Chapter 7The Fatal Shot

The suspect, Matt Caine, did not look pleased as Jen handed him the warrant. He made a show of looking through the whole thing as if the thing could be fabricated. When he reluctantly opened his door, the three pushed through. Jen led the way with Catherine and Gil trailing behind.

The apartment smelled of old carpet and fabric. There were two bedrooms; one being used as a study and the other, a regular bedroom with a queen size bed and a night stand. As Gil and Catherine searched the bedroom, Jen was clearing the other rooms. Gil reluctantly enjoyed the proximity between himself and Catherine in the cramped apartment, which reminded him of the days in Vegas. He observed that she now wore perfume, a luxury to her when she was a CSI.

They came out of the bedroom with a handful of evidence and Gil frowned as he shot Caine a warning stare. Gil was going to talk to Jen when he heard Catherine yelp and saw Caine holding a knife to her neck.

"Leave it all here and I walk or she dies."

Gil saw Caine's hand tremble. Jen's gun was drawn and Gil immediately drew his gun and aimed unusually steadily at Caine's head.

"Drop them…now!" Caine started to move the knife slightly along Catherine's neck, causing her to draw in a sharp breath and Gil saw a drop of blood trickle down.

"Another inch and you'll have a bullet in your head." Gil threatened, surprising everyone in the room, including himself.

"You don't have the guts to blow my head when I've got your woman." Although it wasn't exactly correct, Gil gulped. "Drop the guns, or it's her neck."

"You want to face trial with two bodies or one."

"Gil…" Catherine muttered.

"Shut up!" His knife pushed her back.

"Don't you move that knife any further." Gil was now unbelievably cool, as Jen saw him grip the gun again. Jen was seeing a different side of him. He didn't strike her as the kind of person who would go face-to-face with a potential killer, with his friend's life on the line. But his relationship with Catherine was still a mystery to Jen. She had sensed tension between them from the minute they met at the restaurant, and she had guessed they had history but the type of history where one side of the story was perhaps the opposite of the story told from the other side.

"Drop the gun." Caine muttered again.

"Let her go." Gil replied, not missing a beat.

"Drop the fucking gun!"

"3…" Gil started to count down.

"Oh what you're the one counting now?"

"2…"

"You don't have the guts!"

"1…"

"Gil…don't do it!" Catherine shouted. Jen watched as Catherine covered her ears and the gun fired. Jen saw Caine tense and drop to the ground. Gil didn't even bat an eyelid as he kept the gun in place with one hand. Then she saw him move closer to the body and then he put the gun back in its holster.

"Bastard." He whispered and Jen ran to the body and gave them a moment alone as Gil took Catherine into one of the rooms.

Gil felt like he was going to vomit, but at the moment, his concern was Catherine who was on the verge of breaking down.

"Catherine…I'm sorry I had to put you through that. I…" He whispered as he watched her pace the room.

"Was that good judgement, Gil?"

"No…but…you know what. I don't care. For once, I didn't think of how my actions could affect the case, all right?" He turned around and put his hands on the closed door. "I'm sorry that I lifted my head up from the microscope." He heard her stop and draw in a surprised breath. "We have enough here to last a lifetime anyways." He opened the door and exited the room as he heard the distant siren of the ambulance.

"Well, you have to stay for the trial, don't you?"

"It looks that way." Gil sighed into the phone. He didn't want to have to prolong the visit in Seattle and wondered if he hand done the right thing as he recalled the day's events. He had decided not to report the day's events exactly as they were to Sara, but just told her the case was now closed.

"Well, you have to be back as soon as you're done. We're short handed as it is." Sara told Gil. "Ecklie's unusually calm about it, though. Oh and did you see Catherine at all?"

"Yeah, just briefly." Gil believed it.

"Oh, well how is she doing?"

"Didn't get a chance to talk too long. I've been busy."

"I see…Ecklie says you get a few days off. He says you deserve it." She told him, sighing. It was almost as if she didn't want to tell him.

'No I don't' Gil told himself. "All right Sara. I'll speak to you after the trial." They both hung up at the same time.

Gil closed his eyes as he leaned against the headboard of his bed in his hotel room. He was still slightly shaken up from shooting a person, not a target, point-blank in the head, especially a suspect. Gil rubbed his temples as he tried to calm himself. He had lost all control and all logic when he saw a drop of Catherine's blood trickle down her neck. He could only vaguely remember aiming, pulling the trigger and having a brief conversation with her after. His phone rang again, disturbing his thoughts yet again.

"Hello." He grunted.

"Gil. It's Ian."

"Hello…Ian."

"I…heard about what went down at the suspect's." Ian carefully approached the subject.

"I know I compromised the case…I…I just wasn't thinking."

"No, no need for that. I just wanted to thank you." Gil clenched his teeth.

"For what."

"You know what I'm talking about, Gil. You're an intelligent man. I…I honestly don't know what kind of history you two have and I won't ask just yet but you saved her life."

"It's my job Ian." Gil hated saying this and wondered if she could hear him. "Will you tell her I'm sorry?"

"I will when I see her."

"All right then."

"Thank you." Then they hung up. Gil didn't know why Ian was the one thanking him.

'They're a unit now.' He told himself as he shook his head. He always thought that the leaving would move on faster than the left behind and knew he was right. But it wasn't just a feeling of hopelessness and being abandoned. There was something else that made him want to run to Catherine now. There was another reason why whenever Jen talked about Ian and Catherine together in a sentence Gil felt like a needle was poking at his chest or why he felt like he had plunged into hell when he saw Catherine at the restaurant. It was because Cupid had fired his smoking gun blindly, in the wrong direction.