The Path of Thorns
By: Allison

A/N: Thanks to Angie for betaing this part for me, and for nagging me to write all the time. You're awesome. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed this so far, I know you've probably been waiting for a while now.

Chapter 3: Intrusion

Grissom knew she was there before got halfway through the door. He didn't look up. He didn't want his eyes to ever leave Catherine ever again. This could be a dream. He could blink and wake up alone back in the cabin, in front of the television. He wished he could blink and take back the last fourteen months.

"You should know I'm not going to talk with you," he told her, his voice low, his demeanor calm. "I don't talk with reporters."

"Getting your story out, it might help find out what happened...the public needs to be aware of what's going on."

"Ma'am, in my line of work, talking to people like you, never helps. So you'll excuse me, if I don't take you up on your offer."

"Mary, my name is Mary...what exactly do you do?"

"No, no...we won't go down that road." Grissom reached up and gently traced the features on Catherine's face. Even with the bruises, she was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

"She means a lot to you?" Mary asked solemnly, moving to sit down in the chair on the opposite side of the bed.

"Yes, she does."

"That's all you're going to tell me?"

"On the record? Yes."

"You know I'll find something somehow, don't you?" She arched her eyebrow upward; it was a faint reminder of the one he yearned to see so badly.

"You don't know me too well, obviously," Grissom stood and moved to the other side of the room and pulled out his cellphone. He hoped that it still worked after his trek through the rain, and when the face lit up, he silently thanked God for it as he punched in the numbers.

"Hey, Warrick, yea it's really me. Get Brass, tell him he needs to get here now, you too...I don't care if shift starts in an hour. She's here...yea, here... and I need you here, too. In Wilmington, Delaware...catch the first flight out, and call me when you land." Grissom tucked his phone away quickly into his soggy pockets and went back to his chair.

"Who's Warrick?" Mary asked, crossing her legs.

"Again, none of your business." Grissom took hold of Catherine's hand again, and rubbed his thumb against the softness of her skin. Her fingers moved within the depths of his hand. He watched as her eyes fluttered open, a little scared and very confused. Gil couldn't repress a smile of relief and he bent down to kiss her forehead. "Hey baby, you're awake."

"G..."

"Shh...don't talk, let me go get the doctor..." But Catherine shook her head and squeezed his hand harder as he tried to rise from his seat.

"...missed you." Tears glistened in her eyes and she held onto Grissom as if she was clinging for dear life.

"I know, baby, I missed you too. But we're together now."

It was then that Mary rose from her seat, "I really shouldn't be here for this...I'll, I'll go get the doctor for you."

Gil paid her no mind as he kept his gaze on Catherine, happy to see her sparkling blue eyes again. Mary slipped out the door unnoticed by him, shutting the door quietly behind her. She did not go unnoticed, however, by the man who stood outside the door. His eyes locked with hers; masked only partially by his wild brown hair, and for once she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"I know what you are going to say... just don't go there." She breezed past him and down the sterile, linoleum floored hallway.

"Then I won't...but it still doesn't change anything."

"Doesn't change what? What I did? How you're a chicken? What?" Mary stalked past him and down the hall.

"Don't you feel guilty at all, for what you just did?" He replied angrily, right on her tail.

"I don't have time to feel guilty."

"That's right, you're too busy getting your story, to have any human compassion!"

"Yes, Matthew, I'm a horrible horrible person..." she didn't look back as she flung the words behind her. Instead she kept her eye on her destination, as she made her way to the nurses' station. She left a short message with the woman at the desk and practically ran back out too her car.

"Stop walking out on me Mary!"

"Then stop being an asshole Matthew!" Mary flung her car door open and got in, but as she tried to shut it, Donovan's arm blocked it from closing all the way.

"We're not done yet."

"Oh yes we are," she retorted pulling her ring off and throwing it at him. Donovan too stunned to reply, Mary quickly shut the door, started her car, and sped off.

TBC.