"Catherine. Catherine. CATH."

"Oooh. Gil, people are trying to sleep here."

"That's what had me shoutung. Why are you sleeping here? You do have a home, or has Linds finally kicked you out?"

"I'm laughing on the inside Gil. Really. I'm just trying to get a couple of hours sleep, so far I've had a couple of minutes..."

"Right. And the reason you can't get many hours sleep in your own bed, in your own home, is...?"

"Do you ever listen to me when I bitch and moan? I've been going on about this for days."

"I would have to say that most of the time I listen to you, but in this instance I guess I must have missed it."

"Real nice. I told you, Linds is out of town with Eddie all week so I'm finally getting the repair job done on my crappy roof. So I have builders in all week, not conduscive to sleep I have to tell you. I've had none for the last few days."

"I thought all this was happening next week."

"This is next week, Gil."

"Right. You should go to an actual bed Cath."

"Well, I'm off work tonight, I just need to last till then, then I get to sleep in my house."

"Okay, get your coat. You need to come home with me."

"It's okay, I'll be fine. I have stuff to do, then I'll go home tonight."

"Catherine, you're coming home with me. What are you thinking? I'm not sending you home to a building site."

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. You can cook me breakfast as a token of your gratitude."

I like this. This is a better morning than I thought I was going to have. Sleeping in the lounge was my plan, but cooking Gil breakfast in his kitchen is a much better deal. Plus I'll get some actual sleep soon. On the down side we'll have that whole, 'who sleeps where' debate. The flirting will be good, though...

"Breakfast is ready, dear."

"That's usually my line, Cath."

"Well, I'm all little womany this morning. Eggs and toast doesn't really require much flair."

"You look tired, Cath. You should be in bed."

"You know a woman never tires of hearing she looks like crap."

"No, I'm sure I just said you look tired..."

"Which means, 'look like crap'".

"No, it..."

"It means crap."

"Okay. You look beautiful but tired."

Well that one shut me up. Gil thinks I look beautiful? That's interesting. Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea. These games are getting more and more difficult to play. I can't put a date on when I wanted Gil to think I was beautiful (am beautiful), but I know I do. And I know teasing him like this is not good for my ego or my heart. I should stop this.

"Right. Can I use your shower and then steal your sofa. Also can I steal a t shirt or something? Sorry, I'm not very prepared for a sleep over."

"No problem. Whats this talk of sleeping on my sofa? You get my bed Cath..."

"No. No. I knew you would be all gentlemanly on me, but I don't accept."

"You have no choice, Cath. You're my guest, and you get the guest treatment. No arguments. Now go shower."

"So I look like crap, and now I smell? Gil Grissom, I have to tell you..."

"Go shower woman, I'm too tired to bicker with you now."

"Right."

Okay. Okay. I can cope with this. All things will not implode because of today. If I say that enough, maybe it will be true.

Maybe not.

Catherine is in my shower.

Without her clothes on.

Which is something I should really get over. There have been naked women in my shower before, just never naked Catherine. I can deal with this. I can help a friend out without subjecting her to my unwanted advances.

Right?

Hopefully, I just need to concentrate on being a friend. Less emphasis on the beautiful woman in my home, more emphasis on the fact that she is my exhausted friend. Not my beautiful, magnificent friend that I would (in a perfect world), keep with me in this house forever. In a non stalker way, of course...

My goodness...

"Thanks Gil. Now get out of this room, that sofa is mine."

Did I just mention that Catherine is magnificent? Well, right now, looking at her wearing one of my old t shirts, hair all rumpled and wet from her shower, she looks... She looks like a vision. An impossible dream. But in this instance, she is a living, breathing, impossible dream.

I need a cold shower. A very long cold shower.

"Okay, you win. I'll leave you to the comfort of my sofa. Enjoy your rest. I don't sleep so good, so if you hear strange noises, it's just me wandering around."

"Thanks for the warning Gil. Gil?"

"Catherine."

"This is very sweet of you. You're a good friend, thanks you."

"You're welcome, Cath."

I'm such a bad friend. I'm wishing I'd given her a shirt I could see through. It would appear I'm actually seventeen years old.

I've just had a very bad, by which I mean very good, dream about Gil. I suppose this will happen to a girl when she goes to sleep thinking of him, goes to sleep smelling of him (shirt I'm wearing - not because of any good stuff), and goes to sleep in the next room to him. This was a very bad idea. I'm feeling like a horny teenager again, and it's quite difficult to hide these feelings when I'm sleeping on the object of my desires sofa. Sleeping in his clothes. Is it wrong that I feel sexy wearing his shirt? Cause I do. I'm thinking about taking it with me when I leave. Which I am pretty certain IS wrong.

"Cath?"

"Mmm. Gil, you okay?"

"I'm , as always when you are around, okay. Sorry I'm about to head out to buy groceries and I didn't want you to think I was lurking."

"Were you lurking?"

"A little. Did you sleep?"

"I did, thank you. Time is it?"

"A litte after 2pm. Look I'm clearing out for a while, why don't you take my bed for a while."

"Nice try Mr Grissom, you don't get me into bed that easily! Wait, I'm coming with you. I need to do dome daylight stuff if I'm off tonight."

"You sure, I'm just going to buy toothpaste and other exciting items. This isn't shoe shopping..."

"Grissom, you do remember I'm very cranky when I just get up. Now is not the time to bait me."

"Understood."

And so we went shopping and I had the time of my life. How tragic is that? We bought mundane household goods and I loved it. Or maybe I just loved spending time with Gil. I think we all know that is the correct answer. I got a little crazy on the way home (listen to me, on the way back to Gils' NOT home), I took his arm. Or I linked arms with him as he walked along the sidewalk. It was too late to stop by the time I realised what I was doing, and it felt too good to stop. Again it was nothing, but it felt wonderful. I've never been more aware of contact with another human being in my whole life. I'm in trouble.

I'm in trouble. I've just had the best afternoon in as long as I can remember, because I spent it with Cath. Aimlessly with Cath. Buying coffee and cereal and nothing purchases, but buying them with her. Is it wrong that we were a couple out shopping together, that I imagined the people we saw thought we were a couple. Maybe it's an innocent dream, no harm will come of these crazy imaginings. Cath doesn't get hurt, I'm the only one who will be imagining a future which will not exist. But I know it's wrong, I'm not a teenager and neither is Catherine. She is not mine, and I am not hers. Except in my head.

I should go to work and lose myself there instead.

"You are going to stay here tonight, aren't you Cath? You'll not sneak off to your building site of a home as soon as I leave."

"No. As soon as I leave I'm opening up every drawer and cupboard in this house to try and unearth secrets."

"Really?"

"No. You tired me out today with all your domesticity, think I'll be sleeping by the time you start your car."

"You will sleep in the bed, won't you?"

"Whatever. Go to work, I'm not having you turn up late."

"Yes dear. See you in the morning Cath."

"Thanks Gil. I appreciate all this, I really do. I owe you big time. If ever there are builders living in your home..."

"I'll know to knock on your door, Cath."

I sincerely wish he'll knock on my door, but I'm beginning to suspect I'll have scared him off by then. I'm turning into a frightening woman. I've just spent the last ten minutes smelling one of his shirts. I'm doing his laundry, or trying to do some laundry, but I'm getting distracted by smelling Gil on his clothes. I need to get back to my own home, away from Gil. Away from smelling his shirts. Sad, pathetic woman that I am. Maybe I just need to sleep.

No sleeping won't fix it. Not sleeping in his bed, anyway. I feel like I am in a wonderful cocoon of Grisomness, which I have to tell you is a wonderful feeling. All that is missing from this picture, this bed, is the man himself. I need to stop thinking like this, dreaming about him like this. The dreams are a little too vivid for my good mental health. I'm moving back to the safety of the sofa. I'll get in less trouble.

This is bad. Usually I can bury myself in my work, usually I'm so far in my work that the only person who can pull me out is Cath. Doesn't work when I'm trying to hide from her here. But last night was awful, and for the first time in the longest time, all I wanted to do was come home. And now I'm preparing to open my front door and face the woman I've been thinking of all night.

"Cath. Why are you not sleeping? Is my bed that awful?"

"No, of course not. I've been waiting for you. I thought I'd take you out to breakfast. My treat."

"You're not exactly dressed for the outdoors, Cath."

"Sorry. I got a little laundry crazy last night, and I washed everything I own here, along with a lot of your stuff. But I saved this shirt and now I've sort of claimed it."

"Okay. You look better in it than I ever could."

Did I really just say that? God, I love her smile, and I made her smile like that. I have to say my day just got 100% better. Cath on my sofa in nothing but one of my old shirts, I couldn't have dreamt it any better. Well there have been dreams where the outcome is better.

"Does that mean I get to keep it?"

"You get whatever you want Cath."

"Not always, Gil. But thanks."

"What do you want that you don't have?"

"We probably shouldn't have this conversation."

"Maybe we should. What is it you want?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know. It's too early for a deep and meaningful. Let me get dressed and I'll buy you pancakes."

"I always want to know what you think, Cath. Maybe I should start this. Would it mean anything to you if I told you all I could think of all night was you. You in my home, in my bed, looking all sexy and at home."

"You just said 'sexy' in a sentence. That's unnerving."

"Cath, try and make this a little easy for me."

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep in your bed because all I could think of was you were not there. I was wishing you were there."

" I wish I was too, Cath."

"So, what does all this mean?"

"I don't know. I'm new to this, but I don't want you to leave."

"I'm going nowhere, Gil. I have a plan, why don't I take you out to breakfast and we talk about stuff. About us."

"Will you wear that sweatshirt?"

"No, but if you say the right words I'll put it back on later."