Chapter Seven- Watched

Thanks to Nisha.Boo.14, Daydreamer1127, JacobedRose, Dardeile, CissaMalfoy, Pandy Roxy Chick, soliz, jwoods471, and DrusillaBraun for reviewing!

Special thanks to sergeant happy bunny for being so sweet to me twenty four seven. And never darling, I just had to give you a warning not to.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in CSI. I wish I did, but we can't always have what we want.

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Catherine Willows sat on her couch drinking a screwdriver. She was going to return to the next morning, but her last episode in Las Vegas left her in need of some anesthetic. The TV was off, the phone was disconnected, and Lindsay was upstairs. Catherine needed peace and quiet. She closed her eyes.

Everything came back to her. She had a feeling that she had to be back in Las Vegas. She was a little mad at being taken off the Braun case, as well as the collision case. Ecklie had told her she was personally involved in the case and couldn't remain objective. Part of her agreed with him. The Braun case…she could remain objective. But the case involving the collision was what she would not handle.

Suddenly Catherine Willows did something she hadn't done in years. She made her way to the barn and to the last stall. She had a few horses of her own, raising them mainly just for the fun of it while Lindsay was the rider. Catherine had ridden when she young, but Lindsay was the one that loved to ride, almost as much as she loved to dance. Besides her blue eyes and will power, those were the other two things were passed onto her daughter. She smiled to herself.

She stroke the mare's delicate muzzle and then buried her face in her neck, breathing in that smell. She groomed the mare until she shone and then mounted her. No saddle, no tack, no nothing. She galloped away from her house, from her problems, from the memories of someone who had moved on from her life. A memory that she didn't want to let go.

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Grissom looked over the evidence photos of the accident. He wanted to know what the heck was going on. Braun's death. The car accident. It didn't fit. Catherine had solved the casino gun fight, but the other two just didn't make sense to Grissom.

Nick and Warrick had figured out that the two incidents were related. Grissom just had to figure out who the heck would have known Catherine's location every time. No one that came to Grissom's mind fitted the picture.

Greg raced into the room, waving a lab report.

"Grissom…I got a match on the fibers that were found on Sam Braun." He said.

"Spill Greg." Grissom replied.

"Okay. The killer was up close and personal when he shot Braun. Catherine didn't recognize him because he was wearing a ski mask. She went to visit Sam, so she didn't bring her gun. Not to mention she was on the phone when it happened, not really paying attention to a grown man."

Grissom motioned for Greg's story to go faster. He knew this already. It was in Catherine's witness statement.

"Okay…since the gun was shot at close range, the gun probably had fibers in the barrel, which were transferred onto Sam Braun when the shot was fired." Greg announced.

Grissom looked thoughtful. Then something clicked in his mind.

"What color were the fibers?" he asked.

"White. Why?" Greg asked.

Grissom didn't answer. He stood up and walked toward the morgue, leaving Greg standing in his office, completely lost.

"Was it something I said?" he called after his supervisor.

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He raced into the tech lab and pulled up a chair in front of the computer. Archie had already downloaded the video off the video card and into the computer. Grissom hit play. The security video of the shootout at Braun's casino started to play.

Just as Grissom expected, the security guard that had fallen and set his own gun off was wearing a white shirt. He replayed it. The man that had run into him had his face hidden. Grissom couldn't make it out despite using tricks to enhance the picture. Nothing. Grissom had a sickeningly feeling that that 'accident' was not really an accident.

He sat back in his chair, his face ash grey. He had just linked two high scale crimes to Sam Braun's murder. Something else told him that the crimes were also connected to the car collision.

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Sara was sitting alone in the break room. She stared at nothing in particularly, wallowing in her own self doubt. Shift had long since been over, but she didn't want to go home. Not without him, and he had already made it clear that he wasn't going home. She closed her eyes and envisioned what life would have been like if Catherine had never left and then what it would've been like if she had never come back. For some reason, even if Catherine hadn't come back, Sara felt like it would've ended no different.

A figure stood in the doorway and cast his shadow on the wall she was staring at. She turned to see Nick's warm concerned gaze.

"Hey how you holding up?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

She shook her head. "I wonder if telling Catherine to back off was a good idea."

Nick sighed. "Truth be told, I doubt there would be a good idea in either case Sara. It was bound to happen the moment Elcklie called her to come back."

Sara sighed. "I just wished. I don't know. I just wished I knew what to do."

Nick took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You do darlin'" he said, his soft southern twang, sending strange feeling through her. "You do, you just haven't listened yet."

She met his eyes. Something in them told her she would be okay. He looked at her as though he would never let her fend for herself, that he would always be there to watch her and be there for her. She liked it. It was an altogether different feeling than she got from Grissom. The thought suddenly crossed her mind that maybe she and Grissom weren't meant to be after all, but could she let go of years of a relationship for a few seconds comfort?

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Catherine rode until the Montana sun rose, catching her hair in its rays. Her dogs bayed by her side. It was such a contrast to former Las Vegas lifestyle. She was torn between the two. She had to work in two hours, but right now her mind was cleared. Her worries thrust aside for the time being. The coolness of the night on her face and through her hair had been what she needed. She smiled.

Lindsay was in the kitchen eating cereal when she walked in to make coffee.

"Morning Mom." She greeted with a sleepy smile.

Catherine ruffled her daughter's hair like she was six years old. Lindsay never woke up until after first period. Catherine had been the same way.

"Mom, I'm gonna stay at Mandy's house tonight. We have a project we need to finish." Lindsay said, eyes reading the back of the cereal box.

"I don't have a problem with it. Just call me before ten so I don't worry." Catherine said.

Lindsay stood up. Another day for her. School. Friends. The usual. She kissed her mom good-bye. It was hard to imagine that a year ago the two of them were constantly fighting about everything. Lindsay wondered what possessed her to hang with drug addicts and boys that made her feel like she was worthless. The breaking point had come when she made a huge mistake at a party and her mother had to pick her up.

Flashback

Lindsay buried her face in her hands as she sobbed softly. This was not the way it should have happened. She had been kissing her then boyfriend at a party when he started to convulse and shake. She tried to help, but she had no idea what to do. He finally gave one final jerk and stopped breathing. Lindsay sobbed as she called the police.

Her mother had stormed into the house, looking furious as her partners and friends took witness statements. Her daughter sat on the bed and Catherine immediately felt pain at the sight of her little girl's bloodshot eyes and streaming tears.

Lindsay had expected her mother to yell at her. To arrest her. To ground her for the rest of her life. She didn't care. She felt miserable. She actually loved her boyfriend. This was too much. Her life was a mess. Her friends had ditched her the moment the police arrived, leaving her there. She felt betrayed and she looked at her mother with contempt.

Surprisingly Catherine didn't yell at her. She just enveloped her only daughter in a hug and held her tight as Lindsay's defenses fell and she sobbed into her mother's shoulders like she was a child of three. Catherine understood in more ways than one. The alluring nature of a charming boy was enough to knock the sense of out any girl, especially one as young and innocent as Lindsay. Catherine had protected her from the horrors of the world, but now Lindsay knew. Their relationship had transformed from that night.

End Flashback

Catherine smiled as her daughter ran for the bus. Shaking her head, she sat down at the table as she sipped a hot cup of coffee. Her mind wandered back to Grissom. She wondered what he was doing at the moment. She could see him, perched in his chair, his eyes focused intently on the case before him. His scent all man and Grissom. She smiled a little to herself. A honk at her door. Time for another day at work.

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He was there in front of her watching her. She was completely unaware that he was focused on her intently. He loved the way her hair shined in the bright sun and the smile that was on her face whenever her eyes focused on her only daughter. He loved how she followed the same routine every single day. Coffee, getting picked up, work. He just wished he had met her under a different circumstance. A different situation, because the situation they were in now. Called for her death. And as much as he wanted her, he wanted vengeance more.

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Author's Note: This just building. I promise more drama and suspense soon. Lol I hope this fic won't end up being too short, b/c I still have a lot of ideas to put in.