Title: Banking on Imbalance
Author: Battus philenor
Disclaimer: I have no rights to anything CSI related.
A/N: A special thanks to Ghibli for her beta work. This is my response to the weekly Unbound challenge where first and last lines are given. While not my usual style, I did have fun writing it.
"So, Griss, what would be the Latin term for this... Coitus Interuptus?"
"Technically, yes. It does appear that the withdrawal took place before he got a chance to make a deposit."
Catherine tried to be good but it was no use; laughter bubbled out of her before she could help it.
"Did he get to make a deposit at all before somebody... closed their accounts?"
The single arched eyebrow and partially raised lip was enough to let Catherine know that he was slowly tiring of the way this conversation was going.
They both turned back to the task at hand and began scouring the bed for evidence. With tongue peeking out from between his teeth, his eyes squinted as something caught his eye.
"You'll be happy to know that I believe he may have made a deposit after all, Catherine. Shine the light over this, will you?"
Standing over the bed with her eyes trained on the fabric, her hand paused as the bodily fluid glowed under the scrutiny of the UV light.
"Well that doesn't surprise me, but I'd be willing to bet that in typical male fashion, not enough attention was given to her assets to allow her interest to reach its peak."
"Trouble in paradise, Catherine?"
"Funny Gil. No, I just know his type. He's getting his jollies with this girl; and she is a girl just barely out of school, while his wife's thinking he's at work, toiling away to support her and the kids. Pig."
"Catherine, he's the victim here, and no matter what his extra-curricular activities were we need to find out what happened to him. We don't judge him, nor do we judge the person who committed this crime. We merely process the evidence, you know that."
"I know that, but that doesn't mean I have to get all sappy over this victim either."
"Find anything in here yet?" A hopeful Sara strode in the room with her cheeks still pink from the chill in the air outside.
"No, not yet. You get anything out there?"
"Some cigarette butts, but that's about it. Probably not relevant to this case, but we'll see. Did you see the wife outside guys? She is so not happy."
"She did just lose her husband."
"Right, but I think she's more pissed that he was doing the babysitter than with the fact that either one of them are dead. You got a murder weapon yet, cause it wouldn't surprise me to see her prints on it."
"As much as we would all like to shoot our cheating husbands, most of us don't. Honestly, it was more fun letting Eddie think I was going to kill him. He was really scared for a while once. Just when he'd let his guard down, I would say something to make him think I was still considering it."
"Yeah, I'm really beginning to think that all men cheat." With hands on her hips, Sara's eyes scanned the room not focusing on anything in particular.
"We don't all cheat, you know." Grissom offered while pretending to be more interested in a hair he was tagging.
"Sure you do. Cheating doesn't have to be about the physical aspect of a relationship. It's just as bad to cheat someone out of emotional intimacy, or out of the chance at any kind of intimacy." Shifting her eyes from Grissom to Catherine, Sara finished her thought. "To not allow something to happen when it should; wouldn't you consider that to be cheating Cath?"
With her eyes jumping from Sara to Grissom, Catherine realized she was suddenly caught in the middle of a very private conversation.
"Um, yeah I think so. Anyway, I'm gonna go see if Brass has anything for us."
Catherine happily escaped the bedroom leaving poor Grissom alone with Sara, who was now concentrating on something under the bed skirt.
Worried that she would continue on this way too personal train of thought, he needed to think quickly of a diversion. Luckily one walked into the room.
"Hey, David."
With eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar he blushed, always happy to be acknowledged by someone whom he admired so greatly. "Dr. Grissom."
"Is that David?" Standing up making her presence known, Sara smiled at the bespectacled young man. With his blush deepening a smile grew on his face as a shy hello escaped his lips.
Leaning back against the lab table, Grissom looked down at the cubes floating aimlessly through his solution, clinking every now and again against the glass of the beaker. With his stopwatch ticking, he waited patiently to see how long it took them to melt.
Thinking back to his brief conversation earlier, he realized for the first time that what he'd been doing was probably just as painful as traditional cheating.
"Hey Grissom."
Sara's intrusion came as such a surprise that he jumped slightly, causing the solution to slosh almost to the point of spilling over the sides. Getting the liquid under control he looked up, smiling as a greeting.
"Sorry, and nice save. Those hairs have been dropped off with Greg."
Grinning sheepishly she stood there in the middle of obvious internal turmoil. Looking as if she wanted to both turn and run out of the room, and as if she wanted to stay for some reason.
"Was there something else Sara?"
"Um, I just wanted to apologize for that conversation earlier. It wasn't the place to bring that up. I'm sorry."
"You were right... twice." Seeing her look of confusion he continued. "That wasn't the right place. And, you were also right earlier. It looks as though I cheated both of us. In my haste to protect myself and you from what I assumed would be certain failure, I cheated us both."
"Certain failure huh? I guess that's the big difference between us, Gris. You think of failure when you consider us and I only think of happily ever after; I'm sure we're both delusional. No wonder we're both alone."
With that she turned and walked out of the lab leaving him standing, with his mouth open and twitching, watching her go yet again. Glancing down at his hands a few moments later he threw his stopwatch on the table. All his ice-cubes had melted.
End
Battus philenor