Title: Round Table Discussion IV
Author: Esynnaj
Author's E-Mail: vebesahshahalarc@sbcglobal.com
Category: Established Relationship, Humor
Rating: FRM
Pairings: Warrick/Gil
Summary: The kings of the jungle step back while the CSI lionesses show their claws to protect the sanctity of the pride.
Disclaimers: no ownership rights and no money made

When you're about to have breakfast at a restaurant, getting one baby out of its seat, along with the necessary accompanying paraphernalia out a car is a chore for anybody. When you've got to do it for a couple of fretful twins, it makes for twice the work and three times the aggravation. But Gil and Warrick did it as Tina went inside to join Nick, Catherine and Sara who were at the door. It was the twins' first trip out on a social occasion with their parents and godparents and they were not especially thrilled. Nevertheless, even as they squalled in unison, twisting and balling up their little fists in fury, Catherine cooed over them while they were transferred from the men to Sara and Tina's arms. "Oh, they are so beautiful. And they look identical. Which is which?"

"She's Nicolette Sarafina Brown and he's Charleston Gilbert Brown. Nikki and Cat, so far, is what we're callin' em," Warrick told her.

"Awww, that is so sweet."

"Sure is," Nick agreed. "How 'bout that, Cath? They're nicknaming them after you and me."

"Well, yeah. They got the girl and boy thing backwards, but it's still sweet. I just can't get over you and Tina having twins. That was such a surprise."

"Huh. You were surprised. That's the last time I'll trust an ultra sound. Technology isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"I know one's a boy and the other one's a girl, but they look just alike. Maybe you should put pink on one and blue on the other one so people can tell 'em apart."

"No we shouldn't," Warrick objected. "You should know better than to suggest something like that. What the hell kinda liberated woman are you? Forget the WNBA. My girl's gonna be the first woman to play in the NBA."

"Well, then it should follow that your son should be gain fame as the first man to play in the WNBA. Are you as gung-ho for that as you are for your daughter to be in the NBA, Warrick?" Catherine inquired brightly.

Warrick didn't answer her, but just grinned, rolled his eyes at her then went back outside to help Gil bring in the rest of the baby gear.

While Nick waited at the door for Warrick and Grissom and Tina went to the counter with one of the babies to get the water for her special teas that she had gotten all of them in the habit of drinking, Catherine went to the corner where their special table was with Sara and the other baby. Therefore, the women weren't noticing when a very lovely young woman pranced up from around the building to Grissom while Warrick was carrying bags from the Denali, kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "Dr. Grissom, do you remember me?"

Smiling, Gil said, "Lolita, you are unforgettable. Of course I remember you. I met you right after I met Warrick."

"Are you and he still together?"

"We are very much still together."

"Then, may I ask, would it excessively bother you if I gave Warrick a little hello smooch? Promise I'll only do it in front of you and I'm only doing it so I can watch him trip all over himself while he tries to clarify to you how it means absolutely nothing."

"Please go right ahead. Since you've so kindly come to me beforehand, I believe I'll enjoy Warrick's worried attempts at an explanation as much as you will."

Meanwhile, inside the restaurant, Catherine was noting a difference in Sara. "Girl, you're positively glowing and it's a glow that's been getting brighter and brighter for months. Exactly what has Tina done to you?"

Busily watching what she was doing as she handily shifted Gillian about in her sling until she was certain the baby were comfortable, Sara growled in a running mutter, "How the hell should I know? The woman's weird. I not only can't win an argument with her, it seems like I don't want to argue with her. I spend all my time trying to see to it that she gets whatever she wants and we both know that isn't anything like me. What I figure is she's done some kind of black magic voodoo and put a hex on me or something." However, as she completed her task then lifted her head, she was grinning widely as she flung her hair back from her and said, "All I know for sure is she's the best thing that's ever happened to me and I get happier every day that she's in my life. And having these babies around, Catherine? This's like having a slice of heaven come down and decide to live in my house. I didn't know it was possible to feel the kind of peace that I do now."

Catherine smiled at her. "I know the feeling. I get it whenever I look at Lindsey. It's called motherhood, Sara, and once you get hit with it, you're trapped forever."

"Well, it's a trap I'm not ever going to even attempt to get out of, which is ridiculous. Other than loving the brats more than I ever thought it'd be possible for me to love anybody, there's no upside here. Even with Warrick and Gil doing more than their share, we're still going broke trying to keep up with all the twin's expenses and we're not getting any sleep and we never have any down time. They fuckin' demand that we feed 'em, change 'em, play with 'em, talk to 'em, pay for 'em. Hell, it's like we have had to give up our lives for them."

Catherine had to laugh. Although Sara, par for her course, was complaining, she was doing it while showing pride in the maternal role she had elected to take on by the act of entering into a life partnership with Tina. "That is what you've done. It comes with the territory of being a good mother. Believe me, I've had to wrestle with the changes you go through trying to balance what you want outa life with what they need you to give up and it ain't easy. On the one hand you want a career, the good job that provides them with material comforts. But, on the other hand, you want to, and society says the best mother should, stay home and raise her children herself instead of putting them in daycare or leaving them with others. I have my Mom and had Eddie for a long time, but even that wasn't good enough. I still had problems."

"Yeah, I'm already aware of those problems. With me, Gil and Warrick working the same shift again, Tina has the babies all by herself at night and can't call on any of us if she needs any help. The guys come over and relieve me during the day, but she doesn't have that at night and it's wearing her out. She's not saying anything about it, but I can see it and don't like it."

"Well, the twins are still a little too young for me to feel easy about this, but once they're a little older, maybe we can think about Lindsey coming over and spending some nights at your place, so Tina can get some rest.. Lindsey's fifteen now and looking for a regular part time job to make pocket money since taking a babysitting class at the Y that included CPR."

"That might be a good idea. We've sure got to...."

Catherine was turning as Sara broke off, staring beyond her shoulder to where Warrick, Nick and Gil had been standing and talking, nearly jumped out of her skin in surprise as Sara snarled with such fury seething all through her words, that Catherine could feel the heat blistering her flesh from three feet away. "Who the fuck is that and why the fuck is she kissing Warrick like that?"

Catherine's mouth dropped open to see a slender, luscious, auburn haired, miniaturized beauty clinging to Warrick as if she'd been plastered to him with super glue, both arms wrapped about his neck, her feet dangling off the floor and her lips were locked lovingly to his. Warrick's hands were sliding up from her waist to finally land under her arms, lift her up, pull her away then set her back onto her feet as he yelped, sounding totally shocked, "What the hell...? Lola?"

Laughing merrily, the newcomer ducked Warrick's grasp to deliver upon him another fast kiss as she told him, "Yes, it's me, my love. Aren't you glad to see me?"

"Well, yeah, but, uh, when did you get back into town?" Warrick asked, backtracking to stay out of her reach while adamantly shaking his head and cutting a quick look at Grissom, who was watching with a quizzical tilt of his head.

Still in pursuit of Warrick, she whom he was questioning told Warrick, "I got in just a few days ago and been having a helluva time looking you up. You sure aren't hanging around in our old haunts anymore, are you?" After pugnaciously succeeding in catching the running Warrick in one more kiss, she pertly faced Gil and said to him. "Know what? It looks like you've managed to tame the untamable. Here it is eight years later and he's still with you. I simply must congratulate you on doing the impossible, Dr. Grissom."

Giving her a courtly bow, Gil said, "I thank you for your congratulations, Lolita. You have no idea how much work I had to do to finally get him."

"Oh yes I do. I did that work for three years and still wasn't able to get him."

"Lolita," Gil suggested as he noted the other women having seen what had just transpired. "I suggest you watch your back. Reinforcements are about to close in on you and they do not appear to be happy."

As Sara stormed up to Lolita, she skipped cautiously backward away from Warrick to put distance between her and the other much taller and angular woman with cold fury in her eyes. Intelligent eyes danced between Sara's stalking directness and Tina's gliding approach from another direction to rapidly take in and analyze the confusing situation. "Oh, you're not the only one he belongs to, is he?" Lolita murmured with a sigh, "I have made a serious mistake, haven't I?"

"That you have," Gil murmured back with a bemused smile. "I must say that you most certainly have."

Warrick walked between Sara and Lolita in an attempt to explain, but Sara, while veering around him, imperiously held her left palm directly in front of his face and snapped at him, "Step off, Warrick," then came to a halt only inches in front of Lolita to demand, as she towered over her, "Who the hell are you?"

Fearlessly gazing up at Sara, Lolita smiled gaily, touched a long, extravagantly painted fingernail to a full breast and said, "I am Lolita Avondale, a very old friend of Warrick's. Who might you be, may I ask in return?"

"I'm the mother of his baby," Sara retorted, a comment that earned her a stunned stare from Warrick and Nick. Then, as Tina neared them, Sara pointed at her and added, "So is she and we'd like to know why you had your hands all over him like you just did."

"I did not," Lolita said as her almond shaped eyes narrowed, "have my hands all over him. I have in the past, but did not today. Today, I only had my lips on him."

"Well, whatever you had on him, it shouldn't have been."

"Actually, I'll put any part of me on him that I please. He's the only one who can tell me that I can't."

As Sara powered forward, Warrick again tried to intervene, only to have Sara practically shout warningly at him, eyes still on Lolita, "Warrick, back OFF!"

And have Lolita purr at him, also without looking at him but with sparkling deadliness in her eyes, "Yes, do, Ricky. This has now become an issue between only me and this... ummmm....lady."

"Uh-huh, right, you'd best have said lady. Anything else might've gotten you hurt. As for you putting parts of yourself on Warrick, that's out. He's private property."

Warrick sighed as he walked away, flinging out his arms and peering at the ceiling, muttering to no one in particular, "Oh, I'm property now, am I?"

Still gazing challengingly at Lolita, Sara snarled, "Shut-up, Warrick. This isn't any of your business anymore."

But Tina had come to her now and was soothingly stroking a hand up and down one of Sara's arms as she held out her other hand to Lolita. "I'm Tina, Warrick's ex-wife. Did I hear you say you're Lolita Avondale? He's told me so much about you." Very companionably, and to Sara's distress, she linked arms with Lolita as she offered, "We're about to have breakfast together. Would you like to join us?"

With Warrick whirling around and Sara looking completely nonplused, both he and she immediately roared, "No, hell she would not!"

Giving them a bright, calculating, dimpled grin, Lolita tightened her hold on Tina as she reached for Gil's arm to draw him to her other side. "Why, I'm starving and would love to have breakfast with you lovely people. Where are we sitting?"

Trailing behind the three of them, her face like thunderclouds, Sara made sure to push a chair between Lolita and Tina for herself at the table where only Catherine was sitting then definitively pointed out a seat well away from Lolita for Warrick to sit in, keeping an eye on him until he had dropped into it. Nick made sure to get a seat on the one side of Warrick as Gil sat down on his other side and dug his elbow into Warrick's ribs, chuckling as he whispered, "Now I have gotta tell ya, this is going to be interesting."

Glumly, Warrick muttered, "Fuck you, Nick," and refused to say anything else to him.

Unable to keep his good humor to himself, Nick reached across the table to shake Lolita's hand, saying, "Hi. I'm Nick Stokes."

"Why, hello there, Nick Stokes. I'm Lolita Avondale, an old friend of Warrick's. I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance."

"It's mutual."

"And I am Catherine Willows," Catherine put in. "May I ask, Ms. Avondale, what kind of an old friend of Warrick's you are, in light of that kiss you gave him?"

Lolita gave Catherine a quick once over and came to the correct assumption. "From the looks of you, Ms. Willows, I'm betting you already know very well what kind of old friend I am. From the looks of you, I'm betting there's not much that gets by you."

Tina laughed softly and said, "Ah, I see you have intuitive gifts, Ms. Avondale. I am also in possession of the same and thought that about Catherine from the first time I met her."

Lolita grinned as she leaned forward to look over Sara at her. "Yeah, you would be one of those intuitive types. Warrick always did have good taste in women, I gotta give 'em that."

"He also," Gil put in very quietly and very pointedly. "Has good taste in men."

Lolita giggled at that, reached over to lightly pat Gil's hand as she said, "Yeah, Dr. Grissom, that he does, that he does."

Shaking his head, Warrick sighed sorrowfully and murmured, "I am not gonna be able to handle this, I really am not."

"Yes, you will," Tina told him. "You have shown yourself well able to handle anything that's been thrown at you and a lot has. For some reason, there's a portion of the universe loving to see you in agonizing pain so Gil must come to your rescue and comfort you. I don't know what it is. It's truly as if there were some omnipotent beings out there writing our lives as it pleased them without giving any consideration as to the pain they cause us. But that is neither here nor there, since we can't do anything about it, if that's the case. It is the destiny we must suffer. Therefore, let's order breakfast so we can all get to know each other better."

Lolita put herself out to charm them and make it clear she had not returned to worm her way back into Warrick's life as a lover, although Sara's suspicions were not at all abated by those claims. Although she had forgiven Warrick for winning Grissom and forgotten her own former attachment to Gil in her new dedication to Tina, she still had a proprietary interest in Grissom's happiness and well-being as his friend. She had taken all of the fellow CSI scientists to be among her small, tight ring of friends and was not about to allow anyone to harm anyone in it. And being Sara, she was not going to mince words in expressing herself when it came to making sure nobody invaded her little world and disrupted its symmetry.

So, she put the query out there that all of them had been wondering about. "If you're not here to get him back, what are you back in Las Vegas for?"

"Well, because you've asked the question in such a straightforward manner, I'm going to answer it in a straightforward manner. I have a son and I don't want him to grow up fatherless. His father did and I did and I won't let the same thing happen to him."

There was a silence. Everyone except Tina stared at Lolita as they came to the obvious conclusion. Tina merely shook her head, smiled and kept eating. Lolita just giggled and also kept eating. The silence was finally broken when Warrick whispered. "What?" That was all for a moment. Then he cleared his throat and tried again with, "What are you saying here, Lolita?"

She became very still, laying both hands in her lap and dropping her pretty head. Then, after taking a deep breath, she looked into Warrick's eyes and told him, "I'm saying we, you and I have a son, Warrick, a beautiful, beautiful boy that I shouldn't've kept from you but did because I wanted one something in this world to be all mine. You wouldn't be but he was, until now. Now, I have to share him. He wants to know his father and his father is you."

Lunging forward over the table at Lolita, Warrick yelled, shock written all over his face, "You gave birth to my son and never told me about him?"

"I couldn't!" Lolita yelled right back. "You'd already decided you wanted to be with somebody else and I'm not the type of woman use pregnancy to keep a man. I thought, having a baby from you would mean I'd get to keep a piece of you and that's what did happen!!! Being a Mama made a better woman of me. I've loved being a Mama. But Ricky's gotten older now. He wants to know about you. I remember you telling me how much it hurt you not to know about your father. I don't want him to go through that kind of pain. He needs you. You've turned out to be a wonderful man and you'll be a wonderful father. I was wrong to think I was all he needs or should want. My baby's smarter than I am. He's right to wanna know the other part of who he comes from. He should know that's you. And it's..."

When she didn't complete her sentence, Tina gently prompted, "And it's what, Lolita?"

Lolita shrugged. "Well, better late than never, ya know? Time comes when all of us haveta grow up, Ricky. It was eight years ago for you and it's now for me. You got a family here. It's a... weird kinda family, but it's a family. I don't have anybody and I've been dragging little Ricky all over the country running cons and living a life that's not good for a kid. I know this is a helluva of a shock, but you know me, Ricky. Always did fly by the seat of my pants, never was one for thinking ahead. This isn't much different. Once Ricky put the idea about us coming back to Vegas and you in my head, man, it was all I could think about doing. My baby needs to settle down and so do I and the best place for us to do that is where you are. So, anyway...."

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, Lolita stood up and ran out the front door. When she returned, she was, his hand held in hers, walking besides a tall, slim, solemn, very handsome youngster of about eight years old who had his mother's pale, creamy complexion and dark red curls but who otherwise was the spitting image of his father right down to the confidence in those stormy, speaking, golden flecked green eyes.

Smiling proudly as she stood behind him with her hands on her son's shoulder, Lolita Avondale said, "Junebug, meet Warrick Brown Sr., your father."

For the longest time, everyone was so stunned, not one of them could think of anything to say, including Junebug's brand new daddy.