Title: Sticks and StonesChapter 4
Disclaimer: These guys don't belong to me.
Spoiler(s): Weeping Willows
"Hey, what's up?" Sara asked, in reference to the page he had sent. Grissom was gulping down what appeared to be some sort of microwave pasta dish. Before he could answer, she ventured further into his office and peered at the dish. "What is that?"
"Chicken pasta bake with assorted vegetables or something like that." He answered around a mouthful. Picking up his water bottle he chugged half of it, wiped his mouth on his lab coat sleeve and picked up a handful of folders. Sara stared at the lab coat sleeve and hoped he hadn't been poking around in anything too nasty with it on.
"Why are you eating that now? Shift's almost over, you could get something decent on the way home."
"Can't, I'm catching a flight to Chicago in an hour. I don't have time to get anything beforehand and the last time I was on a long flight I got two tiny bags of pretzels – no food. I drank beer instead and I seriously doubt I presented a very professional appearance by the time I arrived. I have to sign up for the conference as soon as I get there, so microwave, freezer burned, crappy pasta is better than nothing."
"Well, there's not much there." She noted, studying the small black container. "So, when are you coming back?"
"Saturday and you're in charge until I get back. The top three files just need final review and a case narrative written." He stood up, handed them to her then scooped up most of what was left in the dish with a plastic fork. He stuffed it in his mouth and dropped the dish in the trash. Sara stood staring at him, in shock, while he stacked his briefcase and laptop on the top of his suitcase and wrapped the straps around the telescoping handle to secure them. His garment bag was smartly snapped to a built in attachment just under the handle.
"You're just leaving and dumping this on me for the whole week!"
"Yes, you'll be fine." He soothed. "If you have any problems or questions, call Catherine." He finished his water and tossed it in the trash as well. "I think, I'm all set."
"Catherine?"
"I have a taxi waiting out front and I've already discussed it with her. She doesn't have any problem with helping you so just call her." He patted her shoulder and started out the door then turned, glancing in the trash. "That will stink, by the time I get back." He gathered the trash bag and tossed it in one of the large lab trashcans on his way out the lab entrance.
"Like you would notice." Sara muttered after his retreating form.
Grissom felt a little guilty as he settled in the back of the cab. He lied to Sara. He had almost two hours before his flight but he had something else he needed to take care of and he didn't have time to answer all her inevitable questions. He was confident she'd be all right. Catherine promised to take care of her. Besides, none of the cases he left her with were due in court for at least a month. He had plenty of time to correct any errors when he returned.
"I need to make a stop at a flower shop on the way." He instructed the driver.
"Any one in particular."
"Doesn't matter, as long as they have decent flowers."
"There's a pretty good one on the way, not too expensive, about five minutes from the airport. I get my wife flowers there for her birthday and our anniversary."
"Sounds great."
A few minutes later, Grissom jumped out of the cab and entered the shop. It took him awhile to decide. He started to send pink roses because red might be too much and yellow were definitely out. He most certainly did not want to send a friendship message. After painfully extracting from him that the recipient of the flowers was a long time friend but recently an intimate relationship had evolved, the florist suggested something tropical.
"That's gorgeous, she'll love it." He said at the third arrangement presented. "Umm, could you attach one of those to it somewhere?" He pointed at the Cloisonné butterflies on display at the side of the counter.
"Certainly and you've made an excellent choice. Would you like to fill out the card, with a personal note, while I ring it up?"
"Card?" He looked at her blankly.
"Yes, flowers are usually accompanied by a card. We have five standard ones or you could chose something from the racks, but that will cost extra." She pointed to a small rack of greeting cards in the middle of the store. He glanced at his watch and decided it had been difficult enough just to choose the flowers.
"Standard will be fine." She laid them out on the counter for him to peruse. He glanced at his watch again and felt tremendous pressure; he was starting to run late and now he had to compose something on a card. Studying the cards, he chose the plainest one, mostly because he considered himself a simple man, then racked his brain for a suitable beginning.
"To the one I admire." The florist offered with a smirk. He glared at her as the taxi honked.
"Catherine," He began, then scribbled something to the effect of being sorry that they had exchanged little more than hello's this past week. He ended it with a promise to call. He sealed the little envelope and exchanged it and a signed receipt for his credit card then started to dash out of the shop.
"Hey! Where do I send it?"
Drawing a blank on her exact street address, he recited the lab address and fled. He gave the taxi driver an exorbitant tip, not having the time to wait for change. Then, he alternately raced and impatiently waited to get through the various bottlenecks of the airport. He made his flight with only seconds to spare. He hurriedly stuffed his briefcase and laptop in an overhead bin, sat down and fumbled with the seatbelt, finally securing it across his lap just as the flight attendant made the final walkthrough. After takeoff, he spent a good ten minutes berating himself. He could think of half a dozen Shakespeare quotes that would have been far better than the clumsy message he had jotted down.
Meanwhile, Sara looked through the folders he had thrust into her possession and decided to take them home. After three hours of pouring through them, she thought she had a pretty good idea of each case, some of which she had worked on, but wasn't really sure what to do with them now. Feeling out of her element, not to mention annoyed and confused that he didn't give her more warning and instruction.
She wondered if he had done this sort of thing to Catherine. Perhaps, that was why he acted as though he thought she should intuitively understand what needed to be taken care of. In the past, she had been a bit jealous that it was always assumed Catherine was automatically in charge when he was gone. She always thought it was just a seniority thing, and not a reflection of competency. Stifling a yawn, she decided the best course of action was to get some sleep and try to catch Catherine early.
Later that evening……………….
"Catherine? Hi, um, nice flowers." Sara put on her best friendly tone.
"Yeah, they are nice." Catherine smiled at the bouquet.
"New admirer?"
"I suppose you could say that." Catherine glanced at the file folders tucked under Sara's arm and quickly surmised the situation. "Let me guess, he dumped and ran."
"Yeah." Sara answered with a nervous giggle.
"That is sooo Grissom. Well, what have you got?"
"Three that need final review and a narrative written. I've written narratives for my cases but I've never done a final review………………."
"Okay, let me show you a couple of things. First, it's always good to know when he's going to take off on you. Judy keeps a calender of who's going where and when, on the E drive under Judy's stuff."
"Really?" Sara came round Catherine's desk and peered over her shoulder as she clicked on the file labeled Judy's stuff then opened another file labeled calender.
"He's gone to Chicago to the Great Lakes Forensics Conference. Let's see, he's presenting Thursday morning and plans to tour the local shop Wednesday afternoon."
"Wow, that's detailed. I didn't know Judy kept up with all this stuff. I always thought she was just being nosy."
"Somebody has to know what's going on around here. Since she reviews all the expense reports and submits them, it's good if she knows who was where and when. Anyway, I check this about once a week. It's always helpful to know when he's gonna split town so I can corner him and not get the 'here, please take care of this stuff, you'll be fine, see ya later' crap."
"Did he do this to you a lot?"
"All the time! The worst was when I had no warning. Now, I have a checklist I use when I review cases." Catherine rummaged through her file cabinet. "Initially, I made it up because Gil would question me for weeks about whether I checked this detail or that." She handed Sara a handful of checklists. "You've got all the standard stuff then several 'other' spaces. Put a check mark in the box for what is pertinent to the review and give a brief summary – a couple of lines will do. Just so he knows what discrepancies you saw and how you resolved them. If you check anything else, mark one of the other boxes and describe it. I promise it will save you a headache later. And, you know where the canned narratives are on the C drive, right?"
"Yep." Sara turned in the doorway on her way out, having developed a new appreciation for the more senior woman. "Catherine - Thanks, this is a lot of help."
"No problem, I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. If you need anything else, you know where I am."
Catherine sat back down at her desk and gazed at the flowers. Three bright red ginger flowers stair stepped up the middle, with two red Bird of Paradise flowers nestled between the top and middle ginger flowers. Tiny white and purple orchids rounded the bouquet at the bottom. She fingered the bright blue Cloisonné butterfly, which she had removed and tucked in her jacket pocket after taking a couple of pictures of the bouquet. It was a dead give away of exactly who had sent the flowers to her. She knew he didn't send butterflies to just anybody and this was the third time she'd been so fortunate.
TBC