Chapter Sixteen
"Catherine, this is NOT something we should be discussing." Sara got up and headed to her room door and opened it. "I will meet you downstairs in a bit."
"Fine. Ignore it if you want. But, uh, just for your information...IMPRESSIVE is all I'm gonna say." She smiled and exited Sara's room laughing to herself.
Sara shut the door and smiled to herself. "Well, that's one thing we agree on!"
"I HEARD THAT!" Came Catherine's reply from the other side of the locked door.
"Shit!" Sara mumbled and sat on her bed thinking for a moment. She saw Gil's boxers peeking out from under the bed and picked them up. She got up and opened the adjoining room doors into his room. The bed was vacant. She heard the shower running. She smiled and threw off her robe as she walked to the bathroom. She then pulled her shirt over her head and quickly kicked off her shorts. She yanked open the shower curtain, laughing at the surprised look on Gil's face.
"You'd think you'd be prepared for anything by now!" Sara laughed at him. He just smiled devilishly at her and pulled her into the shower with him.
"Yeah, well. Life with you is never boring, Ms. Sidle." He kissed her full on the lips with a loud smacking noise. Sara smiled at him.
"So, breakfast should be interesting, huh?" Sara laughed as she lathered shampoo into his hair.
"Yeah. That was fun. Thanks for stopping her, by the way." He shoved his head into the spray, rinsing out the suds.
"Look. I didn't know you'd be sitting naked on the bed! Besides, she had the door open before I could react!" Grissom just smiled at her as he lathered a washcloth with soap and began to run it up and down her arms.
"As much as I'm enjoying this, Dr. Grissom, I told Catherine I'd meet her in 15 minutes." She kissed him quickly and rinsed off, leaving him alone in the shower.
"Hurry up, Gil! Breakfast awaits!" She laughed as she walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
"Yeah. Yeah." Gil turned off the water and grabbed a towel and followed her into the room.
"Oh, and by the way, Gil. Catherine's under the impression I also was a spectator in this debacle." She grinned at him.
"And what gave her that idea?" He raised his eyebrow at her.
"Well, she made a comment about...it. And I agreed with her assessment."
Gil broke out into a smile. "And what, Ms. Sidle was her assessment?" He stalked towards her and grabbed her around the waist. "Come on, tell me." He kissed her lightly.
"I think the word was..." She reached down between them and gently squeezed him through the towel. "Impressive." She grinned and wiggled out of his arms. She looked back at him as she entered her room and rolled her eyes. He stood there with a triumphant grin on his face.
"MEN!" She declared, slamming the door shut.
Twenty minutes later, Sara, Catherine, Linda and Davis sat together around the table eating breakfast and engaging in small talk about the conference. Every now and then Catherine would catch Sara's eye across the table and they would both snicker and look away. Linda looked to Davis in question and he just shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what was going on with his fellow Vegas CSI's.
Grissom entered the room and headed straight for the coffee. He was in a good mood, despite what had happened earlier with Catherine. Having one of your female friends and colleagues see you naked was humiliating, to say the least. He got his cup of coffee and a small plate of food from the buffet and headed towards the table. He smiled and took the empty seat next to Sara, avoiding eye contact with Catherine. He could hear her muffled giggles as he ate his breakfast.
"What is going on with you guys this morning?" Linda asked.
"What?" Catherine chuckled.
"Absolutely nothing, Linda." Sara stated and sipped her coffee. Sara cast a sideways glance at Grissom. She was surprised to find a sudden gleam in his eyes, not anger. What is he up to?
She found out two seconds later when Gil speared a sausage link with his fork, lifted it up in front of his face as if inspecting it, then chomped off the end.
Catherine let out a squeak and then a noise that sounded like "pfft". Grissom looked up at her.
"Is there something wrong, Catherine?" He stated calmly and continued to eat his sausage.
Catherine couldn't contain herself any longer and broke out into a fit of laughter. Sara looked shockingly at Gil but then broke out laughing when she glanced over at Catherine.
"Oh, you don't play fair!" Catherine exclaimed.
"Is there some private joke you would like to share with the rest of us?" Linda asked amused. Davis nodded in agreement.
"No." Grissom just sipped his coffee.
"Oh, come on!" Catherine wiped at her eyes with her napkin. "It's not that bad, Gil."
"Yeah? Well you weren't the one who was naked."He stated calmly.
"WHAT?" Davis and Linda both barked in unison.
"Catherine decided to wake up Grissom, but she used the adjoining room door in my room, and, well, she surprised Grissom. He was sitting there in his birthday suit." Sara had a huge grin on her face.
They all laughed and Gil decided to excuse himself to use the restroom.
"Hey, Davis! Better go with him and see if you can get a peak!"
"I heard that, Catherine!" Gil barked over his shoulder.
"What?" Davis sat in shock at her comment. Men didn't do that! That was bathroom rule #1!
"Yeah, you don't want to be the only one at the table to not know what Grissom's 'Little Scientist' looks like do you?" She broke out into another fit of laughter.
"Ha, ha, Catherine." Davis just rolled his eyes and ate his breakfast in silence.
"Wait!" Was all Linda could think to say to Catherine's observation
"What?" Catherine wiped her eyes again and sighed.
"You made the assumption that Davis was the only one here who HADN'T seen his, you know."
"Yeah. Sara saw over my shoulder when I opened the door, and uh, come on, Linda. We all know you spent the night with Gil."
"I did not! Why will you not believe me?"
"Well, the evidence doesn't lie." Catherine said smugly and got up to refill her coffee.
Davis sat thinking for a moment then got a weird look on his face, looked at Sara and asked, "You two have adjoining rooms?"
Sara shifted uncomfortable in her seat, catching the look of amusement on Linda's face. "Oh, ummm, yeah. It appears so."
"Oh. Huh." Davis didn't say anything else and just sipped his coffee.
Linda snickered and tried to hide her smile behind her juice glass. Catherine sat back down just as Gil arrived back at the table. They all sat in uncomfortable silence for what seemed forever.
"Well, it's almost time for the sessions. We better go." Linda noted and got up and exited the room. They all followed, making their way to their sessions.
Sara's discussion group went well. She was pleased with the participation of both her fellow panelists and the group attending. Grissom sat in the back silently, as he promised. Having him there smiling at her from the back of the room was somehow encouraging. She was smiling as he approached her after the session.
"Well, done, My Dear." He whispered near her ear. She smiled at him and winked.
"Hey, Guys!" Davis approached them pushing through the crowd that was exiting.
"Hey, Davis." Grissom smiled politely at him.
"I, uh, got a call from Ecklie."
"Really? Why's he bothering you here?" Sara would never understand Ecklie's way of thinking.
"Well, it seems that most of the day shift has come down with the flu. So, I got an earlier flight out this afternoon. I'm going to miss the rest of the day and tomorrow morning. I think he's going to call Catherine back too. Seems he needs a supervisor."
"Well, I'm sure Catherine's going to be happy about that one!" On cue with Grissom's comment, Catherine stormed into the room.
"Un-believable!!" She huffed out at them.
"Yeah, I just told them."
"I cannot believe this! Of all the times for people to succumb to the flu!"
"Well, they didn't do it on purpose, Cath." Sara tried to hold back her laughter at Catherine's response.
"Yeah, I know." She checked her watch. "The flights at 2pm, so I guess you two are going to be heading back alone tomorrow, unless I can convince Ecklie otherwise."
"Yeah, right!" Gil smiled sympathetically at her.
"Well, its 11am now, so I guess we should go pack and head to the airport, Davis."
"Yeah. Bye, Grissom, Sara." He waved as they made their exit. Sara just smiled at Gil as they made their way to the next session.
Two hours later, Gil and Sara exited the conference room. They stopped by the front desk to check for messages.
"Did Davis and Willows check out? From LVPD?" Grissom inquired.
"Yes, sir. About an hour ago. The charges were put on the LVPD card."
"Good. Thanks!" He smiled at Sara and grabbed her hand. "Well, they are gone. We can have a nice relaxed time without hiding any longer."
"Hmm. That will be quite nice, Bugman." She hugged close to his side as they walked out the door and onto the sidewalk. The walked hand in hand to a local restaurant for lunch.
"This is nice." Gil smiled at her.
"Yes, it certainly is." She grinned at him, taking the hand he offered her across the table.
Catherine was ANGRY! First Eclkie calls her back. Then she checks out of her room. Then, at the airline, they tell her the flight is full and put her and Davis on standby. They didn't get on the flight. They got a taxi back to the hotel only to find they had given their rooms away. Davis phoned Ecklie, filling him in on the situation. It was decided they would just return on the original flight with Grissom and Sara.
"What do we do for a room?" Davis stared at her.
"Well, I guess you are going to have to share with Gil. I can always stay with Sara or Linda."
"Oh, well, uh, I don't think they will like that too well." He grinned.
"What. What are you smiling about?"
"No. Nothing." He chuckled.
"Oh, come on, Davis. Spill it!"
"Ok. Ok." He took a deep breath. "I don't think it was Linda in Gil's room that night. I think it was Sara."
"What?" Catherine was in shock at his assessment. "Why do you say that?"
"Well. Linda keeps insisting she never slept with him. And Sara and Grissom have adjoining rooms."
"Yeah, I know. All too well, I might add." She scoffed.
"Well, maybe they planned it that way. It makes sense. We KNOW they had something years ago. Maybe they 'hook up' when they go to conferences. It's been known to happen."
"Huh! I suppose it COULD be what's going on. It makes more sense than Linda." She bit her lip thinking for a moment. "Well, we better go find the lovebirds."
"Yeah." Davis smiled and followed her out of the lobby.
A/N: Please R&R. Hope you liked!! Update coming soon!