Previously on 'As The Lab Turns'
The fact that Nick and Sara sauntered into Grissom's hospital room with their fingers laced together and a giant rock of a diamond adorning Sara's left ring finger did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room.
Brass let out a chuckle. "Is there anyone on this team that hasn't broken a regulation in the employee handbook?"
"When did this happen?" Greg looked shocked. He knew that they were friends, but he had no idea that things had obviously gone well past that.
Nick decided to just get everything out on the table and take whatever disciplinary action was coming his way. "It's been going on for a while." He looked right at Brass. "I completely understand if this means that I'll be demoted, and if you need to suspend us, we understand."
"So Ecklie is the father of her child, not Grissom." Nick clarified.
"Or me." Greg piped up to the shock of everyone in the room.
Grissom looked ill. "You slept with her?"
"Define her?" Greg looked sick himself. "I'm not sure which one of them it was."
When Warrick and Catherine finally returned to Grissom's hospital room, there was a myriad of expression on everyone's faces.
"What?" Catherine cut to the chase.
Brass had a sardonic smirk on his face. "Oh, where do I begin?"
Catherine was incredulous. "You two eloped." She was having a hard time reconciling the fact that Sara had been nearly obsessed with Grissom for the last four years. It never occurred to her that she might be interested in Nick.
Sara had a smug expression on her face and took comfort from the fact that Nick had a firm hold on her hand. "Yes, we eloped."
"When the hell did you start dating?" Catherine just shook her head in disbelief.
Nick interjected. "Recently enough that I'm no longer the nightshift supervisor." If he had any doubts about giving up his promotion for Sara before, he had none now. She was worth every consequence and the expression on Catherine's face alone was just icing on the cake.
Warrick let out a deep throaty chuckle. "That explains a lot actually." His CSI skills were slipping that he didn't put two and two together that Nick and Sara always seemed to be working on cases together and it was pretty damn hard to find them.
Brass raised a hand to change the direction of the conversation. He quirked an eyebrow and glanced around the room. "This is how it's going down. As soon as Gil is medically cleared, I'm restoring him to his position as nightshift supervisor."
Catherine looked put out. "No offense, Jim, but I'm just as qualified."
"Cath." Warrick's tone implied that she might want to rethink her stance.
Brass smirked. "You're right, Catherine, you are qualified. However, when we spoke a short time ago, you indicated that you intended to continue your relationship with Brown."
Catherine looked torn. "I do." Her brow was furrowed as she considered how this was going to affect her career.
Warrick looked a little hurt that she had to think about it at all. The thought occurred to him that if he was with Mia, it wouldn't be an issue, but then he wasn't in love with Mia.
Brass continued. "I've decided that all of you will return to the nightshift. There was a reason that this lab was number two in the country. Under Ecklie's leadership it's slipped to number four."
Grissom interjected with a weary voice. "Any word on Ecklie's condition?"
Brass looked grim. "He's not expected to last more than a couple of days at best."
Greg looked pained. "What about Sophia?" He really wanted to solve the mystery of which woman it was that he'd fallen for.
"I spoke to her a short time ago and she should be back by the end of the week. She had no idea that Heather had taken over her identity and while she admits that they have the same father, she denies that they're twins as Heather had claimed." Brass knew that it was going to take some time to sort everything out.
Catherine still looked put out. Sophia was just another person to get in the way of her advancement potential. "Where does Sophia fit into the big picture here?"
Warrick let out a frustrated sigh at Catherine's annoyance.
Brass smiled sardonically. "I intend to recommend that Atwater appoint her assistant lab director. She's smart, she got a good head on her shoulders, and she might be open to a few changes in the employee manual that could help all of you avoid getting suspended and demoted in the future."
Nick it seemed was the only one that thought his comment was funny because he busted out laughing. When he was met with a few glares he shrugged. "What? It's funny." When no one said anything, he defended himself. "Hey, I was happy to get demoted." He grinned at Sara who was biting back a smile. "I got Sara."
Grissom suddenly felt a pang of remorse that he'd never gotten his act together and pursued her. She was brilliant, beautiful and at least to him, scary as hell. He was just going to have to throw himself back into work and push it out of his mind.
"Catherine." Warrick had a hard time keeping the hurt tone out of his voice as he followed her out to the hospital parking lot.
She turned around to face him, not quite getting that she'd hurt him. "What?" There was an annoyed tone in her voice.
Warrick crossed his arms over his chest. "What was that about?"
"What do you mean?" She huffed out.
Warrick was upset. "From the sound of things in there, you're more concerned about getting promoted again than being with me."
"That went far better than I thought it would." Sara sounded relieved as she and Nick walked out of the hospital towards the parking lot.
"Five days suspension isn't bad considering who I get to spend it with." He had his arm slung over her shoulder and a grin on his face.
Sara looked up at him with a sultry grin. "So where are you taking me on our honeymoon, Mr. Stokes?"
"You knew that my career was important to me when we got involved." Catherine protested rather loudly at Warrick.
"I thought I was important to you too." Warrick couldn't believe what he was hearing come out of her mouth.
"You are." Catherine didn't quite understand why he couldn't see where she was coming from on this. She thought that she'd made her position clear when they'd started seeing each other.
"That's pretty hard for me to believe right now." He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "I'm not sure love is enough to make this work."
"What are you saying?" Catherine felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
Greg was just sitting in his car deep in thought. Confusion swirled around him as he tried to think back to just when things between him and Sophia had crossed the line from friendship to more. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that the timeline just didn't add up for him to have been with anyone but Heather. He slumped down in his seat feeling rather dejected. What had seemed like the romance of his life had turned out to be one big lie. And now he couldn't even satisfy himself with the thought of flirting with Sara. Now that she was married to Nick, she was unattainable.
Tune in next time for another episode of 'As The Lab Turns'…
