A/N: Sorry, I thought my beta had given me the beta'd version but she
hadn't so that's what was with the no update, SORRY! Thanks for the
reviews!
**************
Gil walked Catherine to the door and opened it for her. She turned slowly to him and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you to sleep with me. Now Kaylenn probably thinks she can't trust you or thinks you don't trust her and-"
He cut her off by placing a finger on her lips. "Good night Catherine, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? I thought you were working."
He shook his head, "No, you have shift." At her look, he asked her, "Aren't you the one who told me that I had to start spending more time at home, so I could take care of Kaylenn?"
"Yeah, but-" He stopped her again.
"Her and I had a conversation this morning, and it showed me how much she needs me, right now more than ever . . ."
She smiled up at him, "You're a great father. Well ok, bye Gil, I'll see ya soon." She hugged him and the feeling of him hugging back made her heart soar to new heights. She pulled back and exited the house.
He closed the door and turned to see Kaylenn, who looked amused, curious, loved and pissed off. Her facial expressions amazed him to no end. Blue- gray met blue-gray and said, "She used the wrong tense."
He cocked an eyebrow and crossed over to the couch, "What?" He looked down at the huge dog stretched out on the leather and glared at it. It seemed to get the picture since it whimpered and skulked off into the kitchen.
"Hey! That's my dog, you know, stop treating her like that!"
"Sorry, I don't do dogs, so if you want to keep 'em, they're now outside dogs."
She stuck her tongue at him, only for him to do the same, she rolled her eyes, "Fine, but not until you get to know them." At his nod, she continued, "Catherine, she said, 'you're a great dad' not 'you'll be a great dad'."
"And?"
"She's either hiding something or just says the wrong tenses regularly . . . But it's a proven fact that when someone says the wrong tense, it means they're hiding something." She smiled, "And I'm pretty sure English is her first language."
Gil shook his head, what could Catherine be hiding from him at this moment in time? He shook his head and decided a change in subject would be appropriate right about now. "Would Spanish be you second language, since you've practically never left San Antonio?"
She shook her head and laughed, "Me and Espanola do not mix, it's like oil and water." At his look, she added, "My thing is Latin, I love it and this is my fourth year learning it."
"I took Latin, but then again, I already knew how to speak Spanish, and I'm fluent in Sign Language, which was all I needed to know back then."
"Which reminds me, well, actually the oil and water thing I said . . . Guess who ruined an almost perfect day? Well, besides you doin' the nasty in front of me."
He was about to retort but she was smiling playfully, so he dismissed the statement. "Who?"
She held up her fingers and made a two, "I give you two guesses, and only one hint, maybe two if you're nice." She smiled sweetly and said, "His father and you are like oil and water. Don't mix."
Gil's mind went back to a certain conversation with Catherine when she had said something similar to him. They had been talking about who should talk to Conrad Ecklie about a case involving Nick . . . "Conrad Ecklie's son is in one of your classes?"
Kaylenn was taken a back by the harshness in the man's voice as he said the other man's name. "Yeah, he's a total geek too, and nasty." She grabbed a pillow from the couch and hugged it, "Talk about coldness too, his face looked like he hadn't had a true smile in his life."
"Like father, like son."
"Not always," Kaylenn offered a small smile, when Gil looked questioningly at her. "Come on Gil both sons hated the dad in our instance, though my dad always looked liked Grand-dad and I always thought they had a lot in common. But you were always the odd-ball of the family."
"Your father might have been my brother, but he was also my half-brother."
Kaylenn's eyes went wide, "That's why you don't look like dad or Grand-dad, you just look like Sammy Grand!"
Gil's eyes brightened when his face broke into a smile, "Sammy Grand? You still call her that?"
"Yep!"
"Kay, I really don't want to go into our family history, so why don't we move you in and get the stuff out of your room?"
The girl squealed, "Really?"
Gil laughed at the sound and how she had been able to scrunch her body up, she had looked like a gerbil cleaning its face. "You know you look like a gerbil when you do that?"
"That's what I've been told, so when do we start?"
"Why don't we change and then start on your room?"
She jumped off of the coffee table and ran to the guest-bathroom and then to her room. Gil shook his head; she could be so hyper at times.
*****
"WOW!!!"
Around two hours later, they stood covered in dirt and sweat. They looked like they had been working with machinery rather than cleaning. Both Kaylenn and Gil had on jeans that had seen better days. While both of their shirts had gone through a massive color change. He had been wearing a white tank but it was now a dingy brown and gray on the belly and chest. And Kaylenn's, well hers had been a gray, but now it resembled more of a gray and black camouflage. And it also hadn't helped since they had decided to have a dust fight.
But now after two hours of moving boxes and various pieces of furniture around, they had cleaned out her room. They had dusted, and wiped down things, so they were now airing out the room, making it easier to breathe with all the dust in the air. And had finished by vacuuming and cleaning the carpet. The place was spotless and now they were just standing there, looking at it.
"I'll say it again Gil, WOW! I think we do good together!" She looked down at him where he was sitting with his back to the wall.
He glanced up and smiled, "Now we get to do the other room!"
Kaylenn looked to what she guessed as the Game Room and felt sick, she pointed to the mountains of dust covered boxes and furniture, "We have to clean up that? Why? I already feel like I work for a oil company or somethin! Why make it worse?!"
"You told me that your friends want to come over and meet me right? And you asked me if the girls could spend the night, right?" She nodded and he continued, "Do you really want them to come up the stairs and see this room like this?"
Kaylenn stared at the room and now saw it as an enemy of hers, "Good point." She moved to get a box down and dropped it, making a small dust cloud. "You know Gil? You are sooo lucky, I'm not allergic to this crap!"
She turned to him, seeing him sitting there, she cleared her throat, "What?"
Kaylenn sighed, "I'm not doing this all by myself!"
*****
About an hour later they were still going through boxes and had about six boxes and around seven and a half trash bags full of stuff to get rid of. Kaylenn was sitting on the ground near the opened window with a medium sized shoebox, while Gil was somewhere downstairs.
She looked at the box and saw that it had written on it, 'All the Girls in Your Life'. She opened it and was greeted with the smiling faces of Gil and a beautiful, fiery, red-haired woman. And . . . Kaylenn's jaw dropped and she quickly went through the pictures to see if her eyes were seeing things. Every picture was pretty much the same except then she came to a different period in his life, and then she saw that a new woman was in his life. Kaylenn's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "HOLY SHIT!!!"
Gil came running up the stairs and rounded the stair railing to see Kaylenn staring at some pictures. His stomach contracted sickly when he realized what those pictures had on them.
"Kay?"
"This is like finding out your parents watch porno! You know they're capable, but do you really want to know if they can?"
"Kaylenn, look-"
She leant back and looked up at him, "No, you gonna answer three questions, alright?"
He sighed and nodded.
"My first question is who is the girl," she pointed to the girl who was in the same picture with the person she had first freaked out about, "and secondly, why the hell are you being all friendly with Craprad Ecklie???"
"Easy, the girl was his sister and we use to best friends until she died."
She cocked an eyebrow and closed her eyes, "Oh . . . Sorry . . . How'd she die?"
"We were all friends from college and we fought for transfers to Las Vegas so we could work together."
"So you were all CSI 's?"
He nodded slowly and continued, "Yeah, and everybody hated us. When I was with them, and accounting that I was wilder back then, I would play practical jokes and scare people. We were the terrible three, though it was always her fault, we wouldn't have ever done anything if it weren't for her."
"What was her name?"
"Cynthia, ah, and she was the moon and me and Conrad were the tide . . . She had us hooked on her. Her being my first love and her being his younger sister, by about four minutes."
Kaylenn smiled, "So they were twins?" At his nod, she asked, "How'd she die?"
"On a case . . ." He started to play with his shirt, "I was upstairs, she was on the first floor and he was in the basement." He eyes started to water. "All of a sudden, I heard a gun-shot and a scream fill the house, I pulled my gun and ran down stairs. The guy had already left and Cynthia was on the ground in a rapidly growing puddle of blood."
"Where was Ecklie?"
"The perp must've locked him in the basement, because he was yelling for someone to open the door and was banging on it. But my attention was on her." He took a shallow, raspy breath, "She died within minutes and Ecklie found us like that. Cynthia dead . . . In my arms. And he's blamed me ever since, while I hate him for blaming me and ruining a friendship when I needed one the most."
Kaylenn got up and walked over to him, "Sounds like both of you needed each other." He grunted in response and she engulfed him a hug.
'I've seem to be getting these a lot since my surgery.' Gil thought as he returned it gratefully, 'I'm becoming such a softy!'
They pulled apart and he sighed, "Now your gonna ask me why I'm kissing your mom in that photo. Am I right?"
"The thought had crossed my mind."
"It's plain and simple, I dated your mother and then when she met your dad, they fell in love."
Kaylenn arched that eyebrow again. "And you didn't have a problem with that?"
He shook his head, "I was twenty-nine and I found a stripper." He shrugged, "We were both content on splitting, and if we hadn't, you'd probably be mine."
"The horror!"
She smirked at him and then her face changed to one of comprehension, Gil could have sworn he had seen the light bulb. "Catherine was the stripper!"
Gil starting laughing, "Yeah, she was, and I how'd you know that?"
"I am friends with Greg you know," she smiled crookedly, "he has a lot of dirt on y'all."
He smirked, "He probably does, and you Texans with your y'all."
She hit him on the shoulder, "Don't make fun of us Texans!"
*****
She looked over to where he was cooking the pizzas. "My God! Do you know how good that smells! I haven't had a home-made pizza in like forever . . ." She breathed in the smell, and exclaimed, "Ahhh!"
Gil smirked at the sound and threw some cheese at her. "Hey, no fair! You have stuff to throw, I don't!"
The smirked turned into a lop-sided smile, "I can't believe you like pineapple pizza too; no body that I know likes it."
"Well, I can see Greg, Cath, and Sara liking this kinda pizza, but you?" She cocked an eyebrow, and then switched to the other one. "I never would have guessed."
"I like being mysterious, but Sara?"
"I can see that!" She grabbed the frame with the pictures of Catherine, Lindsey and him. "Sara seems like the kinda girl who likes to indulge herself in something exotic once in a while."
"You know, you'd be good as a Forensic Profiler." He looked at her seriously, "You're great with figuring people out, knowing their feelings, what's going on in their heads, and most importantly, talking with them."
"Really? What do you mean with the last one?"
He took out the pizza and sat it down on the counter to cool. "I've talked more in the last week that you have been here, more than I have talked in the past year I think."
"Wow! You really do need a life!" He shook his head and laughed lightly. "Hey, who's this little girl?" She asked as she pointed to Lindsey.
"Lindsey, Cat's 10 year-old girl."
"She's beautiful, she's gonna be a real knock-out when she's in High School."
"Yeah, she will be . . . I guess I just have to watch her." He looked at Kaylenn and asked, "So what are you?"
She glanced up at him, "What?"
"Right now in High School, what are you?"
"A shadow." He cocked his head. "I'm there, but I blend in. Occasionally, someone will finally notice me, just like sometimes you notice your shadow. It's always there but it never really crosses your mind a lot. I used to have friends in every group." She shrugged her shoulders, "But now I seem to have friends that are shadows along with me."
"What were you?"
He looked up quickly then lowered his eyes slightly then met hers, "A ghost . . ."
************
~~Yeah, oooh...
~~We started as friends
~~But something happened inside me
~~Now I'm reading into everything 'Obvious' by Westlife
************
A/N: Hope you enjoyed, I'm already working on the next part. And I promise everyone will be back into play (ok, only the CSI gang).
**************
Gil walked Catherine to the door and opened it for her. She turned slowly to him and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you to sleep with me. Now Kaylenn probably thinks she can't trust you or thinks you don't trust her and-"
He cut her off by placing a finger on her lips. "Good night Catherine, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? I thought you were working."
He shook his head, "No, you have shift." At her look, he asked her, "Aren't you the one who told me that I had to start spending more time at home, so I could take care of Kaylenn?"
"Yeah, but-" He stopped her again.
"Her and I had a conversation this morning, and it showed me how much she needs me, right now more than ever . . ."
She smiled up at him, "You're a great father. Well ok, bye Gil, I'll see ya soon." She hugged him and the feeling of him hugging back made her heart soar to new heights. She pulled back and exited the house.
He closed the door and turned to see Kaylenn, who looked amused, curious, loved and pissed off. Her facial expressions amazed him to no end. Blue- gray met blue-gray and said, "She used the wrong tense."
He cocked an eyebrow and crossed over to the couch, "What?" He looked down at the huge dog stretched out on the leather and glared at it. It seemed to get the picture since it whimpered and skulked off into the kitchen.
"Hey! That's my dog, you know, stop treating her like that!"
"Sorry, I don't do dogs, so if you want to keep 'em, they're now outside dogs."
She stuck her tongue at him, only for him to do the same, she rolled her eyes, "Fine, but not until you get to know them." At his nod, she continued, "Catherine, she said, 'you're a great dad' not 'you'll be a great dad'."
"And?"
"She's either hiding something or just says the wrong tenses regularly . . . But it's a proven fact that when someone says the wrong tense, it means they're hiding something." She smiled, "And I'm pretty sure English is her first language."
Gil shook his head, what could Catherine be hiding from him at this moment in time? He shook his head and decided a change in subject would be appropriate right about now. "Would Spanish be you second language, since you've practically never left San Antonio?"
She shook her head and laughed, "Me and Espanola do not mix, it's like oil and water." At his look, she added, "My thing is Latin, I love it and this is my fourth year learning it."
"I took Latin, but then again, I already knew how to speak Spanish, and I'm fluent in Sign Language, which was all I needed to know back then."
"Which reminds me, well, actually the oil and water thing I said . . . Guess who ruined an almost perfect day? Well, besides you doin' the nasty in front of me."
He was about to retort but she was smiling playfully, so he dismissed the statement. "Who?"
She held up her fingers and made a two, "I give you two guesses, and only one hint, maybe two if you're nice." She smiled sweetly and said, "His father and you are like oil and water. Don't mix."
Gil's mind went back to a certain conversation with Catherine when she had said something similar to him. They had been talking about who should talk to Conrad Ecklie about a case involving Nick . . . "Conrad Ecklie's son is in one of your classes?"
Kaylenn was taken a back by the harshness in the man's voice as he said the other man's name. "Yeah, he's a total geek too, and nasty." She grabbed a pillow from the couch and hugged it, "Talk about coldness too, his face looked like he hadn't had a true smile in his life."
"Like father, like son."
"Not always," Kaylenn offered a small smile, when Gil looked questioningly at her. "Come on Gil both sons hated the dad in our instance, though my dad always looked liked Grand-dad and I always thought they had a lot in common. But you were always the odd-ball of the family."
"Your father might have been my brother, but he was also my half-brother."
Kaylenn's eyes went wide, "That's why you don't look like dad or Grand-dad, you just look like Sammy Grand!"
Gil's eyes brightened when his face broke into a smile, "Sammy Grand? You still call her that?"
"Yep!"
"Kay, I really don't want to go into our family history, so why don't we move you in and get the stuff out of your room?"
The girl squealed, "Really?"
Gil laughed at the sound and how she had been able to scrunch her body up, she had looked like a gerbil cleaning its face. "You know you look like a gerbil when you do that?"
"That's what I've been told, so when do we start?"
"Why don't we change and then start on your room?"
She jumped off of the coffee table and ran to the guest-bathroom and then to her room. Gil shook his head; she could be so hyper at times.
*****
"WOW!!!"
Around two hours later, they stood covered in dirt and sweat. They looked like they had been working with machinery rather than cleaning. Both Kaylenn and Gil had on jeans that had seen better days. While both of their shirts had gone through a massive color change. He had been wearing a white tank but it was now a dingy brown and gray on the belly and chest. And Kaylenn's, well hers had been a gray, but now it resembled more of a gray and black camouflage. And it also hadn't helped since they had decided to have a dust fight.
But now after two hours of moving boxes and various pieces of furniture around, they had cleaned out her room. They had dusted, and wiped down things, so they were now airing out the room, making it easier to breathe with all the dust in the air. And had finished by vacuuming and cleaning the carpet. The place was spotless and now they were just standing there, looking at it.
"I'll say it again Gil, WOW! I think we do good together!" She looked down at him where he was sitting with his back to the wall.
He glanced up and smiled, "Now we get to do the other room!"
Kaylenn looked to what she guessed as the Game Room and felt sick, she pointed to the mountains of dust covered boxes and furniture, "We have to clean up that? Why? I already feel like I work for a oil company or somethin! Why make it worse?!"
"You told me that your friends want to come over and meet me right? And you asked me if the girls could spend the night, right?" She nodded and he continued, "Do you really want them to come up the stairs and see this room like this?"
Kaylenn stared at the room and now saw it as an enemy of hers, "Good point." She moved to get a box down and dropped it, making a small dust cloud. "You know Gil? You are sooo lucky, I'm not allergic to this crap!"
She turned to him, seeing him sitting there, she cleared her throat, "What?"
Kaylenn sighed, "I'm not doing this all by myself!"
*****
About an hour later they were still going through boxes and had about six boxes and around seven and a half trash bags full of stuff to get rid of. Kaylenn was sitting on the ground near the opened window with a medium sized shoebox, while Gil was somewhere downstairs.
She looked at the box and saw that it had written on it, 'All the Girls in Your Life'. She opened it and was greeted with the smiling faces of Gil and a beautiful, fiery, red-haired woman. And . . . Kaylenn's jaw dropped and she quickly went through the pictures to see if her eyes were seeing things. Every picture was pretty much the same except then she came to a different period in his life, and then she saw that a new woman was in his life. Kaylenn's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "HOLY SHIT!!!"
Gil came running up the stairs and rounded the stair railing to see Kaylenn staring at some pictures. His stomach contracted sickly when he realized what those pictures had on them.
"Kay?"
"This is like finding out your parents watch porno! You know they're capable, but do you really want to know if they can?"
"Kaylenn, look-"
She leant back and looked up at him, "No, you gonna answer three questions, alright?"
He sighed and nodded.
"My first question is who is the girl," she pointed to the girl who was in the same picture with the person she had first freaked out about, "and secondly, why the hell are you being all friendly with Craprad Ecklie???"
"Easy, the girl was his sister and we use to best friends until she died."
She cocked an eyebrow and closed her eyes, "Oh . . . Sorry . . . How'd she die?"
"We were all friends from college and we fought for transfers to Las Vegas so we could work together."
"So you were all CSI 's?"
He nodded slowly and continued, "Yeah, and everybody hated us. When I was with them, and accounting that I was wilder back then, I would play practical jokes and scare people. We were the terrible three, though it was always her fault, we wouldn't have ever done anything if it weren't for her."
"What was her name?"
"Cynthia, ah, and she was the moon and me and Conrad were the tide . . . She had us hooked on her. Her being my first love and her being his younger sister, by about four minutes."
Kaylenn smiled, "So they were twins?" At his nod, she asked, "How'd she die?"
"On a case . . ." He started to play with his shirt, "I was upstairs, she was on the first floor and he was in the basement." He eyes started to water. "All of a sudden, I heard a gun-shot and a scream fill the house, I pulled my gun and ran down stairs. The guy had already left and Cynthia was on the ground in a rapidly growing puddle of blood."
"Where was Ecklie?"
"The perp must've locked him in the basement, because he was yelling for someone to open the door and was banging on it. But my attention was on her." He took a shallow, raspy breath, "She died within minutes and Ecklie found us like that. Cynthia dead . . . In my arms. And he's blamed me ever since, while I hate him for blaming me and ruining a friendship when I needed one the most."
Kaylenn got up and walked over to him, "Sounds like both of you needed each other." He grunted in response and she engulfed him a hug.
'I've seem to be getting these a lot since my surgery.' Gil thought as he returned it gratefully, 'I'm becoming such a softy!'
They pulled apart and he sighed, "Now your gonna ask me why I'm kissing your mom in that photo. Am I right?"
"The thought had crossed my mind."
"It's plain and simple, I dated your mother and then when she met your dad, they fell in love."
Kaylenn arched that eyebrow again. "And you didn't have a problem with that?"
He shook his head, "I was twenty-nine and I found a stripper." He shrugged, "We were both content on splitting, and if we hadn't, you'd probably be mine."
"The horror!"
She smirked at him and then her face changed to one of comprehension, Gil could have sworn he had seen the light bulb. "Catherine was the stripper!"
Gil starting laughing, "Yeah, she was, and I how'd you know that?"
"I am friends with Greg you know," she smiled crookedly, "he has a lot of dirt on y'all."
He smirked, "He probably does, and you Texans with your y'all."
She hit him on the shoulder, "Don't make fun of us Texans!"
*****
She looked over to where he was cooking the pizzas. "My God! Do you know how good that smells! I haven't had a home-made pizza in like forever . . ." She breathed in the smell, and exclaimed, "Ahhh!"
Gil smirked at the sound and threw some cheese at her. "Hey, no fair! You have stuff to throw, I don't!"
The smirked turned into a lop-sided smile, "I can't believe you like pineapple pizza too; no body that I know likes it."
"Well, I can see Greg, Cath, and Sara liking this kinda pizza, but you?" She cocked an eyebrow, and then switched to the other one. "I never would have guessed."
"I like being mysterious, but Sara?"
"I can see that!" She grabbed the frame with the pictures of Catherine, Lindsey and him. "Sara seems like the kinda girl who likes to indulge herself in something exotic once in a while."
"You know, you'd be good as a Forensic Profiler." He looked at her seriously, "You're great with figuring people out, knowing their feelings, what's going on in their heads, and most importantly, talking with them."
"Really? What do you mean with the last one?"
He took out the pizza and sat it down on the counter to cool. "I've talked more in the last week that you have been here, more than I have talked in the past year I think."
"Wow! You really do need a life!" He shook his head and laughed lightly. "Hey, who's this little girl?" She asked as she pointed to Lindsey.
"Lindsey, Cat's 10 year-old girl."
"She's beautiful, she's gonna be a real knock-out when she's in High School."
"Yeah, she will be . . . I guess I just have to watch her." He looked at Kaylenn and asked, "So what are you?"
She glanced up at him, "What?"
"Right now in High School, what are you?"
"A shadow." He cocked his head. "I'm there, but I blend in. Occasionally, someone will finally notice me, just like sometimes you notice your shadow. It's always there but it never really crosses your mind a lot. I used to have friends in every group." She shrugged her shoulders, "But now I seem to have friends that are shadows along with me."
"What were you?"
He looked up quickly then lowered his eyes slightly then met hers, "A ghost . . ."
************
~~Yeah, oooh...
~~We started as friends
~~But something happened inside me
~~Now I'm reading into everything 'Obvious' by Westlife
************
A/N: Hope you enjoyed, I'm already working on the next part. And I promise everyone will be back into play (ok, only the CSI gang).
