Chapter 48

Alarm

The alarm went off with it's startling shrill beeping, and Gil instinctively rolled over, eyes still closed, to reach out blindly and silence the blasted alarm clock. His outstretched hand felt the shoulder of someone else in the bed, a feeling he was definitely not used to when waking up.

Confused momentarily, he sat up, at first having forgotten all about asking Sara to stay with him, he rubbed his eyes and then glanced down at her. She was lying on her right side, her back turned to him, her hair splayed out over the pillow. She stirred and made a murmur of protest at the alarm. It all came back to him right then.

Gil moved closer, kneeling up and leaning across her to reach the alarm which was located on the right bedside cabinet, he hit the sleep button, and gave a yawn.

"What time is it?" Sara mumbled sleepily.

"Six," Gil ran his fingers through his hair, he stifled the urge to yawn once again.

Sara turned so that she was on her back, she rubbed the sleep away from her eyes, "seems like we barely just went to sleep…"

"I know," he lay back against the pillows for a moment, he closed his eyes, he was still undeniably tired.

"Lets call in sick," Sara suggested, her voice hopeful.

"Can't. It's Catherine's night off, remember," he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. Her eyes were slightly puffy, her hair now a disheveled mass around her head.

"Damn," Sara sat up to stretch, yawn, and she rolled her head. She let her arms rest on her knees, "I slept…so incredibly soundly," she turned to look at him, "aren't you getting up?"

"I would normally, but you said this morning that I'm supposed to accommodate for the guest, so that means that you have first use of the shower."

"Are you insinuated I stink again?" Sara raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Gil lied, he smirked.

Sara nudged him in the rib with her elbow, "not funny," she lay on her side, elbow propped on the pillow, she looked at him, "Its…kind of nice you know…" she said after a moment.

"Hmm?" he asked, not understanding.

"Waking up beside you…its…I don't know, comforting I guess," she confessed.

Gil smiled, "yes. Yes it is."

Sara leaned forward to kiss him, but swiftly he put his hand over her mouth before she had the chance. She looked at him with eyes full of confusion.

"Morning breath," he replied.

Sara moved back from his hand and put her own hand over her mouth, "yeah, that shows how long it's been since I woke up next to a guy," she admitted. "I'll go, uh…brush my teeth as best I can without a toothbrush."

"Listen, I think I might have a spare one for you…" Gil got out of the bed, "let me go take a look…"

"Why would you have a spare toothbrush?" Sara raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"I buy them in packs of three," Gil answered, "usually I use the spare ones to clean awkward places in the bathroom," he left the bedroom and headed towards the bathroom.

Wow, that's a commitment, Gil, he thought at himself. You give a toothbrush to a woman, you're acknowledging she's going to be staying over at your house a lot. Why aren't you running like a cheetah trying to escape by now? This is the kind of thing you've been scared of all this time, isn't it?

"Please say when you say 'spare' that it hasn't been used to clean your toilet," Sara got up and followed him quickly.

"No, I use it to clean my tarantula tank," he joked. In his pristine bathroom there was a small cupboard high up on the wall above the toilet, he put the toilet lid down to stand on it so he could get up high enough to reach the top shelf within it, he began to sift through various items.

Sara stood watching him, she folded her arms casually and leaned her backside against the old fashioned pedestal sink. "When was the last time you had a woman stay over here?" she asked casually.

"Over six years ago – before Catherine and Eddie got divorced, she had this huge fight with him at about four am," Gil said, he found the toothbrush multi package in the cupboard, one was missing from the package already. He picked out one of the remaining toothbrushes and stepped down, "she came here in tears. I never saw her so completely hysterical. You know Cath. She doesn't take bullshit, and she doesn't get overemotional often…when it happens, you know something bad is going on."

"How come she went to you and not her sister?" Sara asked.

"She didn't want her family knowing how bad things were in her marriage I guess," Gil shrugged, "I let Cath take my bed."

"That's…sweet," Sara said.

Gil handed her the toothbrush, "there you go, your very own toothbrush," he headed for the door, "I'll go start some coffee."

Sara held the toothbrush, "You've never had another woman sleep over in this house?" she asked, finding it quite hard to believe.

"They never stayed for breakfast," Gil shrugged, "should we even be talking about this? Isn't this one of those things that causes huge arguments between couples?"

"Sorry, I'll drop it," Sara shrugged, "thanks for the toothbrush."

When Gil pulled his car into the parking lot outside the police department, he was surprised to see Nick had already arrived. Nick was getting out of his own car, taking a sports bag from the passengers seat. He turned to see Gil park the car.

Sara rolled up her window, and climbed out, Nick approached. "Catching a ride from Grissom again? Car stall again?" he asked of her, he gestured to her own car which was still parked outside the building, where it had remained all of the previous night and the day before.

Sara seemed somewhat startled she was begin questioned so quickly before Nick had even thought to say hello.

Gil got out of the car and locked it, setting the alarm, he looked towards Sara to see if she was going to respond. Sara said nothing, she glanced towards Gil, seemingly as speechless as he himself would usually be.

Why is Nick pretending he doesn't even know what's going on here? Gil wondered. He saw the argument, he figured out something about me and Sara by now. He's a damn good CSI, if he didn't figure this out by now, I should seriously think about retraining him.

"Nick…on a scale of one to ten, how observant would you say you are?" Gil asked completely casually, he moved to stand beside Sara.

"Uh…" Nick paused, "is this a trick question?"

"Just answer, as truthfully as you can," Gil responded.

"I don't know…like an eight?" Nick answered.

"Okay…" Gil said, "if you're as observant as eight, then surely by now you've put two and two together."

Sara turned to look at Gil somewhat alarmed.

"And chances are if Greg knows, you know because Greg can't really keep his mouth shut," Gil added, "so you can stop pretending now that you don't know about this, okay?" he gestured between him and Sara, to indicate that indeed there was 'something' between them.

"Okay," Nick said, seemingly a little surprised with Gil's reaction to this. "Whatever you want," he seemed somewhat sheepish after admitting this, and went on to enter the building without waiting for them to catch up.

Sara turned to Gil, and gave a little laugh, "I don't believe you did that."

"Had to be done. Come on, how long could they play dumb? Warrick, Nick and Greg are worse than women, sharing all their little pieces of gossip," Gil shrugged, "do they honestly think that I wouldn't have realised what they knew by now?"

"Apparently not," Sara smirked.

The day was as hectic as usual for CSI. Gil paired Sara off with Nick on a murder case, while he and Warrick went to investigate a casino robbery where some incredibly sneaky con man had managed to walk out with a half a million dollars.

Gil was glad he'd decided to pair himself up with Warrick for the time being. Warrick was the last person on his team now that he hadn't admitted anything about his relationship with Sara to.

He was finally glad this was coming out into the open – at least to his team. He'd been hiding it for too long, and it was hard to keep secrets around them. As much as he'd preferred to remain an enigma, there was something almost relieving about having Nick, Catherine and Greg now knowing about his relationship with Sara. Nothing more to hide anymore.

"So…have you actually made any attempt to tell Catherine you're her secret admirer?" Gil asked, trying to be very cool and casual about the statement.

Warrick shrugged, "you know, it's more complicated than I thought it'd be."

"I hear you," Gil said, "its harder when you have feelings for someone you work with, isn't it?" he asked, never taking his eyes off the road.

Warrick turned to look at him, but said nothing.

"You start asking yourself if its worth risking a perfectly good working relationship – or even your job – just to have the woman you want. It's tough," Gil continued.

"Yeah, it is," Warrick turned back to look out of the passengers side window.

"Every day we step outside of our homes, Warrick, we take risks. A meteor could come crashing out of the sky and hit you the minute you step outside of your door. Or it might not happen. Would you really want it looming over your head that you could die tomorrow, and have at least not had one day with the woman you love?" Gil asked. "It might work out…it might not," he said with a shrug, "who's to say? If it doesn't work out, fine, you can at least say you gave it all you had anyway, but if you don't do anything, you'll sit there wondering for the rest of your days what might have been."

"So…what do you suggest I do?" Warrick asked.

"Take a risk," Gil answered.

Warrick fell silent for just a moment, then responded, "Like you did with Sara." It was more of a comment than a question.

Gil smirked, "exactly."

Thanks to the following reviewers for making my day today:

Aidrianna, Erlina Silverstra, alias101, sarahmakinson, NimrodDuckie, jtbwriter, Crystalwitch, MissAmanda, kristy87, PhDelicious, CrysWimmer, CSICubsFan, CookieK2, DolphinAnimagus, Woody27, maggienhawk, Phoenix38133.

Your reviews brighten my day, especially the longer ones.

Notes to the following reviewers:

maggienhawk: I'm glad you liked that I used Adagio. I listen to that classical piece often for inspiration and it felt like something Gil would listen to.

Woody27: don't worry, I'm shooting out the chapters as fast and often as I can. I have no intention of letting the update rate drop (unless something important comes).

CrysWimmer: thank you for saying such wonderful things about my last chapter. It made my day to hear that you thought they were still in character. I'm glad you had a lovely morning.

kristy87: What can I say? You not only review almost every single chapter, but you also message me on ICQ every day to tell me how much you like my chapters, which makes my day to hear from you. I'm glad you liked the pinned against the wall comment - I knew it'd tickle you when I wrote it.

Erlina Silverstra: I hope you're happy now this chapter is up. It always makes my day to hear something like my chapters make someone smile.

NimrodDuckie: thanks for mentioning the connection they have emmitting off the screen, I never thought my writing could do that!

Aidrianna: Yes, Gil sleeps naked, and that was just to satisfy my sick little mind. ;)