BIG MUDDLE

This story came to me today at 4 in the morning, (yeah, I have no life as you can see). Anyway, I usually agonize for entire months over a story or even a single chapter; this one I got ready in less than a day, (and it probably shows, lol).

Big Muddle: Gil and Greg come to a sudden realization.

Spoiler: The following scene from Big Middle:

Grissom is questioning the full-figured ladies that came to a convention.

"…Gil wanders from group to group, asking if anyone recognizes Maurice. No dice. He then wanders over to a woman who's sitting in a chair, doing the above-the-waist dancing so many of us have done at our desks. She's got on a purple blouse. Gil does the "'Scuse me, do you know this guy?" Nope. Gil's staring at the blouse, and the lady grabs her cleavage and squeezes with, "You see something you like?" Gil apologizes and explains, "I noticed your lovely purple undergarment." (It turns out it's on sale at the hotel) Gil thanks her and moves on, but not before she gets a good swat on his behind. Gil turns around with a shocked look, and she flirtatiously smolders, "Fat girl, gay guy. It's not unheard of."

(Taken from Television without Pity Recaps.)

Gil Grissom and Greg Sanders were walking to the parking lot, their inquiries over for the day.

They were discussing the information they'd gathered, and suddenly Gil remembered what the lady by the pool did. Normally, he would have kept the information to himself; this time however, he gave Greg a condensed version of the incident.

Greg's eyes widened.

"She did WHAT?" And he instinctively glanced at Grissom's butt, almost as if he expected to see the imprint of a hand there.

Grissom only shrugged. He didn't want to make a big deal of it.

Greg, on the other hand, was indignant.

"She touched you?"

"Not exactly. She only… Well -" he made a vague move with his hand.

Greg's eyes opened even wider.

"You mean she spanked you?"

"She didn't spank me," Gil glared, "It was just a swat."

"Wow," Greg said, trying to conjure the image in his mind and failing. He couldn't imagine a lady -or anyone else- wanting to swat Grissom. Intrigued, he looked sideways at his boss. Gil's face didn't tell him anything, so - hoping it would help clarify matters- he let Grissom take a couple of steps ahead so he could check on his butt.

What Greg saw took him by surprise.

'Nice', Greg thought admiringly, wondering why he'd never noticed Grissom's butt before.

"So," he said, hurrying to catch up with Grissom. "Did she say anything?"

"She said -" Gil didn't finish. She'd said, 'fat girl/gay guy, it's not unheard of,' but Gil wasn't about to tell Greg that. Gil didn't think Greg had any prejudices, but there were things guys just didn't tell each other.

"She didn't say much," he said evasively.

They walked in silence for a moment.

"She must have thought you were gay," Greg said casually.

Gil looked up sharply but didn't say anything.

Greg nodded wisely.

"It seems gay guys are very receptive to chubby girls' advances," he said. "You can't blame them, Grissom," he said. "I mean, think about it; there we were, two good-looking guys asking questions about garments made of silk -purple silk, mind you -" He shrugged, "It was only natural that some of them would assume."

Gil looked at him with interest. Something in the young man's tone had caught his attention.

"Did they make a pass at you, too?"

"Kinda." Greg seemed evasive, then admitted, "The nice lady at Intimates."

"Regina?"

"That's the one."

"And you don't mind that she assumed -"

"It's ok," Greg said evasively. He reached the car and opened the passenger door but didn't immediately get inside. "It was kinda flattering," he admitted quietly.

Grissom's eyebrows rose in surprise. The gesture put Greg on the defensive.

"Hey, I've been going through a dry patch lately. It's kinda nice to know somebody notices you, even if it's a lady who's old enough to be your mother." He put his kit in the backseat, and then straightened up.

Gil looked up at the same time. He drew a sharp breath.

Sunlight delicately bathed Greg's face just then. The young man had a five O'clock shadow, and after a whole day at the convention he looked kind of… wilted. But there was certain vulnerability there too, something that Gil had never seen before.

Mesmerized, Gil wondered why he'd never noticed that Greg was, indeed, a good-looking guy.

He forced himself to look away.

----

Grissom drove, but his thoughts were still on the convention they were leaving, and the women they'd met.

Suddenly, he blurted out, "She said it wasn't unheard of for a gay guy to be with a fat lady."

Greg chuckled. "See?" he said, "I knew it."

Gil glanced at Greg. "Do gay guys really do that?"

"Hit on fat girls? Sure." Greg noticed Gil's surprise. "There are gay guys out there who are still trying to convince themselves they're straight," he explained, "They hit on chubby girls 'cause they tend to be very accommodating. I've heard," he added virtuously. He was silent for a moment, then mused, "Maybe they think a girl like that will be more tolerant of his shortcomings. And a gay guy will be more considerate than a straight guy, that's for sure. Back when I was in college, chubby girls used to have a hard time. They never got invited to parties, and if they went, they were ridiculed."

"They should have had their own parties, then," Gil said.

"They didn't want to party with other chubby girls and boys, Grissom. They wanted to be popular: they wanted to be with the cool guys."

"Well, they've come a long way, then," Gil said, "They're having their own conventions now."

"And they're not 'fat' anymore. Did you see the posters, inside? They're 'full-figured,' now. 'Rubenesque'.

"Rubenesque is beautiful," Gil agreed.

Greg was silent for a moment. "You know, straight guys can be downright cruel sometimes. Makes me wonder if our dead guy did or said something that might have made one of them angry enough to -" he didn't finish what he was about to say. He knew better than to theorize without a shred of evidence. "It's sad, isn't it?" he said suddenly. "About those women back there, I mean. They're pretty; they shouldn't be so desperate."

"You mean desperate enough to proposition us?"

Greg looked up sharply, but relaxed when he saw that Grissom was smiling. At the next red light, he glanced at Grissom.

"So," Greg said, "How was it like when you were in college? Were cool guys more tolerant or were they jerks too?"

Gil frowned over this.

"I don't know," he said, almost miffed at the sudden realization.

"How come?"

"I didn't hang out with the cool guys, Greg," he shrugged. "And I never went to their parties."

"You didn't? Why?"

Gil smiled self-consciously. "I never got invited." He glanced at Greg. "I was one of the chubby guys. Still am."

Greg met his gaze.

"Not chubby, Grissom. Rubenesque."

Gil chuckled.

TBC

I'm planning to add a few chapters based on slashy moments between Gil and Greg. There were lots on that season.