Friend Challenge
Fic Challenge Between Friends
Written By:
terias_mcklay
Written For:
thecapillary
Pairing: None really, just fluff. Maybe Sara/Catherine if you squint really hard.
Fandom: CSI
Challenge: A fic with cooking.
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue, I'm broke. Also, it's unbetaed and the challenge was to have 500-1000 words in two days. If it's not my best offering feel free to blame the person who set the deadline ;) (PS I'm over the word count, sorry)
Sara pulled up to the curb mildly surprised at the cars already lining the street. She hadn’t thought she and Greg were that late. Killing the engine and opening the door to the Denali Sara slid off her seat squinting in the sun. She had forgotten to grab her sunglasses in their rush to try and get to the house in a somewhat timely manner.
She approached the house Greg trailing her as they headed for the door. She wasn’t bringing anything in with her yet. Grissom hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about what to expect when he had handed her the slip of paper with the address.
Reaching the door Sara looked to her side ensuring Greg was beside her. She nodded at him and he nodded back before opening the door and stepping inside.
Her nose wrinkled at the smell which assaulted them. She heard Greg take a short breath before stopping respiration completely.
“If you hold your breath it’ll be worse,” Sara advised forcing herself to take a deep breath to accustom herself to the smell. Greg looked at her in disgust before letting out and sucking in a deep breath. She smiled at his near gag her own face more or less stoic. She’d smelled worse. It hadn’t been since the case with ‘liquid man’ but still.
The brunette looked around the spacious townhouse grimacing at the bugs, alive and dead, that littered every crevice. Now that was gross. Greg on the other hand seemed to be getting his bearings leaning in to inspect the bugs with a curiosity that bordered on disturbing.
Grabbing him by the camera strap around his neck she pulled him away from the cockroaches and towards a pair of milling detectives.
“Hey Sara, Greg,” Brass greeted nodding at them.
“So nice of you to show up,” Sophia added her tone the very definition of sarcasm. Sara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The blonde detective always had a stick up her ass about something.
“Sara, Greg,” a voice called out. Sara turned towards the voice’s owner somewhat grateful for having a reason to excuse herself from the blonde detective’s presence. She headed for the CSI motioning with her head for Greg to follow.
“Careful, she’s in a mood,” Brass warned as they walked away. As they approached Catherine Sara held up a hand to forestall the impending ass chewing.
“Sorry we’re late. Traffic on the strip was gridlocked,” she explained. Coughing consciously at the unbelieving expression on the blonde’s face Sara pointed at Greg.
“And he forgot his camera.” Catherine rolled her eyes at the man’s sheepish shrug before shooing him away to take the photographs.
“So…What died?” Sara asked looking over at her shift mate who had a slightly queasy expression on her face.
“Still not sure, Grissom didn’t tell you anything?” Sara shook her head.
“Where is the boss?” Sara asked as she contemplated searching her pockets for some liniment to put under her nose to combat the smell. Sometimes she didn’t put it back in her kit.
“In the kitchen doing…”
“Grissom stuff.” Sara finished, Catherine nodded. “Should we go help?”
“You want to help?” Catherine asked with wide eyes. Slightly disgruntled by the disbelieving expression Sara merely nodded.
“Can’t be any worse then what’s going on now.”
“This is true,” Catherine agreed already on her way to the door that separated the kitchen from the main area.
“What do I need? Gloves?” Sara asked.
“Any liniment? The smell is worse inside,” Catherine said hitching her thumb toward the door. Shaking her head at their parallel lines of thought, it was often that way when they worked together, she walked past the blonde and pushed in the door. Catherine walked in behind her the queasy look on her face becoming more intense.
Grissom was deep in his work uncharacteristically splitting his attention, dashing back and forth across the kitchen checking on some experiment on the stove before returning to the knife on the island.
“Uh, Grissom?” Catherine asked in a futile attempt to get his attention. The man appeared as flustered as Sara had ever seen him. His clothes looked as though he was in the middle of a triple shift and his immaculately groomed beard was decidedly scruffy.
Catherine looked over at her raising her eyebrow and tilting her head to their boss. Sara rolled her eyes before walking over to Grissom standing in his path to the oven so he would have to talk to her.
He turned away from the stove visibly jumping as he caught sight of the brunette.
“Sara,” he said his tone slightly perplexed.
“Need a hand Gris?” His gaze turned from her to the door where he saw Catherine, the blonde still looking as though she was smelling three day old decomp. In the hot Las Vegas sun. In the trunk of a small car.
“You two take the stove,” he said immediately turning his attention to his other tasks.
Catherine approached warily giving Sara an ‘after you’ look.
“Nice Cath,” she said grabbing two extra pairs of gloves from the counter and handing one to her companion. She knelt down in front of the stove tugging the blonde down with her, she wasn’t doing this alone.
They opened the oven each letting out a disgusted grunt as the smell, twice as bad, slammed against their olfactory senses.
“What the hell is that?” Catherine asked looking over at Sara for an explanation. The brunette shrugged holding a hand over her nose. She had been wrong, there was no getting used to that smell.
“What are you doing?” Grissom asked turning away from his task at the counter.
“I don’t know Gil, what are we supposed to be doing?” Catherine asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Take it out,” he instructed. Catherine looked over at Sara holding out her fist.
“Best two out of the three,” Catherine said shaking her fist. Two lost games later, damn paper beating rock, Sara was reaching in keeping her face as far from the oven as possible.
“Don’t be such a baby.”
“I don’t see you grabbing this thing,” Sara said. Steeling herself the brunette reached in grabbing the offensive smelling occupant of the oven and dumping it on to the top of the stove.
She kicked the oven door shut with her toe waiting for Catherine before even attempting to identify what the hell ‘it’ was.
“Is it alive?” Catherine asked with a cant of her head. Unable to answer for certain either way Sara remained silent.
“Would you two stop looking at the brisket like it’s a dead body,” Grissom said from across the kitchen. The women turned to each other Catherine mouthing the word ‘brisket’ questioningly.
“Uh, Gil, what would you like us to do?” Catherine asked taking off the oven mitts and holding out her hand to take Sara’s from her. Sara turned off the stove hoping that eliminating the heat source would at least get rid of the humid stickiness in the kitchen. Damned if she would ever be able to get the smell out of her clothes.
“Why don’t you start cutting the brisket and put it on the serving tray?” Sara gaped at the blonde. Surely Grissom didn’t mean to serve this thing to the people outside.
“Where’s Greg?” Grissom asked. “He’s supposed to be the photographer.”
“Oh he’s probably making faces at your cockroaches,” Sara said absently as she searched the drawers for a knife. The man’s eyes went wide and he stopped chopping the cucumbers hurrying from the kitchen.
“Elvis has a race this weekend. Greg will make him nervous,” he said on his way out the door.
“Oh boy,” Sara said with a snort trying to contain her laughter. Finally finding the cutlery drawer she handed a knife to Catherine.
“I got it out, you have to cut it.” Grimacing the blonde took the knife.
“The next time Grissom suggests throwing a dinner party I propose we off him. We could get away with it,” Catherine said as she made the first cut. Sara laughed and began laughing harder as a thought occurred to her.
“What’s so funny?” Catherine asked clearly unimpressed with not being in on the joke.
“It’s just, you’ll actually have to make an attempt to eat this. I don’t,” the brunette said with a smile.
“What?!” Catherine asked raising the knife with a look that said ‘if you don’t suffer with the rest of us you’ll find this shoved somewhere unpleasant’. Sara smiled revealing the gap in her teeth brown eyes alive with amusement.
“You have to remember Cath, I’m the vegetarian.”
Aside from the dinner Grissom had cooked, the angered shriek that came from the kitchen was by far the most disturbing thing anyone at the party had ever experienced.
The End.