Disclaimed: (To apply for every chapter or story I post and those I forget to write this for.) As I have said before and will no doubt say again, I do not own any CSI characters and am not making any money from this. But if you get back to me after Christmas and Santa has been so very kind, then that may have changed. (Let me delude myself please.)
Crazy job titlesCatherine Warrick and Nick had sat down in the break room while Greg stood up and paced the room. The three CSIs regretted trying so hard to bring Greg out of Sara's way because it meant that they had to listen to him.
"So that was the great look of love then? Well to me she just looked lost. Or sort of like the puppy dogs eyes with out any enthusiasm. You know it was kind of like this." Greg proceeded to demonstrate his theory with his face as he attempted to gain feedback for how it looked from the rest of the group.
Unfortunately they were in no mood to humour Greg because they were all worried about Sara.
"I still don't see Grissom as…well… how did she put it smart, funny, sweet, kind, handsome…" Greg ranted.
He was cut short by Catherine's loud announcement, "Grissom." This made the lab rat look around to come face to face with the subject of his speech.
"Hey Griss how are you?"
Grissom brushing Greg off stated with a glare. "Fine and don't call me that." Then asked, "Where is Sara?"
Catherine, quick to pick up that Sara might not want to see Grissom just yet, was the first to speak up. "Oh…I don't know I think she might be on a break or something."
Grissom confused by Catherine's odd behaviour merely said. "But we were working on a case and I was just chatting to Brass. She was going to wait to get the results from Greg…who is here, not to mention the idea of Sara taking a break is odd enough, but if she were to wouldn't she take it in the break room and she is not here."
"Oh well then I guess she is looking for you, then." Nick too decided to lie to the clueless supervisor for Sara's sake.
Grissom simply looked at them inquisitively for a moment then dismissively shook his head. "Don't any of you have work to do?"
"We are taking a break." Warrick said.
"I have to say I'm noticing an unusual increase in the amount of breaks taken in this office recently and I'm getting concerned. Well I'm gonna get back to work, you know the thing you lot had better keep doing if you want to stay employed." Grissom said as he turned as if to leave.
"You know I've seen that pile of paperwork on your desk and you on a big case so maybe you could do with a break too…or at least some coffee." Catherine quickly stopped Grissom from exiting to go and find Sara.
Grissom decided that one cup couldn't hurt. However he couldn't help himself from wondering just what was going on with them.
"Greg though needs to go and finish off some of our results, right?" Catherine added happy that she could get rid of Greg for a while.
"Cath, what are you talking about, I already finished those…ow." Greg began to protest but then after receiving a nudge from Warrick he realized and continued with. "Oh I know the ones your talking about, yeah I had better get back to those."
Greg existed. Catherine gave Warrick a smile that said 'thank you' and Grissom eyed all his staff very suspiciously.
Greg slowed upon reaching his lab unsure of exactly in what condition he would find Sara. He was mentally killing Catherine for choosing him to deal with this. When he looked in he saw Sara was very much the way they left her.
Greg attempted to start conversation. "Hey Sara."
"Hey." Sara quietly said.
Greg slowly sat down on a stool. Sara turned to face him and said. "Sorry you probably need to get back to work since you moan that you're always so busy. I'll just get back to my case. Thanks for the results."
She got up as if to leave but then Greg called her attention back to him. "Hey Sara" He hesitated for a moment then continued. "Are you gonna be ok? I know that mostly I'm the annoying guy who keeps pestering you for a date, but I can be a friend if you ever need one." He meekly smiled at her.
Sara sighed and smiled back "Yeah I know."
Greg slipped back into character when Sara showed signs of herself again. "Just so you know, if Grissom doesn't get it together and kiss you where you stand, then go on to apologise daily for this waiting he is putting you through then there is always me."
Sara let out a laugh and said. "Dream on Greg."
"Oh I will." He quietly added to himself, not so quite though as to avoid a glare from the brunette standing near him.
Sara once again went to exit the lab only to be stopped once more by Greg.
Greg who had finally remembered why he was sent in there said. "Grissom is looking for you because he needs the results to your case."
"Oh thanks for the warning." Sara finally left and walked down the corridor.
Greg just shook his head as he watched her leave.
Sara walked to the break room. Before entering she took a deep breath as if to mentally prepare herself to face them again and, of course, to prepare for working with Grissom.
This entrance was followed by many of the usual greetings and then Sara turned to Grissom and nonchalantly said. "I heard you were looking for me, I was just talking to Archie. Sorry I didn't know how long you would take with Brass that's all."
Grissom seeing this as a perfectly sensible answer to Sara disappearance, or at least because her behaviour was not half as odd as everyone else's was that night, took her at her word. He merely replied with, "Yeah we have a new suspect and you'll be surprised to learn he is a garbologist."
"A what?" Catherine asked instantly.
"Oh that's gotta be something to do with clothes, right?" Nick asked
"How on earth did you get clothes from that?" Warrick said slightly stunned.
"Well, garb is clothes so maybe…" Nick said less confidently.
"Try garbage." Sara said with a laugh at his attempt.
"A garbologist is a trash collector." Grissom clarified.
"What, is that one of those annoying names that people with really unattractive jobs come up with in order to hide the fact their job sucks?" Catherine joked.
"Oh yeah like a receptionist is 'head of verbal communications'." Nick added.
"You are kidding, aren't you?" Warrick laughed
"Oh no there is lots of them like a secretary being made 'senior corporate events and seminars manager'." Sara said.
"Isn't a gardener something like a 'Technical Horticultural Maintenance Officer'. Oh and of course, the job in the world that is most in need of an appealing job title, the 'Technical Sanitation Assistant'. Otherwise known to us as the toilet cleaner." Nick listed as he remembered more and more.
"Lets not forget the so called 'Optical illuminator enhancer', which is a window cleaner." Sara finished off Nicks list.
"Ah man, who comes up with this stuff?" Warrick sighed.
"I bet there is a job for making up job titles and it's title is probably something really long and snooty, that changes on a regular basis when they are bored." Catherine chortled at the thought of anyone doing this for a living.
"Well as interesting as this is what I'm trying to say is the guy who is now the main suspect in this murder is a garbologist." Then a renewed laugh that came from the people in the room made him reword his sentence. " He is a trash collector."
"You don't think there is a connection between this and that body dump from the other night with the dumpster do you?" Sara inquired as she went automatically into work mode.
"I don't know, but did you get the results from Greg in your travels?" Grissom, also slipping straight into work mode, asked.
"Speaking of which we had better head to see Greg, don't you think?" Catherine interrupted and practically dragged Nick and Warrick out of the break room.
TBC