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CSI: First Anniversary	By : moosarella Category: CSI > General Views: 1945 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-CSI: First Anniversary
- 1
Author: losingntrnslatn
(Jennifer)
Disclaimer:   Don’t own anything associated with the show… I
just like playing with the characters in it.
Rating: Adult, NC-17, Smut, Porn… Do I really need to
explain anymore?
Pairings:   Yo!Bling
Spoilers:   I
guess thru Season 6 – Though, let’s be honest, we ain’t never gonna see this on screen, so it’s totally wishful thinking.
Summary:   Warrick finally gets some paper, but it’s not a warrant.

A/N: This one is actually a little bit of a
gift for a friend. And if I’m honest, I haven’t written any smut in weeks, so I
think it’s long over due.

X

First Anniversary

It was supposed to be freezer burned,
nasty cake, candlelight and some kind of traditional gift of paper. He had
gotten the paper, but it was not any kind of gift. Of course, it really was not
an anniversary either, since they had not even made it through the first year.

Sitting on the locker room bench, staring into his open
locker and the envelope that curiously peeked out his jacket pocket, Warrick Brown was trying to conjure up the exact moment he
had screwed up his life so badly. He needed to know what it was so that he
could be damn certain he never got there again.

He was still trying to find that answer when he had some
company. “Hey, bro… You missed assignments.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry.” He looked up as
Nick pushed past him to get to his own locker. “Had some stuff to take care of
before shift.”

“Well,” Nick reached in to his locker and pulled out his
vest and jacket before slamming the door. “Get the lead out, you’re
on with Cath and Greggo
tonight. And the boss lady is in no mood for slackers… If you know what I
mean.”

Warrick hung his head and grinned
at his friend’s comment. “Right, I’ll be right out… Thanks, man.”

He took one last deep breath, blew it out slowly with his
head thrown back and his eyes closed. He just needed one more moment of peace
before heading out into the chaos again.

“Ya know… That works a lot better,
if your hands aren’t clenched into fists.” Her voice was a surprisingly welcome
distraction.

“Probably right.” Warrick reached in and got his vest from the locker as he
stood up and then turned to Sara. “You gonna escape
the lab tonight, or are you still on max out?”

He was rewarded with a pursed smile and then she corrected
him, “I was not on max out, smart guy… I had court and Grissom figured if he
made me stay in the lab I’d just go home.”

Shutting his locker up, he gave her a careful smirk, “So,
that was just the two of you buttin’ heads, again.”

Sara simply looked away as the blush rose in her cheeks and Warrick used that moment as his chance to escape. The two
had come to a kind of silent truce, but there were still subtle conflicts that
arose from time to time. Warrick was just happy they
were at least trying to get along, because anything was an improvement over
their recent past.

Once out in the hallway, Warrick
made quick work in finding Catherine when she came crashing up into his chest.
“Whoa… Where’s the fire?” He held her back at arm’s length to better assess the
situation.

“Ah, yeah… Sorry.” She took more than a moment to re-compose
herself. “Um, are you ah, ready to go yet?”

He swallowed and nodded his head, “Yeah, Nick said you were
in a rush. What’s up?”

“Ah, suspicious circs in the Greek Circle over
at Western LVU.”

“Then let’s roll.” He gestured for her to lead the way and
then followed her out of the building.

The scene had been a joke, filled with frat boys and
sorority girls wasted out of their minds because some morons thought it would
be cool to pump nitrous oxide through the air conditioning unit. The morons
were easy enough to spot, unconscious and smiling on the floor next to the
central air unit in the basement. The hard part was dealing with all the
partygoers flopping around the scene. Poor Greg had been pulled on more times
than a slot machine at the Rampart, and Catherine had to be rescued twice from
a frat boy wave.

In the end, the case was taken care of in an efficient
manner and they were all three back at the lab packing up in plenty of time for
the shift’s end. Warrick still had to finish some
paperwork from another case, so he had left Catherine and Greg to close out the
case from that night.

After completing the final report, Warrick
closed up the folder in a dramatic manner and blew out a calming breath. He
grabbed it up from the table and tucked it under his arm as he made his way to
the locker room.

Once he had his jacket, it was time to call it a night, so
he made his way to Catherine’s office so he could drop off his paperwork and head
home. Looking down at his watch, he realized he was already more than an hour
into the next shift and he had to shake his head at having lost track of time.

He found the door to her office open, but it was empty. Warrick was a little surprised that Catherine would have
left without shutting up her office. The last thing anyone wanted was Ecklie being able to go through their office when they were
gone. So, he dropped his report into her closed case basket and was about to
turn to walk out and lock the door when he nearly suffered a heart attack to
find her standing within inches of him.

“Damn! When did you learn how to Grissom
like that?”

She looked positively ashen at his question and asked,
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Sorry, but you’re the one sneaking up behind me without a
sound.”

“And you’re the one in MY
office.” Warrick blushed at her intimation and
finally broke into a careful smile at his embarrassment.

He moved to the side to let her pass and as she looked down,
she found an unfamiliar envelope on the floor. “What’s this?” She crouched down
to retrieve the item and turned it over in her hand to read the front, “Hopkins
and Baldwin, Attorneys at Law?”

All the color drained right out of Warrick’s
face as he realized what she had in her hands. “Oh, hey… That’s mine.” He was
flustered and trying desperately to retain his cool. “Probably fell out of my
pocket when you took two years off my life.” He reached out and she placed the
envelope into his grasp.

Looking away, she returned to making her way behind the
desk, but instead of sitting down, she grabbed her jacket off the back of the
chair and reached into a drawer for her purse. “So, is that the report for the Pumphrey’s case?”

“Ah, yeah… Signed, sealed and delivered.” Warrick was relieved she had chosen to drop the issue.

“Great… One less thing to look for
tomorrow.” She looked around the room quickly and then said, “Well, I
need to get out of here before I start throwing things. Twenty seven hours in
this place is enough to drive anyone insane.”

Warrick dipped his gaze in an
attempt to hide his smirk, because he recognized the well placed jibe at a
couple of their team members. He then made his way to the door and held it open
for her as she rounded the desk and brushed past him. She had turned to lock
the door when he asked, “So, what’d you do with Lindsay? Or is she finally out
of the dog house after that last stunt?”

Catherine gave him a careful raise of her eyebrow and
answered, “Out of the dog house? Barely… But I didn’t
do anything with her. She went camping with my sister and her family for a long
weekend. After four days with that crew, she should be ready to tow the line
for a least the next semester.”

He nodded his head and smiled. “Goin’
with the ‘You think you got it bad at my home’ route, huh?”

“Does it work?”

He laughed and answered, “Like a charm… One week at my Aunt
Bertha’s every summer and Grams had me behavin’ for
the rest of the year.”

They both started walking towards the parking lot as they
laughed about his admission. Catherine seemed to have finally calmed down now
that she was on her way home. “Ugh… I can’t believe I get to go home to a nice
quiet house for the next thirty six hours.”

“You got Grissom to take your shift tonight?”

“Actually, no…” She was leery about telling him who, because
she was afraid he would be offended. “Nick’s gonna
take it tonight. He’s bucking for something, so he offered to run the weekend
guys for me.”

“What, you don’t think I’d pitch in, or what?” When she
looked up at his face, she relaxed because she could tell he was only kidding.

“Well, I figured since you hadn’t gotten a day off in almost
two weeks, you might like to keep yours tonight.” It was the real reason she
had looked for someone else to take the shift when it became apparent she was
running into a triple.

“Is that how long it’s been?” His smirk told her everything
was all right.

They were about to pass Grissom’s office when they heard the
man’s voice from behind them. “What are you two still doing here?”

Simultaneously, they both answered, “Paperwork.”

Grissom held up the large stack of folders he had under his
arm and tilted his head to the side, “Right.” He was about to angle his way
past them and into his office when he called out. “Oh, hey Warrick…
How’d it go today? Did you get the rest of it taken care of?”

Catherine fixed him with a questioning glare and unsteadily,
Warrick answered. “Ah yeah… I’d say ‘all done, but
for the crying’, but honestly I’m just glad to be finished talkin’
to lawyers for now.”

“Well, just remember to see HR next time you get a chance…
And bring the decree, they’ll have to see it to change
the beneficiary on the insurance.” Grissom walked away from them without
another word and delved into the safety of his own office, leaving Warrick there to explain.

“Lawyers, decrees, HR? What’s g-”

Grissom’s voice calling out interrupted her, “Oh, hey… You
should ask Catherine, since I bet there’s something I missed about the process.
She has more experience with that divorce stuff than I do. Good luck.”

It seemed that no one was supposed to keep the color in
their faces that morning, because Catherine’s face had just drained of it
again. “Divorce?!”

Warrick hung his head and his
shoulders slumped considerably as he begrudgingly nodded his answer.

“I… I mean, w-… Ho-…
Wh-…”
Catherine was stumbling through the words, but nothing was making it out all
the way. She eventually took a deep breath, looked around to see that they were
suddenly the objects of scrutiny and took him by the elbow to lead him out the
doors once again.

As soon as they hit the daylight of the parking lot, she
started again. “Warrick, what happened? I mean, are
you okay?”

Exhaling, he nodded his head and said, “Yeah, I’m okay… It
just-… I-It didn’t work out.”

“When?” She was still in shock at
the news, so the questions were just coming from autopilot.

“We ah, we split up a few months back.” He rubbed at his
face for a moment and then explained, “I didn’t want to ah, to-… I wanted to
keep it out of the lab. You know how things get twisted around in there, and I
just didn’t want to deal with it.”

She shook her head with disbelief and laid it on the table,
“The lab is one thing, but we’re your friends, and you couldn’t tell us?!” She
immediately saw the guilt playing across his face and she felt like someone had
just punched her in the gut. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know?”

He instantly shook his head and answered, “No! I only told
Grissom because I knew her lawyers would try to get something from work, and
Sara knows because… Well, she went to court with me, for support and-… As a character witness.”

There was another punch. “Sara?”

“Yeah, she knows all my skeletons…” He hung his head with
his admission. “She’s already had to investigate me twice, so I figured it was
a safer bet using her.”

“But you couldn’t even tell me what you were going through?”

He turned at the sound of someone else coming out of the
building and then quietly pulled her to the side to whisper, “Do you really
want to do this here? Now?”

Even through her anger she could see the desperation in his
eyes and he watched as she slammed her eyes shut and shook her head. “You’re
right.” The sense of relief he felt showed across his features, but it was
short lived when she looked him square in the eye and said, “Where then?”

“Huh?”

“If not here, then where?” Her expression told him she was
not about to let this go on any longer.

“Cath, I-”

“I’m not going anywhere until you answer me.” She stood in a
defiant pose, with her arms crossed tightly around her and her jaw firmly set.

Hanging his head back down, he finally relented. “Fine… Ladies’ choice.”

Catherine smiled and then said, “Okay… Follow me; I’ll buy
you breakfast.”

Warrick should have known better,
but he was beat and just plain worn out from dealing with work and the lawyers
and the whole screwed up mess. The whole ride over to Catherine’s house he
tried to come up with how he was going to explain himself as quickly as
possible.

The fact of the matter was that the last thing he wanted while
he was dealing with the end of his marriage was an “I told you so” lecture from
Catherine. She had never totally come out and told him she thought he had made
a mistake, but he knew her well enough to spot the truth. And then there was
that conversation right after she found out.

He was sure she probably had not even thought about that
conversation, but truth be told he had thought about it a lot. And if he was
brutally honest with himself, he would have to admit those thoughts started
long before his marriage began falling apart. In a lot of ways, that confession
had been haunting him with the imaginings of a future lost to a misguided,
ill-conceived and downright foolish choice fueled only by his fear.

As he followed her into the driveway at her house, he blew
out a long breath trying to collect himself for the hell that was about to come
down on him. He knew Catherine meant well, and he knew that he owed her an
explanation, but he just was not sure he was up to dealing with the
consequences of that conversation.

All of that no longer mattered, because she was standing
next to his car window rapping on the glass to get his attention. The corner of
his mouth turned up in half a grin and he nodded his head as he switched off
the engine and moved to exit the car. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Looked like you were a little lost for a
minute there.”

“Yeah, well,” he pointed at the house and said, “I thought
you were buying me breakfast.”

“Uh huh… I bought the groceries I’m gonna
use to cook it with; same thing.” They both laughed and he followed after her
as she turned to walk into the house. That was when it hit him; he missed this.

He missed the comfortable friendship they had once shared.
That casual easy way they slipped into conversation; the effortless way they
could anticipate each other’s actions. There had once been a time when he came
to her with everything; when he felt he had a right to come to her with his
troubles. But somewhere, that got lost, and for the life of him he could not
figure out where and when that happened.

Once they were inside, Catherine pulled a stool out from the
back of the breakfast bar and then rounded it to open the refrigerator. “So,
are we thinking omelets or French Toast?”

He smiled tentatively, since she had her back to him at that
moment, and asked, “You know how to make French Toast?”

She turned back to him, with one arm on the fridge door and
the other on her hip raising her eyebrow in a deliberate arc. “Is that an
affront to my cooking skills?”

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said,
“No, no… No death wish here. I was just thinking maybe that was a little
complicated and messy after pullin’ a triple.”

She shrugged and turned back to the fridge. “Not at all. Bread’s already cut, and I have some of the egg
stuff leftover from the last time I made it for Linds.”
When she turned back around she had a plastic container and a bag of sliced
French Bread. “She wanted some before she left with my
sister and the kids, so we made a morning of it.”

Warrick watched as she reached up
for a skillet off the rack and noticed that she actually seemed pretty
comfortable in the kitchen. He never would have thought that about her, and he
had to admire her even more because of it. She
really does do it all.

As she placed the first pieces of French Toast
into the skillet, he continued watching her in silence. He never had any doubts
about her talent as a dancer, because she always had an effortless grace to her
movements. Even something as mundane as cooking breakfast looked like art when
she did it.

“You two doing any better?” He had
to say something, or his mind would continue down a dangerous path.

“As much as can be expected with a
teenager.” Catherine had her gaze fixed on the skillet as she flipped
the pieces when she spoke again. “She misses you.”

That threw him for a loop. He had always enjoyed hanging out
with Lindsay when her Mom needed a little extra help, but he never realized it
meant anything to the girl. “She thought you’d moved away at one point.”

“What? Why would she think that?” He was completely floored
by that statement.

Catherine still had not looked up from the pan when she
shrugged. “I guess it was my fault… She said I stopped talking about you last
year. Said she figured it out when she saw you at the hospital visiting Brass.”

He sat there trying to make sense from what Catherine was
saying, but his mind was going in twelve million different directions and he
just could not find his focus. Before he could even make out which side was up,
Catherine was setting a plate down in front of him.

“Syrup or preserves?”

He shook his head to clear the cobwebs quickly forming over
his brain. “I-I’m sorry, what?”

“Do you want syrup or preserves for your French Toast?”

“What kind of preserves?”

She was standing in front of the open refrigerator when she
answered him, “Strawberry and Blueberry.” She grabbed both pots and brought
them to the counter top to sit in front of him and then turned back to the
fridge.

Warrick put a spoon of each onto
his plate and watched as she warmed the syrup briefly in the microwave. When
she brought it to the breakfast bar she looked down at his plate and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” He was midway through cutting into his
first bite as he looked from his plate to her smiling face.

“It’s nothing really.” She sat down in the stool opposite
him across the breakfast bar with a smirk still firmly entrenched on her face.

“Somethin’s givin’
you the giggles… What is it?”

“It’s ah… It’s the way you set up your plate.”

He looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary: French Toast with sprinkles of powdered sugar, one dollop of
strawberry preserves on the side of the plate, and one dollop of blueberry
preserves two inches away from the strawberry and nothing touching, just like
it should be. What could she possibly
find amusing about that? “What’s so fu-”

“Lindsay does the exact same thing… Especially
the no touching thing. Which is funny because-”

He grinned at her explanation and went back to preparing his
first bite by smearing a small amount of strawberry preserves on the piece and
then some of the blueberry on the other side.

“…she just puts it all together anyway.” He looked down at
the bite he was about to put in his mouth and finally understood why it was all
so funny and then laughed alongside her.

After finally consuming that first bite he admitted, “Now
you know my worst secret… I am a prissy eater. At least, that’s what my Grams
always called it.”

She smiled, the way she always did, and they ate their
breakfasts in relative silence. When Warrick looked
up out of his empty plate, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and asked, “If
you’re still hungry, I can make some more?”

“Nah, I’m good… I mean, it was very good, thanks.”

She placed her napkin over her plate and crossed her arms
over her chest, looking very much like a royal about to pass judgment down upon
her subjects. “So, I’ve been a good host, you’ve been fed, and I believe we’ve
hit my quota for small talk… You ready yet?”

He knew it was all too good to be true, because Catherine
never forgets. So, Warrick took a deep breath and
prepared for the worse.

“As I’m gonna be, I guess.” He was
still not ready to look her in the eye, so he stared at his hand resting on the
counter. “I haven’t told anyone about it, really.”

“Sara?”

He smirked at her suspicions, but he knew that would be a
sore subject. “Nah, she’s easier than you… She doesn’t ask a lot of questions.”
Catherine blushed at his implication.

“You just said, ‘Hey, I’m gettin’
a divorce. Will you testify for me?’ and she just nodded and went about her
business?” Catherine always did recover fast, and this was no exception.

“Almost… She let me crash at her apartment the first few
nights, asked if there was anything she could do, and did it.”

Catherine’s face morphed into a mass of confusion as she
tried to piece together a timeline that made sense, but came up short. Sara had
been living with Gil for months, and she could not imagine he had been hiding
this from them for so long. “When did all this happen?”

He exhaled sharply, as though the words themselves were
going to cause him pain, “The big fight? Just before Brass
was shot.”

“My God!”

“Not one of my shining moments. And after that and not
knowing if Brass was gonna make it, I just couldn’t
face going home, so Sara let me stay at her apartment. By the time I went home,
she’d already cleared out.” He was still unable to look in her eyes, so he
moved his focus to a blank spot on the wall. “She filed the next day.”

Catherine shook her head in disbelief and they were both
silent for a few moments as the whole thing sunk in for them. “Warrick… That was months ago. Why haven’t you told anyone
yet?”

He dropped his gaze to the floor with the impact of that
question. He had thought about telling everyone a hundred times, but in the end
he was just too ashamed to show his friends his failure. He had jumped the gate
and rushed headlong into a marriage based completely on fear and a sense of
desperation after Nick’s abduction, and even though no one had ever come right
out and told him he was making a mistake, he knew they all had to be thinking
it.

The only person who had come close to calling him on it was
Sara, but even she left him his dignity when she had given him that careful
stare. All she did was look at him and said, “If this is what you really want…”
He knew exactly what she was saying to him, because she was probably the only
person who understood where his hopes had been sitting.

“What can I say, Cath? I screwed
up… Big time… And I just didn’t want to hear it from my friends.” He took in a
deep breath and blew it out, “With everything else going on, I-I j-just couldn’t deal with it.”

Before he knew what was happening, he was coming dangerously
close to losing his cool. His eyes started to cloud over with unshed tears, and
his hands began to shake. The feeling of spiraling down into his own pain was
distracting enough that he failed to notice that Catherine had made her way
around the counter to stand right beside him. The first clue he had that she was
there were her fingers barely touching the back of his neck and her arm resting
over the back of his shoulder.

“We’re your friends, Warrick… That
doesn’t change when you fuck something up. Otherwise, I’d be in a lot of
trouble.” He nodded, trying to keep his breakdown in check. But it was all in
vain when he finally chanced a look into her eyes. That moment of contact was
the final strike at the walls he had been trying to keep in place for months,
and once the first tear managed to escape, the rest followed quickly. And there
he was, a grown man, weeping and sobbing like a little girl and being cradled
in the arms of a woman.

Catherine held him tight and tried to use a soothing tone in
her voice as she stroked his face, but the whole scene frightened her all the
way to her bones. Warrick, so often the rock on their
team, was practically falling apart right there in her arms.

Eventually, his sobs began to subside and his breathing
began to return to normal, but still he did not pull away from her embrace. When
the silence became too much for her, Catherine had to say something. “See? Still here.”

He chuckled at her attempt to lighten the mood, and lifted
himself out of her embrace as he tried to regain his composure. However, that
was short-lived when he felt a strong THWACK on the back of his head. “OW!”

“THAT was for not
talking to anybody about this crap!”

He was rubbing the spot on his head when he turned to look
at Catherine, only to find her standing there with a dangerous smirk on her
face. “Right… ‘Cause you’ve been so willing to talk
lately.” When he watched the smirk turn straight into a very pained expression,
he could not imagine why he had said that to her. “Cath
I-”

She held up her hand to stop him, “No…” She then swallowed
the lump that had obviously risen in her throat. “I deserved that one.”

Warrick watched as she turned and
took a few steps away from him and into the living room. He rubbed at his eyes,
hoping it would help fight off the pain they had just seen, but he knew there
was only one thing that could do that. Getting up from the stool, he gingerly
walked towards her, and he could see she was holding her face with one hand,
and the other arm was wrapped tightly around her middle.

Slowly, he came to stand directly behind her and then he
cautiously put his hands down onto her shoulders. “Cath…”
He could feel her tense under his touch, and it let him know just how far their
friendship had crumbled. “I’m sorry… That was, it was, it
was unfair.” She started to tremble and it broke his heart just little bit more
to know he had caused that pain. “I didn’t m-”

“It’s okay… It’s just…” The words seemed to die in her
throat, and her trembling grew stronger. Warrick
could not take it any longer, and he decided it was his turn to offer her some
comfort, so he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

“It was just harder than I thought it would be.”

His face screwed up into a question mark, because he really
had no clue what she was talking about, so he asked, “What’s that?”

“Giving it up.”

Her trembling seemed to stop with those words, as Warrick tried to decipher what they meant. He searched his
mind for some kind of clue, and when it finally landed smack dab onto the last
real conversation that they had, right after she had learned of his marriage,
he actually gasped.

He stood there, with his arms around her, for several
moments as his brain tried to wrap itself around her admission. The first time
she had told him about her thoughts, he was not in any kind of situation to
deal with their implications, but in that moment it all came crashing down on
him.

Catherine had told him that he was her fantasy, and never in
a million years would he have ever thought that could be a possibility. When
she had been made his supervisor, any hope that he may have held out for that
chance seemed to evaporate with the Vegas heat. Once, in that damned storm
drain, his hopes might have been given wings, but once that promotion came
through, he never had even the slightest notion of hope again. Not until that
day in the Layout Room, when he confronted her about his marriage, and by then,
it was too late.

Warrick had tried to push that
confession out of his thoughts from that point forward. Eventually, it became
the stuff of subconscious ramblings, but it never completely left him. Just as
his now ex-wife had never been able to break her draw to her own ex, he had never been able to put that confession away. There
had always been something hanging over his entire marriage. They had never
combined bank accounts, he had never put her name on his condo, they still kept
their bills separate and the only things showing that they were married was
that one piece of paper and two gold bands. If he was really honest with
himself, he had never believed it would last. That was what his grandmother
would tell him, if he had ever told her about the marriage in the first place.

He told himself that her being in the nursing home, she
would probably be confused by the whole thing, so he wanted to wait until she
was doing better. The truth was that he was slightly ashamed of the way he had
done things and could not bear to see the hurt in her eyes when he told her he
had gotten married in a drive-thru chapel. She would have been heartbroken not
to have seen her boy married in the church, and he could not bear to ever break
her heart again. He had done that enough when he was a boy.

As he thought about his grandmother, he remembered his last
visit. She had been in good spirits that day, and was full of questions for him
about his life. Wanted to know about his job, his boss, his friends, if “that
Nick boy was doing better,” if he was enjoying his condo, if he had gotten the
piano in there okay, but there was one question that had him floored.

With bright eyes and a
big smile she took his hand and asked him, “When are you gonna
bring that girl of yours by to see me, Angel?” As he struggled for breath she
went on, “That little girl of hers is just so precious with that gorgeous
blonde hair and those dimples… I really don’t know why you two haven’t wised up
after all this time.”

His grandmother had only met Catherine and Lindsay a couple
of times, years ago, but she had somehow decided that they were together. Had Grams really seen something that I
completely missed?

With that realization, Warrick
suddenly understood that he really was a fool. He had mistakenly rushed into a
marriage of convenience instead of having the guts to go after what he really
wanted. Sara had been right all along!

He had let fear rule his actions for the last time. He
instantly turned Catherine around with his hands resting on her shoulders, and
looked down into her red-rimmed eyes. She looked more frightened than he could
ever remember seeing her before, but he had to take his chances when they were
offered to him, or he would spend the rest of his life feeling like a fool.

“What if you don’t have to?”

Her trembling was back, but she looked up into his eyes with
the confusion showing in hers. She swallowed hard and then asked, “Don’t have
to what?”

“Give it up.”

When the tear began to trail down her cheek, he took it as a
sign. With his thumb, he reached up and gently wiped it away. Her face turned
into the touch and she closed her eyes with the contact. His mind became
totally awash in all the possibilities that her actions could imply, so he
decided he would hope for the best as he lowered his lips to hers.

As their lips met, any doubts he might have ever had were
erased from all existence. There was an electricity
that passed between them in that first gentle touch of their lips. When the
pressure of their lips began to increase, he moved his hands up from her
shoulders to hold her face between them, just to make sure it was truly
happening.

Their kiss continued to deepen, and he was beginning to feel
a burning in his lungs as they fought to make him take in another breath, but
he was not willing to break the contact just yet. When he felt her arms grasp
his waist and pull him closer to her, he finally gasped. The contact made his
whole body ache for more and his lips immediately and desperately descended
upon hers once again. As the kiss intensified, he felt her mouth part ever so
slightly and he took it as another sign and began to snake his tongue inside
for further exploration. His initiative was rewarded with a strangled whimper
from the woman in his grasp.

Their tongues began a sensual battle, caressing and plunging
deeper and deeper as they raged on. The kiss was only broken as her hands began
to roam over the bare skin of his back when she had managed to get them under
his shirt and he was forced to gasp for air once more. He had imagined what her
hands would feel like on his bare skin for as long as he had known her, and the
reality of the sensation was so much more than his imagination had ever created.

His mouth quickly returned to her, but not to her mouth, he
moved her head to one side and began to explore the side of her neck with his
lips; his tongue. The taste of her skin was yet another instance where his
imagination had paled in comparison to the truth. His other hand began to move
down her back and he found that he was desperate for even more contact, so he
pulled her in tight to his body which elicited something more than a whimper
from her; it was bordering on a moan and it made his pulse race even faster.

Her hands left his back, and she returned his mouth to hers
in what could only be called a rapturous kiss. With his breath completely
exhausted by the exchange, he was forced to gasp once again, but he held his
face against hers and he could feel her heated breath as it moved past his ear
making him even more frenzied in his need for her.

Wrapping both of his arms around her, he picked her straight
off of the floor, leaving her feet to dangle in the air as his mouth re-ignited
its assault. There was only the hint of a yelp from her throat at the surprise
of his actions, but she quickly moved her arms to wrap around his neck and head
and she deepened the kiss herself, that time.

When his arms struggled to move over her back, she
instinctively brought her legs up to hold tightly around his waist, and she was
rewarded when his right hand reached down and began to hold her up by her
bottom. And when she could feel him moving her back and forth as he looked
around the room, she broke their kiss for only a moment to giggle. She knew
that he was looking for an appropriate location, and his confusion delighted
her.

He leaned his forehead against hers and chuckled, “I guess
it is kind of funny, huh? Two grown people acting like a couple of teenage-”

“Bite your tongue!” The last thing she wanted to imagine was
her daughter getting that carried away. It was a definite mood breaker. Warrick could only laugh at their precarious situation.

She soon joined him in the laughter. “So,
now what?”

He held her tighter, kissed the end of her nose and then
smiled, “Is there more to this fantasy thing?”

The heady tone of his voice told her all she needed to hear,
and she gave him a decidedly feline smile when she answered, “You better believe
it.” She captured his mouth in another kiss and then moved to whisper in his
ear. “Last door at the end of the hallway.”

He swung her around and started towards the hall with her
giggling into the crook of his neck. But then she tensed a little and he
stopped to look into her eyes. “What is it?”

“Um, we ah, need to ah, get my purse.”

He furrowed his brow for just a second when it dawned on him
that there were still things you did not leave to chance. “Right…” He swung
back around and stalked into the front hall where she had deposited the item in
question when they had entered the house.

She reached back and grabbed the purse off the entry table
and gave him another goofy look when she returned to look in his eyes. “You
seem to be finding a lot of humor in this.”

She looked over the side and onto the floor before returning
to his discerning gaze. “I can walk, ya know?”

It was his turn to give her a dangerous raise of his eyebrow
and an incendiary grin to go with it. “Not for long.” And he kissed her so
deeply that she had to firm up her hold around his neck for fear of falling to
earth again before she was ready.

By the time they had reached her bedroom, Warrick was convinced that his imagination was broken
somehow, because it had never even come close to conceiving the truth, and they
had not even gotten any farther than making out yet. His mind was in for a serious explosion if
things kept up at this pace.

When they were standing directly in front of her bed, he
felt her legs slowly trail down his sides until they found purchase on the
floor once more. He realized that his words must have had an impact on her,
because he found that he had to keep his grasp on her waist when she wobbled a
bit on her feet. But there was no time for balancing, he needed to have her
taste on his tongue once more and he began to devour her neck again making her
dump the purse unceremoniously onto the floor.

He stopped only when he felt his shirt being pushed over his
shoulders, and moved his arms to allow it to fall to the floor. When her hands
splayed over his chest he had to throw his head back at the heat of that
sensation. However, he was wholly unprepared for the feel of her lips when they
touched the exposed flesh there, and he gasped with the moan that escaped his
throat. He was completely lost in the sensations she was eliciting from her
careful ministrations across his chest, that when she teased one of his nipples
with her teeth his knees nearly buckled from the force of the desire that rose
in his body.

She was so much more than he ever imagined he deserved and
he reached down to find her chin and brought it up to place another soul
touching kiss upon those luscious lips. Their tongues quickly resumed their
dance as his hands made their down her sides to the hem of her tank top. He
slowly and deliberately brought it up her back, making her arch at the ripples
of sensation he created in the movement. As they both had to gasp for air once
more, he pulled it quickly over her head and brought his hands back down to
hold her tight against his chest again.

His hands and fingers continued to trace every curve and
hollow of her back as their fiery kisses continued. She was pushing into his
every touch, and he could feel the intensity that was passing between them grow
with every movement as their bodies danced. When his fingers found the
fasteners of her bra, they made quick work and he could feel her shudder a bit
once she realized he had released the clasp. This was a line, once crossed,
could never be undone, so he looked down into her eyes and put every ounce of
his emotion into his eyes as he kissed her tenderly in a gesture of reassurance.

His breath was ragged, but he knew that he could not keep
going if she was not completely sure this was the right thing. “We don’t have
to g-”

She put a finger on his lips to silence him and then said,
“I just want you to be sure. Because I can’t risk this if it isn’t real.”

Her words made his heart swell. She was worried about how he
would treat her heart, and it caused the depth of his caring for her to grow
exponentially. Warrick knew in that moment that he
had to tell her the truth.

He took both of her hands into his and looked into her eyes,
hoping that she could see the intensity there. “Catherine… I never thought this...”
He squeezed their hands together into the cut of his chest to emphasize his
point, “…was possible. That’s why I gave up hope, not because I stopped loving
you… I’ve always loved you.”

The air between them stilled, and he watched as a single
tear rolled down her cheek. He pulled their hands up and turned hers over to
his lips as he kissed the backs of each hand. “Always.”

Catherine slipped her hands up and around his neck pulling
him down into a kiss that practically ignited his soul, and one which he was
all too happy to return. His own hands had dropped between them and were slowly
making their way back up along her sides, causing the skin under his touch to
come alive.

When his fingers rested along the bottom line of her ribs he
could feel the shiver run through her as he rolled each finger over each rib
until they were just centimeters below the tender flesh of her breasts. The
sensation of his warm hands and nimble fingers teasing the flesh around the
bottom of her breast halted the languishing kisses she had been peppering his
chest with and made her gasp for air.

He took full advantage of her momentary distraction to lower
his lips to her neck, just as his left hand completed its journey and closed
over her right breast, giving it a tender squeeze and causing her to arch her
back, throwing herself further into his grasp. Her breathing had changed to
almost a pant as he continued to administer to her neck with his lips and her
breast with his hand. When he switched sides, simultaneously, he was given the
gift of her first full out moan and he smiled against her neck at the sound of
his accomplishment.

As he continued to let his lips do more than talk, he
started to kick off his shoes, and then he felt her hands trailing down his
chest only to stop at the top of his jeans. Before he knew what she was doing,
she already had his pants most of the way undone, and he had to release her
breast to grab at her hands and still them. His actions were met with a
frustrated whimper which he attempted to silence with his lips as he wrapped
his arms around her body once again, but this time he was not trying to lift
her up, but lay her down.

Once he had her sprawled out on the bed, he took a long look
at the woman below. At the sight of her partially clad body, superheated with
desire for him, he subconsciously licked his lips, like a lion ready to feast.
And she was a feast for him; a feast for the eyes and for his touch. If this
was the last thing he ever did in his life, he could die a satisfied man.

Unable to restrain himself any longer, he captured with all
of his might, revealing to her all the passion he held for her. But this time,
unimpeded by their height difference as they lay on the bed, his kisses did not
end at her neck, but instead they met in the middle where his hand already
found its playground teasing her breasts with his touch. When his lips finally
made the journey to that tempting flesh he paused, but only for a moment,
before they laid claim to the tantalizing flesh. At first, kissing around the
nipple in a taunting fashion, making her groan for his touch, and then in an
instant he closed his mouth around one of the taut and peaked nubs, making her
arch and moan in delight.

With his mouth providing the perfect diversionary assault,
his hand began its descent into regions further south. Making quick work of the
button and zipper on her slacks, he had completed the first part of his quest
without being detected, but that was soon about to change.

Once he managed to push aside her slacks his hand began to
work on pure instinct as it glided down over her lace clad mound and his
fingers tucked into the junction, cupping her sex with a firm hold. He would
have been hard pressed to identify the sound that sprang forth from her throat
at the contact, but the way her hips jerked up into his grasp told him it was a
good thing.

The warmth he found there was
matched only by the moisture and it made him throw caution to the wind as he
began stroking her through the fabric; up and down in a steady, deliberate
rhythm. He was surprised when she began to rock her hips in the same rhythm,
and it gave him the courage he needed to push things even further, as his next
stroke had his fingers leading the way underneath the fabric.

With a slow determination, he continued
the caresses of his tongue over her breast, paying special attention to each
nipple and keeping her flesh teased with each touch and careful breath from his
lips. And when his fingers made their way to her folds, parting her gently,
without dipping lower, she arched her back so far up that it pressed her chest
further into his face. However, instead of pausing to give her a chance to
catch her breath, his middle digit pushed in and trailed slowly up through her
folds, stopping only when it made contact with her tender nub and causing her to
cry out unintelligibly for the first time.

He took that as a sign and returned
his lips to her mouth, capturing it in an unbelievably passionate kiss. When
his middle finger began to stroke up and down through her folds she was unable
to fight the gasp that followed. He took the opportunity she had provided him
by plowing deeper into her mouth with his tongue, nearly wrenching the very air
from her lungs in the process.

Breathless and panting for air, her
entire body flushed with her immense arousal, leaving her incapable of rational
thought. That was exactly what he wanted to do to her. He wanted her to feel
every ounce of his passion and desire for her; wanted her to never question his
love. So, he gave her one more languid kiss upon her lips and then started to
trail the warmth of his kisses down her cheek to her neck, along the long and
sensual line of her throat, over her collarbone, onto her chest, suckling a
moment at each breast before kissing that beautiful space between them, down
along the edge of her ribs, across her abdomen to her navel, pausing to nibble
at the delicately feminine, rounded flesh below the navel before his hands
found holds on either of her hips as he began to slide her remaining clothes
all the way down her luscious body. He was ready to show her exactly how much
he worshiped her, body and soul.

Her clothes now discarded, he turned
to find her right knee raised into an arch and he knew
where he was headed next. His warm lips gently kissed the skin on the inside of
her knee, and then started to trail down her thigh. However, when he was about
to make his way to his intended target, he found her hands on either side of
his head, tugging him to come back up.

When he looked up, she pulled him
closer and rose up from the bed to meet him there in the center. Her kiss was
urgent, needy and took his breath away, distracting him from her intended
target. The distraction was not enough to keep him from moaning as her hand
closed around him. He had been purposely ignoring the yearnings from his own
nether regions, hoping to stave off his want long enough to give her everything
he felt she deserved, but it became readily apparent to him that she had other
ideas.

Her left hand was holding his head
to keep up the pressure of her deep and delicious kisses, but her right one was
doing things to him on a much deeper level. Too much more and he was going to
waste this golden opportunity, but before he could say anything she gave him a
sloppy and wonderful release from their kiss as she sucked his lower lip into
her mouth, only to let it pop out.

With their foreheads touching, and
their super-heated breaths mixing in the small space, she pressed his erection
into his belly, trailing her fingers up along the
underside of the shaft and making his vision grow cloudy. Lost in the
sensation, he almost missed it when she said, “I need you… Now.”

He did not need to hear that twice,
and he started to push her back onto the bed, but she held her hand to the center
of his chest to halt his progress. When he looked into her eyes with his
utterly confused expression she pointed the floor beside the bed and said, “My
purse?”

He had gotten completely lost in the
heat of the moment and forgot all about his responsibilities. After this, he
vowed to make sure she never had to be their contraception monitor again. He
leaned over and retrieved the purse to hand it to her. As he waited for her to
find the item in question, he began to kiss at the crook of her neck, unable to
keep his mouth from her flesh, finding himself aching for the contact.

Her search began to take on a
frantic nature, and at first he thought it was his distraction, but when she
exclaimed, “Shit!” he know that was not the case.

“What is it?” He spoke into her ear,
still kissing along the line of her jaw.

“Um…” He was right about the
distraction, after all. “I ah, mmmmmm… I only have
one left.”

He smiled and felt the embarrassment
rising in his cheeks when he brought his face back up to gaze at her. “High expectations?”

Her deep blush and the fear in her
eyes let him know that he had gotten to her with his question. “N-no… I-I just
mea-”

He silenced her mouth with his lips
as his tender kiss caught her up. “I was just foolin’…”
He could see the relief in her eyes and they both laughed quietly at the humor
of the moment. “We’ll just have to be careful, and then, if you’re still
interested-”

“You’re kidding right?” Her raised
eyebrow and sideways grin made his heart skip a beat.

It was his turn to shy away from the
blush rising in his cheeks and she leaned forward to kiss him once more. “Just
try to keep up.” The tone in her voice told him, she was probably only joking
halfway, and he chuckled a bit as he nuzzled into her neck and kissed the skin
there once more before taking the purse away from her and dropping it onto the
floor.

She had the foilpack
torn open before his hand came back to her body. And before he could even
position himself to lay her back into the bed, she had covered him with the
sheath of latex. With their tongues dueling once again on their descent into
the mattress, he tried to figure out the exact moment that he had become
deserving of such an incredible woman.

He hovered over her, gazing down at
her lithe and radiant body, resting the bulk of his weight on his forearms. He
tucked his arms under her shoulders and pressed gentle, tender kisses around
her face and neck when he felt her left leg slide up the back of his right leg
and rubbing her knee against his backside. They were ready, but he was trying
to commit the exact moment to memory before he went any further. The look of
her hair spread over the pillows, the delicate lines of her throat, the
specific scent of her arousal, the heat of her flesh as she became more and
more aroused and the feel of her skin as she slid her hands up and down his
back and over his chest.

When he felt her hands moving down
his abdomen he knew she was done waiting. She pulled him to her with her leg
and guided him into her center with her hand. He stood at the brink of
paradise, gazing into her wanton eyes; pools of the bluest hue that he was
practically lost in them. He placed one last chaste kiss gingerly upon her lips
and said, “Thank you… For not giving it up.” And just
as she gasped at the meaning of his words, he entered her slowly.

Her gasp transformed into a slightly
muffled cry, as she bit down on her lip at the moment of his entrance. At first
he thought he had hurt her, but when her hips thrust up to meet him just as her
leg gripped him tighter, he knew that it was okay to continue. Once more, he
pushed into her a little deeper, eliciting a low moan from her. He waited for
her to adjust for only a moment, and when he felt her squeeze around him, he
went further.

Two more plunges and he was finally
buried in her, and his mind began to dance with light. Having her surrounding
him completely was the most exquisite feeling he had ever experienced. When his
mind started to fall away into the abyss of his desire, he found that he was
stroking in and out of her without any conscious thought. He was making her his
on a purely biological level, and it was working in reverse as well. With each
rhythmic thrust and parry, she was claiming him and making it impossible for
him to ever live without her.

When he was finally able to swim up
out of the blackness of his own mind, he could feel her hands kneading over the
muscles of his back, desperately trying to get herself closer and closer to
him. Finally, he looked down to find her body covered in a glistening sheen of
perspiration, a direct result of his effect on her. Leaning his head down, he
went to kiss at her neck, but found himself caught up
in the scent of her and practically took a bite out of her shoulder as she
writhed beneath him.

The sounds erupting from both of
their throats were the stuff of wild beasts, but it sounded like a perfect
symphony to his ears and it spurred him on in his desire. His thrusts began to
escalate; deeper, faster, harder. All to the words
that spilled out of her mouth, and fed into his male ego. It also made him push
up from his toes and try to find a way to go deeper and deeper into her. Before
long, there was so much friction between them, were it not for their
perspiration they would surely spontaneously combust. Down and out, up and in,
over and over again.

He felt her arms wrap tightly around
his back and hold on to him for dear life, just as she began to clamp down
around him and quiver with delight and ecstasy, which was all he needed to send
him completely over the edge.

His last thrusts were purely from
momentum, as apposed to any further bravado. He was completely spent in way he
had never been before. As he huffed and puffed, trying to keep his weight off
her, he chuckled as he realized that her earlier challenge may have been true,
after all.

At the same time he was reveling in
his realization, he could feel her giggling beneath him. He leaned his head
down to kiss her lips once more and asked, “What’s so funny?”

She smiled as she tried to kiss him
back and said, “You were right.”

He smiled, and tried,
unsuccessfully, to hide his delight in her current state. “About?”

She threw her head back a little,
exposing her throat to him, which he nibbled at as she answered through her
delighted giggle, “Walking.” That made them both laugh, and he kissed her one
more time before carefully rolling off of her.

When he got up to go the bathroom
and dispose of the condom, he left her lying on the bed with her whole body
splayed out across it and her breath still coming in a ragged rhythm. The lack
of contact was making him ache, and he quickly rid himself of the condom, found
a washcloth and wet it to clean himself up. Then he rinsed it out with warm
water and brought it out to her.

She was in that blissful place between
waking and sleeping when he returned to the bed, so he took great care to clean
her up himself, causing her to turn into him and look up into his eyes. Not
wanting to leave her again, he rolled onto his back and tossed the rag into the
bathroom sink from the bed with a perfect three point shot. He felt the bed
shake as she chuckled at his tender and playful actions.

Her eyelids were growing heavy
again, so he rolled back to his side and wrapped his arms around her. She
smiled at the contact and then yelped when he rolled her over to lie atop him.
When she pushed up off of his chest, she was looking directly into his eyes as
he pulled the sheet up over them both. He could tell she had something to say,
but it was caught in her throat, so he put his arms back around her and held
her tight.

She seemed to relax after that and
laid her head down over his heart. His hands moved up and down her back, trying
to calm her nerves and increase his contact with her.

Just as he was about to drift off to
sleep himself, he felt her draw in a breath, and then
she kissed his chest before he heard her whisper, “I’m giving it up now.”

He tensed at the words and brought
her chin up so that he could see her face. His expression must have betrayed
his hurt because she smiled, kissed him and said, “In the fantasy… I didn’t
love you this much.”

The morning after… Or
afternoon for the graveyard folks…

A ray of sunlight attacked her eyes
and forced her back into the realm of semi-consciousness. When she had bought
the house, she got it because there was no morning sun coming into the master
bedroom, but she had not even considered that the afternoon sun would be so
intense. She was on her third set of window treatments in an attempt to cut the
affects of that boiling ball of gas in the sky, and obviously she was going to
have to make it four.

She felt strangely disoriented, but
better than she had in months. Of course it had also been months since she had
a decent amount of sleep. As she breathed in deep, she felt something very odd.
Moving her hand to try and identify what is was she brushed her fingers over
what felt like a nipple. Her hand stopped instantly, and her brain dropped into
overdrive bringing her back into reality.

She raised her head slightly and
looked up to find the face of the one man she never thought she would see like
that. His eyes were squeezed shut, but he looked be at complete peace for all
other appearances. Then she felt his hand lazily stroking her back and it sent
shivers up and down her spine.

“No wonder you can’t sleep late.”
His voice was low and smooth and brought everything back into perfect focus for
her with the warmth that was building throughout her body. He squinted and
looked down at her face when he said, “We need to get you some blackout
curtains.”

The hint of a smile on his face as
he spoke made the warmth immediately turn into heat. She was unable to stop
herself and she pushed up to capture his lips in a kiss. When they finally
broke apart, he was laughing and it made her smile through the blush that was
rising in her face.

He rumbled out, “I didn’t know you
felt that strongly about curtains.” She laughed out loud and buried her face
back into his chest.

He held her a little closer and
kissed the top of her head. “Just making sure it wasn’t a dream?” She nodded
silently into his chest and tried to wipe away the tear from her other cheek
before it escaped any further. “Yeah, I did that earlier when I moved your hand
up to my chest.”

She pushed back up and held him with
a questioning glare. “Where was it before you moved it?”

He looked up to the side and fought
the grin that was spreading over his face when he looked back down at her with
his eyebrow raised up in a conspicuous manner. “Where do you think?”

She instantly dropped her gaze with
her embarrassment and muttered, “Sorry about that.”

He chuffed, “I’m not.” And then he
kissed her sweetly through their grins. A moment passed between them, and then
he brought her back down to lie against him once more.

She sighed, blowing her breath
across his chest and causing a slight shiver to go through him. “So, what’s
next?”

He took in a deep breath, raising
her up with his chest. “Think we can just lie here a while longer?”

She smiled into the center of his
chest and said, “Sounds good to me… I’m still trying to feel my legs.” They
both laughed drowsily and snuggled in for a little more rest.

They had managed to doze back into a
tentative sleep, having adjusted enough in the bed to get away from the
offensive sunlight. So, they were both given the shock of their lives when they
heard the bellowing voice coming from the front of the house.

“MOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOM, I’M HOME!”

In an instant they were both wide
awake and completely panicked.

The voice appeared to be getting
closer as it called out again, “MOO-OOM! It’s already after four, you better be getting up!”

Catherine’s face was a complete mask
of hysteria, with her teeth clenched tightly together as she grimaced. Warrick’s was face was practically ashen with fright.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG
They were frozen with fear at the sound of the knock on the bedroom door. Warrick was never so happy about his habit of always
closing doors as he was in that moment. “YOU’RE GONNA be late for work if you
don’t get a move on.” The voice trailed off as it went back up the hallway and
away from Catherine’s bedroom.

She could wait no longer, she had to
answer. “I’m up! What are you doing home?!”

“Ha! Fine hello to
you, too!” It sounded like she was in the living room that time. “We
got totally rained out. Practically a monsoon. So, we
just came home.”

Still frozen in place, Catherine
hoped to come up with some way out of this situation. She just had to keep her
head, and not give Lindsay any kind of indication she was not alone. “Where’s
your aunt?”

“Dropped me off after I helped her hang
everything up at her place… Said she’d bring my stuff by when it dries out.” Catherine could at least be grateful that her
sister and her entire crew was not in her living room
right then… Just her daughter.

“You better hit the shower before I do, or
you’re gonna be late for work.” That time her voice had shifted into what
sounded like the kitchen.

“No work tonight. Go ahead, if you
want.” Catherine relaxed just a bit, thinking she had just found her way out.

“Who’d you get to cover? Don’t you normally
work Saturday nights?” Her voice
seemed slightly distracted. Catherine figured she was probably rummaging
through the fridge.

“Nick’s working tonight.” This is taking way too long. Lindsay was bound to start getting suspicious
that she had yet to come out. She rolled off of Warrick
and out of the bed with a clumsy speed, and Warrick
had to suppress his laughter at the sight.

“Cool… Hey, Mom?”

Catherine was throwing on the first
things she could find; a pair of jogging pants and a tank top hanging out of
the hamper. Why didn’t I do the damn
laundry before I went to work?!

“Yeah, Linds?”

“Can we order pizza? There’s nothing in here I
want.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess… Go ahead and get
in the shower; I’ll order.” There it was, the perfect way to get out of this
mess. Warrick quietly got out of the bed and started
looking for his own clothes on the floor.

“Already dialing… What’s Warrick want on his pizza?”

It was like someone had pressed the
pause button, because they were both frozen into place, not a hint of air
passing through either of their lungs, or the room for that matter.

They could hear her talking to the
pizza place, as though she was right outside of the bedroom door and then she
asked them to hold on a second. “Warrick, what kind
of pizza do you want? I already ordered a veggie for me and Mom.”

They turned and looked at each other
in total shock. Catherine dropped her chin to her chest in resignation and Warrick simply said, “Ladies’ choice, Linds.”

As she walked away from the door,
they could hear her asking for a large pepperoni pizza to go with the other
one. Pulling up his pants and fastening them, Warrick
walked over to where Catherine was standing in front of her vanity mirror. When
he reached her, he put his arms around her from the back and then whispered
into her ear, “She certainly doesn’t take after her Dad.”

Catherine turned around in his arms
and looked up at him, saying, “Yeah, she’s too smart for MY own good.”

They exchanged a tender kiss and
then finished making themselves presentable to the executioner waiting outside
the room.

Guiltily, they walked down the
hallway, single file. But Warrick was not about to
let her take this on by herself. He reached forward and took her hand in his,
giving it a firm squeeze, which she happily returned. When they entered the
living room, Lindsay was sprawled out on the couch, flipping through the
channels on the TV and looking like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Catherine cleared her throat, trying
to get her daughter’s attention. Lindsay looked away from the television screen
only briefly, smiled faintly and went right back to channel surfing.

“Ah…” She held up their joined hands
and asked, “Do you wanna talk about this?” Catherine
was obviously concerned that Lindsay was not taking the whole thing well.

“Not really.” Lindsay’s face said
that the whole notion creeped her out.

“Linds…”

“I don’t need details, Mom…”
The girl continued to flip channels and then Warrick
started getting nervous. He knew that if Lindsay did not accept them, it could
never last long. “I’m just surprised it took you guys this long… I mean really,
I thought you guys were smart. Seriously, you guys have known each other longer
than Gil and Sara for Christ’s sake.”

Warrick
looked at Catherine and she stared back at him, both realizing in an instant
that they each knew about their friends and each showing it on their faces and
with their laughter.

“Pizza should be here in like thirty
minutes… I got breadsticks, too.” They were both feeling a little foolish as
Lindsay acted like nothing was wrong, or monumental about the two of them being
together.

Catherine, looking for something to
do, released his hand and turned for the kitchen. “What do you guys want to drink?”

“I’ll take a soda… You know how Aunt
Janie is.” Lindsay rolled her eyes at the mention of her aunt.

Warrick
was trying to figure out what he should do in this kind of situation, so he
chose to just go with the flow. He walked around the chair at the entrance to
the living room and sat down saying over his shoulder, “Water’s good with me.”

They could both tell that Catherine
was using her task in the kitchen as a way to get herself together. Lindsay
took the opportunity to let Warrick off the hook. “Hey, Warrick?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Sara told me about your divorce and
everything… I’m sorry.” Then she turned to actually look at him when she added,
“Well, not really, but I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

He was slightly confused at her
admission, so he had to ask, “What do you mean, ‘not really?’”

She shrugged him off and said,
“Well, if you hadn’t gotten a divorce, you wouldn’t be here now.” She looked
over his shoulder and towards the kitchen when she muttered her next words,
“And Mom wouldn’t be smiling again.”

Warrick
decided it had to be genetic, because there seemed to be only two women in the
world who could make him blush so much. But he recovered quickly and said,
“It’s nice to see both of you smiling again.” That was when Lindsay finally
broke her nonplussed façade and broke out in a huge smile; dimples and all.

Catherine walked into the room at
just the right moment, because Warrick’s face was
flushed with what she decided was happiness and her daughter’s broad and
dimpled smile greeted her when she entered with their drinks. “What’d I miss?”

Warrick
waited for her to hand Lindsay her soft drink and when she turned to give him
one of the bottles of water in her hands, he pulled her down into his lap and
gave her a dangerous smile. “I was just thinking…”

“And that required this?” Catherine
had fixed him with an almost disapproving glare, but Lindsay’s delighted giggle
caught her attention before it developed any further.

“If you ladies aren’t doing anything
tomorrow morning…” He waited to see if there were any objections, and finding
none, along with Lindsay’s rapt attention, he continued, “If you wouldn’t want
to go with me to see my Grams?”

Catherine was confused by the odd
request, and when he looked over at Lindsay, he saw the same exact expression
mirrored on her face, and he laughed. “She’s been asking about you two…” He
paused, seeing them both demur at the suggestion and then he revealed the real
reason behind his request. “Seems Linds
wasn’t the only one waitin’ for us to wise up.”
- 1
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CSI: First Anniversary