Chapter 14

A Bone to Pick

The next three weeks went by in a blur. A serial killer case left the whole of Gil Grissom's team in a complete overworked frenzy – no one seemed to have time to think of their personal lives. He and Sara saw very little of each other than at work during that fortnight. Everyone in the team had been raw, as this serial killer in particular was more brutal than anything they'd ever experienced. Everyone seemed preoccupied and jarred in their own way, and no one had been able to concentrate on anything other than work.

Everyone had been angry, or distant, even Greg Sanders had been rather withdrawn and brooding in his lab, overworked and overstressed by the workload that had come in during this time. Catherine had been walking around in a strange daze, and Sara had been working overtime with a furious determination to try and solve the case.

In fact, there had only been one time in two weeks Sara and Gil had seen each other outside of work, she'd invited him over to her apartment for what she deemed an attempt at a relaxing night – to distress and get their minds off of the case. They'd ordered food in and watched movies.

Both had been pensive that night – and instead of relaxing and enjoying the night, they'd both become rather tense. There was no doubt in Gil's mind that this uncomfortable date had been the result of nervous tension from work, but as one of the rules he'd set was that they don't discuss work within their personal relationship, he hadn't thought to ask her if she was bothered by the case.

Gil had been thankful for the distraction, it had given him some breathing room and he had known that any romantic distraction could cause severe havoc with this particular case.

It wasn't until four days after the case had been solved that the whole team seemed to miraculously recover from this three week period. For the first time in three weeks, as Gil walked down the hallway towards the break room, he heard laughter, and it lifted his heart ever so slightly.

"What's so funny?" he asked as he leaned in to the break room.

Catherine and Sara were standing by the wall looking at a piece of paper, Warrick and Nick were the ones who were laughing.

Catherine held the piece of paper towards Gil, "I got another love note, this one is a classic. Love poem with humour…"

Gil stepped in and took the note from her, "Roses are red…violets are blue," he read aloud, "sunflowers are yellow, bananas are too…" he trailed, off, he went to the next verse, "birds make music, bees make money…I hope you like poetry better than money."

"I thought it was cute," Catherine laughed.

"Catherine…" Gil cleared his throat, "is this guy STILL stalking you?" he gestured to the note. "This is serious…this has been going on, what, a month now?"

Catherine shrugged, "it's romantic, and I definitely think it's someone I work with, I'm thinking probably this cute officer who started working here about two months ago," she explained.

Gil handed her the note back, "just be careful, okay?" he asked, "I gotta go – I have to get some stuff processed in the lab."

"So…Sara, I was…uh…talking to Greg…he said you have a secret boyfriend," Warrick suddenly said to Sara, and this sentence made Gil stop at the door and turn back, to listen.

"Greg is talking through his ass," Sara mumbled, she tried to be nonchalant. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh come on, look at your face, you're blushing – you've got a guy. How come you didn't tell anyone?" Nick asked, he was laughing softly.

Gil leaned into the threshold of the door, "maybe it was no one's business," he suggested.

"Oh, come on," Warrick rolled his eyes, "Anyone who has any business has it spill out into work sooner or later – we'd all find out eventually," he pointed out, "so…come on, Sara…who is he?"

"He's…no one, just a friend," Sara pretended to be preoccupied with the cup of coffee she was holding.

"Must be more than a friend, you've been practically glowing all month," Catherine said knowingly, her eyes shifted to Gil momentarily then back to Sara.

"Glowing?" Gil asked of Catherine.

"Smiling, singing, humming…this last three weeks, it's been less often than before, but these last four days, she's been practically walking on air," Catherine pointed out, she had that knowing smirk plastered on her face so thickly Gil was convinced it might take a well sharpened scalpel to cut it off.

Sara glanced towards Gil sheepishly, although no one but Catherine really noticed, and then she spoke, "he's just a guy…that's all I can really say."

Gil had a feeling he might have to reprimand Catherine later for putting him and Sara in this spot. He knew Catherine wouldn't intentionally hurt either of them, this was just her way of having a little fun by putting them in awkward positions.

"What's he look like?" Catherine asked as she poured herself some coffee.

"Uh…" Sara looked immediately panicked, "he's…good looking," she shrugged, she turned away completely from Gil, "blue eyes and all that," she added absently.

Gil panicked, he was almost convinced that despite she'd been vague that someone would somehow know Sara was talking about him. He decided that perhaps the best way to exclude himself from being suspected was to play along with Catherine, "How long has this been going on, Sara?"

Sara blinked once again and turned to gape at Gil, as if she couldn't believe he was playing along with Catherine, "uh…since Valentines day…" she responded in a slight stammer, "is…something wrong with that?"

"As long as your personal life doesn't spill into your work, I'm fine with it," Gil shrugged, he caught the look on Sara's face, she seemed very dismayed.

"Just think, Grissom, if you'd been just that little bit quicker, you might have had Sara," Warrick joked.

"I think not," Gil said with a wry smile, "I'm married to my job, remember?" he said, "Catherine, a word, if you please?" he asked, and then left the break room.

Catherine followed him along the hall to the lab, they stopped outside of the closed door, the hallway was quiet as it usually was at midnight.

"I don't appreciate those little games of yours," Gil stated firmly to Catherine, "don't ask questions like that again, please…"

"You can't have been too against the game, you joined in," Catherine reminded.

Gil kept his voice down so that it barely was audible "Look, I know you know what me and Sara know, but I don't want anyone else to know. It's still tentative at this stage, if you screw this up for me, I'll make sure you NEVER get promoted," he threatened, although he really didn't mean this, and he knew Catherine understood this also.

"Fine, fine," Catherine nudged his arm, "play it all secretive. You could at least keep me in the know every so often. I always tell you everything," she pointed out.

Gil smirked, "Yes, sometimes more than I need to know."

"I have a bone to pick with you…"

Gil had been searching through a large box in the storage room when Sara caught him off guard, he jumped, spinning around, having not heard her enter, nor shut the door. Her voice had echoed off of the cold walls and gave him chills, she didn't sound happy and he knew at once why.

"Uh…is this work related?" Gil asked quickly, he hoped his mentioning this would deter her from wanting to say anything about what had happened earlier. He pretended to be preoccupied with looking for a piece of evidence from a case two years old.

"Well it certainly wasn't in the break room," Sara said insolently, folding her arms. He found it somewhat appealing that even the angry expression on her face seemed to make her even more beautiful.

"Uhm…" Gil began, "I…uh…"

Sara raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. When she realised that none was coming, she spoke once more, "were you laughing at my expense, putting me in that position?"

"No…I…" he sighed and left the box alone, he walked over, praying that he wasn't about to be slapped, "I just…panicked."
"You panicked! Meanwhile I was standing there with everyone interrogating me and you did nothing to help!"

"Hey, I did suggest that it was no one's business."

"And it didn't help," Sara fumed. "This secrecy thing is bad enough but when you're emphasizing the secrecy even more by joining in with the rest of the teams stupid interrogation games, it's screwing me over!"

Gil felt helpless, he couldn't even find the words to respond.

"It's like you're playing games. You played enough games this last four years. One minute you're flirting, the next minute you're acting like you don't know how I feel…I can't take it."

Gil drew back from her, he put up his hands, "Y'know…this is the reason I don't like relationships…"

"What are you talking about?" Sara looked at him blankly.

"This…this thing here…fighting…arguing…whatever it is," he sighed and went back to the box he'd been raking through. "I'm not good with this stuff…I always do the wrong thing in every situation."

"What, is this your quiet little 'I'm retreating from this whole relationship before it's even begun' speech?" Sara demanded.

Gil turned to her, "I really don't want to get into this at work, Sara. I'm trying to find a belt here," he gestured to the box.

"You're avoiding the question," Sara laughed at the absurdity of this. "You think we should break up because we've argued."

"Break up? Sara, we've hardly been together," Gil pointed out.

"Gil, if you break up with someone every time you have a tiny disagreement then you'd never—" Sara suddenly paused, "Oh. Right," she said, as if she suddenly realised this might be the reason for his having been single for so long.

"I…never said I wanted to break up," Gil responded, "Sara…can we please get back to work here, before someone walks in and overhears something…"

Sara sighed, "fine," she said behind clenched teeth, "just don't put me in that position ever again, Gil…" she frowned.

"I won't..." Gil assured, he drew his breath in nervously, "are we finished?"

"In the conversation sense, at the moment, yes," Sara said, "as for the question of 'us'…" she trailed off, as if she might be considering ending it all right there, she headed towards the door as if to leave him stressing about the answer to his last question.

"I'll make it up to you," he blurted, "tomorrow – on our day off. I'll take you out for dinner…proper dinner, in a restaurant…"

Sara stopped, her hand on the door handle, she glanced at him over her shoulder, her brown eyes were softening. "Okay…" she said, sounding uncertain now.

Gil moved over to her, "I told you, I'm not good at this…you knew that when we got together…" he said in a quiet tone.

"Yes, yes, I know…" Sara looked away from him.

Gil touched her shoulder, trying to be as tender and loving as he could manage, "I'll take you out for breakfast after the shift…I really will make it up to you…"

Sara chewed her lip and remained pensive for a moment, "alright…alright, you're forgiven."

"Okay," Gil smiled, "now get back to work."

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. They really make my whole day - especially the longer reviews, I get so tickled pink seeing the compliments. I don't think I've got the characters exact as they are in the show, but I get so giddy when people say I get them right nonetheless. Thank you :)

Chapter 15 should be up within a day or so :)