Quick thanks to the LA ladies in the chat tonight... and the other couple who weren't. Special thankieness to Sara who beta'd a bit of this... and to Marlou who totally attempted to nurture this idea when I was stoned out of my mind on allergy pills. This is a WIP

"Mom, I need you to watch Linds for an hour or like," Catherine paused, stabbing her earring into her ear. "Like... six." Catherine spoke briskly into the phone, scrambling to locate her other shoes.

"No, I got called in, and Eddie's... well, I think he's out. He's not here," she said hurriedly knowing full well he was with another woman or at a bar. In an attempt to look presentable she clipped her messy blonde hair back out of her eyes. She galloped oddly into the kitchen and grabbed a banana; it was nearly rotten. "Mother, look, I-" A harsh breath passed between her lips. "Yes, right after. Love you, bye." A pause. "Yes! Jesus! Goodbye!"

Running down the hall, she opened the door to the last room on the right and quietly stepped in. Catherine paused at the foot of the small bed and watched as her daughter's chest rose and fell in sleep. Hoping Lindsay was having more than sweet dreams, she walked over and planted a soft kiss to her forehead. She hated to leave her, but she had to. 'Fucking college,' she mused as she clicked the door delicately shut.

Leaving the quiet sanctuary of her house, Catherine jumped into her battered Ford and sped off towards Tropicana. She absolutely loathed the fact that even at two in the morning there was still rush hour-like traffic congesting the streets. As much as she truly loved Vegas, she hated all the damned traffic.

She narrowly but expertly dodged a Dodge Dart, ironically enough, and just missed running a red light. Veering into the parking garage at the Palms, she flashed her badge and found herself a handicapped space near the elevators; it was only when she got out of the car that she realized she had taken up not one, but two parking spaces. Rather than let it irk her, she became amused by it and with one last glance at her car she jogged to the elevators and stabbed the 'up' button insistently. 'Crime scene, here I come,' she thought and tapped out her impatience with the toe of her boot.

There was a strange spring in her step as she made her way down the plush casino carpeting towards the man who had called her. Even as she walked towards him she sent him softly concealed death rays with her eyes. "Look at you! Making my night, Gil!"

'Or morning… damn it all…'

Gil Grissom turned towards the voice and chuckled at her. "Sarcasm noted and promptly ignored." Turning back to the body on the floor, he handed her a sheet of paper with what he'd gathered thus far. "Were you sleeping?"

Catherine perused the list and took in the scene, "Hmm, barely." She pulled her camera tight around her neck and snapped off a few overalls. Crouching down beside the body she began taking shots of the neck and head, paying special attention to the exit wound through the body's left ear. "So, how was the seminar?"

She rocked back on her heels to glance up at him. "Gil?" He wore a far-away, delighted look on his face which Catherine immediately noticed. "Good time, then?"

Grissom smiled just a bit more and Catherine quickly stood, catching him in his mirth. She punched him quickly in the arm and laughed. "You dog!" she exclaimed, drawing the attention of the officers down the hall. They both turned their backs to the men.

Catherine bit her lip and shook her head; she couldn't believe it. "You got laid!"

Gil's mouth fell open and his face tinted red. "I did no such thing!"

Knowing that look all too well, the younger CSI simply arched a brow and nudged him with her hip, "You lie."

"I do not," he promised petulantly, both hating her for questioning him but finding boyish delight in the ambiguity of the situation.

Placing her hands on her hips she taunted him, tested him. "Then tell me what happened!" she insisted. Gil toyed with the idea, running a hand through his hair.

"Tell you what," he began. "I'll let you buy me a beer after we finish here."

Cath smiled and pulled the camera from where it resting against her chest. "If I'm buying, you're logging in the evidence afterwards." Grissom nodded and crouched over the body, it's stench beginning to permeate the air around them.

"Small price to pay, I suppose."

They smiled at one another and went about processing the scene.

Efficiency seemed to be the motto of the night and between the two of them they had managed to catalogue the entire scene in under five hours, a new personal best for a crime of such magnitude. Adhering to his part of the deal, Grissom took the load of evidence back to the lab and began the seemingly tedious process of logging it in. Catherine, on the other hand, stopped by home to make sure that everything was alright.

She found her mother smoking a cigarette on the front stairs, puffing contentedly, watching the neighborhood wake up. The older woman watched as her daughter approached, tossing the cigarette aside. "So" she called, not caring how loud she was at such an early hour. "Who's this Gil Grissom, again?"

Catherine smirked as she side-stepped her mother. "He's my boss... and my friend mom..." And with that she checked on Lindsay, found Eddie asleep on the couch and left once more, telling her mother she'd be back in an hour and a half.

The one thing that Catherine found really wonderful about Las Vegas was that you could go out for drinks at eight o'clock in the morning and not be called a lush. Such was the scene at the bar Catherine had decided on; tourists ran rampant, most of them teenagers, simply staving off the previous night's hangover my getting drunk again. There were some older folks, tube socks peeking out of their Birkenstock sandals. Neither she nor Gil cared; here they served cheap Bud and always had some sort of ruffian sport on the television.

The two of them had taken seats at the bar, both content with their Budweisers and the easy conversation that had flowed between them since they'd sat down.

They were three beers in before she'd remembered what they had gone there for in the first place. It hadn't been her intention to haggle him about this new female who seemed to have him just a tad wrapped up in his own world... but she couldn't help herself. She was starved for new gossip, even if she did have to keep it to herself. 'Gossip is gossip,' she reasoned.

Gil, he was a great friend; he wasn't very open, but he always told it like it was, and she truly admired that. She'd been lacking people like that in her own life.

"Now," she began, smacking her lips after taking a pull on her beer. "Tell me about this woman... that you didn't sleep with." A slight quirk of her lips told him that she did indeed think that he had gotten laid while in San Francisco.

Gil pressed his hands around his mug and smiled in that way that men are prone to do when they meet an amazing woman and realize how amazing it is that a chance meeting allowed them to connect with such a stunning person... or that's what Catherine thought... anyway. "I didn't sleep with her, it was nothing like that."

Cath nodded, knowingly mocking him. "Good looking?"

Gil thought about that one and tilted his head to the side. "She was... pretty... not stunning... but..."

"But?"

Gil smiled and finished off his beer. "I look forward to working with her again."

Catherine laughed, tossing her head back, a barrette falling to the floor unnoticed. "You got her number? She got yours?"

"And my email," he said quietly, his lips grinning around the rim of his mug.

Catherine's mouth dropped open and she continued to laugh. With a sharp fingernail, she prodded him in the bicep. "Smitten!" She claimed, finishing off her beer as well. "So smitten!"

He leaned a hand on the counter and attempted to glare her down but could not help the tiny smile that teased his lips. "Or not."

"Oh, oh, you so are," Catherine pointed out, grabbing his arm. "Tell me more, what's her name? What does she look like? Is she from San Francisco or-"

Gil cut her off with a wave of his hand and slid off of the stool. "Thanks for the beer Cath, you should probably go home and get some sleep..."

With that, he was gone and had left her to pick up the check, just as she had promised.

A wave of fresh, autumn air assaulted her face as she stepped from the bar into the subdued morning. Catherine felt revitalized in such a wonderful way; it had been months since she had been able to go out on her own, without Eddie or Lindsay involved and it felt nice to be normal for a moment... as normal as one could be by getting tipsy as the sun rose.

Driving home, she decided that she would make it a bi-weekly occurrence, talking with Gil. Not only was it good for her gossip nerve but it was good for her soul, and his.

Catherine waltzed in the door at ten o'clock to Eddie making pancakes, chocolate chip. It was the weekend, he always made pancakes. She walked up to him and pecked him quickly on the lips, tasting beer and ash, but feigning delight in her disgust. She kissed Lindsay on the head and went to get a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

On the way out of the kitchen to change, Eddie caught her by the arm. "Who is this Grissom guy, again?" Of course he had forgotten.

Catherine smirked. "Don't worry Ed, he's my boss... and a very good friend."

TBC