Title: The Revolving Door

Author: Angie

email: hill@grics.net

Disclaimers: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation does not belong to me, they are

the property of CBS, Alliance Atlantis, Jerry Bruckheimer and the wonderful

actors who portray them.

Author's Notes: Welcome to chapter 4. I promise this gets happier at some point, it has too right? Thanks to Lauri for betaing this for me. And thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, I can't tell you how much it means to me… one of my greatest muses is getting a review. This chapter has one of my favorite writing tools in it, flashbacks. Hopefully it isn't to confusing where the flashbacks are. ****** denotes the beginning and end of the flashback. *~*~*~*~* indicates scene changes.

Spoilers: none really

Distribution: The GraveshiftCSI Homepage, ShipperWorldCSI… all others

please ask.

Previously in "The Revolving Door"

Catherine watched Warrick as he greeted her daughter and then turned her attention back to the two remaining men. "Sure." She said simply, to Brass's earlier question, before beginning her story.

… and now Chapter 4

*~*~*~*~*

"Well, it was just like most mornings. I got home a little later then usual, I ran a couple of errands before coming home. I didn't notice anything… different."

Catherine looked up and saw that Gil and Brass were both staring intently at her, waiting to hear what she had to say. Taking a deep breath she continued her story…

* * * * * *

Catherine walked into the house kicking the door shut behind her, and placed her keys on the entry table, juggling the three bags of groceries she carried with her. Walking into the kitchen, she set the bags onto the counter and began putting the groceries away.

'How can one little girl eat so much…" she muttered to herself.

With that task done she looked around the kitchen trying to decide what to make for breakfast. Not seeing anything that looked very appetizing she decided to forego food for the time being and take a quick shower before heading to bed.

Catherine stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel tightly around her before heading into her bedroom. Reaching the dresser she pulled out her favorite pajamas, which consisted of a pale pink tank top and shorts, not really pajamas but as close as she usually got. She quickly got dressed and grabbed the bottle of tulip scented lotion next to her bed. Gil kept trying to get her to stop using scented lotion, but she had plenty of time before work for the scent to wear off, and there were some things a girl just couldn't give up, no matter what her job. After rubbing an ample amount of lotion into her body, she set the bottle back on the bedside table and crawled into bed letting sleep over come her.

* * * * * *

Catherine tried to blink the tears back as she looked up and made eye contact with the two men in front of her. She knew the hardest part of her story was coming, but she needed to make sure….

"Gil, are you sure …?"

"I'm fine Cath. Don't worry about me. You are doing great, just continue…. Please." Gil hated that she was thinking about him at a time like this, but he didn't expect anything else. Gil took a step forward and offered a hand to Catherine, now that they had both been processed he could offer his support and this was the most he could do at the moment.

Catherine reached out to take Gil's hand and felt the soft smile come to her face as she experienced the slight squeeze as he took her hand. Knowing that Gil was supporting her, she continued with what she knew would be the hardest part of her story.

* * * * * * * *

Catherine quickly sat up in bed, trying to figure out what could have startled her. The room was fairly dark, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. She had invested in some heavy duty blinds back when she used to dance, and they were one of the few things from that time in her life that she had kept around.

Looking around the room, she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. After deciding that the case from last night must really be getting to her, she slowly began to lay back down. That's when she heard the noise again.

Her heart began pounding when she came to the realization that it was not her imagination.

She reached over to turn on the bedside lamp, but never made it that far. A scream erupted from her mouth when she felt a body jump onto the bed and land on top of her. Catherine began screaming even louder and started swinging her arms and kicking at the unidentified form on top of her.

A hand quickly closed down on her mouth in an effort to quiet her.

"OK Catherine, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours, either way I'm going to have a good time."

Catherine felt the body press harder into hers and instantly knew it was male. Her mind began racing as she thought of ways to get out of her current situation. She quickly brought her hands to the mans face and scratched as hard as she could.

The next thing she realized her head had whipped to the right and she could feel the heat radiating off her temple. She softly shook her head trying to clear the stars out of her vision, but she knew it wouldn't work.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Catherine pleaded, still unable to fathom what was going on.

"You don't need to know who we are. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy."

Catherine shivered as she heard the voice whisper in her ear, he was close enough that she could feel his lips grazing her ear. Her mind began racing at the word "we." With only one assailant she knew she at least had a chance to get away, but now she didn't know exactly how many were in her house, and she still wasn't sure what exactly they wanted.

Catherine gave up hope and stopped fighting, hoping that she would at least get away with her life, when it was all over. She felt a tongue slither along her neck and couldn't help the nauseous feeling, and then his hands began groping her. She couldn't just stay still and accept what was happening, even if it did cost her life, at least those who knew her would know she never gave up. Just as Catherine was starting to decide what she was going to do, she heard a woman's voice at the door.

"What do you think you are doing?"

At the sound of the voice, the man quickly raised up on his hands, keeping Catherine firmly pinned under the weight of his body. "I wasn't doin' nothing'! Catherine and I were just having a little bit of fun, weren't we, Baby."

"Just tie her up and help me find the stuff. You know you aren't supposed to touch her. We were specifically told not to harm the brat's mother."

Catherine was torn with her emotions. She was furious that the woman called her daughter a brat, but was thankful she had interrupted the man before he could do any serious damage to her.

The door slammed shut again and Catherine felt the weight lift off of her body and flip her onto her stomach before she had a chance to react. Her hands were roughly pulled behind her back and she felt a twine rope wrap around her wrists. The man then made a move to grab her ankles, but only felt a sharp pain as Catherine took advantage and sharply kicked at the man.

She continued kicking at the man, making contact a few times, until she felt a hand wrap around her right ankle and twist. The pain was enough to cause her to stop the kicking long enough for the man to get a hold of her left ankle and bind them together as well. Her legs were pressed backwards towards her wrists, and she felt her back automatically arch, trying in vain to relieve the pain and discomfort this unnatural position was causing. The man removed his hands, but Catherine found she still wasn't able to straighten out. That's when she realized that he had bound her wrists and ankles together, making it almost impossible for her to even move. Catherine was about to say something when she heard a quick rip and felt what had to be duct tape being pressed against her mouth. Catherine refused to let the tears fall from her eyes as she felt the additional weight removed from the bed.

She heard the footsteps walking back and forth in front of the bed before they finally stopped, seeming to be farther away. Another sound, but this time she wasn't sure exactly what it was, then the footsteps moved back towards her.

If she could have screamed, she would have. Catherine felt herself being lifted off of the bed by the rope tying her wrists and ankles together. She could feel the blood trickling down her arms and legs as the weight of her body caused the ropes to cut into her skin. Even disoriented, Catherine could tell she was being moved towards her closet. She felt her head slam into the door before she was unceremoniously dropped onto the floor and the door was slammed shut.

* * * * * *

"I waited a few minutes until I heard the footsteps fade away. I somehow managed to turn onto my side, must still be fairly limber from my dancing days." Catherine said with a slight smile before continuing. "I tried to get the ropes loose but they just kept cutting into my skin. After a little while the noises stopped and I heard the front door slam, and then it was quiet. By that time I knew there was no way I was getting free without help, so I just stayed there until Gil opened the door."

As Catherine finished her story, she finally looked up from the hand she was holding and made eye contact with the two men standing in front of her. She could read the pain in their eyes, and hated the fact that she was the one who put it there. She squeezed Gil's hand until she got a reaction from him. She stared at him until the pain disappeared from his eyes. She knew it wasn't gone, but hidden again in the recesses of his mind.

"Catherine?" Brass questioned. "What was it they were looking for?"

"They never said. I don't have any idea what they wanted."

"Can you give me a description?" Brass hated having to do this, but he needed something to work with. And he knew that Catherine wouldn't leave without telling him everything she could.

"I never got a look at him, the room was too dark." She closed her eyes to think before continuing. "He has a muscular, toned body, like he works out or something. He was taller than me, but I'm not sure exactly how tall, my feet hit him somewhere between the knees and ankles but I'm not sure where. There should be evidence of hair color on the bed, Nick and Sara could tell you that. He should have claw marks on his face, both sides, I got him good. He smells like…" Catherine pauses and inhales deeply as if she's still trying to smell it. "He smells like a mixture of cheap beer, marijuana and cheap cologne." Catherine opened her eyes as she finished her description. "I can't tell you anything about the woman. Light footsteps, so she must be fairly thin. I think I'd recognize her voice if I heard it, but I'm not sure. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry Cath. You did great." Gil told her, and placed his hand under her chin raising her face to look at his. "Let's get you to the hospital now ok?" He didn't wait for her to respond, he had held out as long as he could. Releasing Catherine's hands he gently picked her up and motioned to Brass to open the front door for him.

"Brass? Can you go get Lindsey for me? I told her she could go to the hospital with us." Gil asked after he got Catherine settled in the front seat. He watch as Brass wordlessly walked away to where the little girl was waiting with Warrick.

"Gil?"

He turned at the sound of Catherine's voice.

"What did Lindsey say?" At the look on Gil's face she clarified her question. "In the house on the phone, you wouldn't tell me what she said earlier. What did she say?"

"She said she loves you and she hopes you're okay." He told her.

The tears began falling in earnest now and she no longer cared to hold them back.

Gil was about to say something when he saw Brass returning with Lindsey, and Warrick trailing behind. Silently cursing to himself, he shut the door to give Catherine a bit of privacy. He reached out to take Lindsey's hand, and was shocked when she jumped into his arms. Holding the girl close to him, he silently placed her in the back of the Tahoe and shut the door.

He turned back to Warrick and Brass but was interrupted before he could say anything.

"Don't worry Gris. We'll take care of everything here. Just get Catherine to the hospital and make sure she's okay. Let us know how everything goes." Warrick told him and then picked up his kit and walked towards the house, ready to get to work.

Brass didn't say anything, just nodded in agreement and followed Warrick to the house.

Gil watched his two friends walk away and then made his way around the Tahoe to the drivers seat. For once he had something more important to do then analyze the crime scene.

*~*~*~*~*~*

To be continue…