does like it a little bit, right?"
"Relax, Gil. It's nice that you're taking an interest in my daughter but you shouldn't get so worked up."
"I'm not worked up. So why not the science test?"
"Oh, she's got that tomorrow." Catherine allowed a little chuckle to escape from her lips and run down the phone line.
"Oh, thanks for telling me," Grissom said with laughter evident in his voice. "I'll bring my work clothes over so we can go to work straight from yours. That ok?"
"Good idea. Oh and while you're at it could you pick up some self-raising flour and some eggs for me? Thanks, Gil. Ok-"
"I-"
"-then, bye."
Grissom heard the click of Catherine's phone, paused, then smiled as he put his phone onto its receiver, climbed out of his, now cooler, bed and headed for the bathroom.
6:35pm
Catherine's House
Dressed in sweat pants and Lindsey's Harry Potter T-shirt that she had become very fond of, Catherine heard her doorbell ring and waited for Grissom's familiar knock on the door soon after it; a habit he seemed to have picked up.
Making sure her house was presentable as she past through it, Catherine made her way to her front door. Taking in a deep breath with the words, 'we're in Vegas' pumping through her head, she turned the door handle and smiled as she saw her boss standing in the doorway clad in his work clothes and sunglasses, and clutching a plain white plastic bag. Catherine lifted her eyebrows as she took in his appearance.
"What?"
"I hope you brought some other clothes," she said, "baking cakes can be a messy business."
"Oh." Grissom paused; he hadn't thought of that. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Right, well we'll just have to see how you look in my apron then, won't we?"
Pursing his lips to prevent him from smiling at the image of Catherine laughing at him in a short, frilly, pink spotted apron, (he had no idea what Catherine's apron looked like), Grissom stepped into her house as she stepped back, opening the door further, to let him through.
With what felt like fire melting her insides, Catherine followed Grissom through her hall.
"I feel a bit underdressed," she told him with a hint of jest evident in her tone.
Grissom turned around to face her, stopping them both in their tracks in Catherine's living room just in front of her sofa.
"You look lovely."
Catherine looked up at him, her mouth slightly open with an expression of confusion tallying with worry playing upon her features; though she was feeling neither.
"Thank you," she said after a few seconds.
"Any time." Grissom cleared his throat. "I bought the eggs and flour you asked for," he said, holding up the plastic bag.
Catherine chuckled her thanks, remembering their phone conversation. She ignored the bag and stepped around Grissom to make her way to the kitchen.
"You coming?" she shot back at him through the closing kitchen door.
**
It turned out Catherine's apron was a simple long plain white one, with the usual large pocket at the front. Grissom had a similar one himself so there was no awkwardness about wearing it in front of Catherine. He saw that she had already laid out all of the ingredients and equipment on the kitchen side, so he had added the flour and eggs to complete the display.
As he attempted to tie the apron around his back he heard Catherine say, "Pass me the scales, would you?"
When he replied, "Just a second," Catherine looked behind her at him and saw him struggling with his apron.
A smile which displayed the brilliant white of her teeth lit up her face as she said through a delicate laugh, "Let me do that."
Grissom dropped his hands from behind his back as Catherine moved behind him.
"The ties are too long, you should wrap them round your middle."
Grissom felt Catherine's arms snake around his waist from behind him, gripping the ties in her hands. Catherine had not had this much contact with her boss since their last embrace at the Las Vegas boarder. She could feel her breathing rate increase and shut her eyes to try and keep it under the little control she could muster. Neither of them spoke as Catherine performed this task, because both were concentrating on not letting their touch invoke any unwanted, or rather inappropriate, emotions. She swapped the ties over in her hands and pulled them round the opposite sides, to Grissom's back. When Catherine had finished tying the apron she let her hands linger a little longer on his lower back than was necessary as the silence continued to reign over the two colleagues.
"So," she said, preventing her thoughts from travelling any further, "what about those scales?"
**
As Catherine began placing the ingredients into the large mixing bowl, Grissom helped by handing them to her as she called them out.
"Um, ok flour's next."
Grissom opened the new flour bag and held it out to her.
"Oh, wait," Catherine said, looking around for the sieve. "I need the-"
At precisely the wrong moment the top of the flour bag in Grissom's hand collided with Catherine's exclaiming arm and a cloud of flour covered Grissom's face. The bag then toppled over and split, pouring most of its contents over the counter leaving the rest in the bag or for the floor.
Grissom puffed, blowing a mist of flour into the air from around his mouth. Catherine was trying desperately hard not to burst into giggles at seeing Grissom disguised in a mask of white.
"Oh my God, Gil, I am so sorry." Catherine could feel her giggles coming to the surface.
"It's not funny, Catherine."
Grissom had wiped his fingers along his eyes in order to allow him to open them and caused a pattern of three fingers to run across each eye to his temples.
Trying to hold her smile in, Catherine exclaimed, "You look like a racoon!"
"Catherine!"
At that comment Grissom dipped his hand into the mound of flour on the side, scooped some up into his fingers and flicked it at Catherine's face. Anticipating his move, Catherine ducked down. The flour, however, landed itself mainly in her hair. Catherine stood up very straight and glared at Grissom.
"You got flour in my hair." Her tone was deadly; so deadly that Grissom actually took a step back. "You'll pay for that... ... *Master*."
At her words Catherine moved both of her hands down to the side that was providing them with flour and scooped up several ounces, keeping her fingers tight together so nothing fell through them. She advanced slowly on Grissom, who had taken a few more steps back and was now on the opposite side of the kitchen table to Catherine.
"Now, Catherine," he said staring at the mountain of flour in her hands, "you'll get your kitchen messy."
"Never mind," she responded in an instant, and added with a destructive smile, "you're cleaning it up."
Catherine imitated the beginning action of throwing the flour over Grissom so he would shield his face as a natural reaction. When he did so, she raced around the table to where he was, flour in hand, and threw the contents over him as soon as he released his defensive arms. Grissom's earlier shielded face was still pale from the previous lot that had unfortunately hit him, but the ingredient managed to coat this once more. It also thoroughly layered his hair and spread across most of his front, covering Catherine's apron and his clothes in white powder.
Satisfied, and with a huge grin illuminating her face, Catherine beat her hands together sending another puff of white into the air. Grissom looked down at his black clothes, now grey, and said threateningly,
"Speaking of paying people back..."
Grissom, now finding them both at quite a distance from the other side of the kitchen that housed the flour, moved back towards Catherine while her hands were void of any type of ingredient and, despite her pleas for a truce, he continued to make his way to the enormous amount of flour that was resting innocently across the table top.
"Oh no you don't, Gil." Catherine turned her back to him and upped her pace, running towards the white surface. Her aim? To get to the flour. Grissom's aim? To get her *into* the flour. Grissom reached out his arm that was closest to Catherine and grabbed her round her middle.
"No, Grissom, put me down!" Catherine yelled through her squeals and laughter that were filling the room. "Let- let me go!"
With ease Grissom lifted Catherine's feet off the floor and re-positioned himself so that his back was to the flour-house; he was now between it and Catherine.
Catherine felt Grissom's grip around her waist loosen, and she turned around to face him. She had expected him at that point to remove his arm, when he didn't she found herself locked in his grasp. His arm, now a little higher than it previously was, was putting a large but comfortable amount of pressure on Catherine's back causing their bodies to become airtight.
Grissom just simply looked at her. He sent waves of emotion rushing through her veins. She was going to find work hard for a while if this is how he made her feel with a customary look. Catherine could feel her blood begin to pound in her ears and her stomach erupt with desire, despite Grissom's flour coated self.
Grissom's other arm found its way to Catherine's side, and then let the other mirror it. He stepped back slightly from her causing air to rush between their bodies.
"At least you can change your clothes," Grissom said, sending one eyebrow higher than the other, "plus look at my hair!"
"Your hair *does* looks a little whiter than usual, Mr. Grissom," Catherine remarked with a smirk.
Smirking right back, Grissom retorted, "Yeh, I really should get that seen to. Infact, I think I will right now."
Seeing Catherine's eyes widen Grissom brought her further into his arms before she could escape his grip, and shook his head vigorously from side to side sending vast amounts of flour to float down towards Catherine. She pushed Grissom's body away from hers with both hands on his chest, but only after he'd managed to coat her in flour.
"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Grissom said as Catherine shot a look at him, then at the peacefully resting flour. You'll have to get past me first."
"I've got moves you've never seen, *boss*."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that anymore."
Grissom's comment surprised Catherine. Although their weekend wasn't specifically mentioned, both were suddenly plunged into a strange silence. Catherine didn't feel uncomfortable but felt as though she had to avoid looking at Grissom. Her eyes shot to the first thing they could find; the clock.
"Shit!" Her words cracked the silence.
"What?"
"The time. Lindsey's going to be home soon and we haven't even made the mixture yet," she said quickly, rushing to her flour disguised counter.
"Uh, Catherine, I don't know if you've realise but the flour is all over the place. You can't put it in the cake now."
"Well, there's some left in the bag and I have a little bit in the flour pot. Maybe it'll come to the right amount. If not, we can just third the mixture or something."
8:05pm
Whilst Catherine had stirred the mixture, put it into baby cake paper containers and put them into the oven, Grissom had wiped up all the excess flour. They now both stood calmly in the centre of Catherine's kitchen looking rather pleased with the now completed fairy cakes that lay cooling on the side.
"We are going to be so late for work," a flour painted Catherine pointed out to a flour covered Grissom.
"Oh yeh," he agreed, "and *that* won't look suspicious. I'm going to have to go back home and shower... again, and change... again."
"I'm sorry, Gil. I didn't mean for us to have an evening like this."
Grissom smiled affectionately at her. "It's ok. I had... fun."
"Yeh, right," Catherine snorted. "I tell you what, you stay here and have a shower, I'll go to yours and pick up some more clothes. That way we won't really lose any time and Lindsey will get to see you."
Catherine knew she was making excuses for him to stay but managed to persuade herself that this was better and less time consuming than Grissom going back to his place to get ready. He looked suspiciously at her but eventually agreed.
"I'd like to see Lindsey again. Wish her luck in her science test tomorrow."
Catherine rolled her eyes and made her way past Grissom heading towards the stairs. He followed and she led him to her bathroom.
"Towels are in that cupboard. Ok, so I'll see you later." She began to make her way out of the room.
"Catherine?"
"What?"
"Don't you want a key?"
"I already have one."
9:05pm
"We should be at work right now."
Catherine had emerged from the bathroom in her own bedroom, glowing with the look of someone who has just freshly showered, and was making her way across her kitchen floor towards Grissom who was sitting on one of her bar stools at her kitchen counter.
"Lindsey in bed?"
"Yeh," Catherine answered walking further into the kitchen to stand beside Grissom, "I was hoping to spend more time with her tonight but what with me driving to yours and the showers... you know it took me ages to get the flour out of my hair."
"Serves you right for having long hair."
"It's not long, Grissom."
"It's longer than mine."
"Good, I should hope so!"
Catherine turned and started to walk towards her coat and bag that Grissom had lain out on the kitchen table. Grissom lifted himself off the barstool and followed her. Catching up with her he grabbed the left side loophole of Catherine's trousers with his right index finger and middle finger and stopped her walking away. She jerked back as he spun her around smoothly by the loop he had a hold of. Catherine gave Grissom a puzzled look; she was fully aware of his fingers slipping out of the loop and his hand then resting on her hip. Grissom's face looked different to Catherine this time. His expression was showing determination but also anxiety.
"You have some flour on your face," he told her. "There's still little bits around this room, I think."
"Oh, ok thanks," Catherine replied as she began to move to her hall for the mirror.
Grabbing her again and pulling her gently back to him by her wrist, Grissom said, "I'll do it."
Catherine slowly took a few steps towards him, shook her hair out of her face as she looked up at him, and closed her eyes. She felt his fingers glide up her neck, over her jaw and up to her cheek bone where more pressure was applied as Grissom wiped her face clean of flour. Still feeling his hand on her face, Catherine opened her eyes, stared up at him for a few long seconds, then looked down.
"Thanks," she whispered, conscious of his hand beginning to cup her face. She could feel his other hand follow its brother's performance until she was gently forced to look back at him. Their faces were close together and Catherine could once more feel the familiarity of Grissom's breath swim pleasantly over her face. She closed her eyes as she started to see Grissom move closer to her and feel him lift her face towards his with his hands.
"Mommy?"
Catherine's lightening fast reactions caused her to almost sprint away from Grissom. Brushing her hair out of her face once again, she headed towards the kitchen door where her daughter stood.
"What's wrong, baby?" Catherine asked Lindsey tenderly and breathlessly, concerned that her daughter may have witnessed something she shouldn't have.
"I thought I heard voices so I came down. Why are you and Mr. Grissom still here?"
"We're just about to leave, ok, sweetie? You know you have a babysitter so don't worry. Love you, now get some sleep. Goodnight." She kissed her daughter lovingly twice on her forehead and softly turned her towards the stairs by her shoulders.
Taking a deep breath in and trying to comprehend what had just taken place, Catherine watched Lindsey say goodnight to her babysitter, who had positioned herself on the couch after she had arrived twenty minutes ago, and climb the stairs. Just at that moment Grissom's phone started to ring.
*****
Thanks for reading!! Please review and let me know what you thought, what you hoped, what you hope, what you loved, what you didn't, if you were glued to your screen or if you fell asleep half way through etc etc. :D Thank you. ~ Cath