A/N: Everything is in the 1st and 2nd parts.

Past and Present

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Catherine turned off the water and stepped out of the bathtub. Grabbing a towel on her way into her bedroom, she wrapped it around herself and sat on the bed. She slowly leaned until she was lying on her back and looked over at her nightstand. Four pictures of Gil stared back at her. She got up and put on a sports bra and a pair of sweats. She walked into her kitchen, with the intent on getting a screwdriver.

A few minutes later Catherine curled up on her couch with her drink and a picture frame that held four pictures. She sat there, nursing her drink and letting the pictures bring back memories long forgotten.

The first picture was the one that had been taken the earliest. It was of Gil during their second year of knowing each other. It had been his birthday; she and Jim had shown up at his place at midnight and had drunk the night away. She remembered Jim falling off his chair while they had been playing strip poker, and he never got up again. He had been so drunk that he had fallen asleep when he hit the floor, leaving Gil and Catherine to finish the game by themselves. She laughed at the memory, God that had been a fun night.

DING-DONG!

Catherine almost dropped her drink as the doorbell startled her. She sat down her drink and the pictures as she went to answer the door. It was almost midnight as she was going to kill who ever it was. She opened the door, "What hell do you- "

She broke off soon as she saw who was there. It was Gil, looking as though he had gone a round or two with Mike Tyson. She winced as she realized those bruises were her doing. Then she became very aware of how little she was wearing. 'Damn me for always being so comfortable in my own skin . . . But it isn't like he's never seen you nak- don't think about that!' She scolded herself as she motioned for him to come in.

When she had opened the door Gil had been taken aback. He took her in. She was beautiful; her strawberry-blond was still wet from the shower she had obviously taken, and droplets were sliding down on her- He gulped. Those droplets were making her white, spaghetti-top more see-through by the second. He shifted his pants a little and walked into her house.

She smiled as she saw him shift his pants, good to know she could still do that to a man. "Uh, sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone."

"I called."

"You did?"

He nodded and pointed to the couch that she had sitting on earlier, when she nodded he continued, "Yeah, but I guess you were taking a shower." He sat down on the couch, and smiled when she joined him.

"Yeah, I just got out," she pointed to the kitchen, "you want anything?" He shook his head and she stared at him.

He looked up at her and saw that she was holding onto her legs, "Are you cold?"

She shook he head and smiled sheepishly, "No, more like exposed."

"That's a very odd thing for an ex-stripper to say," he said as he laughed, earning him a pillow thrown at him. He batted it away as it hit him, "Hey! You could hurt somebody with that!"

She launched herself at him, knocking him and her off the couch and on to the floor. He landed on top of her and she rolled them, so she ended up on top. She pinned one of his legs beneath her and held both wrists on either side of his head in firm grasps. "Pin ya," she said through the giggles.

"Now that probably hurt you more than it did me," he smiled up at her, and she could have sworn her heart melted.

"Well, what'd ya expect when your fat ass fell on me!"

Mocked hurt filled his voice, "You think I'm fat?"

"No." She smiled down at him. Actually he had lost a lot of weight after his operation, she always thought that most of some of the weight he had put on in the last two to three years had had something to do with the depression he had gone through with his hearing, and just with age. "But you did lose some."

"I know. You like?"

She raised herself off of him a bit more, "Yeah, but I never said I didn't think you were hot stuff with a few extra either." She mentally slapped herself; did she really just say that?

His brow furrowed, "You think I'm hot stuff?"

'Oops, you're on your own Willows.' "Hey just because we're best friends doesn't mean I can't think you're cute sometimes, does it?"

Gil could have sworn he had stop breathing, Catherine, the love of his life, thought he was cute? "No."

"Good."

She looked into his eyes and said, "I'm sorry about earlier . . ." She traced a finger over the side of his face that was bruised. "I'm sorry, I was just extremely pissed off. And I didn't know how to control it."

"Do you know how lame that sounds?"

She laughed and then met his gaze, "Why didn't you tell me you had a daughter?"

His eyes got wide as what she said sunk in, "You think Kaylenn is mine?"

"Kaylenn, she's the red-head right?" He nodded and she said, "Well, she is isn't she?" If he said no, she was going to commit suicide on the spot.

"No, she's my niece."

Her jaw dropped, he had a niece? She hadn't even known he had any siblings. "Y-y-your niece?"

He nodded, "Yes, she's my brother's daughter."

She quickly got up off him, both of them mentally groaning at the lost of contact. "You have a brother?"

"Had," he sighed.

"What?"

He met her gaze, and she saw a little bit of moisture was in his eyes, "Let me start from the beginning, ok?"

She nodded and he propped himself against the couch. "He was my older half- brother,"

She interrupted him, "But I thought your mom and your dad divorced when you were five."

"They did." He took a deep breath and continued, "My mom had an affair, and she got pregnant with me. My brother was eight when I was born."

"Your mom had an affair with who, and this was on your dad, right?"

"Yes, my mom was married to my father when she had the affair. And I don't know who my real father is, she never told me."

She was confused, "She told you she had an affair with a guy who happens to be your real father, but she didn't tell you who he is?"

He nodded, "That's the thing, whenever I ask her, I get the feeling I know him."

"Like he's in your life?"

"Yeah, I feel like I've met him and he kept in touch with me when I was younger."

"You got any guesses?" She was curious to know.

"A few, but I'm afraid to follow through with it." She saw that he was looking at something only he could see, he shook his head, "Anyways, my dad never found out that I wasn't his until their divorce, my mother had complete custody over me since I wasn't his; while my bother got shared custody. I mean my father had visitation privileges but that was about it."

"Was it hard on you?"

"Yep." He looked down at his hands, "He really didn't want to see me after that and I've had little contact with him since then."

"Harsh," she reached for one of his hands and held it as he continued.

"Anyway, Michael, my brother, he mostly lived with my dad, so we were never what you would call close." He sighed, "To make a long story short, he went on to be a very successful doctor and married an equally successful surgeon."

"Wow, they must have been rich."

"They were. Since she was born in Texas, they moved down there and brought a ranch, where they had Kaylenn."

"So, Kaylenn is a Texan, I knew I had heard that accent before," she saw him smile. "Though, she has nothing on Nick."

"No she doesn't." He shook his head; "I didn't know it was Kaylenn until she told me who she was. I haven't seen her since she was three. And I had no idea she was coming."

"I did."

His head shot up and he met her eyes sharply, "You what? How?"

Catherine smiled guiltily, "Your office phone rang and I picked it up, it was social services and they want me to tell you that Kaylenn Grissom would be arriving soon with papers. It had been an emergency and they hadn't been able to reach you for weeks."

"And you went looking for me? That's why you punched me?"

"Yeah, I went looking for you and then came back to your office when Sara told me where you were." She shook her head, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit the roof like that."

He smiled and shrugged, "I would've done the same; though I don't think I would have hit you."

Catherine smiled and then asked, "You said that he had died . . . How?"

Gil cocked his head, "From what Kaylenn told me, it was a car accident that killed them both," his voice had started to crack. "Kaylenn had been trying to get in touch with me, but it just didn't work. And that's why she's here."

"You're her only relative besides your mother and I'm sure they wouldn't put Kaylenn with her, I mean her being taken care of."

"Uh-huh, so I have to decide whether or not she stays with me."

"Say yes and give it a try."

Gil raised his eyes and blue met blue, "It's not th-"

"I personally think you've already made a choice Gil."

"I think so too, I just don't know if it's the right one."

They sat there for a few moments before she pulled him into a hug, and the random thought of her being the almost naked one this time around popped into her mind. They held each other till she felt him grab something off of the coffee table, "What are these?"

'Oh shit, the pictures!' "Just pictures I have of you."

He looked at her, she still had her arms around his neck and he had one arm around her waist, "I know that but I've never seen them before."

"They're part of my private collection."

He pointed to the she had been looking at earlier, "When was this one taken?"

"Don't you remember?" He shook his head, "Gil, it was your 32nd birthday, the night we, meaning you, me and Jim, all got incredibly drunk."

"And I beat you at strip-poker?" She lightly swatted his shoulder, "Well, I did. But still when did you take this?"

"You were the last one to pass out and the last one to wake up, Jim had left but I wasn't going to leave you until you woke up." She smiled, "I grabbed my camera, I have some interesting pictures of that night," he arched an eyebrow. "You were sleeping on your couch and I couldn't resist it."

He looked down at the picture, "Why am I half dressed?"

"You may have won the game but I did make you lose some of you clothing: your watch, your shoes, your socks, your shirt, and then your under-shirt . . . I'm guessing you never put them back on."

"Oh, I was starting to think you did something to me."

"Gil!"

"Sorry."

"You're so horrible to me sometimes."

"I know," he looked back at the pictures, "They're a nice collection."

"Yeah, I know."

He looked at his watch and said, ":I gotta get back to work, and I gotta call Kaylenn, she's probably burning down my house."

Catherine cocked her head, "She can't be that bad."

Gil looked up at her and said, "She has a minor record," Catherine's eyes grew big, "nothing big, just minor offenses, nothing that that will be put on her permanent record."

She nodded. "Though she did get in a fight with the desk clerk at in the police department, and then told Jim to lick her."

Catherine groaned and put her head in the crook of his shoulder, "I can't believe she told him that. What does he think?"

Gil was getting kind of nervous about how much contact was going on between them right now, and it didn't help that she still wasn't wearing very much clothing, "He thinks she's a pain in the ass."

"Meaning he likes her."

He nodded, "Look, I really have to be going."

She slowly got up and pulled him up too, "Yeah, it's getting late, can I have the rest of the night off, boss?"

"Your lucky I don't fire your ass for hitting me . . . And slapping me." He smiled down at her.

"I know you liked it."

He laughed and started walking to her door, "I'll see-ya tomorrow Cat."

She opened the door for him and he walked out of her house down to his Tahoe. Before he got in, she called out, "Bye Gil! And thanks! I call you later."

"Ok." He got in the car and started it up. She waited for him to disappear down the street before closing the door.

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"Now look at me, still in your mind,

Our memories so intertwined,

Well you broke through and found your way,

And so did I, no need to stay,

The same old pictures, tried and true,

Been through there, looking for something new."

'Stories' by Trapt

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A/N: Ok, I'm gonna start working on the next parts of this story and 'I Never Cried'. Be patient. Now hit the little review button and tell me what you think so far.