Title: Sex, Love, and Forensic Anthropology
Author: Anita
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe.
Disclaimer: They're not mine, and although I would like to steal them, I'm not.
A/N: Many of us think Lindsey is Gil's, right? So I was thinking of all the different ways he might find out. This is what presented itself.
"So you see, the forewings of the beetle are hardened, and they're called elytra; they protect the delicate hindwings and the beetle's body."
"Cool!" the blonde girl breathed, gazing at the spread wings. "Can I touch them?"
"Sure. Just be careful; they can break."
She barely touched the forewings. "They are hard. The elyta, you said?"
"Elytra," he corrected her. "Now the beetle's thorax is divided into two parts…"
"Excuse me," came an amused voice from the doorway.
Grissom turned to see his old friend/girlfriend Terri Miller, obviously pregnant, smiling at them. She had cut her long blonde hair, which now swung above her shoulders.
He smiled back. "Terri! It's great to see you! What are you doing here?"
Terri didn't answer right away; she was busy looking curiously from Grissom to Lindsey and back to Grissom. "Gil, you didn't tell me –"
"Hi, I'm Lindsey," the young girl introduced herself, extending her hand. "You're Terri. My mom has talked about you before."
"She's Catherine's daughter," Grissom explained as the two shook hands.
"Catherine's daughter?" Terri looked at him quizzically.
"Yes," he agreed, wondering why that would be such a big deal. "You knew Cath had a daughter, didn't you? Lindsey's here to work on a school project. We're going to show her how to take fingerprints and collect DNA."
"Then I'm going to do my friends!" Lindsey added excitedly. "It's going to be the best project ever!"
"You're right," Terri smiled. "You can't beat that." She paused for a moment, thinking hard, then said, "Lindsey, do you know where your mom is?"
"She's in her office doing paperwork. Uncle Gil wanted to show me his beetles, so I came in here with him while I was waiting for Greg."
"Could you go get her for me?"
Lindsey nodded, then left the room quickly.
Grissom stared at Terri for several moments, then asked quietly, "Terri, what was that all about?"
She sat down in the chair beside his desk and decided to be blunt. "Gil, have you ever slept with Catherine?"
Now he really stared! "Uh, no, and why is that any of your business?"
"Are you sure?" she persisted.
"Of course I'm sure. Don't you think I'd remember something like that?" God, how did their conversation turn to this? He knew he was blushing furiously. He was just thankful she asked him before Catherine joined them. "Terri, why are you asking me this?"
She leaned back in her chair and smiled. "Just a theory."
He groaned at her non-responsive answer. "What kind of –"
Just then Lindsey entered the room with Catherine in tow. "Hi, Terri!" Catherine said warmly. "It's good to see you. I'm glad you stopped by."
"I was in town for a convention, thought I'd say 'hi' to everyone." She gave each of them a quick glance, then added, "Plus, I'm collecting photos for my anthropological database. Would you mind…?"
"Of course not!" Catherine replied, silencing Gil with a look. "Separate or all together?"
"Separate." She extracted her digital camera from her bag, then told each one in turn to sit very still without smiling. It did not take long to get the pictures, then she returned the camera to her bag with a smile of satisfaction.
"Thank you."
"Do you want the rest of the team too?" Grissom asked, his brow furrowed as he tried to determine what Terri was up to. He knew she always had method to her madness.
"Of course. But I want to put these into my database first. Do you mind if I use one of the labs?"
Now he knew for sure that something was going on, and it had to do with him and Catherine. He resigned himself to the fact that she would tell him when she was good and ready, and waved his hand toward the hallway. "Sure, whatever you need."
"Great. Thanks." She left the room and headed down the hall, looking for an empty lab. She needed privacy for what she was about to do.
"Lindsey," Catherine said brightly, "why don't you go see if Greg is ready for you, ok?"
The girl nodded and left, and Catherine closed the door behind her. "All right, Gil, what the hell is going on here?"
He spread his hands and shrugged. "I honestly don't know, Cath. I – " He hesitated, wondering if he should tell her what Terri had asked. He knew he didn't want to, but finally decided it would be best to warn her in case Terri approached her next.
He cleared his throat. The best way to say it was to blurt it out. "Cath, Terri wanted to know if I'd ever slept with you."
Catherine's eyes grew big and round. "What?"
He nodded. "She wouldn't say why."
"But – what did you tell her?"
"I told her no, of course." He glanced at his desk, searching for something to read so he didn't have to look in Catherine's eyes. He didn't want her to see the hunger in his, the desire that this conversation was bringing forth.
"Were you lying to protect me, Gil? Or did you just forget?"
He froze, not believing what he was hearing. Oh, God, he thought, don't tell me I had sex with Catherine Willows and forgot about it! How could I possibly forget a body like that? He knew she would be good, in his fantasies she was always very good….
"Gil, talk to me. You did forget, didn't you?" She was kneeling beside him, one hand on his knee.
He swallowed hard and nodded, still avoiding her gaze.
She sighed and stood up. "Well, let me refresh your memory." She walked around the desk and sat on it, facing partially away from him. "It was late one night – the weather was nicely cool – and Eddie and I had spent our evening the way we usually did, drinking to our heart's content. I should have known better, of course; I had already learned what Eddie was like when he was drunk. But he was so nice to me the rest of the time, I kept thinking that if I just said the right things, he wouldn't hit me anymore. Well, it didn't work that night. Something pissed him off, I don't remember what, and he took a swing at me. I tried to stop him, which led to more swings, and pretty soon I was lying on the floor crying. 'Get out of here,' he yelled at me. 'Just shut the fuck up and get out of here.'" She stopped for a moment, remembering. "So I did. Usually when he kicked me out I went to my sister's house, but she was out of town and I didn't have enough money for a room. A few days earlier you had told me if I ever needed anything to call, so I did, from the pay phone in the apartment complex. You said you'd be right there." She glanced over at him to see that he was now looking straight at her. "Are you remembering anything?"
He nodded. "A little."
"So you picked me up and took me to your apartment. You put ice on my face and bandaged my cuts, telling me I could sleep in your extra bedroom, which I did."
He gave her a little half-smile, one eyebrow cocked. "But you didn't stay there, did you?"
"No," she admitted. "I got scared. I thought Eddie might come over to get me, and he could kill me and you would never know. So I got in bed with you. I was sure you wouldn't hear me, you were sleeping so soundly."
"But I did hear you," he told her, smiling for real now. His memory was coming back and it was pretty intense. "What you didn't know was that I had been drinking too. What you also didn't know was that I was very attracted to you."
"Yeah. But I found that out pretty quickly."
"Well, you were only wearing your underwear," he pointed out.
"What was I supposed to sleep in? You didn't share any clothes with me, did you? Maybe you wanted to see me in my underwear."
"Maybe I did. But the fact is, you seduced me."
Her cheeks began to turn red. "Gil Grissom, I did not!"
"Yes, you did."
"Well, it wasn't hard!"
Now he chuckled. "Oh yes, it was. It was very hard."
She looked at him, puzzled, then finally got his meaning. "Uh… yeah." She smiled sheepishly at him. "Anyway, the point is, we had sex."
"No, we didn't."
"Well, what would you call it, then?" she exploded. "Plumbing? Male into female parts?"
"No, for myself at least I would call it making love."
She stared at him, unsure he had really meant what she thought he did. "What?"
"Catherine," he said quietly, taking her hand, "surely you knew I was in love with you."
"Uh… no," she admitted.
"How could you not have known?"
"Gil, you're not exactly a master of social communication."
"But I thought I was so obvious. That's why I didn't understand why you stuck with Eddie. Didn't you know I would have treated you much better?"
"No, I—"
She was interrupted by a knock on his door. "May I come in?" It was Terri, who was carrying her open laptop with her.
Catherine quickly dropped his hand and stood, hoping her face wasn't still red.
"Come on in," Grissom said. "We were just talking."
"About some cases," Catherine added.
Terri smiled. "I see. Well, I have something to show you." She set her laptop on the desk and turned it so they could both see it. The screen showed Catherine on the left, Grissom on the right, and Lindsey in the middle. "Now we're going to have a lesson in forensic anthropology." Catherine groaned, and Terri's smile grew broader. "No, I think you're going to like this."
She clicked on a symbol at the top and began to outline different parts of Lindsey's face, starting with an area on her chin. "Now, this is the mental protuberance. See how it dips at the midline?" With a quick movement of the mouse, she resized it and slid it over to Gil's chin. "80 match" appeared next to it.
'Oh my God,' Catherine thought. She could immediately see where this was going.
Grissom was busy telling himself he had no idea why Terri was doing this. He almost believed it, too.
"Now," Terri said, moving the mouse to Lindsey's forehead, "her glabella matches yours, Catherine." The words "90 match" confirmed this. "Next we have the zygomatic bone – yours is very prominent, Catherine, but Lindsey's is flatter, like Gil's." A few more manipulations led to "85 match." "Moving back to the forehead, we see that the forehead boss is a perfect match to you, Catherine, as is the supraorbital foramen, but the angle of the jaw and the ramus are Gil's." She sat back from the laptop and smiled.
"Terri – are you trying to say what I think you are?" Grissom asked quietly.
She nodded. "Catherine, did your husband look anything like Gil?"
"No," Catherine admitted. "Except for the cleft in the chin."
"Hmmm." She closed her laptop and stood. "Well, if I were you, I'd consider a paternity test."
"Is that the forensic anthropologist speaking?" Grissom asked, with a small smile.
"Yeah." She turned and moved towards the door. "I'll go get the rest of those pictures now. You two might have something to discuss." She closed the door behind her.
For several moments they just sat, not looking at each other. Finally Catherine spoke. "You know, I think I've always had this in the back of my mind."
"Me too. I just didn't want to acknowledge it. The timing was perfect, though, as far as I could tell. She was born just 8 ½ months later, wasn't she?"
Catherine nodded. "Is that why you 'forgot' about that night?"
"Probably. There was no use thinking about it, was there? You were with Eddie and there was nothing I could do."
There was a pause, then she said softly, "Yes, there was."
He turned to look at her curiously. "What?"
She met his eyes, knowing it was time for the truth that had waited so many years. "Gil, I was in love with you too, but I had no idea you felt the same." She sighed. "Just think how my life – Lindsey's life -- our lives could have been different if we had just been honest with each other."
His hand crept across the desk to clasp hers. "It's not too late, Cath," he murmured. "I still love you. Always have."
She smiled. "Me, too. Always have. Since the day I met you."
He slowly leaned forward to press his lips against hers, gently at first, but when she put her arms around him, he couldn't hold back any longer. Her mouth opened at the touch of his tongue, and he reveled in its sweetness.
The door opening brought both of them back to reality. "Ewww, gross! Get a room, guys," Lindsey said, her voice full of disgust but a smile gracing her face. "Can you take me home now, Mom?"
"Sure, Linds." Catherine stepped down from the desk, giving Grissom a look that meant 'Later.' "I'll be right back, Gil."
"Okay," he replied, his heart singing. "Oh, wait – uh, Lindsey, did Greg happen to take your DNA?" he asked casually.
"Yeah, but he wouldn't let me see the report. Said he would show it to you later. Would you bring it to me when you're finished with it?"
"I will." He watched as the two left. His two favorite girls, now even more special to him. His daughter – and the mother of his daughter.
Wearing an unusually broad smile, he went to find Greg.
Finis