Thanks to my beta, Camilla Sandman.
Walking into the break room, Catherine spotted Warrick sitting on the couch. As she approached, he turned his attention from the magazine he'd been reading.
"How did it go?" he asked.
"Great! Better than I could have expected," she replied.
"What was the meeting about?"
"Ecklie got fired," she told him, a smile growing on her face.
"What?" he exclaimed, his surprise evident.
"Yeah, one of the lab techs filed a sexual harassment lawsuit, and the Sheriff agreed to fire Ecklie if she dropped it."
"That's great. Did you tell Grissom about Alex?"
"I did and he said I could take off as much time as I needed, but that's not the only good news," she said, pausing briefly. "The old graveyard shift is being put back together."
"So, you're saying that you, Nick, and I are going back to graveyard?"
"Yup, and when I come back, I'll be co-supervisor with Grissom."
"I'm happy for you, Cath," he said, embracing her gently.
"Thanks, Rick," she whispered softly into his ear.
They broke apart a moment later when they heard someone enter the room, and glancing over to the doorway, they spotted Julie, the new DNA lab tech.
"Um…I'm sorry to interrupt you Ms. Willows, but I have some information for you," Julie said.
"Call me Catherine. What is it?"
"I think this is something you might want to hear in private," Julie said, looking uncomfortable as she glanced over at Warrick.
"It's okay. Anything you have to tell me, you can say in front of Warrick," Catherine said, throwing a quick look at Warrick.
"All right. Well, I was processing the SAE kit done on Alexandra Miller and I must have hit a wrong button or something, pulling up the wrong database. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry, but…the results came out and her DNA has thirteen alleles in common with yours. Alexandra Miller is a first degree relative," Julie told her, Handing her a copy of the results.
"Are you sure?" Catherine asked, looking down at the paper, not quite ready to believe what she thought, was really true.
"Yes. Like I said, I'm really sorry. I know I shouldn't have run her DNA through the system, but when it came back with your name, I thought I should let you know," Julie said, looking down. "Again, I'm sorry and I'll be in the DNA lab if you have any other questions."
Julie hurried to leave, Catherine hardly noticing. Feeling unable to move, she just sat there, staring at the paper in her hands. Finally, after a minute had passed, she looked up at Warrick.
"I can't believe it. She's really mine," she said, pausing to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "I mean, I knew she most likely was, but I didn't expect to have it confirmed this soon."
"But you're happy, right?" Warrick asked, putting an arm around her.
"Yeah, of course I am. I've been wondering for so long about where Alex was and now that I know, I'm just in shock," she said.
Grissom appeared in the doorway, noticing her expression, he asked, "Is everything all right in here?"
Catherine looked up at Grissom, taking a deep breath before saying, "Julie was in here a minute ago. She accidentally put Alex's DNA through the system and discovered Alex is my daughter."
"What are you going to do?" Grissom asked.
"Well, I haven't really thought about that yet," she said, looking troubled. After Warrick gave her shoulder a squeeze, she continued. "I don't even know if she wants to meet me. I mean, I know she's my daughter, but what if she doesn't want to know me?"
"You don't have to make up your mind now. Warrick, why don't you take her home? You can come back tonight when shift starts," Grissom said.
"Okay," Warrick replied, standing up, guiding Catherine alongside of him. "Come on, Cath. I'll talk you home and you can consider what you want to do next."
Rather dazed, Catherine quietly followed him out of the building.
Meanwhile, across town, Sara and Greg had arrived at the apartment building they believed Alex might be living in. They got out of their Denali and walked up to the main entrance. Access was gained easily enough after they showed the doorman their badges.
After elevator doors closed behind them, Greg observed, "This is a lot nicer than your typical apartment building for college students."
"It is, but it's not surprising considering how large the Miller's house was," Sara replied.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," he conceded. "I wish I had a place like this instead of my closet sized dorm room. So do you think Alex will be here?"
"I'm not sure, but it's the only lead we got to work with. If she's not, then I'll get the super to open her apartment for me, and you can go back to the lab."
"I…" he started, but was cut off.
"You can't work the evidence," she reminded him. "Grissom didn't even want you to come, so you're only here to make her more at ease."
"Okay, but let me do the talking at first if she is there."
"Fine," she agreed as the elevator signaled that they've reached the desired floor. With Greg trailing her, she found apartment 21C and knocked. There was no answer.
Greg tried a few hard knocks, but with no answer still, he called out, "Alex, it's Greg and Sara. Are you in there?"
Finally, they heard a chain moving on the other side of the door. But the door was only opened about a foot and Alex called out, "What are you guys doing here? It's seven thirty in the morning."
"Can we come in, Alex?" Greg asked, not wanting to talk in the hallway and risk waking her neighbors.
"Yeah, sure. Come on in," Alex replied, opening the door all the way to let them in. A thought occurred to her and she asked, "Wait a minute. How did you know I would be here? How did you get my address?"
"We traced the number you gave to Nick," Sara told her, moving further into the apartment.
"Oh, that," Alex said. "But why are you here now?"
"We're sorry for coming so early, but we were concerned when you ran out of the lab. We wanted to make sure you were okay," Greg said, taking in Alex's appearance. She was wearing light blue pajama pants and a matching spaghetti strap shirt, clearly clad for bed, but Greg doubted she slept very well.
"Well, you can see I'm fine," Alex replied, sounding a bit annoyed.
Sara could tell by the bags under her eyes and her disheveled hair that she was anything but fine. She looked like she hadn't slept since the last time they saw her, but Sara didn't want to agitate her anymore than she already was. So instead she asked, "Can we ask you a few more questions?"
"I guess that would be okay," Alex said, leading the way into the spacious living room. "Although I don't know more I can tell you beyond what I've all ready said."
"We just have a few more and then we'll be done for now," Sara said, taking a seat on one of the black leather sofas. Greg seated himself nest to Alex, ready to calm her down if needed.
Not able to think of a better way to approach the subject, she simply asked, "Do you know why anyone would want to hurt your parents?"
"They're not my parents," Alex replied sharply.
Surprised by her change in demeanor, Sara rephrased the question slightly, "Okay, then do you know why anyone would want to hurt the Millers or if they had any enemies?"
"No," was all Alex offered, standing up and walking over to a window. "We weren't that close."
"Do you know who they spent a lot of time with?" Sara asked.
"All I know is that the Jenkins were their best friends. You should be talking to them," Alex replied, still gazing out the window. "The Millers were more concerned with what people thought of them, not with what I thought. They didn't share any of their secrets with me. Whenever they had company over, and came into the room, they would change the subject. I guess they didn't think I would notice. Anything we ever talked about was superficial."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Alex," Sara told her sincerely. "Did you ever see anyone around the house that you thought was suspicious in any way?"
"Not really. I was barely there. I only visited there for big holidays and this was going to be the first summer I spent there since I started college," Alex said, finally turning back around to face Greg and Sara. "So now you know it's pointless to waste anymore time asking me about them since I didn't really know them."
Sara could tell Alex was getting more upset with every question asked, but she wanted to get out as much information from Alex as she could, so she continued, "You moved in with the Millers when you were seventeen?"
"Yeah," Alex replied. "I would have aged out of the system in a year so I was lucky someone wanted to adopt me."
"Your next door neighbor, Cassie Jenkins, said the Millers never officially adopted you. That there was a problem with the paperwork," Sara asked carefully, wondering if it was a touchy subject.
"Hmh…" Alex replied, letting out a slight chuckle. "Is that what they told you? It wasn't a paperwork problem as they put it. That's probably just what Joe and Silvia told them to keep up their appearance as the world's most perfect couple, who never did anything wrong or had any problems."
"So what was the problem then?" Sara asked.
"Well, like I said, I was happy at first when I was told someone wanted to adopt me at seventeen. The closer you get to eighteen, the more hope you lose for getting adopted when you're in foster care," Alex explained, walking back towards where Greg was, then sitting down next to him. "Plus, it was an added bonus that they were rich. I was just happy to get out of the group home. But I quickly learned that they only wanted me for the photo ops. That's why I never was adopted. As much as I wanted a family, I didn't want to be a trophy kid. So, we came to the agreement that I would change my name to Miller and they would pay for school, this apartment, and give me a trust fund. I didn't say yes because of the money, I would have traded all of this without a thought to have a family that really wanted me, but I knew that wasn't going to happen, so it would have been stupid for me to turn down their deal."
Greg reached to put his hand on her arm to comfort her but she jumped slightly when did, so he pulled back. "I'm sorry Alex," he said, unsure of what else to say to her after what she had just revealed to them.
"Why? You didn't do anything," Alex told him, her tone a little sharp.
"Do you know anyone that would want to hurt you?" Sara went on.
"No. I had a few friends from school and a few people I keep in touch with from the home but no one that would want to hurt me. I don't have any enemies," Alex said, her voice revealing more and more annoyance. "Are you done now? I'm getting sick of being treated like a suspect in my own home."
Sara knew Alex wasn't going to like what came next but it had to be done, "I don't have any more questions, but we're going to search your apartment."
"What! Why? I'm the victim here, remember?" Alex exclaimed, jumping up.
"I know, Alex, but we may find something that may lead us to a suspect," Sara told her, trying to calm her down.
"I told you everything already. There's nothing here for you to find," Alex told her as she started to walk out of the room. She hoped Sara and Greg would get the hint that she wanted to be alone and leave.
"Alex, wait," Greg said, following her out of the room and trying to reassure her. "We don't think you've done anything wrong. We might be able to find something that could lead us to a suspect that you didn't know could."
"Alex, do you mind if I talk to Greg alone for a minute?" Sara asked, having joined them in the hallway.
"Fine, whatever. I'll be in the kitchen," Alex told them before walking away again.
"I don't want to leave Alex alone since chances are the perp knows by now she's alive. That picture she drew of him is all over the news, after all."
"I agree," Sara said. "I'll call Grissom and ask if we can get police protection for her. Then I'll call Nick and see if he can come do the search and we can take Alex back to the lab instead. I think she's still not telling us something."
"I know what you mean. She seems a lot different than last night. She's more defensive, like she's holding something back that she doesn't want us to find out," Greg said thoughtfully. "I don't think she should be here when Nick does the search so I'll go tell her what we're going to do."
"Okay. I'm going to go make those calls," Sara told him, heading off to do so.
Greg entered the kitchen. "Alex," he said to get her attention.
"What?" she snapped, glaring back at him.
"Alex," he began walking closer to her. "We really need to search your apartment. Nick is going to come over to do it and then Sara and I are going to take you back to the lab."
"Why? So you can interrogate me?" she asked sharply, still sounding very defensive.
"No, Alex. We just don't think you should be here when he does the search," he said gently, and she seemed to give in.
"Can I at least take a shower and get dressed?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be waiting with Sara," he told her. When she was passing by him in the doorway he stopped her for a moment, looking into her eyes, "Alex, we're not trying to hurt you. We are trying to find the man who did this so he can't do it to you again or anyone else. I know this is a really bad time for you, Alex, but I'm here for you. You know that, right?"
Alex looked down for a second, not able to look him in the eye because she feared he would be able to detect that deep down, she was really scared. She wasn't ready to confide in him yet. "I need to take a shower," was all she said.
"Alex, I thought last night you were happy to see me. Why are you so angry now?"
Her voice started to crack as she said, "I…I …never mind." She left Greg's side, ran into the bathroom, and turned the water on. She stripped off her clothes as quickly as she could, climbed into the shower, and broke down. Her back slid down the shower wall as she released the tears she had been holding back since Sara and Greg arrived. "Why me? Why is it always me?" she asked herself. The silence offered no answers.
A/N: Please, Please, Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee review! It only will take a minute and I appreciate them so much. They make me so happy. Even if you only write 'I like it", that would be great. The next chapter will be up soon.