Author Note: This is my first attempt at a fem slash and I hope to not disappoint. If there are some people with some ideas or opinions I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

This is my take on what could've happened in the first season if they let it starting with a loose retelling of the events leading up to Holly Gribbs death and the love that blossomed out of it.

- Updated: 24-Aug-2016 for content, grammar, punctuation & mature content -

- Updated: 25-Mar-2019 for minor edits

B.

Love at First Sight

-1-

She slammed her locker shut, slumping over on the metal bench, shoulders hunched, defeated. She was alone in the locker room, alone with her thoughts as she stared at the cracked tiles under her feet, her left leg bouncing like a jackhammer. She pulled out her phone, hoping for a text from her sister, but there were no messages. It was almost seven in the morning and her daughter, Lindsey, would be getting ready to go to school soon. She took a deep breath, looking up from the floor and staring at the name written in black magic marker on a piece of masking tape on the locker door adjacent to hers;

Gribbs, Holly

Up until twenty-four hours ago, Catherine was the only female investigator on the Graveyard Shift. For years she had combated men who treated her differently, battling a profession that is saturated by men, constantly having to prove herself worthy of her badge. She practically badgered Jim Brass, her supervisor and resident hard ass, to hire another female. He eventually caved, allowing Holly to appear on their doorstep, wide eyed and smelling of fresh academy meat.

Catherine stood, punching Holly's locker door over and over again, blood smearing the metal from fresh cuts to her knuckles. She could still picture the scared look in Holly's brown eyes when she pushed through the front door to a convenience store, gun drawn. The store clerk had pulled a gun on Holly who was just trying to do her job and collect fingerprints. In that split second look, Catherine saw past the fear and saw the passion of a spitfire who just didn't know it yet. She grabbed the gun from the clerk who thought she was being robbed again, handed it to Holly and ushered her out to the parking lot. The woman who seemed more than uncooperative in trying to find out who robbed her, yelled after them, her obnoxious comments falling on deaf ears.

"Thanks, for back there."

"No problem, we have enough bozo's in this town worth catching that we don't need to waste time on those who don't want our help."

After that Catherine knew Holly was someone she needed to take under her wing, but before she even got a chance to teach the woman a thing about the world she was shot by a suspect at a Crime Scene. When the news of Holly being shot traveled through the lab it spread like wild fire. Seeing Jim Brass standing in the break room looking as if he had just rolled out bed, she knew this was serious. The team was celebrating Nick Stokes, a young Texan with a heart of gold getting promoted to CSI Level Three for solving his 100th solo case. The distressing news dropped like a brick, shattering the celebrations with the realization that one of their own could become the next body on Doc Robbins table downstairs.

She slumped back onto the bench, the blood from her busted knuckles dripped on the tiles, filling the cracks she focused on before.

"Catherine?"

She looked up from the floor, seeing Grissom standing in the doorway to the locker room. She wiped her eyes, "Any news?" She asked, standing once more.

Gil noticed the blood on the locker and the drips on the floor,"Shit, Catherine what did you do to your hands?" He asked, inspecting the gashes in her knuckles.

She snatched her hands away, "Nothing, I'm fine, how's Holly?"

"Cat, listen, the surgery, it-"

"God damn it Gil just spit it out!" She yelled, her voice echoing in the empty room.

"Holly didn't make it," Gil sighed, "She died on the operating table."

Catherine stopped listening as Gil explained what happened. Her mind slipped back to twelve hours ago, when they pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant off Strip, needing a coffee after what happened at the convenience store. They sat in the corner booth, the lights of the flashy Hotels and expensive casinos dancing across the window in a blur of colours. They sipped coffee's, sitting across from one another, wishing for something stronger. Catherine studied Holly's face, getting lost in her deep, brown eyes as she conveyed her reservations on being fit for this line of work. The defeat in Holly's voice was something Catherine was familiar with. For many nights when she first started the same doubts had cycled through her own mind.

That was when something Jim Brass had told her sprung to mind...

"You can't quit, at least not until your solve your first, and if after that you don't feel like King Kong on cocaine...then you can quit."

She looked right in Holly's eyes when she said those words, watching her eyes light up with hope. Those words kept her at this job, it's what got her to go with Warrick to her next call, it's what got her killed.

"Catherine?" Gil repeated, for the fifth time, growing concerned.

"I need to work this case," She breathed, looking at Gil, the tears to flow freely down her cheeks.

"I can't let you do that. I'm giving the case to Nick, he's the only one who can remain objective."

She scowled, "You can't be serious,"

Gil grabbed her shoulder, squeezing it gently, "I've been made Supervisor of the Graveyard Shift, it's my call."

"And Brass?"

"He's been demoted back to Homicide." Gil replied and paused, "I'm having a colleague of mine from San Francisco, Sara Sidle, run the IA investigation in the lab, she'll be in town in five hours."

Catherine could feel the blood in her veins boil and the need to punch the locker returning once more. Gil and her had known each other for years, worked countless cases side by side, treated her like an equal and still she could make him cower at her feet with a glint in her eye.

"Just what we need, someone sniffing around," Catherine hissed, pushing past him hard and stalking off down the hall.

-5 Hours Later -

Catherine needed time to cool off, especially now that some Californian outsider was going to be rubbing her nose in everything. The whole Crime Lab had been turned upside down, Brass demoted, Gil promoted, Holly dead, and Warrick Brown tangled in an IA investigation that could lead to the Graveyard team loosing another member. Against Gil's orders, Catherine took the case, threatening that he could fire her if he didn't agree. Gil new she was overreacting for dramatic effect, but was too exhausted to do anything about it, so allowed her to run the case, at least for now.

She was now sitting in the evidence locker, holding in her gloved hand a clear blue pager. She was looking at it under the fluorescent light on the table to check for any transfer from the killer, anything to nail the bastard who shot Holly.

"Do you know where I can find Catherine Willows?"

She looked up and straight into a young brunettes eyes. Her heart skipped, as the hatred and disgust she thought she would feel for this outsider melted away.

"She's in the field" Catherine snapped, looking back down at her computer screen, trying to hide the smile from her kips.

She could feel this woman sizing her up, confirming the electricity that surged throughout the evidence locker as soon as they locked eyes. Catherine hoped her cheeks were not as red as her skin felt.

"I see, well if you see her, tell her I'd like to talk to her, maybe over a cup of coffee."

"I'm sure I'll see her before you do." Catherine replied as the young woman nodded, taking off down the hall.

T.B.C.

A bit of deviation from the Pilot episode, but that needs to happen sometimes to make the story flow. Hope you enjoyed! There is more to come!