It seemed like and eternity before the doctor came with news , in fact it had only been a couple of hours since he'd been brought into the hospital when the doctor finally came out to address them. They all stood as he approached the group.
"He made it through the surgery, but the next few days will be touch and go, he lost a lot of blood and we had to remove part of his liver, we would like to do an MRI scan in the next day or so when he's stabble as the bump he received to his head was pretty severe and he's unconscious at the moment, however we expect for him to come out of it soon". The doctors prognosis wasn't comforting in fact it was terrible.
"Can we see him?" Sara asked almost pleadingly
"He's in post op at the moment but when we've moved him to a room, you can see him but only for a short time each, I'll give the nurses your names" with that the doctor excused himself and walked over to the nurses station.
"I know this isn't the best time to say it but Ecklie wants to interview you all, he's running the investigation" Brass interrupted as everyone dwelled on their own thoughts "Catherine has volunteered to go first, I'll be in the interviews with all of you so keep me posted on his condition" with that he gestured to Catherine that they should go.
As Brass and Catherine walked into the cool night he turned to her
"You know this is going to be more than a friendly chat , Ecklie's likely to bring up everything that he thinks is wrong with your team" Brass commented as they stepped towards his car.
"I know, but we don't have much choice, we know we're all innocent so there's nothing to worry about". Catherine replied as she opened the door.
"I hope you're right Catherine I really hope you're right" Brass sighed as he dropped into the passenger seat.
"So Ms Willow's when was the last time you saw Supervisor Grissom?" Ecklie asked with a sneer.
"It would have been at around 7am this morning, we had been working a case together, we weren't getting anywhere fast so we decided to call it quits for the night and regroup at the beginning of next shift"
"That's odd I was under the impression that you two had a fight, in fact I have a couple of statements to that effect let me read you one 'She was screaming at him the whole lab could hear she said something like you don't have a heart get one then she slammed the door to his office and stalked off, I didn't see him after that ' Is it possible Ms Willows that you went a step further and physically attacked him I mean you were upset?" Ecklie asked with a fake look of understanding on his face.
"No, what I actually said was 'You don't have a heart Grissom, stop being the tinman and show some god damn compassion' but I just left after that I needed to cool off" Catherine rebutted.
"This isn't the first time that you've yelled at Supervisor Grissom in fact he's had to restrain you from hitting him before, is that not true?" Ecklie was going in for the kill
"Yes, I've yelled at him before but I've never tried to hurt him" Catherine stated almost shocked that he could think such things
"Five years ago in the corridor outside the trace lab you we're yelling at him with such fury, you went to strike him he had to hold your wrists to stop you, you can't deny it I saw it with my own eyes" Ecklie certainly knew how to go for the low blows
"It was a rough time I was breaking up with my husband I was angry at Grissom that he hadn't told me that he knew he was cheating on me, I apologized later" Catherine replied as all the old memories of that time started to flood her mind.
"Maybe this time he wouldn't except your apology, maybe you were sick of being number 2, everyone knows you want his job, what an easy way to get it kill him off then naturally it would come to you". Ecklie broke Catherine out of her thoughts
"That was unnecessary, I would never be half the supervisor he is, I don't want his job especially by killing him, this interview is over Ecklie stop looking at his team and go search for the real killer" With that Catherine got up from the table and stormed through the door. All she could hear as she walked down the corridor was Ecklie's sickly sweet comment "Don't go to far Catherine we may need to talk again".