Catherine had been having one hell of a night. Lindsay’s nanny kept calling every few minutes asking questions that her nine-year-old charge could easily answer. Also, Eddie’s parents had been demanding that they get custody of Lindsay every other weekend. It wasn’t that Catherine minded her daughter being over their house; in fact she thought it was a good thing. However, it was pissing her off the way that Georgia and Harold had gone about it. In addition to that, the doctor who had gotten her clean a decade ago, sent a letter requesting that she come back into the clinic so that she could be in a study tracing headaches in past users. On top of all that, she and Nick were working a very difficult case involving an up and coming showgirl and her manager.

"Cath?" Nick asked, plopping down the case file

"Yeah?"

"I think we have lead. The vic was dating the manager's brother secretly."

"So the manager flipped when he saw the two of them together?" she theorized, thinking back to the manager’s statement that didn’t quite add up.

"That's what it looks like."

Nick went over to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup, and added three sugars and a cream. After that he sat across the table from Catherine who was looking over the crime scene photos once more.

"Is everything okay, Catherine? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine, Nick, really."

Just then Sara and Warrick entered the room with Grissom. He looked over at Catherine and felt bad for her. Over the years he'd picked up on the little things about her, even though she had never noticed. That was the reason that her insults stung so bad when she yelled at him about his town house and crossword puzzles. He could tell now that Catherine was stressed, just by the way she held herself. Over the years she had become excellent at hiding her anxieties, and over the years Gil had learned how to uncover them.

"Hey, Griss, we got a lead on the showgirl case. Seems like the vic was dating her manager’s brother."

"Is Brass bringing him in for questioning?"

"Yeah, he left about fifteen minutes ago."

Nick took a deep drink from his coffee and sat down across from Catherine. The shift was almost over, and everyone was grateful for it. Greg had been processing evidence from the day shift and the night shift, totaling 7 cases. Eklie had demanded that his shift’s cases have priority, causing Greg to be late in delivering the results from the cases that Grissom and Catherine were heading up.

"I cannot wait for this shift to be over." Sara commented as she sat down on a couch and laid her head back.

"Only ten minutes, Sara."

Catherine, after going though the pictures for the third time, got up from her chair and started toward the door.

"Guys, do you mind it if I go home early today? Lindsay’s nanny kept calling all night and I need to take care of a few things."

Grissom saw this as his chance to give Catherine the thing that he had been working on for the past week.

"Catherine, before you go, can I see you in my office?"

Catherine in turn just nodded and walked out of the door behind Grissom. She wondered what was going on, but wasn’t too worried. He’d always been protective of her, and she figured that he was just going to ask how she was doing. He unlocked the door and showed her in.

"Happy Birthday, Catherine" he said quietly

"My birthday? You remembered?" she said in amazement, her blue eyes watering up

"Don’t cry, Catherine. I have something for you."

Gil went around his desk and opened the biggest drawer he had. He pulled out a rather large flat package that was wrapped in shiny purple paper. Grissom knew that purple was her favorite color, and as soon as he saw the paper, he knew that Catherine would love it.

"Griss, you didn’t have to, really."

"I’ve gotten you something every year haven’t I?"

Catherine gave him a small smile and shook her head yes. That was one of the many things so loved about him, he always cared about her, no matter what the circumstances were- everything from a birthday gift when all others had forgotten to driving her to the hospital when Lindsay was about to be born and Eddie was out drinking.

"Yes, you have. Thank you, Gil, it," she paused to wipe a small tear from her cheek " it means a lot."

"Don’t worry about it. Go home, Cath, and relax."

"Good night, Gil."

With that she kissed his forehead and walked out the door with her package underneath her arm. She looked back to see his astonished face and winked at him. He still had a stupefied look on his face, but waved at her.

Out in her car, Catherine opened up the package with care. She had loved opening packages since she was a little girl, and since then had developed a system in doing so. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw what Grissom had obviously handmade for her. It was a purple kite with a butterfly painted in silver on it. She then saw at there was a note held in place by the tails.

3-26

My dearest Catherine-

It has been my experience that Lake Mead is the best place to fly a kite. Go out there and fly it, don’t worry about Lindsay, I’ll take care of the Nanny and watch her until you get back. Have fun and Happy Birthday.

-G

Catherine couldn’t believe that he had done this for her. He could be so sweet like that, making sure that she was fine and taking care of everything else in the meantime. She took his advice, or rather his gift, and drove out to Lake Mead. On the drive out she put in her favorite CD and tried to relax.

Once she was at the lake, she grabbed the kite and got out of the car, the late March breeze was stiff, she would have no problem getting the homemade gift up in the clear sky. She unwrapped the three tails from the body of the kite and as soon as she did so, the wind took it up. Catherine was amazed at the purple butterflies that Gil had attached to the end of each silver ribbon tail. However, she was more amazed, even stunned, but not totally surprised at what was on the butterflies. From left to right in sliver lettering they read "I LOVE YOU".

Catherine laughed in spite of herself, enjoying the site of the kite flying effortlessly sailing across the sky, but not as much as she was enjoying the fact that Gil had told her that he was in love with her.