Sorry it's taken me so long to update the story. I've only gotten 2 reviews so it discourages me a bit…please, if you read, review! I'll update faster and write some more. Enjoy chapter 3!
Chapter 3
"I came home from school around 3:20 –I got a ride from my friend- and so I walked inside the house and it was really quiet," Lauren said softly. Grissom was surprised when he heard her voice. It was much smoother than he thought it would be. "Normally, when I get home, my mom is playing music and cleaning the house or something."
"But there was nothing going on this time?" Brass asked.
"No," Lauren replied, shaking her head. "I just figured that she had gone out or something, which she usually doesn't do because she might ge--" Here she was cut off by a look from her dad. Grissom leaned forward in case Daniel would try and do something to his daughter, but all Daniel did was look at her.
"She might what?" Catherine asked. The poor girl, she thought sadly.
"Nothing."
"Are you sure? You can say anything you want to. No one's going to hurt you for it," Brass assured in his most comforting tone, which really was just less raspy than his normal voice.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Lauren said softly. That statement was immediately followed by a threatening glare from Daniel.
"Continue, Lauren," Grissom encouraged.
"Well, I assumed that she had gone out, so I went into the living room and turned on the T.V. and flipped through the channels. Nothing was on so I turned it off and took my book out of my backpack and lay down on the couch to read it. After about five minutes of reading I noticed that it smelled a little bit like metal, but I didn't know what it was."
At this point Grissom and Catherine exchanged knowing looks. Lauren glanced at them with a mix of a puzzled and upset expression, but soon continued. "I went into the kitchen to get something to eat, grabbed a granola bar, and went over to the stairs to go up to my room." Here Lauren stopped. She could feel a ball worm her way into her throat and she swallowed. It didn't work. Tears spilled out and she hastily wiped them away, trying not to let her father see them. He doesn't like it when people cry.
"It's ok, Lauren, it's ok," Catherine said calmly. She had a daughter, so she was very experienced at consoling crying girls.
Lauren shook her head and looked up, placing her hands on the table. "But it's not! It's not," she cried out. At this time, she desperately wanted a dad to calm her, a mom to hold her, an older sister to talk to. But because of her father, she didn't have any of those things.
"Lauren," Daniel said with warning. All Lauren could do was put her head in her hands and continue to cry. She shook her head back and forth and kept muttering things no one could make out. "Lauren, stop crying."
"Daniel, she's clearly in shock. She should be crying," Catherine said with an edge to her voice. What was his problem?
"Please, Miss," Daniel said with anger and a smirk. "Don't tell me how I should be treating my own daughter."
"It's not like you've been treating her as a father should treat a daughter," Grissom interjected. At times like these, he was never good at holding in his temper.
"Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean?" Daniel retorted, starting to stand up.
"Hey! Guys, calm down," Brass yelled. He looked over at Lauren, who was still crying, but not as hard as before. "Lauren, are you all right?"
She looked up with a tear-streaked face, and Grissom noted how green her eyes were now. She was no doubt beautiful, even when she was crying. Right now her red hair was in curls around her shoulders, bangs curved over her right eye. Lauren had on typical fifteen-year-old clothes, jeans from some department store and a tee-shirt that said Abercrombie. "I don't know."
Catherine walked over and put her arm around Lauren, and was not surprised to find Lauren tense up. "I'm not going to hurt you. Do you want to go out for a little bit?"
"Don't touch her," Daniel said slowly.