Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Spoilers: None as far as I am aware

Rating: I've gone with T or PG-13 just to be safe. There's a use of the f-word about once and THAT'S ONCE TOO MANY! Swearing is overrated, kids.

Summary: GCR with a little WS. After an accident affects a team member, the team find themselves revisiting old memories.

Ah, I was gonna hold out for more reviews but I haven't done all too badly. And plus, you've all been really nice so you deserve better. Sorry about all the angst. This chapter isn't all too great; it's just mainly bridging a gap. Please still review it though! And thanks to everyone who've put me on story alert: angelaumbrello, cygnet1, hot-punk, Juliette7179, sparklingmidnight, tcrowe and xcatch. Ya gotta love the new extras on the site! Thanks especially much though to my reviewers, you are supercool: Lissa88, cherishedcrush, D.M.A.S (did you, by the way, mean that the rest of it isn't believable? I'm not pissed off, I'm just forever paranoid of writing something too OOC. Ya gotta tell me about these things, man!) kate and bloodymary2. I'm shutting up now. Enjoy! Love LJ xXx

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Perpetuity. Chapter Five. Are You Sitting Comfortably?

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In the gloom of their unlit living room, Catherine drew back from him, suddenly remembering something.

"Where's Lindsey?" she asked frantically. If she'd lost her too..."Oh God; I left her there."

"It's okay – Sara took her back. She's been staying with Warrick and Sara all week – remember?" Brass reminded her. Catherine paused for a while before nodding blearily. She remembered.

"Can I see her?" Her voice was so helpless and small, as though she felt she didn't quite deserve to see her own daughter but Brass nodded, helping her to her feet.

"Sure you can; I'll drive you over." he assured her, though it was easier said than done as he tried to put her shoes on her feet. Catherine, in her drunk and anguished state, was uncooperative, to say the least. In the end, Jim Brass half-dragged her into his car, having to strap her into the seat and wondering vaguely what her neighbours would make of all of this.

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Woken by knocking on the front door, Sara crawled out of bed and padded barefoot through the living-room, dressed in one of Warrick's over-sized shirts, yawning as she went. Warrick was meant to be finishing up his shift about now and perhaps he'd forgotten his key.

Instead, on opening the door, she was greeted by Jim Brass holding up a swaying Catherine.

"She wanted to see Lindsey," Brass explained, as though that accounted for everything – the glazed look in her eyes, the drunkenness, the odd shoes. Sara blinked a couple of times, wondering if she was still asleep until Catherine grabbed her arm.

"Can I see her?" she requested. Sara shook herself.

"Uh – of course, come in." Sara replied in a throaty voice. Next to Brass' parked car, Warrick's Tahoe drew up and he got out, surprised to see the three of them on the doorstep.

"She came to see Lindsey," Sara informed him pointedly. Warrick looked at the dazed Catherine with a kind of sadness.

"Have you got it from here?" Brass asked Warrick who nodded as Brass returned to his car and drove off.

"Whoa – watch yourself there Cath," Warrick quickly grabbed her as she stumbled.

Sara bit her lip but said nothing as Warrick half-carried her inside. Catherine blinked groggily when Sara turned on the living room light and brought up a hand to rub her eyes only to find her fingers occupied in grasping the neck of the liquor bottle.

"Catherine..." Sara began, gently prising the bottle from her fingers and swirling the half-inch of alcohol left inside. "Did you open this today?"

"What does it matter?" she answered bitterly and, thinking of nothing to say, Sara put the bottle down and led her to the spare room with Warrick still supporting her.

"Hey Lindsey," Catherine whispered softly, falling to her knees by the sleeping girl's bedside. "Hey angel." Lindsey didn't wake up as Catherine stroked her blonde hair and gazed at her. "I'm sorry..." Catherine went on, her voice starting to shake. "I'm so sorry, baby."

"Come on, Cath," Warrick intervened eventually as Catherine got more wound up. He picked her up off the floor and dragged her away from her daughter. Catherine went with him, reluctantly but did not protest when he lay her down on the sofa, taking off her shoes and tucking a blanket around her.

"I'm sorry." she went on whispering until Sara knelt down in front of her.

"Catherine?" Sara addressed her in sterner tones, looking the woman straight in the eye. "Catherine, you've gotta hold it together. In a couple of days I want you to come back to work, okay? We need you there and you need to keep busy. We can all go and see Gil whenever we can and we'll help him remember. We'll help him – he'll be alright. Okay? But you have to hold it together, Catherine – for Lindsey."

Catherine nodded, pulling the blanket tightly around herself.

"You're right, Sara. You're right," she admitted. "I'm sorry. Thank you." Sara smiled at her as Catherine closed her eyes.

"It's no problem." she answered softly, standing up and looking across at Warrick.

"We should catch some sleep," he commented after a moment of silence and followed Sara back to bed.

"You think she'll be alright?" Sara wondered out loud, turning on her pillow to face him. Warrick reached for her and pulled her close.

"Who? Catherine? Yeah, she'll be okay," he assured her. "She's tough."

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By the weekend, Catherine had worked two shifts and gotten back into her work. She'd picked herself up, taken Lindsey back home and sorted this out as though it were a case. It became a new routine; every spare moment for her and the rest of the team would be spent going to see Gil and decorating the hostile walls of his room with photos and drawings – mapping out his past in the hope that he'd find a route he recognised.

On Saturday morning, she was the first one there and chatted amiably with Gil about nothing at all until everyone else had arrived. Then she pulled up a chair beside his bed and, drawing strength from her friends around her, took a deep breath and smiled.

"Right – where do we begin?" Catherine launched, looking at Gil's clueless face and taking his hand.

"At the beginning?" he suggested, pleased to see her looking happier lately. She leant back in her chair, running a hand through her hair and crossing her legs.

"We go back a very long way, Gil," she warned him. "More than twenty years."

"I want to hear everything," he answered; it was true, he wanted to find out everything that had led them together, to try and regain the life he only knew he'd lost. The rest of the team looked to Catherine, not verbally admitting they all wanted to know how it had all begun. Without taking her eyes off of him, Catherine nodded, smiled again and obliged.

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(You see, kids, this is where all the GCR really begins. It'll be a lot of memories and flashbacks. not all happy. But you'll have to trust me on this one. Thanks for reading this chapter; please do me a favour and review it.)