A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long to post. I'm a bridesmaid in three upcoming weddings, and they've been keeping me very busy recently. But, now I'm away on vacation, so, hopefully, I'll have more time to write.

Thanks again for reading and reviewing! I hope you like this chapter.

I don't own CSI. Some situations and dialogue are taken from episode 104, "Pledging Mr. Johnson."

Teamwork

"So, you're serious?" Sara asked as she and Nick drove away from the frat house, back to the lab.

"About what?"

She turned her eyes from the road to look at him. "You were a Greek?"

He gave her a teasing smile. "You weren't?"

She pursed her lips and looked back at the road. "No."

"Why not?"

She turned her head again to look at him. "What?"

"I know why I pledged a fraternity," he said simply. "I wanted to belong to something. I wanted the bonds and the friendship that came with membership." He grinned again. "I wanted to meet the sorority girls at mixers."

Sara stopped at a red light and turned to look at him fully. "Are you trying to destroy my image of you?"

Nick laughed. "College freshmen are pigs. I'm far more evolved now."

"Good to know."

"Seriously, though, why didn't you pledge a sorority?"

Sara shrugged. "I guess it never really occurred to me."

"Oh, don't give me that," Nick said with a smile. "College campuses are plastered with posters begging every student to rush a fraternity or sorority. I made half those posters. I know how it goes. Everyone thinks about pledging – even if it's in a vague way."

"Yeah, well, not me."

"Why are you so opposed to this?" Nick asked. "I'm not saying it's the best thing for every college student, but it's a valid way of life – one that's existed for ages. Why were you so determined not to be a Greek?"

Sara sighed. "I was completely goal-oriented," she said. "I didn't do anything that would take away from my academics." She paused. "And don't even try to tell me that being in a fraternity didn't hurt your academic performance."

"Mostly when I was pledging," Nick admitted. "Green light."

"Thanks," Sara said, turning her eyes back to the road as she accelerated. "Tell you what – I promise not to judge you for your choices if you promise not to judge me for mine."

Nick grinned at her. "Deal."

"Good," Sara said. She glanced at him sideways. "Now, I think you're going to have to work overtime on this case."

"Whoa, now," Nick laughed. "I still outrank you. You don't get to assign me extra work."

Sara smiled. "I think you'll be glad to do this work."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

"What do you have in mind?"

She turned to look at him again. "I want you to teach me all about fraternities."

"What?"

"Don't act so surprised," she said, turning her eyes back to the road and trying unsuccessfully not to smile. "If we're going to solve this, we need to be on the same page. And, to do that, I need to have the same understanding of Greek life as you do."

Nick laughed. "I have to tell you, darling, that unless you're actually in a frat, you'll never have the same knowledge as I do."

"Okay, as much knowledge as you can give me, then."

"This won't … how did you put it? Destroy your image of me?"

"Nope," Sara said. "We have a deal – no judgment."

"And, you're sure you want to know?"

"Look," she said. "We both know that those frat boys killed James Johnson. Even if they didn't hang him from that rafter, they drove him to do it. We just need to prove it. And, to prove it, I need to understand their way of life."

"All right," Nick replied. "Here goes."

So, their victim had been cheating on her husband, who was completely clueless. Grissom thought it was a bit foolish of him not to notice – the woman periodically went away for time on her own. That should have been the first indication that she was sleeping with someone else.

Catherine, however, looked at it a completely different way. Grissom knew she was still stung from Eddie's betrayal. It wasn't until she commented, just before climbing into the SUV, that she wished that someone had told her about his affair that he realized how stung she still was by Grissom's silence.

"You're never going to let me forget it, are you?" he asked as he buckled his seatbelt.

Catherine sighed. "Gil, I just … I just think you should have told me. We've been friends a lot of years, and we've watched each other go through a lot. I would think that after all that, you'd have had the sense to tell me that you had seen my husband with another woman."

"Cath, I'm sorry," Grissom said, steering away from the suspect's house. "I should have told you. I should have listened to Sara –"

He stopped, knowing that he had said too much. As he had feared, Catherine seized upon his interrupted sentence.

"Should have listened to Sara about what?"

"It's not important."

"You told her?" Catherine asked, her anger building. "You told Sara that you knew that Eddie was cheating on me, but you couldn't tell me?"

"I …"

"When the hell did you tell her? She didn't work here until …" Her eyes grew round. "The seminar in San Francisco. You saw her then, didn't you?"

"Yes," he admitted rather reluctantly.

"You saw her, and you told her about Eddie. You told her something about me – something personal, something private, something even I didn't know – but you couldn't tell me?"

"Catherine, I –"

"Just – just drive, Gil."

"Cath –"

"Not now."

Grissom had always known that he and Catherine had different styles when it came to their job. But, they worked well together. They solved their cases. They found the evidence, put it all together and sought justice for the victims of the heinous crimes they saw every day. The differences between them generally meant that they could see all angles of a case. They served to help them. He had never stopped to think of the harm their divergent styles could cause.

He also knew that Catherine loved to meddle in his business. He had just never realized that she would be willing to meddle in someone else's.

They had worked together to break up a potentially … tense … moment when the victim's boyfriend and husband ran into each other at PD. Grissom had taken the boyfriend, leading him into an interrogation room, thinking that the husband was going to make him insane if he didn't back off and let him do his job.

After settling Mr. Swelco in the interrogation room, he returned to the hall, where Catherine was sitting with Mr. Barger. If they had just been sitting together, with Catherine once again blowing off Mr. Barger's requests for information, Grissom would have been perfectly happy. However, perfect happiness is difficult to find.

Catherine had taken it upon herself to do exactly what Grissom had said they should not do. She had told Mr. Barger that his wife had been having an affair with Mr. Swelco. She had confirmed that he was a suspect in her death.

Grissom crossed the hall and put his hand on Catherine's shoulder. "May I see you for a minute?"

"Grissom …"

"Now?" he asked pointedly.

Catherine nodded. "Excuse me," she said to Mr. Barger.

Grissom didn't speak to her as he led her outside. He could barely bring himself to look at her. He couldn't believe that she would do something so stupid.

"What?" Catherine asked defensively as they stopped in the parking lot.

"You know what," Grissom said, doing an admirable job of staying calm. "You just compromised our investigation."

"He deserved to know the truth," Catherine said, also remarkably calm.

"Knowing how she died, yes," Grissom said, his anger rising. "Knowing that she had an affair – how does that bring closure?"

Catherine sighed, her own temper still barely in check. "I guess you just have to be at the wrong end of an affair to understand."

"You can't make this about Eddie," Grissom said, bringing his temper back down. "Look, you hurt our case because your ex hurt you."

"We bring ourselves to our cases!" Catherine said, her eyes sparkling with anger. "We can't help it. I knew how Barger felt! Would you just relax? I didn't give him chapter and verse!" She started to walk away from her colleague.

"We can't give him anything, Catherine," Grissom said angrily, following her between the parked cars. "We're scientists! We're not psychiatrists or victims' rights advocates."

Catherine stopped and turned around. Grissom could see the anger snapping in her eyes.

"Right. You know, I should be just like you. Alone in my hermitically-sealed condo, watching Discovery on the big screen, working genius-level crossword puzzles. But, no relationships, no chance any will slop over into a case. Right. I want to be just like you."

Grissom looked at her in shock for a moment before speaking. "Technically, it's a townhouse. And the crosswords are advanced, not genius."

Catherine's irritation was evident on her face. She hated that he would never truly fight back when she tried to provoke him.

"But, you're right," he continued. "I'm deficient in a lot of ways. But, I never screw up one of my cases with personal stuff."

"Grissom," Catherine said, leaning closer to him, "what personal stuff?"

She stalked off. He let her go, knowing that she was in no mood to talk.

"Well, I think they just might lose their charter for this," Nick said as he and Sara turned in their final report on the dead student.

"I hope they get more than just that," Sara replied. "Do you think frat boy was telling the truth? That daddy will get him out of this?"

"They killed a pledge, Sara. They tied a piece of raw liver to a string, forced him to swallow it and let him choke on it. Then, after not helping him, they strung him up so that it looked like a suicide. I think that's going to take more than a defense attorney father and monetary influence."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Of course I am," Nick said with a cheeky smile.

Sara rolled her eyes. "If you can be serious for five seconds …"

"I'll try."

She smiled. "I want to thank you. You really helped me out with this one. Without you, I wouldn't have had the knowledge of fraternities, and I wouldn't have been able to talk to Matt and Kyle or gain their trust the way you did … and I know that I couldn't have solved the case without that."

"Give yourself some credit, Sara. These are frat boys. I'll be the first to say that they're not all that bright."

"You should give yourself some credit, Nicky," Sara shot back. "Grissom says that every case teaches us something that we can use on a future case. In this case, your own life taught you something. I'll admit that it was an odd area of expertise, but it definitely came in useful here."

"Grissom also says that it's our job to know stuff," Nick said. "I was just doing my job."

Sara nodded. "Look, shift is over. Do you want to go grab some breakfast?"

"Sure," Nick smiled.

They walked down the hall together, almost running into Warrick.

"Hey, Warrick," Nick said. "I thought you were off today."

"Yeah, I had some stuff to do …"

"Oh. Well, do you want to come out for breakfast with us?"

"I can't," Warrick said. "Thanks, though. I'll catch you next time."

"Where's he going?" Sara asked as Warrick round the corner in the opposite direction.

"Search me," Nick replied. "Hey, Catherine."

"Hi, guys," she said. "I'm sorry I can't chat, but I've got to get Lindsey from Eddie in like five minutes. I'll see you later."

"Bye," they said in unison.

"This place is like Grand Central," Sara commented.

"It always is at the end of a shift," Nick said. "We're leaving, day shift is coming in … I do my best to avoid Ecklie, but, other than him, it's always exciting to see everyone for a change." He grinned at the person coming down the hall toward them. "And, here comes my favorite lab tech."

Sara recognized the approaching figure and grinned, too. "Mine, too."

"Hey, guys."

"Hey, Greggo," Nick grinned. "Done for the day?"

"Yup."

"Do you want to come out for breakfast with us?" Sara asked.

"Sure," Greg grinned. "Where are we going?"

"No decision on that one yet," Sara replied. "Any suggestions?"

Greg opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Grissom, who was hurrying around the corner.

"Have you seen Catherine?" he asked.

"She was on her way to get Lindsey," Nick replied.

Grissom screwed up his face. "All right. I'll catch her later. Thanks, guys."

"You want to come out for breakfast, Griss?" Nick called after his retreating back.

"Next time," Grissom replied as he disappeared into his office.

"I wonder what that was about," Sara said as they passed the front desk.

"It's Grissom and Catherine," Greg said sagely. He grinned. "You know about them and their relationship."

Sara felt the bottom drop out of her stomach; she worked to mask her emotions. "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"They've worked together for years," Nick supplied. "They have this strange best friend / sibling / spousal relationship going on."

"Spousal?" Sara asked.

"Well, just in the sense that Catherine nags Grissom," Nick laughed. "Seriously, though, they're tight. The things she does and says … if one of us tried it, Grissom would give us that look, then ream us up one side and down the other. But, if it's Catherine, he just lets it go."

"Are you telling me to stay on her good side so she doesn't screw me over with Grissom?" Sara asked.

"Not exactly," Nick said slowly.

"But it wouldn't hurt," Greg added.

Sara bit her lip, wondering if she dared to ask the next question. Finally, she decided that she had to know. But, she would wait until they were far away from the lab.

Sara was seated at a booth in the back of Greg's favorite diner with him and Nick when she dared to broach the subject.

"Did they ever date?" she asked, hoping that she sounded off-hand.

"Who?" Greg asked.

"Grissom and Catherine."

"No," Nick said at once.

"We don't know that for sure," Greg said. "Have you ever asked Grissom?"

Nick laughed. "No one asks Grissom about his personal life."

"True," Greg acknowledged. "Have you asked Catherine, then?"

"Look, I don't need to ask them," Nick said. "It's obvious that they've always been friends."

"Oh, yeah, Mr. Crime Scene Investigator?" Greg grinned. "Let's hear your evidence."

"If they had dated and broken up, things would be awkward between them," Nick said. "Think about how much time we spend together. I'd say it's most of the time that we're awake. Then, consider how closely we work. There's no way you could have broken up with someone in this lab and continued to work with him or her the way we work together without it being awkward."

"Fair enough," Sara said.

"Now, Grissom is the master at hiding his emotions," Nick said. "So, I'm willing to believe that he'd suppress everything for the good of the unit. But, Catherine …"

"Not so much," Greg laughed.

"She can't hide her emotions," Nick said. "We always know what she's feeling. There's no way she'd be able to work with Griss the way she does if they had broken up." He looked at Greg. "And, so, my friend, they have never dated."

"All right, all right," Greg grinned. "You can't blame a guy for wanting a little back story."

"How 'bout you look for actual back story, instead of inventing it?" Nick suggested.

Greg heaved an exaggerated sigh. "If I must. But, I'm sure it's not nearly so interesting."

Grissom had just put the last of the clean dishes from the dishwasher into the cupboard when his doorbell rang. He frowned slightly. During Catherine's earlier tirade, she had accused him of being a hermit. While he didn't like to think of himself as completely cut off from human contact, he was willing to admit that visitors – particularly unexpected visitors – were rare.

He opened his door to see Catherine herself standing on his front step. His eyes widened.

"Hello," he said.

"Hi," she replied. "Can I come in?"

"Of course," he said, opening the door a bit wider.

"I'm sorry that I called it a condo," she said, looking around. "I knew that it's a townhouse. It's just been awhile since I've been over."

"You're always welcome, you know."

"Remember how we used to be?" she asked, turning to follow him into the kitchen. "We were always over at each other's places after work. Why don't we do that anymore?"

"You got married," Grissom said. "And, then, I believe your husband thought that we were having an affair."

"Oh," she smiled. "Right."

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure."

Grissom opened his fridge. "I have juice, milk, water or wine."

Catherine just looked at him. Grissom smiled.

"Can you grab the wine glasses? They're in the cupboard right behind you."

Catherine pulled the glasses down and put them on the counter. "Gil … I'm sorry."

"For what?" he asked, uncorking the wine.

"For the things that I said. I shouldn't have said them."

"Why not?" Grissom replied. "Aside from getting a few details wrong, you were telling the truth."

Her eyes widened.

"Like you said, we've been through a lot together," Grissom said, pouring each of them a glass of wine. "You can always tell me the truth. Even if it's harsh … I want to hear it from you."

She smiled. "Thanks, Gil. That means a lot."

He nodded, and chinked his glass against hers. "Cheers."

"Cheers," she echoed, taking a sip of her wine. She was silent for a moment, then spoke again. "I want to let you know, too, that I understand why you didn't tell me about seeing Eddie with that girl."

Grissom's eyes widened.

"At that point, I was so eager to save my marriage that I would never have believed you. I really just needed to see it for myself. I would have … well, it wouldn't have been good for our friendship or for our working relationship."

"That's why I didn't tell you," Grissom said. He paused. "I didn't realize that it would upset you so much to know that I had told Sara. I just … I needed to talk to someone, and she seemed like the natural choice. She didn't know you, and, at that time, I was sure that she never would."

"I guess that makes sense," Catherine said slowly.

"And," Grissom added, "for what it's worth, she told me to tell you."

Catherine smiled. "Smart girl."

"Yes," Grissom agreed, "she is."

"You know," Catherine said, taking another sip of wine, "I think she has a bit of a crush on you."

Grissom rolled his eyes. "She is more than a decade younger than me. There is no way she has a crush on me."

"Well, then, can I say that you have a bit of a crush on her?"

"She is more than a decade younger –"

"Age is just a number," Catherine interrupted.

"And you are just annoying."

Catherine grinned. "I'm just trying to help you get some personal stuff."

"I'm fine without it, thanks."

Catherine sighed. "That's what I was afraid of."