A/N: I've had this one for a while. It doesn't really fit in anywhere in particular (except for the fact that Lindsey's nine) so, where ever you want to put it...Anyways, I know most of you who read what I had up before were like, 'what the heck? why isn't she updating?" I wrote this when I first started writing, and I hadn't been watching CSI for that long, and I hadn't gotten the characters down. I fixed a lot of it, but there are still a lot of inconsistancies. I just figured 'screw it, I'm posting it.'
Catherine's Bete Noire
CSI Catherine Willows rolled over, her strawberry blonde hair falling on her face. She opened her eyes, and watched the sun sink down on the land of casinos. She sighed and slammed the off button on the annoying beep that was her alarm clock. She should be going to sleep like normal people do. Then, she never was one to be normal. Still, she would have liked to not have to sleep during the day and be able to spend time with her 9-year-old daughter, Lindsey instead. That was her one regret about working Graveyard. Don't get her wrong she loved the hell out of her job and certainly didn't want to be back in the strip clubs, but what was wrong with dayshift? She threw her blanket off, sliding out of bed. She needed to do laundry, she realized as she sifted through the meager selection of clothing that resided in her closet. Having put on a navy v-neck sweater and a pair of jeans, she tied her hair into a ponytail as she walked into the living room of her house.
"Mommy!" A 4'3" blue-eyed blonde exclaimed, running over to Catherine and earning a hug.
"Hey babe" Catherine greeted Lindsey, who always seemed to put a smile on her mother's face. "What are you and Samantha working on?" walking over to the coffee table where a pile of crayons and some paper lay.
"I made you a picture mommy. See, It's you, Uncle Gil, Sara, and Nick finding a bad guy. Uncle Gil wouldn't let Warrick work this one."
"Hey, that's cool. Thanks babe." In her mind though, it hurt Cath. Her daughter should be drawing pictures of their trip to a beach or camping or something, not her working. It just proved that Cath needed to spend more time with Lindsey. "You want to go out for dinner tonight? Mommy doesn't feel like cooking." When does she? Catherine wondered.
"YEAH!" Lindsey exclaimed excitedly, bringing a smile to her tired mother's face, again.
"Here you go Sam, you can go enjoy your Friday night." She said handing $30 to the 16-year-old who got Lindsey off the bus and spent a few hours with her until Catherine woke up.
"Oh, I don't know if homework is that fun."
"Homework? Are you kidding? I'd have put it off until Sunday as a teenager. Well, since you don't have any plans, what to join us?"
"I'd like that. I just need to let my mom know where I'll be."
"Go ahead. Tell her I'll give you a ride home afterwards." Samantha nodded as she went into the kitchen to call her mom. Catherine was really glad she'd found Samantha and wanted to show her how much she appreciated her. Catherine went into the bathroom, throwing on some eye shadow and lipstick and combing out her hair leaving it down. When she returned, Samantha had finished her call.
"Ready?" Catherine asked grabbing her purse and her daughter's hand, holding on like it was a lifeline.
30 minutes later, as they sat at a booth in Pizza Hut, Lindsey froze mid bite and buried her face in her mom's shoulder.
"What's wrong babe?" Catherine asked, turning towards her daughter.
"Justin's here." She mumbled into her mother's chest.
"Who?" asked Catherine feeling clueless, why wouldn't her evidence add up?
"Justin!" exclaimed Lindsey like it should be obvious. Catherine who really had no clue looked to Sam for help.
"A boy in her class she has a C-R-U-S-H on, she just doesn't realize it yet." Samantha explained.
"Oh" Catherine said flatly, embarrassed that she didn't know something about her daughter that the babysitter did. She quickly recovered, giving Sam a wink and a mouthed "thanks".
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As she dropped Lindsey off at the night sitters, Catherine felt the familiar tug on her heart. She always hated leaving for work. Sure, she loved her job and her co-workers, but she wanted to spend her time with her daughter.
"Come on babe." Catherine soothed her daughter as she took her out of the car, hugging her tightly, wishing she could stay like this.
"Mommy?" mumbled the sleepy Lindsey, even as she snuggled into her mother's chest.
"Yeah it's me, time to go to Auntie Laura's" Catherine explained as she rang the doorbell.
"Bye Mommy." Linds said as the door opened and her mom handed her over to her "aunt".
"Love you Linds." Catherine bent down to give her daughter a kiss.
"Love you too mommy."
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"Hey Cath, how was your day?" Warrick asked his co-worker as she walked in to the locker room at the beginning of yet another shift.
"Found out that Lindsey doesn't talk to me. She has a crush on this boy at school. The babysitter realized it before I did." Catherine said ruefully as she opened her locker to the pictures of her daughter, which just added to her guilt. She set her stuff down and grabbed the tape she'd thrown into her purse, putting the latest picture under her "Super Mommy" picture. Then she put her stuff in her locker and shut it with a sigh, leaning against the cool metal.
"Looks like she doesn't care if you realized or not." Murmured Warrick, trying to get Cath to smile "Don't beat yourself up over it Cath." Warrick said patting Catherine's shoulder.
"Thanks, but it's not going to help." Catherine said with a smile.
"Wasn't supposed to. Just letting you know that you're being too hard on yourself."
"You know me well." She said with a half smile.
"I should- we spend enough time together." Warrick pointed out before wincing at himself. Learn to keep your mouth shut Warrick Brown.
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Get these to Greg, Get the store security tapes, Ask cashier if he saw anything, Watch tapes… Sara Sidle rattled off things that she needed to do for a homicide that had gone down in a 7-11 parking lot as she was walking past Grissom's office, an hour and a half later.
"Sara" Grissom called as she walked by.
"Yeah?"
"Tell Catherine I need her in my office ASAP." Grissom said with a certain amount of reluctance.
"Can I tell her why?" Sara had a sneaking suspiciousoin she knew what it was. Grissom would have warned her not to draw conclusions.
"That would kind of defeat the purpose of me calling her in here in the first place." Grissom pointed out.
"Of course." Sara said. I hope it's not what I think it is.
Sara found Catherine working a sheet in one of the labs. Her hair pulled back, she had a stubborn look on her face.
"Hey, What's up?"
"Nothing really, I can't find anything on this shirt and I've been working it for 15 minutes."
"Well, then sounds like you could use the break. Gris wants you in his office, ASAP." Sara said.
"ASAP? Wonder what's so important." Mused Catherine with a cocked eye brow.
"I should warn you, it didn't sound good." Sara warned, again hoping it wasn't what she thought it was.
"It never is" murmured Catherine, as she walked out of the room.
"Catherine" greeted Grissom tensely; he was not going to like being the bearer of this news. Especially since it was Catherine he was breaking it to.
"You wanted to talk to me?"
"Shut the door and have a seat." Sara was right thought Catherine as she obeyed.
"Brass just called in a homicide."
"Okay, I'm not getting the whole calling me into your office."
"Maybe this will help." Grissom said, handing Catherine a piece of paper reluctantly.
The words jumped out at Catherine like a bad dream- 392 Sterling St.-
Oh God no- "No"
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Mwah ha ha ha ha ha! That is more fun then it should be. I'm starting to see why so many authors enjoy it. Though seeing as you can just click the next arrow, I suppose it's not really a cliffie. Don't worry, the dead person is not who Catherine thinks it is.