Chapter Thirteen: "Hope He Didn't See Anything"

A shower seemed like something a person from Las Vegas, who was a constant workaholic, that pulled sometimes 28 hour shifts, listened to the police scanner for fun, and dated ugly men, would do. So a shower was erased from her mind, and she settled for a nice calming bath.

The bathroom was dainty and freshening. Christmas was coming up. Actually it was coming up very soon, as if in a week. They would be heading back to Vegas two days after Christmas.

The bathroom was filled with the smell of gingerbread, spices. The bathroom was painted a dark shade of earthly colors. Dark, deep forest green, and brown candles. White alabaster decorated the four legged tub. She'd only witnessed these things on television, so it was an honor to see one in person. On the counter was a basket of little bath things that she'd brought from her bedroom. Each day, one was set on her freshly made bed, and as she inspected all of the things there, she thought about it. There were tea rose scented bath beads, shampoo, body wash, exfoliating masks, (ouch!) And a little puffy thing that Sara soon gave it the name of 'buff puff.' It needed to be buff if it was going to get the grimy mud that had been caked on her skin from her and Grissom's 'romantic' (hardly) walk.

I'm goin' to splurge! She thought to herself. Besides, a new basket was placed on her bed everyday, from what the french man had told her, and by her standards, it was free.

She dumped in the tea rose bubbles first, filling the alabaster tub with thick suds that had a slight tint of pink to them. And then the bath beads. Her grandmother used to giver her a single bath bead when ever she used to visit her, she'd never really used them. Didn't really know what they were, only that they were small and filled with a lovely scented liquid that spilled and got all over everything if you squeezed it hard enough.

She struggled to pull off her icky wet clothes and slipped into the bath tub. Before she climbed in, she grabbed an elastic band from her vanity bag and tied her hair up in high bun.

Perfect. She groaned in ecstasy as it seemed all her worries were escaping her.

There was just one more thing. Lights. She didn't want to step out of the scalding hot tub, but she had to. Just one more thing to make this situation a bit more romantic.

She climbed out of the tub and flicked off the lights and turned on the one over the bath tub. It had a dimmer, so she dimmed the lights down very low.

Climbing back in the tub, she sighed again.

It felt so great...

There would be only one thing that would make this perfect...

If only, if only...

"I'm lonely." Grissom said to Nick as he stretched in a rocking chair on the porch. Grissom had already showered and was dressed in some cargo pants and a dark navy blue t-shirt on.

"I've noticed." Nick teased. "What time is it?" Grissom asked yawning as Nick to a chair next to him. "A little past eleven."

Grissom nodded and together they watched the downpour fall like the sky was coming down. What was confusing was when the rain stopped, it sounded as if it was still drizzling because of the creek across the road that roared below.

The rocked, and rocked. "So," Nick began.

"What did you and Sara do?" It sounded like a joke.

"What?" He'd caught Grissom off guard. "What did ya'll do up there when you had a,"

He made quotes with his fingers, 'chased each other up the mountain.'

Grissom shook his head. "We didn't DO anything Nicky. We had a food fight, collapsed on the forest floor outta breath-

"Ya I betchya did." Nick scoffed under his breath. Grissom turned his head toward him. "Sorry." Nick apologized.

"Whatchya all doin' out this late?"Warrick asked gruffly. He apparently had passed out on the couch for a couple of hours. "Rockin'." Nick replied.

Warrick joined them and sat beside Grissom's left. Nick on the right. Greg soon joined and took the seat by Warrick.

"Whatchya'll doin'?" He asked scratching his chin.

"Rockin'" They replied together.

Warrick looked suddenly nervous as Catherine walked briskly outside, took a deep breath of mountain air, glanced at Warrick, returned the same gaze and immediately walked back inside.

"What was that all 'bout?" Greg asked. Warrick coughed a few times and cleared his throat.

"Did ya'll-

"No!" Warrick caught onto what Nick was about to say. "No! No. No. I uh, accidentally walked into her as she was gettin' in her pajamas."

Everyone chuckled as Greg stared on.

There was silence and everyone felt the need to talk all of a sudden. "So, does Catherine-

Warrick shot him a death glare. "Fine. Fine. We won't talk about it."

"Where's Brass?" Nick asked suddenly remembering the sleeping detective.

"Passed out on the couch watching Dr. Phil, or Oprah, one." Warrick commented.

Everyone laughed.

"I hate that show." Greg said.

"Me too." Nick added.

"Itsok." Warrick coughed.

Everyone exchanged glances. "What?" Nick choked. "I said it's ok. I mean, they show some pretty decent lookin' gals on there."

Grissom stared of into space.

"You watch it Griss?" Nick asked.

"Ya, sometimes."

Everyone stared at him. "It's a womans' show, why would you watch it. All it's about is how tramatic it was for a movie star to break up with her boyfriend and how she got over it, yadda yadda yadda."

"You should know Sherlock." Nick laughed.

Grissom cleared his throat before speaking. "I like it cause you can get into women's heads and try to figure out what the hell they're thinking and/or plotting against you."

"Example?" Nick asked.

Don't say it. Don't say it. It'll only add fire to their fuel, oh what the flippin' hell, Go for it Griss!

"Sara. No matter how hard I try to figure that woman out, I just don't get her. I mean, she takes everything the wrong way, and well..." He slammed a hand down on the arm of his chair and sighed.

"I think I know what's goin' on." Everyone glanced in the direction of who was speaking. Which at the moment was Nick. "You in love with our Sidle?" Warrick took over.

"Nah, I mean no, I mean...I don't know what I mean really." He confessed.

Finally, Gilbert Grissom was etching slowly out of his shell, slowly but surely.

They sought the need to back off from Grissom for a while, to let him breath and digest his feelings, and switched subjects.

Grissom excused himself and went inside to brush his teeth and wash his face before going to sleep. He trudged up to the bathroom. And placed a hand on the knob...

"Ah, forgot my tooth brush," He whispered in the candle lit hallway.

Just one thing would do this right. One person, who would love her, care for her, and perhaps kiss her...

Ahhhh... If only if only...

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Grissom stood petrified in the bathroom staring down at her. She was mostly hidden by bubbles, but still, this was totally embarrassing.

"I'm...so...sor-

"Get out Grissom! Get out!" She shrieked. Grissom high-tailed it outta there and didn't look back.

Ok. So he had now walked in on her in the nude. But why was he turning red in the face?

Why was he becoming throughly warm? Why did he like that?

But most of all, why did feel suddenly, the "a" word?

Attracted.