DISCLAIMER: Don't Own it. No Money Made... Just for fun and enjoyment.
A/N: Did you wonder if they would ever let on about their plotting?
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Chapter 48
He managed to get through half of the shift without hearing a word from Catherine, (who had been running late and had to meet up with Warrick on the scene of their first case of the night) or Stephanie, but Grissom knew the axe would fall eventually. The first one was about to drop, as he pushed through the doors of the autopsy room.
Stephanie did not even look up from the body she was working on when he entered the room. He cleared his throat, hoping to catch her attention, but she did not respond.
Fearing proximity, he hesitated before taking those first few steps toward her. When he got up beside her and she still had not responded, he looked more closely at her and realized that she had headphones stuck in her ears. So, he took a deep breath and tapped her on the shoulder.
He instantly realized his mistake when she jumped back, holding a sharp implement and clutching at her chest, "JESUS! Don't do that!" She leaned against the exam slab for a moment to catch her breath, and then ripped off her gloves and took the headphones out of her ears, turning to see who had just scared the devil out of her. That was when the sneer appeared on her face, "Oh… It's you."
Grissom shivered to animate the coolness of her tone, "Wow, I know this is the morgue, but that was cold."
She turned and walked back to the shelf at the wall, grabbing a fresh pair of gloves, "I'm not sure I want to talk you, right now."
He hung his head down in a show of his shame, "I know, and I-…"
"No, you don't know… Or you would have at least called me SOME time over the weekend to apologize." She looked up at him and seeing her eyes was all he needed to feel her anger. "Or did you just forget we were supposed to take Mom to the symphony last night?"
Grissom cringed at the mention of the event which had completely slipped his mind, "Oh, Stephie… I totally forgot." When she saw the sorrow in his face, she softened a little. "I really did forget about it, and I guess I never wrote it down. Can you forgive me?"
She walked back to the slab, and passed him without regard on her way, before speaking, "I'm still mad right now… Ask me again later." She started back to work and stayed silent for a few moments.
Grissom was trying to work out in his mind just how he was going explain himself to Stephanie without giving up too much information. He knew she deserved a full explanation, but he was not even sure he could put it into words himself yet. "Steph, is there anything I can do?"
"You can grab those reports on my desk and distribute them for me, please. And you can come to dinner with Father Wilhelm Monday night." He cringed at the mention of the priest. He had been avoiding the issue with her ever since her arrival, but with the wedding looming over them, he knew it was coming.
"Steph, you know how I feel about th-…"
"And you know how I feel, so if you expect me to respect you, then you have to return the favor, even if you don't like it." She delivered the comment with her hand planted firmly on her hip, and he knew there was no fighting her on the issue.
And he had to admit, she was right. He could not very well claim to be tolerant, if he was not willing to tolerate that which he had come to despise. He shrugged his shoulders, "Fine… I'll concede the point." When she smiled and turned back to her work, he walked over to her office and called out when he was not sure which reports she wanted, "Which ones?"
"The stack on the edge closest to you on the right… That says 'Distribution Copy' on top." He picked them up and stared at them curiously. He could vaguely remember seeing that stamp before, but it had been a long time.
"Since when did we start this policy?" He called back out to her as he leafed through the reports.
"Not my fault you swoop in here before they get stamped and bully your way into making the assistants hand them over." He smirked at her observation of his modus operandi. He then sat down in the guest chair and started reviewing the one from his last case. He was so entranced with his reading, he completely missed what was happening in the room outside of the office.
CSI GSR CSI GSR CSI GSR CSI
Sara walked into the autopsy room and was fully prepared to throw herself on Stephanie's mercy for leaving the party Friday night, but she was wholly unprepared for what actually awaited her. "I was hoping you were in here tonight." She tried to keep her tone light, expecting to tell her that she had been called away and did not wish to disturb the party, just like Grissom had told her mother on Friday. She had her story ready to go, but Stephanie had other plans.
"I'm not talking to you, right now." Stephanie did not even raise her head from her work to answer Sara.
Sara was immediately struck dumb by her response. She stood there with her mouth open for a few moments, before she was able to speak, "Look, I'm really sorry about Friday… I mean, I didn-…"
"I'm still not talking to you… Too mad," Stephanie reached over to her instrument cart and removed the sternum saw. Sara had to look away as she started to hack away at the victim's breastplate.
She was turned away with a horrified expression on her face when Stephanie's head popped up, as though she remembered something, and then turned back to check on Sara. "Yikes! Sorry… I forgot." She put the saw down and reached over to pull the drape back over the body. When she turned around, she discarded the gloves into the trash container beside her. "All better."
Sara slowly turned back and found the body that had been on display was completely covered, and Stephanie was taking off her gown and tossing into the trash bin at her feet. She was still cringing a bit when she turned around, but more importantly, she was struggling to keep the bile at bay. "I really need to get over this thing."
Stephanie left her line of sight for a moment, and when she returned she had a paper cup with some water in it. "Here, this'll help." She also grabbed the stool and rolled it over to her. Stephanie put a hand on her shoulder and made her sit down. "Hold your head back and breathe."
Sara was tempted to fight the attention, but the nausea threatening to take hold gave her no ability, so she just asked questions, "Does all of that really help?"
"Nausea has two main effects… One involves backing up the stomach juices and drinking the water forces your stomach muscles to stay in the right gear." She brought her another cup of water, "Sip." Stephanie waited for her to sip from the cup before she continued, "The other effect is on your equilibrium. By looking up and keeping your brain oxygenated, you can combat that as well." Sara was suddenly feeling much better, so she figured the younger woman must have had a point after all.
"Wow, that works much better than smiling." When Sara looked down, she found Stephanie with her brow furrowed into a question, "Oh, I usually just smile really big to try and stop my gag reflex."
"Does that work?"
Sara blushed and looked down, "No, not really." They both laughed at her admission, and then Stephanie stopped laughing abruptly, and turned back around. Sara took that as an opening for her to continue groveling. "Um… You're still mad about Friday?"
"You could say that. Nothing like showing up to someone's bridal party and not even saying hello to the bride before you leave." Stephanie laid the guilt on thick and Sara felt the sting.
"Look, I didn't even know that's where I was going… Warrick just asked me to bail him out on some dinner party. Until the toast, I didn't even know it was for you, or even that you were getting married." Sara was practically defensive, and that was not how she intended the conversation to go.
The silence she found from Stephanie was starting to worry her. But when the younger woman turned around, she had a slight smirk on her face, "I was wondering how 'Rick convinced you to come."
A horrible sinking feeling was falling over her, "Y-You what?"
"But that still doesn't excuse you for tearing out of there without even calling me later." Stephanie was trying to confuse her even more, and it was working.
Sara was trying to recover, she could tell there was something else going on, but she could not quite put her finger on it. "I ah, well, I was kind of unplugged over the weekend." Sara quickly realized there was something else that would have kept her from doing just that, "And besides, I didn't have your number."
Stephanie shrugged, and started going about her business again. Sara was struggling to come up with another justification for her lack of manners, and did not notice the movement occurring in the office behind her. She was about to say something when she saw Stephanie reaching for a reddish looking material on a shelf.
The material looked wholly out of place in the morgue. As she pulled it down from the shelf Sara's breath caught in her throat, as the light hit the fabric and the color changed. When Stephanie turned, she held the shawl out to her with a shrug, "Why didn't you just get it from Uncle Gil?"
That was when Sara suddenly realized there was someone standing behind her, as Grissom cleared his throat. She was frozen in place by the revelation and was completely uncertain how to proceed.
Apparently, Grissom did not have the same problem. He took a few steps forward to stand next to Sara before he spoke, "Did we really need all the theatrics?"
Stephanie shrugged, "They were fun for me."
That was when another voice joined them from the doorway, "And they were really fun for me." Grissom turned and was surprised to find Catherine standing there, but not that she knew what was going on.
"Hello Catherine… I suppose I should have known that Thelma would not be far behind Louise." Catherine and Stephanie exchanged some knowing looks and then laughed. Sara just looked at Grissom with her confusion. "What?" He just shrugged off her unbelieving look, "They even have a convertible."
