My ficathon entry for eljaygsromg

Author's Note:

Sorry for being late with this.

eljaygsromg asks for:

My Request for my story: all ratings, Gsr, Cwr, pranks, romance,
almost death, etc.

Three things I would love to see in my fic:
1.prank on Gil and Sara by Greg, Nick, Warrick, or Cath - yes
2.revenge by Gil or Sara on pranksters - yes
3.happy ending -yes

Three things I do NOT want in my fic:
1.Ecklie
2.death
3.taking too long to get together

----

This is the first fiction I've written since I was 13 and wrote some god-awful romances involving me and Checkov (from Star Trek). It was horrible drivel. Hopefully this is slightly better, but I'll tell ya, I've got an even greater appreciation for all the wonderful CSI fan-fic writers here. Oh, and I had no beta (hard to ask for one when you're this late) so apologies in advance for all mistakes.

Rating: K


Grissom looks up from the paperwork on his desk as he hears the sound of voices and laughter from the hallway, coming closer to his office. Sara’s voice, and Nick’s. He continues watching his doorway as Sara and Nick walk by, giving them a nod and a smile in response to their greetings as they pass his office. His smile remains after they’ve passed and he thinks about how nice Sara looks tonight and how he hopes their relationship will soon change.

Grissom knows that Sara is heading to the break room to wait for her assignment for the night, as night shift will begin in a few minutes. Nick, Warrick, and Catherine are all working on swing shift, and unless they have a difficult case they will be leaving soon.

A few minutes later Grissom enters the break room, looking as relaxed as he has been in years. Sara gives him a warm look as she briefly thinks about the changes she’s seen in Grissom recently. Ever since Nick was saved from that Plexiglas coffin Grissom had been different. Everyone can see it, and it is a topic of discussion among the lab’s personnel. He’s become a little more outgoing, a lot more relaxed. He’s quicker to show his appreciation of the technicians’ efforts. The ones who’ve been in the lab for a while remark that he’s a lot more like the way he’d been years ago, before he’d begun changing after becoming the night shift manager five years earlier.

Grissom quickly disposes of the night’s assignments. He pairs Sophia and Greg together on a robbery in which a store clerk had been beaten, and he and Sara take a DB found in an elevator at one of the large hotels. Grissom had been rotating which of the three more experienced CSIs he paired Greg with each night. He thought it was good for the younger, less experienced CSI’s development. It was NOT, he told himself numerous times, because he was trying to negatively affect the growing friendship between Sara and Greg. He was NOT that petty, nor was he jealous, he reasoned with himself. It was just better for Greg to experience three different, yet all valid, thinking processes, rather than just one.

Yeah, right. He thinks to himself as he and Sara walk across the parking lot to his Denali. He glances at Sara who’s looking up toward the full moon ahead of them. He marvels at her beauty, and at her seeming lack of awareness of it. He’s always liked her, more than he usually allowed himself to acknowledge to himself. He’d definitely always been very attracted to her. For the last five years she had consumed his thoughts. And he was pretty certain that she liked him back. Her dinner invitation a couple years ago, along with their short conversation about “this”, was a good indicator that she was interested in him. Or at least that she had been. Is she still? He wonders. For about the millionth time he kicks himself for how badly he’d handled that.

Sara and Grissom talk about Nick’s recovery and his recent return to work as they make their way through the crowded streets to the Tangiers . Though Grissom is interested in the conversation, and in talking to Sara, his mind still wanders. Now that he knows what to do about “this”, and will soon to be in a position to finally do something about it, he wonders if he is too late. She’s been very friendly with Greg lately. Really friendly. Is that all it is? Are they dating? They went out to breakfast together twice last week. Did they go home separately afterwards, or did they spend more time together? Grissom’s mind won’t let the thoughts go even as he keeps up his end of the conversation with Sara. Soon I won’t be her boss anymore. We can become involved. If she wants to. If I’m not too late.

Their crime investigation ends up being long and tedious, and they wrap up their work a couple hours into day shift. Greg and Sophia are finishing their case as well and are returning from locking up their evidence, when Grissom asks them to join him and Sara in the conference room.

As they all take seats around the table, they give him quizzical looks. “What’s up Gil?” Sophia asks, and the same question is evident on Sara’s and Greg’s faces.

Grissom begins, “Beginning this evening the swing shift and night shifts are being combined. There will be some significant changes. The biggest change that will impact you is that Catherine will be your supervisor.”
“WHAT??” all three younger CSIs practically yell at the same time.
“Are you serious?” Sophia looks seriously pissed off.
“I don’t believe this” from Sara who looks dumbfounded and is shaking her head.
“So, where are YOU going?” asks Greg in a disbelieving and disturbed voice.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here on night shift with you.” Grissom replies calmly. “My position will be ‘Chief CSI’ for night shift. I’ll have final the word on all the technical aspects of investigations. The three of you, as well as Nick and Warrick, will report to Catherine. She’ll make the work assignments and supervise the work of all the CSIs.”

Greg and Sara both look relieved at Grissom’s reply, but Sophia face is turning red. “I’m going to be working for Catherine?” she exclaims in a rather high pitched voice.

As she says this it seems to hit Sara for the first time that now, not only will Catherine be her superior at work, as Ecklie has pointed out in the past, but now she’ll be her supervisor as well. She’s been getting along better with Catherine since Nick’s kidnapping and rescue; that event having brought all the team closer together since they all were happy to give and receive moral support from each other. But still Sara isn’t sure she wants to actually work for Catherine.

Grissom notices the irritated look appearing on Sara’s face, and quickly tries to smooth over the CSIs. “Guys, Catherine and I both think this will work out really well. She’s proved to be a very good supervisor on swing shift, but it’s been very hard on her to work that shift because of Lindsey. And I greatly prefer the real work over the supervisory administrivia.” They appear to be calming down, and Sophia’s face is considerably less red as he continues with a warm look on his face. “Come on, let’s give this a chance and see how it goes, ok? You might find that you like it even better. Plus it means that we’ll get to work with Nick and Warrick again, and that’ll be good, right?”

Sara and Greg both look less upset as they realize that having their whole “original” team together, but Sophia doesn’t look very happy. “Are we done here? If we are I’ve got things to do.” At Grissom’s nod, Sophia jumps up and stalks out the door, not quite slamming it, but not shutting it too gently either.

The three remaining CSIs look at each other for a minute and then Greg gets up to leave mumbling, “Well, ok, I guess. This is certainly different.”
Sara nods her head in agreement, “Very different.” She gives Grissom a weak smile and follows Greg out the door.

Well, that actually went better than I thought it would, Grissom muses to himself as he watches Greg and Sara leave the room. But I bet Sophia finds another job and leaves within a month.

Grissom frowns, realizing that Greg and Sara had left at the same time and he is curious about whether they are going to go to breakfast together. He gets up and hurries down the hall toward the exit.

Greg and Sara weren’t going to breakfast together, and Sara has just left the locker room and is heading towards the exit lost in thoughts of the news she’d just heard when she hears footsteps hurrying behind her, followed by Grissom’s voice.

“Sara, will you have dinner with me this evening?”

Sara stopped and turned to face Grissom who’d caught up to her. She was surprised, but she thought he was also rather surprised at his own invitation. Grissom was actually surprised at himself. He had been walking towards the building’s exit, hoping to catch up with her in the parking lot, when had seen her exit the locker room. He’d been unable, or at least unwilling, to control the impulse to hurry after her, and he hadn’t even known what he was going to say. When he got closer he blurted out the invitation.

Sara stares at him for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Grissom begins to feel embarrassed. I am too late after all, I guess. She doesn’t want to go out.

He feels a strong sense of disappointment as he opens his mouth to tell her that it’s ok, that she doesn’t need to answer; that he understands; that he’s sorry he put her on the spot and made her uncomfortable.

But before he can say any of those things she smiles a small, gentle smile. “Sure, Grissom, dinner would be nice.”

Grissom relaxes. He actually feels slightly elated.

“Great. That’s really great.” Grissom grins broadly. “I’ll pick you up at seven, if that’s ok.”

Sara nods yes and opens the door. “See you this evening, Griss.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^


Sara surprises herself by sleeping soundly for a full eight hours and wakes feeling completely refreshed. When she had first lain down she was sure she’d be awake for hours, thinking about her upcoming first date with Grissom.

Sara is ready by quarter till seven. Realizing she didn’t know what type of place Grissom was taking her, she’d opted for a simple dress which would be pretty suitable for almost any restaurant. She put on her usual small amount of makeup, and blow-dried her hair in her usual manner. She did put on a small amount of jewelry for the occasion.

“Stop pacing.” Sara scolds herself. She has walked back and forth between the kitchen, living room, and bedroom a number of times. The doorbell rings at that moment.

Grissom looks wonderful. He’s wearing a dark suit that fits him nicely. His beard and hair are freshly trimmed, and he looks like he also got a good sound sleep. He hands her a bouquet of flowers and smiles “You look beautiful Sara. Even more than usual.”

Sara blushes a little, and takes the flowers. “These flowers are beautiful. Thank you for them. Let me put them in a vase, and then we can go.” She steps back to let him into the apartment and takes the flowers into the kitchen where she quickly puts them into a vase with water and carries them back to the living room, putting them on a table near the door.

The date goes amazingly well. Grissom opens her door and getting in himself he tells her that he wants to take her to a nice Italian restaurant that he knows serves many vegetarian dishes, he asks if that was all right, to which she agrees sounds great. The restaurant is busy, but not crowded. The service is impeccable, and food is fantastic. Grissom and Sara talk as easily as two old friends with no awkwardness. They smile at each other throughout the evening, each totally enjoying the other’s company.

Toward the end of dinner, Sara finally gets the nerve to ask him the question she’s been wondering. “Griss. About tonight. This date….” She pauses, feeling a little awkward by the intensity of his gaze. “Why tonight? Is this because now Catherine’s my supervisor, not you?”

Grissom continues to gaze into her eyes and he reaches across the table to take her hand in his. “Sara, for a long time, I was too scared of the idea of romantic relationship with you to even worry about the supervisor/subordinate aspect. No matter how much I wanted you in my life, I was afraid of being to vulnerable. I knew that a relationship with you would be all consuming for me. And I was afraid of that.”
He pauses for a minute to give he time to respond if she wants, but she remains silent, her hand still nestled in his.
“After what happened to Nick I realized that I don’t want to be a ghost anymore. I want happily after ever. With you.”
Another pause and he continues once again.
“Once I realized that I want this, need this, then I really realized that it wouldn’t work out well as long as I was your supervisor. I was going to talk to you, to see if you were interested, and I thought that we’d figure out what to do together. But then things began happening on their own. Without me driving the changes, the changes happened anyway, and it worked out for me to not be your supervisor.”

“ Sara, I’m not too late am I? Is there still a chance for me? For us? Will you give me a chance to show you how much I care, how important you are to me?”

Sara’s response is a dazzling smile and a squeeze of his hand.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Arriving back at Sara’s apartment building, Grissom hurries to open the car door for her. For the first time since the evening began Grissom feels nervous. Does she want me to kiss her? I don’t want to spoil this evening by being too pushy.

When they reach her apartment door Sara turns and looks up at Grissom. Her eyes are wide; her lips are full and slightly parted. Grissom looks into her eyes as he slowly leans in towards her, looking for any signs that his kiss is not wanted. Rather than rejecting his kiss, Sara lowers her eyes a little and leans into his kiss. His lips touch hers very softly and gently at first, but become more passionate as he feels her kissing him in response. For many long minutes they kiss, their tongues seeking each other’s, their arms winding their way around the other.

Finally, reluctantly, he pulls away slightly, still looking deeply into her eyes. “I really wish we weren’t working tonight. I thought about waiting to ask you out until we both had the night off, but I couldn’t wait.”

“I’m glad you didn’t wait, Grissom. I think you already waited long enough don’t you?” Sara smirked a little.

“Yes, definitely long enough, Sara.” Grissom clearly doesn’t want to leave her now, but he looks again at his watch. “Ok, I guess I’ll see at the lab soon. Shift begins in 50 minutes.” He leans in for one more quick, light kiss, then turns to leave. He stops and turns around again as Sara is entering her apartment. “You’ll have breakfast with me after shift, won’t you?”

“Of course.” Sara grins as she begins closing her door.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Meanwhile, back at the lab…

Nick enters the break room and sees Greg and Warrick talking about music. They look up as he enters.

“Oh hi Nick.” Greg peers past Nick into the hallway, looking slightly befuddled. “I was expecting Sara, or maybe Grissom. Shift starts in 30 minutes and you know they’re both almost always here by this time.”

Nick raises his eyebrows. “Neither Griss or Sara are here? That is unusual.”

“Probably too busy playing kissy face on their date.” Hodges is standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face.

Greg scoffs. “Right Hodges, Grissom and Sara on a date. Only one problem with your idea: they don’t date.”

“Correction, my friend. They DIDN’T date, emphasis on the past tense. Grissom asked Sara out to dinner this morning, right outside the locker rooms. She said yes.” Hodges looked as smug as the cat who had eaten the canary. He loved being the bearer of the newest gossip.

Greg, Nick, and Warrick look at each other, skepticism written on all three faces. Warrick speaks first. “Grissom asked Sara for a date in front of you?” His voice reflects his lack of belief that such a situation took place.

Hodges looks slightly embarrassed. “Well, not exactly in front of me.”

The other three just stare at him.

“Just because the hall looks empty, doesn’t mean there aren’t people within ear shot you know.” Hodges looks grumpy. “ I’ve got work to do”. He turns and leaves the room.

The three guys look at each other again. Warrick begins to smile. “He waited till he wasn’t her boss anymore, then he wasted no time asking her out. Good for him.”

Greg still looks a little disbelieving. “You think Grissom wanted to go out with her, but didn’t because she worked for him? If he really liked her, wouldn’t he have asked her out anyway?”

“No man, not Grissom.” Nick is the one to answer. “It’s against county policy for supervisors and subordinates to date, but there’s no policy about co-workers.” He pauses for a minute, a large grin growing on his face. “Know what would be funny?”

^^^^^^^^^^^^

With only ten minutes until the beginning of her shift, Sara hurried to her locker to stow her jacket and purse. After her date, she had quickly changed into her usual work attire and hurried to work. While she wasn’t late, it felt late to her, since she was so used to getting to work so much earlier.

Taped to her locker door was an envelope with her name written neatly on it. Sara first stows her gear, then opens the envelope. Inside were two sheets of paper. The first was an official looking letter on LVPD stationary.

Ms. Sidle,

It has come to our attention that you may be in possible violation of Las Vegas County policy D.16.3-2, as defined in the Las Vegas County personnel policy guidelines. This policy prohibits dating, to include all manner of romantic relationships, between employees.

There were a couple more paragraphs, but Sara stopped reading and looked at the second sheet of paper. It was a photocopy from a page of the LV Country Employees Guidelines Handbook. One section was highlighted, D.16.3-2, which stated that county employees were forbidden to have romantic relationships with co-workers.

“What the hell!!” Sara yells loudly. She stares at the paper in disbelief. She does not remember ever seeing this policy before, though she’s familiar with the one above it, which prohibits relationships between supervisors and subordinates. “I can not believe they added this new policy.” She fumes out loud in the empty locker room, then turns and rushes out the door heading towards Grissom’s office.

Grissom is even later getting to work than Sara and is just approaching his office as Sara storms up, her face red with anger.

“Have you seen this?” She thrusts the envelope at Grissom.

“Sara, what’s wrong?” Concern shows in his voice and his face.

“Just read it.” Sara is agitated and shows the letter into his hand. “I just don’t believe this. And I don’t care. They can’t tell me I can’t date you.”

Grissom takes the envelope in one hand and takes Sara’s hand with the other. “Sara, let’s go into my office.”

He leads her several yards to his office door, on which there is an envelope with his name written on it. Sara stops and points with her free hand. “You’ve got one too. I don’t believe this; I really don’t.”

Grissom yanks the envelope off his door, opens it, pulls Sara inside, and closes the door. He opens her envelope first and quickly scans it, then opens the one addressed to him and reads it.

Sara has been pacing back and forth muttering under her breath while he was reading, but stops when he looks up. “Well, Grissom, does this mean you’re going to break off our relationship before it even begins?”

She looks angry enough that Grissom is relieved that he doesn’t have to give her the “wrong” answer.

He sets down the papers and walks over to her and takes her hand in his. “No Sara. I’m not willing to give up on our relationship after I’ve waited all this time.”

On hearing his response Sara relaxes somewhat, and Grissom continues. “These letters aren’t signed. I didn’t tell anyone we were going out this evening; did you?” At Sara’s negative head shake, he continues. “I’ve never heard of this regulation before, but maybe I don’t have the latest copy of the employees handbook. If there’s a new version, I know Catherine will have it. Let’s go talk to her.”

Sara sighs and rubs her temples with her hands, but nods and starts walking to his door. Grissom grabs the papers and follows her out and together the head to Catherine’s office. They reach her office just as she is exiting, the nights cases in her hand, ready to be assigned to her new, larger team.

Grissom speaks first “Catherine, we need to talk to you for a minute.” On seeing her check her watch with a frown he continues, “It’s important.”

“Ok, Gil, but try to make it quick, we’ve got a lot of work tonight and I need to get people busy on it.”

He explains the situation to Catherine, beginning with the fact that he and Sara had gone on a first date earlier in the evening, and that they were planning to continue dating. Then he explains about the contents of the envelopes taped to his door and Sara’s locker, which causes Catherine to frown.

“What?” She grabs the papers from Grissom, quickly scans them, then walks over to one of the large bookcases in her office and pulls out a small book. “THIS is the very latest employees handbook.” She flips through the pages. “Nope, that policy is NOT in here.” She holds it out to Grissom and Sara to look at. They read the page in the book, and then look again at the photocopied sheet.

“Someone added this.” Grissom is perplexed. “But who, and why?”

He and Sara look at each other then turn to look at Catherine, who’s shaking her head, looking both amused and somewhat irritated.

“I think I may know who. Actually there were several ‘whos’”.

“AND??!” Sara has been trying to contain herself while Grissom and Catherine did most of the talking, but right now her face is very red and she looks like she’s about to explode.

“I was walking pass the break room a little bit ago. Nick, Greg, and Warrick were all there, as was Hodges. I caught a little bit of the conversation and it seems that Hodges was eavesdropping earlier when you asked Sara out. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when you told me you’d gone on a date. Anyway, I think maybe those three decided to play a practical joke.”

“I am NOT laughing.” Grissom’s face is stony. “That joke isn’t funny.”

“Those, those… oh!” Sara is sputtering.

Catherine smiles wickedly.

^^^^^^^^

It’s five minutes after the beginning of night shift and Sophia, Greg, Nick, and Warrick are still in the break room, surprised that neither Catherine nor Sara have arrived, when they walk in together, along with Grissom. Instead of sitting down, the three of them stand in front of the other CSIs.

“Guys, I have some sad news.” Catherine pauses to ensure that she’s got the full attention of her team.

“Sara and Grissom have both given their notices. They will be leaving the lab, effective two weeks from today.”

Confusion reigns for several minutes as the three men jump up and begin talking at once, shouting to be heard as they ask “why?” and “what do you mean?”

“Guys! Guys! Settle down!” Catherine keeps trying to get them to quiet down and finally they do. “This will be news to all of you, as it was to me, but Grissom and Sara have started a relationship with each other. And I for one am really happy for them.” She turns and smiles at those two who have moved closer to each other and are smiling at each other.

“There’s a problem, though. Apparently, sometime recently, the county added a new policy that forbids coworkers from having romantic relationships. Neither Grissom nor Sara will deliberately violate that policy, and they have decided that they feel strongly enough about each other to want to give the relationship a chance. Therefore they both felt it was necessary tender their resignations. Sara has given me hers, which I have reluctantly accepted. Grissom called Ecklie and verbally gave his resignation. Both are effective in two weeks.”

She stops talking and the room is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Stunned horror is reflected on the faces of all three men.

Greg’s mouth keeps opening and shutting as if he’s trying to speak, but no sounds come out.

Nick’s mouth is hanging open.

Warrick finally breaks the silence with a loud groan. “Oh NO, man. You weren’t supposed to do that. It was a JOKE!” His voice is the voice of gloom. “You actually called ECKLIE and told him you resigned??”

“A joke? What do you mean, joke?” Grissom’s voice is eerily calm.

“Oh, God, Grissom. Sara.” Nick looks like he might be sick. “I’m sorry, really sorry. We didn’t think it’d go this far. I never occurred that you’d actually resign. Hodges told us about your date. He knew about it from eavesdropping. We thought it’d be funny to yank your chain for a while.” He looks sorrowfully at them. “I’m sorry, guys.”

When Greg is finally able to speak his voice is jerky. “Take them back! Take the resignations back! Call Ecklie and tell him it was all a mistake.” He almost looks like he might cry.

Catherine, Sara, and Grissom look at each other, each give a slight nod. They turn to face the other three, and in unison, yell, “GOTCHA!”