Natural Progressions

Disclaimer: Mine no! CBS, Anthony Zuiker et al Yes! Pity :o( "If It Don't Take Two" belongs to Shania Twain.
Author's Note: Blame Billy, Marg and Shania for these little pieces. They keep Acting these out in my head! Have only seen up to LHB so don't Know how accurate I am on some things so please be kind!
Dedication: To Aby as always and you certainly know why girl! To VividlyBlue for Reading all my crap no matter how bad or sick! LOL


Chapter 18: If It Don't Take Two

"Why didn't you tell me about Lady Heather when we got together?" Catherine asked as she stormed into his home and began pacing back and forth across his living room, her agitation visible in every move.

Grissom was startled, he hadn't believed his ears when he'd heard her voice and now his brain and mouth didn't seem to want to work!

"Well?" she snapped as she turned to face him, eyes flashing angrily. He could tell she'd been crying, even though she'd obviously washed her face and applied some make up in an effort to disguise it. "Gil?" she was very impatient.

He looked down at his hands, shrugged his shoulders and then looked into her face again, " I was embarrassed," he replied feeling honesty was best. "Besides it was before we got together and I didn't think it was anyone's business. No one was supposed to know anyway."

She watched his face colour with chagrin and embarrassment. She loved it when he blushed, he looked so cute and adorable but she refused to let it sooth her temper. "No one knew?" she exploded in disbelief, throwing her hands in the air, "half the building were talking about it, I just never gave it any credence."

His blush deepened, and his eyes widened in horror and astonishment. He couldn't believe he'd been so naive.

"Okay," Catherine said sighing and trying to reign in her temper so they could discuss this calmly, "then why didn't you tell me you were being blackmailed? Why keep that a secret?"

Pushing past her into the centre of the room, he looked so lost and upset it pulled on her heartstrings. 'God!' she snapped at herself mentally, 'it's like trying to pull teeth!'

Just as she was about to shake him, or hit him, to make him answer, he said, "I didn't want to add to the trouble that was already going on." He saw the puzzled look that appeared on her face. "It started when we were having all those problems with Lindsey," he explained, "I just didn't want to add to the stress you were under. I thought I could handle it myself." His face wore such a sheepish look it was almost comical.

Well, she couldn't really blame him for that. Until this stumble he had always been so considerate of her moods and feelings that she shouldn't be surprised he'd tried to shield her from this.

"Good answers so far," she told him, "but why try and stop Warrick from explaining things to me?"

Anger bloomed in his darkening blue eyes and he balled his hands into fists. "I told him to leave you alone," he snapped, furious at the younger man and his intervention, "you needed space and time, I'd hurt you enough with my foolishness."

"Oh, Gil," she answered, her voice softening and her posture easing, "sometimes you can be so dense. Warrick told me what I needed to hear, what I should have let you explain."

His own anger dissipated as quickly as it came. "I just didn't know what to do," he told her his voice thick with the unshed tears that filled his eyes, "I'd screwed everything up and didn't know how to fix it?" Maybe Warrick had been right after all, but he'd been afraid to take that chance.

Walking over to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. "No more secrets, okay?" she told him, "we face things head on as a couple from now on," and she felt his body relax as he agreed.

It takes two to tango
And two lips to seal a kiss
But a flame and a candle
Won't burn on a night like this
If it don't take two

They moved to the sofa, sitting as close to one another as they could, not wanting to lose the contact.

"I just couldn't believe I'd been used twice," Grissom said. His distress and incredulity were evident in his voice and on his face, "first Milander and now Lady Heather, I never thought for a moment she'd be party to something like this."

Catherine could sense how much he doubted himself and his ability to keep doing the job he loved, the most important thing in his life after her and Lindsey, "She wasn't," she told him.

"How do you know...?" He began, but she cut him off.

"Lady Heather contacted Jim Brass," she explained, "apparently she was doing inventory when she realised she'd had a break in," a look of disbelief clouded Grissom's face but Catherine continued, "on checking her private video collection she saw that several tapes were missing... including yours."

Grissom couldn't believe what he was hearing; a simple burglary had led to all this disruption and pain. "That still doesn't explain why she taped it in the first place," he said, annoyed and embarrassed by the tapes very existence.

A low sultry chuckle caught him off guard and he stared at her, how could she find this whole sordid situation funny?

"That, my darling," she answered, sending a rush of warmth through his body at her choice of words, "was an accident."

"An accident!" he exclaimed. "How does someone accidentally tape themselves having sex?"

Catherine ran her fingers through his hair, tugging gently on a few strands to get him to settle and pay attention to her. "The camera is linked to the lighting panel," was the reasonable explanation, "Occasionally, when the mood takes her, Lady Heather will invite someone to share her bed," she tried to choke back a chuckle at the look that appeared on his face, he clearly hadn't realised he was one of a chosen few.

"She doesn't do it very often and no money is exchanged, so there's nothing illegal about it, but she does like to view some of the more fulfilling performances," Catherine continued, enjoying his discomfort. "She accidentally selected one of the two settings on the panel that activates the camera the evening she entertained you."

He had difficulty dealing with this but still had to ask, "If it was an accident, why didn't she just erase the tape when she found it? Why keep it for more than a year?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Catherine studied the man sitting at her side. He couldn't be serious, could he? Warrick had brought the copy of the tape and made her watch it, proving to her when it had been made and Gil's innocence in all this, despite what the pictures seemed to say. She raised her hand to cup his face gently, staring into his eyes. "You were too good a show to dismiss so easily."

Grissom was shocked, dumbstruck. He couldn't believe what she was saying and something in her tone of voice made him ask, "And how would you know this?"

Sliding her hand from his face, down his chest and onward she chuckled, "I've seen your performance." The gasp he gave as she ran her hand over his crotch was cut off by a strangled cry of utter amazement and his face darkened to the most incredible shade of red she had ever seen.

"You've seen it?" he asked in a whisper, eyes wide with shock.

"Oh yes, honey," she assured him, all anger and resentment a thing of the past. How could she have been so stupid as to doubt his love for her? There wasn't a dishonest bone in his body.

"And you don't have to worry about your job either," she told him suddenly remembering what Warrick had said, "between Warrick, Brass and Lady Heather, they managed to track down the sick son of a bitch who tried to corrupt you and he's in custody." She saw the remains of the tension flow from his body. "Warrick's evidence also proves you were on your own time and it was before Lady Heather's possible involvement had been discovered."

He gave a half hearted smile. "That's all very well, but you know department policy on employees becoming involved with ladies from her profession," he said ruefully.

Catherine smiled, "Ah, but you were on your own time and no money exchanged hands," she pointed out, kissing his mouth and moving her hands to his shirt buttons, "just two consenting adults having some fun and Lady H gave a sworn declaration to that effect."

Grissom couldn't believe everything could be settled so simply, but when Catherine ripped open his shirt, sending buttons flying in all directions, and began kissing his chest, his brain switched to more enjoyable concerns.

"So, you don't mind being submissive," Catherine chuckled a wicked glint in her eyes, "how about we improve on your technique?"

Groaning, Grissom allowed her to pull him to his feet and they headed for the bedroom, "I'm sure I saw some silk ties in your closet," she told him.

'Oh, God,' thought Grissom, but he was too happy to really care what she was planning. Catherine was back in his life and that was all that mattered.

If it don't take two
And if I'm not with you
No it ain't worth goin' through
If it don't take two