A/N--Thanks for all the reviews. Glad you all are enjoying the story.
Catherine walked into Ecklie's office. His shifty eyes focused on her. "Catherine, come in and take a seat."
Catherine sat down. "What's this about, Ecklie?"
Ecklie posed a smile on his face. "I wanted to talk to you in person and see how you were doing after what happened in the Tyler Renning and Jessica Myers case."
Catherine smiled pleasantly at him. "Why I am doing fine, Conrad. It's nice to know you care."
Ecklie smirked at her. "I hear you have been visiting Greg Sanders on a daily basis. How's he doing?"
She knew what he was doing now. He had probably heard about Greg having some problems and figured she would tell him all about it.
"Conrad, why don't you visit Greg and find out yourself?"
Ecklie's smile spread out more. "Catherine, I was just asking a simple question."
"Well then, I will give you a simple answer. He is doing as well as can be expected, just as I am. Was there anything else I can help you with today?"
The tension was thick in the room. Ecklie folded his hands on his desk while leaning forward.
"You can tell me why you left Greg alone in that room with no police protection around?"
Catherine was stunned. "The officers had cleared the area prior and Brass had to leave for another scene, so he asked me to continue questioning the motel owners. We CSI's have been left alone at cleared scenes before. I did nothing wrong."
"No perhaps not, but we might introduce a policy change now after this incident. I just wanted to make sure your story matched Captain Brass' story."
Catherine was fuming. "Well as you can see it does. Are we done now, Conrad?"
Ecklie could see that she was not happy with him. "Yes, that is all for now, Catherine. Thank you for coming in early."
Catherine stormed out and went to the break room to grab something to drink to cool her temper down. As she came in, Warrick was sitting in there and he recognized the look on her face.
"Whoa, who pissed you off?"
She grabbed her soda out of the fridge and popped the top. "Take a guess," she steamed.
"Hmm, Ecklie? I heard he was waiting for you."
"That man has some nerve sometimes, questioning me about leaving Greg alone at the scene, which is nothing uncommon. Then he has the nerve to ask me how Greg is doing. I told him to try visiting him and finding out for himself."
Warrick grinned at her angry face. "Do you really want to subject Greg to more torture by having Ecklie visit him?"
Catherine gave Warrick a sideways glare, but then broke into a smile. "Yeah that would be mean to do that to Greg right now. Anyway I doubt Ecklie will be going to see Greg in the hospital. He hates those places."
"So how is Greg anyway," Warrick asked Catherine as he popped a piece of candy in his mouth.
"He's finally going to get out of there on Wednesday. Only problem is he needs someone to stay with to help him out for a couple of weeks. I offered for him to stay at my place since someone is pretty much always there."
Warrick was surprised. "Your place? What about his family?"
"He said he has not told them about what happened and he rather jump off a bridge before letting them take care of him. He did not accept my offer yet anyway."
"Hmm, you sure you could handle Greg Sanders living with you for more than a week?"
Catherine grinned again. "He's tame right now, while he is on painkillers and can't get around too well on his own. I can handle him."
Warrick just raised his eyebrows. "If you say so."
The next day Greg met with the physical therapist. Carol Turner was her name and she was a woman of dark skin and in her mid-40's. Greg found her rather attractive and that made his first session with her go better.
She mostly went over with him what they would be doing. Since he was having problems standing straight up and not being able to without a lot of pain, she was going to help him with stretches that would get his muscles back in shape. Plus his right shoulder muscles had damage so they would be working on that too.
When he got back into his bed after his first short session with her, he was worn out. He was now able to lay on his backside in bed, with little pain. He would still occasionally lie on his side, as it was still more comfortable overall.
He was sleeping when Catherine came in. She was pleased to see he was not on his side anymore. It was a sure sign he was not in as much pain anymore. She did not want to wake him because she was not sure how long he had been asleep, so she sat down in the chair and watched him sleep for a while.
For so long she just thought of him as the young former lab rat turned CSI, never really seeing him as the man he had become. Through all that he had been through over the last year, she discovered there was a lot more to him than she ever gave him credit for. Now when she watched him sleep, she saw him for the man he was.
She always found him to be cute and attractive, but overall it was his charming personality that she appreciated the most. He was always so upbeat and trying to make people feel better. That was why it was so hard to see him down like he had been lately. Things seemed to be getting better for him though, so it seemed.
As she watched him, she noticed he was getting restless in his sleep. He started mumbling something. She assumed he was having a nightmare. His mumblings became more audible. He was saying, "stop."
She hated seeing him like this. She decided to try to wake him up. She touched his arm lightly.
"Greg?" She said in a quiet voice.
She startled him awake. He looked scared at first. She could see him breathing heavily.
"Greg, it's just me. I woke you from a nightmare."
He looked over at her, his eyes wide with surprise that she was there. She had seen him having a nightmare. He felt like a wimp suddenly. He turned his head away from her and closed his eyes, fighting to appear unfazed by his dark dream. Unfortunately it was one of the worst ones he had had yet.
"Greg, do you want to talk about it," she asked him cautiously.
"No!" He yelled, and then he shook his head and immediately apologized. "Sorry I did not mean to yell like that." He ran his hand over his face in frustration. Why did she have to be there to see him like that?
She knew he did not mean to yell and she knew he was probably feeling foolish right now. The nightmare had to be pretty bad to upset him like that.
"It's okay, Greg. I understand. You'll talk if and when you are ready to."
He turned and looked at her. The sadness was in his eyes again. "Thanks. I appreciate your understanding. I just…I just don't want to deal with all of it yet."
She sympathized with him. "That's fine with me Greg. I'll be around when you are." She smiled at him sweetly.
"So, um how was your shift," he asked, trying to change the subject.
"It was okay. No big cases right now to work on." She was not sure if she should mention her visit with Ecklie right now.
"Have you thought about your staying at my place yet?"
Greg nodded his head. "I have, but first are you sure you want me to stay under the same roof, especially since I tend to be a bit more, um, unpredictable, lately?" He gave her an unsure look.
She chuckled a bit. "Since when have you been predictable, Greg? So am I getting you will be staying with me then?"
He sighed. "I can't think of any other options, so yes, if you will have me, but only until I am good enough to get around without help."
She smiled at him. "It's a deal then. I already informed my mother and Lindsay you might be staying with us."
He made a questioning look. "And they are okay with me staying there while I recuperate?"
"Yes Greg, they are. Lindsay is eager to have someone to help her with her chemistry homework." She grinned at him.
He rolled his eyes. "So I am going to be used for my brains." He then broke into a smile.
"Well the good thing is tomorrow just happened to be my day off, so I will be able to stick around and help you settle in."
"We'll have to go by my place and grab some of my clothes and stuff I need," he said to her.
"That's to be expected. We can do that." She was noticing how tired he looked compared to the day before.
"Are you doing okay," she asked him.
He gave her a strange look. "What do you mean?"
"You just look more tired today. The infection is almost gone, right?"
He nodded slightly. "Yes, it is gone basically. I had my first physical therapy session today. It tired me out more than I expected it to. Plus it made me more sore all over again."
"Oh, I see," she said in response, but she also figured he was probably having problems sleeping since he was having nightmares. She was not going to bring that subject up again, though.
"Well, I'm going to let you get some more rest then. Just give me a call or leave a message for me when they will be letting you out tomorrow."
"Okay, will do," he said sheepishly.
"I'll see you tomorrow then. Take care." She gave him an affectionate pat on his hand and left his room.
Greg watched her leave then laid his head back in the pillow and closed his eyes. He hated that Catherine witnessed him having one of his nightmares. Just having someone around to verify he was having them made them all the more real.
They had been getting worse and they were starting to combine events. He did not want to fall back asleep but he was so tired, there was no preventing it. He finally succumbed to sleep again.