A/N: I have no idea when I wrote it. But apparently I did. So not my usual Sandle. It was saved under "Messed", hence the title.
Thank you Lexxia, again, for the usual beta.
Messed
Brass paced the interrogation room, annoyed. The kid wasn't making her situation any better by answering his questions so vaguely.
Case in point. "Your DNA was found on the rim of a beer bottle next to the victim. Can you explain that?"
"I obviously drank from it," she responded slowly. "How else would my DNA get there?"
"Why? You are under aged."
She sighed "Because, I felt like it."
Brass continued to walk back and forth. Back and forth. As he paced, she inspected her nails carefully.
Brass sighed and tried another question. "Care to explain why your fingerprints were found on the rock used to pummel your teacher?"
"Maybe because I touched it?" she said as though she were talking to a three year old.
That was the last straw. "Jesus, Lindsey! Help me out here! Do you want to go to jail for something you didn't do?"
Lindsey looked up at him. "What makes you think I didn't do it?" she said softly.
Brass appeared confused at this statement.
"I'm sitting here in an interrogation room as you question me about every piece of evidence that is against me in hopes of either crossing me of your suspect list, or throwing me into a prison cell. Why don't you think I did it?"
That little speech caught him off-guard. She seemed like she wanted to go to jail.
"Is it because my mother is a fellow CSI and you don't think I'm capable of doing this? Or is it because you picture me as that little angel you used to know? Or maybe it's because you know I couldn't have done it even though all the evidence says I did."
Brass kept his trap shut in all this.
"What is it that Grissom said? 'The evidence never lies.' I heard him say that to mom when she was complaining about a case once."
That mom in particular was standing outside the room, watching the scene with tears in her eyes, not believing that her daughter had basically just confessed.
As if Lindsey could read her mind she said, "And that wasn't a confession."
"Sure sounded like one to me," commented Brass. Everything Lindsey had just said convinced him that she did do it.
Warrick came up next to Catherine. He saw how she was failing miserably at not breaking down in tears. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.
"It's gonna be okay…it's gonna be okay," he said into her hair. Catherine turned and buried her head in his shoulder.
"Lindsey, you're a smart kid. And you killed him. Was it because he did something to you? Or was it because you just didn't like him?"
"I didn't think she was that unstable," sobbed Catherine. "I never saw. I was never there."
Warrick continued to hold her tight. That's when it hit her. "It's my fault. It's my fault she's like this."
Lindsey stood up from her seat and walked towards the window as if she heard.
"I'm not a smart kid. I'm just extremely stupid. Have you checked to see what's under my bed? Have you ever wondered where I have been all night?"
Catherine looked up. Her daughter stood directly in front of her staring into her eyes as if she were able to see.
Brass's finger hovered over the sound button, just realizing that Catherine was outside.
"No you haven't," continued Lindsey. "To you, I was always that perfect child that sometimes acted out. But I'm not."
Catherine held onto Warrick like he was her life-line.
I'm a very messed up person. I know it, yet everyone else doesn't see it." A single tear rolled down Lindsey's cheek while in turn, several rolled down Catherine's.
"When I was nine, I saw my dad right before he died and I didn't even know what happened. I got trapped in a sinking car. When I was twelve, the kid who I had an enormous crush on, died in a dryer."
Catherine remembered that case but she had never thought that Lindsey had any connection with him.
"You know, he invited me over to a party at his house that night. I told him I couldn't go."
Warrick had this sudden urge to march inside the room and make Brass turn off the sound. But then he realized, maybe this was something Catherine needed to hear.
"Did I mention the fact that I was in another car wreck? And then kidnapped? And that after, my grandfather was murdered?"
How could Catherine forget about those two nights?
"Maybe they should make a movie about my life. It's extreme enough. And incredibly traumatic for me."
Catherine collapsed. Warrick caught her.
"I never thought about it like that," wept Catherine. "And I was never there for her."
"Yes you were," said Warrick. "You did everything you could."
At almost the exact same time, Lindsey said "You did everything you could. It was my choice to do everything I did."
Catherine and Warrick were still on the floor when she added softly, "It was my choice to kill him."