Catherine was confused. "I went out after work. Is it a crime to want a little human contact?"

Grissom was quick with his usual smart ass answer. "I guess that's why I don't go out."

Grissom walked away leaving a still confused Catherine standing in the hallway. What had she done wrong? She met a guy in a bar. She made out with him. She had no clue he was going to be a suspect! And she didn't withhold information! She realized that she shouldn't feel bad at all. She should be mad at Gil. But she couldn't help feeling bad still. He seemed so... hurt. She didn't know why he would be hurt. It wasn't like she eloped with the man and never told him. Her having a little 10 second make out session with a guy he didn't even know. She could understand if Adam was the killer, but he wasn't. Gil had no right to be mad. So for a minute she put aside her confusion and tried to become angry at Grissom long enough to confront him. She stormed down the hallway and barged into his office.

"What on earth gives you the right to be mad at me, huh?" Catherine yelled.

"Catherine, I don't want to do this now. I have paperwork." Grissom said, not looking up from his file.

"No, we are going to do this now. You made me listen to your little lecture, trying to make me feel bad about having a damn drink! He wasn't dangerous! He didn't hurt me or anything, I wasn't in danger!" She screamed.

"Catherine if we're going to go through this yelling spree could you close the door." Gil asked. She turned angrily and shut it. "Catherine, are you forgetting he hit you?"

"I told you that was an accident!"

"Yeah? Is that what it was when you came into work with a broken wrist 7 years ago? An "accident"!" Grissom brought back the bad memory to Catherine.

"One time. One time that happened. Don't you dare compare that to this! I lied because I was embarresed, okay? I am not the kind of woman who will let someone hit her and the moment Eddie did it I left him. You know that! You know I'm not that type of person! If Novak hit me I would have filed a report. I told you it was an accident, dammit! I'm not a liar!" She yelled, angry he brought up the time Eddie broke Catherine's wrist.

"This is why you don't just pick up people in bars Cath. I don't want to have to investigate your murder because you were lonely and wanted a night out! Do you have any clue how many women we've gotten in here because they went home with men they didn't know? A ton Catherine. Dozens upon dozens. You want to become a statistic like them? 200,000 women are raped per year Catherine. 200,000! And a quarter of them are murdered. I mean, God Catherine! Why would you want to risk that? You of all people should know better! Look at what we do for a living!" Grissom retorted.

"Yeah, Gil. Look at what we do for a living! I mean, I'm not like you okay! I work with the dead all day long and believe it or not I get tired of it! A little companionship doesn't hurt a person!" Catherine yelled again.

"Why don't you try a healthy relationship instead of a one night stand?" Gil asked.

"Oh, look who's talking! You're going to lecture me on this too? First of all you know NOTHING about relationships! Second, if you would talk to me about anything other then work for 10 seconds you'd learn that I'm not very good with relationships! I get used! Get it?"

"Catherine, have you even had a relationship since those men you were gigoloing with after your divorce?"

"Gigoloing? Oh my God, you are such a prick. If you knew ANYTHING about me - "

"If I knew anything about you? I know so much about you Catherine, I've known you for 20 years!" Catherine continued ignoring him.

"If you knew anything about me, you'd know I came out of a bad relationship about 9 months ago. Bastard cheated on me! So why don't you shove that up your ass and stay the hell out of my life!" She screamed and bursted out of his office. Grissom got up and went after her. He was hot now and didn't want to end this argument before he got out a few more things at Catherine. He found her in the locker room with her back turned to the door.

"We aren't done Catherine!" Catherine turned around and he saw angry tears were flooding down her cheeks.

"I think we are. You... are an asshole. I want you out of my life." She said angrily, but keeping her voice under yelling.

"Catherine - " He started, but she cut him off.

"Gigoloing? How on EARTH could you be so rude!" She was yelling again now. "I mean, never speaking to me anymore is one thing to ruin a friendship, but calling me a slut? That just tipped the scale." She said.

"I never called you a slut Cath!" He corrected.

" `I'm gigoling guys and looking for a one night stand.' Yeah, just as bad as calling me a slut isn't it?" She said coldly.

"I'm sorry, Catherine. I didn't mean that, I was just... frustrated. But I don't want to stop talking about this." Gil apologized.

"No. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Nor do I want to talk to you anymore." She stormed out of the locker room and into her office. He yet again followed her. He wasn't going to drop this. He went into her office without knocking.

"My God! Do you ever give up!" Catherine yelled.

"I'm not going to stop following you Catherine until we talk about this dammit!"

"Alright fine! I want answers then! Why the hell are you mad at me! Huh? You made me feel like a horrible, HORRIBLE person when I did NOTHING wrong!"

"You're right." He said quietly.

"No, I - " She cut herself off and realized what he said. "I am?"

"Yes, you are. You didn't do anything wrong. I just... Catherine I don't want you doing that. Because next time you get lonely and go get a drink, what then huh? Are you going to go all the way and then keep doing it? Keep doing it until you end up on a slab in the morgue? I don't blame you for getting lonely Catherine, we all get lonely. But random strangers? Why don't you go to one of your friends and talk to them about it instead?"

"I asked Warrick and Nick to go with me. They weren't free, okay? So yes, I tried my friends." Catherine answered.

"You never tried me." He said, almost hurt again.

"Like I said before Grissom, we haven't exactly been on too broad of speaking terms lately. You don't listen to me. I mean, you may say you're listening and that you know what's going on in my life but you really don't." Catherine said, also sounding hurt.

"I'm listening now."

"It's a little late."

"Why? Why is it late? It's never too late to fix a broken friendship. Let's give it a try." Gil suggested, wanting to fix this between them. Catherine thought for a minute then let out a heavy sigh.

"Alright. Fine. Come over to my place after shift. Lindsay will be in school so we can talk."

"Thanks Cath. I'll be over." He placed a hand on her shoulder and said goodbye until later.

Around 8 AM at Catherine's house

Catherine had gotten a few hours of sleep so she had gotten up and showered for when Gil got there. The doorbell rang and she opened the door to let Grissom inside the house. He walked over to the couch and sat, neither of them saying anything yet. Finally as Catherine and Gil stared at each other and tried to figure out what to say, Catherine broke the silence.

"Uh, would you like some coffee or anything?" She asked.

"Um. Sure, coffee would be fine if it isn't too much trouble." He answered. She walked into the kitchen and he decided to follow her.

"Well, uh, it should be done in about 10 minutes or so." She said awkwardly.

"That's... fine. Just fine... Catherine I really am sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it. I swear." Gil apologized again.

"It's okay. You're... probably right about that anyway. We can drop it, I didn't want to talk about that. I wanted to talk about why you got upset with me. So?"

"Would you believe me if I said I don't know?" he asked.

"I could believe it... but I want you to figure out why. That's why we're here talking." They made their way back to the living room and sat next to each other on the couch.

"I'm protective of you Catherine. You're my friend. Of course I'm going to be protective."

"But this went beyond protectiveness Gil. Protectiveness is when Eddie slammed me up against a wall and getting him off me. Protectiveness was looking out for me when Eddie died. Protectiveness was you helping me out when Lindsay was being troublesome. But this was above the normal friendship protectiveness. Protectiveness would have been you being worried he was the killer and being worried about me almost getting killed. But you weren't worried, you were upset. So upset you didn't want to speak with me. Why?"

"Like I said. I don't know."

"Were you... angry at me for going out and not inviting you? Were you angry at me for being a bad mother and leaving Lindsay again? My mother sure as hell was. Were you angry at me... for kissing him?"

"I don't think you're a bad mother Catherine. And I'm used to not getting invited a whole lot." he answered.

"Well, what about the last one?" There was no response. "Are you angry at me for kissing him?... Are you, God forbid, jealous?" She smiled, joking with him.

"Ha... me. Jealous." he said nervously, not looking her in the face. She studied his odd, squirming expression for a moment when it hit her. She then heard the coffee timer go off and she went into the kitchen to get it. She came back with 2 cups of coffee and handed it to Grissom. They finished their cups of coffee in peace and didn't speak, neither knew what to say. Gil downed the last of his coffee and got up, causing Catherine to get up to wondering where he was going. He set the cut on the coffee table and walked towards the door grabbing his jacket off the coat hanger. He turned to Catherine who was standing by the minibar.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Well, I think we cleared a few things up, didn't we?" Gil said, still sounding nervous and headed for the door.

"You are jealous, aren't you?" Catherine stopped him. She leaned back on the counter resting her elbows there. "You look pretty green to me." She smiled. He turned to look at her and studied her body language which was screaming flirtation.

"Cath, we've been through this. I'm not jealous. I have nothing to be jealous of."

"Well it's the only logical explanation, isn't it? And now that I think about it, you were acting suspiciously jealous." She smiled at him again. He came closer to her causing her at ease leaning to become a bit more straight and tense as her smile melted away. He was about a foot away from her.

"I'm not jealous." he said quietly, his eyes dancing and challenging her.

"Yes you are." She said as she took a step forward to meet him. Their abdomens touched, they were so close and Gil continued to challenge her.

"Prove it." he said in a lust-ridden voice. She rapidly wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips, hard, to his. He deepened the kiss even more, if possible, by shoving her back into the counter as they attacked each other back and forth back and forth. Their tongues battled and danced and Catherine pulled apart, Gil wanting more but she denied him by pulling away from his body.

"So..." she said in a panting voice from lack of air, "Are you jealous?" She said smiling an evil grin at him and he took the bait.

"You're damn right I am." he said before attacking her mouth once again. Catherine led him back to the bedroom and he proved just how jealous he really was.

END