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Chapter 5: Sleeping Arrangements
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Later that evening, the group had returned to what Kati jokingly termed "The Zoo", in reference to the amount of people and animals in residence. While the rest of the team was unpacking and making themselves comfortable, Kati was in the kitchen gathering the necessary ingredients for a home-cooked Italian meal. Grissom sat next to Catherine and Warrick looking over photos from the crime scene when Nick and Brass came in.
"What are you making?" Nick inquired, looking over Kati's head.
"Food," she replied, rolling the freshly made pasta through her fingers in order to help them gain shape.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Nick," Terri warned. "Kati is liable to elbow you, she hates feeling short." All of the others chuckled as Kati glared and became slightly aggressive in her movements.
A few hours later, while the team was eating the gnocchi, Kati began to discuss sleeping arrangements.
"I assume that you guys have been through the rooms already and have supposedly chosen your rooms. First things first, I will be sleeping in my room. It is my room, it has a coffee machine, and I am Satan without coffee in the morning. If you don't believe me, ask Terri. Second, the bed is very temperamental; it loves me and hates to be parted from me. It will hurt any one who tries to use it if I am not there to soothe the savage beast. By and by, my friends sleep over all the time so I don't care who joins me, but be warned: the dogs sleep there, too."
At the last statement, Nick's eyes lit up at the idea of spending more time with the speed bump behemoths that he had been spoiling.
"I call that one," Nick called out, not even stopping the game he was playing with Kati's larger dog.
"Ok, Dr. G., you get the master bed room. It has the most space and you will probably need it." Kati continued.
Terri piped up soon after. "I am willing to share a room with Warrick if he is too uncomfortable to stay with Catherine or Sara." She looked at the group and Sara nodded.
"Well I know that Brass doesn't snore so he is a safe bet in my book," Catherine decided out loud.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cath," he said sarcastically.
"I guess that leaves Sara with Grissom," Kati replied with a triumphant smile that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group.
After the kitchen had been cleaned, Kati came out of her room in her Texas Tech pajamas: a pair of short shorts and a tight tank top with the college's mascot on it. Terri groaned, knowing that this would probably cause an argument from the other Texan in the room.
"How do you know about Texas Tech?" Nick asked from the floor with the rest of the science geeks.
"I lived in Texas before Arizona. My mom got one of her teaching degrees there." Turning to the rest of the group, she smiled. "I'm going to my room now… Anyone feel like a Riddick marathon?"
Catherine's head popped up. "Do you own Fast and the Furious?" she asked, slightly excited.
"Yeah, of course! Want to watch that instead?"
The answer was clear when Catherine popped up and left to Kati's room to the sounds of, "He is soooo hot."
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"Help! No, stop… Why can't I move?"
The noises woke Nick. Looking over, he noticed that Kati was tossing and turning, her hair stuck to her face. Slowly to keep from startling her, he moved over her to try and hold her still and wake her up. Just then, she jumped up, her eyes wild and moving everywhere. Not even noticing Nick sitting nest to her, she left. Out in the living room, Terri was sitting down on the couch, and Grissom and Warrick were in the kitchen. Nick soon joined them. The men watched the girls, their hands flying.
"Hey, what are you guys doing up?" Grissom asked, addressing his teammates.
"Girls' nightmares woke us up," Warrick said, turning from his conversation with Nick.
"Hey Griss, what are the girls saying?" Nick asked, confused.
"Something about a stalker… a nightmare about a man climbing in through a window, and Terri is signing about something that happened awhile back. For more, you need to ask them," Grissom said, finishing his glass of water and watching the girls head back to their respective rooms. Nick walked back in to Kati's room and looked at her while she stared at her windows.
"Want to talk about it?" he asked in a sleepy drawl.
Her eyes never left the windows. She hesitated before replying, "When I was back in Arizona, there was this guy, met me on a side walk. Started to follow me around, so I filed a restraining order… I woke up one night, and he was climbing in through the window. I screamed, he was caught. I've been having recurring nightmares about that night ever since, except in these I never scream… I can't." She looked over towards him and met his gaze. "Sorry I woke you up."
"That's why you weren't upset about seeing that kid... You've experienced that side of life before," he said, saddened slightly. Then he had an idea.
"Come on," he said, patting the bed next to him.
"When I was little, my mom used to tell me stories to help me sleep…"
And that was how she woke up the next morning: her head on Stokes' chest, her hand curled in his shirts as if it were a life raft.
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When Warrick awoke the next morning, he found himself in much the same position: Terri curled up beside him, her face red from crying, and his arm around her for a sense of protection.
He lay there for a few moments, remembering their conversation from the night before. She'd spoken not of a stalker, but of an abusive boyfriend a few years ago, and how he'd controlled her life for a year and a half. She spoke of the beatings and the fights… the escape attempts… He couldn't imagine how afraid she must have been, but he'd gotten a glimpse from the fear in her eyes as she'd told the story, her watery orbs changing color from their typical hazel to a deep green. She'd trembled as she lay next to him, the images in her mind refusing to disappear, and even with his arm around her, it had taken a considerable amount of time for her to fall back asleep.
Now, he looked at the clock beside the bed. It was nearly seven. The early light of dawn fluttered in the thin slats of the blinds as the sun rose. Suddenly, she began to stir. For a moment, she nestled in a bit closer to his warmth and sighed in contentment. But then she saw the clock. Groaning, she sat up.
"Good morning, sunshine," he teased.
She turned, and flushed in embarrassment, suddenly remembering the events from last night. She began to apologize, but he held up a hand.
"Don't worry about it. How are you feeling?"
She hugged her knees up to her chest. "I'm okay," she lied.
He ignored her shyness and put a hand on her cheek, causing her to look at him with sad eyes. "It'll be alright, kiddo," he said in a soothing voice. "You deserve better than that guy, and one day you'll get it." He knocked at her chin playfully.
She smiled a bit and nodded. "I should go wake the others," she said, changing the subject and sliding gracefully out of Nichole's double bed. She nodded toward the glass sliding door in the living room as she put on a thin silk robe over her skimpy Tinkerbell PJs. "If you want to see a great Florida sunrise, head out to the back porch. You can watch it come up over the lake."
He nodded as she left and headed toward Kati's room. Climbing out of bed, he took her advice and headed to the back porch, only to find Grissom already there.
"You don't sleep, do you?" he asked, startling his boss as he looked up from the morning paper. "Let me guess… You've already found the crossword."
Grissom lowered the paper for Warrick to see. It was the front page.
"Just getting a taste of community life," he said matter-of-factly.
Warrick looked down at the table to see that the crossword had already been done. "Typical," he muttered. Chuckling, he looked out over the lake and watched a gator slide over the water's surface.
"Damn," he stated. "That thing must be eight feet long!"
They heard a small laugh come from the glass sliding door, and turned to see Kati standing there.
"You know you're from Florida when you're more afraid of the freaks that live down the street than you are the gators," she quipped.
"You look like you're feeling better this morning," Grissom said lightly.
"Looks can be deceiving," she reminded him. "Anyways, I came out here to see what you wanted for breakfast. Terri makes awesome French toast."
They nodded in agreement.
"That sounds great," Warrick said, his stomach rumbling in agreement.
"Good. She said she'd start on that as soon as she woke the others."
As if on cue, Sara and Catherine walked out to the porch and slouched into chairs. Sara became mesmerized by the pinks and oranges of the sunrise and its reflections on the lake, but Catherine held her hand to her temple as she tried to ignore the throbbing headache.
"Remember when I said that Brass didn't snore? … I was wrong."
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