Chapter 96

A Hundred Percent Totally Fine

One by one he watched them go off to Ecklie's office. First Greg, then Nick, then Sara. Greg and Nick returned only looking slightly upset by whatever questions had been asked in the privacy of Ecklie's office. Sara, however, returned looking rather angry and indignant.

She was stomping her way across the hall past Gil's office when he saw her, and he pulled himself to his feet and rushed after her, grabbing her by the arm tenderly, "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"

"Conrad Ecklie is an arrogant, ass-kissing son-of-a-bitch motherfucker who can go blow himself as far as I'm concerned!" Sara burst. "He just hauled me into his office minute I got back from the field and started asking stuff that as far as I'm concerned he had no business asking!"

Gil merely blinked, any other time he might have perhaps laughed at her insults of Ecklie, but right now, the situation seemed far too grave to even manage the slightest smile.

"C'mon, lets go talk in my office…" he took her by the hand – not caring what the surrounding staff might think – and led her to his office. He closed the door behind them both.

Sara sat down in the chair, slumped over, and sighed deeply.

"What did he say?" Gil asked once he was behind his desk.

"He was asking all kinds of inappropriate questions," Sara uttered, "First thing he asked is 'are you sleeping with Grissom'. I couldn't believe it, I sat there stunned. He started asking stuff like if we're just having a fling…if it's serious. God, he was asking if you'd kept me from being promoted because of our relationship. Asking me if you ever treated me as anything other than an employee at work or if I got special benefits because of our relationship…"

Gil sighed, "he had no right to ask if we're sleeping together."

"Gil, he was asking stuff about your job…about how competent you are at it, about how well you cope with stress. He asked me if you my evaluations regularly and always check my reports…" she sighed.

"How did you answer?" Gil took off his glasses and scratched the bridge of his nose.

"As honestly as I could."

"Which is?"

"I said you always get around to it when you can because of the huge workloads they keep parking on your desk," Sara responded, "it's not your fault you do our evaluations late."

Gil nodded, "Yeah. The workload has gotten pretty ridiculous. It's been months since I was properly out in the field like I used to be," he sighed.

"Do you think Ecklie is going to fire you?" Sara asked concernedly, and she met his eyes.

"I don't know. I'd like to think that Ecklie doesn't have the balls to do it," Gil confessed, "but…if he was concerned for the labs integrity, he'd probably go right ahead and kick me out before I had a chance to explain myself," he admitted.

Sara sighed, "Gil…I'm sorry I got you into this…"

"I got myself into this," he reminded, "I knew what could eventually happen, Sara. But when I told you that you come first and work comes second, I meant that. And now that I've told you that, I'm going to have to tell Ecklie that also. And if he doesn't like it, then he can fire me."

"If he fires you…"

"Please don't say you'll also quit," Gil responded quickly. "I heard this from Greg, already. And the others agreed to it, but I don't want anyone taking any risks. None of you should risk your jobs because of me."

Sara glared at him, "Gil, do you think I could just stand by and let Ecklie fire you and continue working here?"

The phone on Gil's desk began to ring, and he sighed picking it up. He glanced over to Sara as he spoke with Conrad Ecklie on the phone briefly, before hanging up.

"Ecklie wants to see me," he stood up slowly. "Gotta go face the music."

"Will you be okay?"

"I'm fine," he assured, he touched her shoulder as he passed by her and left the office.

Ooooooooooooooooo

By the time Gil had finally left Ecklie's office less than twenty minutes later, it was time for the hour break – when most of graveyard would eat their dinner. He stepped into the break room, only to find no one was eating, and everyone looked nervous.

Sara was sitting silent, her arms folded, her expression brooding, as if she already had it in her head this was the beginning of the end.

Catherine raised her head at once upon Gil's entry, "Well?" she asked.

"Well?" Gil asked nonchalantly, and made his way to the fridge to grab a soda, he didn't feel the situation warranted any overreacting on his part. He'd already dealt with the onslaught of nerves. That was over. He was calm now.

"You just spent half an hour in Ecklie's office after he's been interrogating us all…" Catherine gestured to her colleagues.

Gil was very aware that everyone was looking at him with a strange expectancy, they all looked incredibly concerned, "yeah, so?"

"So…what'd he say?"

Gil paused, opened the can of soda, took a sip, then remained quiet for a moment to reflect on how he should tell them. He opted for the straightforward approach. "Ecklie…wasn't happy," he mused.

"About us?" Sara asked, without looking up.

"About many things in particular," Gil answered, "but the fact that I'm dating you also gave him cause for concern, yeah. He says any evaluations or discipline I've given you over the last four months should be called into question. However, when I pointed out that I actually reprimanded you and suspended you from work after the fight with the suspect, Ecklie took my word for it that I was nothing but professional. But he's still not altogether happy that I'm involved with you, Sara…"

"But it's like you said, he can't do anything," Catherine spoke up, reminding him that they weren't alone in the break room.

"If you mean he can't force me to break up with Sara 'for the good of the lab', then yeah, he can't do anything," Gil answered, "However…he has taken action."

"What action?" Greg asked.

Gil took a deep breath, "I've, uh, been demoted."

"Demoted?" Nick asked, looking completely mystified.

"Demoted," Gil nodded.

"Just because you're romantically involved with a subordinate?" Catherine gaped.

"Uh, no," Gil answered, "Actually, because I've let so much work slide, I've neglected paperwork, been late in filling out employee evaluation forms…" he shrugged, "This is one of the times I've actually agreed with Ecklie. I'm not handling the job as well as I used to. I'm not coping. Ecklie said it himself. I'm a terrible supervisor."

"That's bullshit!" Warrick grunted, "you're the best damn supervisor graveyard has ever had."

"I was," Gil decided to be immodest for the moment, "but not anymore."

"We don't have to take this you know, we can do something…we can protest…" Greg said.

"Like I said, I don't want anyone risking their jobs," Gil assured, "And anyway, I like the idea. I'll admit, I've let things slide around here. I can't keep up with the mounds of paperwork anymore. I'm sick of juggling employee vacation sheets and monthly evaluations and inventory forms. You know, I'm actually quite glad to be demoted."

"So…what now?" Greg asked.

"Well…" Gil took another sip of his soda, "I clean out my office, take care of some things, and then I'm officially just one of you," he looked at them all.

"Grissom…" Sara said, and she used his last name so he knew she meant business, "you can't be okay with this."

"Do I look like I'm not okay?" Gil gave a slight laugh, "really…I'm fine. I pretended to be pissed off with the idea for Ecklie's benefit…but…I'm thrilled…really."

Catherine moved over to him, "Why would you be thrilled? You do remember you'll be on less pay, less vacation time, and under someone else's command…"

"The money isn't important. Less vacation time isn't important, and being under someone else's command…well, I'll learn to live with that," Gil confessed. "What does appeal to me though is that I'll be just a CSI again. I'll be out in the field doing what I do best. I won't be behind a desk pushing paper and taking phone calls. I'll be working with the team again. I can make more difference out in the field and in the labs than I can behind that damn desk," Gil placed the soda can down.

"Who's taking over as supervisor?" Sara asked.

Gil shrugged, "Well, Conrad wasn't specific, but he did say that at the end of break, he wants to speak with Catherine…" he trailed off and smiled at Catherine.

"Me?" Catherine asked.

"You always told me you could probably do my job," Gil smirked, "And, well, when I was gone, you kept up with things…"

"But…" Catherine began.

"You always wanted to be a supervisor. This is your chance. Of course, it's not official until Ecklie has you in his office and asks you himself," Gil placed his hand on Catherine's shoulder. "You'll do fine."

"Gil…you're taking this way too well…" Catherine made a face, "are you sure you're not about to have some kind of weird break down, because I've seen this happen before. People acting so fine that it's obvious things aren't fine and then they snap."

"I'm not gonna snap. Believe me, I couldn't be happier," Gil smirked, "also, my uh, change in rank…makes things easier." he trailed off.

Sara had been turned away from Gil but her head snapped around and she stared at him, "since you're not a supervisor, Ecklie can't say anything about your relationship with me anymore…" she realized.

"Right. If you get a promotion, or don't get promoted, it's nothing to do with my biased opinions," Gil nodded. "And dating each other is nothing in the employee handbook that can actually be frowned upon either."

"Wait a minute…" Catherine paused, "What about me and Warrick?" she frowned.

"I'd wait until you're officially a supervisor before telling Ecklie about it. But since you dated before a promotion, I can't see a problem.

Sara looked at Gil, "You're really fine with this?"

"I'm a hundred percent totally fine with this," Gil promised.

"Okay," Sara nodded, although she still seemed very unsure about the whole situation.

Gil smirked, "anyway," he grabbed his soda can, "I have to go, uh, pick up some boxes and clear away the stuff from my office. Enjoy the rest of your break."

Sorry for the double blahness of the last two chapters :P

Ah, thanks to everyone for reviewing so far:

Veronica, csmit99, wandaa, Mystical Panther, silence89, Almeida's-Angel24, leddy, csi-ds9, UnspokenLoves, sarah makinson, Aidriana, lilegyptiangoddess, princessklutz04, marbs, and jtbwriter.

Ah, anyway, 4 more chapters to go, and then it's the end sniffle. But never fear, as I say, because I do write other stuff, (check out the 4 other stories I have in the meantime, lol).

Ash