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A/n: I have several updates written, if not typed up, so these updates should come pretty quickly. Though I'm not rushing anything. :D:D
Catherine
Catherine Willows dug her hand into her pocket and grasped the spare key to Grissom's house. He'd given her the key a couple of months before so she could feed Hank while he was working so many doubles.
She hesitated putting it into the lock. She knew this could make Grissom mad, but she was worried about him. He had called in sick, and, she rationalized, she just wanted to check on him. That's what she told herself. Anyone else would call her a snoop.
She slipped the key into the lock and hesitated once again, biting her lip. This was the point of no return. If she turned this key, she was officially snooping.
In the silence, she heard whining behind the door, and then scratching. That settled it; now she really had reason to go in. She had to check on Hank.
She turned the key and eased the door open.
Hank pushed his head through the crack and sniffed at her feet, then jumped up, his paws on her shoulders.
"Whoa!" she whispered, trying to make the least amount of noise possible. "Shh, boy," she hushed, looking around the darkened house. "We don't want to wake daddy up."
Hank jumped down and padded to the kitchen, nudging his food bowl with his nose.
"Has daddy not fed you today?" she asked, bending down to pick up the bowl. It wasn't like Grissom to forget something like this, even when he was sick.
She filled the dish with some food and turned to look around the home. She frowned at what she saw. The place seemed bare; there were things missing that had dotted the room on her last visit. The pictures from the bookshelves, and other objects that had warmed the place, and given it a feeling of home, were gone. She walked over to the refrigerator. Its surface was clean. With new eyes, she looked around, and knew what was wrong. All of Sara's touches were gone, and with them, the soul was gone from the home. It was no longer a home, just a place to while away the hours.
She tiptoed to the bedroom door and peeked in and was surprised at what she saw. All the personal touches were gone here too, which she'd expected, but one thing she expected to be there, wasn't. Grissom wasn't lying in the bed. She walked over and opened the closet. As she'd expected, none of Sara's clothes were there, but she could tell that some of Grissom's things were missing also. She sighed. The house wasn't just cold, it was unlived in.
What worried her even more was that Grissom had called in sick, and he wasn't someone to call in sick when he wasn't actually sick, so he was sick, but not sick at home, and if he wasn't at home, then where was he? Catherine had a feeling that something was terribly wrong.
TBC