"Nah, man. There is no way that he is the best QB of all time," Nick called across the break room.
"What?" Warrick hissed as he gingerly set his cup of coffee to the side.
"S.I. totally messed up on this one. Just because you have one good season..."
"Man, you don't know what you're talking about..."
Catherine stifled a chuckle from the couch. The men turned to her. "I'm sorry guys," she waved her hand in front of her face. "It's just so funny."
"I'm sorry Cath," Nick drawled. "I fail to see the humor in this situation."
"Boys will be boys." She just shook her head.
"Alright guys,"the atmosphere physically grew heavier as Grissom entered. "I've got your assignments right here."
Catherine look around. "Uh, Gil..."
"Yes, Catherine," he answered as a teacher might to a pupil.
"Uh..." she looked around for support. "Aren't you missing something?"
His eyes shifted a little, but other than that, Grissom gave nothing away.
"More like someone." Warrick brought the paper cup to his mouth and swallowed. He still had no idea why he drank so much of the bitter liquid. He didn't even like it.
Grissom looked around with a blank face, incomprehension etched into his skin.
"Sara, Griss. Where's Sara?"
"Oh," he removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "She won't be coming in today."
"What?" the three asked in almost unison.
"She called in." As if it happened every day. He passed the assignment sheets out and left abruptly.
Nick, Cath, and Warrick sat in stunned silence.
He had kept his end of bargain. Pretty well too, he thought. He had taken Sara's words to heart- he had not told a single soul that he knew any thing about her being in California. There was a part of him that was glad he was good liar. Well, at least a half-truth teller. She wasn't coming in today. Didn't yesterday. She had called, but to check in, not because she was sick.
But there was also another part, the part that was becoming more vocal in his conscience, that constantly reminded him of how reckless he had been.
Take the part... Stay here... Get close to killer...
He had been caught off guard at the set; a new idea had settled in his mind. He hadn't throughly thought out that idea, though, and now he wasn't entirely sure that it had been the correct one.
He leaned back in his chair and rotated his neck first to the left, then to the right. A gentle popping sound emitted as he brought his head back up.
What had he been thinking? Sending her in there, into the lion's den...
Hadn't they been in this situation before? Hadn't she been the one who wanted to go in, undercover, to root out the suspect? Hadn't he said no, put his foot down?
Now, he said yes without hesitation. Now he was the one who came up with the harebrained scheme.
He closed his eyes and groaned, hoping he hadn't made a fatal mistake.
His eyes popped open.
He hadn't heard from her yet today.
He eyed the cell phone on the corner of desk suspiciously, almost willing it to ring .
But it didn't.
Instead, Catherine walked in.
"Getting a lot of work done, I see," she gestured to the pile of files and loose papers crowding his desk. "That better not be my vacation request."
"What do you want, Catherine?"
She hesitated. That wasn't like her.
"Gil, we're worried about Sara."
"Why?"
She scoffed. "She didn't come in again today."
"She called in." Yesterday.
"Have you ever known her to be sick?"
"Catherine," he leaned forward. "She's human. It happens."
"Yo, Griss, I'm with Cath on this one." He looked up. Nick and Warrick were standing in the door jam. "She's never called in before, even when she was sick."
"Guys..." He felt a migraine coming on.
"Last month she came in with a fever," Warrick offered.
"She wasn't contagious..."
"Of a hundred and three." Silence. Warrick had made his point.
"Alright. Alright," he was resigned to his fate. "If she doesn't come in tomorrow, we'll give her a visit." Nick looked relieved, Catherine looked pissed, and Warrick... well, Grissom still hadn't been able to read his face.