Natural Progressions

Disclaimer: Mine no! CBS, Anthony Zuiker et al Yes! Pity :o(
     "Love Gets Me Every Time" belongs to Shania Twain
Author's Note: Still not exactly sure where this series is going but here's another one
Dedication: To Aby as always and she certainly knows why. VividlyBlue for reading Everything I write even the crap!


Chapter 4: Love Gets Me Every Time

Catherine sat in her front room ruminating. She was finally shot of Eddie. The divorce was now final and she was a free woman again.

Although she knew she was in love with her supervisor, Gil Grissom, he didn't seem to have any stronger feelings for her than friendship. She wasn't exactly sure that was as far as his feeling went, but she was uncertain as to whether she should tempt the failure of their friendship on the very slim chance of having something better.

Life was goin' great
Love was gonna have to wait
Was in no hurry - had now worries
Stayin' single was the plan
Didn't need a steady man
I had it covered - 'til I discovered
That loves gets me every time
My heart changed my mind
I gol' darn gone and done it.

Later that night she walked into the break room and sat at the table waiting on the other members of the Graveshift to join her. As usual Grissom was last in. He seemed to be lost in thought, mind anywhere but with them in CSI.

"Penny for them?" Catherine asked smiling at the puzzled look that appeared on his face.

Catherine?" he asked frowning. Did she always have to startle him like that? There was no way he would tell her what he was thinking. He had been day dreaming about her again and he was annoyed. It was time to work...time to concentrate on the business at hand, not act like some lovesick schoolboy.

"You were miles away when you walked in that door," Catherine told him," and I just wondered if there was something wrong?"

He smiled, that devilish grin that so many of the young female interns spoke about. She thought it extremely funny and was tempted to tell him just how often she walked into the ladies room, only to hear a conversation about him stop when they realised it was one of his team. It would be so cute to see how flustered he would get. He would never believe he could be the subject of such attention. Even though he was often nicknamed Gruesome Grissom he still had found a soft spot in many a woman's heart.

She knew where he resided for her, but that was not a subject open for discussion right now. She listened to him telling off the others and assigning duties for the night. Once again he had paired her with himself. She tried not to read anything into it but it was hard not to. Maybe it was just her own wishful thinking.

Gone and done (gone and done it)
Guess I fell in love (gone and done it)
Must've been the way he walked (gone and done it)
Or his sweet, sweet talk (gone and done it)
I guess I...gol' darn gone and done it.

She watched him walk down the corridor towards the parking lot. He had a very distinctive walk and she loved to watch him, covertly of course. No one was supposed to know how she felt about him. It was her own little secret, or at least so she thought.

"When do you think they'll actually wise up to one another?" Nick Stokes asked his fellow CSIs Warrick Brown and Sara Sidle.

The other two just smiled at him. It was no secret to the three younger members of the team that their boss and his 'boss', as they referred to Catherine privately, were madly in love with one another. It was obvious just by the way they watched one another as well as the little touches they managed to make, trying not to alert the other to their true feelings.

"I don't know," Warrick commented, "but if something doesn't happen soon this place is going to go up in smoke with the heat from the friction between them."

Sara laughed. "Don't you mean the sexual tension, that would make a fire all on it's own.

I was quite content
Just a-payin' my own rent
It was my place - I needed my space
I was free to shop around
In no rush to settle down
I had it covered - 'til I discovered
That love gets me every time
My heart changed my mind
I gol' darn gone and done it.

Grissom sat in the Tahoe waiting on Catherine. 'Damn,' he thought, 'what is taking her so long?' Though maybe it was just as well he had a little bit of time to himself right now. He had to get his emotions back under control. What was it Doctor Jenna Williams, the coroner who covered for Doc Robbins, had called him? Oh yeah, Gruesome Grissom, tin man with a heart. Well she was right about one thing, he certainly did have a heart and he'd lost it hook line and sinker to Catherine Willows, but he was sure it would never go anywhere.

He knew the others in his team thought him completely unemotional. Hell Sara had even come right out and said so once. It was the time they were working on the case of the female victim who had been too tough to die, so in the end they couldn't charge her attacker with murder, only rape and assault.

When had he become so closed off? Were they all too afraid to approach him? Is that why he would never get anywhere in a relationship with Catherine? Did she feel the same way about him as Sara did? All these questions stormed through his mind flustering him.

He shook his head trying to clear his thoughts as Catherine came out of the main doors of the building. This was getting him no where and they had a crime scene to investigate. 'Leave musing 'til you're on your damn own time, Gil' he thought harshly to himself. As soon as Catherine made herself comfortable in the passenger seat he started the engine and they headed on out.