Catherine rubbed her forehead. "Lindsey, no."
"But MOM!!! Everyone else is going!"
"I don't have to worry about everyone else."
"It's just a party!"
"A party that no one's parents will be at, at someone's home who I have never met, with older kids. I said no, Lindsey."
"You're so unfair!"
"Hmm, life's like that."
Lindsey frowned and stomped into her room. Catherine winced at the slamming of the door.
She was having a crappy day. She missed her husband. For that matter, her hormones had gone insane and she wanted sex. Lindsey hated her because she refused to let her go to a party and Lizzy had come down with an awful cold.
"Mama!" the child in question cried, tugging at her jeans.
Catherine softened instantly and picked up the little girl, who immediately buried her head in Catherine's shoulder. The phone rang and Lizzy whimpered.
"Shh, sweetheart," Catherine murmured, picking up the phone. "Catherine Grissom."
"Mrs Catherine?"
"Hi, Matthew," Catherine said. "And hadn't we agreed that you could drop the Mrs?"
"Right. Sorry M…Catherine. Um, I was wondering if I could speak to G…Dad?"
Catherine smiled to herself. "He's gone to a conference, Matthew. Can I help?"
"Um…I guess so. Can you lend me ten dollars?"
She narrowed her eyes. "What for?"
"I need to pay the pizza guy and I've run out of
money."
Catherine frowned. "Where's Sara?"
"I dunno. She left yesterday and I haven't seen her."
"She didn't come home last night?"
"Nope. She said that if I had any trouble to call
G...Dad."
"Okay, hang on, I'm coming to get you." Catherine noted down the name of the motel that Matthew was at and assured him she would be there soon. "Lindsey!"
"What?!" came the angry cry back.
"I need you to watch Lizzy for a little while."
Lindsey stomped out into the living room. "So
instead
of going to a party I get to babysit?"
"Lindsey, I think Matthew's in trouble. Please
just cooperate with
me?"
"Fine," Lindsey said, holding her arms out and accepting her little sister.
************************************************************************
Catherine arrived at the motel and hotfooted it up to where she saw a pizza delivery guy standing in front of a closed door.
"Matthew?" she asked, knocking on the door.
"Hey lady, you wanna pay for this?" the pizza boy asked.
She was too tired to rebuke him for the 'lady' comment, but instead handed over some money. "Matthew?"
"Catherine?"
"Yeah, it's me. Can you open the door?"
She heard a chair being dragged over and the chain being taken off the door. Finally, the door opened to reveal a scared looking five year old.
"Hi, Catherine." Matthew held the door open some more. "Come on in."
The room hadn't been cleaned for a couple of days. Matthew had diligently tried to wash up his dishes, but it had resulted in what seemed like a flash flood. His clothes lay carefully in the corner of the room and an empty pizza box sat in the trashcan.
"Mom left me some money, but I ran out," he said
bashfully. "And she told me not to leave the room, so I couldn't go do
the
laundry."
Catherine felt her heart breaking. "Okay, how about you gather up all your stuff and put it in your bags. I'll go down and pay the bill and then you can come home with me."
"Are you sure mom won't mind?"
Catherine smiled sadly at him. "No, she won't
mind."
************************************************************************
She was starting to get frazzled. Matthew had fallen asleep and she had tucked him into the guest room. Lizzy was fussing and Lindsey was still cranky. And she still needed sex. With a sigh she dialed the number of Gil's hotel.
"Gil Grissom, please."
After a few moments she was put through. Unfortunately, it was hard to hear her husband, because Lindsey was back arguing again and Lizzy was throwing a tantrum.
"Catherine??"
"Yes! Who do you think it is? Now I don't care if you've got three more days to go, you are coming home NOW!!!"
"Uh, Cath, honey, are you alright?"
"Don't honey me! Your oldest daughter is arguing and yelling at me because I didn't let her go to an unsupervised party. Your youngest daughter has gotten possibly the worst cold in the world and is throwing a tantrum. Your ex-girlfriend abandoned her son and I need sex!"
"SARA DID WHAT???"
"She left! She left your five-year old son in a room at a motel all by himself two days ago! Now I don't care how you do it, but I need you home."
Apart from being worried about his son, Gil was also worried about his wife. She sounded exhausted.
"Okay. I'll go talk to the people now. They
probably
don't need me for much longer anyway."
************************************************************************
Gil Grissom smiled as he stood in the doorway of his bedroom. He had been in to wake the kids and said hello to them all. He had spent some time with Matthew, trying to find out why Sara had left, but Matthew didn't understand what was going on. And now he stood, watching his wife sleep. She was six months pregnant now, and there was a visible bump underneath the t-shirt that had ridden up her thigh.
He didn't want to wake her, but couldn't resist the urge he had to touch her, and gently brushed some hair from her face.
It must have been a maternal thing because her eyes were instantly open, glancing at him.
"Hi baby," he smiled, stroking her back.
A smile broke out on her face. "You're home." She
straddled his waist and hugged him, pulling him closer. "Missed you."
He held her tight. "I missed you too. I hate going away from you." He tugged her face to meet his and captured her lips in a long kiss.
She sighed into it and wrapped her arms around
him, reveling
in his warmth. When the kiss ended, she pulled back and looked at him
seriously. "Gil, Sara's gone. She left Matthew alone in a motel room
for
two days. We don't know what's happened to her. I think we should call
Jim."
Gil nodded. "Matthew doesn't know where she went."
Catherine made an exasperated noise and stood up. "How can you do that to a child? Just disappear and leave them all alone!"
"We don't know the circumstances, Catherine. Maybe something happened, or someone said something that triggered it." He got up from the bed. "I'll go call Brass."
Catherine froze. "Something someone said?"
He looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Yeah. We've seen it in enough cases. Why? What's the matter?"
She sank down to the bed. "Then this is all my fault."
Part 6