Review Replies: Because I'm too lazy to reply to you all individually: cause.A.scene-- they say the best way to witness a car crash is from every angle. ;o) Black Tulip-- thanks, I loathe Mary Sues although when I was younger, I have been guilty of a few myself, I'm afraid. Still, I love developing my "villains" and I am really liking Danny in this. He's my favorite OC so far, rivaling my second favorite Mindy from Queen of Spades. The funnest villain to write of course is the total psychopath, who's just all around evil (Sasha Volkov, "Collateral Damage" or, on the show, Nigel Crane or the Blue Paint Killers) But the most interesting villain to craft (and, in my opinion, to read/watch on TV) is the conflicted villain, the one that is villainous only because he knows no better, or because he was forced into it (Hassan Ibrahim, "Salam") Danny, of course, is the latter. (I recognize I've referenced my own stories in giving examples, but I couldn't think of anything else.)
Author's note: Anyways, I spent most of my weekend working on my video contest entry for "Project: CSI" video contest this August, so not as much writing as I would have liked. Still, I managed to get this out, and it was a lot of fun to write, I have to say, and aptly titled if I do say so myself. My favorite chapter so far. I hope no one is thrown off by the ship that develops in this chapter... Well, enjoy. :o)
Chapter Six: Tension
Catherine waited for Nick to say something, but he just kept walking down the hall, and so, without an explanation, she followed. "Nicky? What's up?"
He veered left into one of the layout rooms and waited for Catherine to follow before he closed the door. He turned to the blonde. "Listen, is there something you want to tell me about?"
"No…" Catherine said. "I think you're a little confused here, see, you wanted to talk to me."
"Greg told me you lied to Grissom," Nick said suddenly, apparently deciding he didn't want to beat around the bush.
"I'll kill him," Catherine murmured.
"I figured you wouldn't forget to mention something important," Nick said. "But then as I was working on this Sneaky Santa thing it occurred to me that maybe there was something more to it."
"You were right the first time, I would never leave out anything pertinent to a case—"
"Not the case, you," Nick said. "I reckoned that no matter how personal it got, if you thought it could help the case you would tell Grissom in a heartbeat. So that just led me to the conclusion that it was completely personal, and also completely useless to catch the guy. Please tell me I'm right, Cath."
Catherine sighed before she shook her head. "That's not… entirely true."
Nick's interest was piqued. "What?"
Catherine sighed and fell into a nearby chair. "I mean, it's not like it'll help us catch him, or anything, but it will help to make a profile…"
"What did he say to you, Catherine?" Nick asked.
"He's gay," she said flatly.
"He told you that?" Nick said, suppressing a chuckle. "Not even an introduction, just, 'Hi, I'm gay, how are you?' Wow, when you come out, you really come out."
"He didn't say it like that!" Catherine snapped. "He was kinda in the middle of threatening me."
"Why mention that he was gay?" Nick asked, confused.
"Because he was messing with me," Catherine replied. "And what's worse, I fell for it."
Nick pulled out a chair and sat in it backwards, his legs on either side of the back of it as he looked at Catherine curiously. "I… don't understand."
"Yeah, me neither," Catherine sighed. She was really beating herself up about this. The brief minutes repeated themselves over in her mind and reminded her of… him…
"Talk me through it," Nick said encouragingly. "We can work it out together."
"It's nothing, really," Catherine said, although her faraway gaze betrayed her words. "He just reminded me of someone, that's all. Someone I'd rather forget. And it's stupid because… Oh never mind."
Nick smiled reassuringly at her and put his hand on hers. "If it unnerved you like I think it did, then it's not stupid." He rose to his feet. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you. If you say it won't help with the case, and it won't interfere with you working it, then I'll trust your judgment. You've never steered me wrong before. But I'm here, if you ever change your mind. OK?"
Catherine smiled gratefully at him. "I appreciate that," she said. He headed for the door. And then, Catherine remembered something Nick had told her in confidence years ago and stopped him.
"Nicky?"
He paused, then turned to look at her questioningly. "You ready for talkin' yet?"
She opened her mouth then hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "You… told me about something that happened to you. A long time ago, when you… when you were nine?"
Nick's brow furrowed in thought a moment, but it slowly faded away as he recalled the conversation. He nodded. He became excessively withdrawn and didn't speak for a long time. Finally, his mouth formed a tiny circle and he emitted a small "Oh."
Catherine bit her lip and looked down, then up at him again. He walked over to her and took his chair out, his eyes inscrutable. But he took her hand again. "Catherine, was it… something that happened when you were a kid?"
But she shook her head, her eyes on the floor as she studied his shoes. He had good taste in footwear, she noted. "No… Yes… I mean, well… Not really… Not as young as you were. Not like you at all, actually, I just… I just want you to understand why I'm so… reluctant to discuss it." She looked up at him. "You know?"
He nodded. "I do, believe me," he said, his voice just barely above a whisper. "Catherine, if someone did something to you, that's all I need to know, you don't have to—"
"I was fifteen…" Catherine said, her eyes on a point on the wall behind Nick. This was it. She had told him this much, she might as well tell him the rest. "And he was dating my mother."
"Does your mother know?" Nick asked.
Catherine shook her head. "No, I never told anyone." She looked at Nick and smiled ironically. "I figured if anyone would understand that, you would. I, uh… said I lost my virginity on a pool table in Nate Perkins' basement after the homecoming game sophomore year. It was a… much better story, you see, and Nate gladly corroborated I mean, lets face it, I was hot, and he was a teenage boy."
Nick looked down, then up again at Catherine. "I'm sorry I pried. I told Greg that we shouldn't—"
"No," Catherine said loudly, coming out of her reverie. "No, I'm glad you did. Because the things that guy at the scene said to me were humiliating and now at least someone can understand why."
"What did he say?" Nick asked.
Catherine shook her head as she remembered it.
"Don't move or I'll kill you and your little friend over there."
"Yeah, like that's going to stop me you prick," Catherine snarled.
He laughed in her hair, his breath moist on her ear. "Feisty. I like them feisty. Keep it up, babe, you're turning me on."
Catherine stopped struggling. "I don't…"
"New deal. You keep on struggling and you become my new playmate and that guy can watch us, how about that?"
She didn't speak for a long time. She didn't know what to do. Her mind was flooded with memories from when she was fifteen and her mother's boyfriend had crept into her room late at night…
Then, the crook laughed. "Nah," he said. "Just kidding. I'm gay, actually, you don't do nothing for me."
And fury bubbled inside of her and she started struggling worse than ever. And then, she felt the knife against her throat.
"I was serious about killing you, though."
Greg's scream ripped through the air, distracting him long enough for Catherine to escape. "For the love of God, somebody help!"
"When I was fifteen," Catherine explained. "He crawled into my bed. I told him to leave, but he put his arms around me from behind and hissed in my ear. 'Fiery little thing. So sweet and innocent. I just gotta have a taste. Let's have a play date, little girl…'"
Nick nodded and smiled broadly at Catherine, squeezing her hand tightly in his. "It'll be OK, Cath," he said. "That was a long time ago. You're a completely different person now, that guy could have never—"
"He was never even going to try," Catherine said, annoyed with herself. "He was gay, didn't you hear? And yet, because it was so similar, because the way he was holding me, the words he was speaking, they were parallel, I thought…"
"You're being too hard on yourself," Nick said. "Really."
She smiled and laughed it off. "Since that night, I swore it would never happen again. I learned to use my sexuality to get what I want, and not turn me into a victim. I grew tough. I grew bold. But when he had his hands on me tonight, it was like I was fifteen-years-old again and all of that melted away. I was scared, Nick. And that pisses me off."
Nick laughed as he got to his feet. "Well, come on then, beautiful," he said. "Let's get back on the case and help catch this guy."
Catherine couldn't help but grin. She knew she could always count on Nick to say the right thing. She caught him by the shoulder as he opened the door. He turned around and looked at her expectantly, his wide brown eyes so strangely sincere.
"Nick, I…" But while Nick always knew exactly what to say, she was constantly at a loss for words. Nonetheless, he just waited there patiently for her to figure it out, his eyebrows raised in encouraging curiosity. "Oh, screw it," she said, and threw her arms around his neck before she kissed him so fiercely he stumbled backwards into the wall, his palms flat against it. He was surprised at first, she could tell by his lack of response, but after a few seconds, when he had recovered, his hands left the wall and slid around her waist while his tongue reciprocated the kiss.
And then the door opened and slammed just as quickly and they broke apart, their eyes staring at the slammed door and their hearts beating like twin hummingbirds. They looked at each other, neither one quite sure exactly what had happened. And then, without another word, Nick was out the door and running down the hall, leaving Catherine alone in the layout room.
Nick looked left, then right, but couldn't determine who had been the one that had interrupted them. And then, he saw Greg walking at a brisk pace down the hall to his right so he took off after him at a slow jog. His suspicions were confirmed when Greg picked up speed upon hearing his footsteps.
He put on a huge grin and jumped behind Greg, seizing his friend tightly by the shoulders. "Hey there, Greggo," Nick said cheerily, steering him into a nearby vacant office. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Do I have a choice?" Greg muttered as he was shoved into the office and Nick closed the door.
Nick turned to Greg, dead serious. "OK, um… Look, it's not what you think."
"So I didn't just see you and Catherine getting down in the layout room?" Greg said.
Nick opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again upon second thought. He shook his head to clear it. "No, that's not—"
"So you weren't kissing her?" Greg pressed.
Nick sighed. "Yes, I mean, we were but—"
"So… What did you think I saw Nick, a tap dancing penguin?"
Nick raked his hands through his hair, but noticed Greg was smiling. He sighed. "Look, it was… I actually don't really know what it was, we didn't exactly have time to discuss it thanks to you."
"What's there to discuss?" Greg asked. "Your tongues were preoccupied. No words involved"
"I don't know what she was thinking…" Nick said, trying to figure it out.
"'I think I'll stop off at the grocery store on my way home. We're out of eggs,'" Greg said, looking at the ceiling.
"What?" Nick said, incredulously.
"She was probably thinking that," Greg explained.
Nick folded his arms in irritation. "No. We were talking, and then the next thing I know… God, I… I have no idea what was going through her mind."
"But obviously you followed the same train of thought," Greg pointed out. "Otherwise you wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as you looked like you did."
"Shut up," Nick said. "Stop acting like this is high school."
"I'm not the one turning red right now," Greg replied, and Nick narrowed his eyes. Greg rolled his own eyes in reply. "Look, Nick, frankly I can't blame you. I mean, Catherine's pretty hot, right? But it's reasons like this that Grissom doesn't allow mistletoe in the workplace. It's unprofessional."
Nick's brow furrowed in confusion. "Greg, Grissom doesn't have a policy on mistletoe."
Greg looked horrified, as if he had suffered some sort of personal injury. Then he got a far away look in his eye and cursed under his breath. He shook it off. "OK, whatever, that's not the point here."
"You're right," Nick said. "The point is that it's my business and you need to stay out of it. Something that you're not altogether very good at, are you?"
"Hey," Greg said pointedly. "That's not fair."
"It's completely fair," Nick said, suddenly on the offensive. "You're the one who wanted me to probe Catherine like a science experiment to find out what she was hiding from you!"
"Hey, I did that out of concern for—"
"Don't tell me you're not dying to know why she lied to you and Grissom." Nick interjected.
Greg looked like he was becoming angry too. "Look. I was worried about Catherine, I have never seen her so shook up before, alright? And I didn't send you as a spy for me so you could tell me her deep dark secret, I just sent you because I know she trusts you, more than she trusts me, and it wasn't my place to step in and be her shoulder to cry on. I just wanted you to talk to her, Nick, no ulterior motives. But apparently, your lips were a little too busy to get any talking done."
"Stop… talking about things you know nothing about, Greg!" Nick said, losing his patience. "For your information, we did talk, we got a lot of talking done, and what you saw was…" He trailed off and then was shouting. "Why am I still here? I don't have to explain anything to you!"
And with that, he turned around and marched right out the door. But Greg wasn't finished. He leaned out the door and screamed at Nick as he walked down the hall.
"This is a bad idea, Nick!" he called. "Come back! I'm not done yelling at you yet!"
But Nick just kept walking and made a very rude gesture at Greg with his hand before he rounded a corner. Everyone in the hall had stopped what they were doing, and when Nick walked out of sight, they all turned to look at Greg. Too annoyed to notice, Greg simply let out a frustrated growl and slammed the door to the office they were in. He leaned against it, taking deep breaths as he tried to compose his thoughts. He slowly slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor, his head leaning back so he could stare at the ceiling.
He stayed there for a long time.