Catherine watched Sophia's departure with ill-contained bad humour. Grissom ran his fingertips over the knot of the tie, thoughtfully watching the dayshift CSI as she sauntered away from the office where he and Catherine had been working. Catherine said nothing but leaned back in her seat and watched.

"Grissom," she suddenly snapped and he gave an answering murmur. Reaching over, she took his jaw in her hand and closed it for him. "You were oogling her."

"I was not," he answered as he put the tie back down. "It was nice of her though."

"Sure it was." A quick glance over at his blonde companion only verified the sullenness in her voice.

"Catherine." When her eyes lifted to his he shrugged. "It… just makes it seem easier, that's all."

"I see," Catherine answered, giving a heavy sigh. "Gil, you really don't get how ineffective that is, gluing a tie." She grabbed the bowtie from the table and began to dig at the glue furiously. The thought of Sophia doing this for her supervisor stirred up jealousy, something that Catherine didn't like to feel during a case.

"Ineffective? It saves me the anxiety of…" Catherine shot him a look that shut him up.

"A bow tie is classy, and glue ruins it. It has purposes too," she responded and at his inquiring look she gave a gesture with the tie. "It can act as a tourniquet, a temporary rope, be used for sex." The sentence popped out of her mouth before she could stop it from escaping and she blushed hard, looking back down at the tie again. Grissom didn't say anything, just moved his chair slightly closer. Catherine saw him give her an intrigued smile and she fidgeted nervously.

"I didn't know it had all those purposes. Never seen it in action before for the last one," he murmured as he saw Brass heading towards them.

"Well, a girl has to have her secrets," she whispered back and he shrugged.

"Just how many secrets do you have like that one, Catherine?" Grissom asked her softly and when her eyes met his, he gave a lopsided grin. "Because I would love to be let in on a few more of them." Shocked at how forward he was being, she tried to search for the right words just as Brass slapped the file down before them. Even as he spoke, Catherine caught Grissom watching and suppressed the shiver that ran up her spine. It was an almost… promising look of anticipation.

And it was contagious.