Howdy! Here's chapter 13! Usually I hate the number 13, but this chapter was one of the easiest that I've ever written. The words just flowed continuously, nearly – if not more than – 4,000 words in less than four hours or so (as compared to chapter 9, where those 7,000+ were tweaked, retweaked, added, taken away, etc. over a course of like three weeks). So go Team Me, haha. Maybe it's the fact that I have a sexy duo in Grissom and Catherine to write about, lol.
Anywho, enjoy, read and review, I don't own CSI/characters/etc. We're in the homestretch, folks! Happy Memorial Day!
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* Four Months Later *
Catherine tiredly forced her eyes open when she heard the front door open, listening for the familiar sound of Gil dropping his keys on the table by the door to confirm it was him and not Lindsay. If it were her daughter, she would have heard Lindsay's purse dropping to the floor.
Sure enough, a few seconds after the door quietly shut, his keys clanked as they were set on the table. She smiled sleepily, looking up at Gil as he carefully padded into the living room and glanced down at her on the couch.
"Hey honey," he said softly when he saw that she was awake, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek before kneeling next to her.
"Welcome home," Catherine answered.
Gil smiled to himself, his heart skipping a beat when she said the word home. Over the past four months, he had spent less and less time at his own home. In fact, most of his belongings were at Catherine's, and they both knew that it was only a matter of time before Gil sold his house and made it official that he and Catherine were living together. And that felt…perfect. He pushed the sappy thoughts aside, though. "Why aren't you sleeping in bed?" he asked, tugging at the afghan that covered Catherine.
"I came down here for one of the pain pills and I didn't feel like walking back upstairs," Catherine explained, stifling a yawn.
Gil's eyes traveled down to the gray sling around Catherine's neck. The white cast that was around Catherine's left wrist peeked out from the fabric of the sling, and he settled his hand on the plaster. "It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked sympathetically. He knew that Catherine had to be in a lot of pain to actually take one of the Percocet that her surgeon had prescribed. With her other surgery on her right wrist two months ago, she had been fortunate to just be able to take Tylenol to help with the pain.
"Uh huh," Catherine answered, a slight whine evident in her voice. "The other one didn't hurt this bad."
"I'm sorry, honey," Gil said soothingly, pressing his lips to the cast. He hated seeing Catherine in pain, but he also knew that the surgery on her wrists were necessary so that she didn't suffer from severe wrist pain later on in life. The first surgery on her right wrist had been successful and she had recovered quickly, most likely due to the fact that that was her dominate hand.
Gil hated, however, that she was even in this position, and it was all due to James Cena. He held a lot of anger toward the deceased man, and while he wasn't typically a violent man, if he hadn't of shot Cena in the courtroom, then he would have killed him at some other point. It wasn't fair that Catherine had to go through all the pain and suffering thanks to that lunatic.
Catherine lifted her right hand, settling it against Gil's cheek, letting her fingers linger as she asked, "How was your class?"
"Good," Gil replied, his hand covering hers, his finger tracing the tiny scar on the underside of her wrist. "The students are ready to get out of college for the last couple of weeks of summer, though. They are getting that glassy eyed 'end of the semester' look."
Catherine smiled briefly, though her heart twinged at the realization that in less than two weeks, she and Gil would be flying with Lindsay out to Delaware in order to help her move into the University of Delaware's dormitories. When she boarded the plane to go back to Las Vegas, however, it would be without her daughter.
She couldn't help the yawn that escaped, and she smiled sheepishly at Gil. "I'm sorry," she said. "The pain medicine may not help with my actual pain, but at least it makes me drowsy enough so that I fall asleep."
"There's no need to apologize, Cath," Gil chastised her softly. "How about we go upstairs and I'll lay down with you for awhile?"
"I'd like that," Catherine answered.
Gil helped her to her feet, his arms around her waist as she swayed slightly. "You okay?" Gil asked, concern evident in his voice.
"I'm fine," Catherine answered, yawning again. "But we better hurry before you're carrying me up the steps."
"I wouldn't mind that," Gil told Catherine. "It would make me feel like a gentleman." Without a second thought, he swung his arms under Catherine's knees, sweeping her carefully into his arms. He laughed at the somewhat indignant squeak that emitted from her lips, and before she could protest, Gil told her, "You're not going to hurt me, I'm not going to drop you, and I'm not putting you down, so save your breath."
Catherine wisely shut her mouth. She brought her right arm up, securing it around Gil's neck. He carefully held her, making sure that her arm was comfortably settled in her sling before making his way to the steps.
He carefully carried her up the flight of steps, making his way to her – their – bedroom, settling Catherine carefully on the bed. He quickly stripped down to his boxers, tossing his shoes to the side of the room as he crawled into bed, pulling the covers over the pair. He took off his glasses, setting them on the nightstand on his side of the bed.
Catherine lay on her side, her eyes drooping lazily as she gazed at him. Wordlessly, Gil slid her arm out of the sling, tossing the cloth garment aside. He wrapped his arms around Catherine's waist, pulling her to him, being mindful of her wrist, not wanting to jar her injury. He pressed his lips against her forehead tenderly. "I love you, Catherine," he whispered.
"I love you too, Gil," Catherine answered back, her eyes drifting closed.
Gil's heart fluttered in response. No matter how many times she said it, it was special each time to him. His eyes drooped as well, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.
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When Catherine woke up three hours later, the pain in her wrist had settled into a dull throb. While this wasn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world, it beat the previous feeling that she had had, which was akin to someone repeatedly smashing her arm with a sledgehammer.
Or someone handcuffing her way too tightly and repeatedly pulling on the handcuff chain…
Catherine glanced at Gil, a lazy smile playing on her lips when she saw her boyfriend of the last four months gazing back at her. "Hi," Catherine said softly.
"Hi yourself," Gil answered, raising a hand and brushing a few errant strands of hair out of her face. "You feeling any better?"
"A lot," Catherine told him. "I still feel kind of drowsy, though. I don't want to get out of bed."
"That's fine with me," Gil slyly replied, adding an over exaggerated wink at the end.
Catherine groaned in response. "You're lucky that I'm lying on my right arm, or else I would smack you," she joked in response. She glanced at the cast, lifting her arm slightly. "Though I could knock some sense into you with this thing…"
Gil chuckled deeply, pressing his lips against Catherine's in a passionate kiss. "I love you so much," Gil told her when they broke apart.
"I know," Catherine told him back. "I love you too; more and more every day, in fact. You do something new everyday that is just adorable and perfect, and I think that I fall in love with you just a little bit more."
"Oh, Catherine," Gil answered softly. He buried his face into her hair, fighting to control his emotions. "Why did we wait so long for this?"
"I don't know," Catherine replied. "But who cares? We have each other now, and we will have each other for the rest of our lives."
Gil nodded, his fingers blindly finding Catherine's left hand. He grasped her fingers as best as he could without hurting her, his touch as light as feathers as he glanced down at her hand. "Let's make it official, Cath. Let's go to one of those infamous Vegas wedding chapels and we'll get married," Gil suggested. "No hoopla, no fuss: just me, you, and Lindsay."
Catherine blinked, the implication of his words hitting her full force. She knew that Gil was totally serious about the proposal. She opened her mouth to reply, only to shut her eyes when the phone rang.
"Ugh, if that's Ecklie, I'm going to kill him," Catherine groaned. "Not only am I on medical leave but he just ruined a serious moment!"
Gil laughed heartily, pressing a too-short kiss to Catherine's lips before rolling out of bed to grab the cordless phone that sat on their dresser. "Hello?" Gil asked. A slight pause, then he said, "I'm doing well, Lily…she's doing well, not in too much pain. In fact, she just woke up from a nap…you want to talk to her? Okay."
He passed the phone off to Catherine, who placed it to her ear. "Hi, mom," Catherine said into the phone, more of her attention focused on Gil crawling back into bed rather than her mother on the phone.
"Hi, honey. How are you feeling?"
"I'm doing okay," Catherine said. "I was in a lot of pain earlier, but I feel better now."
"That's good."
"How are you?"
"I'm doing well. I actually just got out of a meeting with some lawyers that were involved with some of Sam's casinos, which is part of the reason I called you, actually," Lily told Catherine.
"Oh, really?" Catherine asked, her curiosity somewhat peaked. She sat up, leaning against the headboards as she smiled at Gil.
"Yeah, it turns out that Sam had a couple of last requests written into his will, and one of the requests kind of involves you, Catherine. Indirectly, at least…" Lily trailed off.
"What about me?"
"Apparently, in the event of his death, Sam wanted fifty percent of his casinos to go to his business partner, and the other fifty percent to go to me," Lily explained.
"I thought that all of his casinos went to his partner, though," Catherine wondered aloud.
"So did I," Lily answered. "However, there turned out to be updated copies of his will that no one knew about, with the changes that I just told you about."
"Okay," Catherine answered, unsure of what this had to do with her. "Why did you have to meet with the lawyers?"
Lily chuckled wryly. "Needless to say, Sam's partner wasn't too happy about these new changes."
"I can only imagine."
"Brian was always a selfish bastard, and I don't want anything to do with him, personally or professionally. So, I told him that I would gladly sell him my fifty percent of the casinos, for a healthy profit, of course."
"Way to go, mom," Catherine chuckled.
"Oh, yes, indeed," Lily answered.
"What does this have to do with me, though?"
Lily sighed softly, contemplating her words. "A week before he died, Sam made me promise that if anything ever happened to him, that I would make sure that you were financially stable."
"I'm doing fine for myself, thank you," Catherine said with a laugh. "I actually make decent money for a CSI supervisor. It's not 'take a limo everywhere that I go' money, but I manage."
"I know, I know," Lily said. "However, as your loving mother, I want to give you half of the profit that I get from Sam's casinos."
"Mom, you don't have to do that!" Catherine exclaimed. "Sam left those casinos for you, not me." She glanced at Gil, seeing the curious look on his face. "It's your money, and-"
"-and I want to give you half. It's up to me, and it's settled. You will have a check within two business days, and you will be cashing that check whether I have to drag you to the bank myself."
Catherine was silent for several long moments, unsure of how to respond. "Mom, I don't know what to say," Catherine finally said.
"Just say thanks," Lily replied with a laugh.
"Thank you, mom," Catherine said, stunned.
"You're welcome, my darling." There was silence, and Lily asked, "Don't you want to know how much you'll be getting?"
"I…I kind of do, yeah," Catherine admitted.
When Lily rattled off the figure, Catherine was glad that she was seated. The number that Lily told her made the $250,000 check that Sam had given her years ago look like chump change. "Mom!" Catherine finally managed to squeak. "That's way too much money!"
"And it's yours," Lily said with a laugh. "I love you, Catherine."
"I love you too," Catherine answered numbly. She hung up the phone, looking at Gil.
"Are you okay?" Gil couldn't help but ask. Catherine looked dangerously pale, and for a second he thought that she was going to pass out. "What did your mom say?"
Catherine continued gazing at Gil. "I…uh…I'm going to have a lot of money within the next two days," Catherine informed Gil.
"What do you mean?"
Catherine quickly explained the conversation she had with her mother to Gil. When she repeated the figure that Lily had told Catherine, he merely blinked. "Whoa," he managed. "That's…a lot of money."
"Tell me about it," Catherine answered, stunned. She glanced at Gil, smiling. "You sure you don't want a huge wedding now?"
Gil chuckled slightly, his hand covering Catherine's. "Cath, I don't care if we have five guests or five thousand guests, I just want to marry you, and as soon as possible, preferably."
Catherine nodded. "I…this actually solves a lot of problems, actually," she admitted.
"What do you mean by that?"
Catherine sighed, bringing her gaze down to the blankets on her bed. "I've wanted to…ah, resign from CSI for awhile now," she admitted. "I just…even before the whole thing with Cena, I've wanted to leave. That kind of just sped up the desire to get out of there."
"Why did you want to leave?" Gil asked.
She didn't answer him for a few long seconds, and finally, she replied. "I just…I don't know, Gil. We worked together for nearly twenty years, and we'd known each other for even longer than that. It's not the same without you there, and I don't like it. Don't get me wrong, I love my team, but…there's days where I'm stumped or lost or just need a jolt and…you're the one that I need. I miss you, Gil. Even though we're together now, I still miss you. When I get home, I'm going to bed as you're on your way to class. I wake up, and we have maybe a few hours together before I'm called into work because swing is backed up.
"I want more out of life, Gil. I've waited so long for you, and I don't want to waste away the rest of my life running fingerprints or staring into a microscope when you're sitting at home waiting for me to return so we can see each other for a few hours. There's so much to see in this world that I don't want to miss. This…gift from my mother and Sam? It's a blessing in disguise. I can happily retire and we can be financially stable for the rest of our lives." She finally stopped talking, meeting Gil's gaze. "What are you thinking?" she couldn't help but ask. He had that inquisitive gaze that drove her crazy in both a good and bad way.
Gil squeezed her hand. "I think that we have some decisions to make," he told Catherine. "I think you know what you want. So what are we going to do?"
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Two days later, Catherine and Gil walked hand in hand towards the break room at the crime lab after a long meeting with Conrad Ecklie. Catherine's arm was in the sling still even though it felt much better than the last couple of days. The doctor had ordered her to wear it for at least a week before taking it out of the sling.
Catherine stood there, smiling to herself as she looked into the room. Everyone that she directly worked with was there. Greg and Riley were engaged in a conversation on the couch, their knees closer than they should have been. Nick leaned over the back of the couch, listening to the pair as they discussed whatever they were talking about. Ray was seated at the table, reading a forensic journal and sipping a cup of coffee. Doctor Robbins was pouring himself a cup of coffee, while Hodges and Brass were discussing a case in the corner. Hodges pointed something out to Brass, who nodded in response. The captain looked pleased, so Catherine could only guess that whatever it was that Hodges had shown him was a good thing.
It was Nick who noticed Catherine and Gil in the doorway. He nudged Greg with his elbow, gesturing to the door. "Pay up, man. I told you she'd be back within four days this time!" he exclaimed to Greg.
"Very funny, Nicholas," Catherine said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm not here to work." She stepped into the room, pulling Gil along with her.
"Well, when are you coming back?" Hodges spoke up.
"Ha, you think that I'm going to give you guys any advantages in this little office pool? Nice try," Catherine answered him dryly. With her first surgery, she had found out that the members of the grave shift had a bet going on about how soon Catherine would return to work, even though the doctor had recommended taking at least a month off. Riley had won that bet, and $75, by saying that Catherine would be back in a week. "I actually just had a meeting with Ecklie, and I wanted to stop in to say hi," Catherine explained. "Sorry, Nicky," she added.
Nick shrugged nonchalantly, a smile playing at his lips to show that there was no hard feeling about being out of a few dollars. He opened his mouth to reply when his eyes zeroed in on her left hand peeking out of the cast. "Uh, Catherine? Is that an engagement ring?" he asked.
"No, Nick," Catherine replied. "It's actually a wedding ring." She pulled Gil's left hand up with her right one, showing off the matching ring on his left hand. "That's part of the reason that we came here tonight."
There was stunned silence in the room, then Doc Robbins started to applaud. The rest of the team joined in, and Catherine and Gil blushed. "It's about time you two came to your senses," Brass called.
"I know, I know," Gil said. "We just decided that we've waited for each other so long and that we're not going to wait any longer. So, yesterday, Catherine, Lindsay, Lily, and I went to one of those drive through chapels and said 'I Do'."
Greg laughed heartily. "You mean to tell me that you two actually went and got married by Elvis?!" he asked.
"Actually, it was an alien," Catherine told him. There was another string of silence in the room before everyone laughed again. "What? I'm serious. I have the photos to prove it!" she exclaimed above their laughter.
"Well, congratulations, you two. You're a match made in heaven," Doc Robbins said. "Are you going to have a reception or anything?"
"We haven't really discussed that," Catherine admitted with a glance to Gil. "It's a distinct possibility, though."
"What's the other part of the reason you came here tonight?" Hodges couldn't help but ask. He had picked up on the second part of Catherine's statement earlier, and was curious.
Catherine smiled at Hodges. She had hoped that someone would have heard her statement earlier, because after the joyous news that she and Gil had just shared, she wasn't sure how to break the next bombshell.
Upon hearing Hodges' question, and seeing the hesitation in Catherine's face before she spoke, the mood in the room sobered. The slight…but encouraging, squeeze of Catherine's hand by Gil did not go unnoticed by Greg or Nick, who glanced at each other.
Catherine sighed, looking at the faces watching her expectantly, waiting for her to speak. They were her extended family, and she cared for them as much as they cared for her. "I, um…I just had a meeting with Conrad to discuss my future as a CSI," Catherine finally spoke up. "As of December 31st, I will no longer be the supervisor here. I'm retiring early."
Everyone looked shocked at the news, except for Ray, Catherine noticed. He held a knowing look in his eyes, and it peaked Catherine's curiosity. "Um, Nicky will be grave shift supervisor, and Greggo will be assistant supervisor," Catherine explained, shaking off the curious feeling that Ray's gaze had left her. "Conrad is thinking of making some of the lab techs crime scene investigators because he doesn't want to hire a new CSI Level One, but that is up to him." She looked over the room, noticing the stunned looks seemed to be dissipating somewhat. "Okay?" she asked gently.
Gil smiled to himself, thinking that that was the exact same way that he ended the impromptu meeting where he announced that he was leaving CSI. However, this time, there was no beeper calling Catherine to a crime to break the shockwaves that emanated the room. He squeezed Catherine's hand in support once again, smiling down at her as he kissed her forehead. "I love you, Cath," Gil told her, his voice tinged with pride at his wife.
"I love you too," Catherine responded, leaning into his side.
"Oh, get a room you two!" Nick joked, breaking the somber mood.
"I just have one question," Brass spoke up. Once all eyes were on him he continued, "Can we have cake in the break room for you, Catherine?"
Gil laughed, squeezing Catherine's waist before pulling away and stepping up to Nick. He shook his hand, and Greg and Riley moved in to also congratulate their former boss.
"Hey, Ray, can I talk to you for a second?" Catherine asked, gesturing to the hallway.
"Ooh, Ray's gotta see the principal," Greg called.
"Very funny, Greg," Catherine said wryly before stepping into the hallway, Ray following behind. There was a slight twinkle in his eye, and Catherine had a feeling he knew what this was about.
"What's up, Catherine?" Ray asked smoothly, leaning against the wall.
Catherine contemplated her words, shuffling her feet. "I don't know, Ray," she admitted. "I'm just a little curious."
"Curious?" he repeated. "About what?"
"You ah…didn't seem shocked about my announcement in there," Catherine said with a one armed shrug.
Ray smiled, lifting a hand in surrender. "I wasn't."
"Why?"
Ray chuckled. "Catherine, I've seen the pictures of you and Gil in your office. It's obvious to everyone that you two are meant for each other, and with everything that happened a few months ago, be it the whole courtroom situation or Sara leaving Grissom, I knew that you'd be married and out of CSI before the year was over," Ray explained.
Catherine considered his words, and then nodded slowly. "It was that obvious to a newcomer that we were in love with each other?" she finally asked.
"Uh huh," Ray answered. "The way you two look at each other is…unmatched, to say the least. I know couples that have been together for many years who don't even look at each other the way that you two do."
"I just wish that we didn't wait so long," Catherine quietly admitted to Ray.
"You have your whole life ahead of you, especially now that you are leaving," Ray answered. "Do yourself a favor, Catherine."
"What's that?"
"Don't look back."
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End Part 13/14
What did you think? I hope that everything was clear with the part about Lily and Sam, and with Catherine deciding to leave CSI.
Also, I'm turning back on my anonymous reviews. I ask that anyone who truly has a problem with my story, however, to be mature about it and actually submit a signed review. I can delete offensive reviews with one click, trust me. Thanks. =)