"Gil."
Grissom kept filing the paperwork, oblivious to Warrick Brown, standing in the doorway of his office. His mind was elsewhere.
"Grissom."
On no response, Warrick sighed and walked forwards, putting his hand on the papers Grissom had been apparently so fervently concentration on to grab his attention. Though Warrick knew somehow that he hadn't been concentrating on the paperwork. "Gil."
"Oh, Warrick."
"Hey." Warrick sat down without invitation. "You okay?" He had to refrain from adding 'buddy' to the end of his question. He knew right now his old supervisor would probably take it as a patronising act of endearment, and clam up. Not to say he wouldn't clam up anyway.
"Yes. Is there any specific reason as to why you're here?" Gil's voice was exhausted and held no gentleness to it. Warrick sat back a little, taken aback at how clipped Grissom had been towards him.
"I just wondered-"
"Well, I've made it clear that I'm absolutely fine, so you don't need to worry. I'm sure you have more important things to do – last I heard you were on a DB at an industrial Warehouse? Have you closed that case, yet?"
"No." He didn't bother to hide his annoyance.
Grissom gave him a look that could have plainly said, 'Well why are you in my office, then?'. Warrick raised his palms defensively.
"Fine, fine I'm gone." And he left mumbling something under his breath. Gil returned to shuffling papers mindlessly.
Sara woke up alone, stretched out and tangled in the sheets, the Las Vegas orange sun spilling into her room like so much flourescent ink. She paused, listening for any sounds of company in the house. Upon none, she realised Grissom must have returned to work for another shift to make up for leaving so early. And that was because of me. She made a concious decision that she would not do anything stupid from then on in. Sara knew she was having a hard time coming to terms with it, but she could also see the pain in his gaze whenever he watched her struggle, imprinted on his worn and now seemingly older features. God, he looked so exhausted all the time.
She'd always figured Grissom as an unfeeling man. That was because he seemed impervious to any emotion – he always seemed to detach himself at work. Sara thought about it. She'd probably seen more emotion on that face in the last week than the whole of the four years she'd been in Vegas.
Sara dressed in black jeans and a longsleeve tee, and walked through to the kitchen, where more signs of the stresses of Gil Grissom were evident. On the counter there were spilled coffee granules and a half empty packed. The mug was used but unwashed in the sink. Grissom was almost obsessive-compulsive about tidyness, albeit a rather cluttered one…he'd always kept the kitchen clean.
Sighing, Sara cleaned up and decided that right now the person that needed help most, was the person who had been helping her.
"So what've we got?" Nick started, opening the case file. Him, Warrick, Catherine and Grissom were seated in the breakroom, a popular review spot for cases. Gil was engrossed in his own report, though Catherine suspected it wasn't the report he was interested in. He'd been distracted all morning.
She decided to play along anyway. "Okay, so our vic's girlfriend says they left the house at 5:00pm to go to the movie. Stopped off for dinner at Bosco Verde's on East Sahara Avenue. She says he said he had to stop off on Sandhill Road and was acting shifty about it. They drive up to a street corner, vic gets out, walks up to some random guys and there's an argument. Guy shoots him. Girlfriend just drives off without calling 911? It doesn't make sense."
"She might've been scared, needed to get out of there. Where did she say she went again?" Warrick added, his elbows on the desk.
"I don't know. Gil, you were in the interrogation. Didn't she say she drove to Sloan? Bit far for a quick getaway, don't you think?" Catherine said, eyeing her friend across the table. He hadn't responded. She tried a different tack. "Maybe she drove to…Henderson. Or Newport. Or Baghdad. Or….Mars?"
Nick and Warrick didn't laugh, where they might've done in any other circumstance. Their gaze shifted to Grissom, who was shaking ever so slightly.
"Uh, Cath…Warrick and I had some DNA results from Mia to follow up on. Rick, why don't we go get those?"
"Yeah, yeah good idea." Warrick and Nick left the table so that Catherine and Grissom could be alone, glancing at their previous supervisor with worried looks. Once they had left, Catherine got up and walked around the table to sit beside him.
"Griss?" She asked, softly. "What's up?"
The question was stupid and futile. She didn't need to know what was 'up'. But Catherine knew she had to keep it as normal as possible.
The answer came suddenly and without warning. As if shocked with a jolt of electricity, Gil came to life and movement, bringing his fist up and bringing it down on the table with a sickening crack. The thick layer of glass was left with a spiderweb of cracks around his fist. He did it again and the table top shattered. Coffee cups and papers fell to the floor. People in the neighbouring labs looked up and stared.
"Adam Trent, THAT's what's 'Up'!" He yelled in rage. Catherine had leapt back from the now destroyed table, watched as her friend stood and swept a whole bookcase of Entemology textbooks to the floor. He punched the wall, leaving an imprint of his fist - the impact was loud and sounded painful. "He took her from me and abused her body, and he doesn't care! Where is he now, huh? He's laughing at us! He got away with something worse than murder! He killed her, Cath! He-he-" Gil had switched alarmingly fast from red faced and rage-filled to defeated. He backed against the wall, slumped, and slid down it. "He took my Sara…" With one hand over his eyes, his body shook, and Catherine knew he was crying. There was something heart-breaking and devastating about seeing a grown male friend of hers, crying.
"What the hell are you people looking at?" She yelled at the lab techs, who promptly returned to work. She crouched down in front of Grissom, then shifted to her knees.
"Oh, Gil." Her voice was steeped in compassion as she looked away, admittedly a little uncomfortable.
"I was there, Catherine. I-I saw her. I looked her in eye while he was, was…" He trailed off, unable to word it. "There was nothing there. Nothing. He took her away from me and destroyed her." His voice broke again and he tried desperately to force his breathing to slow, steadying. Gil shook his head, eyes shut tight, as if in physical pain himself.
"He didn't destroy her, Griss, nobody can do that. Hurt her, yes." Catherine sighed and sat down on the floor next to her friend, putting an arm around him. Shit, he's really broken up, She thought, leaning against him, offering him comfort. "Sara's a strong girl, she's come through a hell of a lot of other crap. She just needs a bit of help."
For a minute Grissom looked as though he were going to argue, but he quelled the pessimist in him and tried to believe Catherine. He wanted to believe her, he really did.
"I don't think I can help." He admitted, resigned.
"You are," She told him. "You're there for her - for once - and that's something."
Gil let out a deep, shuddering sigh and felt a sudden unexpected fatigue wash over him. His fist was bleeding profusely and his other arm was numb, and he worried that in his rage he had broken it. "Now, let's get those paws cleaned up, okay?" Catherine helped him up amidst the debris, and walked him, dazed, across the break room and down the corridor. She glared at any distracted lab tech as she lead him into her office and sat him down in a chair, and then began rummaging for her first aid kit.
"Knuckle out, Griss, I gotta clean it up." Catherine ordered Grissom, and he reluctantly obeyed.
"You don't need to-" He started, wincing as she dabbed TCP on the deep glass grazes on his fist.
"Who else will?" She retorted, good-naturedly, the question more rhetorical than anything. "You? Just let me do this and then I'm driving you home. You're in no fit state to even stack test-tubes, let alone shove papers or solve cases. So sit tight and shut up, and co-operate for once." Catherine softened the gibe with a knowing grin. Gil sighed, and co-operated.
"So how is Sara?"
He shook his head, half shrugging. "I honestly don't know."
"I'll take that as a 'not good' then."
Grissom shot her a look. "No, I suppose she's not that good."
"Did you suggest the counsellour the hospital referred you to?"
"She doesn't need a shrink, Cath."
"But she needs somebody to punch walls for her?" Catherine joked, but on seeing his expression regretted saying it. "Okay, lame joke. Everybody loses control sometimes. Even you, bugman."
"I shouldn't have. What kind of person am I?" He scolded himself, with contempt for his loss of control and indulging in his emotions like he had.
"A human one, that's what."
Finding no reply, Gil sat quiet while Catherine finished fixing up his hands, and soon they were done. He admired her handiwork, the splint keeping his wrist from shifting position, saving him some pain. It still throbbed, though.
"Right, go get whatever you need and meet me out in the car park, I'll be a few minutes."
Griss got up and left, but turned at the door. "Thanks, Cath." He said, maybe a little sheepishly.
"It's nothing. Lindsey punches walls all the time." She grinned, and then shooed him out of her office.
Again, a pretty short chapter. I'm getting close to the GSR bit though! lol Sorry for the wait! Thanks to all you kick ass people who have reviewed. Thanks ElisaCollette, I'll take your advice on the Anon Review thing! Thanks to Mxyxplyx for the idea for the chapter content, to me, half of writing is in the idea, so a big round of applause for her! (or him? lol sorry if I've offended you mate you haven't been gender specific) Either way, big thank you to brainfear, Adenara Yatman, ElisaCollette, buffygirl52789, TrishG, Mxyxplyx (of course!), Almeida's-Angel24, SMKLegacy, drakien, alias101, mrs.tingles, Miss Jazz (love your story Faithful Light by the way, every GSR shipper must read!), Elialys, UnspokenLoves, Juwist, and Evita aka Oracle. You guys rock! (And of course those who reviewed before) Again if any people want to see anything specific happen in this fic do tell me! And please review!
Keep writing, happy reading, Love from Mochaccino Girl xxxx