Hiya

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: fredchester and xxxsarasbutterflyxxx for reviewing and thank you to rhee for adding this story to your faves. Sorry that this chapter is so short, I just realised it as tuesday. next chapter will be up at the weekend. Hope you have a good week.

x

"Gil, I am worried about you." He placed the glass down which had been cooling his skin. It was a tumbler full of ice cubes, catching light in its frozen bubbles, swirling liquid sloshed over them. His other hand held his house phone.

"It was her, Catherine, I know it was" he spoke calmly, because he knew that the first thing a hysteric says 'I am not hysterical' and he had already said that to Catherine. He had been replaying it over and over but he could feel the doubt in her voice.

"I saw her…I…I touched her..." He put his hand out, touching the air as if he was touching her face. Catherine wondered why he had paused and she was startled when he spoke again.

"And we never found a body." Catherine noticed how he stuttered on the final word. She also noticed how her hopes were rising, Gil seemed so damn sure. Her heart was breaking, for both herself and Gil. She sighed inwardly. The idea of Sara being alive was sublime.

"It was midday, the sun was bright and you saw a woman who looked like Sara,"

"It was Sara."

"Okay, okay, Sara then… but the sun was bright, it was a large crowd, and there are thousands of female brunets in Nevada, it's almost seven years since she went missing and… I know the guilt you felt for when she went missing."

He breathed deeply as he recalled the words Catherine had after three months of looking; searching; hunting.

"I am not going pretend that I know what you're going through or that I can understand you're feeling…because I can't…I wish… I wish I could say that over time, things will get better, the pain you are feeling now is going to ease over time… we both know that things are not going to get better and that the pain won't ease... But you will go on…we all will… I imagine losing Sara for you is like losing a daughter…or worse." His eyebrow's knotted together as he struggled to gain to control of his dry tears. His heart was burning away. In his mind, memories were so painful they had no pictures or people in them; they only had dark inchoate feelings and awesome guilt for past wrongs.

"Catherine, you have to trust me."

"I don't trust you…not on this…" Her blue hematite eyes blurred with tears, while his eyes misted.

"I'm sorry Gil." He heard the click and he exchanged the phone for his drink, gulping it with pure greed as his muscles rippled just under his skin. He was shaking.

Nick Stokes stepped through the door, his pupils dancing slowly. He watched Catherine's hand hold on to the phone before placing it back in its holder. The lab was quiet, speechless and seemed to be obeying a law of silence. It wouldn't last.

"Hey, you alright?" With wide and valiant eyes Nick looked at Catherine, unsure if she was crying.

"Yeah, I am fine." She had tried to quieten her sniff. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came in early, thought I'd swing by, see how you're doing." Nick leaned on the doorframe. "Looks like a came at the right time."

"It's nothing," Catherine waved her hand, whilst looking at her desk clock; she was relieve to see she had only 32 minuets to go before it was the end of her shift.

"It is just that Grissom has got an idea in his head, and he is so stubborn about it." Nick nodded twice silently.

"You want to get some coffee?" His head indicated the hallway. "You look like you need it." It wasn't so much insulting, but more of an act of concern. She smiled at Nick.

"Coffee would be great."

"He said he felt further away from her now than when she first went missing because I don't think he ever really believed that he'd lost her. Then he is convinced that he has

seen her…I don't want to let myself be convinced."

Nick poured the tepid, bitter coffee from the filter jug that had been untouched while Catherine explained what had happened. Nick stole a taste of the coffee, though by definition it probably was not coffee, and poured the rest of it down the sink.

"So you think Grissom is losing his marbles?"

He opened the cupboard which held Greg's secret stash of Blue Mountain.

"Yes…No…I don't know Nick. He will kill you for using that… I just think he wants to see Sara that he is willing to see her in someone else."

The delicious aroma of the coffee began permeating throughout the room as Nick placed a cup in front of Catherine.

"Thanks."

"I just don't want him to end up stalking the poor girl… he said that he thought he had scared her." her frown deepened as she dropped her eyes and took sip of warm coffee.

"Of course there is the possibility that the woman he saw was actually Sara."

Catherine looked at him pointedly as if to say 'not you too.'

"Maybe Sara has amnesia-." Nick smiled; a full heart-stopping smile.

"Nick, we don't live in a TV drama world that is screened every Thursday night on CBS, okay." Nick laughed slightly and so did Catherine once she realised what she said. She moaned loudly and put her head on her folded arms which were crossed on the table and laughed a little.

"Long shift today?" Nick asked curiously and mischievously.

"Oh yeah," and she took another sip. So did Nick.

"But think about it Catherine. Grissom, as far as we know, is not suffering from a mental disorder and he is not a liar, so therefore until any further evidence arises, we have to assume that the person he saw was Sara."

"You been reading Madison 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'?"

"How can you tell?"

"Because what you just said is similar to what the Professor told Susan and Peter when Lucy kept talking about Narnia…" her pink lips twisted wryly "I had a six year old once, you know."

thanks for reading x