Part 2
Catherine coughed and spluttered, hand to her forehead as she struggled to sit up. She felt something warm and sticky on her hand, which she discovered to be blood. Shaking her head, she finally sat up, still feeling a little woozy, probably from being blacked out for a few minutes. As the reality of the situation dawned on her, she felt a pain stab through her heart.
"Gil?"
Dammit, he was not going to do this to her. Not after all the crap they'd been through together.
"Gil Grissom answer me dammit!"
She coughed again, shaking the dust that kept falling in her eyes. "Don't make me come down there and find you!" Her teasing comments belied the sense of dread she felt. "Gil!" Catherine crawled closer to where the floor had fallen. "Gil you son of a bitch, answer me!"
Hope returned as she heard a small voice return her call. "Catherine?"
"Gil? Stop playing games damn you. Come out here right now."
"Can't," came the hoarse reply. "Leg…beam."
The pain in her heart grew stronger as she crawled as close as she dared to the collapse. "Come on Gil, you're a big tough CSI. Don't pull this crap on me." She looked at the rubble. "I'm coming down there."
The voice became more insistent, louder even. "Don't you dare even think about it Catherine Willows. Get out of here and get outside."
"Nice try, macho man" she replied. She slid down a small decline of rubble and looked around. "Okay, we're going to play a game. You call polo when I call marco, okay?"
"I thought I told you…"
"And when have I ever done what I'm told?" She crawled along a bit, following the voice. "Come on, get angry at me again. I'm following your voice here." There was silence and she frowned. "You better not have passed out on me Gil, because when I find you I swear to God…"
"Shutup," Gil replied.
She grinned. "I knew you couldn't help yourself." Catherine came across a barricade of rubble and slid down next to it. "Gil, are you behind there?"
"Yes. Now go back up and get out of here."
"No," she replied stubbornly, resting her head against the cool rocks. "I'm not leaving you here. You dragged me in here and you can damn well think again if you think I won't stay here until they drag us both out."
"You stubborn, crazy…"
"Yeah, heard it all before." She wished that she could scoot closer to him, hold his hand even. "I'm not leaving you down here, Gil." Furiously she wiped a tear away. "How bad are you hurt?"
"Just my leg. What about you?"
"A little cut to the head. No big deal." She pulled her knees up to her chin. "So how long do you think it'll take them to get us out of here?"
"A whole lot less if you'd go back up."
"Not a chance."
"Don't be stupid, Catherine. If there's another collapse like earlier…"
"We'll both be here. I already said that I'm not leaving you. Don't argue with me when I have a headache."
Concern spoke waves through his voice. "Catherine, is your head still bleeding?"
She pressed a hand to her forehead and took it away again. "No," she lied. In truth, it was still bleeding a little, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "Shouldn't be too long a wait now."
"I don't know about that. They've got to stabilize the building before they send anyone else in."
"Well, that'll give us plenty of time to talk, won't it?" she replied, sounding more cheerful than she felt.
"What's going on?" Warrick asked, as he, Nick and Sara arrived on the scene. "We got a call saying that two CSI's were trapped in a collapsed building."
Jim sighed. "Grissom and Catherine were checking it out. There was another collapse inside."
"Have you heard anything from either of them?" Nick asked, looking worried.
"Nope. ESU won't go in there until we can ensure it's structurally sound." He looked at them. "You guys have to prepare yourselves for a possible crime scene."
"Maybe if I tried to move a few of these rocks," Catherine said, scrabbling a little.
"Don't," Gil warned her. "It could cause another collapse, or you could hurt yourself." He sighed. "I wish I could see you."
Catherine blinked back a tear. "Aww, Gil, I didn't know you cared," she teased.
"I do care, Catherine. Very much."
It was almost as though her heart had stopped for a few seconds. "I care about you too, Gil."
"So, tell me about what you think caused the collapse?" Gil asked.
Catherine drew her knees up to her chin, disappointed the moment was lost. "This one or the first one?"
"The first one," Gil replied. "Something tells me we're going to have plenty of time to talk about the second one."
