A/N: I'm back from vacation (yea!), but as a warning, chapters will probably be written fairly slowly for awhile. My classes begin this week, so… yup! I'll do my best, though! I would also like to thank the following people for their reviews: odeepblue (glad ya liked it!), somebody101 (Grissom sure does have some trust issues!), The Lovely Desdemona (thanks for the info; I changed the previous chapter to go along with what you said, so that the story stays more along true CSI lines. As for your question, the gang has to take Lindsey out, and then something else has to happen. I think. Hehe. Sorry, though, no Greg/Sara!), Cherrydrops12 (GSR grows on ya after awhile, huh? I'm a total multishipper, but I like the way that their relationship is shaping up! Glad you liked it, too!), wraiths-angel (thanks for reading, and you'll see!),and Beauty in my Breakdown (thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapters!). Happy reading!
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Disclaimer: I do not own any part of CSI or its characters. That honor goes to the good folks over at CBS.
Title: Catherine's Goal: Lindsey
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On the path back to the campsite
"That wasn't very nice," Greg grumbled to his colleagues, as they trudged back up the well-worn path to their camp site. "Seriously, why is it always 'pick-on-Greg-day?'" he asked, wrapping the towel more tightly around himself.
"Because it is oh-so-easy, bro," Nick grinned at him, lightly punching him on the shoulder.
"But we only do it because we care," Warrick immediately added with a slight smile.
"Uh-huh," Greg mumbled. "So everyone comes after me during the tag game, because you care? Why didn't you go after Grissom? He would have been 'it' forever!" he pointed out.
Grissom raised an eyebrow, turning around to glance at the younger man. "What are you implying, Greg?" he half joked.
"Uh, nothing?" Greg stuttered.
"That he's older and wiser than you are, right, Greggo?" Catherine asked with a wink of her eye.
"Uh, right," Greg agreed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, that's it. That you're older and wiser."
Sara rolled her eyes at Greg, as they neared their campsite, while Nick chuckled.
"Whatever you say, Greg," Grissom told him, standing in the middle of the campsite, and staring at the tents.
"Are we leaving now?" Sara cautiously asked, standing beside Grissom.
"We can't," Greg interjected "We still have more talking to do, don't we?"
"Yes, we are leaving," Grissom answered Sara's question. "And yes, we have some more talking to do."
Warrick squinted at Grissom, before clearing his throat. "So, when are we going to have this discussion? After we load the van?"
"Not quite," he replied, shaking his head no.
"When we get home?" Greg persisted.
"In the van," Catherine spoke up, heading toward her tent. "If we're leaving now, and we still have to talk, then I'm sure that we're going to have this highly enlightening conversation on the way home," she sighed.
Grissom simply nodded, glancing around the fire pit at Nick, Warrick, Sara, and Greg. "The evidence never lies," he commented, before heading toward his own tent.
"What evidence?" Greg muttered under his breath, following his supervisor into their tent in order to pack. "There was no evidence."
"Au contraire, young Skywalker," Nick chuckled, unzipping the flap of his own tent. "Logic can be helpful in figuring out the answers, too."
"Uh-huh. Well the Jedi-force must be strong with you, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Greg chuckled, disappearing into his tent.
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The drive home
"Alright, everyone," Grissom said from the front passenger seat, as Warrick hopped into the driver's seat. "Last year, we talked about your fears, your hopes, and your dreams, and this year, we've talked about what you like about yourselves. Now, I'd like to take everything one step further. What personal goal would you like to set for yourself?" he asked, turning around in his seat in order to make eye contact with Nick and Greg in the far back seat, and Catherine and Sara in the middle seat. "What would you like to accomplish over the next 365 days?"
"365 and a fourth days," Greg immediately corrected him.
Warrick chuckled from the front seat, glancing at Greg through the rearview mirror. "Way to be specific, man," he commented.
Greg shrugged. "We're scientists," he flashed Warrick a smile. "It comes with the territory."
"Boys, can we stay on task, please?" Catherine asked, glaring at each of them. "So you want to talk about our goals, Gil?"
"I do," he confirmed. "Would you like to go first?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Catherine swallowed, glancing down at her hands for a moment. "It's ironic, you know that?" she questioned everyone.
"What is?" Nick asked, slightly confused.
"My goal," she replied.
"What do you mean?" Greg asked, clearing his throat.
"Well, think back to last year's retreat," Catherine quietly ordered everyone. "My fear was that I was a bad mother, and that Lindsey would have issues. And then," she continued. "My hopes and dreams were for my daughter to be a well-adjusted young woman."
"Right," Sara confirmed, nodding her head. "I remember that."
"Well the truth of the matter is," Catherine frowned. "She has gotten worse over the last year. She's hanging out with an even more potentially harmful group, and our fights are getting worse as the days go by. I'm concerned about her," she admitted. "I really am, and my goal is to get her back on track."
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The Willows Residence, one year prior
"Whose party is it? And will his or her parents be there?" Catherine calmly asked her daughter, digging into a large plate of blueberry waffles.
"Just some kids that I know," Lindsey nonchalantly shrugged, picking up her fork, and ignoring the rest of her mother's question.
"Which kids, specifically?" Catherine persisted, her mother and criminalist instincts already making her suspicious of the request.
Staring across the table at her mother, Lindsey narrowed her eyes, as if preparing to dig her heels in for a fight. "Just some kids from school, Mom. What's the big deal?"
"What's the big deal?" Catherine slowly repeated the question, raising an eyebrow. "The big deal, Lindsey, is that I'm your mother, and I want to ensure that you remain safe. I need to know who will be at this party, whether or not there will be adults there, and where it is going to take place," she informed her. "I'm not joking around."
Lindsey glared at her mother, setting her fork down, and folding her arms across her chest. "It's Toni Enright's party, her older brother will be supervising, and it's going to be at Greenfield Park," she finally admitted. "Okay? Can I go to now?"
Scooping up another forkful of waffles, Catherine tried to stop the horror from registering on her face. Toni Enright? Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit. Brass was telling me about her and her brother just last week! Lindsey can NOT go to that party. Toni, even though she is only sixteen, already has several charges against her relating to drug paraphernalia and dealing. And her brother? Even worse. Clearing her throat, Catherine took a deep breath, steeling herself up for the worst. "No, Lindsey," she finally said. "I'm sorry, but you can't go to the party."
"Why not, Mom?" Lindsey asked, once again narrowing her eyes in anger.
Catherine bit her lip, staring at the determination in her daughter's eyes. She knew that she couldn't explain about the drug charges—it was told to her in confidence—but maybe she could say something else, instead. "I understand that you're upset, Lindsey, and perhaps even a little bit confused. But you have to trust me that I love you, and that I have my reasons."
"Yeah, that you want to make my life miserable," Lindsey muttered under her breath. "You always do this to me!"
"What? No I don't," Catherine softly said. "Lindsey, I love you. But you're only fourteen, the party will be unsafe, and I don't want you to get hurt. I can't let you go to Greenfield Park tonight."
"You're not going to 'let me' go?" Lindsey gruffly asked, lacing each word with the venom and contempt that only a teenager could muster up. "You're not going to 'let me' go to the party?"
"No, I'm not," Catherine confirmed, raising an eyebrow, as if daring her daughter to challenge her even further.
"You're not the boss of me," Lindsey matter-of-factly informed her mother. "And you can't stop me from going, so don't even try."
"Excuse me?" Catherine asked, a look of anger instantly flashing into her eyes. "I'm your mother, young lady, and that makes me your boss!"
"You might be my mother, but you have no say over what I can and cannot do," Lindsey persisted. "So I'm going to that party, whether you give me your permission or not."
"No, Lindsey," Catherine repeated. "You better not step foot outof this house tonight, is that understood?"
Lindsey just started laughing. "And what are you going to do about it? You'll be working, just like you always do; you won't even know that I'm gone."
"Grandma will, though," Catherine told her, starting to feel a little bit hurt. Lindsey was speaking the truth, and she knew it. At last year's retreat, Catherine had admitted that her biggest fear was that she was being a bad mother to Lindsey, and that Lindsey was going down the wrong path, by hanging out with the wrong kids at school. Although Catherine had tried to reconnect with her daughter just after returning home, and despite the fact that things had actually started to improve a little bit, Lindsey once again started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Things were worse than ever in the Willows household, and every day was a constant struggle between the two strong-willed women.
"Grandma falls asleep at eight, Mom," Lindsey pointed out in triumph. "Hang it up, I'm going to that party, and you're not going to be able to do a damn thing to stop me."
"Want to make a bet?" Catherine calmly asked, the tone of her voice not betraying how nervous she truly felt. Hold strong, because that party is going to be unsafe.
"You can't stop me," Lindsey repeated, this time a bit more hesitantly.
"Perhaps not," Catherine admitted. "But if you do go out, expect to see a police car or two at Greenfield Park."
"You wouldn't," Lindsey mumbled. "You wouldn't dare."
"Do I look like I'm lying?" Catherine asked her daughter, staring across the table at her. "Don't call my bluff; I'm doing this for your own safety."
Lindsey immediately stood up from the table, pushing back her chair. "I HATE YOU!" she yelled at Catherine. "I HATE YOU, AND I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!" With that, the young girl stormed out of the kitchen, and stomped up the stairs to her room.
Catherine's breath hitched in her throat, as she stared down at the table in sorrow. She knew that most children uttered those very words at least once in their life time, but hearing them did not make things very easy. "Well I don't hate you," she whispered, a tear starting to slide down her cheeks. "And that's why I can't let you go to the party; I don't want to have to process your dead body."
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The drive home
"Wow," Greg cleared his throat, after having listened to Catherine's story. "I'm sorry to hear that she said that to you."
"I am, too," Warrick added. "But Cath, kids say those things all of the time. I understand that hearing her tell you that she hates you and wants you to die is distressing to hear, but it's pretty normal, as I understand it."
"I know," Catherine quietly admitted, once again staring down at her hands. "And it isn't so much that she said those things to me; it's more that she's ignoring what I'm telling her. The parties, the drugs, the kids that she wants to hang out with; it's dangerous, and I can't get her to see that. I don't want anything to happen to her. She's still my baby girl, you know what I mean? I guess my goal for this coming year is to get things with Lindsey back under control."
"I know what you mean," Nick kindly told her. "But you need to keep in mind that you are a great mother, and that you are doing your best to curb her unhealthy behaviors; we'll do our best to help you, as we mentioned before."
Grissom cleared his throat, turning around in his seat in order to once again make eye contact with Catherine. "Right; I'll call Lindsey the moment that we get home," he assured her. "And then perhaps we can all take her out for dinner?" he suggested.
"All of us?" Nick asked. "Won't that intimidate her?"
"Nah, man," Warrick shook his head, studying the road signs in front of him. "It'll be fun."
"Actually," Sara finally spoke up. "Catherine, I don't exactly know how to ask this, but how is she around—" she trailed off.
"Men?" Catherine supplied, raising an eyebrow. "She's pretty flirtatious for a fourteen year old."
"Well, although Grissom is going to talk to her by phone first, what if I took her out tomorrow night, and then perhaps met up with Grissom, Warrick, Nick, and Greg for dinner? That way she might not feel as threatened."
Catherine mulled the idea over, carefully turning her face in order to study Sara's expression. "Do you think that you can, uh, handle her without me?" she cautiously asked.
Sara tried not to frown. Are you implying that I'm bad with children? "I know what it's like to try to fit in," she replied. "And I'm female, meaning that she has no one to impress. Let me just take her out miniature golfing or something, and then we'll meet up with the guys for dinner. We might be able to talk to her, without, uh—" You being around.
"It's okay, I know what you mean," Catherine smiled at Sara. "And it's fine."
"I don't know about this," Nick started to say, before Sara turned around to glare at him. "But I suppose it's worth a try."
"Fine by me," Warrick chimed in.
"Me, too," Greg added.
"That could work," Grissom quietly said. "Or rather, it's a good start."
Catherine nodded, still unsure. "Are you sure that none of you mind taking my daughter out for an evening? It will be better if I am not there, meaning it will just be the six of you plus her."
"We're sure, Cath," Warrick assured her. "Lindsey is a good kid; we just have to figure out what is going on with her."
Catherine nodded, a smile slowly spreading over her lips. "Okay, then. Thank you."
"Any time," Warrick told her. "Any time at all."
After a couple of minutes of silence, Grissom cleared his throat. "Alright, who wants to go next?" he asked.
"I will," Greg chuckled from the back seat.
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TO BE CONTINUED
