"Search for the Truth" part 7/7

By Rita Widmer

Here's the last part everybody! Enjoy and please review! It has been a fun journey. Thank again for all the reviews and encouragement I have received. All the other important stuff is in the prologue. Thanks to Lauri for betaing.

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'She slowly walked up the sidewalk towards the apartment building. Double checking to make sure she had the right address, she went up to the door. The dread and fear she was feeling inside slowed her steps. Something was not right, but she knew she had no choice but to go through with the meeting with Candeece Hogan.

After much thought, she knew she had only one choice, but to follow through with Candeece's blackmailing and drop the charges. If it found Eddie's murderer it would sooth any guilt of not charging her with child abandonment.

After months of private investigation nothing had come up to help her solve his murder and bring it to Gil's attention to reopen the case. Candeece was her only hope to solving, and she was going to take it.

She walked into the building looking at the different room numbers to find the right one. Stopping at the right room, she knocked, and waited for an answer. No one came to the door. Trying the doorknob, she found it unlocked and she went in not knowing what she would find.

Deciding to wait to see if Candeece was just running behind at an appointment, she put her purse down on the side table. She started out at the couch, but found herself unable to stay sitting.

The door squawking open made her jump. She turned around with the words Candeece on her tongue. The man who stood before her was not who she expected. His eyes were filled with rage like nothing she ever saw before.

He was slowly walking towards her, his eyes digging into her own leaving her in a trance unable to move like in a nightmare. Her feet though started to move backwards, but he kept following. In the back of her mind, she heard her purse falling over and dumping its products onto the floor below. Her eyes left his for a moment to watch them role across the floor in between them. It was then she noticed the gun in his hand.

She slowly tried to change her direction of her walking so not to startle him into realizing what she was trying to do. Her only hope was to get near the door and run out yelling trying to get somebody's attention.

A mislaid item though stood in her path of escape. Not noticing the fallen item she fell backwards onto her butt, landing hard. At any other time she would have felt embarrassed by her fall, but all she could feel was anger at herself for not paying attention to the floor around her.

"Stand up," he snarled as he heaved her up to a standing position using her hair. With his other hand he drew up the gun to her chest. Once she was standing again he let go of her hair. "You're going to die all alone like Candeece. She died for betraying me by going to you, and you will die for your faithfulness to your ex-husband. Did you really think he ever loved you? He loved every woman out there, but never you. You were there for only sex, baby, only for the sex. Your loyalty to him will bring the end of you, and no one will miss you, deary."

All the time he was talking, he continually pushed her towards the back wall with his gun. As his speech finished with a grisly laugh, he heaved at her hard, and she became aware of the wall coming up to meet her. She looked up at him with her eyes pleading for him to end it. The sound of the first bullet storming out of the gun could be heard, and a moment later the second came zooming at her.

She could feel the pain as the bullets burned through her chest. The pain was nothing she ever felt before, and by the shallowness of her breath she knew it had hit a lung.

Again he picked her up by the hair, and threw her across to the opposite wall. He watched her with a face of victory like he had just won a war. His feet quickly swirled back towards the door. Catherine took her chance and used the wall to propel herself up ready to jump at him.

He turned around and gave her a smug smile as he lifted up his gun, and shot her again. With that last bullet she felt the last of her energy leaving her and she fell to the ground.

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Gil watched her closely as she came back from her story to the now. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. All he wanted to do at that moment was to hold her in his arms tightly, and comfort the pain away. A hug in her condition would have only caused her more physical pain. He settled for taking one of her hands into his while the other wiped the tears from her face.

"Thank you, Gil," she whispered to him. "You saved my life."

"I couldn't let you die on me. I probably broke every driving law out there tonight trying to get to you. You scared me when you passed out while I was still on the phone." His own tears were welling up in his eyes but he willed them away.

She looked away from him and closed her eyes. All that was left was the beeping of the machines surrounding her.

The door swishing open startled them both. Turning toward the door, Gil expected the doctor to be standing there, but was happily surprised to see Nancy and Lindsey standing there.

"May we come in?" asked Nancy.

"Of course," answered Gil, getting out of the chair to give so one of them could sit down.

Nancy walked in expecting that Lindsey would follow her, or even go running up to her mom ahead of her. Lindsey, though, was still standing at the door.

"Lindsey, come here," said Catherine. "It's all right. I'm going to get better."

She walked slowly up to the bed. Catherine reached out with her uninjured arm to left her face up towards her own. The tears in her child's eyes brought her own tears back.

"I'm sorry, Mommy. This is all my fault. I wanted you to find daddy's killer, but I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Its not your fault. I made the choice to go after him. I'm your mother, I can say no to you. I wanted to find Daddy's killer just as much as you did. Uncle Grissom told me before that they caught him so he won't hurt anyone ever again. Now sit down on that chair and you're going to tell me what you did while I was gone," said Catherine needing breaths every few words.

The door closing again brought up her eyes away from Lindsey. Her sister and Gil had left to give them the privacy they needed.

At the end of Lindsey's story, Lindsey bent over to whisper in Catherine's ear. "I think Uncle Grissom loves you, Mommy. He's never your left your side unless they forced him too."

Catherine felt the blush creep up her face at her girl's words. 'So those whispered words were real,' she thought to herself.

The door opened again to reveal Gil and Nancy. "Sorry to interrupt, but the nurse says we need to let you rest. We'll be back tomorrow," said Nancy. She left with a hold of Lindsey who didn't want to leave yet but said her goodbyes.

"Warrick, Nick, Sara, and Greg will come by tomorrow to visit you. They've been worried sick about you," said Gil.

"And you?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Now get some rest so you can handle having a conversation with them tomorrow." He bent down and kissed her cheek before leaving the room. She was asleep before the door even clicked shut.

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Warrick was the first one to pop his head in the door the next morning. Catherine greeted him with a smile as he walked in. As he came closer she noticed the faint bruising on his neck, and she pointed at it as if to question.

"Just from a little run in with a suspect's hands. Don't worry our fellow CSIs quickly came to my rescue," Warrick answered her silent question.

"Kiner did this to you?"

"How did you know?"

"I can tell when you are being evasive with me. There is no other reason for your trying."

"I might have to rethink my tactics with you. I'm getting way too easy to read."

It was the laughter that greeted Nick as he walked into the room carrying a big bouquet of Calla Lillies. Her smile lightened up the room like no other could as she saw the flowers.

"Thank you, Nicky."

"It's no problem. I'm just glad that you are back with us. We were all scarred last night waiting for news on how you were doing."

"Especially Gil," continued Warrick. "He spent most of last night here waiting for news of any kind they could give. What little time he spent away was after he was ordered to leave by the doctor."

Catherine was stunned at the last piece of news. She knew he had come to visit her in her dreams, but didn't imagine him having stayed there all night. She figured that he would have been out trying to solve her case or another case.

"I think he has come to his senses," said Warrick winking at her.

It wasn't long after that they both needed to head back home, and though she was happy to see them she was happy for the break. Her lungs were still hurting badly from the bullet burning into them, and talking only made it worse.

She allowed her medicine to let her fall asleep once again hoping that when she woke up that Gil would be sitting there.

A few hours later, Catherine woke up to not find Gil, but to find Sara waiting patiently for her. The woman sitting next to her seemed to be in her own world as she contemplated something.

"Sara?" choked Catherine.

Her eyes turned to her then. They were filled with a mixture of relief, a little sadness, and a sign of some kind revelation.

"I wanted to believe that I did my best to solve your husband's murder. I sat at home at night's wondering what I could have missed in the investigation. What more I could have done? I hoped that one day new evidence would come forward so you could bring a closure to all that happened," said Sara with a sigh.

"As I spent time trying to find the killer, I realized just how difficult it was for you. I wanted to believe that his case would be solvable, and it was not your fault for not finding the answer. I'm sorry, Sara, for not trusting your skills. I don't think I ever let myself see you just as you are, and not some old friend of Gil's. I let my jealousy stand in my way of ever getting to know you."

"For quite a long time, I wanted to believe there was no competition in getting Gil. It would only be a matter of time before he would be able to open up and let me in his life. That all changed last night. I found out that I never had a chance with him. His heart always belonged to you though you both never realized it."

"You tried once to move on from him, and you can do it again. I warn you though I'm planning on getting him to talk about him and me when he comes back to visit. A thank you is needed also. Warrick told me how you stuck to the apparent suicide case last night and fought to prove it as murder. Now Kiner can be tried for murder for both Eddie and Candeece."

"I'm a stickler for cases like that. You know the impossible ones to find the real answers."

"They give us a challenge. It reminds us that it is not all the same from one case to another."

"And that would make our job way too easy if they were all the same. Speaking of work I still need to head home before heading off, but Gil should be here soon," Sara smiled at Catherine before heading out the door.

Catherine was all prepared for Gil's reappearance in her room. She was going to get him to open up if it killed her. 'Oops, not a very good choice of words there,' she thought to herself.

She watched as he tried to quietly enter her room so not to disturb her if she was asleep.

"No need to sneak around, Gil."

"I went through all that work for nothing?"

"Of course, all you had to do was check to see if I was awake first, and as a CSI man you should have checked all the evidence first."

Gil laughed at that one. When it came to Catherine, he seemed to always forget those darn little details of work.

"You got me there. So have you dug up on any dirt on what's going on around here?"

"Actually I have. There seems to be this man that's been sticking around all last night and into the morning over a woman. He happens to be a coworker of the patient, but there is no sign of anything more until a nurse overhears him tell the girl while she is unconscious that he loves her."

"Interesting case. Do I know any of these people?"

"It just happens you do. You are the man, and as you can see I'm the patient. Oh by the way, I love you too. Now get your butt off to work so you can bring Lindsey before school to come visit me."

"I love you," he said slowly savoring the words coming out of his mouth. "And I will bring Lindsey to see you. She misses you terribly." He kissed her softly on the lips and left the room with a great big smile on his face, whispering a soft good night to her just before the door shut.

'That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," she thought as she dreamt of the future. It would be theirs.

The End