Part 4

The next day, Catherine slipped out and drove over to Caroline's. She rang the doorbell and waited.

"Hi," Caroline said, opening the door slightly.

"I wanted to talk to you," Catherine said. "Can I come in?"

Caroline nodded and opened the door, standing back to let Catherine walk into a living room.

She noticed the bell by the floor and looked at Caroline questioningly.

"It vibrates along the floorboards so that Sam can hear when the doorbell rings," Caroline explained. She smiled slightly. "Lauren wanted fluorescent lights, but we got her out of that phase quickly enough."

Catherine smiled. "Sounds like something Lindsey would do."

Lauren came racing into the room then, squealing and hiding behind her mother as Sam raced in after her. When the duo realised they had company, the squealing ceased.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Lauren, this is Ms Willows."

Catherine stuck out a hand. "Catherine."

"Hi," Lauren replied, shaking her hand.

"We were just about to get a snack," Sam signed. "Do you want anything?" he asked Caroline and Catherine.

"No thanks," Catherine signed back.

Caroline shook her head and smiled at him.

Lauren and Sam disappeared and Caroline gestured for Cath to have a seat.

"Your daughter is great," Catherine smiled.

Caroline nodded. "Does this have something to do with what happened yesterday?"

"Yeah. I wanted to apologise for not telling you sooner that we had seen your records."

Caroline wrapped her arms around herself. "I should have been prepared for it. Besides, you had a right to see them."

"It was Sam's baby?" Catherine asked.

Caroline's eyes looked up and she nodded. "Yeah, it was his."

"I can't believe you still want to work on cases like that anyway," Catherine said.

"I didn't at first," Caroline replied. "And I wasn't allowed to either. But after a while, I felt I owed it to the other victims to find out the truth."

"And sometimes the truth really sucks."

"Amen to that."

"When I looked at the case file there wasn't…well it didn't say if he had been caught."

"He wasn't," Caroline replied bluntly. "Coffee?"

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"Do not open any of those containers until you're downstairs and the door is shut," Catherine warned, as Lindsey and Gil began bringing some of the bug containers in.

"You have no sense of adventure Catherine," Gil told her. "If you come downstairs, I'll introduce you to some of them."

Catherine arched an eyebrow. "Me? Introduced to your bugs?"

Lindsey nodded in excitement. "Yeah, there's the Beatles, Lenny, Michael and there's even…"

"Shh!" Gil said, quickly. "Not yet,"

Cath folded her arms. "What?"

"Nothing," Lindsey said, disappearing down into the basement.

"Wait till I get the bugs settled in," Gil said to her. "Then I'll show you."

Half an hour later he returned. "Come with me."

Suspiciously she took his hand, as he led her down to the basement. Lindsey was still down there, watching a particularly ugly-looking spider crawl around his cage.

He led her past it, to a small clear box where a cocoon was lying inside. "Meet Catherine," he said.

Cath stared at the box. "What?"

He stood behind her, arms around her waist. "When she comes out of her cocoon, she'll be a butterfly. A particularly beautiful one at that."

She turned around in his arms and smiled. "You named her after me?"

Lindsey turned around. "Are you two going to kiss now? Cos if so, I'm going to go start my homework."

Catherine kept staring at Gil. "Homework."

Lindsey rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs.

"Why?" Cath asked.

Gil shrugged. "Because I wanted to."

She smiled and kissed him. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Now?" he replied, pulling her closer.

She nodded. "Mhm."

"Go ahead," he smiled.

"I want you to move in. I want us all to live together. You, me and Lindsey."

Gil's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Catherine smiled. "Yeah. I want us to move further."

Gil smiled back at her. "I'll get the rest of my things tomorrow."

She laughed, kissing him again. "I'll help."

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Sara rooted around in the fridge, ignoring the various peculiar things that Grissom left in there and finally spied her fruit salad. She frowned at Nick's ham sandwich, and was about to toss it somewhere when the man in question appeared behind her and took it.

"You're disgusting," she told him, as he took a bite.

"What?" he asked. "I like ham!"

"Do you know how…?"

"Yes, I know where ham comes from. But thanks for the nutritional lesson."

"You know, to make this relationship work…"

"We have to compromise." He grinned and walked over to her. "If you want, I can promise not to kiss you when I've just eaten meat."

"That's going to be interesting." She leaned up and kissed him gently. "Hmm. Not bad. I'll have to experiment a bit more though." Sara pulled his face down to meet hers and kissed him deeply.

Neither noticed Greg Sanders standing at the door.

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Caroline frowned as she flicked through some of the crime scene photos that she had taken at the latest scene. She had bullied Grissom into giving her a 426 and was beginning to regret it. Memories began seeping back into her mind…

"Don't fight it."

Tears sprung in her eyes, as pain began to radiate from her abdomen down. She tasted blood on her lips, not daring to open her eyes as the rope tightened around her wrists.

Another blow, another shot of pain.

She tasted something bitter on her lips…vodka…and she gagged around the liquid as it burned down her throat.

Another blow, another shot of pain…

"Caroline!" Catherine cried, for the third time.

"Huh?" Caroline asked, her head turning to Catherine.

"I was called you three times. Where were you?"

"Sorry. Just looking over this evidence. Sometimes it takes me in."

Catherine folded her arms. "Don't let it take you in too far."

Caroline laughed slightly and put the papers back on the table. "Not a problem."

"Okay," Catherine nodded, "as long as you're sure." She dangled an evidence bag. "I'm going to take this over to Greg. Robbins found traces of alcohol in her system. We're going to see if maybe a drink was spiked."

"I'll be right there," Caroline replied. She glanced at the victim's folder. Female. Caucasian. Five months pregnant. She frowned and followed Catherine.

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Part 5