Chapter 24

Don't Speak

That night, on the shift, Gil and Catherine were on a case together, and driving through the dark desert to reach the body of a dead hitchhiker. Gil had remained focused on work up until they were half way to their destination, but he did have intentions to use this time with Catherine to reprimand her for instigating the situation with Sara and the trip.

"So, what day do you leave for your trip?" asked Catherine casually, she had her elbow propped up by the window, her hand in her hair.

"The thirty-first," Gil responded, "actually…" he glanced at her for merely a second before turning his eyes back to the quiet road, "I do have a bone to pick with you about that."

"Oh?" Catherine asked.

"How could you just drop me in to that situation?" he demanded.

"Because you need this, and so does she," Catherine touched the tip of her finger to the corner of her eye to wipe away a sleep crust, "god, it's obvious the only time you really see each other at work, and if you do see each other outside of work, it's probably brief. You're not sleeping together…"

"How would you know?" Gil shot.

"A woman knows," Catherine responded, "you know what sexual tension is, right?" she smirked.

Gil could only roll his eyes, but couldn't find the words to answer her.

"You and Sara have had it building up for years – and you're still not sleeping together, that's bad news, especially if you've been dating a while now."

"We're taking it slowly. I'm not the kind of guy who rushes to bed with a woman."

"Pish tosh!" Catherine gaped, and laughed in disbelief, "in the past, you've had women to bed on the first date – so don't give me this taking it slow thing, that isn't you."

"It is this time," Gil responded. "This is different this time, Cath," he admitted after a moment, he sighed.

"There's feelings involved. That's a first for you, right?" Catherine asked.

Gil put off answering for several minutes, and then finally, he sighed again, and said "yes."

"Congratulations, you've just lifted your head out of the microscope," Catherine grinned, "how does it feel, bugman?"

Gil didn't really want to explain any of it to Catherine, but somehow, his words spilled forth from his heart before he could even let his head consider them. "It feels good, and it hurts all at the same time…" he said, "I can't really explain it in any other terms. Everything I've ever read about love in books doesn't even come close to this, Cath."

"So you do love her…" Catherine realised. "If there's all this sexual tension and you love each other—"

"I never said she loved me," Gil interjected.

Catherine continued, "then why haven't you slept together yet? It's the ultimate release…"

"Why do we have to discuss this?"

"Because you're an uptight prude as of late, and without my advice you'd shrivel up and die," Catherine smirked, "you'll love your relationship with Sara when it gets to the next phase – it's the best part of dating."

"What phase is that?" Gil asked.

"After the first time together…you gotta have it all the time, you can't stop thinking about it, night and day, every time you're together, doesn't matter where you are. You're at it like bunnies at every available opportunity, during that phase, it's sex on the brain. Surely you've had a few relationships like that?"

"Not really," Gil responded, "sex, yeah, but not…sex on the brain."

Catherine laughed, "something will happen in Scotland, you mark my words."

"Nothing is going to happen in Scotland, Catherine. We're not even going to share the suite," Gil assured.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," Catherine shrugged.

"Cath, I haven't even French kissed the woman, you think I'm going to make love to her just because we'll be sleeping in the same building?" he asked, he suddenly felt dismayed at what he'd just admitted.

"Oh my god…" Catherine mumbled, "You haven't even French Kis—" Catherine stopped herself, "Jesus, Grissom, what's slowing you down?"

"I don't want to rush things…it's too good to be true already."

"How much affection do you show her?" she asked quickly.

"Affection?" Gil asked almost stupidly as if he'd never heard the word before, he felt immediately moronic, he winced at his own stupidity. He knew what Catherine meant.

"Do you kiss her a lot? Hug her, stroke her hair, her face, touch her ass as she passes…" Catherine listed off.

"I…don't really do a lot of that…and definitely not the ass, part," Gil responded.

"Okay, then you really need to start doing that, Gil. Those things are important to a woman, affection is important. I know to a man it doesn't matter, but to a woman, it definitely does."

"Okay…" Gil trailed off, he could well believe Catherine was right in this respect, after all, she was a woman.

"Just…don't be afraid to show her how you feel…" Catherine suggested. "Don't just kiss her. Be a guy, kiss her hard and passionately, make her know you mean it."

"Alright…" Gil responded, "I…uh…will definitely try that. In the meantime, never drop me in at the deep end again. Next time I might just have to take severe action," he smirked.

When the shift ended, Gil found him taking an unexpected detour on the way home. He'd been half way home when he'd begun to rethink about Catherine's words, from earlier in the shift, and he swerved the car around and headed down the opposite direction towards Sara's building.

He wasn't sure what he was planning to do when he got there, all he knew was he had to do something. The race up the stairs of Sara's apartment building – as well as the excitement pent up within him – left him breathless, and he stopped at her door for a few moments to catch his breath.

You're getting too old for this, he told himself in thought as he knocked on the door, and waited. He hoped to god he hadn't just woken her up.

The door opened several moments later, Sara stood there in baggy pajama pants, a tight tanktop and an oversized cardigan.

"Did I wake you?" he asked, still breathing a little heavily.

"No," Sara responded, she let him in and closed the door behind him, "I didn't know you were coming over," whilst crossing the room, she closed her cardigan as if she thought he might take notice of the fact she didn't have anything on beneath her tanktop. "You could have called or something…"

"I thought I'd surprise you," Gil smiled.

Sara stood in the middle of the room, she looked awkward as if the thought of him seeing her in her pajamas was more than she could bear. "Do you want anything? Coffee, tea…" she trailed off, "a badly cooked breakfast?"

Gil laughed softly, "no thanks," he stepped over, "were you just about to go to bed?"

"I was thinking of it, I was bored," Sara responded, "but…you're here now," she pointed out, she gave a slight smile.

"You're not tired?" he stopped as he reached her, he stood merely inches away.

"Not at the moment," she shrugged, their close proximity left her looking anxious, as if she expected him to do or say something.

Gil mentally braced himself, and slipped his arms around her waist, "good," he said very softly.

Sara settled into his arms at once, her anxious expression fading, she smiled, "why are you breathing like that?" she asked.

"I ran," Gil pecked her lips, as bold as he was trying to be, his nerves were raw and his blood was pulsing through his veins somewhat violently. "I…uh…" he began, he wanted to say something charming and tender, but the words failed him again, he couldn't think of anything other than kissing her.

"Don't speak," Sara placed her fingers to his mouth to quiet him, she seemed to sense that he couldn't find the right words anymore.

He kissed the tips of her fingers before she drew them away, he kept his eyes on hers the entire time, her eyes glistened like two black onyxes in the dim lighting of her apartment. He drew her a little closer and he lightly brushed his lips against hers.

Electric shivers quaked along him again, as he followed the same routine of short gentle kisses he had before, he buried one hand in her hair, and let his other hand rest in the small of her back. He felt her arms around his neck, her hand too was now in his hair.

Things Catherine had said earlier during his shift began to race through his mind. Be a guy. Kiss her hard and passionately. Make her know you mean it.

He tugged on her bottom lip first, just testing new ground, seeing how she'd respond to this, she shivered in his arms and he reveled at this, and could only compare the feeling to the success of a very difficult experiment. He was convinced she was definitely prepared for more, and he now found himself aching to go further.

Gil started again with the soft kisses, preparing himself for when he'd take it one step further, he wanted to catch her off guard, do it without her expecting it, he was intrigued to see what her response might be. She was relaxed his arms, matching his kisses, her fingers working tenderly through his hair.

Now, Gil, be a guy. Make her know you mean it, he told himself, and then he let himself take the plunge, he tipped her head back just a little, and then without giving her any warning deepened the kiss, letting his tongue tentatively test new ground. He felt her go rigid in his arms, she definitely hadn't expected this so soon, and he found himself delighted and amused at her reaction.

Sara didn't pull away from him. She remained perfectly still, almost as if she were frozen with confusion, unsure what action to take next. Gil felt as if the roles had been reversed. Now he was the one being bold, she was the one now being unsure and timid. He might have laughed had his mouth not been – pleasantly – preoccupied.

He ended this kiss with another soft tug at her bottom lip with his own, almost as if to tease her, he kissed down her chin, momentarily glancing up to see if her eyes were still closed. They most definitely were, the expression on her face he'd never seen before, it gave him chills and aches in all the right places. Her hands found his shoulders and tightened on his flesh as he began to work his lips along the velvety skin of her jaw.

Don't take this too far, there's plenty of time, remember, he told himself, he moved up for another kiss, deeper than the one before. He'd weakened her emotionally and somewhat physically by this new intimacy, and it took some time to warm her up before she finally began to relax. Tentatively at first, she began to respond to him, and as the moments melted away she began to sink into it, letting go of any inhibitions she might have momentarily had.

For several moments they stood there in the middle of the room, their tongues swirling in a crazy waltz of passion as they kissed, their arms holding each other as close as humanly possible.

Gil began to feel those familiar carnal stirrings, and this was the catalyst that caused him to pull away slowly, ending the make out session with one last soft peck on her lips before distancing himself enough that his body was no longer touching hers at all.

Sara's expression was full of astonishment. Gil felt unbelievably smug that he could have stunned her so much at all, and the satisfaction from that was incredibly fulfilling.

Sara faltered, as if she were struggling with something to say, "I…uh…" she began, and her mouth opened and closed a few times, but nothing else came out. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and she was struggling to catch her breath.

"Don't speak," Gil placed his fingers against her lips, and smiled mockingly at her, "I'll make breakfast, shall I?"

Yeah, I know there's still grammatical errors (re: djkittykat), but humour me, I'm Scottish andit's hard to write for a - mostly - American/Canadian audience. LOL.

Anyway.Thanks to the ones who've reviewed. Anyone who's reviewed for the last few chaps who's review shows up on my screen more than 3 lines long deserves a mention and a big thanks, (big reviews make my day, I get all excited as I scroll down my browser and see more than 3 lines - if I see at least six I get giddy, lol).

Mention list (most recentfirst):

Aidrianna, Gossamerwings7, Laura Katherine, Cindy aka SG1Phileshipper, Kristy87, Ghibli, tarrabeena, Eaglesei, wp1fan

Hope you all continue liking the story (yes, I know it's taking a while to get to the Scotland part, but I'm still prepping Gris and Sara for it, lol.

SS