Disclaimer: I still don't own CSI and I am beginning to think I never will.

Caution: Contains spoilers for Mea Culpa if you haven't seen it and don't want it ruined, don't read this. This takes place directly after Mea Culpa.

Breaking Grissom

Chapter Six: Life Without Grissom

Catherine was good at doing her new job as supervisor of night shift, but everyone could tell she was struggling to fill in Grissom's shoes. No one expected her to be just like he had been, but she had extremely high standards for herself. Of course, she wished she could have been put on days, but for now, the graveyard was better than swing shift. When Catherine was stressed out, everyone felt it.

"Assignments," Catherine announced, "Nick and Sara, you have a dead body in a hotel on the strip. Greg, you are with me on a robbery at a small jewelry store. Warrick, you are taking a missing person call."

"Am I ever going to take my proficiency test?" Greg asked, "I should be a CSI level one now."

"You'll take the test when I have time to do it, Greg," Catherine said in an irritated tone, "for now, just worry about doing what your supervisor tells you."

"Sorry," Greg hung his head.

The rest of the CSIs snuck out, not wanting to catch some of Catherine's wrath. They hoped she'd calm down when she got settled into her new job, but there was no guarantee. Her struggle made them miss their former supervisor all the more. Of course Grissom had probably struggled a bit when he was promoted, but he was better at keeping things to himself. Catherine, on the other hand, seemed to be projecting her stress on the rest of the team.

"She's in another great mood," Nick said to Sara as they headed for the parking lot.

"I hope it's just temporarily displaced stress," Sara returned.

"Probably, just adjusting to the new job," Nick agreed.

"It doesn't help that she's trying to fill in a big void. I mean, Grissom may not have been perfect at the administrative part, but he was scientifically the best CSI I've ever worked with," Sara told Nick.

"Yeah, I learned everything I know from him," Nick nodded, "it's amazing some of the things he could pick up. What are we going to do if we get a case with lots of bugs now? Our resident bug expert is gone. We only know bits and pieces of the stuff he knew."

"I never thought about that part," Sara smiled as Nick opened his passenger door for her, "I don't necessarily hate the bugs, but sometimes they creep me out."

"Oh me too," Nick slid into the driver's seat, "bugs are definitely not my thing."

"I suppose I'd take bugs over a severe decomp, though," Sara scrunched up her nose at the memory of 'Liquid Man' from years ago.

"True, creepy-crawlies are much better than the stench of a severely rotting corpse," Nick agreed.

"So I heard a CSI from dayshift left today," Sara said, "got a job offer in New Jersey and took off. Seems like everyone can sense this place is going down and they want to get out before it's to late."

"With Ecklie in charge, it'll be a miracle if anyone is left here in a month," Nick mused, "not that I blame those who want to run. I know if I was given the chance to go somewhere else and still somehow have all you guys with me, I'd take it. I think you guys are the only reason I stay here. You're all like my family when I'm away from real family."

Sara smiled, "Yeah, the team is pretty much my family. I haven't really been home to see my parents in a while. Being an only child, I don't have siblings to visit me either."

"I can't imagine what it would be like to the only child. There were always tons of people around when I was growing up," Nick said.

"I don't think I would have liked being in a big family, I was always pretty quiet as a kid," Sara shook her head, "not that being the only kid meant I got extra attention from my parents. They never understood me, I was always so different from them. They were always telling me to take it easy."

"It must have been hard for you, I know you've told me before that you had to be more of an adult than your parents," Nick snuck a glance at his partner.

"I turned out okay, though didn't I?" Sara replied.

"I don't know about that," Nick smiled.

Sara turned to look at him, "What does that mean?"

"Nothing," Nick parked the vehicle, "time to get working."

"Seriously, what did you mean by that?" Sara jumped out of the SUV and chased Nick, "Are you saying I'm not okay?"

Nick laughed, "All I meant was I think you turned out more than fine, you're a wonderful woman, Sara."

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Warrick was just arriving back at the lab from his case when he spotted Catherine and Greg heading inside. Catherine looked a little bit angry and Greg looked like he was in trouble. Warrick shook his head, Catherine was way too busy lately. He decided that it was time he confronted Catherine.

"Hey Cath," he spotted her down the hall.

"Hello Warrick," she slowed down for him.

"Do you have time to grab a cup of coffee?" Warrick asked hopefully.

Catherine checked her watch, "Sure. Sounds like you want more than a cup of coffee though."

"Yeah, I guess I do, I just want to talk," Warrick said honestly.

"Okay, let's get coffee and take it to my office," Catherine juggled the papers she was carrying.

"Here, let me take some of that for you," Warrick grabbed some of the stack from her hands.

"Thanks," Catherine said.

They grabbed some coffee and headed for Catherine's office, which of course once belonged to Gil Grissom. It was another one of Ecklie's cruel games to stick Catherine with Grissom's office. There were a few open offices, but he made sure to put her in her predecessor's old office.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Catherine asked once they were both settled in.

Warrick took a deep breath, "It's just, I know that you're under extra stress with the new position and all, but you've been really snappy lately. Please, don't take it out on me, but everyone has been kind of trying to avoid you."

Catherine looked into his eyes, "I know. I'm sorry, really I am. I just wasn't expecting to have to take over Grissom's job. I thought I would be on dayshift, not here."

"Is it so different?" Warrick inquired.

"Well, here everyone is always making some comment about how Grissom would have done such and such. It's making me crazy. I'm not Grissom, and I miss him too. It's hard enough trying to do this job without Greg saying Grissom was teaching him differently," Catherine sighed.

"That's tough," Warrick sympathized, "I hadn't realized we were all putting extra pressure on you."

"It's not your fault," Catherine assured, "I should try and calm down. I'm sure my being a bad mood is not helping anyone else around here."

"No, it's sure not," Warrick smiled, "how about we go out for breakfast after shift? Alone."

Catherine smiled, "Sure. And I'll try to take it easier on everyone around here."

A/N: I felt the other characters in the story needed a bit of attention...and Sara still ended up being a lot of this chapter. I swear I wasn't trying to make this all about her, but it's just kind of coming out that way.