A/N-Thanks for all your feedback on my story so far. I basically have it done, so it is just a matter of typing up the chapters and stuff. This chapter is one of my favorites...it's emotional. Hope you like.
Catherine came home with Lindsay from school. She walked into the living room with Lindsay and motioned for Lindsay to be quiet. Then she told her to follow her to her room.
When they got to her bedroom, Lindsay asked her mom if Greg was okay.
"He's tired, as I thought he would be. He refused to lie down before. I'll wake him up before dinner, just get started on your homework for now."
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Yes mom."
Catherine smirked at her daughter. "You know Greg can probably help you out some with your chemistry homework later on."
"Yeah?" Lindsay's blue eyes lit up.
"Yes, he's already volunteered."
"Cool," Lindsay grinned.
"Okay, get to work on your other stuff. I will call you when grams has dinner ready."
Catherine walked back into the living room. She smirked when she saw Braveheart on the screen. She gazed at Greg sleeping on her sofa. She was glad he was looking better than he had before. She knew he had needed the rest; he was just too stubborn to admit it.
He opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep.
"I told you you needed rest."
He looked over at his left side and saw Catherine grinning at him. He scowled at her. "Okay, so I was tired. It's to be expected."
Suddenly he caught a whiff of dinner.
"What's cooking, honey," he asked with a smart assed grin.
She frowned at him. "My mother is cooking spaghetti for dinner."
Greg could feel his stomach growling already.
"Oh and by the way, I told Lindsay you could help her with her homework tonight."
"You did just have me here to use me for my brains. I knew it." But he was smiling.
She was glad he was sounding more like his old self again.
"Of course, Greg. I just invited you here to use you for your brains. Now enough with the goofing around, we are about to eat. Do you want to hobble yourself over to the kitchen table?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "That was not very nice." He slowly got up anyway, wincing as he tried to straighten himself out.
As they ate dinner around the table, Greg felt like an awkward member of the family. Lindsay was excited he was there. She always thought all of her mom's male co-workers were 'hot'.
Lily treated him like a son she never had by asking constantly if he was okay. He was a bit embarrassed by all the female attention, but it was Catherine's occasional quick glances at him that he noticed the most.
After dinner, Greg did help Lindsay with the little bit of Chemistry homework she had. Catherine totally trusted Greg with her daughter. Greg ended up making Lindsay laugh more than anything. Catherine could hear it and it made her happy.
Greg finally emerged from Lindsay's room, looking somewhat tired again. He walked into the guest bedroom and sat down on the side of the bed.
Catherine came in and noticed he seemed a bit forlorn. "What's wrong, Greg? It sounded like you were having fun with Lindsay."
He looked up at her, slightly surprised to see her. "Oh I was. No, it's just that I need to try to take a shower now."
"Do you need help? Is that the problem?"
He shook his head. "No, but you will have to replace my bandages after."
"Yes, I know that. That's fine with me." She could see he was still bothered by something.
"Oh okay. Well let me take my shower then." He got up and supported himself with the cane as he walked over to the bathroom.
She was puzzled as to what was bothering him. Everything seemed to have been going well so far with him there.
She heard the shower start running. She got out the bag of medical supplies the nurse had given him, plus the additional that she had bought.
Greg stood under the showerhead, letting the water beat on his face and chest. He could not with his back, the doctor told him. Plus it would hurt too much. Even the little bit of water that trickled down his back irritated the wounds.
He stepped out of the shower after a few minutes. He towel dried his short hair and the rest of himself. He pulled on a clean pair of sweatpants. He stood in front of the mirror a moment, staring back at his thin appearance. From the front he looked unharmed, but he knew his back was another story. He was worried about Catherine seeing him so damaged. He had been dreading this moment all day.
He finally mustered up enough courage to walk back into his room. Catherine heard him coming. She realized she had never seen him shirtless before. She always thought of him as sort of scrawny, even though he was fairly tall. She was surprised to see the slight build he actually had, but she also noticed his weight loss a lot more in his rib area.
He hesitated under her gaze upon him. "Um, how do we want to do this," he asked her.
"Just sit down on the side of the bed here."
He came over slowly and then sat down with his back towards her. Wet bandages covered all his wounds now.
"Okay, I am going to slowly remove the old ones. Are you ready?"
He nodded his head slightly and she could hear him make a big sigh.
"I will try to be as gentle as possible," she told him. She felt a bit nervous herself now, as she started with one corner of the bandage over his back right shoulder. She noticed he remained surprisingly still as she pulled off that bandage. Then she went for the numerous ones covering the long lacerations down his back.
He started to flinch more as she removed those. It was not until she had all the old, damp bandages off that she held back a gasp. He had stitches going down in trails on his back that held the skin together for healing. Then his right shoulder and the once infected lower back wound was a mess of more stitches.
Greg noticed she was not doing anything for a few minutes. He knew she was taking in the damage.
"It's pretty grotesque, huh," he said in a shaky voice.
She felt her eyes welling up realizing Greg had to know she was staring at his back in horror all over again. She had flashed back to when she saw him all covered in blood.
"Greg, I am so sorry."
"I know," he said quietly.
She wiped her eyes a moment then fumbled for the disinfectant she had to use first before putting the new bandages on.
Every time he flinched or winced in pain, it broke her heart. She tried to get it over with as soon as she could.
She finally finished replacing the last bandage. She gathered herself together. He did not need to see that she had been crying some for him.
"Okay, it's all done now." She remembered she would have to do it twice a day. Hopefully she would get use to it eventually, just as he seemed to have.
Greg did not turn around right away. Instead he got up and grabbed a tank top off the top of the dresser. He pulled it on very slowly, taking care not to strain his right shoulder too much.
He finally turned around to face her. She could swear he must have been crying too. He looked worn out and red eyed. She tried to act like she did not notice, but it tore her up inside to see him looking that way.
"Thanks, Catherine. I think I need to sleep now."
She nodded her head and stood up. She watched him pull back the covers and gently crawl into bed. He got on his side again.
"Goodnight, Greg." She said as she closed the door behind her.
Greg made a grateful sigh and reached over and turned off the light.
Since she was use to working the night shift, Catherine spent most of her time in the living room on her nights off of work. She would sleep a little on the sofa, but mostly spent her nights going over casework or watching television. She mostly slept during the late morning, after Lindsay was off to school again.
That night she sat with the TV on just for some background noise as her thoughts were consumed with Greg. All she could picture was the mess that was his back and the sorrowful look in his eyes before she let him be for the night. He had so much to overcome yet. She thought of Tyler again, licking the blood off his knife. She felt sick to her stomach. She took a couple deep breaths to control her stomach urges.
She wondered if she would be holding up as well as Greg was. Greg was a lot stronger person than anyone ever gave him credit for. She had to stop dwelling on it. She popped in a movie to watch to take her mind off of him for a while.
He was alone in the motel room. He was examining evidence on the ground when a foot clocked him in the face, knocking him back and dazing him. Then another foot met his rib cage and another. He was being pummeled by a gang of youths with masks on. Then he was suddenly grabbed by his collar and pulled up to face Tyler Renning. His heart started beating faster. Ty grinned maliciously at him then spun him around and Greg felt a knife cutting into his back and being dragged down. Greg cried out in pain.
He woke up in a cold sweat. He sat up in bed and turned on the light. He wiped the sweat from his face and ran his hand through his hair. He did not want to go back to sleep. At least now that he was out of the hospital, he could actually get up and walk around instead of just lying there in bed.
He stood up, although a bit wobbly. He grabbed his cane, much to his chagrin, but he knew he needed it for stability. He opened the door and walked quietly out into the living room. He spotted Catherine, seated on the sofa. He tried to duck back into his room before she spotted him, but he could not move quickly enough.
"Greg, is everything okay?"
He glanced over at her and decided to come in the room. "I can't sleep too well. You know how it is when you are in a strange place for the first time." He shrugged.
Catherine could tell by the slightly haunted look in his eyes that he was not telling the truth. She waited until he sat down on the sofa next to her.
"Greg, you do not have to lie to me. I can tell by the look in your eyes that you had another nightmare."
He did not drop his head this time. Instead he narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, I hate that you can tell that."
She made a small smile. "Sorry."
He waved his hand off. "It's okay. I just need some time to get over them. I know they will go away eventually."
"You know if you do want to talk about them you can tell me."
Greg studied her a moment, still unsure if he wanted to know. He could see the concern on her face. He decided it might be better to tell her about it.
"Okay, I will talk about it."
Catherine smiled, happy he was finally going to talk about something regarding what happened that fateful day.
She let him explain the whole dream without interruption. She now understood why he said the dreams were twisting things.
"Where you still having nightmares about the beating before this happened?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. I mean they were few and far between, but for the most part hardly any."
"Well sometime the medication you are on can cause nightmares."
"Yeah, I know but I rather have the nightmares than deal with the pain I would be in otherwise." He said modestly.
"I suppose. Are the dreams usually the same thing?"
"Not always. It changes. Sometimes it is just Ty. Sometimes you are also in them." He swallowed a moment. "Ty torturing you too."
"But thanks to you, in reality he never really had a chance. If you had not shot him when you did, things could have been different. You distracted him from me. Although you know I am still not overly happy about the risks you took upon yourself."
Greg rolled his eyes. "Not this again."
She grinned at him. "No, I will drop it. So you want to watch a movie or do something else?"
Greg gave her a sly glance. "Something else? What kind of something else?"
Catherine gave him a light smack on his arm. "Ow!"
"Nothing like whatever is going through your perverted mind." She glared at him.
He chuckled a bit. "Okay, seriously what movies do you have?"
She went through her pile and they ended up picking out a comedy. They both figured they needed something lighthearted.
Catherine was not surprised to see Greg fall asleep again during the movie. The doctor had told her he would still need a lot of sleep, plus she knew his meds caused drowsiness.
She grabbed a throw blanket and gently laid it over him. He stirred slightly but did not wake up.
She found herself again staring at him as he slept. He really was a handsome young man. She shook her head. He was not exactly so young anymore. He was in his thirties now, but being he was the youngest CSI on staff, she still had a hard time not thinking of him in that way.
She suddenly found herself wondering what it would be like to be with him. She knew that when he was in the lab he had a few girlfriends, but also a mad crush on Sara. But since he became a CSI that crush seemed to just turn into a friendship and as with any CSI, a love life became almost non-existent since they worked so much.
She still wondered how Warrick managed to find someone and get married. His marriage hurt her at first but she had gotten over her own crush on him at his point.
But now she had these strange, rather strong feelings for Greg, something she never dreamed would happen. It was not just what happened that caused them to come on either. She had been ignoring the feelings for the last few months, thinking it was foolish.
She leaned her head back and decided to stop thinking about it so much. Maybe she should just try to sleep like everyone else in the household.