Disclaimer: CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer own CSI....

Trial Separation: Back To Reality
By Manda

I pushed my way back into life without the slightest hint that I had ever been gone. Eddie hardly made a comment regarding my 'hiatus' from our marriage, as he wasn't aware that, for a day, I had assumed the role of another man's wife. If he spent his days pretending that he wasn't my husband, with those music whores in the back alleys near Dream Dolls...then turnabout was, this time, fair play.

This man to whom I had given my life for one night...this man was certainly not a man who resided within Eddie's good graces...and I knew it was best that Eddie never learn of his involvement. He'd only met Grissom once, at a UNLV function regarding the award I'd been honored with in blood-spatter analysis. My arm had been firmly wrapped around Grissom's elbow as he introduced me to the experts in his field, and Eddie's comment of 'so, you're the guy my wife has been spending her weekends with' certainly wasn't missed. It hadn't been lost on Grissom, by any means.

When I came home in the mid-afternoon, Eddie was washing the dishes and making dinner...roast chicken and seasoned potatoes...and presented me with a box wrapped in comic strips, which sat waiting on the well-worn kitchen table.

"Go ahead, Cath...open it." Warily, I did, and as my fingers flew to tear away dirty, knotted ribbon and faded paper did I notice the flash of silver on my hand. Hastily, I pulled the ring off my swollen finger, and slipped it into the front pocket of my pants. If he were to see it...there were some things I knew I couldn't explain away easily. Not when he was sober.

When I opened the box to reveal a silk nightgown, black straps and low-cut bodice catching the light as easily as my ring had...I knew I could never let Eddie find out what I'd done. If I hurt him that much.

"You like it?"

"Sure, Ed. I love it." And I let him kiss me, his brand of passionate kisses much different from the ones I'd most recently experienced. Eddie always liked it rough...there were some things about the man that I never could change, no matter how hard I tried. When we went to bed that night, without dinner, my thoughts kept drifting back to the townhouse, as I wished that our sheets were satin; that our walls were covered with Nevada landscapes...that I had a real husband who would say 'make love', and 'marry me' with the conviction and love to back up his actions. I missed what I couldn't have...and settled for what I didn't want.

~~~

I started to throw up two weeks later, my stomach heaving and launching more colorful displays than my childhood finger paintings had produced. I couldn't go to work, couldn't go to school...spent my mornings practically sleeping in the bathroom, and afternoons sleeping on the couch with Vivaldi in my ears.

If I was going to have this baby...I'd be damned if it wouldn't have something in its life to appreciate.

~Fin~