Chapter 19

Personal Questions

"So," Catherine Willows said as she stepped into the break room to find Gil pouring himself a cup of coffee from the freshly percolated pot. She shut the door behind herself, "your youthful looks starting to fade already, huh?" she gestured to Gil's hair, which after several washes, was now more of the shade of dark grey rather than the severe black it had been the day before.

"Yeah, I guess I need to invest in some Oil of Olay or something," Gil mused, he sipped his coffee. He was in early again, to deal with the paperwork before it back logged again. He was very impressed by how he had managed to keep on top of it so far, although he was convinced that it was only a matter of time before it started to pile up on his desk in the same old way.

He and Catherine were the only two in the break room, the others having not arrived yet.

"Catherine, you look positively lovely today," he took a moment to compliment Catherine, who was dressed in a very stunning grey pinstripe suit. He realised, since she was in far earlier than usual, that she'd probably come straight from court, she'd had to testify in a case she'd been involved in three months previous.

"Well, you're in a very chipper mood," Catherine moved over to pour herself coffee, "is there a particular reason you're so happy, or did someone just slip you some lithium into your coffee when you weren't looking?"

"Why shouldn't I be happy?" he asked rather seriously, then brightened, "I have Las Vegas' finest under my command," he gestured towards Catherine, "I caught up almost all my paperwork – even inventory requests," he continued in an enthusiastic tone, "And most importantly," he added, smiling, "the coffee today actually tastes…like coffee," he took another sip.

Catherine smirked, "and none of this has to do with getting lucky, huh?" she put sugar in her cup.

"No," Gil said, he reached into his pocket to take out a piece of paper, "I received this when I got to my office…" he said.

"What is it?" Catherine asked, she put her coffee down and grabbed the piece of paper, her curiosity piqued as she unfolded it.

"I've been asked to lecture at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland," he said.

Catherine paused, her eyes glazing over for a moment as if she were deep in thought about something, "Edinburgh…that's the city with the nineteenth century bodysnatchers, isn't it? I remember you telling me the story."

"Yes," Gil nodded, recognizing her reference to Burke and Hare.

"Wow, that's quite an honour, isn't it…?" Catherine scanned through the letter quickly.

"I'll say," he was grinning from ear to ear.

"So…you'll get to meet the guy who cloned that sheep?"

"I'd like to think so!" Gil said excitedly.

Catherine raised her eyes from the letter to Gil, "what about Sara?"

"What about her?" Gil asked, "I'd be gone for one week, I'm sure she'd survive."

"Actually, I was going to say why not take her with you…" Catherine shrugged. "It says here you can take a member of your staff. You should definitely take Sara."

Gil just gaped at her, "For…?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"A week away from Vegas, from the lab, from us," Catherine glanced back to the letter. "That's an opportunity begging to be taken, Grissom," she was grinning as she looked back to him again.

"I couldn't do that," Gil said quietly, "Man and a woman going away for a week together? It'd be too suspicious," he reminded, "and it'd be very unprofessional of me," he added.

"Grissom, you used to take me to your lectures in New York, and Boston. No one ever thought it was suspicious." Catherine reminded. "Anyway, from a professional point of view, you always said it'd be 'good experience'."

"And it was," Gil reminded, "some day you could be lecturing too. It's like a free vacation and being paid to talk about what you love to do," he leaned against the counter.

"So…if you'd take me, why not Sara?" Catherine asked.

"Because," Gil said simply, but decided not to explain any further, he pretended to be more interested in drinking his coffee.

"Because…?" Catherine pushed the subject.

Gil sighed and rolled his eyes at Catherine, "you never let up, do you?"

"All I'm saying is that it might be a good opportunity for you and Sara to break free for a while – without work being an issue, is all," Catherine pressed on.

"Cath…there are issues here. I'm trying to keep my personal life and my work life separate. Taking Sara with me might just be asking for trouble. And anyway, there's a difference between asking a colleague," he gestured towards Catherine pointedly, "and then asking the woman you're seeing romantically," he reminded. "I can easily say to you 'lets go to Edinburgh' and it can be platonic, because we're not involved, but if I asked Sara…" he trailed off.

"Ohhhh," Catherine trailed off, "You haven't slep—"

"Keep your voice down," Gil hissed, "I don't need the whole building hearing this…"

"The door is closed and no one cares," Catherine retorted, "the only relationship everyone else in this place thinks you have is with your pet spider," she smirked. "So…you must be taking it pretty slow then, still not having slept with her and all."

"Why do you ask such incredibly personal questions all the time?"

"Force of habit," Catherine gave a nonchalant shrug.

They both turned as Sara came strolling into the break room, she looked wide awake and as cheery as Gil had been moments before Catherine had begun to interrogate him. "Hi," Sara said brightly.

"Try the coffee, it doesn't taste like motor oil anymore," Gil suggested, he smiled widely at her, despite his attempt he was trying not to. Despite his determination to keep his personal life separate from work, he couldn't help but deliberately use the word 'coffee' upon seeing her just to remind her of the soft romantic kisses of earlier this morning.

"Wow, that calls for a celebration," Sara joked, she pursed her lips together after this, and she moved over to the coffee pot. Sara poured herself some coffee, and she stared down into her cup, a content smile playing about her lips. Gil could see she was thinking about this morning now, she seemed almost dazed for a moment or two.

"Grissom was just telling me about this letter, Sara," Catherine decided to bring up, with a careless nonchalance that Gil somewhat envied.

"Letter?" Sara asked, breaking herself out of her reverie.

Gil glanced towards Catherine, he tried to use his eyes to plead her not to do this to him, but he doubted his eyes had any impact on Catherine at all.

"Gil's been asked to lecture at The University of Edinburgh," Catherine explained, grinning.

Gil lowered his head, blush creeping into his cheeks, and the absence of his beard made him very aware how much it probably showed.

"That's great," Sara said, looking towards Gil, "that's a really an honour."

Please, Cath, don't do this to me, don't! He pleaded in his thoughts helplessly.

"So anyway," Catherine continued, "We were just discussing who should go with him," she handed the letter back to Gil and threw Gil a look that made him feel like a helpless child under the attack of a bully at school.

"Go with him?" Sara asked, looking back to Catherine, she took a sip of her coffee, her eyes fell to the cup once again, she was still dwelling on those kisses.

"Yes. He's allowed to take a member of his staff – it's supposed to be an excellent learning experience, you see," Catherine explained, "He used to take me to his lectures but I got bored of all that traveling, and sitting there having to listen to him talk for hours and hours," Catherine stifled a yawn, "it can be very tedious."

"I bet," was all Sara could comment.

"So…Grissom," Catherine shrugged, "who're you going to ask?

Nice tactic, Cath, he thought sourly. Corner me into it so that I have to ask Sara to avoid hurting her feelings.

"I already told you I was going to ask Sara," Gil lied, he felt incredibly guilty for lying, he had to look away from Sara when he said this as to not draw attention to the guilt in his eyes.

Sara blinked, "you want to take me?" she seemed surprised of course, her brown eyes widened, "is that wise?"

"It's a great learning experience – and you basically get to evaluate me as a lecturer," Gil explained, "technically, you'd be a student observing and nothing else."

"But…" Sara began, then remembered Catherine was present and decided against whatever she had intended to say.

"If you don't want to attend, it's fine," Gil assured, "it's not compulsory, and I can ask anyone else…" he shrugged, "I just…uh…thought you might be interested in…uh…this…excellent opportunity, to…uh…travel to the UK, and uh…yeah," he trailed off, half stammering.

"Okay," Sara shrugged, "sounds like fun. I've always wanted to go to Scotland."

"Great," Gil said, he held back on the urge to clench his teeth.

I'm really going to have to get revenge on Cath for this one, Gil thought, he frowned at Catherine, his eyes slightly squinting.

"Don't make faces, Gris, you look like you're constipated," Catherine smacked him playfully on the arm finished her coffee, tossed the paper cup in the trash, and left the break room.

Sara sucked in a breath, "uh...is this, uh…lecture thing…purely professional?"

"Of course it is," Gil said, "I want you to have this opportunity…"

"Cath…does know…about us, doesn't she?" Sara asked.

"Yes, she does," Gil responded.

"She didn't push you into asking me, did she?"

"No, she didn't," Gil lied, he felt it was safer than disappointing her. Besides, perhaps Catherine was right. Maybe taking Sara away with him would be an excellent opportunity to build their relationship without worrying about the complication of work at all. This trip had the added luxury of time – which due to work schedules was very hard to come by.

So, pro, I get a whole week with Sara, he thought, and then he winced. And con…she might think I want to sleep with her…

Thanks to everyone who keeps reviewing!

Thanks to:

PhDelicious - for pointing out I have bad grammar. I know, can't help it and if I spent too much time focusing on it, I'd never get anything done, lol

phoenix38133 for taking the time to PM me to review since just likes to be very picky with peoples computers (conspiracy I tell ya!).