Title: And then the petals fell .
Author: Mary Eve Parker ms.parker@gmx.at
Spoilers: "Lady Heater's box"
Rating: not sure yet - this is PG13 if at all, maybe R or NC-17 later but
those parts will be marked
Disclaimer: I borrowed them for a little bit, their actions and dialogues
are mine!
Note: Thanks to Mel for the beta *toddles*
This is my first attempt on CSI FanFiction, so don't be too hard with me!
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AND THEN THE PETALS FELL . Part 1/?
Catherine was sitting at her daughter's bed with her letter to Santa Claus in her hands and tears in her eyes while she watched her daughter sleep. Eddie was dead. She was a single mother now with almost no family, at least no family she really felt attached to. The night Eddie died she cried herself to sleep with her Lindsey curled tightly against her back, trying to calm her mum down but it wasn't possible. Later she fell asleep completely exhausted.
And now it was the beginning of December and her girl was about to celebrate the first Christmas as a half orphan. The thought made her cry again. Slowly she stood up, not wanting to wake her little darling, went to the living room, got herself a double Vodka on the rocks and sat down in the soft sofa.
"Dear Mister Santa Claus I don't wish for much this year since there isn't a lot I can wish for. I know that you can't bring my Daddy back or make things undone, I know that. I don't want to see mum cry anymore and you know Santa she cries a lot. A couple of years ago I'd wished that they'd get back together and get me a little sister or brother but I know that it is impossible now. You know Santa, I really like Uncle Gil even if he is a little . I don't know . shy? Maybe you could bring him over to celebrate Christmas with us and mum won't have to cry all the time or pretend to smile. I don't wish for anything else. Yours, Lindsey Willows"
Catherine's tears kept running down her cheeks, the letter drawn tightly to her chest.
~*~
"So here are the cases." Gil was standing in the middle of the room with a couple of files in his hand. "Here this is yours Nick." He shoved a file toward the young man with the dark hair. "You go with Catherine," he shot her a demanding look, "to this - it's a double homicide in the desert." "Any special reason why I have to get dirty?" Catherine asked him harshly. "Because it is your job to collect and analyse evidence," was the only thing he said before he gave a suicide/ homicide case to Warwick and Sara. He had assigned himself some paperwork.
When Gil sat down in the office, Catherine stormed in, furious, and closed the door with a loud bang. "How dare you send me to a double homicide in the desert?" "Have you read the file?" "I don't need to read the file to see that you are ditching me." "Hell Catherine what's up? I am not ditching you. I just handed the cases out, nothing more and I thought that you'd be better on it than Sara or Warwick. Okay?" She didn't dare to look at Gil, still being furious. "It's a double homicide of two twelve year old girls, okay? I thought that being a mother would make it hard on the one hand but you'd be much more open to every possibility on the way to solve this case."
Catherine left Grissom's office without saying a word.
~*~
"You okay Cath?" Nick asked her in the car. "Sorry that you had to wait, everything is fine, yes .fine." She was silent the whole drive to the desert. It felt strange to Nick because he learned one thing since he was working with Catherine - Don't push her.
Brass was already waiting when they arrived and showed them the bodies. Nick felt bile rise in his throat and Catherine had to hold back her tears. The two girls were laying there in their neat Sunday dresses, hints that they'd been sexually assaulted, blood staining their chests, and a knife lying next to them. The evidence was little, just tyre prints in the hard sand, no footprints or other items that could help them. Nick was leaning hard against the car, facing the opposite side of the endless desert and sipping on a water bottle. "What's up with her?" Brass asked Nick. "I don't know but since Eddie is dead she isn't the same anymore. It got her harder than I'd imagined." "Yes but on the other hand I thought they ." "Well they didn't get along well but he was Lindsey's dad and whenever she needed a timeout he was taking care of Linds." "Maybe she needs a timeout now?" "I've noticed she's been drinking, I don't want her to be alone." "Talk to Gil, they've known each other for so long." "I thought the same till this morning. But when he handed out the cases she flipped at him, why she'd go to the desert with me." "Its not about you Nick, she is hurt, seriously hurt and she wants Gil's attention." "You think?" Nick asked the older police officer.
Catherine and Nick finished the collecting the evidence and headed back to the office. Catherine was unnaturally calm in Nick's eyes. She was never a really chatty person but she liked to talk and to him especially. And Nick wasn't blind. He had noticed that she had lost a couple of pounds since Eddie's death and he hardly ever saw her eating anything, only drinking one cup of coffee after the other. He knew, from personal experience, that this wasn't healthy and not working if you have a kid to look after. He never thought that she, this strawberry blond beauty, would hurt herself in any way but it was too obvious now. Should he talk to Grissom? Talk to the boss and blame him for not watching out for his best friend, good friend, colleague?
"Do you want to talk Catherine?" Catherine looked at Nick, "What about?" "I feel that you aren't fine." "I am okay." "No you are not even okay Catherine, you are really . I don't know how to describe it." "So don't."
~*~
TWO NIGHTS LATER
When Grissom came into his office he found Catherine asleep on the sofa, not even the soft creaking of the door waking her. It was early for her to be in. He closed the door behind himself and slowly walked to the break room where he met Nick. "Oh could you give me a minute alone," Gil asked him and shot him a look. "Sure," the younger man said and left.
Slowly he dialled the familiar number. "Willows," he heard a soft voice on the other end. "Lindsey?" "Uncle Gil." "Honey I've got to ask you something." "Okay," she replied. "Can you tell me why your mum is in so early today?" "She wasn't doing well I guess, she never is lately." "What do you mean?" "She doesn't want me to tell anybody." "What about if I come over, let your mum sleep a little, and bring pizza." "And a bug?" "Okay, I could bring my spider." "That would be fun!"
It took Gil about half an hour to get the pizza and drive to Catherine's home. How much did he want not to question the little girl about her mother's lately behaviour! Nobody had told him how it was to work with her but he could see it in Catherine's face and in Nick's, with whom she had worked during the last shifts, that something wasn't working out and that the case wasn't making any progress. Catherine was his best CSI and he couldn't risk losing her, nor did he want to.
He had the pizza in one hand, the spider's box in the other and rang the bell. Little Miss Willows opened the door clad in thick pink flannel pyjamas with little spiders on it which he had given her last Christmas.
"Hey Linds," Gil said and tried to smile while searching the living room. "Hello Uncle Gil, do you have Bubo with you?" He handed her the see-through box and he could see her smile, a wide and open smile, a smile he remembered seeing on Catherine's lips very often. "Where do you want to eat," Gil asked while he brought the pizza to the kitchen. "Coffee table? We could watch this one spider movie." "Sure punch-head go put it into the VCR and start it I will be out in a sec, and don't forget to take care of Bubo." He asked himself when his spider had been named and why it was Bubo but for the kid's joy he didn't say a word. Slowly he made his way through the cupboards, normally filled with lots of groceries, today nearly empty, to find some plates. When he had the pizza on two plates he started to put the box away and noticed a couple of half empty alcohol bottles in the cupboard under the sink, two empty ones in the basket next to it.
Not wanting to make the girl suspicious he brought the pizza out, took some coke with him and they ate together and watched the movie in peace and quiet. The little girl played with the spider for a while before cuddling against Gil's chest. She fell asleep to the sounds of a documentary on whales and dolphins.
~*~
SAME TIME - OTHER PLACE
"Where is Gil?" Catherine asked Nick and he just shrugged, knowing full well that he was with her baby. Without asking or calling she handed out the cases and made herself work with Warwick this night, answering none of Nick's questions or letting herself be pushed around.
It was simple, a car accident, but nevertheless they would have to go out and collect evidence. Catherine wasn't into talking, not since she found herself sleeping in Gil's office, not sure when or how she fell asleep there or even got there or why the hell he hadn't woken her since it was obvious that he had been in to get his jacket. But those things were topics she didn't caring about, not anymore, maybe three or four months ago she would have but not today, never again, maybe somewhere in the future but she wasn't sure. Now she only needed more coffee and maybe a shot of vodka wouldn't be bad but she told herself more than once that she won't drink a drop of it at work, not here. She would risk everything with it and she couldn't, not now, not since Eddie was dead and she had to take care of Lindsey on her own.
Warwick had been talking to Nick after he saw him with a worried expression in the break room a couple of days ago and Nick told him what he saw in Catherine, the big loss which hadn't been worked on yet. Both weren't sure why it bothered her so much since Eddie had been beating and betraying her, even in her own bed. But a night ago they were sitting at a club and talking and after a few beers Warwick told Nick what he thought, that Catherine wasn't getting over it because she'd never really gotten away from Eddie. She left him because he betrayed her and Lindsey. And he hasn't heard that there have been any men since her divorce except for her best and only friend Gil. "Has there really been none?" Nick asked Warwick while putting his beer down on the table. "Well you can ask Catherine and she'll answer but I'll be embarrassed for the fucking rest of my life," he answered with a male chuckle, imagination how Catherine would stare at him or shoot him "the look". "It would have been fun to ask before he died but it's not like you are signing your papers for the death row on your own." "Yes you are right, I will talk to Grissom."
That's what Warwick did the next time he saw Grissom and he noticed the older man taking it seriously. Gil Grissom was the one who knew every detail of Cath's fucked up life, her dancing, her husband, her drugs.
Catherine collected her evidence, didn't see the stone on the very end of the sidewalk and fell. For a long second she just laid there, everything black, with closed eyes. The next moment, when she opened her eyes, she saw the handsome black man kneeling next to her, telling the policemen a couple of feet away that he should call the ambulance. She had the feeling of not being able to move, not her head, lips or eyes. She was just laying there with her eyes open staring into the night.
Warwick went with Cath to hospital. In the beginning the doctors didn't want to tell him what happened to her since he was not family but then, after some comforting words from him to her on her bedside, the doctor asked him to leave the room. "Mr. Brown, you are working with Mrs. Willows?" the doctor asked him seriously. "Yes, I am. She is second in charge at the CSI." "Well then I have to tell you, unfortunately, that it seems to me like she has a serious alcohol problem. I don't know her background but she isn't doing well." "Background . her ex-husband died a couple of months ago and he nearly killed her daughter with the accident. I think since then it's been going downhill with her. She refuses to talk to any of us, not even Grissom which has never happened before." "Could you ask him to come over?" "Well to be honest he was about to spend some time with her daughter, my co told me and I think that's very important for Lindsey." "Willows . now I remember it, wasn't she married to this music producer?" "Like I said Eddie was killed a couple of months ago but as far as I know he turned into a music producer after they got divorced." "No she was before too, I may be old but not stupid, I remember pretty faces like hers. She'd been here with Lindsey a couple of times and refused to call her husband or anybody. But it's been quite some time since I saw her last, maybe four or five years." "Why was she here?" "It would be the best if you ask her yourself. I shouldn't be talking to you about this at all." "She won't tell me, I know her." "If she doesn't tell you maybe this Grissom can, he knows of it." What the hell was going on with her - was what Warwick asked himself.
When they had finished with the evidence and had a talk with the coroner they went back to analyse the data and let the coroner autopsy the body. Warwick studied Catherine or whatever was left of the beautiful CSI he was working under.
"Catherine?"
XxXxXxXxXxX End Part 1
More? Mail me: ms.parker@gmx.at
XxXxXxXxXxX
AND THEN THE PETALS FELL . Part 1/?
Catherine was sitting at her daughter's bed with her letter to Santa Claus in her hands and tears in her eyes while she watched her daughter sleep. Eddie was dead. She was a single mother now with almost no family, at least no family she really felt attached to. The night Eddie died she cried herself to sleep with her Lindsey curled tightly against her back, trying to calm her mum down but it wasn't possible. Later she fell asleep completely exhausted.
And now it was the beginning of December and her girl was about to celebrate the first Christmas as a half orphan. The thought made her cry again. Slowly she stood up, not wanting to wake her little darling, went to the living room, got herself a double Vodka on the rocks and sat down in the soft sofa.
"Dear Mister Santa Claus I don't wish for much this year since there isn't a lot I can wish for. I know that you can't bring my Daddy back or make things undone, I know that. I don't want to see mum cry anymore and you know Santa she cries a lot. A couple of years ago I'd wished that they'd get back together and get me a little sister or brother but I know that it is impossible now. You know Santa, I really like Uncle Gil even if he is a little . I don't know . shy? Maybe you could bring him over to celebrate Christmas with us and mum won't have to cry all the time or pretend to smile. I don't wish for anything else. Yours, Lindsey Willows"
Catherine's tears kept running down her cheeks, the letter drawn tightly to her chest.
~*~
"So here are the cases." Gil was standing in the middle of the room with a couple of files in his hand. "Here this is yours Nick." He shoved a file toward the young man with the dark hair. "You go with Catherine," he shot her a demanding look, "to this - it's a double homicide in the desert." "Any special reason why I have to get dirty?" Catherine asked him harshly. "Because it is your job to collect and analyse evidence," was the only thing he said before he gave a suicide/ homicide case to Warwick and Sara. He had assigned himself some paperwork.
When Gil sat down in the office, Catherine stormed in, furious, and closed the door with a loud bang. "How dare you send me to a double homicide in the desert?" "Have you read the file?" "I don't need to read the file to see that you are ditching me." "Hell Catherine what's up? I am not ditching you. I just handed the cases out, nothing more and I thought that you'd be better on it than Sara or Warwick. Okay?" She didn't dare to look at Gil, still being furious. "It's a double homicide of two twelve year old girls, okay? I thought that being a mother would make it hard on the one hand but you'd be much more open to every possibility on the way to solve this case."
Catherine left Grissom's office without saying a word.
~*~
"You okay Cath?" Nick asked her in the car. "Sorry that you had to wait, everything is fine, yes .fine." She was silent the whole drive to the desert. It felt strange to Nick because he learned one thing since he was working with Catherine - Don't push her.
Brass was already waiting when they arrived and showed them the bodies. Nick felt bile rise in his throat and Catherine had to hold back her tears. The two girls were laying there in their neat Sunday dresses, hints that they'd been sexually assaulted, blood staining their chests, and a knife lying next to them. The evidence was little, just tyre prints in the hard sand, no footprints or other items that could help them. Nick was leaning hard against the car, facing the opposite side of the endless desert and sipping on a water bottle. "What's up with her?" Brass asked Nick. "I don't know but since Eddie is dead she isn't the same anymore. It got her harder than I'd imagined." "Yes but on the other hand I thought they ." "Well they didn't get along well but he was Lindsey's dad and whenever she needed a timeout he was taking care of Linds." "Maybe she needs a timeout now?" "I've noticed she's been drinking, I don't want her to be alone." "Talk to Gil, they've known each other for so long." "I thought the same till this morning. But when he handed out the cases she flipped at him, why she'd go to the desert with me." "Its not about you Nick, she is hurt, seriously hurt and she wants Gil's attention." "You think?" Nick asked the older police officer.
Catherine and Nick finished the collecting the evidence and headed back to the office. Catherine was unnaturally calm in Nick's eyes. She was never a really chatty person but she liked to talk and to him especially. And Nick wasn't blind. He had noticed that she had lost a couple of pounds since Eddie's death and he hardly ever saw her eating anything, only drinking one cup of coffee after the other. He knew, from personal experience, that this wasn't healthy and not working if you have a kid to look after. He never thought that she, this strawberry blond beauty, would hurt herself in any way but it was too obvious now. Should he talk to Grissom? Talk to the boss and blame him for not watching out for his best friend, good friend, colleague?
"Do you want to talk Catherine?" Catherine looked at Nick, "What about?" "I feel that you aren't fine." "I am okay." "No you are not even okay Catherine, you are really . I don't know how to describe it." "So don't."
~*~
TWO NIGHTS LATER
When Grissom came into his office he found Catherine asleep on the sofa, not even the soft creaking of the door waking her. It was early for her to be in. He closed the door behind himself and slowly walked to the break room where he met Nick. "Oh could you give me a minute alone," Gil asked him and shot him a look. "Sure," the younger man said and left.
Slowly he dialled the familiar number. "Willows," he heard a soft voice on the other end. "Lindsey?" "Uncle Gil." "Honey I've got to ask you something." "Okay," she replied. "Can you tell me why your mum is in so early today?" "She wasn't doing well I guess, she never is lately." "What do you mean?" "She doesn't want me to tell anybody." "What about if I come over, let your mum sleep a little, and bring pizza." "And a bug?" "Okay, I could bring my spider." "That would be fun!"
It took Gil about half an hour to get the pizza and drive to Catherine's home. How much did he want not to question the little girl about her mother's lately behaviour! Nobody had told him how it was to work with her but he could see it in Catherine's face and in Nick's, with whom she had worked during the last shifts, that something wasn't working out and that the case wasn't making any progress. Catherine was his best CSI and he couldn't risk losing her, nor did he want to.
He had the pizza in one hand, the spider's box in the other and rang the bell. Little Miss Willows opened the door clad in thick pink flannel pyjamas with little spiders on it which he had given her last Christmas.
"Hey Linds," Gil said and tried to smile while searching the living room. "Hello Uncle Gil, do you have Bubo with you?" He handed her the see-through box and he could see her smile, a wide and open smile, a smile he remembered seeing on Catherine's lips very often. "Where do you want to eat," Gil asked while he brought the pizza to the kitchen. "Coffee table? We could watch this one spider movie." "Sure punch-head go put it into the VCR and start it I will be out in a sec, and don't forget to take care of Bubo." He asked himself when his spider had been named and why it was Bubo but for the kid's joy he didn't say a word. Slowly he made his way through the cupboards, normally filled with lots of groceries, today nearly empty, to find some plates. When he had the pizza on two plates he started to put the box away and noticed a couple of half empty alcohol bottles in the cupboard under the sink, two empty ones in the basket next to it.
Not wanting to make the girl suspicious he brought the pizza out, took some coke with him and they ate together and watched the movie in peace and quiet. The little girl played with the spider for a while before cuddling against Gil's chest. She fell asleep to the sounds of a documentary on whales and dolphins.
~*~
SAME TIME - OTHER PLACE
"Where is Gil?" Catherine asked Nick and he just shrugged, knowing full well that he was with her baby. Without asking or calling she handed out the cases and made herself work with Warwick this night, answering none of Nick's questions or letting herself be pushed around.
It was simple, a car accident, but nevertheless they would have to go out and collect evidence. Catherine wasn't into talking, not since she found herself sleeping in Gil's office, not sure when or how she fell asleep there or even got there or why the hell he hadn't woken her since it was obvious that he had been in to get his jacket. But those things were topics she didn't caring about, not anymore, maybe three or four months ago she would have but not today, never again, maybe somewhere in the future but she wasn't sure. Now she only needed more coffee and maybe a shot of vodka wouldn't be bad but she told herself more than once that she won't drink a drop of it at work, not here. She would risk everything with it and she couldn't, not now, not since Eddie was dead and she had to take care of Lindsey on her own.
Warwick had been talking to Nick after he saw him with a worried expression in the break room a couple of days ago and Nick told him what he saw in Catherine, the big loss which hadn't been worked on yet. Both weren't sure why it bothered her so much since Eddie had been beating and betraying her, even in her own bed. But a night ago they were sitting at a club and talking and after a few beers Warwick told Nick what he thought, that Catherine wasn't getting over it because she'd never really gotten away from Eddie. She left him because he betrayed her and Lindsey. And he hasn't heard that there have been any men since her divorce except for her best and only friend Gil. "Has there really been none?" Nick asked Warwick while putting his beer down on the table. "Well you can ask Catherine and she'll answer but I'll be embarrassed for the fucking rest of my life," he answered with a male chuckle, imagination how Catherine would stare at him or shoot him "the look". "It would have been fun to ask before he died but it's not like you are signing your papers for the death row on your own." "Yes you are right, I will talk to Grissom."
That's what Warwick did the next time he saw Grissom and he noticed the older man taking it seriously. Gil Grissom was the one who knew every detail of Cath's fucked up life, her dancing, her husband, her drugs.
Catherine collected her evidence, didn't see the stone on the very end of the sidewalk and fell. For a long second she just laid there, everything black, with closed eyes. The next moment, when she opened her eyes, she saw the handsome black man kneeling next to her, telling the policemen a couple of feet away that he should call the ambulance. She had the feeling of not being able to move, not her head, lips or eyes. She was just laying there with her eyes open staring into the night.
Warwick went with Cath to hospital. In the beginning the doctors didn't want to tell him what happened to her since he was not family but then, after some comforting words from him to her on her bedside, the doctor asked him to leave the room. "Mr. Brown, you are working with Mrs. Willows?" the doctor asked him seriously. "Yes, I am. She is second in charge at the CSI." "Well then I have to tell you, unfortunately, that it seems to me like she has a serious alcohol problem. I don't know her background but she isn't doing well." "Background . her ex-husband died a couple of months ago and he nearly killed her daughter with the accident. I think since then it's been going downhill with her. She refuses to talk to any of us, not even Grissom which has never happened before." "Could you ask him to come over?" "Well to be honest he was about to spend some time with her daughter, my co told me and I think that's very important for Lindsey." "Willows . now I remember it, wasn't she married to this music producer?" "Like I said Eddie was killed a couple of months ago but as far as I know he turned into a music producer after they got divorced." "No she was before too, I may be old but not stupid, I remember pretty faces like hers. She'd been here with Lindsey a couple of times and refused to call her husband or anybody. But it's been quite some time since I saw her last, maybe four or five years." "Why was she here?" "It would be the best if you ask her yourself. I shouldn't be talking to you about this at all." "She won't tell me, I know her." "If she doesn't tell you maybe this Grissom can, he knows of it." What the hell was going on with her - was what Warwick asked himself.
When they had finished with the evidence and had a talk with the coroner they went back to analyse the data and let the coroner autopsy the body. Warwick studied Catherine or whatever was left of the beautiful CSI he was working under.
"Catherine?"
XxXxXxXxXxX End Part 1
More? Mail me: ms.parker@gmx.at