The CSI Team Plays Catch

Grissom, Nick, Sara, Warrick, and Catherine were all seated in the break room. They had recently finished a huge case, and all of them were exhausted. Catherine sighed, and Nick took a sip of his coffee. “Well, nothing brightens up your day like solving a case where a father kills his whole family because he was trying to watch TV and couldn’t hear it.” Nick said.

“God, don’t remind me. That has to be the stupidest reason to go on a murderous rampage.” Catherine sighed.

“Is there ever a smart  reason?”

Just then, Greg came through the door with a huge smile plastered on his smug face. He had a small box in his hands. “Hey you guys! Guess what?” He said, excitement in his voice.

“You became sane?” Warrick asked.

“No, but I’m working on that. Why do you guys always ask stupid questions? Anyway, I got us a game to play! It’s totally fun!”

Nick and Warrick groaned.

“Aw, shut up! Seriously, this is completely awesome, and we can play it now to get our minds off of the case! Whaddya say?”

“Well,” Sara started, but was cut off by Catherine.

“I’ll do just about anything to get those gory images out of my mind for a while. I’m in.”

“Wait,” Grissom said, finally speaking up, “What exactly is this game? Is it safe?”

“Yeah, absolutely!” Greg spoke while opening the box, “It’s called ‘Cosmic Catch’. You basically throw the ball around to each other. But you have to wear these bands around your hand. They’re little sensors that touch the ball, and then the ball knows if you caught it or touched it in time. And it’s made of Nerf, so I bet it’s safe.” He got out all six of the sensors.

“Here, Nick, you’re red,” He threw the red band at Nick. “All you have to do is put it around your hand, the sensor touching the palm. Then the rest is pretty much self explanatory.” Then Greg started tossing the other bands at the rest of the crew. “Sara will be purple, Catherine is yellow, Grissom is white, Warrick is green, and I guess I’ll be blue!” He attached the sensor to his hand as the rest of the CSI’s did the same.

“Okay, you guys move the table a little, ‘cause we might need a little more room.” After the table was moved, Greg took the Nerf ball out of the box and turned it on.

“Players sign in” The ball said. Greg put his hand with the sensor on the ball. “Blue” It said. Greg then tossed it to Nick. When Nick caught it, it said, “Red”.

“Heheh, cool!” Nick said, “It talks!”

“Great,” Grissom said. “Can we just get this over with?”

“Come on Grissom,” Sara said, looking over at him, “Have some fun with it! It’s not like you’d rather be signing papers.”

Grissom couldn’t argue with that, and before he knew it, Nick had passed the ball to him. He wasn’t exactly what you would call ready, so it bounced off of his chest and then into his hands. “White” The electronic sphere replied. “Ouch….” Grissom said quietly, and gently passed it to Sara. After all the team members were signed in, Greg put the ball into “You’re Our” Mode.

“All we have to do is pass it to the person it says to pass to.” Greg announced. “Basically, its sort of like Hot Potato. If you run out of time or the wrong person touches it, then that person is out! Last one in wins. Ready?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be.” Warrick replied.

Before Greg could start it, Nick interrupted. “Wait a second. How ‘bout we make this a little more interesting. Let’s do this: the winner of the game gets to dare anyone in the room to do anything. Sound good?”

“That’s dumb,” Sara pouted, sounding a little apathetic.

“No, that sounds awesome!” Greg said, “Winner gives a dare to anyone. Okay, lets start!”

“blue starts with the ball.” The ball said, “Pass it to: Red”

Greg quickly passed it to Nick as the clock started to tick on the orb. The sound resembled a time bomb getting ready to go off, indicating that when it exploded, the person who had it in their hands would obviously be out of the game.

Nick caught it gently. “White” The ball said. He wasn’t sure who white was so he had to look around.

“That’s me,” Grissom said, putting his hands up, “Pass it here.”

Nick passed the ball to Grissom, who missed it. “Quick, get it before it goes off!” Greg said, excitement in his voice yet again. Grissom quickly scrambled over to where the ball was. The ticking being faster now, Grissom felt a little nervous. He touched the ball.

“Green”

Grissom was starting to find a little enjoyment in the little game, and now not paying attention to where he was throwing it, he threw it between his legs to wherever he thought Warrick was. The throw was slightly high, so Warrick jumped for it and caught it, knocking into the wall.

“Purple”

The ticking accelerated, giving a rush to the CSI’s. Warrick threw it to Sara, who trapped it in her hands.

“Yellow”

Sara gave it to Catherine. Caught.

“Green”

Back to Warrick. He touched it with his left hand, but it started rolling away from him. He dove on the floor to get it, and knocked over a chair in the process. He touched it with his right hand, but when he did, there was an exploding sound.

“Green, you’re out!” The ball announced in a baseball umpire tone.

“Damn!” Warrick said, and went to the table to sit down.

“Aw, poor Warrick,” Nick said, making a fake puppy dog face.

“Eh, shut up. I hope you get out next.” Warrick said playfully.

Grissom picked up the ball. “white starts with the ball. Pass it to:  Blue!”

He passed it to Greg as the ticking started again. The ball bounced off the wall and Greg ran across the room to get it. He smacked it with his sensor.

“Red”

Greg, still running, jumped in the air and threw the ball through his legs, landing safely on the ground. Nick also ran across the tiny break room to get Greg’s poorly tossed ball. He caught it like a football player.

“Yellow”

Nick threw the faster ticking ball backwards over his head, smiling. This was pretty fun! Catherine saw the ball in the air, followed it, and ended up hitting a wall. The ball bounced on the floor, and Greg kicked it towards her. “Quick!” He said, “Touch it!”
Catherine kneeled on the floor as fast as she could and stretched her arm out to touch it.

“White”

Catherine tossed the ball to Grissom from the floor. The ticking was faster now. Grissom was excited to win, because he actually wanted to dare Catherine to eat a bug. Or Greg maybe for making him play this game in the first place. He caught the ball by stretching his arm out.

“Purple”

Grissom passed the ball to Sara from his one arm, and apparently it was a bad throw. It hit Sara in the face and the ball bounced to the ground, making a small explosive sound again.

“Purple, You’re Out!”

Grissom came to Sara’s side. “Sara!” He said, touching her shoulder. “Are you alright? Did I hurt you? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean too. I guess I just got a tad bit caught up in the game and I—“

He was cut off by Sara’s giggling. “Calm down Griss, it didn’t hurt at all! Don’t freak out about it!” Laughing, Sara went and sat down next to Warrick. However, Grissom still felt a little guilty.

Nick got the ball. “Red starts with the ball. Pass it to: Blue!”

Nick passed it to Greg. Greg caught it, but knocked a paper cup full of coffee over.

“Red”

Greg threw it back at Nick a little too hard, and it knocked a cabinet open. The ball bounced on the ground, and Nick dove to touch it, hitting a chair leg.

“White”

He flug the ball at Grissom from the ground, and Grissom caught it, but dropped it again. He couldn’t pick it up again, and the ball made the explosion noise.

“White, You’re out!” It screeched.

Grissom laughed and took a seat next to Sara. Then he took a look around the room. “Oh my god,” He said, “Look at the mess in this place!”

“We’ll pick it up after.” Greg replied, reaching for the ball on the ground.

“Blue starts with the ball. Pass it to: red!”

Greg, purposely wanted Nick to miss it, so he propelled it across the other side of the room. The orb bounced off the wall, off of the table, and onto the floor. Nick quickly dashed over and picked it up.

“Blue”

He chucked it in the air at Greg, who jumped for it but missed it. It hit a table, knocking over a lamp. “Damn!” Greg cursed, and followed the ball around the room. Before he got to it, the ball made the reverberation of an explosion, and Greg was out of the game.

“Well Catherine,” Nick said, pretending to size her up, “Looks like it’s just you and me now!”

“Prepare to loose Nicky,” She said smiling.

“Make it quick though,” Grissom said, glancing around the area with shifty eyes, looking for a person to walk by and see the disorder of the room.

Nick tapped his sensor against the ball. “Red starts with ball. Pass to: Yellow!”

Nick passed it to Catherine. She caught it, no problem. The ticking got faster.

“Red”

Now Nick caught it. It seemed to be going easy enough now that they just had to wait for the timer to go off.

“yellow”

“red”

“yellow”

“red”

“yellow”

“red”
And right after it hit Nick’s hands, the timer went off. Catherine had won the game.

“Darn it,” Nick smiled. “Alright Catherine, A deal is a deal! You get to dare anyone in the room to do something.”

Catherine glanced around the room. Her eyes caught Grissom for a second. “I pick Grissom,” She said.

“Great,” He said with fake enthusiasm, “What do you want me to do?”

Catherine didn’t even have to think about it. “You. Sara. Kiss her.”

The team’s jaws dropped almost simultaneously. Grissom started at her for what seemed the longest time, then stuttered a “W……what?”

Catherine smiled an almost evil smile. “You heard me right. You’re hearing didn’t give out for a second. You have to kiss Sara. Right now.”

Grissom raised an eyebrow and his face was as red as a beat, even though he tried to hide it. “I believe that is a little over the professional line, don’t you think?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to?” Catherine asked.

“I wouldn’t let him kiss me anyway,” Sara said coolly.

Grissom turned to her. “Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because I don’t want you to.”

Grissom wasn’t trying to argue, but he couldn’t control himself. “Well what if I wanted to?”

“No.”

“You wouldn’t let me kiss you, even if I wanted to?”

“Defiantly not.”

“Well, what if you didn’t know I was going to?”

“What the hell is that supposed to—“

She was cut off when Grissom’s soft lips covered her own. He placed his hand on her cheek, but just as fast as the kiss started, it was over.

Sara sat in shock, as well as the rest of the team. Grissom blushed, and opened his mouth to say something, but Ecklie had stormed into the room. “What the hell happened in here?!” He almost yelled. Ecklie stayed as calm as possible.

Grissom was just happy he didn’t see Sara and him kiss. If he did, he most likely would have said something about it. “Um…..we were trying to get our mind off a case by playing a game.”

Greg decided to speak up. “Sorry sir, it’s my fault. I’ll have this all picked up in know time!”

“You better. I never want to see this happen again. Got it?” He gave the CSIs a glare and then stormed back out of the room.

Catherine forced some words out of her mouth. “Wow….good job Gil. I thought you would be too chicken to do that….Um….I’m going to go now. Come on Warrick, Nicky, lets go. Greg can pick this up himself.” They walked out of the room, followed by Grissom and Sara.

Grissom walked towards his office, when Sara stopped him on his way there. She gave him a small push on his chest and a stern and serious look. “What the hell was that for?” She asked.

“Was what for?”

“Don’t play stupid, Gil, you know exactly what I’m talking about!”

“Oh that.” He said, pretending as if he just realized it. “I just thought maybe it was time I get in touch with my real feelings for you.”

Sara had a small blush, but kept her face serious, and now it was turning a little confused. Why was he being so forthright about this? “What? You’re REAL feelings for me?”

Grissom leaned in close to her face. “I was thinking maybe you could come over for dinner tonight. Believe it or not, I’m actually quite a good cook. Possibly catch a movie. And after that, we can do whatever you want to do. I could take you home, or for an ice cream, or you could come into my townhouse for some ‘coffee’, but you know what that always leads to. So what do you think?”

Sara was stunned. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

“Great!” Grissom said, turning around to get back to his journey of getting to his office. He waved a hand and looked over his shoulder. “I’ll see you tonight around 6:00 then. Bye!” He smirked and turned around again, leaving Sara taken aback in her place, mouth ajar.