Chapter 15: Lost and Found

When Catherine woke up that morning, Lindsay was still cuddled up against her. The talk they had last night was quite emotional, and even though the subject wasn't very nice, it was nice they had a talk like that. She glanced at her alarm clock, it was 7 AM already, time to get up.

Catherine kissed Lindsay's head "Wake up sweetie" she said.

Lindsay stirred and moaned "noooo mom".

Catherine knew she had to use another approach to get Lindsay up. She hoped it would be different after last night, but she had to fall back on her normal day to day routine of getting the blanket of the bed.

"Moooooooooooooooooooooooom" Lindsay moaned.

"Come on Linds, it's time to get up. Aunt Nancy will be here soon to pick you up" Catherine said while she was trying to roll Lindsay out of bed.

Lindsay finally moved and got up. Catherine smiled to herself, another victory.

"You get dressed, I'll fix some breakfast." Catherine said while walking out of her room. On the way to the kitchen she couldn't help but yawn, it reminded her of how tired she still was. But she had an important day ahead of her. She was going to find Evelyn.

When Lindsay came downstairs they had breakfast together. Lindsay took a couple of bites of her sandwich and started talking.

"You are going to look for her today aren't you? When you see her please tell her I want her to come back and that I'm sorry but I had no other choice" Catherine could see that Lindsay was almost crying.

"Please tell her I still want to be friends and that I just wanted to help her" Lindsay pleaded.

Catherine just smiled at Lindsay, she didn't know what to say. It really touched her that Lindsay called Evelyn a friend, and that Lindsay was so emotional about this. At that moment Catherine wished Evelyn had never left in the first place, she hurt so many people. She also wished that she had paid more attention to Lindsay, she seemed to be really upset about the whole situation. Suddenly Catherine felt really selfish.

When Nancy arrived, Lindsay jumped up and got her bag. She kissed her mother's cheek and ran for the door.

"Lindsay" Catherine called after her. Lindsay turned around and looked puzzled at her mom.

"I will find her" Catherine said with a smile "I promise"

"I know mom" Lindsay replied before walking out the door and running to Nancy's car.

Catherine cleaned the kitchen and went upstairs to pack her things. She was going to leave as soon as possible. She wondered what the hell Evelyn was doing in Montana.

When she had her stuff packed she called Grissom.

"Gil, its Catherine. I know where Evelyn is, I'm going to talk to her now. She is in Montana"

"Montana? What's in Montana?" Grissom asked her.

"I don't know. I'm going to get a flight there ASAP."

"Ok, I will cover for you" Grissom said.

After about an hour after Sara arrived at work she walked into the break room for the assignments of that evening. Nick and Warrick were talking to each other and on her way there she saw that Greg was helping Mia out in the lab. As Sara sat down with a cup of coffee, waiting for Grissom, she wondered where Catherine was.

When Grissom came in with the assignments he explained that Catherine had taken some personal time. Sara wondered why, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Tonight she had a case with Nick and Warrick because it was slow.

"Daniels" Evelyn answered her phone.

"Ms Daniels, this is Miranda from the reception. You have a visitor" the voice on the other side of the line said.

"A visitor? For me?" Evelyn was amazed, she didn't know anyone who would visit her.

"Yeah, she is waiting for you in conference room 4" the voice continued.

"Do you happen to know who it is?" Evelyn got a bit nervous, she didn't know anyone who would want to visit her.

"I am not allowed to tell you, it is a surprise" Miranda tells her.

Evelyn's heart was beating really fast when she was walking towards conference room 4. She had no idea who was waiting for her there, and it scared her.

Catherine was standing behind the door, she thought it would be best if Evelyn couldn't see her when she walked into the room, so Evelyn wouldn't bolt the second she saw Catherine.

Evelyn walked into the conference room. She didn't see anyone, but then she heard the door close and she turned around. Her eyes grew two sizes bigger and her jaw seemed to drop to the floor. "You" was the only thing she managed to blurt out.

Evelyn was shocked. Her heart was beating so loud she was sure Catherine could hear it. The first idea that came into her head was to bolt out of the room, but Catherine was blocking the door. Evelyn cursed to herself, she had let Catherine get to know her and Catherine knew she was going to flee. Evelyn looked to the ground, she felt so vulnerable, she had nowhere to run, so instead she sat down in the chair and stared at Catherine.

Catherine observed Evelyn and her reaction. Evelyn looked terrified, she looked like an animal pushed in a corner. Evelyn was just staring at her, her eyes wide and her face still in shock. Catherine could see Evelyn's chest going up and down fast. She hadn't expected to have such a big effect on Evelyn.

"Evelyn" Catherine said, she didn't even recognize her own voice when she heard it. It had changed into some kind of whisper.

Evelyn still just stared at Catherine. Not knowing what to do or say. She was trapped.

Catherine walked over to Evelyn and kneeled in front of her. To be honest she didn't know what to say or do, she just wanted to calm Evelyn down. Maybe a hug would help, it helped all those times before.

When Catherine moved up a bit to take Evelyn in her arms, Evelyn withdrew. It hurt Catherine, but she refused to give up.

"Evelyn, I just want to talk to you." Catherine looked down for a bit, she felt tears welling up but she had to be the strong one now.

"How.." Evelyn whispered, but before she could say anything else Catherine interrupted her.

"Lindsay" Catherine said.

Evelyn sighed. She should have known better than to trust that young girl.

Catherine saw the look in Evelyn's eyes, and she knew she had to defend Lindsay now.

"Lindsay hasn't told me anything until early this morning. It was only because I told her it was very important that I found you, and even then she hesitated. She really thought that by telling me where you were she would help you. Because that's what she wants to do. She begged me this morning to tell you that she still wanted to be friends and that she was sorry. I didn't just come here to see you Evelyn, I have an offer for you" Catherine wasn't sure if Evelyn was going to just accept all this.

Evelyn stood up, and Catherine got up with her, in a way she felt relieved because kneeling for a long time wasn't her favourite thing to do. But now there was the problem of closeness.

They were standing in front of each other, Evelyn's face was so close to Catherine's that Catherine could feel Evelyn's breath on her face.

"What offer?" Evelyn asked. She finally managed to produce a sentence of more than one word.

Catherine wasn't able to speak. The effect Evelyn had on her by just standing close to her prevented her vocal abilities from working. All she could think of right now was the feel of her lips on Evelyn's, even though Evelyn had withdrawn from the short kiss, she could still remember the feel of her lips.

"Catherine" Evelyn repeated with her soft voice.

Catherine took a step back, she had to create some distance from Evelyn to be able to think straight.

"I erm Grissom wants you back in the team" Catherine managed to stutter.

Even though it was all, well almost all, Evelyn wanted to hear, she couldn't accept it. A single tear rolled down Evelyn's cheek when she looked down. She couldn't stand Catherine's piercing blue eyes anymore.

"I can't" Evelyn mumbled.

She didn't know how exactly it happened but when Evelyn's senses started working again, she found herself in Catherine's arms, just like she used to do before.

"I know Evelyn" Catherine whispered in Evelyn's ear "I know about you, and I'm sorry." Catherine felt how Evelyn literally broke down in her arms, once again Evelyn was sobbing in her arms. Catherine was really sorry for Evelyn, and what she had to go through when she was younger. Even though she was hurt that Evelyn just left her behind, in a way she could understand.

"Sara" Evelyn blurted out between sobs.

"Sara doesn't know, she doesn't know I'm here, she doesn't know where you are" Catherine whispered while she gently tucked Evelyn's hair behind her ear.

"Come back to Vegas Evelyn, I need you to be there, Sara needs you to be there and Lindsay needs you to be there too" Catherine sighed. She thought she would be over this whole phase of liking Evelyn more than she allowed herself, but unfortunately by seeing Evelyn, everything just came back, hitting her hard.

Evelyn looked so adorable, Catherine felt the need to kiss her, but she didn't. It became even harder to resist when Evelyn looked into her eyes and smiled at her.

"I've been away for 8 months Catherine, I can't just come back" Evelyn said.

"You can Evelyn, both Grissom and I gave you a good recommendation, and now even Ecklie wants you on the team. Sara has been moping around for 8 months, I'm sure she would love to see you again, well maybe even more than that…." Catherine said, but Evelyn interrupted her.

"Is it that bad with Sara?" she asked. Catherine could see fear in her eyes.

"She is still doing a great job at the lab, but I've seen her happy, and right now she isn't. You know that sparkle she always has in her eyes, it's gone. Plus she has been doing more overtime by herself than the whole team together." Catherine said with a smile.

Evelyn chuckled. "Sounds like Sara alright" she said. Just as fast as that cute chuckle came, it went away again and Evelyn's face once again turned to serious.

"Do you think she will forgive me?" Evelyn asked Catherine.

"Well, I don't know about that. But if you tell her what you told Lindsay, maybe she will understand" Catherine said, trying to talk some confidence into Evelyn.

"So are you going to come home?" Catherine asked Evelyn, who was still in her arms.

Evelyn took a deep breath to answer but Catherine was quicker.

"Don't say it isn't home, because it is. You belong in Vegas Evelyn, you belong with Sara." Even though I want you to belong to me Catherine kicked the green monster in her head for making her think that.

Evelyn smiled. "I'll try to arrange it" she said.

"So I can call Grissom now to tell him to prepare your work contract?" Catherine said with a smile.

Evelyn nodded and smiled back.

Yes! Catherine thought. She had expected things to be a lot harder than this. Apart from the wrong thoughts that popped up in her head at the most inappropriate moments, things went pretty well.

"Catherine"

Catherine just realised she was trailing off again when Evelyn called her name.

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" Evelyn asked.

Oh no! oh no! oh no Catherine Willows! Her mind told her. She should just go to a hotel, staying with Evelyn would be bad news, it would mean no sleeping.

"No not really. I kind of rushed here in the morning." Catherine heard herself say. She cursed herself, why didn't she just say yes.

"You can stay at my place Cath." Evelyn said. "Let's go, it's a quiet night anyway, I'll take you to my place and then I'll go back here to talk to my supervisor".

Catherine sighed. This was going to be a long night.