Well, my first story in a year. Not to mention my first CSI story and let me say that it may not be good. Just warning you. Anyway, this is based semi-loosely on the TV show Dallas. All of you 80s and 70s kids would know what that show is. 90s kids, probably not. Though I never saw the show, my mom told me about the crazy episode with that infamous scene and I began thinking, 'Wish the CSI people would do that. I miss Warrick.' Then this popped into my mind. I watched that Dallas episode on YouTube to sort-of get a feel for it. Anyway here it goes.

WARNING: It is probably not very good but I'd like some advice on how to make it better.

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI. If I did, I would have paid Gary more money to stay on and begged harder to keep William on too. I also do not own the show Dallas but I would like to watch a few episodes of it.

Blast from the Past

Double shifts are difficult. Two double shifts back to back are even worse. But none of these things are the worst for Catherine. The worst and most difficult thing for her to deal with is the date.

May 15, 2011.

For Catherine, it is a day she will probably never forget no matter how much she wants to. The past three years felt like ten thousand needles being stabbed into her stomach, her throat, her head, her heart. Though some days are better than others, this was definitely not one of them.

Catherine collapsed onto the break room couch with a sob, slowly leaning sideways until she was lying down. Her eyes holding back tears, her throat holding back sobbing noises, and she was about to lose it.

"Catherine?"

"What do you want Nick?" Catherine asked, her eyes still closed.

"I was just wondering if you were okay," Nick said, his voice filled with concern. "I mean, you've been working a lot of shifts back to back."

"What does that have to do with me being okay?" she asked, her eyes still closed. She did not trust her eyes to lie with her mouth.

"Well, everyone here knows that when someone begins working shifts nonstop, it means something's wrong."

"What makes you say that?" she asked, this time sitting up and letting her eyes open. "Grissom did tons of shifts back to back and so did Sara."

"Yeah, and their problem was that they were idiots and were completely confused about their relationship," Nick replied. Catherine raised her eyebrow. Nick sighed. "Fine, they were also workaholics but this still applies to you." Catherine sighed.

"Do you even know what today is?" she asked, trying to hold back tears.

"Of course I do," he said as he sat down next to her. "It's hard to forget what happened on this day."

"I just can't believe he's gone," Catherine said through tears. "It all feels like a big dream." Nick put an arm around her, hoping it would show her that he was there for her. He knew, however, that only one man could make her feel better and if he was there, they wouldn't be having this conversation.

"Look, why don't you take a nap," Nick suggested. Catherine began to get up but Nick pulled her back down. "At least for a couple of minutes, please."

"Fine," Catherine whined, knowing she couldn't win. Nick smiled and left Catherine on the couch, hoping she would fall asleep for more than a couple of minutes. Catherine watched as he left and then took a look at her watch.

4:45 am.

'Perfect,' she thought. 'I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes and get straight back to work.' With that, she closed her eyes and listened to the sounds outside in the hall.

Catherine bolted upright, her face drenched in sweat. She frantically checked her watch.

7:23 am.

'Crap,' she thought. 'I've been asleep for almost three hours.' She quickly got up from the couch and quickly walked to the locker room. She needed to get home before Lindsey woke up. She was sick and tired of hearing how other moms are usually home on a Sunday morning.

She headed straight to her locker and threw her CSI vest in. She grabbed her purse and was about to head out when she heard it. The faint sound of the showers going. She found this rather odd since normally only CSI's with body dumps or decomp cases used the showers in the lab. Since she knew that none of those types of cases had come in today, she was curious as to who was using the showers. She started making her way to the showers only to stop herself midway.

"What am I doing?" she said to herself. "This is wrong." But something kept pulling her towards the showers. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, she finally made it to the curtain. She took a deep breath and pulled the curtain open.

"What the hell, Catherine?" But Catherine just stood there with her mouth open. She didn't say sorry, she didn't back away, or close the curtain. All she did was stare at his face and whispered his name.

"Warrick." Though it was more of a question than a statement. Her hand slowly moved forward, heading toward his face. Half of her wished she could feel him again while the other half, the logic half, wanted it to be a dream. After was seemed like another eternity, the tips of her fingers touched his face. She could feel his soft skin, his beard, the water dripping from his hair. She quickly pulled her hand back, afraid of what was happening.

"You're real," she said softly

"Yes I'm real. I'm real stinky, real wet, and real naked too. So if you could just wait for me outside of the-oof." He was cut off as Catherine began hugging him. "Okay, now you're getting wet. Can you tell me what's going on?" Catherine didn't answer so he pulled her away and looked into her eyes. "What is going on, Catherine? You've looked like you've seen a ghost.

All of a sudden, logic kicks in for Catherine and she runs out. Warrick quickly runs out and grabs his towel, not even bothering to turn off the shower. He drapes his towel as he runs after her.

"Catherine, wait," he called but Catherine didn't stop. She grabbed her purse from the bench where she had left it and was about to make it out of there when Warrick caught up to her. He turned her around and looked her straight in the eye.

"What's going on?" he asked for the third time. He tried to keep his eyes focused on hers but hers refused to look into his.

"You're dead," she replied. "You should be dead. This has got to be a dream." She tried to break away from Warrick's hold but he was firm.

"What are you talking about? I'm not dead. It was probably just a bad dream," he said trying to make her feel better.

"If was all a dream, then why did it last three years?" she yelled through tears. "Why did it feel so real?" She began crying harder so Warrick pulled her into him and just held her.

"It is alright, it was just a dream," Warrick said. "Trust me."

"How can I trust you?" she asked. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Hey Catherine, I'm going to need the investigation notes you took tonight on the Igor case," a voice said from the door. "Apparently, many of the eye-witness accounts don't seem to match up."

"Grissom?" Catherine asked, looking up from Warrick's chest. Grissom was standing in the doorway, looking at some files in his hand. He looked up when he heard the uncertainty in her voice.

"What's going on in here?" he asked. Warrick looked confused and embarrassed. Catherine was just confused.

"Uh," Warrick said, unsure of where to start. "Catherine says she had a very real feeling dream and I'm just trying to reassure her that everything is alright."

"Oh, okay," Grissom said. "Care to share this dream."

"Well, Catherine says I died," Warrick said starting it off, "and that it was over the course of three years. Oh and that it felt very real."

"Well, sometimes our minds can make things feel real when they're not. That's why some dreams are scary. Because they feel like reality," Grissom explained.

"Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants," Catherine said, getting over her initial shock." How does that explain it taking three years?"

"Well maybe it didn't," Grissom answered. "Maybe your mind, in dream mode, made memories of certain cases or days, making you feel like you went through them. Besides, hours in a dream would be only a few minutes in reality."

"You know what?" Catherine said. "I'm just going to take your word for it." She started walking out but stopped. "I think my minds starting to come back to reality again. Oh man do I have a headache now." Grissom looked at his watch.

"Shouldn't you be taking Lindsey to school?" asked Grissom.

"No it's Sunday," she replied.

"It's Thursday," Warrick and Grissom replied back.

"Oh shit," she exclaimed, rushing out. As she ran past Grissom, she noticed his left hand had nothing on it. "No wedding ring," she whispered.

"What?" Grissom said, wondering if he heard her correctly.

"Nothing," Catherine replied, rushing out of the locker room. As she got into her car, she realized that because it was all a dream, Grissom and Sara never married. She was no longer the head supervisor of the grave shift, Langston was not on their team, and Sara was still in California. Not to mention the fact that Warrick was not dead and Nick no longer had a bullet wound in his arm.

'Oh man,' Catherine thought. 'This may take awhile to get used to but at least reality is making sense again." And with that thought, she pulled out of the parking lot and made her way home. Lindsey might be mad at her but at least the date will no longer be painful.

The End

I know that was probably a sucky ending. Sorry. I had a good idea but only the middle part was the good part. I had no idea how to end it and no idea how to start it so I winged it.

But wouldn't it be nice if the CSI writers did this for us. Made Warrick's death all a dream. It would be confusing, as it was for the Dallas episode but at least we'd get Warrick and Grissom back. Though GSR fans would lose a whole bunch of moments, I think it would be worth it to bring the show back on its feet. The show isn't the same without Warrick and it is hopelessly failing without Grissom.

Reply and tell me what needs fixing. I am open to constructed criticism. Anything like 'This story is stupid' will get a reply of 'Yes I know' but that does not mean I don't want to fix it so please tell me what needs fixing.

Avatar Rikki