pilot light ­ (n) A small jet of gas that is kept burning in order to ignite a gas burner, as in a stove

***

"Oh, she's cool. She's doing prints on that 407. There's an officer there," Warrick replied to Grissom, before lowering his sunglasses, adding: "I'm out," and heading back to his car.

Grissom remained a little longer, and watched as the police car drove away, then, with one last glance at the house that had been the scene of the crime, he climbed into his own vehicle and returned to the lab.

***

As he approached his office, Grissom saw Catherine walking away from it, her back to him.

"Looking for me?" he called after her.

She stopped and turned round, a small smile on her face, but a lack of her usual sparkle in her eyes. "No, I just stopped by to say hi to your fetal pig," she joked.

Grissom's smile mockingly admonished her, and she responded to that with a grin, which he was pleased to see did reach into her saddened eyes.

"Well, do you have time to say hi to me while you're here?" he asked, making sure he looked overly-hopeful.

"I guess I could spare a few minutes," Catherine quipped, smirking as she walked past him into the office.

He closed the door behind them, and she made herself comfortable in the chair she always claimed ­ the one that ensured her back was to his collection of pets.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as he made his way round the desk to sit opposite her.

"I'm fine," she responded, and anyone else probably would have been convinced.

He wasn't.

"You were late ­ "

"Eddie was supposed to pick up Lindsey; he didn't show… I apologised and explained to Brass ­ "

"Cath," he interrupted her - as she had done him - to slow down her defence of herself. "I'm not asking from a professional point of view… You look -- You don't look yourself today."

Catherine lips curled into a small smile. "Nice redirection."

"I'm not so stupid as to tell a woman she `looks' anything but beautiful… And I'm saving that for my next sentence, after you say: `Are you saying I don't look beautiful?'"

Catherine giggled as Grissom lowered his head, shaking it at his own stupidity for digging himself into that hole.

Catherine allowed him a moment's silence to wallow in his mistake, then asked him: "So, how did your date with Charlotte go?"

His eyes looked up at her. "Changing the subject?"

"I thought you'd appreciate it," she grinned.

He lifted his head, and nodded in assent. "It went… As well as the rest of my dates in the last few years," he shrugged.

"She didn't like `Dark Side of the Moon'?"

"You're the only one that's ever been impressed by that," he smiled.

"Actually, in our case, it was you that was impressed," Catherine grinned.

Grissom nodded slowly and his eyes captured Catherine's and held them as familiar feelings stirred in his body; as his heart fluttered; as his lips suddenly felt they needed hers to feel complete. Familiar feelings he had forced himself not to act on.

He was about to speak when Catherine looked away, and beat him to it. "I hear Nick solved his hundredth case?"

"He did… Actually I should probably give him his new badge," he replied, picking up the item from his desk and standing.

She didn't call him on the abrupt end to their conversation, but simply stood with him and prepared to leave.

It was when he stopped by the door to allow her to exit first, that she stopped, and turned to face him.

"Do you know why none of your dates have been successful?" she said, taking him by surprise.

He frowned.

She placed her hand gently onto his chest and offered the answer to her own question. "Because your heart's not in it."

He raised his hand and took hold of hers. "So it's not because I didn't pin them against the wall and lay one on them like I mean it?" he asked, voice soft ­ the effect her touch and proximity had on him.

Catherine shrugged a little. "Maybe that was a contributing factor… But you can't help that… It's just not you."

And with that she moved her hand away and stepped towards the door.

"I could - " Grissom began to argue.

"Sure you could," she retorted, sarcastically.

And the next thing she knew he had grabbed her by the arm, spun her round and she was backed up against the wall; his body pressed against hers.

He felt her tremble as he moved his head towards hers. The hand he was holding up against the wall slipped slightly as she relaxed into the moment, but he adjusted his grip, trailing his fingertips across her wrist and palm before entwining their fingers.

His lips were only millimetres from hers when he changed direction and his cheek brushed hers as he whispered in her ear.

"I could pin a woman against a wall," he said, his voice deep and husky.

He could feel her chest rising and falling in quick, shaky breaths, but she remained unusually silent. He pulled himself away from the contentment of being so close to her, and looked at her face.

She was smirking, and it looked somewhat victorious.

He shook his head as he realised he had fallen straight into her trap.

"You said that on purpose," he accused.

Catherine shrugged. "Just trying to prove a point."

Grissom frowned. "That being?"

She raised her body from the wall and leaned into him. "That this is where you want to be," she whispered. "That's why your dates don't lead anywhere."

He pressed his body closer to hers. "You seem pretty sure of yourself."

"I am in the room when we're both there…"

"So am I…"

"Then you must feel it…"

"The sparks in the air…"

"The attraction that burns just below the surface…"

As they spoke, their faces moved closer together, and their words grew softer.

"I'd say this has broken through the surface…"

"It was bound to happen some day."

Her last word was almost lost completely into the first meeting of their lips, as his crushed into hers with a passion ignited by fifteen years of chemistry.

His body crushed hers between him and the wall, his hands dropping hers, allowing her arms to wrap around his shoulders as his moved to her waist; holding her close, allowing her to feel his body's reaction to her presence.

She shuddered as she felt his erection pressing against her, and her tongue delved into his mouth; meeting his; duelling; tasting.

He freed her blouse from her trousers, slipping his hands beneath the material, stroking and massaging her skin, revelling in the feeling of the softness beneath his fingertips.

Her lips slipped away from his as her head fell back on a moan when his hands found her breasts. Suddenly unoccupied, his lips quickly found an alternative task, gently kissing, and lightly sucking on her exposed neck.

Her legs wrapped round him to pull him closer; feeding her need to feel him; deepening her own arousal. Only his body supported her, as she flipped his t-shirt over his head and into a heap on the office floor; a seductive smile dancing on her swollen lips as his gaze caught hers.

A kiss smothered the moan rumbling from deep in his throat, whilst his hands made quick work of the buttons on her blouse, pushing it open, giving him access to the secrets beneath.

She arched her back away from the wall to grant him access to the clip of her bra, and willingly relinquished his lips when she realised where they wanted to go.

Her body quivered as his kisses down her neck and chest sent tingles through her skin, and knots tightened within her as his hand caressed one breast, and his mouth took the nipple into its depths.

He could feel heat radiating from between her legs as he rubbed himself against her whilst he licked, and sucked, and kneaded his newfound plaything.

She let out a whimper as he kissed his way across to the other breast, and her hands fumbled for the buckle on his belt. Deciding that there was no way of unfastening it in the position they were in, she tried to lower her legs to stand, but his hands stopped her, and his face rose to look into hers.

She frowned, wondering why he'd stopped.

"Here?" he asked, breathlessly. "Like this?"

She kissed him passionately, sucking and pinching his lips, stroking her tongue along them; the reaction in his trousers confirming that he wanted this as much as she did.

"We're way beyond a pilot light here, Gil," she said, resting her forehead against his. "A fire's been lit, do you want to try to put it out?"

He didn't need to think about that at all.

He let her legs drop to the floor, and they simultaneously unfastened the other's trousers and let them fall to their ankles.

Stepping out of them, they looked at each other and matching aroused grins crossed their lips before they sent the underwear following the clothes. It had barely passed their toes when they were in each others' embrace again; this time, bare skin rubbing bare skin; his arousal meeting hers.

He lifted her up again, and his head grazed her core before he placed his hand between them, and slipped two fingers inside her.

Her breath caught and she licked her suddenly dry lips, swallowing to moisturise her similarly arid throat. Pressure built inside her as he moved his fingers slowly in and out of her, and eventually she let her head fall from its rest against the wall, as she looked at him with darkened eyes, and warned him with his name on a frustrated sigh.

Obeying, he removed his fingers and positioned himself to enter her.

Combining pushing himself, and lowering her, he gradually moved into her folds, her exclamation as he moved to deep inside her absorbed into a kiss.

He paused to allow her to settle comfortably, and when she began to slide up and down, he followed her lead.

The slow rhythm they started with didn't last long, gradually building faster and faster as they were lost to emotions they'd kept safely under lock and key for too long.

Their lips and hands covered any available part of the other; wanting to touch and feel and connect wherever possible as he thrust into her, pulling out further each time to enhance the impact.

She murmured, "Oh God, Gil," and he moaned on every exhaled ragged breath as they neared climax. Their movements increased in speed, separating and coming together as hard as possible, and as her muscles tightened around him, their breathing paused simultaneously as orgasm shook their bodies.

His head fell against her shoulder, and they breathed deeply in unison to recover the strength to speak.

Catherine found her voice first. "… Wow!" she exclaimed, with a small laugh.

Grissom chuckled with her, his head still rested against her. "Yeah…"

There was a moment's silence and then Catherine spoke again. "Well, I'm glad you never pinned anyone else against a wall."

This gave him the energy to lift his head, and he looked into her grinning face and mirrored it. "So am I."

He kissed her gently, but at length, then pulled back and looked at her, wanting to commit that image to memory ­ again ­ before they had to return to work.

"We should…" she began, but didn't need to finish.

Grissom nodded. "Nick needs his new badge."

But neither of them moved.

"This will --" Grissom started to ask, but she cut him off.

"Yes it will… That pilot light's been burning for fifteen years," she smirked. "It's not about to go out now."

THE END

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