Chapter 26

Mystery Solved

The next eleven days seemed to fly by for Gil, and with every passing day the workload seemed to increase as a reminder that he'd have to make up for some work he'd miss while away in Scotland with Sara.

Four days before the day he would leave for Scotland, he was called out on the field several times, and as a result, fell behind in the paperwork he'd been so desperate to keep on top off. He and Sara had not been able to see each other outside of work for several different reasons, his workload had been one of them, and an important case had been pulling him in on overtime that was possible, making his personal life so severe, he'd barely slept at all in a week.

By the thirtieth of March – the day before he was supposed to leave – the paperwork situation had grown so bad he had to request Catherine to come and help him deal with a good portion of it.

Catherine was preoccupied as much as he was, she had still not found out who her secret admirer was, and had not received any other notes. Gil could have sworn that she was depressed for this very reason but she tried to remain strangely upbeat and focused nonetheless, although without much success.

Pulling three hours overtime when everyone else had gone home, the two took a short coffee break in the break room, both feeling frazzled and raw by the amount of work that had been pouring in.

Gil had already discussed with Catherine that in his place, she would be supervisor until his return. He was already wondering how she'd cope with all this paperwork – he could barely cope with it on his own. "Cath…maybe I should cancel this whole thing," Gil said, he sat down at the table with the newspaper crossword, livid that someone had already done most of his crossword – although he noted several answers were wrong.

"Why?" Catherine asked, she sat back, her feet on the table, "don't you think I can handle it?"

"I know you can handle it," he said, although he had his doubts about the paperwork, "I just think it's unfair to put you under this kind of stress at so little notice."

"I had two weeks notice, that's plenty," Catherine admitted, "besides…you need a vacation – a proper vacation. Granted, you'll still have to lecture, but you'll have so much free time on your hands."
"I probably won't know what to do with myself," he commented, referring to all the free time.

"If Sara is with you, you'll think of something," Catherine teased. "How are things going in the relationship department anyway?" she sipped her coffee.

"Uh, we haven't had any time to see each other…you know how my workload has been as of late," Gil responded, he pushed away the newspaper dejectedly, "someone ruined my crossword," he uttered unhappily.

"There's more to life than crosswords," Catherine smirked, "are you and Sara still going to be sleeping in separate rooms in the hotel, then?"

"Of course," Gil responded, "I can't even deal with sharing a hotel suite with you, Cath, do you think I could really share with Sara?"

"There's a difference between me and Sara," Catherine reminded, "a tighter ass and boobs that stay in place come to mind."

Gil suppressed the urge to laugh, "I can't say I've noticed…" he looked away as to not meet her eye. He was lying, he definitely had noticed Sara in the way Catherine was mentioning, but he didn't feel like saying so. His eyes caught a discarded pen lying on the table and he picked it up. Out of sheer curiosity to see if it still worked, wrote his name on the bottom of the newspaper on the table, "interesting…" he mumbled. "Cath, do you have any of the love notes with you…?"

Catherine seemed confused, "Uh…yeah…" she had left her bag on a chair, she picked it up and searched through it quickly, locating one of the notes, "Why?" she handed it to him.

Gil took the note from her, and put it beside the spot on the newspaper where he'd written his name, "I think I've found the pen," he gestured to the crossword, "same pen was even used to do the crossword."

"Huh?" Catherine got up quickly and walked around to the side of the table Gil was sitting, she looked over his shoulder.

"Look…the blotting is consistent with the writing on your notes…looks like this might be the pen…"

"I can fingerprint it," Catherine said, sounding slightly excited.

"Let me," Gil said, "I'll do it tomorrow before I leave," he said, "I'm coming in early to deal with some odds and ends," he added.

"Okay," Catherine nodded, although she seemed slightly disappointed that she couldn't deal with this right away.

Gil stood up, "c'mon, the sooner we get this paperwork sorted, the sooner we leave."

Gil showed for his shift on the thirty-first of March at two pm in the afternoon, as did Sara. Sara had a case she was still working on, she was hoping she'd have it solved by the time she was due to leave. Gil had managed to get through most of his paperwork, but had gone around the labs and supply room checking inventory just in case anything should come up, he wanted to make Catherine's taking over for the week as easy and seamless as possible – if he didn't he feared he might come back to complete anarchy.

He found some free time in between tying up loose ends to deal with the pen. After dusting the pen, he discovered that there were at least five fingerprints all overlapping, one of those fingerprints was his own. If he had realised at the time this might have been the pen in question, he would not have picked it up at all.

Gil was just as interested as was Catherine to find out who the secret admirer was. As capable and independent as Catherine was, Gil feared she might be hurt over this secret admirer situation. What if whoever was doing this might take things to extremes? He was concerned for her, and wanted to do as much as he could to find out who this guy sending the notes and flowers was before he had to leave. He didn't have much time to do it. He'd already had his suspicions for a few days, but without proof, he wasn't eager to approach Catherine with the mans name. He'd wait, find out who it was himself, and he'd speak with man directly, he wanted to find out if this was a game or if this was serious business.

Sara stopped into the lab to see him briefly, "hey," she said brightly.

"Are you all prepared?" Gil asked, he had scanned the fingerprints and was already searching through the employee system for a match. "For the trip, I mean," he added.

"Reception are keeping my luggage behind the desk for me," Sara answered.

"Passport?" he asked.

"Got it," Sara assured.

"Is it valid?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Had it renewed," Sara smirked, she folded her arms and smiled just a little.

"Brought something to do on the plane?"

"That's what you're there for," Sara said rather innocently, but she grinned cheekily, her eyes glittered with mischief as she looked at him.

Gil cleared his throat, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he feigned more interest in the computer than her.

"I was kidding," Sara smirked, "what are you doing?"

"Scanning fingerprints, me and Cath found the pen that the notes were written with."

"Any matches yet?" Sara asked, she moved over to see.

"Me," Gil pointed to the screen, one of the prints had brought up his own work record. "I touched the pen not knowing what it was at the time. Someone left it on the table?"

Sara stood behind where he sitting, she placed her hand on the back of his chair, he felt her fingers brush his back very gently almost as if it were accidental. Something told Gil that it had been deliberate though.

"There are four other prints I'm still scanning," Gil looked over his shoulder at her.

"Do you think it could be one of us?" she asked, she leaned down to look at the screen, their faces side by side now, and very close.

Gil didn't say anything, he just smirked knowingly.

"Who do you think it is?" Sara asked.

"I'll tell you later – on the plane."

Sara nodded, "okay, well, anyway, I have to go finish this case…and you probably have lots to do," she said, "how are we getting to the airport?"

"Cab. I didn't want to leave my car at the airport all week, I did that once and came back to find it dented and scratched. I left it at home. Just be down at reception by ten," he said.

Sara left the lab, and Gil sat there scanning through the employee records for the finger prints. Just when he was beginning to doubt his suspicions, another match was made, and it was the very person he'd suspected, "well well…" he chuckled, and then in a singsong voice said, "there was a farmer had a dog…and BINGO was his name-o,"

"Warrick," said Gil as he stepped into the garage were Warrick and Nick were searching for trace evidence in a white van.

The graveyard shift had started at eight pm. It was now almost ten and Gil had to leave soon for the airport. He'd called a cab and was killing time until it arrived.

Warrick had been leaning into the back of the van when he heard Gil's voice. He stopped and leaned out, he glanced towards his supervisor curiously, "yeah?"

"Just wondering if you maybe lost a pen," Gil took the pen in question out of his shirt pocket and held it up. He'd cleaned it of any fingerprint dust, so that it looked practically the way he'd found it.

"I was wondering where I'd left it," Warrick said, he seemed slightly distracted as if the pen meant more to him than just simply a writing tool.

"You wouldn't be by any chance the one who messed up my crossword, would you?" Gil asked, he handed Warrick the pen.

"You hadn't done it yet, and I was bored," Warrick shrugged, "I thought you were too busy trying to get your paperwork in order.

"It's okay, don't worry about it…" Gil assured, "you can do it all week while I'm away if you like…if you like, you and Catherine can do it together," he added, making sure to put enough emphasis on Catherine's name to ensure Warrick understood now that Gil had figured out he was behind the secret admirer notes.

Warrick had a strange look on his face, Gil wasn't sure to pin it down as panic or confusion. "Uh…"

"Don't worry…I haven't said anything to her," Gil said, "I'll leave that to you…"

"Look…I know it must look like some stupid joke—"

"No explanations necessary – not to me at least," Gil said, "you might want to explain things to Cath though," he admitted.

"How…did you know?" Warrick asked, he seemed very aware that Nick was pretending not to be listening in.

"Apart from that pen being the pen you wrote the notes with, lets just say a certain conversation between you and Nick was overheard and it left me with the suspicion…" he explained. "I trust you'll tell her yourself? Only, I think she's rather desperate to know who could be so…romantic…"

"I will tell her…" Warrick assured, "at some point."

Gil glanced to his watch, "Well…anyway, it's ten pm, my cab will be waiting, so I shall see you both in a week," he said.

"Have fun," Warrick said in a simple tone, he still seemed somewhat crestfallen that Gil had discovered his secret.

Gil stopped at his office to grab his luggage from where he'd left it, and then made his way down to the reception.

I can't believe Warrick actually thought he could get away with this without me finding out – he made it so obvious how could he ever think me or Cath wouldn't eventually figure it out?"

When he got to the reception, Catherine was standing with Sara, they were discussing Sara's last case, Catherine was going to have to take over for Sara in her absence.

"All set?" Gil asked, he put his suitcase down just to check that he still had his passport and wallet in his pocket.

"Yes," Sara said.

"Did you fingerprint the pen?" Catherine asked at once of Gil.

"Yes, I did," Gil answered, "Mystery solved."

"Who is it?" Catherine asked.

"He's told me he's going to confront you himself. All I can say is you may be pleasantly surprised," Gil smirked.

"Sara!"

Gil, Catherine and Sara turned to see Greg running down the hall, he looked flushed from running.

Sara blinked, "uh, yeah?"

"You didn't say goodbye," was all Greg could manage.

Gil smirked, "say goodbye to Greg, Sara," he picked up his suitcase and the heaviest suitcase of Sara's.

"Goodbye, Greg," Sara said, she gave a little wave.

"Now, you have my office for the week," Gil said to Catherine, "I've printed my complete schedule for Scotland and it's in a plastic folder on my desk, along with all the numbers of places you'll be able to reach me if there's an absolute emergency. You have complete authorization to sign anything that requires my signature for the next week. I've taken inventory and ordered surplus just in case, so there shouldn't be too much to worry about. Remember and do the paperwork as often as you can, it piles up fast," he said all in one breath. "Here's my house keys," he took her hand and dropped the keys into it, "I've left instructions pinned to my fridge explaining how to feed the insects and the spider – don't mess with the thermostat in the house. Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge while you're there, but don't drink anything in a bottle with an unsealed cap."

"Okay…" Catherine looked at him with vague panic.

Sara smirked, "C'mon, Gris, the cab is waiting," she picked up the other suitcase she was bringing, it was the smaller lighter one.

Gil would have waved goodbye had his hand been free, "see you all in a week," he said, and with that, he and Sara left together.

Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing! The reviews seriously make my day, I have this weird little ritual of opening the reviews in my yahoo mail and slowly scrolling down first to see the name, then I read one tiny line at a time. Ugh, makes me quiver with delight, mwahaha.

Mentions (as promised) to the ones who wrote more than three lines (although I noticed some people were just hitting enter and going to the next line at the end of short sentences lol). Anyway, those people who wrote reviews 3 lines long or more are:

Kristy87, jtbwriter, Laredo Grissom, Gossamerwings7, luckyladyinlace, Aidrianna, CSI4nsicAce, Eaglesei, Juwist, ScullyAsTrinity and Cindy aka SG1Phileshipper. Especially Gossamerwings7's review, as it was massive, and I was just entranced for several seconds. Thanks for making my day!

BTW, Gossamerwings7, Jedbourough isn't too far from where I am, and I've been there once or twice ;)

SS