All For Nothing

Chapter 10 – Choreography

Breakfast with Nick was always one of the highlights of Louise's week. After their Thursday shift, the pair would go to Frank's diner for waffles and coffee. Although it wasn't Blue Hawaiian, Nick maintained that Frank brewed the best coffee in Vegas. That particular morning, Sara and Grissom joined them after a very long shift and Grissom was sharing embarrassing stories of Louise as a child.
She buried her head in her hands and cringed as Sara and Nick laughed, "Oh come on, Uncle Gil! I was six years old at the time."
"Yes, and you were suspended from school for calling your first grade teacher an 'uneducated moron'." He replied, grinning.
Louise smiled, "To be fair, she was! But hey, why all of the embarrassing stories about me? What about that summer that we went across Europe and…"
"Okay!" Grissom interrupted, "We'll leave that story for another time…"
She pulled a face at him, laughing, "Ohh, I have so many stories that I can take you down with, bug man."
"Bring it on, blondie!"
Sara and Nick stifled their sniggers and Louise rolled her eyes, "Okay, Uncle Gil. Don't say that again, you will never ever be able to pull it off."
A loud beep filled the room and Louise checked her pager, "Excuse me, I quickly need to make a call."
The trio watched her leave, smile still spread across her lips before turning to one another.
"I haven't seen her smile like that for months." Sara noted, watching her through the window of the diner.
"Not since before the Three Little Birds case." Nick added, also watching Louise.
Grissom sighed, "She's so set on solving that case that she doesn't think about how it's affecting her. Greg has been keeping an eye on her for me and apparently she hasn't slept properly since Parez escaped custody."
"Are they…?" Nick asked, frowning, wondering why Grissom seemed so calm.
"No, Nick," he replied, "They are not sleeping together. But she drinks three cups of his Hawaiian Blue coffee at the start of her shift and he picks her up on his way into the lab."
"Okay, but I still think there is something going on there…" Nick muttered.
Sara rolled her eyes, "Of course there is something going on there; they're crazy about each other. Neither of them is willing to make the first move and they're not going to break Ecklie's rule because they care too much about their careers."
"Yeah, but how long are they going to be able to sustain this ridiculous dance that they're doing before something goes wrong? Or right."
Grissom wasn't paying attention to either of them. Instead, he was watching his niece very carefully.
"Grissom?"
He tore his eyes away from Louise, who was smiling beautifully and turned back to the conversation. "Whatever Greg and Louise decide to do about their feelings is completely up to them. We shouldn't try to understand their dance. We don't know the choreography."

Xxx

Back from her scene, Louise smiled lightly at Greg as she passed the DNA lab and held up her hand, mouthing "Two minutes."
She held up a handful of evidence bags as she rounded the corner, "Hey Liz, can you…"
A small weedy guy looked up from the microscope and Louise stopped dead.
"Who the hell are you?" No sooner than the words left her mouth did she gasp, "I am so sorry, that was really rude of me!"
The guy, who was clearly not Liz, smiled, "No, it's no problem… That's been most reactions to me today. David Hodges. I'm the new trace guy."
Louise smiled, "Oh, of course. Liz moved to Days, I'm so sorry. Louise Carter." She held out her hand and the lab tech shook it. "I only just moved here a few months back."
He noticed the bags she was clutching in her other hand, "Is that trace?"
"Yeah, umm, I've got an unidentified green powder, some plant matter and a tonne of random tiny bits of tiny." She handed them over and watched him sign the chain of evidence slip. "I'm sorry; it's a lot to process."
"That's okay," he grabbed a few pages from the printer and stuck them in a file, "I'll move them to the top of my queue."
"Thanks, David." She flashed her signature smile and Hodges blushed as he watched her walk away, curls bouncing.
Greg had turned his music up and was air-drumming to Marylin Manson when Louise walked in. She watched him, smiling, for a few minutes before turning the song off.
He spun around, "I promise… I was just waiting for results…"
"It's okay, Greg… It's just me." Louise laughed through her smile. Greg noticed how her entire face lit up. Even with her little things smile, she didn't look that happy. He hadn't seen her smile like that since he kissed her when she first moved into her apartment.
Everything was a downward spiral from then.
"Louise…" he said, getting up from his lab chair. The way that he said her name always made her melt a little.
Just as she took a step forward and said his name at the same time, the side of her mouth smiled slightly, "Greg…"
Awkward laugh. Shifting eyes. Do you want to go out sometime? They both screamed, internally.
"Umm… sorry… you first." She leant against the counter, quietly tapping her fingers, nervously.
Do it, you wimp! He picked up a folder and handed it to her, "Umm… those are the results from your victim."
She sighed, deflated, "Thanks. Um, I'll see you later?"
Before waiting for the nod, she was out the door and walked quickly towards the locker room before anyone noticed her crushed face. Slumping down on the bench, Louise balled up her fists in frustration, "Arghh…"
Louise was sick of dancing. Her and Greg were behaving like teenagers, unable to say two words to one another without blushing. Neither of them saying what needed to be said.
What if they were coming to the end of their song?

Xxx

Greg could've kicked himself. Once again he'd had the perfect opportunity to move things forward with Louise. For the love of all that is holy, how hard was it to ask out a girl? Things were getting a little ridiculous and Greg could tell that Louise was apprehensive about him. He hadn't exactly given her reason to be confident about the possibility of their relationship, a forbidden relationship. Stupid Ecklie. She was so beautiful and caring. Her smile lit up a room, even when the corner of her mouth just twitched. Louise was captivating, incredible and everything that Greg wanted. And everything he could never have.

For the first time in a very long time, Greg had no answers.

A.N. Well hey there, it's been a while. So much has changed since I uploaded a chapter, but the most important thing is that I'm back and I'm ready to go! Since it's the new year (well, I'm out by a month, but you know), I've set myself the challenge of uploading at least one chapter to any of my current stories once a week. I always enjoyed my fics and I'm looking forward to getting back into this. Anyway, things are slowly picking up here in AFN... Or are they?

Bit of context, we're in the middle of CSI Season 3 at the moment and it is very very likely that the next chapter will have a bit of a time jump to later in the season, just to move things along a little.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying having Louise back. I know I am.

Love always, C.I

xoxoxo