Chapter 28

The dinner

Nick parked the car in front of one of the popular establishments in Las Vegas. Warrick was already standing in front of the door when a Valet took over the keys to the car to drive it down to the parking space. Warrick and Grissom where already waiting for us. Soon Greg and Joanie came walking down the sidewalk; hand in hand.

As we entered the establishment we where pointed to a table in the back. As we all sat down I asked Nick how they arranged a table in this popular place in such short notice. "Oh one of Warrick's best friends is the chef here. So all he had to do was pull some strings." Nick answered my question.

Soon everyone was engaged in small talk. Greg and Joanie where totally consumed in each other; it was so cute to see how different he can be when he is with a girl. Greg has so many sides to himself it is almost unbelievable. He can be the funny guy who can drive you mad. But also the sweet and caring guy when you need it. A waitress brought our drinks; and left again. At that point Warrick got up and indicated that he wanted to say something. He raised his glass and waited till everyone looked at him.

"Catherine, Sara and Lindsey, I know that we already said it but we wanted to congratulate you once again and we bought a little gift for you, something that you can already use and might even need." Warrick picked up a blue and pinkish wrapped gift. I unwrapped the gift, and I smiled when I saw what the gift was. It was a book with baby names, along with the descriptions and origins.

"Thanks we can defiantly use this; actually we haven't even talked about names. Have we?" I asked Catherine, even though I was pretty sure that we hadn't yet.

"Well maybe you don't have to either, we took the liberty to point out some names that we really like."

Catherine started laughing; "Well let me guess? Gilbert, Gregory, Nicholas?" She said as she quickly scanned the pages. At that moment a piece of paper fell out of the book. She picked it up and before she opened it she added; "And this note probably explains what the name Warrick means, doesn't it? Because his name; most likely isn't in the book."

All the guys looked back at us as if they where caught only Grissom looked surprised; which made it obvious that he had no idea what was going on. At that point Catherine unfolded the piece of paper and read the words on it. She had been right all along. "You guys are so predictable!" She exclaimed as she showed Lindsey and me the piece of paper.

"Well we didn't only highlight our names, Joanie, Jacqui, Archie, Bobby, Al and David are in there as well." Nick said as he 'high fived' Greg.

"And Greg was the one who came up with the idea? Right?" I asked; the second I said it Greg's face dropped and turned a dark shade of red.

"Yes I am guilty of that! But they thought it was an awesome idea even when I said that I had only been joking!" Greg said as a kid caught with his hands in the cookie jar pointing towards Warrick and Nick. Who both acted as if it had been Greg's idea all along; but both looking so guilty at the same time.

"As much as we like your input on names, I think that we can manage this on our own. But we could use some help in some other departments?" Catherine said to the guys.

"Sure what do you need?" Nick answered Catherine's question.

"Sara and I talked about a couple of things together which are important to us. Obviously we are women, but we would like to ask you all if you want to be 'the male role models'. We really see you all as family and we hope that you will all be a part of our family." I said to the guys; I held Catherine's hand in mine; her fingers entwined in mine.

"I would be honoured to be a part of this extraordinary family." Warrick said, as Nick and Greg nodded agreeing with him.

"There is also something else Sara and I wanted to ask you."

"I knew that there was a catch!" Greg exclaimed in his boyish way; which made everyone laugh.

"Ah Greg you should know by now there is always a reason. No we are just kidding; but there is something we wanted to ask you. Don't feel obliged but we also wanted to ask you all if you could give us a hand. We want to change some things in the house before the baby arrives and we could use some men." Catherine added; "Lindsey's room is next to ours and we want to change that into the baby's room because it is closest to our room. And we don't want her to wake up every time the baby wakes up. So that would mean that Lindsey is moving down the hallway to the office. And we where wondering if you guys could help us out."

"Wow! Mom does that mean that I can decorate the room however I want it!" Lindsey asked as she tried to get Catherine's attention.

"I can bring my aerosols with me from my graffiti spraying punk days!" Greg said with a smug smile.

"Greg you are so not helping!" Catherine reprimanded Greg with a smile.

"Yes sweetie, within reason of course!" Lindsey thought for a few seconds before she started smiling. "Hey but the computer is in there where will the computer go?"

Catherine rolled with her eyes, making everyone laugh. "We'll talk about that later."

"I'll help you out, just tell me when you need the help and I'll be there." Nick said with a smile.

"Thanks Nick!" Catherine and I both said in unison.

"Well anything you need you can ask me, I can bring my aerosols from my graffiti spraying punk days." Greg said shrugging. "You know I was quite the artist back in the days." He added the defending himself when he saw the looks on some of our faces. I will bring the evidence tomorrow to show you but I know how to handle spray-paint and air brushing."

"Why are we even surprised? We are talking about Greg and we could have known that 'that' would be one of the many faces of Greg." Warrick reasons while the others are laughing.

"Yeah yeah, you all laugh now! But I can't wait to see your face when you see some of my creations! Among them are some pretty cool murals if I may say so myself." He says with a mock pout.

"You did murals, what kind of murals for kids?" I asked really interested; as a plan began to form in my head.

"See interested already!" Greg said with a smug smile towards Nick and Warrick. The conversations went on and on until we all paid our part and left the establishment. We where standing outside waiting for the cars to be brought to us by the Valet. Grissom walked up to us; "Catherine can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked as he stepped away a few steps waiting for Catherine to follow. Catherine smiled at me; she leaned in and placed a kiss on my cheek. "I'll be right back, sweetie."

Catherine's POV

"Catherine, I asked Ecklie to give me two of his employees for the night. If you want you can take the rest of the evening off. Maybe take your girls to the movies or something." Grissom said with a sincere smile; in a very un-Grissom like way. I know how difficult it must have been for Grissom to ask Ecklie for a favour so I take his offer with a smile.

"Thanks Gil; that is just what we need." I say as I lean in and hug him.

We both turn around and take the few steps back to the others; I wrap my arms around Sara. She smiles; looking at me expectantly? "What's going on?"

Fifteen minutes later we where waiting in the line to get into the movie theatre. Lindsey asked if she could have popcorn, I gave her some money and she stormed off to the counter while we where waiting for her to return.

The three of us took a seat in the back of the theatre; the screen lit up and the lights went out. Sara eased herself into the seat and leaned her head down on my shoulder. My hand was absently running up and down her thigh as I watched the movie.