Disclaimer: I do not own CSI.

Spoilers: Nothing, really.

Rating: K (sick, I know)

Summary: GSR ficlet

A/N: Written in under an hour while watching a Harry Potter movie, so beware.

The Google Word of the Day

"Hey, Gil, you're the word genius. What's a six-letter word for 'foolishly or sentimentally in love'?"

Grissom looked over at Catherine as she sat, bent over a folded piece of newspaper, chewing on a pencil. She glanced up at him and spoke once more: "Well?"

" 'Smitten'? No, that's seven letters." Grissom bit his lip as he searched the rolodex of his brain. He loved a good challenge and there wasn't much to do as shift wound down but sip his tea in the break room while his colleagues wandered in and out. "Do you have any letters?"

Catherine nodded. "Second letter is 'p.' Last two are 'n' and 'y.'"

"Hmm." He tapped his index finger on his closed lips and exhaled loudly through his nose.

"Spoony?"

They looked up at Sara, who had been pouring herself a cup of coffee in silence up until that moment.

Catherine furrowed her brow and filled in the remaining letters in the clue. "Hey! That works! And now I know 45 down: 'ogle.' Great, Sara. Thanks."

Grissom frowned at Sara. In very many ways, she was quicker than he was. By virtue of being older, he knew more things, but she was agile and her perspective was fresh. She saw the world with different eyes, and it was one of the things that attracted him most to her.

But it was also one of the things that kept him from pursuing their relationship further.

She unnerved him, she unsettled him. Women on the whole, he found, were predictable. They liked pretty things, flowers and candy. They expected to be wined and dined and told they looked beautiful. They didn't like it when you cancelled a date so you could spend your evening with a rotting corpse.

But Sara…she was a riddle. He couldn't picture showing up at her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers, and he never saw her eat a piece of candy in all the years he'd known her. He told her she was beautiful once and she had been speechless for nearly a half hour. And if he ever cancelled a date with her to spend time with a rotting corpse, she'd be right by his side.

Just being near her kept him in a constant state of improvisation. Her actions would throw him for a loop, making him dizzy as he grasped for some kind of reaction. She made him…she made him…spoony.

Nothing about Gil Grissom was foolish or sentimental, and to be rendered such by another human being was wholly unacceptable for the scientist. He didn't like the jelly-like feeling he got in his legs when she brushed up by him when they were on the field. He didn't like how the hair on the back of his neck would tingle deliciously at the sound of her voice.

And he didn't like the fact that a part of him actually did like those feelings.

Not one bit.

Sara was oblivious to his struggles. Most women, when sensing a man was weak, would go on offense, assaulting him with their feminine wiles. Sara seemed to shy away from that. Whether she sensed his weakness for her or not, she backed away, she let him be with his feelings.

Damn, it was another thing he liked about her.

"Spoony. That's an odd word," Catherine said, tossing her pencil on the table and sitting back in her chair, obviously done with her puzzle. "Ever been spoony over a guy, Sara?" she asked, raising her brows mischievously.

"Once," she said, and sent Grissom's stomach hurdling towards his throat.

"Oh, really?" the blonde answered, immediately intrigued.

"But, uh…I don't think the spooniness was mutual. Unfortunately." Sara avoided his eyes as she turned to the sink and tossed the remainder of her coffee down the drain.

Grissom and Catherine watched her leave, and the moment Sara was out of earshot, Catherine sighed loudly. "One day, she'll get over Hank."

"Hank?" Grissom said, alarmed. "You…you think she was talking about that paramedic?"

"I don't think she's gone out with anyone else since she's been in Vegas, and she's been in Vegas almost five years now," Catherine told him. "Although I suppose she could be talking about some past love, like from college or something. I bet she was really pretty then."

"She's really pretty now," he said quickly before getting up to leave.

Grissom walked down the hall, his eyes darting left and right, checking to see if she had stopped in any of the labs before she went to the locker room to gather her stuff before leaving. He found her at her locker, heaving her large purse off of the top shelf.

"Hi."

She looked at him, blinked, and then spoke: "Hi."

He hadn't thought past the greeting. Wordless, and without any ideas, Grissom clasped his hands behind his back.

She balanced the strap of the bag on her shoulder and closed her locker door. "I guess I'll be going now. Have a nice day." Sara moved to slip past him when he managed to find words.

"You deserve to have someone feel spoony over you."

She froze for a moment, her entire body still with shock. Eventually she turned her head to face him, her eyes unbelievably sad. "Yeah. That would be nice." She gave him a heartbreaking smile. "Maybe someday."

Without a second glance she left.

He went home and collapsed on his couch, trying desperately to forget the look in her eyes. Dear God, she loved him. Maybe not right at the moment, but she loved him once. She thought it was foolish and sentimental, and worse, she thought it was unreciprocated. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

On the whim of love, he leapt up from the couch and proceeded to collect every spoon or spoon-like apparatus from his house. He gathered them up in a bundle and set the bundle on his lap as he drove to her apartment. Mere seconds after parking, he found himself at her door, spoons in hand.

She answered in her robe, catching him off guard for a moment.

"Um…hello?"

He shook his head clear. "Hi. These are for you." He thrust the spoons into her hands. "These are all I have."

She let out a short, involuntary laugh. "You're crazy," she said as she tried her best not to drop a spoon on the floor.

"Yes."

Her smile faded as her eyes met his. "Grissom…"

"I'm…crazy. Do you think there's a chance you still might be…crazy…too?"

Sara's mouth hung open for several seconds. She looked down at the spoons cradled in her right arm and extracted one from the pile, handing it to him. He took it and swallowed.

"You're going to have to work pretty hard if you ever want the rest back."

"I can do that."

She smiled slyly. "But I think I'll be keeping these for a while."

He shrugged. "I'll just have to stick around and work hard."

"I'm counting on it."

Grissom grinned. "So am I."

THE END

A/N #2: "Spoony" was actually the Google Word of the Day for August 6, 2008. I saw it. I liked it. I wrote fic.