"Sure," she said.

"You pick the restaurant."

"After tonight, I don't think I want to go near any restaurants."

"Take out?"

"Your place or mine?" Cath asked.

"Yours is closer," Gil said.

"Yes, but yours is closer to the Chinese place. And it's probably tidier."

"Lindsay still not tidying up after herself?" he asked.

"The place looks like a bomb went off."

He laughed softly, then extended an arm. "After you."

She drove, he paid. It seemed like the best deal.

"Would you do what she did?" Cath asked, picking a spring roll out of the carton.

"What? Kill someone?"

"For passion."

"You think that's what it was? A crime of passion?"

"You're not answering the question."

"The question is flawed," he said.

"Gil," she said, her tone heavy. "You always refuse to answer these questions. Anything to make you sound more human you avoid."

"I do not," he protested. "Why have I ever done that?"

"Two years ago," she said. "That guy killed by the mob on the plane."

"So, which question do you want me to answer? Tonight's? Or the one from two years ago?"

"Tonight's. If someone you, I don't know, were in some kind of casual relationship with..."

"I don't do casual," he said.

"OK, someone you're in a relationship with is cheating on you. Would you kill them?"

"If I walked in on them, you mean?"

"Why not," Cath said, picking her spring roll apart.

"What are you doing?" Gil asked.

"I hate this green stuff," she said, pulling what looked like it belonged to a leaf out of the pastry. "Answer the question."

"I would like to think that someone I was involved with wouldn't cheat on me."

"That's the ideal world, Gil. What about this one?"

"What if you'd found Eddie with one of his girls?" he asked.

"I'd have killed them both. Now don't avoid the question."

"What use would the answer be?"

"It would give me a greater understanding of you."

"We understand each other fine as it is, Catherine."

"Why won't you answer the question?"

"Why do you want me to answer the question?"

"You'd do it, wouldn't you?" she said. "And you don't want to admit it to yourself."

"Maybe I don't want to admit it to you," he said. "Did you think of that?"

"Why wouldn't you? We've known each other long enough."

"Maybe that's the problem. We're good friends, why would I want to do something that would risk that?"

"Are you scared of what I'll think if you tell me?"

"No..."

"Because I'm not bothered either way."

"Good," he said. "Pass the rice."

"I still want an answer."

"You just said you weren't bothered."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. If the whole situation wasn't so amusing she'd be resisting the urge to thump him.

"I never understood why people want to put themselves in these hypothetical situations. We never know how we're going to react until we're faced with the dilemma."

"A very good answer, Gil Grissom."

"Thank you."

"Now answer the question."

"I... I don't know."

"Oh, come on!"

"There's too many abstracts. How well do I know her? How long have we been together?"

"OK, say... say it's you and me."

"You and me?"

"For illustration's sake only."

"So... we're a couple?"

"Sure. Why not? Hypothetically speaking of course."

"Hypothetically."

"Yeah. So, it's us. You and me. And we've been together for... a while."

"Months?"

"I'm thinking years."

"OK."

"Then you come home from work to find me with someone else."

"Wouldn't happen."

"What? You wouldn't kill me?"

"You wouldn't cheat on me."

"Oh, and what makes you think you'd be enough for me, Gil Grissom?" she teased.

"After what Eddie did to you, I don't think you'd do that to me."

"Well, maybe you've been working really hard lately. You haven't been at home as much recently. Lindsay's starting to forget what you look like."

"I have to work, Cath."

"But all the time?" she asked. "What about me? About us? We need to spend some time together."

"We will. Soon."

"You've been saying that for ages."

"You know what work is like."

"Don't pull that one on me. We do the same job but I don't spend half the time there that you do."

"I'm the supervisor!"

"So delegate! It's what you have a team for!"

"Do you really think that me being home more is going to help?"

"Well, if you were home more I wouldn't have to go looking elsewhere for... satisfaction."

"So that's all it is? Just sex?"

"I have needs, Gil."

"And I'm not enough for you?"

"I never said that. It's not enough, not you're not enough."

"So you're happy with me?"

"When you're home, yeah."

"You're sounding very shallow, Cath."

"It's how I feel. I want to feel like I'm in a relationship with you."

"By sleeping with someone else?"

"You're never here. You'd never have known if you hadn't walked in."

"So who is he?"

"Who?"

"The guy you've been sleeping with," he said.

"Just some guy."

"So it doesn't mean anything to you?"

"Of course not!"

"So why do it?"

"Because I want you to do it but you never do!" she almost yelled.

"If you would give me half a chance, then I would!"

"I've not seen much of that recently."

"But you've seen much of him."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to stop seeing him."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll..."

He stopped mid-sentence. Somewhere in the middle of what had been turning into a heated argument, he'd moved closer to her. They had practically been yelling into each other's faces.

"...kill me?" Cath asked softly.

"No," Gil said.

"You're avoiding it again," she sighed, and moved back onto her chair. She started looking through the cartons, trying to figure out what she wanted.

"I was going to say, him," Gil said.

"Him?"

"I'm protective of what's mine."

"And I'm yours?"

Gil smiled, and passed her the carton of rice.

"Am I?" Cath asked again.

"Are you what?"

"Yours."

"You're your own woman."

You're avoiding the question. Again."

"Are you looking for another argument?" he said.

Catherine looked at him, then laughed. "I'll say this," she said as she dug into the rice. "You and me, it wouldn't be boring."

"Probably not," he said.

"And you were right."

"I usually am. About what?"

"I wouldn't cheat on you."

He caught her gaze, and smiled. He reached across the table, and pinched the green leaf from her plate.