Chapter 49

Bragging over Breakfast

Everything save work went so incredibly smoothly for the next few days that Gil had no trouble trying to balance his personal life and his work life. Sara seemed much more content than she had before, and he wasn't sure if it was his attitude that had made her happier, or simply that they were no longer playing secrets with the rest of the team.

For the next few days, they carried on with their work. A mass murder case had come in that required so much attention there had been no time to steal romantic glances at each other. Gil wasn't concerned, for Sara had shown no upset at this at all. Their work relationship for that next few days remained like it always had before they'd begun to see each other romantically. A friendship, an understanding, a melding of minds.

The case only took two days to solve, much to Grissom's relief. He'd had his whole team overworked so much since his trip to Edinburgh that he was beginning to feel incredibly guilty.

When the shift on that second day had ended, Gil headed to the locker room to catch everyone before they left. When he approached the locker room – the door as usual left wide open, everyone was chattering amongst themselves, discussing the case as they pulled on their jackets, and grabbed various pieces from their lockers that they might need to take home.

"Hey," Gil said, he stood at the door, he leaned his shoulder into the threshold, putting his hands into the pockets of his brown suede jacket, "great work on the case."

"Thanks," Catherine said, she slipped on a pair of designer sunglasses, she adjusted her hair whilst staring at a compact mirror in her hand.

Sara glanced over to Gil curiously "you're leaving earlier than usual?" she asked, noting Gil was wearing his jacket, which meant he too was leaving for the day, "don't you have a ton of paperwork to catch up with?"

"I do, but I dealt with priority stuff, and the rest can wait…" Gil answered, "Catherine, you really messed up my paperwork system, by the way," he playfully threw Catherine a disapproving glance, but then smiled.

"No, really messing it up would have been taking the whole pile, throwing it in the trash and setting fire to it," Catherine smirked.

Gil pretended not to hear this, "anyway…you all deserve a thanks for all the overtime you've all put in lately…I know you all have lives, and you've had to sacrifice living them lately – because of my bad management. I shouldn't have put you in that position, and I'm sorry," he said.

"Its our job," Warrick reminded nonchalantly, he closed his locker.

"I know," Gil said, "anyway…who's up for breakfast?"

Warrick raised an eyebrow, "you payin'?"

Gil gave a short laugh, "I guess. You've all earned it."

It was less than half an hour later they were all seated at a table in a nearby diner, all somehow squeezed into one booth. It was strange to Gil that he found himself stuck between Sara and Catherine while Greg, Warrick and Nick all sat on the opposite side. He noted that Warrick had chosen to not even sit completely facing Catherine but rather facing Sara. Either Warrick was being uncharacteristically painfully shy, or he was making effort to keep Catherine from guessing he was her secret admirer.

Gil found it strange though that he could relate to what Warrick might have been going through, he knew those doubts that might have been pulsing through his mind. Gil, meanwhile, had decided to make a deliberate point of sitting directly next to Sara. He'd done this for more than one reason, but the main concern was that he did not want his friends…his team…to think he was uncomfortable being in Sara's company amongst them.

They'll expect me to be uncomfortable, he decided. They know me, they know I don't relate well to people, they'll be watching for any tiny little signs of my being uncomfortable in this relationship, and I'm not about to let them see it, he thought.

The food came, a chaos of plate passing and condiment passing swept over the table.

Greg grinned from ear to ear as his food came, "this place serves the best pancakes," he shoved his fork into the stack of pancakes on his plate.

Sara looked up from her scrambled eggs and toast, "actually, y'know, Grissom makes pretty good pancakes," she admitted.

"You got pancakes?" Catherine leaned forwards to glance at Sara around Gil, who was sitting between them, "Must be love. Whenever I've been to his place for breakfast, all he serves me is cold toast and cheap coffee."
"That's because A: You always invite yourself for breakfast, and B: cold toast and cheap coffee is the fastest way to make you leave," Gil smirked, "method to my madness."

Sara laughed softly.

"So anyway…" Nick paused to sip his coffee, "How long have you two—" he gestured to Gil and Sara, "been hiding this relationship behind our backs?" he asked. "How did this all start?"

"You don't want to hear that," Gil shook his head, the heat rising in his cheeks just a little.

"It's one of those things that's been building up for years," Sara responded.

"Now I know why you were all over Grissom when we went out that night," Nick laughed a little.

"Actually, it didn't really, uhm…take off until after that night," Gil put in quietly.

Sara picked up from where Gil left off, "It all really started when Greg sent me a card on Valentines day…anonymously. Somehow, Grissom managed to get his fingerprints on it, and when I got the card, I fingerprinted it because I wanted to find out who'd sent it…" she explained. "I thought it was Grissom, got the match on his prints and all…" she paused, "And…I wanted to believe it really was from him because…well…" she tried to look for the right words.

"You had the hots for bugman," Catherine chuckled.

Sara threw Catherine a look, but smiled slightly nonetheless. "Anyway, I'm sitting there in his car – he was driving me home. I brought up the card, and it came into the open that he didn't send the card, and that Greg did."

"And I still never got any 'thanks' by the way," Greg interjected.

Gil picked up now, "Sara insulted me, said I didn't have the balls to send her a valentines card, and…"

"He just shoots forward and kisses me…I think I saw stars," Sara admitted.

"The kiss was THAT good?" Catherine asked.

"You know, he acts like he's all reserved and calm all the time…but when he gets going, he can be a real tiger," Sara smirked.

"Now you're just bragging over breakfast," Catherine mused. "They say it's the quiet ones you should look out for."

Gil lowered his head in embarrassment, he pretended to take a sip of his coffee, he wished he could disappear into the cup.

"Anyway…" Sara continued, "after the kiss… somehow…it just…evolved from there…" she gave a grin.

"And here you are two months later, still together…" Nick finished off.

"No wonder Grissom's been actin' different since February," Warrick mused. "Getting' laid can change a man's life."

"He's not getting laid," Catherine responded, then her hand shot to her mouth, her eyes widened. "Uh…did I say that out loud?"

Gil lowered his head even more. Let the grounds open up and swallow me up into the fiery abyss of Hell at this very moment, he thought.

Everyone – save Gil – was staring at Catherine in an absurd state of shock. Gil meanwhile, glanced towards Sara, afraid what her reaction might be now that she knew Catherine had a pretty idea about their sex life – or lack thereof.

Sara's expression was clearly curious as to how Catherine would know such a thing, "how…?" she asked, her voice slight.

"Come on, you only have to look at the man. That expression there on his face right now is not the face of a man who's had sex recently," Catherine tried to quickly cover for herself.

"Thanks, Cath," Gil said, his voice slightly biting. He felt he might not have minded the subject so much had Nick, Greg and Warrick not been sitting there looking at him so completely bewildered. "Thanks for making fun. Big deal…I haven't had sex lately," he said defensively.

Then Greg said something that made Gil truly thankful to have his company today, "Join the club."

Everyone roared with laughter, except from Greg of course, who pretended to be slightly dejected about his comment. Even Gil found himself chuckling. The moment lightened, and everyone seemed to forget about the revelation that Gil and Sara weren't physically intimate in their relationship yet.. The conversation shifted, as it always did, to talk of work, and the case.

Time seemed to fly, but the conversation kept going, and the breakfast plates grew more and more empty.

Sara glanced at her watch some time later, "I gotta go," she said, "I have to be somewhere," she finished off the dregs of coffee from her second cup, and stood slowly, grabbing her jacket from the back of the bench where she'd left it. She slipped in awkwardly, trying not to swat Gil with her arm in the process.

Catherine slid out of the booth to let Gil out, so that Sara – who had been pinned at the end between Gil and the wall – could step out.

"Where are you going?" Gil asked, he hated the tone of his voice when he said it, somehow unintentionally he'd sounded so incredibly demanding.

Sara adjusted the collar of her jacket, pulling her hair out from beneath it, "doctors appointment," she shrugged, not seeming to take heed of the tone he'd used at all. "Want to do something tonight?" she asked.

Gil had to take a moment to remember that he and Sara shared their mutual night off tonight. "Yeah," he answered, "Uhm…why are you going to the doctors?" he asked in a very quiet tone, they were standing together, just a few feet away from the table.

Sara looked at him, "why?" she asked.

"I just…I wondered if something was wrong…" he said, looking at her very seriously.

"I'm going to get a prescription filled," Sara answered, "what are we doing tonight?" she asked.

Gil paused, "I don't know…go see a movie?"

"Last time I went to a movie with you, you didn't pay any attention to it," Sara reminded, she folded her arms with a smirk.

"Were you in the back row?" Warrick asked, he'd been eavesdropping.

Gil glanced over to Warrick with a warning glance, he turned his eyes deliberately towards Catherine when Warrick looked back at him so that Warrick got the message if he didn't behave, Catherine would soon enough find out who her secret admirer really was.

"Okay, uh…." Gil tried to think of another suggestion, but came up blank.

"We could go out for a few drinks?" Sara suggested.

Gil perhaps responded too quickly to this, "Actually, uh…lets not. Listen, I'll come by, I'll bring some DVDs, how's that sound?"

"Fine I guess," Sara dropped her folded arms, "I better go…"

"Let me walk you to your car," Gil offered.

"Nah, it's okay, stay and drink your coffee," Sara smiled.

Gil stepped forward, intent on kissing her on the forehead, his favourite method of goodbye. but suddenly he was painfully aware that the others at the table had grown silent, and he turned to see that they were all watching him and Sara.

Uncomfortable, he didn't want to even attempt to kiss Sara's head in front of them, knowing the amount of teasing he'd receive. On the other hand, he didn't want to not kiss her because he knew that would be showing how uncomfortable he was being romantic in front of the others.

And then it occurred to him to be even more spontaneous. He stepped closer, his hands finding her arms, and he leaned in, as if he were about to kiss her head, but then took the plunge and pressed his mouth against hers in a passionate goodbye kiss that even left Sara a little surprised.

"Wow…it's like…seeing your parents having sex or something," Nick uttered.

Gil stepped back from Sara, he saw her blink in astonishment, he could tell her next words wanted to be 'did you really just do that in front of everyone?'. "See you tonight," Gil promised, "around seven," he kissed her forehead.

Sara gave a vague nod, a slight laugh in disbelief, and then turned and walked away shaking her head at him pleasantly.

Gil turned back to the table, Catherine, Warrick, Nick and Greg were all looking at him in the same astonishment Sara seemed to be in. "Something wrong?" he asked, trying to be as innocent as possible. He certainly hoped he wasn't blushing at this very moment.

"Nothing…" Catherine shook his head, "nothing at all."

I know, I'll probably get complaints for putting up another rather blah chapter. I just felt it was important at this stage to have a bit of Gil and Sara's relationship exposed to the rest of the team, lol.

Thanks to the people who keep reviewing (I'll mention your names in the next chapter).