A/N: Thank you so so much for all the wonderful reviews! You guys are great, and so here's another chapter. This is actually the second to the last... : (

Chapter 11: Waking in his arms again

Catherine just woke up, she has yet opened her eyes but she feels rather different. She feels warm, and she could smell the scent of .... Him.

Memories of the previous day came flashing back to her mind. She saw Adam Copperfield again, she panicked, and flipped, she was scared ... she was scared for Gil. Then he came, he wanted to kill him, and she knows why, he wanted to kill him ... for her. She stopped him, and so he obeyed, he took her in his arms and they walked away, he took her home with him, and now she's lain naked in his bed beside his naked body. She could feel his chest just beside her back; she has been using his arm as pillow, while his other arm is securely wrapped around her body.

A smile crept on her face and a tear rolled down her cheek. After twenty years, here she is in his arms. Once again after a very long time, she felt joy and security, but at the same time she's feeling regret.

To wake up in his arms... she's been aching for it for a long time now and right here right now, thinking about it, that aching shall have never happened. If that incident didn't happen, then all those nights she wasted imagining and aching for his touch should have been times spent with him, not imaginatively but for real. As Catherine closed her eyes again, trying to savor that moment, the after math of the incident replayed in her mind.

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November 1983

Catherine and Grissom are now back in their house, Catherine has been sleeping in the nursery room .... The room of the child they were suppose to have; she's been sleeping there since they went back from the hospital. And every time, Gil wanted to take her in his arms, to comfort her and tell her it's all going to be okay, he couldn't do it.

Gil is standing on the opposite side of the door of the nursery room. He lifted his hand and reached for the knob, and right before he could turn it open, he stopped ... he can't.

He knows he could not contain the sight of the pain he has caused her.

Later that after noon Catherine woke up and walked around the house. A few months ago they have decided that she won't move in until the wedding, but ever since they found out of her pregnancy they both willingly agreed to move in together.

Catherine walked over their room; she opened the door and saw Gil asleep. She could see that he looks tired, she knows that he's worried about her, but what she want to know is if he is blaming her for the death of their child... and for his life which he almost lost... but there is only one thing Catherine knows for certain, that she blames herself for every single one of it.

She should have never let Eddie stayed there, she should have not left, she should have went back to Gil after a few minutes, she should have not kept secret about Eddie bothering her, from Gil. All these are things she should have not done, but she did, all those are choices she made in the past and all those are the mistakes with consequences she is facing at the present, and she is sure that this will be the same things she'll be regretting in the future.

After three days .....

"Catherine"

"Hey" she gave him a light smile; Gil took a deep breath before taking his seat beside her.

"Just one more week"

"Gil, I don't think I'm ready. I don't think we're ready"

"What are you saying?"

"Postpone the wedding."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, Gil, I was very sure and ready and excited to marry you, but. But, a lot of things have happened; we haven't even spoken to each other for a week till now!"

"I guess you're right"

"And, Gil. I think we need space"

"What are you saying? Are you breaking up with me?"

"No! I just think we both need some space"

"I'm being offered to hold a seminar in San Francisco"

"Take it!"

Gil looked at her eyes to see if she's sure about all of this, and as reflected in her eyes, she is. Gil lightly nodded and agreed.

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Catherine slowly got out from his embrace, though she didn't want to, she knows she has to. She gathered her clothes from the floor and quickly got dress and left with one plan in mind ... to forget all about it, forget about the past and forget about last night.

But above it all, there is one question hanging in her mind... why is it that she always has to forget the most magical things and best memories of her life?

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June 1984

Gil walked in the house he has bought for him and Catherine, it has been months since he has been here, a lot of memories came back to him, good and bad ones ... and now he is feeling some kind of a heartache caused by, no not the bad memories but of the best ones he could never go back to.

A few years before when he had met Catherine, she was already engaged to Eddie, but before she gets married she wanted to finish school first. When she finished school, she entered CSI and her friendship with Gil went a little deeper than both of them anticipated. She broke up with Eddie a day before Gil confessed his feelings for her. After a few months she finally told him how she really felt, their relationship from good became better and it became the best. An incident ruined everything .... He left for them to have space ... a space which they both needed, but never did he thought that the result would be something he has never even wanted to think of...

Now that he is back, he found himself on the same situation when he met Catherine. Catherine is engaged ... with Eddie.

But this time, this time he knew the tables won't be turned anymore, they were given one chance and they lost it all.

Gil walked out the house, he locked the door, and with one last glance before he sells the house the one he thought would be his home, he sighed and thought maybe it wasn't meant to be, Gil climbed up his car and sped off.

Arriving to his destination, he parked the car and went inside the little chapel, he stood with the little crowd and watched the love of his life promise her forever love to another man.

TBC

A/N: You ready to read the last part!?