Find Me A Date
Disclaimer: don't own them, will trade you for them. I'm sure I've got something worth trading.
Spoilers: none
Thursday at work
Grissom arrived at the lab about 20 minutes late because he had been programming his cell phone to receive his email alerts. He hurried to his office to grab the night's assignments and hand them out. Warrick, Greg and Catherine were given a B&E off the strip. He assigned himself to work with Nick and Sara on a missing persons complaint, thinking that at least this would buy him some time to find Catherine's date. Before he could get them all out of the break room his cell phone went off. Grissom grabbed it and saw it was a message from E-Harmony. He put the phone away deciding now was not the time to be checking the message.
"Uh, Grissom, you're not going to see what that was about?"
"I know what it was about, not important. OK, people, let's go."
Everyone gathered their things and headed for the Denalis. Grissom climbed in as his phone beeped for the 2nd time. He looked at the display, another E-Harmony email, and put it back on his beltclip.
"Grissom, that's two messages, don't you think you should check it?" Sara said.
"Nope." Grissom didn't even look back, just kept driving. They arrived at the scene a short while later and while getting his gear his phone went off again.
"Gris, you got another message." Nick said as he grabbed his case.
"I heard it."
"You avoiding someone?"
"Nope." Grissom grabbed his case and walked away.
Grissom walked up to Brass to get an update on what was going on.
"Neighbor called it in, said the mail was piling up. So she tried calling, got no answer and then came over and saw the back door open. She went in and didn't…"
Grissom's phone went off again. He looked, another match.
"Don't you think you should listen to that? Could be the sheriff."
"If it was the sheriff I'd turn the phone off."
"Yeah, well, whoever it is has left another message," said Brass as Grissom's phone beeped again.
"I need to go process this scene."
"Sounds like you need to check the messages to me."
"Sounds like you need to be questioning the witness to me."
Grissom finally found his way to the interior of the scene. Once inside he gave instructions to Nick and Sara about what he wanted done. It took a little big longer than normal because his phone went off three more times before he could finish telling them what to do. When Sara tried to ask him what was going on he just gave her that Grissom stare that said it was none of her business.
Nick was working in the kitchen with Grissom the next time his phone beeped.
"Hey, man, you got a girlfriend that we don't know about?"
"What?"
"A girlfriend? I mean no one pages a man that often unless they are in love or pissed off at someone they are in love with."
"Process Nick."
"Right, bossman. Don't discuss your personal life." Nick photographed a piece of evidence.
Grissom's phone beeped again. He was beginning to regret registering Catherine at E-Harmony.
"I, uh, think I'll go see how Sara's doing on those prints."
"Why don't you check those messages while you're at it!" Nick said as his flash indicated another photo.
"Nick. Process. Now"
"Yes sir!" Nick laughed to himself. "The bossman had found a woman, a very persistent woman."
Grissom stopped halfway between Sara and Nick in order to check his messages. A total of 10 new messages flashed at him from his display screen, all from E-Harmony. All of them wanting to meet Catherine.
The first message was from a man in Georgia. His profile was good, but the distance between Georgia and Vegas was not so good. Grissom quickly typed in a reply stating he appreciated the interest but that "she" wasn't interested in a long distance relationship.
The second message was from a manufacturing engineer in Phoenix. He had already been married three times according to his profile and was currently on the look out for wife number four. Grissom just deleted the message without even replying.
The third message was from a doctor in Reno. He had his own practice and volunteered twice a month at a local clinic that served the community's poor. He had been married once and had two sons. Grissom sent a reply asking him for more information about himself.
The fourth, fifth and six messages were all from total losers as far as Grissom was concerned and he deleted them as well.
The seventh message was from a gentleman in the Lake Tahoe area. He was a computer programmer who spent his off-time cross-country skiing and mountain climbing. His photo was, in Lindsey's language, hot. Grissom fired off a reply asking to chat with him so "she" could get to know him a little better.
Messages eight and nine were from men who lived in New York. Grissom deleted these also, muttering to himself that any man who couldn't read Catherine's profile correctly (no long distance relationships) wasn't worth his time.
Message ten was from a man in the Vegas area. His profile stated he was a business owner (hotels and casinos) and that he recognized Catherine from a picture he had seen in Sam Braun's office. The gentleman said that he was shocked that a woman as beautiful as Catherine had to resort to searching online to find a date and that had he known she was available he would have approached her himself. Grissom wasn't sure what to do with this one. He stared at the screen trying to decide how he was going to reply back when Sara surprised him.
"Somebody's popular tonight." She pointed to his phone.
"Aren't you supposed to be printing?"
"Done. Care to tell me who it is that can't wait to hear from you?"
"Don't see that it's really any of your business."
"Fine. Listen, there's some kind of bug in there and I really didn't want to get too close to it, could you…"
"Sure." Grissom reached to put his phone in his pocket and started towards the room Sara had come from, not realizing that he had missed his pocket and the phone had landed on the carpet below. Sara quickly grabbed it up. It was unusual for her supervisor's phone to ring like it had tonight and even more unusual (at least in Sara's mind) for him to not confide in her about who was calling.
Sara quickly found his messages and started to read through them. All of them were from E-Harmony, a service Sara was intimately familiar with. She just couldn't believe that Grissom Grissom had to resort to this to find himself a date. Obviously now would be a good time to ask him out again, but first she had to finish going through his messages. What she saw shocked her. It had never occurred to Sara that Grissom might be gay, but with all these matches being male it had to be true. Why else would he have turned her down every single time she asked him out. Surprisingly enough, the idea of Grissom being gay didn't bother her near as much as his being interested in Catherine or Sofia.
"Hey, Grissom."
"Where's this bug? I can't find it?" Grissom was crawling around on the floor and it was making his knees hurt.
"Forget the bug, Gris, there was no bug."
"But you said…" He was going to have to medicate his knees for nothing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Sara looked at him with as much understanding as she could muster.
"Tell you what?"
"That your…that you prefer…"
"Prefer what Sara?"
"Men. I mean I never would have asked you out in the first place had I known."
"Sara. Stop. What are you talking about?"
"The messages on your phone from E-Harmony. They're all from men."
"You checked my messages?"
"I was concerned about you."
"Sara, first off, you have no business checking the messages on my phone. Second, I'm not gay."
"You're not? Gre…I mean, um, do you want to talk about this over breakfast?"
"No! We've been through this before, Sara. I'm not going out with you."
"But…then who are these matches for?"
"I can't say."
"Fine, I'll ask Catherine when we get back to the lab, she'll know. She always knows." Sara smiled bitterly. Why wouldn't he confide in her?
"NO! Look, Cath asked me to find her a date and I'm having a little trouble so I decided to try this. It was a bad idea and I wish I hadn't done it. You can't say anything to her. You have to swear to me you won't say anything."
"I won't say anything on one condition." This was her opportunity and she wasn't about to waste it.
"Sara, give it up. I'm not going out with you."
"How did you…never mind. I was going to say you let me help you find her a date."
"Sara."
"It's either let me help or have breakfast with me or I tell Catherine what you've done. It's your choice." Sara smiled triumphantly. This was a win-win situation for her.
"Fine. You can help." Grissom sighed and thought to himself, "This cannot be good."