Title: Round Table Discussion III
Author: Esynnaj
Email: Vebesahshalarc@sbcglobal.com
Disclaimers: CSI and all characters from it belong to CBS Productions, Touchstone Television, Alliance Atlantis Communications and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Rating: FRM
Summary: Gil finally gets out of that corner he had backed himself into.

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION III

As reluctant as all of them, except a very relieved Sara, had been to have her come among them, Tina had made it impossible not to like her. A beautiful, feminine, exotic and erotic woman who was just as charismatic as Warrick with his easy-going, sociable friendliness, she also had an alluring gentleness and a strong desire to make everyone else happy he did not have attached to her magnetism that made her even more appealing. Over the months, they'd had several opportunities to see the many facets of her personality up close. On the job and in uniform at the hospital as a physician's assistant, she was the consummate professional, concise and direct in her approach to patients and manner of speech, very Americanized, seeming to speak without any accent whatsoever. At home and in private, relaxed when she or Warrick had invited them to their apartment for dinner or other get-togethers, she had been soft and sweet, seemingly smaller when cuddling with her husband, her humorous and slangy speech reverting to the warm, rippling cadence of her island homeland.

Coming into the restaurant with Warrick where Gil, Sara, Catherine and Nick were already seated waiting for them, she arrived like a breath of fresh, clean spring air riding on a cold, mountain stream, bringing the renewal of one's weary spirit with her, wearing her colorful, curve clinging, body molding silk dress like a queen's robe as she floated toward them. Sweeping about, she lifted an elegant hand, placed it on Warrick's chest to halt him where he stood. Giving him a tender kiss on his cheek, she went on tiptoe to whisper in his ear and whatever she said brought a grin to his face. After a glance straight into Grissom's eyes that brought a frown from Sara, he turned and went to the counter instead of continuing to their booth, which is what Tina did.

With her delectable scent wafting upward, she confidently slipped into a seat next to Nick facing Sara, Gil and Catherine. The first thing she did after pleasantly greeting everyone in turn and pointedly lying a folder on the table, was to, much to Nick's astonishment, smartly pop him on the temple with a forefinger and drawl playfully, "So you thought I was a man the first time you met me, did you, Nicky? Did you really believe that or were you hoping that's what I'd be?"

Stunned for a moment, absolutely unable to come up with anything to say, Nick just stared at her, his mouth hanging open with his eyes actually tearing up from the sharp, quick blow. Then, he glared at Catherine and snapped accusingly, "You told."

Blinking defensively and innocently at him, lifting her hands as she searched for the words to say she had not, Catherine finally just grinned and shrugged, since she had been the only who had heard him make that comment, so could not deny being the one who had repeated it. But before she had a chance to say anything, Tina said, "It doesn't matter. The irrefutable fact that I'm pregnant negates his supposition anyway."

This information caused Sara to remarkably brighten. "Well then, I guess congratulations are in order. Did you hear that, Gil?" she said triumphantly, turning toward her ex-husband with elation. "Tina's pregnant. She and Warrick are going to have a baby."

"I heard, Sara," Gil said softly and tiredly. "Warrick's already told me."

Before anything unpleasant could arise, which it surely was about to, given Grissom's glum and Sara's biting tones of voice, Tina said brightly, "Warrick's told me he'd like for you to be the godfather, Dr. Grissom. I'm agreeable to that, if you are."

Smiling wanly, Grissom said, "Of course I'll be the baby's godfather. I'd love to."

"Well, I like that," Nick said indignantly. "I'm supposed to be Warrick's best friend. No one's mentioning me in this? Suppose I want to be the baby's godfather?"

Catherine added, "What about the baby having a godmother? He or she just might need one of those too, ya know."

Tina smiled as she said, "There's no harm to a child having multiple godparents. Warrick doesn't have a very large family and most of my mine isn't in this country. The more my son has to love him, the better. I truly do believe in the adage of a village raising the children."

As she was expressing this, a waitress came to the table bringing a tray of cups filled with four cups of steaming teas and sat them down saying, "Mr. Brown told me to bring this over to you."

Tina murmured, "Thank you," and, looking each cup over carefully before passing them out, proceeded to set one down in front of each, telling them, "Today will be a momentous occasion for the most of us and I wish to bring all of you comfort before it begins. These teas come from recipes passed down to my grandmother for many generations and she and my mother passed them down to me. I've brewed them according to your individual needs. Yours, Nick, offers additional strength and sensitivity, which you have in good supply, while additionally warding off the evil from others who'd do you harm. Your kindness of spirit invites demonic elements incorrectly assuming such kindness equates with weakness when it absolutely does not. This will assist in keeping them away from you."

"Catherine, you're already in possession of an admirable clarity of thought and earth mother wisdom I wish I had, so offer you only sensual containment and absence of loneliness. You have everything desirable within yourself. Know this and realize you have no need of any man. This will give you an aura to assist them in the realization they have far more need of you.

"Sara, your soul is weary, clinging to the horrors of a past offering you nothing, which impedes the brightness of your future. Your restlessness requires soothing. You must have peace of mind. I wish to give you that. It'll take more than a cup of tea, but it may help in showing you the door that leads to the one who will take you to that peace."

"Dr. Grissom, may I start calling you Gil, now that you're about to become part of the family?"

"Of course you can."

"Gil, I'm not the one to offer you what you truly need, but what little I can offer I do only to open your heart and mind to what is best for you and help you to never again turn yourself from it. Your actions have hurt others, but by them, you have hurt yourself more than anyone else. Don't do such things again. Now please, all of you. Drink up. The tea is quite safe and very tasty." Tina watched, squinting at them, until each had hesitantly taken a sip of their tea. Only then was she satisfied, only then did she smile, relax and sit back.

Catherine cocked an eyebrow up in surprise and said, "Wow. This is tasty. It's more than tasty. It's good as hell."

"Yeah, it is," Nick agreed with a grin. Looking at Tina, he said, "It's just about too good." Then he squinted and asked, "You sure it's legal?"

She grinned back, chuckled and said, "Don't be silly. Naturally, it's legal. That should be taken as a matter of course. All of you are law enforcement officers. Any one of you could arrest me and none of us would want that. I know I certainly don't."

"Can we assume it also doesn't have anything alcoholic in it?" Gil calmly asked. "I don't believe they have a license to serve alcoholic beverages here."

"People, give me a little more credit, if you please. You're drinking very legal, very nonalcoholic concoctions mixed with special herbs purchased from stores stocking very legitimate items from my homeland. I wouldn't dare give you anything else. I'd never want to harm you or get you high. Therefore, cancel your suspicions and enjoy your tea."

As they did so, after casting a covert glance that flickered between Sara and Gil, Tina busily removed a sheave of papers from the folder she had laid on the table. Smiling prettily, she pushed them over the table to Gil. "This's a gift from Warrick and me to you that I think you've waited long enough and very patiently to receive. You've done your fifty percent. Now we've done ours."

Already suspecting what the paperwork was, seated on the other side of Grissom, Catherine leaned against his shoulder to peer over it and boldly read the top of the front page. Then she grinned hugely and said, "Whoa. It's a divorce decree." She looked at Tina and said, "So, this must mean you and Warrick are splitting up, huh?"

"We are. It's very amicable. We're still good friends, but it never was proper for us to become husband and wife. Ours was a marriage of convenience based on deception. Warrick and I came together at an unfortunate time in our lives when we were both very needy. Due to forces beyond his control, he'd lost you, Dr. Grissom, the most important person in his world, other than his grandmother. He was lonely, a loving man looking for a replacement. He found me. I was also very lonely and seeking someone strong enough to protect me from certain extremely powerful individuals whose identities I won't reveal. I found Warrick. While it wasn't fair to marry him without telling him my true reasons for wanting him to become my husband, he, his friends and relatives and friends and relatives of my own still offered me the protections I needed to release me from the harm I feared. I've enjoyed being Warrick's wife, but it's only right, now that I'm safe, for me to free him and return him to you. As much as it hurts me to turn him over to you, I must, because he belongs with you, not with me."

Hearing that, Sara slammed a palm down on the table, rolled her eyes, sighed deeply and snarled, "Gil, I am so sick of this bullshit with you and Warrick. Right from the beginning, right from when I first got to Vegas, he's been a problem. We might've made it if it hadn't been for him."

Gil started to speak, but did not when Tina reached over to touch Sara's hand, which amazingly and unaccountably stilled her, Then, leaning over the table toward her, Tina said to her, "No. You're wrong about that, Sara. You could not have made it. Warrick had nothing to do with that. You and Dr. Grissom aren't cut out to be with one another. You were looking for someone like yourself and looking in the wrong places. Never look for someone like yourself. That's like sand paper meeting sand paper. It's opposites that attract. You are darkness requiring lightness and Dr. Grissom isn't the one to offer you that. He truly has no darkness to match your own, only special qualities needing to be lovingly uncovered. Warrick does that for him better than anyone else."

Now, Tina tapped her cheek as a pensive, thoughtful look crossed her face. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said it hurts me to turn him over to Gil. Rather I should possibly say I will terribly miss him. I've very much enjoyed his companionship. We've had many revelatory conversations about his preference for a lifestyle including a relationship with another man and they've increased my previous, longstanding curiosity about what it might be like for me to be in an on-going and equally loving relationship with a woman. I particularly became all the more curious after Warrick introduced me to all of you at your little group's breakfast meeting a few months ago. I was very comfortable speaking with all of you..."

Tina slowly, steadily and sensually moved her eyes over to meet Sara's, "except for you, Ms. Sidle." Slowly, steadily and sensually, she again touched her hand to Sara's and the same strange stillness that had come over Sara before descended over her once more. "I had difficulty speaking to you because of my interest in you. However, I have worked through it and suffer from that difficulty no longer."

Shifting her grip to grasp Sara's hand, Tina stood up, drawing Sara to her feet, and Sara came up with her, staring into Tina's eyes as if she had never seen anyone like her before, which she had not, as Tina said softly, "You have been crying out to a world that hasn't heard you, Sara. It's left you cold and barren, with a hole in your soul needing warmth and fulfillment. You shall come along with me now. Let's see what we can do about your emptiness within. I'm sure I have all of what you need, all of what you really want."

As she moved closer to Sara, she turned to Gil to say, still in a very soft tone of voice, "Warrick's waiting for you over there, Dr. Grissom. I believe there are numerous, very important things you two need to talk about." She waited until Grissom rose, went to where Warrick was standing by the entrance and they had left together. Then she was gone, grandly gliding on an invisible cloud and taking Sara away on it with her.

Nick and Catherine stared at each other in momentary speechless shock. Then Catherine asked, "Do you believe any of this?"

"Nope," Nick said, shaking his head. "I do not."

"What're we gonna do about it?"

"We're gonna go home, go to bed, go to sleep, wake up and realize it was all a dream."

"That sounds good to me. That's definitely a plan. See ya at work tonight."