First Date

All night, Nick had been grinning and it was driving Warrick insane! Finally, when they were in the lab, Warrick straightened from the microscope and glared at Nick. "What?" he snapped.

Nick continued grinning. "So you and Cath got some kind of custody arrangement going on with Linds?" he asked knowingly.

Warrick rolled his eyes. "Hahaha. Sometimes she comes to my apartment to hang out. It's no big deal."

"On the contrary, my dense friend, it is a big deal. You're getting close to the daughter, sleeping with the mother..." Nick smirked.

"Yeah, emphasis on sleeping," Warrick said, "And it was once. We were both exhausted and fell asleep watching a movie." It had been three weeks and everyone was still making cracks about him and Cath "sleeping" together.

Nick was surveying the evidence while they talked. "You looked pretty close in those pictures," he said, reaching over and pulling a hair out of the stitching of the shirt.

Warrick rolled his eyes. "Whatever." It was true. They had gotten really close. Lindsey had gotten a stern talking to and a long tickling for showing everyone just how close.

"Anyway, I heard you're going with Lindsey for her first date tonight."

Warrick gave him a suspicious look. "Now how do you know that?" he demanded.

Nick didn't look up from where he was preparing the hair to find DNA. "I have my sources," he said vaguely.

"Sara," Warrick groaned, "Cath told her and she told you. Figures."

"Hey, I think it's cute. Dinner and the movies...just you, Lindsey, her date, and Catherine." Nick finally looked up and smiled wickedly. "And me, Sara, Greg and Grissom'll be one table over and sitting at the back of the theater."

Of course they would. Warrick wouldn't have expected anything less from Lindsey's 'family'.

"So who is this boy anyway? Maybe he has a criminal record," Nick said.

"Naw, I already checked. He's clean." Warrick smirked when Nick opened his mouth to say somethine else. "Family's clean too."

Later...getting ready for the date

"I feel like I'm the one going on the date," Warrick said uncomfortably. He was sitting on Catherine's bed with a dejected look on his face. He was dressed casually, it was only dinner and a movie after all.

Catherine laughed. "It looks good on you," she joked.

"What does?" Warrick asked, looking down at his choice of dress.

Catherine rolled her eyes. "Over-protectiveness of my daughter," she said as if Warrick was dim-witted. He sure felt like it.

"She's too young to be going on dates," he grumbled.

Catherine hid a grin as she put some light makeup on and looked at herself in the mirror. "Do these jeans make me look fat?" she asked dramatically.

"Wha--no!" Warrick stuttered, not knowing how to answer that. He saw Catherine's sparkling eyes and rolled his eyes. "You're mean."

Lindsey ran in. "Mom!" she yelled.

Warrick's eyes widened. Lindsey was wearing a white padded bra and pajama pants and not much else. "Lindsey," he said, his voice higher than usual.

Lindsey ignored him. "Mom, I can't find anything to wear!" she shrieked.

Catherine put her hands over her ears mockingly. "Baby, calm down. What was wrong with the outfit we bought?" she asked worriedly, taking her hands away from her ears.

"I can't wear a skirt! It's just dinner and a movie and I need to be casual," Lindsey said, panicking slightly.

Warrick was staring at the ceiling with a blush staining his dark cheeks. "Lindsey, it doesn't matter what you wear. It just matters that you're there."

"Oh he's a rhymer," Catherine jeered jokingly.

"So if I went like this, it would be okay?" Lindsey asked.

Warrick's eyes snapped back to Lindsey's shirtless form. "No!" he protested.

"It's Vegas baby. I don't think people will think much of it," Catherine said seriously.

"Are you talking to me or him?" Lindsey asked. Catherine just shrugged. At first, she was pretty upset at the thought of her sweet little baby going on a date and growing up too fast, but now that Warrick was there freaking out, she was fine.

Warrick sighed and stood up. "Come on then. Let's go pick out some clothes for you baby girl." He paused at the door and turned around to see mother and daughter staring at him. "What? So I can buy you feminine products and girly costumes and do the comfort thing but I can't help you pick out clothes for your first date?"

Catherine bit her lip to keep from grinning and Lindsey shrugged. "It's just a little weird," she said carefully.

"Fine," Warrick said, moving to sit back down.

Lindsey grabbed his arm. "Come on then," she said, mimicking his earlier words.

He followed her to her room and stood there awkwardly. She motioned to her closet. "Go ahead." He opened the door with some trepidation.

Warrick studied the clothes without touching anything. Finally, he reached in and grabbed a pair of low-rise jeans and a v-neck short-sleeved red blouse. "It's cute and casual," he explained.

Lindsey eyed the outfit critically. "I'll wear the jeans, but not the shirt." She reached in and grabbed a spaghetti strapped low-cut brown blouse. She pulled it on. "Okay, you can get out now."

Warrick gladly obliged. Ten minutes later, Lindsey came out and Catherine whistled at her. "Sexy," Catherine called loudly as the bell rang.

Warrick answered after a few seconds of coaxing by Catherine and Lindsey. There was a nervous looking boy that was about six feet tall. The only reason Warrick didn't slam the door in his face was because of his baby-ish face. At first, the boy looked much older than he actually was. "Hi," Warrick said with a fake smile, "You must be Lindsey's date."

The boy's big blue eyes widened. "Y-Yes. I'm Tyler Brooks," he said, hesitantly holding out his hand.

Warrick took it and shook it firmly. "I'm Warrick Brown," he said and moved aside to allow the frightened boy access.

Before he could go into the living room where Lindsey and Catherine were, Warrick grabbed Tyler's arm. "I don't know if Lindsey told you what her mom does for a living, but we are both crime scene investigators...we catch the bad guys because of the clues that are left behind. Remember that we know how to kill without leaving evidence." Poor Tyler looked like he was about to wet himself so Warrick let him proceed into the living room.

Dinner went by quickly with a lot of awkward silences from their table and a lot of laughter from the next table. They finally decided to leave when Tyler accidentally spilled his drink all over Lindsey. Warrick gave her his jacket which she took graciously. Anger and indignation may have crossed her mind, but she pushed it away and decided to just enjoy the rest of the night.

When they got to the movie theater, Lindsey was dismayed to discover that the team had also went to the movies. She sat in the back with Tyler. Warrick and Catherine sat a couple of rows in front of them, and Nick and Sara sat to one side of Lindsey and Tyler and Greg and Grissom sat on the other.

Lindsey sighed as the movie started. She was really glad that she had people that cared about her, but this was so overkill. The date had showed that she didn't like Tyler as much as she had originally thought, but that didn't stop her from wanting to do something outrageous. "Hey Tyler," she whispered.

He turned to her hopefully. "Yeah, Lindsey?"

"These people surrounding us work with my mom," she said softly. The fear that filled his eyes confused her, but she continued anyway. "And I want to do something..." She explained it and he hesitantly agreed.

Nick watched as the two teens talked quietly. He stiffened when Lindsey giggled and laced her fingers with Tyler's.

Grissom observed the two silently and Greg was too engrossed in the movie to pay too much attention. Sara thought it was cute. Warrick was tense and Catherine was just worried that Warrick would kill the boy.

Another, louder, giggle came from Lindsey and she kissed Tyler on the cheek. When they got up to walk out of the theater, Greg, in an act of childishness, tripped Tyler. He fell on Lindsey and they both hit the floor.

All Warrick saw was a boy on top of Lindsey. He jumped up and Catherine grabbed his hand. "Warrick," she warned even though she was quite angry too.

"Get off of me," Lindsey whispered, "Why did you do that?"

"That guy tripped me," Tyler said defensively as he pushed himself up off of Lindsey.

Lindsey stood up with a flushed face to see some angry glares. "We weren't doing anything wrong," she squeaked.

Every person in the theater (which was about five or six people) turned their attention away from the movie to the drama unfolding before them.

The hand in Warrick's went from restraining to cutting off his circulation. "What exactly were you doing?" Catherine asked dangerously.

"Playing," Lindsey said with all the indignation of a wrongly-accused teen.

"You were...playing," Warrick stated with wide eyes.

"Not like that!" Tyler protested, shaking his head frantically. "Linds was..."

"We don't have to explain ourselves!" Lindsey said, "This is our date, not an excuse for you to cuddle with mom!"

Catherine became aware of their interlaced fingers and quickly extracted her hand.

"Umm," Greg said. Everyone's eyes turned to him and he gulped. "I tripped the boy. It wasn't their fault."

Everyone looked at Grissom and he nodded. "He did."

Lindsey glared at them all and stomped out of the room.

"I-I'm gonna call my mom," Tyler muttered and made a hasty retreat.

Catherine groaned. "I think we just ruined my daughter's first date," she said miserably.

"She'll get over it," Warrick said confidently. "It was an honest mistake."

Sara nudged Nick with her elbow. "We're gonna go..." she said.

Greg nodded enthusiastically. "Me too."

Grissom shrugged. "I'm going too."

Catherine sighed and sat down. "Hey Warrick, since this is your excuse to cuddle with me..."

Warrick gave her a dirty look. "We weren't cuddling! There was no cuddling at all whatsoever!"

Lindsey walked back into the theater and sat over by her mom. "You can cuddle with me since you sent Tyler home," she said, batting her eyelashes.

Warrick sighed. "You're never gonna let this go are you?" he asked.

She pretended to think about it. "No," she said finally, "Unless you buy me ice cream. Then I might."

Warrick sat down on the other side of Lindsey and put his arm on the back of Lindsey's seat. "What are we watching anyway?" he asked, absent-mindedly playing with Catherine's hair.

"Dreamer," Lindsey answered. "We already missed over half of it. I want to go get that ice cream."

Warrick looked over at Catherine who shrugged. "Okay, I'll buy you ice cream," Warrick said, "But then you have to forgive me."

Lindsey thought about it. "Okay. Tyler's too nice for me anyway. I think next I'm gonna get a gothic boyfriend."

"He wasn't your boyfriend," Catherine pointed out, "They aren't your boyfriends until they ask you if they can be. He just asked for a date."

Lindsey shrugged. "Or maybe I'll get a stoner."

Warrick shook his head. "I think you should wait to get a boyfriend," he offered his opinion hopefully.

Lindsey just stood up. "Ice cream!"

There wasn't any way that Warrick would be able to convince her that she was too young for things like boyfriends and dates. Maybe he could bribe her...she seemed to really like ice cream.

Shaking his head at his own thoughts, he stood up and offered Catherine a hand up. "You heard the girl. Let's go get us some ice cream."

END

A/N-That turned out a little different than I originally thought it would, but that's okay. I didn't go to school today so I got to spend the day writing...and reading...and watching tv...and listening to music. Yeah then I had to fold a ping-pong table full of clothes!