Chapter 17

[Spoilers: None]

Sean and Allison stood in the lobby that evening, waiting on Grissom to get back from changing his shirt. They had all gone out to a small restaurant for lunch and ended up messing about like school children. Grissom came out with a messy shirt and the other's had to change clothes.

"What's taking him so long?" Sara asked no one in particular.

"He'll be here." Sean chuckled.

A few minutes later, Grissom finally turned up, and not alone either.

Sara let out a relieved breath and walked towards him. "I thought you'd got lost… or worse." she sighed and straightened out his shirt. "What took you so long?" she asked, looking at the buttons on his dark blue long sleeved dress shirt.

-This shirt looks familiar- She wondered if he'd worn it to court. -Looks incredibly sexy!-

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he chuckled. "I found some more newlyweds to torture."

Sean and Allison stepped closer. "Really?" They looked at each other and shared a knowing smile when they spoke at the same time.

Grissom nodded and looked down at Sara's face staring intently at his shirt. "They were holding up the elevator." he informed them as he took Sara's hand that was playing with a button and held it over his heart.

"Ah, the elevator ride." Sean nodding with an amused smirk. He watched the newlyweds redden.

"Robert and Lucy Gardner." The groom stepped forward and shook Sean's hand, then Allison's.

"Allison and Sean Granger." Allison introduced, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, you know me, but this is my wife, Sara." Grissom's voice seemed to break Sara from her thoughts as her head turned up and looked to the newcomers.

"Elevator you say?" Sara questioned curiously and grinned at Grissom when the other's laughed.

"Why don't we have drinks before finding Ian and eating?" Sean suggested.

Laughter filled the table as the newlyweds became acquainted and reminisced about the previous week. Grissom and Sara were at their most relaxed yet and it didn't go unnoticed by the others. But then, it was shattered.

"Excuse me," Grissom said rising from his seat, cell phone in hand. He flashed a guilty look in Sara's direction and mouthed 'I'm sorry' before walking away.

Sara just gave him a soft glare from her seat, unable to believe that he would keep it on during dinner.

"You know guys, can't live without their cell phones," Sara joked with the other women at the table.

In the corner away from the noise Grissom answered the phone, ready to shout at whomever was ruining this evening, but ended up taking a very different call.

"Grissom." came his conditioned response.

"Chummy?" came Catherine's voice.

"Excuse me?" Grissom questioned. "Catherine is that you?"

"Yeah. According to Brass, you and Sara are chummy. Chummy? I mean is that even a word?"

"Well, it's nice to hear from you too Cath, and I'm so glad that Brass is keeping you informed," he replied sarcastically. "But I'm kind of busy right now."

He knew Catherine would want more details but he decided to be vague for as long as he could, it was like he always said, confusion was the best place for a scientist to be.

"So, what's going on between you two?" Catherine continued, careful to keep it light.

"Nothing." he lied.

"Yeah… right… nothing, if you don't tell me I'll find out from other sources, so why don't you just save me the trouble." she joked.

"Okay, fine." he gave in. "I'll tell you if you promise not to call again and to keep it to yourself." he added looking over at Sara, awaiting his return.

"Sure," Catherine answered, but they both knew that the whole lab would know by end of shift.

"We talked; we're going to stay friends, that's all." He knew it wasn't all but she didn't need to know everything.

"That's all?" she said in disbelief. "I thought it was something interesting. Well at least it's a start."

"I'm glad you approve, but I have to go." Grissom ended the conversation.

"Okay. bye." Catherine got the message; he wasn't going to tell her anymore, the guys wouldn't care about details anyway; she had enough to keep them interested.

"Oh by the way, Catherine, chummy is a word, it means friendly, but I'm sure you knew that." he added, he always liked having the last word with her, it balanced things out.

Flipping his cell shut, he rejoined the crowd. Sara looked up at him expectantly, "What was it?" she enquired.

"Nothing." Grissom stated, adding. "We'll talk about it later." in a quieter tone as he took his seat. He noticed Allison staring at him as though he'd done something wrong.

-I guess she must not like phone calls during dinner- he thought. -Sara'll get a kick out of this when I tell her though. I can't believe Catherine actually called-

"So Sean-" Grissom started, turning to the guy on his right.

The Grangers left the dinner table to head up to their rooms early. Sean and Grissom were standing at the bar ordering more drinks while Sara and Allison waited for them to return.

"So," Allison started in a slightly hushed voice as she leaned closer to Sara. "What's going on?"

Sara looked at her and smiled. "With what?"

Allison was the picture of seriousness and it made Sara nervous. "Sara, I know you know."

-Huh?- Sara shook her head and looked towards the bar to spot Grissom. "I'm sorry Ally, but what are you talking about?"

"Gil and the phone calls." Allison paused to stare sympathetically at her friend. "Hun, I can see that you're worried." she looked at the bar briefly to make sure the others were not coming back anytime soon. "Is Gil seeing someone on the side?"

"What!?" Sara screeched.

-Oh My God!! This is so not happening… Well, better put a stop to this before it gets to Griss-

Sara sighed and shook her head sternly. "There is no way in hell that Gil would be seeing someone else."

-Well, that was a bit sharper than I intended, but it seems to have worked- She smiled inwardly and hid her expression in her coffee cup.

"Oh." Allison looked sceptically. "It's no use ignoring it Sara."

Sara's face fell. -Could she actually believe that Grissom would do that?- Trying to finish this topic of conversation and put an end to whatever Allison was thinking, Sara sat forward, leaning in closer to her friend.

"Ally, whatever it looks like, Gil is not seeing another woman. He's faithful to me and I know he loves me." Though it was all for show, Sara actually believed what she was saying on some level.

"And the phone calls?" Allison challenged with an eyebrow raised.

Shrugging casually as Grissom and Sean moved towards them, Sara smiled. "Probably his sister or work. Doesn't matter where you are, you can't hide away from real life."

Sean heard the last of Sara's sentence and chuckled. "Ain't that the truth."

Grissom sat down beside Sara and placed her drink in front of her. "Hey." he smiled.

Sara smiled back and slid her hand into his that was resting on his thigh. "Say hi to your sister next time she rings." she whispered into his shoulder before leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek.

Grissom turned his head and looked into her eyes. -Catherine?- He chuckled when he saw her motion towards Allison with her eyes. -Ah, trouble-

TBC