Gil was looking at the photos from the party that he had laid out on the evidence table. So far they had been unable to find any explanation for the unexplained wounds on the victim. The kids that had been identified as being there were not talking. He was hoping that by looking closely at the photographs he would find something, some small item, that was out of place and would possibly provide them a lead.

So far all he had found were beer bottles, cigarettes and a couple of boxes that at one time held condoms. He shook his head trying to remove the image of Lindsey at such a party. She was a child. She had no business around any of this. If she were his daughter he'd lock her up until she was forty.

He continued to scan the pictures looking for anything that might explain what happened that night. He told himself that he was looking for an explanation for the boy's death. He told himself that the pictures would tell the story of what happened. He told himself anything to avoid the real reason. He was looking for a reason for Lindsey's behavior.

It would have been easy enough to put the blame on Catherine. She was her mother. She was the one raising her or not depending on your point of view. Gil knew that she did the best she could with the circumstances she had been given. He often wondered when she slept or if she even slept. Catherine tried to be there for all the important events in her daughter's life. The only times he knew of her missing anything was when work interfered. Gil tried to make sure that didn't happen often if for no reason other than he was the one to catch her wrath if she did miss an event.

He looked at one of the pictures and saw a pair of blue jeans with "Lindsey" written on them by what looked like a marker. He remembered seeing her at the party in the t-shirt and not much else. Why couldn't she stay a little girl? Why did she have to grow up?

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Lindsey. Happy Birthday to you."

The small group of friends and family had gathered at the Willows residence for their daughter's first birthday. The birthday girl, dressed in a white dress, was wide-eyed at all the noise that seemed to be directed at her. Her mother and father stood beside her encouraging her to blow out the single candle on the cake. They were blowing at her trying to show her what to do. Lindsey giggled and blew a big burst of air back at her father.

"No babydoll. Like this." He turned her face towards the cake and blew at the candle, encouraging his daughter to do the same. Lindsey mimicked her father and blew as hard as she could and saw the candle flame extinguished. Everyone was clapping so Lindsey clapped also. Catherine cut a small piece of the cake and put it in front of her daughter. She watched as Eddie rolled his fingers through the icing then let his daughter taste the icing. She snapped a picture of her daughter's reaction to the sweet taste. Before she could wind the film to the next frame Lindsey dove in with both hands covering herself in icing and cake. Eddie looked at his daughter and laughed. Lindsey laughed with him as she smeared icing on her father's face. Catherine put the camera down and picked up her daughter.

"Excuse us while we clean up." She took Lindsey to the bathroom and quickly washed her daughter off. She started to redress her but decided that maybe a baby running around in just pampers wasn't so bad.

When they returned to the room Catherine and Eddie took Lindsey's gifts one by one and opened them for their daughter, letting her "oh" and "ah" over them like everyone else in the room was doing. They went through several gifts before coming to one in plain brown paper wrapped with a toy spider instead of a bow. Catherine looked at Gil and shook her head before returning to the package. Inside they found a large stuffed butterfly and a slightly smaller stuffed ladybug. Lindsey's chubby little hands reached out for the toys and promptly stuffed them into her chubby little mouth. Eddie reached for the toys to put them aside so they could open the next package but the little girl screamed at the top of her lungs so he let her hold them as the rest of her gifts were opened. Lindsey couldn't have cared less what the other packages contained.

Gil smiled to himself at the memory. Lindsey had been the perfect baby. It didn't hurt that she found her father's gift of a miniature guitar as interesting as watching grass grow. He knew Eddie adored his little girl and that she loved her father completely. However, Gil always felt a slight bit of satisfaction on the occasions where she preferred him to Eddie. It was if Eddie hadn't won it all.

Catherine had announced to the lab she was pregnant two months earlier. She was still pulling field duty, determined to show she could do her job through her pregnancy. The two of them had been assigned a simple robbery and had been at the liquor store for two hours collecting evidence. He looked up when he heard a small crash. Catherine was standing frozen, her hand on her abdomen. Her expression was one of confusion. He was by her side in an instant.

"Catherine, are you alright? The baby?" Then he saw it. A smile he'd never seen before began to fill her face. It was full of a contentment he'd never seen in Catherine before.

"Shhh." She pushed him away.

"Catherine?"

"The baby. I think she just moved."

"What?"

"She moved. I felt it." Catherine subconsciously grabbed Gil's hand and placed it where she had felt the movement.

"I don't feel anything."

"Shhh." She swatted his arm and Gil laughed. Did she think noise would make the baby hide from them? "She did it again."

"I didn't feel anything."

"No, it's too early. I don't think you can." She wasn't making any sense.

"Then why…?"

"Instinct. I don't know."

"What did it feel like?" He was genuinely curious. Obviously this was something he would never physically experience himself.

"I don't know. Like a flutter. Like a butterfly fluttering inside me." Catherine still had the goofiest grin he'd ever seen plastered across her face. Gil reached for her face but stopped as she continued to talk.

"I've got to call Eddie. No. I've got to go. I want to tell him in person. You can handle this, can't you?" It wasn't a question because she was already packing her kit.

"Sure." He felt the shell beginning to close over him as he watched her walk out the door. "Anytime."

Gil continued to look at the photograph with Lindsey's jeans. Something wasn't right he just couldn't place it. His stomach growled reminding him that Catherine should have been back by now. He grabbed his cell, flipping it open to call her when he saw it. There was a small broken brush laying approximately two feet from Lindsey's jeans. The broken tip had a blotch of red, possibly blood on it.

Gil woke with a jolt. Someone was banging on his door. He looked at the clock and saw it read 11am. He pulled on his pajama pants, cussing under his breath as he made his way to the door. He yanked the door open prepared to yell at whoever was on the other side. His mouth was open but no sound came out. Standing before him was Catherine. She was holding a screaming Lindsey. But what caught his breath was Catherine's appearance. She wore no make up, her hair was tangled and mated and her jaw was swollen.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to invite me in?" She was speaking faster than normal and her eyes were hollow, as if no soul occupied her body. Gil still didn't speak.

"Fine." She turned to walk back to the elevator. Gil flinched when he saw the back of her head.

"Catherine, what happened?" She kept walking, stopping only to push the down button.

"I've got to go. I shouldn't have come here." She hit the button repeatedly as if that would make the elevator arrive faster. Gil put his hand to the back of her head causing her to hiss in pain.

"That's a nasty cut."

"Yeah, well…" Her normally witty comeback wasn't there. She was too tired to think of one. Lindsey was crying even louder now. Catherine bounced her on her hip attempting to quiet her.

"C'mon. I'll help you clean it up." His hand was on her free elbow, a gentle attempt to coerce her back to his door. She hit the down button a few more times before facing him.

"Fine. It's better than standing here all day." Gil took the diaper bag from her as they made their way inside his townhouse. Catherine sat Lindsey on the floor and flopped down on his sofa.

"I swear she never stops. All she does anymore is cry. She cries when I leave. She cries when I come home. She cries when I feed her. She cries when I change her. She just cries and cries and cries. I'm sick of it." Gil looked at Catherine as if she were possessed. "All I ever do anymore is change her, feed her, wash her. And for what? She just screams at me. I should never have had her."

Gil turned Catherine so that she was facing away from him. He pushed her hair out of the way to inspect the cut on the back of her head. It wasn't deep but it was big enough to have caused a big bloody mess.

"Stay here, I'll get the first aid kit." He quickly made his way to the bathroom for his kit. He was almost back to the living room when he heard it.

"God! Would you just shut the fuck up!" Gil saw Catherine's hand raise up against her daughter.

"CATHERINE!" He had grabbed Lindsey and was holding her close to him. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing. She won't…"

"Bullshit! Catherine, you were about to hit her. What the hell is going on? What did Eddie do?" His yelling caused Lindsey's cries to become even louder.

"Nothing." She saw he wasn't going to back down. "We had a little disagreement. Things got heated. That's all." She was walking around his living room like a caged lion.

"A little?"

"It's no big deal."

"That bruise you'll have tomorrow and the gash on your head?"

"It was an accident. Give me my baby. I'm leaving." She was trying to pull Lindsey from him but Gil wasn't letting go. Instead he just looked into her eyes as the knowledge of what was really going on hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Catherine, you know that shit could cost you your job." She froze unsure how she should react. After an awkward standoff she grabbed Lindsey and the diaper bag and stormed out.

"Go to hell Gil."

Gil shook his head to brush the memory of that day away before calling Nick on his cell.

"Hey, I need you to find out if we processed a broken brush at the Henderson party and I need it now." He slammed the phone into his pocket before making his way to the morgue.

Gil was walking out the door with his assignment when Brass stopped him.

"We need to talk. My office." Brass walked off with Gil following behind. "Sit." Brass closed the door behind him. Gil had no clue what was going on but he knew it couldn't be good.

"Willows husband called me. Said she won't be in for four weeks. Said she has the flu." Brass paused in order to gauge Gil's reaction. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

"Sounds like she has the flu to me." Gil was lying. He knew it. Brass knew it.

"Grissom, no one has a scheduled flu. Are you going to tell me or am I suspending her?"

"Jim, you can't. She needs this job. She has Lindsey."

"I need to know what is going on."

"Please, give her a break. I'm asking you to trust me on this."

"Fine, but if she is even one minute late when she comes back you both are suspended." Brass went to work on his pile of paperwork. Gil stood up, leaving as quickly as he could.

"Hey Doc, the boy from the Henderson party. Did you see anything that would indicate he was hit by a brush?" Gil had found Doc Robbins in his private breakroom, the one he had requisitioned two months ago. Doc had once told him no one questions anything a coroner wants.

"There was some unexplained bruising on the back of his head, no open wounds though." Al finished making his coffee. "I'll have to pull my report and take another look. But if memory serves me the size of the bruising would be consistent with a small hairbrush. Why?"

"I just remembered something I saw in the past."