Chapter 75

Frustrated

After one more vacation day, Gil had felt together enough to return to work, and Sara returned to work the same day now that her week suspension had ended. Within two weeks, everything more or less seemed to slowly gain it's semblance of normality – and normality in the Las Vegas Crime Lab meant an overwhelming caseload which usually resulted in too much overtime, overworked CSIs, and a lack of any social life.

Gil was glad to be working hard in the lab again, to be out in the field, to be solving crimes. Working had taken a lot of pressure away from the grieving process, easing it as the days wore on.

Being at work was easier than being with Sara for the moment. Although he and Sara were still very much together, the relationship still had the strain on it that had come after his proposal.

He understood that this would pass with time, but burying himself in his work for that first week helped deal with any of the emotional stress he felt. By the time the week was over, he'd decided to confront the issue with Sara. He'd had a week to clear his head and grieve, and work through it, and she'd had the week to get over the initial shock, but the subject certainly still needed some discussion before it could be completely dismissed.

Before he'd had a chance to think about approaching the subject with, his complete work schedule was turned upside down – as was his life.

A triple homicide in a hotel with no witnesses, two different murder weapons, six different possible suspects, and no apparent motives had the whole dayshift in a complete and utter frenzy, and when there was much frustration, and no leads, Gil was switched temporarily into dayshift to help solve the case.

Being thrown into dayshift for a whole week for the first time in what felt like forever, threw not only his body clock into turmoil, but his relationship with Sara began to severely suffer.

While he was working his shift, she was sleeping, and when he was sleeping she was working on hers. As he was leaving his shift, she was clocking in for her shift. Phone calls weren't working, when one called, the other wasn't home or was sleeping soundly – it seemed almost inevitable. The only direct contact Gil had managed to have with her was to send a text message to her phone to advise her he was thinking about her – only a moment later he'd received one advising she was doing the same.

Gil suspected that even if he and Sara had lived together – just as he'd suggested the day they'd returned to Las Vegas – they still would have never found the time to see each other in between the hectic schedules of CSI.

Almost a week had gone by and they hadn't seen each other at all even at work. Gil was becoming increasingly frustrated with this. It wasn't only because he missed her company and was beginning to feel concern that their relationship might die out from lack of communication that he was frustrated. Sexual frustration was beginning to eat at him too. It had been three weeks since they'd been intimate, and after so long, even being extremely self-sufficient in that area wasn't relieving the tension.

On the sixth day of his dayshift switch, he'd taken three hours overtime to go over some new evidence he'd found. He was also intent that if he should happen to wait long enough, eventually he'd run into Sara somewhere. And he was right.

He'd been in one of the labs on his own, working on a new experiment to prove a theory on the case he was working right. Sara had walked in, and she didn't seem surprised to find him there.

"Hey," she said casually, she wandered over to him, shoving her hands in the pockets of her pants.

Gil smiled, "long time no see."

"Tell me about it," Sara sighed, she leaned against the countertop at which he was working.

"Being on different shifts is insane," he uttered.

"It's driving me crazy," Sara confessed, she watched him setting up his experiment, but didn't ask what it was exactly he was doing

"You're not the only one," he stared at her, somehow, she could make wearing a plain brown t-shirt and black pants look incredibly attractive. He ached merely from the sight of her, and he had to fight the urge to pin her on the counter top and take her right then and there.

My god, this is insane. Three people are dead, I can't solve this case, and all I can think about is sex.

Gil slammed his hands down on the counter in frustration, "I'm not sleeping right, I feel completely drained all the time, I can't think straight…I'm pulling double shifts here, and I still feel no closer to making any progress," he uttered under his breath, his eyes fell to her chest, and he stared for the longest time trying to remember how she looked naked.

Stop it, he told himself, and he raised his eyes back to her face.

"Still not solved the case, then?" Sara asked, although the answer was rather obvious already.

"If I had, do you think I'd be standing here?" Gil raised an eyebrow.

Sara shrugged, "guess not. How is the case going? Do you want to talk about it or anything? I have five minutes before I'm due to start my shift…"

"We found some new evidence today that possibly points to yet another suspect…but something doesn't add up and we just keep hitting dead ends left, right and centre. Seven suspects – all with completely different stories that despite they don't match with each others accounts, they still somehow coincide with the crime scene…it's hard to pinpoint who's the liar and who's being honest. There are some very capable CSIs on dayshift, and even they can't come up with any new answers. I'm playing with theories here," he gestured to his experiment. "but making barely any progress at all."

"I'm sorry. I know how frustrating that can be."

There was an uncomfortable silence, and neither of them knew what to say to each other. Sara sighed and looked towards the floor forlornly.

Gil was the one to break the silence, finally. "I know that I just had six consecutive days off three weeks ago, but I think I really need a vacation," he grumbled tiredly.

"You look like you do," Sara admitted, "if you're not sleeping at night, why not take some sedatives?" she queried.

"Sedatives don't agree with me. I wake up feeling disorientated and out of sorts. Besides…I'm trying to not let my body clock be trained into sleeping at night," he responded, "by the time I get back to night shift, I'll be in worse shape if that happens. I'd rather endure the exhaustion right now, I know I can catch up on sleep later."

Sara glanced at her watch, "I better go get my assignment from Catherine," she sighed. Catherine Willows was acting supervisor for the moment in Gil's place.

"Yeah," Gil agreed in defeat.

Sara stared away from him, and a sad smile played about her lips, "I guess I'll see you around…"

Gil glanced around him awkwardly for a moment, then touched her arm, "this is going to blow over eventually, Sara."

"I know," Sara answered, "it's just hard. Every so often we go through these periods where we barely see each other at all and I start asking myself if we're even together or if it's all just something I imagined."

He nodded, "I know…and trust me, you're not the only one," he assured. "I'd, uh…kiss you now, but anyone could be watching through the glass."

"I understand," Sara gave a firm nod, she straightened, took her hands out of her pocket and headed for the door. "I'll catch you later, Grissom."

"Grissom, I'm glad I caught you before you left," Catherine caught Gil in his office just as Gil was getting ready to leave after the three hours overtime. "I need to hand this in."

Gil raised his eyes to see her, she was standing in the doorway, her field kit case in one hand, and a slice of paper in the other.

Catherine held up a sheet of paper. "I was handed it by the lab director but it needs your signature," she explained.

Gil took it, without even reading it, he signed it with a sigh.

"You didn't even read that," Catherine replied.

He gave a nonchalant shrug.

"You might have just signed your death warrant for all you know," Catherine teased. "You look exhausted, by the way.

"I fine," Gil replied coarsely.

"Yeah, fine is stretched tightly over your face," Catherine remarked, "how much longer do you think this case is going to keep you off nights?" she asked.

"As long as it needs to until it's solved," Gil retorted, "it's driving me crazy. The longer we take on this case, the colder it's getting. It's on priority," Gil answered, "The Sheriff is breathing down my neck like a damn stalker, and all the overtime and double shifts in the world are barely making any difference."

"Tough case," Catherine answered. "You are overworking yourself. Look at you, you look like you haven't been to bed in three days."

"I feel like answers are right in front of me, but I just can't see them," Gil complained.

"You're cranky. You're not getting enough sleep," Catherine pointed out, "oh…by the way, I think I know who my secret admirer is."

Gil slipped his jacket on, "you do?" he asked.

"It's Nick, right?" Catherine gave a curious smile.

"Uh…why don't you go ask him? And please…let me know how that turns out?" Gil suggested, he wasn't in the mood to tell her that Nick wasn't her secret admirer. He wondered where she could have come up with the suspicion for this in the first place. "I gotta go."

"I gotta go meet Greg and Warrick at a crime scene," Catherine replied, "c'mon, I'll walk you to your car."

As they walked, Catherine briefed him quickly about the case she was working on with Greg and Warrick. Sara was on a solo case tonight on her own. When they'd finally gotten outside, and were standing by their cars – parked side by side – Catherine finally decided to suddenly bring up something Gil had thought she had long forgotten about.

"I notice Sara isn't wearing an engagement ring."

"Pardon?" Gil asked, he slipped his car key into the lock of the drivers door and twisted, he pulled the door open.

"Remember…we were talking – or rather you were yelling – two weeks ago, and you said you proposed," Catherine reminded.

"Oh…yeah," Gil sighed, he wished she hadn't brought the subject up. Now this would mean another night of not being able to sleep for thinking about the complete and utter mess he'd made of the proposal on the plane.

"So…this is a pretty huge thing, huh? You must not want everyone to know yet," Catherine decided, "I mean…if Sara isn't wearing the ring then obviously you're keeping it on the down low," She gestured towards the ground playfully.

"Actually, uh…" Gil paused, he drew his breath, and then through clenched teeth, he admitted, "she…turned me down."

Catherine had been unlocking trunk of her car to slide her field kit in. She did a double take, "she what?"

"Turned me down. Rejected the proposal. Shot me down like a clay pigeon," Gil replied hoarsely.

"Wow."

"It's a long…long and rather drawn out story I don't want to get into at the moment. Lets just say there won't be any wedding bells soon," Gil said, "or in the true Las Vegas style, we won't be saying 'I do' in front of Elvis."

"I don't believe she turned you down," Catherine seemed rather surprised.

"Makes two of us, I guess." Gil gave a shrug, and without another word, climbed into his car, without another word, he shut the door, pulled on his seatbelt, started the car and soon was on his way home.

Yep, blah chapter.

Thanks to the people who reviewed (as per usual I'll mention your names in 76). :)

Notes to certain readers in the meantime:

OrganizedChaos1982: Mine and Mines are problems with the British language, I have a hard time getting out of the habit. That is my fault, however, the scenes shifting suddenly from one to the other without any space is actually a formatting thing. Normally I try to put some asterisks inbetween the scene changes but formatting just basically makes them vanish...and sometimes I don't always realise it.

lilegyptiangoddess: I have seen some of the G/S music vids out there, and in fact, I've made a few (which are somewhere littered in G/S music video thread at They don't inspire me, but they're fun to watch and make :) I get my inspiration without needing videos - music inspires me enough :)

Wishing on the Moon: Thanks for your emails - and like I mentioned, I will at some point wrap up Cath's secret admirer storyline. It's just a tiny back story, more of a filler for amusement than anything else, but I haven't forgotten (there's even a very small mention of it in this chapter just to show you I haven't forgotten, lol).