Chapter Six – Cereal Killers.

Harriet woke to her alarm clock bleeping at her. She groaned and rolled over, burying her face in the pillow, not wanting to get up. The clock beeped louder so she rolled back over and hit the button in defeat, turning it off. She sat up and looked around the unfamiliar room she had been sleeping in. Her eyes rested on her favourite photograph and she smiled sadly to herself. She yawned again and climbed out of bed, desperately needing a shower. This was going to be awkward she realised as she remembered that to get to the bathroom she had to go through Greg's room.

She crept quietly out of her room and saw that Greg wasn't in the living room. He must still be in bed, she thought. Ok, I can do this. Harriet walked quietly to his bedroom door and slowly opened it. Greg was fast asleep, one foot hanging off the side of his bed, his hair a spiky mess. She tiptoed over to the door at the end of his bedroom, stepping over the clothes he had been wearing which were in a pile on the floor. Discovering that the door did in fact lead to the bathroom, she quickly tiptoed in and turned on the shower before using the toilet. Trying her best to have the fastest shower she had ever known, she kept checking the door to make sure he didn't come in and see her. Relieved at not yet being discovered, she wrapped herself in a towel, and began to tiptoe back out of the bathroom. She was so busy checking that Greg wasn't awake as she crossed the room that she didn't see the guitar leant against the desk.

There was a resounding twang as the guitar hit the floor.

'Whoozat?' Greg yelled in surprise and sat up.

Harriet screamed in surprise as a result of both the guitar and Greg's shouting startling her. Then to add insult to injury, her towel slipped off.

'Whoa, shit,' Greg turned red and quickly covered his eyes.

Harriet hastily re-covered herself in the towel and ran out of the room, her face burning in embarrassment.

'Okay, stop being such a wimp,' Harriet told herself as she looked in the mirror 'It happened very quickly, he probably didn't see anything. He was half asleep'

She was trying to reassure herself at the same time as plucking up the courage to leave her room and face him after her embarrassing episode. She had deliberately taken as long as possible to get dressed in the hope of prolonging the agony.

'Oh for goodness sake!' she snapped at herself 'Just go get some breakfast you idiot!'

Taking a deep breath, Harriet opened her bedroom door and walked out into the living room. Greg was in the kitchen turning the coffee machine on. He heard her door close and turned round.

'Oh hey, you want some coffee?' he asked with a tiny smile like he was trying not to laugh.

'So I am actually allowed to drink your coffee now?' Harriet asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting at the breakfast bar, feeling very annoyed that he was laughing at her. Any decent guy would totally disregard what had happened.

'Yeah you deserve it for giving me a wake up call I won't forget in a while,' Greg smirked and took a couple of mugs out of the cupboard.

Harriet scowled at him 'don't even think about it, it never happened o.k?' she said firmly.

Greg nodded and handed her a mug. He took two bowls from the cupboard and sat down opposite her, handing her a bowl.

'Help yourself,' he said, indicating the boxes of cereal on the breakfast bar.

Harriet picked a box and poured some brightly coloured cereal into her bowl. Greg did the same with a different cereal and poured milk on, passing her the carton when he was finished.

They sat and ate in silence for a while. Harriet caught him looking at her a couple of times with a cheeky grin on his face. Men! She thought bitterly, wishing she had a memory-altering device she could use on him. Not a bad idea, she thought, make a mental note to invent one.

'You know they say you can tell a lot about a person from the cereal they eat,' Greg said, bringing her back to reality.

'Oh yeah?' Harriet looked at him, not really interested 'And what are you eating?'

Greg sat up and stuck his chest out 'Cap'n Crunch' he said proudly.

'Is that a good thing?'

'Well, yeah he's a captain, he's the man in charge'

'Okay, keep taking your medication won't you' Harriet quipped.

Greg sighed and reassumed the semi slouching position he had been in before. They continued to eat in silence for another minute or two before Greg spoke again.

'You know, I love cereals,' he said 'But I'm not a cereal killer.'

Harriet rolled her eyes. Someone shut this guy up please.

'Yeah, you're funny,' she said sarcastically.

'Well, at least I'm not a fruit loop,' Greg said, tapping the top of the box of cereal that Harriet had chosen.

She glared at him and he looked back at her. She tried her best to keep the angry look on her face but she saw him begin to smile and they both ended up laughing. Harriet shook her head in defeat.

'Ok, I'll give you that one on one condition.' She said.

'And what would that be?' Greg asked.

'You don't mention what happened earlier to anyone,'

'Deal, it never happened.' Greg promised.

It never occurred to Harriet at the time that he had agreed to that a little too quickly.

Nick looked up as Harriet and Greg walked into the break room at the start of the shift.

'Aw man,' he said, disappointedly.

'Pay up, bro' Warrick grinned and held out his hand.

Nick pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Warrick.

'Did you guys make a bet on us?' Harriet asked. 'Is that allowed?'

'Ah,' Greg waved his hand, dismissing it 'they do it all the time, they're always betting on something.

'Nicky here figured one of you would turn up today with a black eye,' Warrick explained.

'Glad to see you survived,' Sara said, looking up from the journal she was reading.

'Almost,' said Greg, glancing cautiously at Harriet.

She glared at him, oh my god, what is he going to say.

'Almost?' Sara repeated.

'Yeah she made a real boob of herself earlier,' Greg said, trying not to laugh.

Harriet felt her face start to burn again. Greg poured himself a coffee and raised it slightly as if to toast to her.

'Bottoms up!' he said, grinning and taking a sip.

'You asshole!' she said quietly, through gritted teeth so only Greg could hear her.

He smiled innocently at her. She made a sound like a cross between a growl and a scream of frustration and stormed out of the room after giving Greg a good hard punch on the arm.

'Hey!' he called after her. 'I didn't tell them anything.'

Harriet was seriously starting to regret moving in with Greg and even moving to Las Vegas for that matter. An hour into the shift and he had come into the lab with a couple of swabs for her to test.

'Can you check out these boob samples please?' he asked.

She looked at him, raised an eyebrow. Greg put his hand to his mouth in mock embarrassment.

'I'm sorry did I say boob? I meant blood of course!'

'Get out.' Harriet said quietly and sternly.

Greg grinned, gave her a wink and left.

And that was just the start of it. Every time he came by the lab he managed to fit every word imaginable for breasts into what he was saying.

'I'm sure we can make living together work. We just need to get abreast of the situation.'

'Get out.'

'I'm going on my break soon. Think I might have fruit salad today, nice piece of melon '

'Get out.'

'Man, there was this crime scene out on boulder highway once…'

'Get out'

'It was terrible and the investigation went completely tits up.'

'Get out, get out GET OUT.'

Harriet finally lost her patience and screamed at him, causing other people around the lab to look up from what they were doing. Nick, Warrick and Grissom were in the hallway discussing a case and looked up when they heard her shout.

'Aw c'mon I was just having a laugh,' Greg said, walking towards the door, 'what kind of bees make milk? BOOBIES.' He said quickly before running out of the door, down the hallway.

Harriet yelled out in frustration and began to chase after him. He stopped, turned and gave her wave, sticking his chest out.

'YOU SAW MY BREASTS GET OVER IT! ' She screamed at him.

Realising that what she had just said had been heard by the entire building, she turned to go back into her lab and found Grissom looking at her disapprovingly with an amused Nick and Warrick behind him. She smiled weakly and cleared her throat.

'Umm, I'm going to go on a break. If you need me I'll be hiding in the bottom left hand cupboard in the break room, trying to piece my dignity back together.'

Grissom continued to look at her disapprovingly so she headed to the break room, which was empty and made herself an extremely strong coffee that could have done with a shot of vodka adding to it.