Title: Changes

Rating: PG

Pairings: G/S

Category: Romance

Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't own 'em. Don't sue me.

Summary: It's been seven months since Nick was kidnapped and rescued. Everything had changed. GSR, I swear. Each chap is a different character's POV.

CATHERINE

Gil Grissom had been her friend for years, more than Catherine cared to admit. Anything that aged her was not something that made her happy these days. But she knew Gil well, better than anyone probably. His own mother surely didn't know him as well as she did. They had never dated. That was the first thing that people assumed when Catherine mentioned her colleague. She hated that. Gil just wasn't her type. He wasn't… outgoing, or spontaneous. Gil Grissom was personal and boring. God, did she hate boring men. But Gil was a great friend. That she did love about him.

She watched him. He was in his kitchen, if it could be called that, mixing her a drink while cooking there dinner. These get-togethers of theirs had been his idea, a shock to her, but a welcomed one. In all honesty, they had started to drift apart, what with the team being split up, and their many sudden disagreements about a certain brunette on graveyard. Close friends shouldn't drift, that's how Catherine felt about it anyway.

"Screwdriver, on the rocks," Grissom was suddenly standing in front of her and Catherine smiled at him as she took the glass from his hand.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Grissom moved back to the kitchen and Catherine went back to her thoughts.

When Nick had come to her the other day, she had been expecting it. He had asked the question that she had been waiting for someone to ask her for months. He wanted to know if something was going on with Grissom… if he seemed different to her somehow. She had shrugged, saying that she hadn't noticed anything. Ha. That had been a load of bull. Gil Grissom was suddenly a new man. Or, an old man, the old version of himself. The one who smiled and joked with his team. The one that loved his work and could spend days trying to solve a mystery, no matter how insignificant it seemed to anyone else. For some reason unbeknownst to her, Gil Grissom, world-renowned entomologist, was in full swing again.

Catherine snorted at her own thoughts and took a sip of her drink.

Gil was damn good at hiding things. He'd been doing it since the day they'd met. Hell, he could hide a body in plane sight and get away with it. But this, whatever it was, it was big. He obviously wasn't trying to hide the fact that he had changed, but he was doing a damn good job of hiding what had changed him.

"So, wanna tell me what's got you so damn chipper lately?" she asked, glaring at him over the edge of her rocks glass.

Gil smirked, "Chipper, Catherine? Really, I don't do chipper."

"Well I don't know what it is then, but you do a damn good impression of someone I used to know," she said, sitting her glass on his coffee table. She noticed that it wasn't the one he used to have. When had he gotten new furniture? She shook her head, "And you know, I liked that guy, and I kept asking myself why he decided to leave… I just thought you should know, I'm not the only one who's glad that he's back."

She watched Gil for a moment, his eyes lowered as he worked on their meal. He didn't say anything, but she knew by his posture that her words had an effect on him.

Catherine looked around, deciding that they didn't need to discuss it any further. He had gotten the point. Instead, she took in the other changes that had been made to his townhouse since the last time she'd been there.

The large dining table was still there, three large bookshelves against the wall behind it, still overflowing with volumes that she knew he'd read a dozen times. The couch she was lounging on was new. It was dark blue, covered in some soft fabric that she was tempted to analyze, resting in the same spot where the old leather one had been, under the window. An over-sized chair sat near the sofa, near enough to the new coffee table that someone could prop their feet up on it. There was a new television, a flat screen, hanging on the wall opposite the chair, and Catherine knew right away that Gil had not picked the items out on his own.

"Decided to redecorate a little, huh?" she asked non-chalantly, smiling down into her glass.

"Yeah, I decided I needed new furniture to go with my new personality," he deadpanned.

Catherine laughed then, propping her feet up on the coffee table and taking the plate he offered. She waited for him to sit down beside her before she started eating. She glanced at him once a few moments later and he smiled back at her. This was definitely a welcomed change.