Grissom walked into work the next night and was not prepared for all the stares and whispers. He had not seen the news broadcast about Casey and himself. He felt like he was back in high school again. He handed out a fair share of confused glares for those openly staring and tired to ignore everyone else. He made his way as quickly as possible to his office and sat down behind his desk. After a few minutes he could tell people were floating outside his office, not sure of whether to go in or not. Gil sighed. What was with these people today? he hoped Greg hadn't spiked the coffee. "Come in." He begrudgingly.
"Hey, Gil," Catherine said with a very big smile on her face. She sat herself down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. She was coving for something. But what?
Warrick and Nick followed her with their usual greetings of "Hey, What's up, Grissom." They seemed a tad uncomfortable.
Lastly, Sara came in, but lingered in the doorway. She gave them a brief smile and crossed her arms. She did not look at Grissom.
Greg positioned himself within earshot of the doorway, just out of eye sight of Sara.
"Well...?" Grissom spread open his arms.
"Why don't you tell us?" Catherine said brightly.
"Tell you what?" Gil gave her a quizzical look. What was going on around here?
"Come on, you know. Stop kidding around." Catherine chuckled.
"Obviously I don't. What is with the department today? I came in and everyone was acting as if they were back in high school."
"Come on, now, we all saw it on the news last night. It's the biggest talk of the town." Nick said.
"Saw WHAT?" Gil was getting annoyed. Why don't people just come and out and SAY what they want to say?
"You and...Casey..." Catherine said gently.
"We were on the news?"
"Yeah, so...?" Catherine sat up. "Come on, tell us."
"About what? We had milkshakes."
"And sat for nearly three hours in a diner talking?" Warrick sounded skeptical.
Gil let out an exasperated sigh. "Guys. My personal life is not up for speculation. It's none of your business."
"So...you are going out with him." Catherine said flatly.
"Don't get all defensive, we tell you about our personal lives all the time." Nick said. "What was it you once said? Quid pro quo?"
"Well, that's you. This is me."
"That's not fair. We're your friends." Nick said.
"Outside of work, yes. But right now we're coworkers and I'm your BOSS." Gil said.
"Come on man, that's never been an issue before." Warrick prompted.
"I mean, don't take this the wrong way...but, ah, you never seemed like..." Nick rubbed the back of his neck. Everyone glared at him.
"Nick. I base my feelings on WHO people are not WHAT they are. Besides, that's just a societal construction. It doesn't matter. I for one, don't want to put myself into a box to be labeled. Human beings are far too complicated for that. So what if I told you he and I were dating? Would that make you think of me any less? More? Why would that fact change anything about me?"
"I'd be happy for you." Catherine said. "I think it's great that you've found someone who is willing to put up with your...quirks."
"I didn't mean that, Grissom." Nick said, clearing his throat. "We're all open minded people here. You're not mad, are you?" Nick asked quickly.
"No, exasperated would be a better word. You're all acting like Greg."
"HEY!" They all turned to look at the hallway. A muffled "shit" could be heard and Greg quickly walked passed Gil's door mumbling about something he had to do in the lab.
"See?" said Gil. "Now, I'm going to be here in the office catching up on paperwork so Catherine's in charge tonight." He handed Catherine the work sheets and turned his attention to the piles of papers littering his desk.
Everyone cleared out except Catherine. "Gil." He looked up. "I do think it's great. He'll be good for you."
"What are you, my mother?"
"Have you told her?" Catherine gave him a wicked smile and left his office.
With another sigh Gil decided to ignore the paper for a little while longer and instead reached for the phone. After he was connected to the room it rang three times before the occupant picked up. "Five more minutes..." said a sleepy voice.
"Casey?"
"You are not my sister," said a surprised voice.
"I should hope not. You're still in bed?" Gil asked, surprised.
"No. Yes. I was napping...my sister wants to take me out so we can talk and shop and I told her to call me when she was about ready. What time is it?"
"Only half past 10"
"What's up?"
"Did you know that we made it on the news"
Casey yawned. "I told you we'd be popular. You ok about it?"
"Of course I am...I just...had to say it out loud. I'm not really comfortable about it."
"Then just stop watching tv and reading major newspapers and magazines. You have to grow a second skin about this type of stuff. Ignore them. Do you want me to come by and see you?"
"If you can handle the stares and whispers...it will cause a commotion. But I get off at six."
"Sounds like fun. People aren't giving you shit about it...are they?"
"Not as such...but I do like to keep my personal life to myself."
"Hang on, someone is pounding on my door."
Muffled, Gil could hear Casey talking, "I'm up I'm up! Hang on!" A female voice soon came into range. "I tried calling...is that him?" "Yes...wait a minute!" Casey shouted and there was a sound of a small scuffle. "Give me the phone...Hello? Is this Gil?"
"Yes. Cassandra I presume?" Gil asked back.
"That's me. I just wanted to say hello and that I can't wait to meet you. And now I better give you back to your boyfriend before he...TAKE IT TAKE IT! Wench!" Casey came back on the line.
"Sorry about that..."
"What did you DO?" Gil couldn't help but grin.
"Tickled her. She HATES it. She's horribly ticklish. But if I let her keep going she'd just yammer on all night. So I'll come 'round near six then. Ok?"
"We can do breakfast again."
"Sounds great. See you then, babe." Casey hung up.
Gil looked at the phone, "Babe?"
Cass dropped Casey off at 5:30 am. "Are you sure you want to go in alone?" Cass asked through the open car window.
"Yes. I'm not five. See you later. Thanks for the talk." Casey replied back.
"You be careful. Love you."
Casey waved as she drove off. He took a deep breath and pulled open the doors. There wasn't anyone except a girl at the reception desk. "Hi...I'm here to see Gil."
The girl gave a pause before replying. "Um...Mr. Grissom is in his office..."
"Which way?"
"I could page him for you..."
"No, that's ok. I told him I'd stop by." She pointed to a hallway. "Thanks."
Casey breezed pass the desk. They sure kept the place dark. He peered into the various rooms. Lots of people working, bent over microscopes and peering at computer monitors. Then people started to notice his presence. They stared at him and whispered to each other. Casey caught bits of conversations. "He and Grissom..." "Did you hear about him and Mr. Grissom?" "Is that him?"
Wow, Casey though, Gil was right. Rumors travel fast here.
He passed by a series of glass windowed lab and one person looked up and gave him a fanatical grin. He screamed fan without saying a word. He quickly got up for his chair and made it to the hall in front of Casey. "Hi, Casey, I'm Greg Sanders. I'm such a fan. I'm a friend of Grissom. I helped on your case. I run the DNA lab here and I'm a CSI in training."
"Well, Greg, nice to meet you. Thank you for your help."
"Hey, Greg do you have the DNA results...oh." Sara came in from the other hallway. She quickly put up her guard and plastered a fake smile on her face. "Casey, hi. I didn't know you were dropping by."
"Hi, Sarah, was it? Well, Gil and I were just going to grab a bite after he got off shift. And I wanted to get to know his friends better so I came early"
"So it's true you are dating Grissom?" Greg said eagerly. Casey laughed.
"Yes. But he wants to be discrete so I'd like to honor his wishes...ok"
"Cool." Greg said with a silly grin on his face.
"Yeah, that's cool. We don't have any serious cases on hand." Sara agreed.
"Great. We should have lunch soon." Casey gave her a smile but it seemed to have no affect on her.
"That'd be...great." She said.
"You want my autograph?" Casey said to Greg.
"Oh, man, would I!"
"I'll hook you up. Ah...where is Gils' office?"
"Right this way...I'll take you." Sara said. "I'll be right back Greg."
"I'll be waiting." He gave them both the rock symbol and turned back to his lab.
"How are you?" Casey asked Sara as they walked down the hall.
"Me? I'm fine. Never better."
"Good. So...do you think having lunch with you guys is a good idea?"
"Yeah, yeah. We're a tight knit group. We usually go out to breakfast after shift."
"Great. I'm sure we can meet up sometime then."
When they reached Gil's office Sara knocked on the door. "Gris? Someone here to see you." Gil looked up from his desk. "Sara...Casey, hi. You're early," he said taking a quick look at the clock.
"Yeah, I thought I'd snoop around and meet some of your coworker friends."
"Well, I got to get back to work. Nice to see you again, Casey."
"You too. I hope to see you soon!" Casey smiled at her again and then saw the look in her eyes as she looked past him towards Gil. It brought him up short. He hadn't been expecting that. It was the look you gave someone when you were in love with them but they were too far away to reach. Casey quickly turned to Gil. He was giving her a serious look, almost deferring her look. It said no. When he looked back to Sara she was already gone. That wasn't a good sign, but he pushed it from his mind for the time being. Gil came up behind him.
"I can leave the paperwork. Want a tour?"
"Sure...wow. This is your office?" Casey gawked at the rows and rows of unidentifiable specimens in jars. He looked to another part and saw the stacks of books. He moved over to them. "Are these all on entomology?"
"Mostly."
"Cool. Maybe I could barrow some?"
"You want to learn about insects"
"I want to take an interest because you love them so much."
"Alright. I have some introductory books back at my place."
"Ok, now about that tour?"
"Right this way..."
