"Grissom?" He’d settled back into his office with hardly a word to the rest of his troop, save for the exchange in the breakroom upon his return. Sara had remained behind with Nick and Catherine, her words fading from his ears as he’d retreated down the familiar corridor. When Catherine appeared in the doorway moments later, the look on her face one of curiosity and frustration- a combination both dangerous and unsettling- he’d begun to wonder if perhaps anything Sara had said would be cause enough to generate such a reaction. Her eager attitude on the journey home had been not unusual, although he had been aware of the attempts to reach him during their absence...and how any rejection on his part had clearly been undaunting.

"Catherine." He looked her over briefly, the paisley pink sundress she wore casting a rosy glow over her skin in the ambient hall lighting. Angelic, almost, as his office possessed in its usual dark atmosphere, and her presence seemed to radiate light into the cluttered area. "You look nice."

"Thanks. I did it all for you." Her tone was dry, sentence short and clipped, and Grissom quickly replayed it in his thoughts, carefully drawing the tone through his mind. Had he missed an underlying sarcasm? Her azure eyes snapped in a darker shade of stormy grey, and he began to believe, with trepidation, that he had missed something. "How was your trip?"

"It was a forensic conference, Cath, and there was a murder. Hardly a vacation."

"I don’t know..." She stepped further into the room, anger and frustration following in the wake of her heels, sandals lightly clicking against the tiled floor as she approached his desk."I’d say that reading by the fire sounds pretty relaxing to me. I know I’ve done it on my vacation, once or twice."

He bestowed upon her an odd look, removing books from a travel bag to place them on shelves behind his desk. "Reading beside a fire?"

"Sara sounded pretty comforted by the fact that you were able to set aside some time to read with her....Good thing to do, keeping the members of your team happy."

"It was relaxing..." His brow raised as he mulled the comment over, and books were placed down upon the desk blotter as the realization dawned heavily on his weary mind. "But Sara and I had separate fireplaces, Catherine. She spent her time reading Grisham...I spent mine updating my Cockroach Diaries."

Her expression softened, guard down as the words struck the flustered outer shell. And without a word, she sunk onto the leather sofa, shaking her head as reddish-gold curls poured over her bared, freckled shoulders. He abandoned his evacuation of books and sat beside her, reaching to brush a curl from her right shoulder, intently studying the spots scattered over the softly tanned skin.

"What are you doing, Grissom?"

"You’ve got a close replica of Pegasus in your freckles, Catherine." His finger gently traced the pattern, and she shivered at the brief contrast of temperatures. "I’ve never noticed."

"Gil...how often do I dress like this for a homicide?" She smiled, and as he removed his hand, a chuckle escaped from his lips.

"Catherine...you do know that Sara’s young. She’s impulsive...and it’s easy for a student to develop an infatuation with a mentor."

"You’re not just any mentor, you know. And she’s not as naive as you think...She certainly had Nick and I curious." A sheepish look crossed her face, falling over the beautiful features for only a moment, before her brow furrowed. "I wasn’t sure, honestly, how she might have perceived your offer to take her on that trip."

"You weren’t available," Grissom reminded her. "Or you would have been the one to share a room with me for the week." Her brows raised sharply, and he lightly tweaked the end of her nose.

"Sara and I had seperate rooms...remember."

Catherine nodded, and slipped sideways to become cradled within the crook of Grissom’s arm, propped against the back of the couch, her hair brushing upward to tickle his chin. Agile dancing legs stretched out against the remaining length of cushion, sandals clicking gently together as her slender ankles crossed.

"How was everything while we were gone?" After a moment of silence, Grissom tipped his nose into her hair, inhaling the scent of Gardenias and honey, the bouncy curls freshly washed and soft to the touch.

"We managed." She replied, and reached back with one hand to ruffle the hair and send waves of scent into his air passages. "I’ve gotta admit...I was tempted to go with my instincts once or twice..."

"But..."

"I didn’t. You were always here, Grissom...even when you couldn’t be." She smiled, turning her head and using her hand to push upward, coral-painted lips briefly caressing his cheek. "We’re all glad that you’re back."

He didn’t let her end there, as her head began to lower once again, but reached to catch her torso and draw it up, wrapping her slender form in his arms and meeting her lips with his own in a passionate, longing kiss. It was an act he had never attempted, something that never once crossed his mind in the time he and Sara had spent at the lodge...but once Catherine’s face had come back into his vision...it hadn’t seemed to be a choice he could abandon.

"You really did miss us." Her eyes were laughing, lipstick smudged as she drew away briefly, kicking off a sandal and reaching her one bare foot toward the doorknob. "Or were you planning on seducing Warrick and Nick with this approach, later?"

"Warrick and Nick haven’t come bursting in, accusing me of cuddling with my youthful protege," Grissom’s eyes followed her foot as nimble toes manipulated the button-lock, and withdrew to slide back onto the couch. "And they certainly wouldn’t dream of attempting to lock the door with their bare feet."

"No, I don’t imagine they would." Catherine’s smile turned upon him once again, and she reached up to finger the collar of his button-down shirt, her polished fingernails bright against the charcoal gray. "Nor would either of them ask if they could make love to the boss as his welcome back gift."

His fingers manipulated the strap of her dress, slipping it down her arm as he tipped her back and began to trace the line of her freckles once again.

"Then make love to me, Catherine Willows...."

Her smile was bright in the dim light, and with a commanding clap to the surrounding air, the sole remaining source of light in the office was extinguished.

"So, Gil..I imagine that the next trip won’t require separate rooms, then?"

-The end