Gil had not slept well again. His little white lie was eating at his conscious. He had lied to Catherine. And now he had to find a way out of this before she found out and bit his head off. Or worse. Gil shuddered. While angry Catherine might have been a turn on yesterday (where was that thought coming from?) today she was a frightening image. The last time he kept something from her and she found out about she held it against him for two years. He rolled over and pulled the pillow over the top of his head. If he didn’t open his eyes the day couldn’t start. If he kept them closed long enough he might fall back asleep and not wake up till Sunday when this whole nightmare would be over. Unfortunately for Gil the Fates were not on his side today. Somebody was relentlessly knocking at his door.
Re: find me a date ch 4
He got out of his bed, grabbed his robe and headed for the door. When he pulled it open he was greeted by an unexpected site, one Sara Sidle with her mouth wide open.
“This cannot be good.” Grissom thought to himself. To Sara he said “Come in.”
She waltzed into his townhouse, threw her bag on his counter and sat her ass down in his favorite chair. This last action pissed Grissom off. That was HIS chair and only HIS. He stared coldly at her for several minutes and it never seemed to register with her. Finally he just grunted in frustration and went to his fridge to retrieve a bottle of water so he could take some more of his migraine medication. He swallowed the pills, downed the bottle of water and tossed the bottle into his trash.
“Aren’t you going to recycle that?” Sara may have been the most annoying CSI in the lab but she did care about the environment.
“What do you want Sara? I’ve got an appointment and need to get ready.” It was a lie.
“Really? With who?” Sara forced a curious smile to her face. She “knew” her supervisor never went out and had no friends outside his coworkers. If he was meeting someone then she needed to know about it.
“It’s personal. What do you want?” Somebody was definitely not in a good mood this morning and it had everything to do with his little white lie.
“You look like you just woke up. Do you want me to make you something to eat?” Sara stood and started towards his kitchen.
“NO! What do you want Sara?” Grissom didn’t like people in his home, especially when he was trying to prevent the day from starting in the first place.
“How about we go grab a bite somewhere then?” Sara raised a hopeful eyebrow as she looked at him.
“SARA!” Grissom was running out of what little patience he had when he found Sara at his door.
“Fine. I wanted to tell you I found a date for Catherine.”
“What?”
“I found a date for Catherine. Actually I found several, but this one guy I think she’ll really go for.”
“What the hell are you talking about Sara?” Grissom was confused. Had Catherine asked Sara to find her a date also?
“What do you think I’m talking about? You sent me to the Tangiers to find a date for Catherine. So I did.”
“Oh, yeah.” As brilliant a scientist as Gil Grissom was, when rudely awakened he wasn’t the most intelligent person. “I didn’t really think you’d do it.”
“Are you proud of me?” Sara was hopeful that this would finally make him notice her.
“Uh, sure.” Grissom walked to his kitchen and started rummaging through his pantry. He wasn’t in the mood to stroke Sara’s ego at the moment.
Re: find me a date ch 4
“Do you want to hear about him?”
“Hear about who?” He pulled out a box of bisquik mix from the pantry. Then he went to the fridge and pulled out some milk and a couple of eggs.
“Catherine’s date.”
“Yeah, sure.” He said. His mind, however, was screaming “No, I don’t want to hear about him!”
“Ok, so I went to the casino. It was full of men everywhere, all of them gambling or in line to see the show. So I thought about it for a few minutes and decided that since she’s used to be a stripper…”
“EXOTIC DANCER”
“…WHATEVER…that the men in line for the show would probably be more her type. Then I remembered you put her picture on E-Harmony. So I pulled out my cell phone and pulled up her profile, figuring I’d show them a picture of her.”
“You what?” Sara had his full attention now.
“Well, I wanted to make sure they were interested.”
Grissom shook his head. He was so in over his head and he had no clue what to do.
“By the way, where did you get this profile?” Sara had pulled out her laptop and was pulling up the E-Harmony site.
“I filled it out myself.”
“Really? How did you manage to make such a mess of it? Doesn’t matter, I figured out the password and fixed it.” She turned her laptop to Grissom for him to see the new and improved profile of Catherine Willows.
“You what?” Grissom glanced over the changes she had made to Catherine’s profile.
“Yeah, it’s much better now and she’s getting a lot more responses. I also edited Lindsey out of the picture. You know, single mom doesn’t bode well for some of these guys.”
“Sara, how could you do that? You know how important Lindsey is to Catherine.”
Re: find me a date ch 4
“I know, but honestly Catherine has enough baggage going into a new relationship. She doesn’t need her prospects knowing she has a child also.”
“But Sara…” His blood pressure was quickly rising to dangerous levels. The combination of Sara’s attitude and the way she portrayed Catherine in this profile were enough to send any man over the edge.
“Look Grissom. This whole thing is ridiculous. She had no business asking you to find her a date. Obviously you couldn’t find a man who would meet her standards, but don’t worry. I did.”
Grissom closed his eyes and breathed deeply, biting back the harsh words that threatened to explode from within.
“Sara, who is he?”
“His name is Harry. I found him in the line for the show.” Well, almost. She actually found him as he was being dragged from the show for inappropriate behavior.
“Does Harry have a last name?” This was worse than pulling teeth.
“Sure, it’s Dick.”
“What did you say?”
“Dick. His last name is Dick.”
“Did you check his identification?”
“No, why?”
“Sara, Harry Dick?” Grissom was furious. Sara was an excellent CSI so how could she have fallen for this.
“What?”
“Don’t you think it’s possible he made the name up?”
“Well, I guess.” Sara knew the name had to be a fake, but with Catherine’s track record she thought he might just be what she needed.
“Did you find out anything else about him?”
“Oh, I’ve got his cell number. Told him I’d call him with the details tonight.”
Re: find me a date ch 4
“Did you run a trace on the number?”
“No. Why would I do that?” Sara was beginning to feel that Grissom was a little too protective of Catherine.
“OK. So you made a date for Catherine with a Harry Dick whose phone number you haven’t verified. Was he wearing a ring?”
“What?” This was not going the way Sara had expected. She had expected Grissom to be so happy she had solved his problem that he would be jumping into her arms.
“A Ring. Was he wearing a wedding ring?”
“I dunno.” Why did that matter? It wasn’t as if Catherine didn’t exploit her sexuality any chance she could. How would a man being married make a difference?
“Where is he from?”
“I didn’t ask. Grissom…”
“Why was he in line for the show?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Sara, you are a CSI. Your job is to find evidence and information.”
“I know that…”
“Yet, you pick up some stranger for Catherine without so much as asking him where he’s from...”
“ I don’t see what…”
“…Much less checking his background to make sure he’s not a criminal…”
“…that has to do with…”
“…Catherine doesn’t need some random jerk off the strip. She needs someone who will…”
“…You know what I…”
“…treat her like a woman should be treated. Respect her, care for her…”
“…think, I think that you…”
“…and Lindsey, make sure they are safe…”
“…can’t find a date for her because…”
“…love her like she’s the most important…”
“…you are in…”
“…person in the world…”
“…love with her.”
Grissom stared at Sara who stared at Grissom, neither one happy or comfortable at this moment. Sara realized what she had said to Grissom and that she was probably right, even if he didn’t know it. Grissom was at a loss. He wasn’t in love with Catherine, at least not in that sense.
“Give me his number.” He wasn’t about to give Sara the satisfaction of thinking she had figured him out.
“What?”
“Give me his number.”
“You just said…”
“I know what I just said. Give me his number. I’ll call him and check him out myself.”
“Fine.” She gave him the card with Harry Dick’s number scrawled on it.
“If he checks out I’ll tell him where to meet Catherine tomorrow night.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Sara felt a warmth envelope her, Grissom was going to use the man she found for Catherine. She was sure of it. If he was willing to send Catherine out with Harry then he couldn’t be in love with her.
“I, uh, need to go.” She couldn’t stay without giving away the happiness she felt inside.
“Thanks Sara.” She smiled at him and left.
Gil walked to the trash compactor and drop the card into the hole. Then he flipped the switch and cut Harry Dick’s number to shreds. He then finished his breakfast. Finally, he grabbed his phone and phone book. He had a few calls he needed to make before going into the lab.
Gil came into the lab about an hour early in order to finish up an experiment he had been working on without interruption from the others. Unfortunately for him, Catherine had come in a half hour earlier and was waiting for him in his office.
“Hello Gil.”
“Catherine. You’re here early.”
“We need to talk.”
“About?”
“I think you know what.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“Look, Catherine…”
“Gil, I know you haven’t found anyone for me to go out with yet.”
“How did you…”
“…Know? Gil how long have we known each other?”
“In days, months or years?”
“Months and days, smart ass.”
“247 months and 22 days.”
“Correct. So don’t you think in that amount of time I might have learned how to tell when you are lying?”
Gil didn’t say anything, but Catherine knew that was what he would do.
“Look, Gil, it’s fine. I’ll just stay home and do some work around the house.”
“No, Catherine. I’ve still got one more day. I’ll find someone. I promise.”
“Gil, It’s alright. Honestly, I thought you’d find a way to weasel out of this. I didn’t expect you to even try and I know you have.”
“You have no idea.”
“Oh I’m sure I do. It’s difficult finding a decent man, even more difficult when you had a kid.”
“What does having a kid have to do with anything?”
“Gil, most men don’t want the extra baggage in a new relationship. They want you to themselves. A kid is competition to them.”
“Only if they don’t care.”
“True, but you don’t know that until you invest some time together. And staying home waiting on the perfect man to show up at your door doesn’t work. You have to go out and meet people.”
“But your tastes in men leaves a lot to be desired.”
“Yes, Gil. I know that. Trust me, I know that. It’s still safer than internet dating though.”
Gil’s face reddened when she said this.
“You’ve tried internet dating, haven’t you?” Catherine was surprised. She knew her friend dated but she never imagined his having to resort to finding someone over the net. He had woman falling all over him whether he wanted to admit it or not.
“No.”
“Gil, we just had this conversation not five minutes ago. I know you are lying.”
“I haven’t, honest.”
“Gil…”
“…at least not for myself.”
“What do you mean, “at least not for myself?”
“Promise me you won’t overreact.”
“What have you done?” Gil decided now would be a good time to put some distance between the two of them. He walked around to the other side of his desk.
“Promise me.”
“Gil…”
“Catherine, just promise…”
“Fine. Whatever.” Gil looked at her. He knew she was lying. Catherine raised her hand and crossed her heart in hopes of pacifying him. “I promise I won’t overreact. Now spill it.”
“I sort of registered you on E-Harmony.”
“YOU WHAT?” She cocked her head to the side and Gil suddenly had the urge for a shot of whiskey.
“You promised you wouldn’t overreact.”
“I’M NOT OVERREACTING!” She wasn’t but to anyone passing by Gil’s office at the moment it would have sounded that way.
“I was going to delete it as soon as I got home today.”
“Sure.”
“Honest. Sara managed to completely screw it up.”
“What was Sara doing with it? And how did she know about it?”
“It was an accident. My cell phone kept going off, I dropped it, she picked it up and read the messages. She insisted I let her help me or she was going to tell you about it.”
“And you let her?” Catherine closed her eyes, bit her lips and took a deep breath.
“I was afraid of how you would react if you knew.”
“And how was that?”
“Like this. Look, Catherine, I didn’t mean for her to know about this. And I’ve sent back rejections to all the men that wanted to contact you. It was a bad idea. She did find you a date for Saturday though.” He knew this was probably not the best thing to say at this point but it had to be better than lying to Catherine again.
“You let Sara…what on earth…”
“…I canceled it. She found him at a casino. She didn’t even run a background check on him.”
“Why would she need to run a background check?” Catherine was beyond furious now. Gil had managed to completely screw this up. First Greg, then Sara, then background checks on the men he was asking.
“To see what kind of person he is. Has he had trouble with the law, is he employed, is he responsible, does he move around a lot.”
“Gil, you don’t run a background check on someone you are going out with.”
“But I wanted to make sure you are safe with whoever takes you out.”
“No wonder you can’t find me a date. You are scaring them all away.”
“Catherine…”
“Don’t Catherine me.”
“So I shouldn’t have canceled your date with Harry Dick?”
“What?”
“That’s the name of the man Sara found for you. Harry Dick.”
“Ok, I’ll give you that one.”
“Give me one more day. I promise I’ll find the perfect date for you.”
“Gil, it’s ok.”
“One day, Catherine. I promise.” He gave her his best baby doll eyes look in hopes that she would let him have his way.
“Fine.”
“Now, so you have time to rest before your big night why don’t you take the night off. We don’t have much going on and if something comes up I can always call you in.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and led her to the locker room to gather her things. He walked her to her car and made sure she left.
Re: find me a date ch 4
Friday, later in the shift
“You were running background checks?” Warrick was shocked. His supervisor had just admitted to him that he was checking out the men in Catherine’s life.
“Always do.”
“No wonder you aren’t in a relationship.” He shook his head. He knew his supervisor cared about Catherine but he’d never thought he would be this overprotective of her.
“It’s not as if I can do anything about what I find out. She’s her own person and is going to do whatever she wants.”
“So why bother?”
“I just don’t want her to end up with another Eddie.”
“Or Chris.”
“Or Adam.”
They went back to processing the scene. Warrick was lifting shoe prints while Grissom did what Grissom does best --- observing the scene and piecing together what happened. They worked silently for several minutes.
“Accident my ass. He hit her.” It slipped out before Grissom realized he’d said it out loud. He wasn’t one to share his feelings with his co-workers but this had been weighing on his mind for a few months.
“What?”
“Catherine told me the cut on her face was an accident. She was covering for that piece of scum. It was Eddie all over again. She lied to me.” The bitterness was evident in his voice.
“Now, Gris, why would she lie to you?”
“She was protecting that bastard.” All Grissom could think about was what if Novac hadn’t been a suspect and she had seen him again. All he could see were the times she had come to him after Eddie had hurt her.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely.”
“She was telling you the truth.” Warrick had had enough of Grissom’s attitude on this subject.
“No, she wasn’t.”
“She was. She came over to see me after the case. She was pretty upset. Felt like she had let you down.” Warrick remembered how upset Catherine was when he opened the door. She didn’t say a word, just walked in and sat down. It had taken him a good half hour to get her to talk about what happened. He had been shocked to find out that it wasn’t Novac who had upset her, but Grissom.
“She didn’t let me down, she let herself down by allowing herself to be put back in that situation again.” This was a lie and they both knew it.
“You had no right to speak to her that way. You made her feel like she was nothing more than a cheap slut for wanting what any normal person would want.” Warrick’s reaction when Catherine told him about her conversation with Grissom was to go and kick his ass. Even though his feelings for Catherine were not romantic he was still just as protective of her as Grissom was.
“I know. I was afraid. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Damn straight you weren’t. She tried to talk to you about what happened and you wouldn’t listen to her. Novac wasn’t the one who made her feel ashamed of her behavior. You were.”
Grissom was silent. It had never occurred to him that he could have been the one to hurt Catherine, but if what Warrick was saying was true then he did. It wasn’t intentional. He just wanted to protect her.
“She asked me to do this because she’s still angry with me.”
“Sounds to me like she’s letting you off easy.” The two of them continued processing the scene.
Gil had finished up his paperwork, at least the paperwork he was going to do today. He was waiting around for calls from a couple of his friends. It was getting late. Gil was exhausted. If they didn’t call soon then he’d have to call them from home. He left his office and went to the break room looking for a cup of coffee. He filled his cup and started back towards his office. But he caught sight of an unfinished crossword puzzle on one of the tables. He walked over and picked up the puzzle, sat down on the sofa and began to work it. A few minutes later his phone rang.
“Grissom.”
“I thought you’d deleted my profile!” It was Catherine. She wasn’t happy.
“I’m still at the office, I haven’t had a chance yet.” He really needed to start checking his caller ID before answering calls.
“Did you see what Sara put in here?”
“No.” His migraine was back again. He left the break room and headed back to his office.
“Let me read you just a small part of it. ‘My name is Catherine, but you can call me Kitty Cat. I’m a former stripper who works with law enforcement. I like fast cars and the men who drive them.’ She makes me sound like a hooker.”
“Catherine, I’m so sorry.” He would make sure Sara apologized to Catherine for her actions.
“Delete the profile. Now.” It was a command, not a request.
“I’m in my office doing it as we speak.” He was sitting at his desk waiting on the page to load. “My other line’s beeping. I’ve gotta go.”
“Gil Grissom, don’t you dare hang uh…” Gil clicked over to the second line.
“Grissom.”
“Hey buddy! What’s up?” It was Randy Cummings, a local astronomer and golfing buddy.
“Randy, you got my message?”
“Sure did.”
“Can you do it?”
“Not a problem at all. I know I’ve only met Catherine once but she seems like an incredible woman.”
“Thanks. I owe you.” He hung up the phone and shut down his computer. Now that everything was taken care of he could go home and sleep. And, for the first time since Tuesday, he knew he would sleep easy. Catherine was going to have her date after all.
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