Notes and stuff: all in chapter one :-)

Chapter 6

Grissom pulled his car into the driveway of Catherine's house, and turned to look at her, concerned, when he saw the sight that had greeted them.

Catherine also looked worried as she glanced at him before sweeping from the vehicle.

He quickly followed her as she ran up the driveway. Ideally he would have liked to be ahead of her, but he was well aware that she could take care of herself, and would object to him interfering. After all, it was her house.

"What the hell are you doing?" she had yelled at the man who was standing at her front door banging on it so hard that a few more hits probably would have put his hand straight through it.

The offender turned round just before she had chance to do it for him, and Catherine took a step backwards, some of her anger replaced by surprise.

"Andrew?" she asked, her tone clearly that of confusion.

Before them stood a young man – early twenties, Grissom deduced from his youthful looks. His short brown hair was just long enough to have been ruffled, as if he had run his hands through it several times tonight, and dark circles under his eyes showed that he hadn't slept for a while.

Immediately upon seeing Catherine, this man – Andrew, evidently – had lowered his eyes, regret and shame sweeping his features.

"I'm sorry, Catherine…" he said, his voice trailing off, as he shook his head, as if to indicate that he didn't know what else to say.

"So you should be!" she reprimanded, though her tone fell short of actually threatening him. "Why are you here?" she asked, more softly, obviously having a great regard and respect for this man, and being unable to remain angry at him for long. "No… strike that," she added quickly. "I can figure out why you're here… So, what happened? Did you two have a fight?… Did you hurt her?" her tone was more hostile now. "If you hurt her then – "

"I didn't hurt her… And we didn't have a fight… Well, I don't remember having one…"

Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place now for Grissom. Apparently this young man knew Lindsey, and from Catherine's line of questioning, was most likely her boyfriend.

"Then what's with the pounding?" Catherine asked. "Obviously you thought she wouldn't want to let you in, otherwise, when she didn't answer the door the first time, you'd have come to the conclusion that she wasn't home…"

Andrew sighed and ran his hand through his hair once more. "Lindsey didn't tell me that she was coming to see you," he explained. "We were supposed to have dinner last night. I hadn't heard from her all day, so I called by her place after work, and she wasn't there… She'd left me a note, though."

From the dejected look on Andrew's face, Grissom felt certain he could guess what the note said.

"She said," he continued, "that she needed some time to think, so she was gonna take a few days and maybe she would see me when she got back."

"That's it?" Catherine asked.

Andrew nodded. "That's all it said."

Catherine studied him as she would a murder suspect. "And you swear you don't know what brought this on?" Her look silently added 'So help me God, if you lie to me…'

"I swear," Andrew said, his eyes glazed with sadness. "Things were going great."

Catherine took a deep breath as she contemplated his story, then she let it out slowly, and said: "Okay, I'm going to let you in… Simply because we've been standing out here for long enough. But then I'm going to call Lindsey, and if she doesn't want you here then you're out… Do you understand me?"

Andrew nodded again. "Thanks Catherine… And I really am sorry about – "

Catherine cut him off. "We'll forget about it for now… Unless I don't like what I hear from Lindsey."

With that she unlocked the door, stepped inside to deactivate the alarm and then indicated for Andrew to go through to the lounge.

Once the younger man was out of earshot, she turned back to Grissom, who had stepped up to the threshold, but not crossed it.

She smiled, sadly. "So much for coffee."

Grissom nodded. "You want me to go?"

Catherine's eyes widened. "You want to stay?" she asked, with a disbelieving laugh. "For this?"

"I'd like to make sure that everything is okay," he replied, simply.

Catherine caught his true meaning, as she always had done. "Gil, I'll be fine alone with Andrew. He's harmless."

"Tell that to your door."

Catherine glanced towards the door after he said that, and he saw her confidence waiver a little, as she looked at the slight indents in the wood.

"I have nowhere else that I need to be," he said. "I can stay if you need me to."

Catherine's eyes looked back to him. "I don't need you to," she said quickly, and almost defensively, causing Grissom to almost step backwards in shock at her tone. Then her expression softened and she added, "But it looks like I'm gonna be needing coffee tonight… So, if you would like to stay…"

She stepped back, smiling, and waved for him to enter the house.

He did so, with a smile, but he was still contemplating the way she had snapped at him; the emphasis on the word need; the look in her eyes as she had said it. The evening had gone well, and he was starting to feel that there definitely was a chance of rekindling their friendship, but clearly there were still issues from the past that needed resolving.

"Go on through." He heard her voice through his thoughts. "I'm gonna call Lindsey."

He nodded to her and made his way into the lounge, where Andrew had seated himself on the sofa, his elbows rested on his knees, and his head in his hands. He looked up as Grissom sat down on the chair opposite him.

With a small smile, laced with the sadness and tiredness the young man clearly felt, Andrew raised his hand out to Grissom. "I'm Andrew Welsh… You must be… Ecklie?"

Grissom almost choked on his own breath at Andrew's assumption, and convinced himself it had been through shock at being mistaken for Ecklie, and not because he was in any way affected by knowing that, not only did Andrew know of Ecklie, but he would assume that a man, with Catherine, must be him.

"No," he answered. "I'm Gil Grissom." He did not take the offered hand.

"Oh," Andrew said, as he awkwardly lowered his hand back down to his knee. "The guy that broke her mother's heart."

The comment was not made directly to Grissom, but more as if Andrew was thinking out loud. Regardless of that though, Grissom's breath caught at the words, and his mind raced with millions of thoughts. Of why Lindsey would have told Andrew that about Grissom; of why Lindsey would think that in the first place; of what Catherine may have said to Lindsey; of what Catherine must have thought and felt. Thoughts of every moment he and Catherine had spent together, ever; thoughts of words he'd said to her, things he had done, or hadn't done; thoughts of the way he had left, of their phone calls in that first year after he moved back to California, of the lack of contact in the last six years.

'…broke her mother's heart.'

If that was the way Catherine thought of him, then it was no surprise that she had seemed nervous around him since he returned.

He was startled from his thoughts by Catherine walking into the room.

"I can't reach Lindsey," she announced. "Maybe she's gone to the movies or something… We're going to have to wait 'til she gets home."

She had glanced at Grissom as she spoke, and must have noticed his distraction. "Gil, are you okay?"

He nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

She eyed him suspiciously, and then looked to Andrew with the same distrust. "Did something happen in here while I was gone?"

Both men responded with "No!"

"Andrew, if there is more going on here and you're not telling me…" her threat trailed off and she turned back to Grissom. "And if you know something and you're not – "

Grissom stood up and moved to stand next to her. "Andrew didn't tell me anything… We were just getting acquainted. Hardly said more than seven words to each other," he assured her – seven not being a random number that popped into his head, but the exact number of words of Andrew's uttering that had imprinted on his memory.

Catherine nodded. "Okay… Well, when Lindsey gets home, I'm gonna talk to her before she knows you're here, Andrew… And if she doesn't want to see you, then you will leave." Her emphasis was on 'will'.

Andrew nodded. "I just want to know that she's okay… And that I can fix… whatever it is."

Catherine's smile to Andrew was one of sympathy and Grissom wondered if it was borne of knowing what it was like to have someone up and leave without adequate explanation of why, or was simply a result of her empathetic nature – something he had always admired about her.

But whatever Catherine's reasons for sympathising with Andrew were, Grissom knew that his reason was standing right beside him.

Catherine Willows… and his, now increased, desire to fix whatever it was that had gone wrong between them.

TBC…