Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the long delay, it's been one of those very, very long weeks. Hopefully the next part will come sooner. Thank you to everyone who has replied, I appreciate what each of you have to say. :-)

As always, let me know what you think!

Jenny

Chapter Three:

"Willows." Catherine said curtly, answering her cell. She had been tempted to ignore the call, until she saw that it came from home. She looked at the clock, realizing Warrick should already be on his way in, and slightly panicked, thinking something was wrong with Lindsey or Lyle. The worry, however, was outweighed by anger once she thought of the teenager sitting in the interrogation room, staring into space like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Cath, it's me."

"Warrick? What's going on?" Catherine asked, annoyance evident in her voice, although she tried to hide it, "Is it the kids? Why aren't you at work?"

Catherine impatiently waited as Warrick heavily sighed, seemingly groping for the right words. She was about to tell him she was trying to work and to spit it out, but held her tongue as he began to speak.

"Christina hasn't shown up yet, and while I was getting ready to leave, Lindsey...uh...became...ill?"

Catherine's eyes narrowed at Warrick's obvious hesitation. What the heck was going on? Tapping her foot impatiently against the building's tile floor, she snapped in response, "What's with the uncertainty? She's either sick or she's not."

"Well, she is...sort of. Look, you just need to come home and be with your daughter."

"It's not like you aren't about to be her step-father, I'm on a hot case. Tell Grissom you're going to stay home with her, you'll do a great job." Catherine said, her tone icy, "I'm not the only parent in the house."

"That's not what I said." Another sigh. "That's not even what I'm getting at. It's just...it's something she needs you for."

"What can I do that you possibly can't?" Catherine asked, quickly going from mildly annoyed to very irritated, "What's wrong with her?"

"She's...I don't know how to put this...becoming a woman?"

"She's what?" Catherine gasped, nearly dropping the phone, "She's too young for that!"

"Well, not really, obviously. She's asking for you, she's really freaked out. She needs you, Cath."

Catherine sighed, knowing she needed to deal with this. It wouldn't be fair, although it would be amusing, to make Warrick answer Lindsey's questions and explain what was happening, "I'm with a suspect, I'll be there as soon as I'm done. You call Gris and tell him you'll be late, I'll let him know I'm leaving early."

Hanging up the phone, she let her hand rest on the doorknob. As much as she wanted to speak to Hannah Taylor, she wanted to talk to her daughter more. It would be so easy to let Nick handle the interrogation while she went home to do her motherly duties. With a resigned sigh, she turned the knob and pushed the door open. Lindsey needed her, but she would still be waiting when Catherine made it home. Riley Taylor, on the other hand, had only this last time to have someone stand up on her behalf.

"Miss Taylor, I'm Catherine Willows from the crime lab. I have a few questions for you..."

"Sara! Wait up! Sara!" Greg shouted, panting as he chased Sara down the sidewalk, "Please, just talk to me!"

Sara spun around, her eyes burning with anger, "Talk to you? Since when do you want to talk? Aren't you the one who abandoned all of us when we needed you? Do you even care what you've done to me? Don't you care about your friends that you left behind? Not one letter, not one postcard, not even a sign that you were alive. I've been worried sick about you! Do you have any idea what you put me through?"

"It wasn't easy on me either." Greg said defensively, blocking himself as she slammed onto his arm with her fist, "Hey, watch it there. Just because you're angry at the situation, you don't need to take it out on me."

"I'm not angry at the situation, you jerk, I'm angry at you!" Sara yelled, clenching her fists angrily, "You left me in the hospital, alone and hurt, with all of my friends hating me because of some stupid fight that you and Nick got into, and you didn't even tell me you were leaving. You supposedly loved me, and you didn't even bother to let me know where you were going, whether or not I should worry, if you were coming back."

"Love." Greg corrected her quietly, "Not loved, I still love you."

Sara shook her head angrily, "Well, you've got a freaking hilarious way of showing it, Sanders. I loved you, and you abandoned me when I needed you. You ran away from your problems, instead of being a man and facing the situation, and I lost all respect for you. I don't want to have anything to do with you."

"You know that's not true." Greg said, grabbing her arm as she turned away, "You don't just stop loving someone, it's not a switch that you can flick on and off. I'm sorry I hurt you, okay? I thought I was doing the right thing, I was ruining everything."

Sara shook her head angrily, "You just don't get it, do you? Sure, you did some stupid stuff and made some wrong choices, but we all do that from time to time. When you left, you closed the door on all of your wrong moves, it's too late now to mend fences. Do you really think Warrick, Catherine, or Nick will forget that you left on bad terms? They never had a chance to let the anger fade away before you pulled this crap, it's going to be hell trying to rebuild that relationship. Do you have any idea how hard it was for Catherine to work towards the end of her pregnancy? Yet we didn't have another hand in there to help out, and when we were busy, she had to waddle into the field and get the job done."

She sat down on the curb, kicking gently at the loose rocks, "Do you even care if they had a boy or a girl? If he's healthy? What they named him? What about Nick? Do you care about his sister's verdict? How he's doing? How worried all three are about you? How worried I was? What's going on in my life? How can you claim to care so much for us and just abandon all of us without a word? You made a mistake, yes, but you should have just owned up to it. Instead, you put one more strain on all of us, one more that wasn't even necessary. We miss you, we all do. Even Hodges misses you, and that's saying a lot."

"I know I screwed up, big time." Greg said, sitting down next to her, "And maybe it was the wrong choice, but at the time it was either sink or swim, and I had to get away. I was going crazy, and if I wouldn't have left when I did, I don't know what would have happened to me...after the accident, I lost it Sara. I didn't know how to get myself back, I didn't know what I was doing, I was lost and miserable. I needed to get away to get myself back...I won't say that I handled it correctly, but I can't say that I'm sorry I did it. I missed you, all of you, like crazy, but now I'm back on my feet and ready to face the world again."

He took her hand in his own, surprised when she didn't pull away, "And I want to know...I want to know everything that's happened in the last 7 months. I've been dying to know, I think about all of you, especially you, every minute of every day. No offense, but your brother is so boring compared to you..."

"I...I don't know if I'm ready to talk to you, to have normal conversation. I'm still too angry...it's not a good idea right now. Besides, I'm tired from my flight, Ryan's probably waiting for me, and I just want to get settled in..." She sighed, "Tomorrow we'll meet for breakfast, okay? Give me a call in the morning, and we'll go from there. Tonight--tonight I just need to think about all of this."

Greg nodded, rising and helping pull Sara to her feet, "I can live with that."

"Just don't skip town, okay?" Sara said with a wry smile, only halfway joking. "I'll hunt you down if I don't hear from you by morning."

Greg nodded, motioning towards the building, "Come on, to get back inside, you'll need my access card," They walked back to the building in silence, Sara watching as Greg let himself into the building. He held the door open for her, giving her a small smile, "You're looking good, Sara."

"Thanks, Greg." Sara replied, giving him a sad smile as she turned away and walked towards the hallway she and her brother had been walking down when Greg had appeared, "See you in the morning."

"I can't wait." Greg whispered, sadly watching as she disappeared into Ryan's office, "Oh, I can't wait."

"So what exactly happened to your daughter, Miss Taylor?" Catherine asked, all thoughts and worries about Lindsey evaporating as the images of Riley Taylor flooded her mind.

Hannah shrugged her shoulders, inspecting her fingernails as she refused to meet Catherine's gaze, "Dunno. One minute she was fine, the next she was dead."

"And it took you 5 hours to call for an ambulance?" Catherine asked, disgust evident on her face, "Cut the crap, what actually happened?"

Hannah shrugged again, rolling her eyes, "What does it matter anyway? No matter what I say, you're going to throw me in jail. It don't matter if I killed her, or my Momma and Daddy, or Tommy, you still gonna throw me in jail."

"If you didn't do it, the evidence will show us who did. Your cooperation will just help speed the process up. If you didn't kill them, I would think you'd want justice served for your little girl." Catherine countered, "Those are some interesting looking stains on your shirt. Can I have it?"

"Are you crazy? I'm not going to just give you my shirt!" Hannah said loudly, giving Catherine an incredulous look, "Take pictures or something, but you ain't getting it."

Catherine shrugged, "Have it your way, I'll just call up the judge and get a court order for it anyway. While we're waiting on that, we can discuss what happened."

"Whatever." Hannah replied, leaning back in her chair, "Look, here's the deal. She was crying while I was trying to feed her, I put her on the floor to play for a bit, I made some calls, and I came to check on her, and she wasn't breathing. I called 911--"

"How long did you wait before calling?" Catherine asked, "A minute? 5? An hour? 5?"

"I called right away!" Hannah yelled, slamming her fist on the table, "I already told the cop all of this. I called 911 as soon as I found her, maybe 10 minutes after I put her on the floor. There was nothing I could do. I didn't even know my parents and Tommy were in the house or dead."

Catherine slammed her own hands on the table, leaning forward, "Let me explain something to you. When you die, your body temperature slowly begins to decline. We tested your daughter's liver temp, and it shows she had been dead for 5 hours when paramedics arrived. You've got blood on your clothes, which probably match your parents and Tommy, and as soon as I get my court order, I'm going to prove it. Riley's high chair was broken, her food had been tossed on the floor, and there are hand sized bruises on her arms and legs, not to mention faded bruises on her entire body. You killed your daughter, why won't you just admit it and save us a lot of trouble?"

"Prove it."

Catherine's eyes narrowed, "Oh, believe me, I intend to." She turned towards Brass, who was tapping his pen against his notebook, obviously not intending to get involved at the moment, "She's all yours, send a copy of this interview to me, will you?"

"I'd be delighted." Brass replied, watching with a slightly worried expression as Catherine hurriedly left the room. Catherine was never one to bail early on an interrogation, especially one that had her blood boiling like this case seemed to be doing. Once alone, he turned his attention back to Hannah Taylor, "Why don't you tell us where you hid the knife used to stab your parents and boyfriend?"

Catherine walked into the apartment she and Warrick shared, giving her fiancé a quick kiss on the lips as they passed in the doorway, communicating through looks alone that they'd talk once the night was over. She moved towards the bassinet, where Lyle was sound asleep, a thin line of drool escaping his lips and running down his cheek, his eyes fluttering underneath the lids as he dreamed.

Covering him with a light blanket, covered in green frogs and yellow ducks, she made her way to Lindsey's room. She knocked on the shut door, frowning as she heard Lindsey's sniffles mixed with her new 'Green Day' CD on the other side. "Who is it?" Lindsey called out, her voice hoarse from the emotion of the day.

"It's me," Catherine said with a sigh, "Can I come in?"

Lindsey's door flew open, and before Catherine could make a move to enter, the blonde child threw herself into her mother's arms, "You came home!" she exclaimed in a surprised voice, "You really did come home."

"Didn't Warrick tell you he had called?" Catherine asked, pulling away and wiping a few tears from Lindsey's eyes, "I wouldn't abandon you when you need me like this, never."

Lindsey's eyes flooded with a fresh wave of tears as she sobbed, "I was so scared, I didn't know what was happening. I tried to call you, but your cell wasn't turned on or something and so I called Roslyn, because she started hers last month, and she talked to me like I was such a baby because I didn't know what was happening or what to do. I'm so glad you came home, Warrick told me you would, but sometimes you get so busy and forget or don't get time, and I'm just so glad you did."

"Sweetie, there's nothing to be scared of, it's a natural thing all girls go through," Catherine replied, leading Lindsey into her room and sitting down with her on the bed, "I stopped at the store to buy you some supplies of your own, since I'm sure you want something more for girls your age than mine. And I told Grissom I was taking the rest of the night off to be with you."

"Really?" Lindsey asked, wiping away her tears and noticing the bag Catherine had in one hand, "The whole night?"

Catherine pulled out her cell phone, "I turned my phone off and left my pager in my locker at work. I stopped at the video store and rented some movies, I bought us some junk food, and there's a pizza on it's way. Tonight is going to be a girls night in, with just the two of us."

"And Lyle," Lindsey said with a frown, "Mom, I may have said some really ugly things to Warrick and Lyle earlier."

Catherine pulled Lindsey in for another hug, stroking her hair gently, "Warrick understands, and Lyle doesn't know what you were saying to him. Tomorrow, you can apologize to Warrick and it will be like nothing happened. Believe me, from this point forward, you'll be saying a lot more things you don't mean a few days out of the month."

"Great." Lindsey replied dryly, rifling through the bag, "I'm going to put my pajamas on, and then we can watch a movie."

"Sounds like a plan," Catherine said brightly, rising to her feet, "It's going to be okay, Lindsey, it's just overwhelming the first time."

Lindsey nodded, "I've noticed."

Giving her daughter a smile, Catherine left the room, suddenly feeling a lot older than she had in a long, long time. Her baby girl was growing up faster than she had noticed...which meant that before she knew it, Lyle would be grown up as well.

Sara nervously strummed her fingers on the edge of the table, waiting for Greg to show up. Part of her was nervous that he had stood her up, although she knew she was a little early, and the other part was telling her that this was not a good idea. Back in Vegas, she had just started to move on without Greg in her life, and of course, he picked that moment to pop up again.

IHOP wasn't very crowded for a Saturday morning, and the lack of customers had guaranteed the waitress to pass by her table once every moment or so, asking when her other party would be joining her.

Greg picked the perfect time to walk through the door, because if that perky blonde waitress had asked her one more time if she wanted to wait and order when her guest showed up, Sara was likely to reply with a nasty comeback.

He slid into the booth, his face showing the same apprehension she felt, "Have you been waiting long?"

"Seven months." Sara replied sadly, the words exiting her mouth before she had a chance to stop them. Seeing his sad look, she sighed, "Only about 10 minutes, I didn't know how long it would take to get here."

Greg nodded, "You never do with Houston traffic. Have you ordered?"

"I was waiting on you." Sara said quietly, taking a sip of her coffee, "How have you been?"

Greg sighed, nervously balling a napkin with his right hand, "It's been rough...I had a lot of unresolved issues I needed to work through. I handled a lot of it in New Orleans...that's when I called you, I thought I was going to be able to come back home. When I realized I couldn't face you, I figured it would be best to relocate rather than hold you back even longer until I got my head screwed on straight. It's only been in the last few weeks that I've grown comfortable with myself, my therapist is about to release me."

"We've missed you," Sara replied, "The day you left, they delivered the verdict on Nick's sister, guilty. I mean, we all knew it was coming, but for it actually to happen...Nick was so upset. She's refused his visits, she's just completely drawn away. He's needed friends to lean on...he misses you a lot."

Greg's eyebrows raised slightly, "I thought he'd want to beat the crap out of me."

"Oh, he does," Sara clarified, "But after that, he'd probably give you a huge hug. You mean a lot to us, Greg."

Greg shook his head, "Not after I put Catherine's baby in jeopardy."

"Their baby is fine," Sara said firmly, "They were scared for a bit, but he's as healthy and strong as an ox. He was born weighing just over 8 pounds, they named him Lyle Joseph. Catherine's water broke while she was working a case with Nick, it was only a few days before her due date, but Warrick was due in court and Grissom, believe it or not, was out with the flu, so she offered to fill in. Nick was freaking out, he called an ambulance, got Ecklie's team to cover the case, and just six hours later, Lyle came into the world," She sighed happily, "Warrick makes a great Dad, and Catherine's just beaming every time anyone mentions Lyle. They make great parents, even Lindsey's tickled pink to have a baby in the house. Catherine and Warrick are getting married in just over two months, it's going to be a beautiful wedding. They miss you too, you know. Warrick feels pretty guilty about whatever it was he told you at the hospital, Catherine wants to let you know she's not angry with you."

Greg leaned back, stunned, "So I didn't hurt the baby after all? I thought...the machines...the doctors..." He sighed heavily, "Oh, thank God I didn't kill their baby. Thank God he's okay."

They sat in silence for a few moments, until Greg asked quietly, "How about you? How have you been?"

Shaking her head, Sara replied, "It was hard. I missed you, I still miss you and you're sitting right in front of me. Why couldn't you have told me you were leaving? Why didn't you call? What kind of crazy idea was it to shut all of us out? We wanted to help you, Greg, I wanted to help you. I thought we had something special, and you just threw it away."

"I never meant to hurt you, I thought I was doing the right thing." Greg said quietly, taking her hand into his, "Please, forgive me."

"I can forgive you," Sara said, pulling her hand back, "But I don't know if I can forget what you've done."

Another tense silence was broken by their waitress, who took their order and promptly left, feeling the tension surrounding the booth.

"I want to make it up to you, just tell me how." Greg said softly, "Seeing you here, hearing your voice, talking to you...I miss you too, I want to make this right. I don't know what I've been waiting for. Anything you want, just tell me and I'll make it happen."

"I want you to come home."

TBC