Chapter 9

Gemma was firmly in place in Sam's suite, sound asleep. The stress of being moved from the hospital had worn her out. Warrick was pacing the main room like a caged tiger.

"Warrick, It's best if you stay here." Catherine reached out and touched his arm in an attempt to stop his pacing. "You're too involved in this case."

"No, I'm alright. It's time I did something to help." Warrick argued, sidestepping her. "Gemma's here where Grams can take care of her. I need to do something. I need to work."

"Warrick……we saw how you reacted in the interview with Carrey." Catherine stepped in front of him, blocking his path to the door. "We can't risk that. Grissom said-"

"I don't care what Grissom says!" Warrick snarled. "I need to do something! This has to end! I can't live like this. My family is trapped in this hole until this is over! I can't bring back the baby, but I can give them their freedom!"

Catherine felt for him, knowing how useless he was feeling. "Stay with Gemma tonight. Make sure that she's okay, then come in to the lab in the morning. I'll make sure there is something for you to do." Catherine offered. "Just…..no interviewing……or dealing with suspects, okay?"

"Yeah……I can deal with that." Warrick agreed with a chagrined smile.

"Warrick?" Gemma reached out for him but didn't find her husband. He hadn't been father than an arms reach from her since the first moment at the hospital. "Warrick!" she called louder.

"Gemma, baby, I'm here!" Warrick hurried to her. Turning on the beside light, he pulled her into his arms, careful not to jolt any of her injuries. The swelling had gone down, but the bruises had spread into a mottled mess of black, purple, blue, yellow and red.

"I thought you'd left me." Gemma murmured into his chest.

"Never, baby, never. You're stuck with me forever. I keep telling you that." Warrick rocked her gently.

"I love you, Warrick."

"Almost as much as I love you, I bet." Curling up beside her, he confessed, "But,….I will be leaving you for a little while. I'm going to work tomorrow. I'm going to help the team find those little girls."

"Do you think anyone can?"

"We will, if anyone can." Warrick admitted. "Nick has a lead. There's a woman who seems to know things."

"Is she involved?" Gemma questioned, running a bandaged hand down his arm.

"No…..I guess not……she hears the voices of the dead or something like that. She told Nick and Greg about your attack…at the very moment it was happening." Warrick rolled onto his back, carefully taking her with him. "She warned them that I was going to try to kill your attacker."

"Warrick! Tell me you didn't!"

"I started to. They stopped me." Warrick divulged hesitantly. "I would have……I think."

"Promise me…..you won't ever do anything like that again. I can't lose you. You promised me I could have you forever."

"I promise. I'll behave." Warrick sealed it with a gentle kiss.

"You are the Pigheaded-est woman I have ever met!" Nick bellowed. "Get this through your thick skull, You are NOT going with us!"

"Well, Stokes, then find your own way. I'm going or the information stays here with me!" Lucy leaned forward, in his face as she yelled back. Sara rolled her eyes and sat back down for the duration of the fight. She considered offering them some boxing gloves. The two had been butting heads for the past twenty-five minutes. "You can take your chauvinistic attitude and go chase your tails like you've doing without my help for the past three days!"

"Chauvinistic? How the-?" Nick shook his head in confusion, stepping away from the woman. "You know, I think what they say about redheads being hotheads is right!"

"Really you guys, this isn't helping at all." Sara cut in. "Could you please wait until after your married to have these squabbles? Right now, we're trying to rescue a couple of little girls."

"I…"Nick stopped, "She…."

"Give it a rest Cowboy." Lucy snapped. "I'm not going to keep arguing with you. Sara is right, it's the kids that are important!" Turning her back to Nick, she asked Sara, "What do we do first?"

Gil sat at his desk listening to the sheriff and Ecklie drone on about how lousy of a job he and his team were doing on the case. Finally after half an hour of listening, or pretending to listen, he couldn't hold himself back. "Conrad, you've looked over the case files. Is there something you think I've missed? Because if so, I'm more than happy to let you have a crack at it."

Ecklie pursed his lips and turned a deep maroon to the top of his bald head. He didn't reply to Gil's challenge. Gil gave him a satisfied smirk and stood up. "This lecture is over. Now, If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do my job."

"I hate that guy." Ecklie muttered after Grissom was out of earshot. "I really do."

"Cath?" Greg motioned for Catherine to come closer. He sat at the break room table, computer print outs were spread from one end to the other. "I think I might have something."

"What? Catherine set her coffee cup down, unfilled and hurried over to lean over Greg's shoulder.

"Carrey made three two minute phone calls on the twenty-fourth of November, to the same number. Once at noon and again at ten to midnight."

"And? What's special about that?"

"The number is to Jillian Holcomb's cell phone." Greg looked up at her, expecting some sort of reaction.

"You may just have something. Take it to Gil, Brass can bring Carrey back in and you can ask him about it." Catherine gave him an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder.

"ME?" Greg gaped at her. "You have got be kidding!"

"It's your finding, you run with it." Catherine frowned at him as if he were insane.

"But this is a major case. Surely Grissom won't want me going in with Carrey!" Greg shook his head.

"Greg, you are not a rookie anymore. You've been a CSI for a year and a half now, you are perfectly capable of doing the interview."

"That's really cool of you to say that." Greg beamed up at Catherine. "Really cool."

"Well, don't just sit here, take it to Gil." Catherine poked him.

"Oh! Yeah!" Greg jumped up, grabbing his printouts, he ran towards Gil's office.

"Aren't you coming in with me?" Greg looked wide-eyed at Gil.

"No, this is all yours." Gil shook his head. "You and Jim have got this covered. Gil gave a semi-smile as Greg swallowed roughly. "You'll do fine."

"Okay." Greg said in a quick rush of air. "I'm ready!"

Jim was waiting for Greg at the interview room doorway. He quirked an eyebrow up at Gil as Greg approached him, but said nothing. He was curious how the kid was going to handle this.

Gil slipped into the observation room to join Catherine. "You think he's ready for this?"

"Of course he's ready. He's been watching us do this. He's got it covered." Catherine assured him. "Besides, He's with Jim, he'll keep him from getting in trouble."