Chapter 79

Set Up

Arriving back from the crime scene that night, Gil caught Sara just about to leave on another case, she was putting her field kit in her car. Gil advised Catherine to go on ahead without him, and he approached Sara there in the parking lot.

"Hey," he said.

Sara gave a half smile as she closed the trunk.

"How's the case going?" Gil asked casually, he shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped closer.

"It's…going fairly well," she replied, "heading out to a suspects apartment to look for evidence."

"Great," Gil rest his hip against the side of her car, "so…any plans for tomorrow night?" he asked, almost under his breath.

"Hmm?"

"Tomorrow night. Night off. Any plans?"

"Uh…no," Sara gave him a strange look, "but…you already know that…"

"Good," Gil nodded with a smirk.

"You want me to come into work?" Sara gave a sigh as if she had already been defeated.

"Actually, uh, no…" Gil folded his arms, he glanced around him quickly before continuing, making sure no one was in the vicinity. "I was thinking of a date."

"A date? We haven't had one of those in a while," Sara responded.

"I know."

"Wait a minute, you're smiling like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and you only get that look when you have some weird little plan forming in your head. Is there a twist to this?" Sara closed the trunk of her car with a loud thud.

"Twist? No," he responded, and cocked his head slightly, still keeping his eyes on her, "A minor detail, kind of."

"Do tell," Sara leaned against the car.

"We'll be double dating with Catherine and Warrick."

"Catherine and Warrick…" Sara trailed off, "Wait, has he told her then? Or did she find out herself?"

"No, actually she doesn't know at all," Gil answered, his smile was suddenly full of a wicked relish, "I told her we'd double date – the four of us, and I'd make sure I'd get her secret admirer to attend. It'll be…a surprise."

"Or a shock," Sara chuckled.

"Or both," Gil grinned, "So how about it, interested?"

"I think…it might be interesting to see what happens," Sara chewed her lip, she stared off into space trying to imagine it.

"Definitely," Gil nodded.

"I can't wait to see her face," Sara grinned.

Gil laughed under his breath and turned to leave, "neither can I. See you later."

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"Warrick," Gil said cheerfully as he stepped into the break room ten minutes later to find Warrick sitting at the table, sipping on a soda. "Got a minute?"

Warrick shrugged, "always."

Gil closed the door quietly, no one else was around but he didn't want anyone to overhear the conversation he was about to have with Warrick. "Okay, this thing with Cath has gone on long enough…" he moved over and put both hands on the table, standing slightly hunched.

"What thing?" Warrick said absently, he was reading the sports section of a daily newspaper, his eyes raised up to Gil only momentarily before falling back to the page he was on.

"Don't play innocent," Gil gave a short laugh, "you're driving her crazy. In fact…you're not only driving her crazy, you're also driving me crazy. I'm the one who has to listen to her prattling on when she's begging me to tell her who it is."

Warrick gave a roll of his eyes and a slight smile played about his lips, he looked away then, and pushed the paper around the table absently.

"I've held my tongue for this long, but I'm this close to telling her, so either you do something about it, or I will."

"I can't just go up to her and say 'hey, Cath, guess what?' and tell her, you know. Kills the romance just a little, don't you think?"

"Warrick…how long has this thing gone on? Three months? It's getting ridiculous…Are you going to spend the rest of your time here having this forlorn little obsession with Cath?"

"Like you did with Sara?" Warrick pointed out with an slightly ironic smirk.

"Exactly. Take it from me, I know…I wish I hadn't spent five years wasting my time on work when I could have been with her," Gil explained. "It takes a stupid man to not learn from his own mistake, but an absolute idiot for someone to not learn from someone elses."

Warrick gave a slight laugh, he stared down at the newspaper still.

"What's holding you back with Catherine? You're not the kind of guy who dilly-dallies with women, Warrick. What makes Cath any different?"

"Let me ask something," Warrick straightened a little, "You had this 'thing' for Sara five years…but you dated other women," he pointed out, "so what made Sara different?"

"I didn't…want to hurt her, didn't think I could give her what she wanted, and I was pretty sure that I wasn't…the, uh…okay I see where you're going with this," Gil made a face.

"Exactly. Love notes and anonymous gifts are all good fun. But real love, much more complicated. You should know that better than anyone. Your relationship with Sara over the past few months hasn't exactly been smooth. What if any relationship I had with Cath was doomed to the same kind of failure?"

"You think my relationship with Sara is a failure?" Gil blinked.

"Okay, bad choice of words, uhm…disaster. I mean you and Sara have your ups and downs…when you were working on that murder case last week, your relationship was pretty…uh…strained."

"How do you know that?" Gil asked.

"Only had to look at Sara and see the look on her face every time someone mentioned your name and you knew it," Warrick replied. "I don't want to end up being in that kind of a relationship. Work relationships…bad idea. That's why I've stopped sending her little love notes and roses," he explained.

"Okay, maybe…working together is bad," Gil shrugged, "but there's a lot of good in it too…the fact that the woman you're with actually understands what you go through at work, what you have to deal with every day. Understands it when you've had a bad case and your emotions are feeling a little raw...someone who's going to understand when you get called in on overtime because you miss a date, understands when you show up three hours late for dinner smelling like death."

Warrick nodded, "guess I never looked at it like that," he gave a slight smirk.

Gil took a seat, "no one is saying you have to suddenly go up to her and tell her the truth immediately. I have a plan, actually…"

"You do?" Warrick raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Me, Sara and Cath are going out tomorrow night for drinks. You should come," Gil explained. "The fact you won't be alone with Cath might make things easier. Spending some time outside of work might take the edge off of what you've been worried about. If things go well then…well, the rest is up to you."

"So…she won't know?" Warrick asked.

"Nope…" Gil lied.

"It's just drinks, just hanging out, like friends…?" Warrick asked, "No obligations? No expectations?"

"Of course not," Gil lied, he had to chide himself for lying, Catherine already knew her secret admirer would be making an appearance. But Warrick wouldn't know that, not at least until he did show up.

"Ah, but I'm working tomorrow night," Warrick pointed out.

"Actually, swing shift wants your expertise in a case tomorrow from ten until six," Gil replied, "I'm letting you leave your shift two hours early tonight so that you can get enough sleep for tomorrow's shift – only of course in the condition that you turn up."

"Fine, I'll be there," Warrick nodded.

"Great," Gil smirked, and without another word, he got up and left.

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Gil found Catherine in the garage working on their current case, he moved over, "I spoke with your secret admirer," he said, quite pleased with himself.

"And?" Catherine asked, somewhat distractedly as she carried on with her work. She glanced at him out of the corners of her eyes.

"He'll be there."

Catherine smiled brightly and turned to face him, "really?"

"Yeah. But, uh…he doesn't actually know its, uh…a double date," Gil faltered, pretending to be somewhat more bashful about the set up than he actually felt. Of course, it wasn't fair to set Warrick up this way, but it definitely didn't feel wrong to do so. It did feel wrong to feel a certain smugness at knowing what Warrick didn't know, but Gil tried not to let himself feel too guilty about it.

"Are you kidding me?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.

"Actually no. He's a little, uh…uneasy, lets say," Gil confessed, he folded his arms and let his hip rest against the work table Catherine was standing in front of. "I won't go into the reasons, but yeah, he's slightly uneasy. The thought of there being aby obligations or expectations is slightly daunting to him at the moment, so I had to tell a white lie…he thinks he's just going for drinks in general with us – as he put it 'hanging out – like friends'."

"How is this going to work?" Catherine asked.

"Well…we agreed that he'd spend some time drinking with all of us, then, if things are going well, the rest is up to him," Gil explained.

Catherine made a face, "I don't know…the thought of that makes me feel…somewhat, uh, uncomfortable. This isn't how I'm used to operating on dates, Grissom," she reminded.

"Hey, don't worry…just think, Cath, for once YOU'RE the one with the advantage," Gil pointed out, "for once, you're the one holding all the cards. The guy doesn't know you know what you know. If he knew you knew what you knew, I doubt he'd even consider showing up at all."

"Right…" Catherine tried not to look too confused.

"All you have to do is be there, be yourself, don't mention anything to him about what you know, and see how far it takes you and him."

"What if nothing happens, what if he just never even acknowledges it?" Catherine shrugged.

"Cross that bridge when you come to it."

Thanks to the people who've reviewed so far, I'm kind of excited alot of people are looking forward to the double date chapter (I'm actually looking forward to writing it.)

A few people have mentioned they'd be interested to see what else I can write, I have written something else besides "Finding Me" (and it has no relevance to "Finding Me" either), it's been written for a while, but it's in the Beta stage right now (thanks to Wishing on the Moon for giving up her free time to do so) and at some point, that'll be uploaded as well. In the meantime,all I have to offer is this chapter of "Finding Me". :)

Ash