Disclaimers: Can be found anywhere and are a dime a dozen
AN: Thanks to Angie for beta-ing this. It's been forever since I've written on this. This chapter was hard for me to write and I had to take a break from the sadness, but the sadness brought you LATTG and Baby Andrew, so I guess it's all good. Please read and review.
Previously in TGATT:
Gil led the still crying Catherine to his Tahoe and not caring if anyone was watching, he kissed her on the cheek. He settled her into the passenger seat, buckled her in and shut the door. He turned to Warrick who had been quietly standing just off to the side.
"I'm going to drop you off at the lab. We need someone to process his house. They have Eddie's photo on file from his rape charges and Catherine gave them the missing children packet she carries with her." He remembered her updating it just before she went to Miami.
"We'll take care of it, Gris." Warrick looked to Catherine. "You just take care of her."
Gil nodded, walked around to the driver's side and climbed in. After dropping off Warrick, he turned the Tahoe towards Catherine's, wondering how she was going to deal with going home to an empty house; a house that was supposed to be filled with the sounds of a 10-year-old girl.
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Silence. Normally, silence didn't bother Gil. He was used to it; he understood silence and silence understood him. He could spend hours with no sound, just his thoughts. But this silence, this was driving him crazy.
Catherine had stopped crying on the way to drop off Warrick. Since then; nothing. The only thing he'd heard was the sound of her vomiting in the bathroom once they had gotten back to her place. He sat on the floor in the hallway, waiting for her to emerge from the bathroom. Once she did, she'd stared at him for a long moment, then walked to Lindsey's room and lay on the bed, curling herself around the rabbit she'd gotten at Eddie's. Pushing himself up, he'd followed her, sinking again to the floor next to the bed, taking one of her hands in his.
Two hours later they were still in the same positions. He was on the floor holding her hand, and Catherine was staring at the far wall, her blue eyes usually so full of life, were completely empty. If he couldn't see the occasional rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought she wasn't breathing. How anyone could be so still, astounded him. He knew that she was in shock; her mind unable to cope with Lindsey's disappearance, so she had simply retreated, locking herself away. Somewhere that he couldn't reach, and that fact terrified him. This was not the Catherine he knew. The Catherine he knew would have been yelling or crying or even throwing something. He'd tried to get a reaction out of her earlier. He'd rambled on about nothing and anything, but she didn't even look at him. He wondered if she even heard him. Finally, he fell silent also, but remained where he was. If the situation hadn't been so tragic, he would have laughed. He was the quiet one, not her.
She blinked as he reached out and stroked her hair, but didn't speak, didn't move, didn't even sigh. Just continued with her silence and her staring. Unable to handle sitting and doing nothing any longer, Gil leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen. I have to make some calls." Gil watched her; nothing. Again, he wondered if she heard him.
He made his way to the kitchen and pulled out his cell phone. He found her sister's number on the board next to the refrigerator and dialed the numbers.
"Nancy? This is Gil Grissom. I'm a friend of. . ." he trailed off and listened. "She has? That bad, huh?" He smiled in spite of himself. "Not good actually. I don't know how to say this delicately, so I'll just say it." Gil took a deep breath and continued. "Eddie has taken Lindsey and left. We have no idea where they're at. . ." He listened to Nancy's gasp of disbelief. "Not good. She won't say anything. She won't even cry now. She just. . ." Gil blinked against the tears. "She just lays there and stares. I'm afraid for her. Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes." Gil disconnected the call. Hopefully her sister could help her; he couldn't seem to.
Twenty minutes later, he opened the door to her sister. She resembled Catherine; they had the same face shape, the same mouth, but Nancy's hair was a vibrant red, the color of the leaves in the fall and her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. He stepped aside to let her enter.
"Any change?" She asked him, taking off her jacket and tossed it onto the chair.
"No." He noticed her red-rimmed eyes and the lines bracketing her mouth.
Nancy heaved a huge sigh and sat down on the couch. "She's really gone? Tell me what happened."
Gil sat next to her and told her what he knew. "I know she feels guilty, I could see it in her eyes. Hell, I feel guilty too. But Eddie had this planned for a while. Nothing we did or didn't do could have changed it. I've never seen her like this before. Not even when Eddie would hit her. I know this is worse than anything he's ever done before, but I expected her to cry and scream; I was prepared for that. With this," he gestured to the bedroom, "I don't know what do to." Just why he felt so comfortable with Nancy, he couldn't say. But he did and Nancy needed to know just what she was dealing with.
"I was wondering when the two of you were going to do something about the attraction between you. I'm just sorry it happened at the same time that fucker took off with my niece. And you're right; it isn't your fault. That belongs to Eddie." She wiped away the tears in her eyes. "I've seen her like this before. Dreamer, shortened from Dream Weaver, had been her horse since she was five; they basically grew up together and he was her first real horse, not a pony. She loved him to pieces and you could tell he felt the same. Some people say animals can't love, but one look at how Dreamer acted around her and you knew that they could and did love." She stopped for a moment; a far away look in her eyes and then shook herself. "Anyway, she had taken him out for a run and she didn't see the hole. Dreamer caught it and snapped his front leg. Daddy said that he would never walk again and he had to be put down and he said that he would do it. But Catherine refused; she took the rifle from him and went out to the barn. Daddy and I followed her and she. . .well she did it. She stood there for a moment, then turned and handed me the rifle. Her eyes were empty, no emotion whatsoever. She was like that for the rest of the night. Wouldn't eat, wouldn't speak, she just lay on her bed and stared at the wall. Momma and Daddy tried everything to get her to eat or to talk; they promised her all sorts of things, she never gave any indication that she heard them. I think she went to a place where her and Dreamer were safe and happy. Then sometime the next morning, she got up and went about trying to put Dreamer behind her. She never spoke to me about it, but I knew she felt that it was her fault." Nancy wiped the tears away. "She was 13 and I don't think she's ever gotten over him." Nancy stood and to his complete shock, gently kissed his forehead. "She'll come back. When she feels its safe, she'll come back."
Gil watched her walk away and marveled at her strength of character. Looks weren't the only thing the Roberts' sisters had in common. He got up and went to make a pot of coffee and called Warrick to check on things. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do but wait. Waiting is what he did. He followed the evidence and waited for what it had to tell him. He was a patient man, but he had never been touched personally before. He wanted Lindsey back now. Not just for Lindsey's sake but for Catherine's as well. Lindsey was her life, her reason for getting off the coke, her reason to leave Eddie and believe that there was life outside of an abusive marriage. And now that reason had been taken from her. What would be her reason for living if, God forbid, they didn't find Lindsey? That terrified Gil. The thought that he might lose Catherine just when he really found her, left him shaking.
Gil blinked. How long had he been standing and staring at the coffee maker? He wearily rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. He reached for a mug and poured some coffee into it. He walked down the hall and knocked softly on Lindsey's door. He waited a second and then opened it.
"I thought you might want some coffee." Gil shook his head and smiled ruefully. "I don't even know if you drink coffee."
"I do and thank you," Nancy said, taking the offered cup. She turned to Catherine. "Kitty-cat? Do you want some coffee?" Her voice was soothing, as if she were talking to a frightened child. "It's okay to come out, Kitty- cat. It's okay. It's safe now."
Catherine blinked and slowly turned her head to her sister.
"Hey, Honey, what are you doing?" Nancy asked her, her voice soft.
The voice that came from Catherine wasn't hers, it couldn't be. There was no life to it, no inflection, nothing but emptiness. "I'm waiting for Lindsey to come home."
Gil and Nancy looked at each other, each too stunned to utter a syllable. Nancy turned back to Catherine.
"Okay," she said slowly. "We're waiting for her too. Gil and I are. How about you come out into the living room and wait with us?"
"I'll wait here. Lindsey changes her clothes as soon as she comes home from school." With that, Catherine returned to staring at the wall.
Gil walked over to Catherine and kissed her cheek softly. "Come back, Cath," he whispered in her ear. "I love you." He straightened and turning, walked from the bedroom.
Nancy found him a few minutes later out on the back patio, slumped on a deck chair, staring out into the yard. She silently walked over to a chair next to him and dropped into it, emotionally exhausted.
"Tell me they're going to find Lindsey." She said softly. "Tell me they're going to find her and that bastard Eddie will pay for what he's done and is doing to my sister."
"We'll find her and he will pay," Gil vowed.
"You gonna beat the shit outta him?"
For some reason that question struck Gil as funny and he laughed. "Well, if I just beat the shit out of him, he can file assault charges. Now if he happens to trip and repeatedly bash his face on the pavement, that will be his own clumsiness."
Nancy giggled at the mental image and at the sound of her laughter, so like Catherine's, made Gil's stomach clench and he sobered quickly.
"You sound just like her," he said.
"It's a family trait," Nancy sighed. "I always knew that Eddie was a loose cannon and I always knew he had hurt her, not just with his fists or infidelity, but I never, not once, think that he would take her daughter away. Even when he filed for sole custody, I didn't think he would sink to these depths."
Gil looked at her. "He filed for custody?"
Nancy returned his look. "She didn't tell you?" She watched as he shook his head. "A couple years ago. She was served papers. I'm surprised you didn't know, she was served at work."
"She never said anything."
"I'm actually a little surprised that she didn't. She was terrified. I think he knew that he wouldn't get custody of Lindsey, but did it only to hurt her." Nancy shook her head. "Fucking son of a bitch. I hope he rots in hell."
"Amen to that." Gil looked out at the darkened back yard. He couldn't see much; the porch light only illuminated a few feet beyond the patio. At a soft sound behind him, he turned to see Catherine standing just outside the glass doors, rabbit still clutched in one hand. He held her gaze as she walked over to him, noting with some relief that the emptiness was gone. But it had been replaced by that haunted, wounded look and he wanted to cry with her and for her. Yet, he knew he had to be strong for her; she needed him right now. So he swallowed his tears and accepted her sleight weight as she sat on his lap.
Catherine looked into Gil's eyes, taking his face in her hands. "She's gone." It was neither a question nor a statement.
Gil nodded but didn't say anything. He watched, broken-hearted as her lower lip quivered and tears filled her eyes. She lay her head on his shoulder and let the tears flow.
Nancy got up and walked over to her sister, taking one hand in hers. She winced under the pressure of Catherine's tight grip, but continued to hold her hand.
Nancy and Gil didn't say anything; there was nothing they could say. The stayed as they were, Gil holding Catherine and Nancy holding her had, listening to Catherine's sobs, unaware of the answering tears rolling down their cheeks.
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tbc.Where is Lindsey? Will they find her?
AN: Thanks to Angie for beta-ing this. It's been forever since I've written on this. This chapter was hard for me to write and I had to take a break from the sadness, but the sadness brought you LATTG and Baby Andrew, so I guess it's all good. Please read and review.
Previously in TGATT:
Gil led the still crying Catherine to his Tahoe and not caring if anyone was watching, he kissed her on the cheek. He settled her into the passenger seat, buckled her in and shut the door. He turned to Warrick who had been quietly standing just off to the side.
"I'm going to drop you off at the lab. We need someone to process his house. They have Eddie's photo on file from his rape charges and Catherine gave them the missing children packet she carries with her." He remembered her updating it just before she went to Miami.
"We'll take care of it, Gris." Warrick looked to Catherine. "You just take care of her."
Gil nodded, walked around to the driver's side and climbed in. After dropping off Warrick, he turned the Tahoe towards Catherine's, wondering how she was going to deal with going home to an empty house; a house that was supposed to be filled with the sounds of a 10-year-old girl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silence. Normally, silence didn't bother Gil. He was used to it; he understood silence and silence understood him. He could spend hours with no sound, just his thoughts. But this silence, this was driving him crazy.
Catherine had stopped crying on the way to drop off Warrick. Since then; nothing. The only thing he'd heard was the sound of her vomiting in the bathroom once they had gotten back to her place. He sat on the floor in the hallway, waiting for her to emerge from the bathroom. Once she did, she'd stared at him for a long moment, then walked to Lindsey's room and lay on the bed, curling herself around the rabbit she'd gotten at Eddie's. Pushing himself up, he'd followed her, sinking again to the floor next to the bed, taking one of her hands in his.
Two hours later they were still in the same positions. He was on the floor holding her hand, and Catherine was staring at the far wall, her blue eyes usually so full of life, were completely empty. If he couldn't see the occasional rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought she wasn't breathing. How anyone could be so still, astounded him. He knew that she was in shock; her mind unable to cope with Lindsey's disappearance, so she had simply retreated, locking herself away. Somewhere that he couldn't reach, and that fact terrified him. This was not the Catherine he knew. The Catherine he knew would have been yelling or crying or even throwing something. He'd tried to get a reaction out of her earlier. He'd rambled on about nothing and anything, but she didn't even look at him. He wondered if she even heard him. Finally, he fell silent also, but remained where he was. If the situation hadn't been so tragic, he would have laughed. He was the quiet one, not her.
She blinked as he reached out and stroked her hair, but didn't speak, didn't move, didn't even sigh. Just continued with her silence and her staring. Unable to handle sitting and doing nothing any longer, Gil leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen. I have to make some calls." Gil watched her; nothing. Again, he wondered if she heard him.
He made his way to the kitchen and pulled out his cell phone. He found her sister's number on the board next to the refrigerator and dialed the numbers.
"Nancy? This is Gil Grissom. I'm a friend of. . ." he trailed off and listened. "She has? That bad, huh?" He smiled in spite of himself. "Not good actually. I don't know how to say this delicately, so I'll just say it." Gil took a deep breath and continued. "Eddie has taken Lindsey and left. We have no idea where they're at. . ." He listened to Nancy's gasp of disbelief. "Not good. She won't say anything. She won't even cry now. She just. . ." Gil blinked against the tears. "She just lays there and stares. I'm afraid for her. Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes." Gil disconnected the call. Hopefully her sister could help her; he couldn't seem to.
Twenty minutes later, he opened the door to her sister. She resembled Catherine; they had the same face shape, the same mouth, but Nancy's hair was a vibrant red, the color of the leaves in the fall and her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. He stepped aside to let her enter.
"Any change?" She asked him, taking off her jacket and tossed it onto the chair.
"No." He noticed her red-rimmed eyes and the lines bracketing her mouth.
Nancy heaved a huge sigh and sat down on the couch. "She's really gone? Tell me what happened."
Gil sat next to her and told her what he knew. "I know she feels guilty, I could see it in her eyes. Hell, I feel guilty too. But Eddie had this planned for a while. Nothing we did or didn't do could have changed it. I've never seen her like this before. Not even when Eddie would hit her. I know this is worse than anything he's ever done before, but I expected her to cry and scream; I was prepared for that. With this," he gestured to the bedroom, "I don't know what do to." Just why he felt so comfortable with Nancy, he couldn't say. But he did and Nancy needed to know just what she was dealing with.
"I was wondering when the two of you were going to do something about the attraction between you. I'm just sorry it happened at the same time that fucker took off with my niece. And you're right; it isn't your fault. That belongs to Eddie." She wiped away the tears in her eyes. "I've seen her like this before. Dreamer, shortened from Dream Weaver, had been her horse since she was five; they basically grew up together and he was her first real horse, not a pony. She loved him to pieces and you could tell he felt the same. Some people say animals can't love, but one look at how Dreamer acted around her and you knew that they could and did love." She stopped for a moment; a far away look in her eyes and then shook herself. "Anyway, she had taken him out for a run and she didn't see the hole. Dreamer caught it and snapped his front leg. Daddy said that he would never walk again and he had to be put down and he said that he would do it. But Catherine refused; she took the rifle from him and went out to the barn. Daddy and I followed her and she. . .well she did it. She stood there for a moment, then turned and handed me the rifle. Her eyes were empty, no emotion whatsoever. She was like that for the rest of the night. Wouldn't eat, wouldn't speak, she just lay on her bed and stared at the wall. Momma and Daddy tried everything to get her to eat or to talk; they promised her all sorts of things, she never gave any indication that she heard them. I think she went to a place where her and Dreamer were safe and happy. Then sometime the next morning, she got up and went about trying to put Dreamer behind her. She never spoke to me about it, but I knew she felt that it was her fault." Nancy wiped the tears away. "She was 13 and I don't think she's ever gotten over him." Nancy stood and to his complete shock, gently kissed his forehead. "She'll come back. When she feels its safe, she'll come back."
Gil watched her walk away and marveled at her strength of character. Looks weren't the only thing the Roberts' sisters had in common. He got up and went to make a pot of coffee and called Warrick to check on things. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do but wait. Waiting is what he did. He followed the evidence and waited for what it had to tell him. He was a patient man, but he had never been touched personally before. He wanted Lindsey back now. Not just for Lindsey's sake but for Catherine's as well. Lindsey was her life, her reason for getting off the coke, her reason to leave Eddie and believe that there was life outside of an abusive marriage. And now that reason had been taken from her. What would be her reason for living if, God forbid, they didn't find Lindsey? That terrified Gil. The thought that he might lose Catherine just when he really found her, left him shaking.
Gil blinked. How long had he been standing and staring at the coffee maker? He wearily rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. He reached for a mug and poured some coffee into it. He walked down the hall and knocked softly on Lindsey's door. He waited a second and then opened it.
"I thought you might want some coffee." Gil shook his head and smiled ruefully. "I don't even know if you drink coffee."
"I do and thank you," Nancy said, taking the offered cup. She turned to Catherine. "Kitty-cat? Do you want some coffee?" Her voice was soothing, as if she were talking to a frightened child. "It's okay to come out, Kitty- cat. It's okay. It's safe now."
Catherine blinked and slowly turned her head to her sister.
"Hey, Honey, what are you doing?" Nancy asked her, her voice soft.
The voice that came from Catherine wasn't hers, it couldn't be. There was no life to it, no inflection, nothing but emptiness. "I'm waiting for Lindsey to come home."
Gil and Nancy looked at each other, each too stunned to utter a syllable. Nancy turned back to Catherine.
"Okay," she said slowly. "We're waiting for her too. Gil and I are. How about you come out into the living room and wait with us?"
"I'll wait here. Lindsey changes her clothes as soon as she comes home from school." With that, Catherine returned to staring at the wall.
Gil walked over to Catherine and kissed her cheek softly. "Come back, Cath," he whispered in her ear. "I love you." He straightened and turning, walked from the bedroom.
Nancy found him a few minutes later out on the back patio, slumped on a deck chair, staring out into the yard. She silently walked over to a chair next to him and dropped into it, emotionally exhausted.
"Tell me they're going to find Lindsey." She said softly. "Tell me they're going to find her and that bastard Eddie will pay for what he's done and is doing to my sister."
"We'll find her and he will pay," Gil vowed.
"You gonna beat the shit outta him?"
For some reason that question struck Gil as funny and he laughed. "Well, if I just beat the shit out of him, he can file assault charges. Now if he happens to trip and repeatedly bash his face on the pavement, that will be his own clumsiness."
Nancy giggled at the mental image and at the sound of her laughter, so like Catherine's, made Gil's stomach clench and he sobered quickly.
"You sound just like her," he said.
"It's a family trait," Nancy sighed. "I always knew that Eddie was a loose cannon and I always knew he had hurt her, not just with his fists or infidelity, but I never, not once, think that he would take her daughter away. Even when he filed for sole custody, I didn't think he would sink to these depths."
Gil looked at her. "He filed for custody?"
Nancy returned his look. "She didn't tell you?" She watched as he shook his head. "A couple years ago. She was served papers. I'm surprised you didn't know, she was served at work."
"She never said anything."
"I'm actually a little surprised that she didn't. She was terrified. I think he knew that he wouldn't get custody of Lindsey, but did it only to hurt her." Nancy shook her head. "Fucking son of a bitch. I hope he rots in hell."
"Amen to that." Gil looked out at the darkened back yard. He couldn't see much; the porch light only illuminated a few feet beyond the patio. At a soft sound behind him, he turned to see Catherine standing just outside the glass doors, rabbit still clutched in one hand. He held her gaze as she walked over to him, noting with some relief that the emptiness was gone. But it had been replaced by that haunted, wounded look and he wanted to cry with her and for her. Yet, he knew he had to be strong for her; she needed him right now. So he swallowed his tears and accepted her sleight weight as she sat on his lap.
Catherine looked into Gil's eyes, taking his face in her hands. "She's gone." It was neither a question nor a statement.
Gil nodded but didn't say anything. He watched, broken-hearted as her lower lip quivered and tears filled her eyes. She lay her head on his shoulder and let the tears flow.
Nancy got up and walked over to her sister, taking one hand in hers. She winced under the pressure of Catherine's tight grip, but continued to hold her hand.
Nancy and Gil didn't say anything; there was nothing they could say. The stayed as they were, Gil holding Catherine and Nancy holding her had, listening to Catherine's sobs, unaware of the answering tears rolling down their cheeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tbc.Where is Lindsey? Will they find her?