DISCLAIMER: Don't Own It, No Money Made... Just for fun & enjoyment.

RATING: M for Mature. For language and mature situations in later chapters.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone giving a thumbs up for this fic over at YTDAW... It means a lot that you guys are recommending my story. I was completely blown away to learn about that.

I also want to, once again, thank my betas, who are both tirelessly helping with edits and a little brainstorming now and then. With their help (and threats of violence) I will stay on schedule and on track.

REVIEWS: Thanks to all who have reviewed.


Chapter 17

Catherine took a seat in her usual booth at the diner and prepared to enjoy her meal alone. She had made plans to meet Stephanie for something to eat before their shift tonight, but when she checked in at the office before heading over to the diner, Catherine learned that the new medical examiner had pulled a marathon shift over the previous few days. As a result, she expected the young woman to be spending the night recovering at home. The waitress had already brought some coffee and taken her order, and Catherine decided the quiet would be a welcome change tonight.

The last couple of weeks had been jam-packed with activity and new developments; the greatest of which was the arrival of Dr. Stephanie MacInnerney. The vibrant and incredibly sharp young woman immediately impressed Catherine with her intelligence and quick wit. She also realized that Stephanie had most of the males in the department on their ears with her striking beauty.

Catherine had found in the young doctor, someone she could relate to in a way she had been missing in her recent life. The girl was bright, but she was also brash, and Catherine felt in her a kindred spirit. Even at their first meeting, Catherine knew that this woman was someone she was going to enjoy getting to know. And when she learned about her connection to Gil, it made it all the more tantalizing to learn more about this new woman.

What she had learned so far was that Stephanie fast became a good friend, as well. They shared a great many things, including their desire to look after the one person they had in common. As she sipped from her coffee cup, Catherine smiled one of her most feline smiles.

"Well, that look makes me think you've got something going on." Catherine was shocked out of her introspection by Stephanie's sudden arrival. The young woman signaled to the waitress, as she scooted across the seat, and took her place in the opposite side of the booth from Catherine.

"What the devil are you doing here?" Catherine was completely surprised, to not only see the young doctor, but to find her wide awake, and apparently cheerful.

"Weren't we meeting before shift tonight?" Stephanie gave her a puzzled expression, but before Catherine could respond, the waitress arrived.

"What can I get you, honey?" The ancient Vegas waitress croaked her question as she poured Stephanie a cup of coffee.

"Ahhh.. Scrambled egg whites, whole grain toast, orange juice, hashbrowns, sausage links and a fruit bowl?" Stephanie looked up at the woman and smiled at her with a warmth the veteran waitress was not used to, and she was so caught up in it that she smiled back.

"Alright, honey… Comin' right up." She even patted Stephanie on the shoulder before she walked away, chuckling to herself. Stephanie seemed to have that affect on everyone.

Catherine shook her head in disbelief, "How in the world can you be so perky after pulling a fifty plus hour shift, that ended what… Thirteen hours ago?"

Stephanie took a sip from her coffee cup and smiled before answering. "That's easy… Nine hours of sleep, an hour of fantastic sex," Catherine practically choked on her coffee, "resolving one of my biggest problems in a single revelation, and FINALLY putting to rest the problems with a co-worker yesterday. That just makes the next day one of my best ever." It was Stephanie's turn to take on a feline expression of satisfaction.

Catherine smirked at the young woman's explanation, "Well, whatever it is you've got, would you please bottle it and give me some? I would still be trying to unscramble my brains after pulling that kind of a shift."

"Follies of youth?" Catherine's expression of unwanted surprise was enough to elicit a laugh from the younger woman. "Sorry, I use that joke a lot… Happens when you're always the youngest person in the room."

She had to give her that, and she just shook her head, "Well, it's good to see you either way." Catherine thought a little more about what Stephanie said before, "Which co-worker?"

"Oh, um, I got the air cleared with ah, Sara, last night." She scooted back in the booth seat and stretched her legs out on the bench. "You know what? She's really pretty cool, and man, she's got one amazing mind. I was totally blown away by some of the things we talked about."

Once again, Catherine was completely shocked by the things this girl was able to accomplish. "Wait, you got Sara to talk? About real stuff?"

"Once we got past the normal crap, we had a really nice talk… Until I got paged to go back to the morgue, that is." She took another sip from her coffee cup. "I'm still waiting for that slow time David talked about."

"I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you." They both chuckled and then sat up straight as the waitress arrived with their food.

"Okay, ladies… One Denver Omelet and an English Muffin." She set the food down in front of Catherine, "And one mostly healthy, absolutely enormous breakfast for the youngster." Once she finished putting all the food down, she planted a hand on her hip, "Sure you can handle all that food, Sweetie?"

Stephanie looked over the plates with a voracious glint in her eyes, "Oh yeah… Besides, this is probably the only meal I'll get until tomorrow morning." She and Catherine both laughed at her comment, but mostly because they knew it was more true than not.

The waitress walked away shaking her head with a smile on her face, and left the two women to start in on their food. For all appearances, nothing seemed to be on their minds as they ate, but as they each made an impact on the food before them, the small talk kicked in.

"I almost forgot! Thomas found that old study guide for Lindsey when he was unpacking this weekend."

Catherine swallowed the morsel in her mouth before responding, "Oh great… I'm sure she'll appreciate it just as much as that other stuff you gave her for school." Catherine smiled at the thought, "We both had a blast with you guys last week, and Linds is really taking a shine to you two… But, I think she might have a little crush on Thomas."

Stephanie just chuckled as she spread the butter on her toast, "Well, I can't blame the girl. I mean, he is a total babe." Both women laughed heartily at the joke.

"So, what was that you said about solving your biggest problem?" Catherine was never one for much small talk.

"Oh! Yeah, after everything that's happened the last couple weeks, I decided planning a wedding is NOT on my list of things to do right now." She had just dropped a time bomb, but Stephanie looked like she had done nothing more than given a weather report.

Catherine, on the other hand, looked like she was about to choke on her last bite of English Muffin. "You cancelled your wedding?"

"God no!" Stephanie shook her head as she quickly chewed the food in her mouth, "No… I just decided, and Thomas agrees, we're just gonna fast track the whole thing and get it over with."

"Get it over with?" Catherine shot her a carefully raised eyebrow.

"Real romantic, huh?" Stephanie laughed at her own joke before finishing her answer, "I know, I know, but you have to remember, Thomas and I have been together for seven years, and we've been engaged for more than five of those." It was with that thought she got serious, "I already messed up with waiting this long, and I don't want to keep making the same mistake."

Catherine saw the far away look in Stephanie's eyes and had to know the reasoning behind her answer, "What mistake was that, Steph?"

"Cath, I'm an only child, and my parents had me late in life to boot… Because I got it in my head that I didn't want to deal with a marriage in case Thomas and I got separated by our careers, my Pop died before he got to walk me down the aisle." A small lump formed in Catherine's throat, and she guessed that maybe she was not as cynical as everyone thought she was after all. "So, I'm not gonna wait any longer to plan some elaborate party that I don't need. I'm just gonna find a priest, get a place for a few people to watch and marry that man before anything else happens." Stephanie flashed Catherine with a smile, but she was almost positive that a tear was threatening to come loose.

Catherine reached across the table and laid her hand on the younger woman's forearm, "Well, then tell me what you need, and I'll see if I can't help make it as painless as possible." Catherine gave her one of those killer smiles of hers, and a little wink.

Stephanie took a deep breath, "Well, if you're serious… Neither of us has any idea where to do this thing." She thought about that statement for a moment. "That's not true… If we have it in a Vegas wedding chapel, my mother will never speak to me again." Both women enjoyed a hearty laugh at the off-hand comment.

"Honey, I would never speak to you again if you did that… So, give me a day or two and I'll have something perfect for you guys… Did you have a date in mind?" Catherine pulled out her calendar and was ready to jot down some notes.

"Two weeks from yesterday." Not for the first time in the last two weeks, Catherine found herself speechless, and her face showed every ounce of it. "Now, before you go thinking I've completely lost my mind… Thomas' best friend is leaving Vegas in three weeks, two of our friends living in Chicago are going to be finishing their honeymoon here that weekend, Thomas' sister will actually be in town that weekend, and my Mom will be here on Friday and staying for two weeks. The timing is perfect." She followed up her explanation by taking in a big mouthful of eggs.

Catherine still had a hard time processing all the information Stephanie had just given her, but she really did not need to in order to help. "Okay, so I have less than two weeks to get you a place that I wouldn't be ashamed to have a wedding in," Catherine wrote a few things down in her datebook. "Hey, what about a dress?"

Stephanie worked to swallow the food in her mouth so she could respond as she shook her head, "No problem there… I can just use Mom's." She took a drink of her juice to clear her throat before continuing, "She's a little shorter than me, but I didn't want anything floor length anyway. And I know it fits, because when we got engaged she had me try it on."

"Well, that's at least something…" Catherine looked up from her datebook, "Is there anything else we need to worry about?" The young woman looked like she was thinking about something, but Catherine could tell she still had something up her sleeve. "Alright… Out with it, missy."

She smiled broadly, and then sat back in her seat, "Well, I really only need help with one more thing…" Her pregnant pause was enough to warrant an eyebrow raise from Catherine, in anticipation of what this fiendish young woman was plotting, "Uncle Gil."

That time Catherine nearly did a spit take right there at the table, "Oh Honey… I think you might be on your own with THAT project. You'd have better luck solving the Riddle of the Sphinx." Both women laughed in agreement.

"No seriously… It's really not that big a deal… I just need to get him to give me away at the wedding and find him a girlfriend… How hard could that be?"

Stephanie took another drink from her glass as Catherine stared at her with her mouth hanging open in disbelief. She was struck dumb by such a casual remark regarding the single most enigmatic man she had ever known. In her experience, nothing with Gil Grissom was "not a big deal." And what Stephanie was proposing was something she had been trying to accomplish for years. Catherine thought to herself, How in the world does this kid think she can perform that kind of miracle? She tried to recover her faculties of speech before responding to the comment, "Steph, I've been trying to figure out that last part for years, and the only thing I came up with was that your uncle just wasn't meant to be in a relationship with anyone."

Stephanie eyed Catherine doubtfully. "If you really thought that, you'd have given up on him years ago. He's not an easy guy to even be friends with, let alone as close as you two are. And I know, despite the rumor running through the whole lab, that you two never had anything beyond friendship." Stephanie stacked her plates as she talked, "Uncle Gil is complicated and has a ton and a half of baggage, but he's not impossible. Frustrating, yes… Pig-headed, sure… Stuck in his head most of the time, no doubt… Completely obsessed with his work, absolutely…" The more she listed off Gil's traits, the more Catherine understood where she was going with this line of thought, "But when it comes down to it, the man is a powder keg of emotion and passion, just waiting for the right person to have the right match that'll light his ridiculously complex fuse."

Catherine was in absolute awe. This young woman had just completely summed up what had taken her years to even hint at, about a man she considered a very dear friend. Gil had been one of her biggest supporters when she became a CSI, and he was the only one there for her during the whole mess with Eddie; before, during and after the divorce. Even when he was driving her completely crazy, she always knew that he would be there for her, if she needed him. She looked down into her swirling coffee cup and started shaking her head, "Are you sure you're only twenty six?"

"Last time I checked."

"Because that was the most insightful description of the man I have ever heard, and some twenty-six year old, punk kid should not have that much wisdom crammed into her head." Stephanie actually blushed at Catherine's compliment, confirming her affection for the girl. "Okay, great, wise child, since I'm sure you have some kind of plan, what do you have in mind?"

"I've met a couple people that could definitely be possibilities… But I was looking for some background from you." Stephanie's eyes opened wide suddenly, "Oh yeah! And what are you doing Friday night?"

Catherine looked down at her datebook and then searched her mind, "Ah, nothing that I can think of."

"Great! You're coming to a dinner party at our place and meeting my Mom." The devilish glint in her eyes had returned, "And making sure Uncle Gil doesn't wimp out at the last second… Just tell him you need a date or something." With that comment, Catherine was convinced the girl was trying to make her spit out her coffee at some point tonight. "Okay, now I'm pretty sure Sofia is out, just from what Thomas told me about her… Way too high maintenance."

Catherine shook her head at Stephanie's observation of the CSI turned detective, "That's the understatement of the century."

"See, that's why I needed to talk to you about this… I can't even get Gil to say 'sex' around me." Once again Catherine nearly lost her coffee. "Anyway, what do you know about his history with Sara?" That was the last straw for Catherine, and immediately after spitting her coffee out all over the tabletop, she was reaching for the napkins. "That good, huh?" Stephanie handed her another napkin as Catherine looked up at her in slightly amused disbelief.

Shaking her head as she got the rest of the coffee cleaned up, and glancing at her watch, Catherine panned, "Honey, we don't have enough time in the world for that discussion."