"Hey," Greg said without looking up from the tube he was dropping a substance in.
"Hi," Katrina said in a faraway tone.
Greg set the tube in a holder and looked at her, "What's up with you?"
Katrina smiled at him, "Nick asked me on a date."
"Oh," Greg looked back at the tubes trying to hide his disappointment. He pulled off his latex gloves and tossed them in the garbage. He sighed and walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Katrina asked as if finally coming out of it.
"I need to get something to drink," Greg said quickly, "When the tests are done can you send them over to Trace and give a copy to Catharine." He walked out not even waiting for an answer. As he walked down the hall he reached into his pocket and pulled out two tickets for a Muse concert that was in town for the night. He had remembered that Katrina said it was her favorite band; she played them a lot on the radio in the DNA lab. So when he found out they were going to be in the City he bought tickets immediately…third row tickets to be exact. He was planning on asking her after lunch, but now he wouldn't be able to. He sighed and stopped outside the door of the Trace lab, "Hey Hodges, what are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing," Hodges walked over to the door and looked at him.
Greg looked up and held out the tickets to him, "Here."
Hodges took the tickets and scrunched his face in confusion, "Why are you giving me these?"
"Wendy likes the band, why don't you see if she wants to go tonight," Greg sighed.
"Um, thanks," Hodges put the tickets in his pocket then pulled out his wallet.
"No, Hodges, they're on me," Greg smiled, "If you want to pay me back, just buy me my lunch today."
Hodges laughed, but pocketed his wallet, "If you say so."
Greg nodded then walked farther down the hall towards Grissom's office he walked in and stood in silence waiting for Grissom to finish.
"Shouldn't you be helping Katrina in the lab?" Grissom asked without looking up.
"I'd rather not be near her when she's off in dream land," Greg muttered, "Yeah, but I forgot some files back at my apartment. I was going over them last night and left them on the counter. Could I?"
Grissom looked up at him, "Only if Katrina is okay with working in the Lab till you get back."
"Yeah, I already gave her some stuff she could finish up."
"Okay," Grissom said, "but move fast."
Greg nodded and jogged out of the office trying to get to his truck as fast as possible…he needed to be home.
)()()()()(
2 hours later…
Katrina walked into the Trace Lab looking at a file, she snapped it shut and put it down next to the microscope Hodges was looking into, "Here."
"Are these the samples?" Hodges asked looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Yeah, and is this," Katrina walked over to the printer and grabbed the piece of paper, "the results of the substance from the victim's clothes?"
"Yeah."
"The one I asked for…an hour ago?"
"Yeah, that'd be the one," Hodges confirmed.
Katrina sighed realizing he wasn't catching what she meant, "Can I take it?"
"Yep."
Katrina turned to leave, but stopped and looked back at Hodges, "Hey have you seen Greg lately?"
"Um, he came in about two hours ago to give me concert tickets," Hodges looked up at him, "he looked upset, but the only thing I got out of him was that he was hungry."
"Oh, I see thanks. I'll check around with the others," Katrina walked out of Trace confused and headed towards Catharine's office. She knocked on the opened door and waited for Catharine to look up, "Hey, have you seen Greg?"
"No, I haven't, I think he had to give something to Warrick, might want to check with him," Catharine went back to what ever she was doing.
Katrina chewed on her bottom lip and looked at her watch it was only two, which gave her only five hours till her date…she had about four hours of work left.
"Hey, Katrina," Katrina turned to see Warrick.
"Just the man I was looking for," Katrina smiled, "Have you seen Greg?"
"Uh, no, sorry, but did you find any fingerprints on that soda can?" Warrick asked.
"Uh, yeah," Katrina led him back to the lab and handed him a piece of paper, "I ran it through the data base and it came back with four possible matches."
"None exact?" Warrick asked.
"Sadly, no, the cut found in the fingerprint's groove destroyed a point needed to finalize, but I did narrow it down to two," Katrina smiled.
"And who would those two be?"
Katrina walked over to the computer and clicked the print button; she waited a minute before grabbing the printed paper. She passed them to Warrick, "The two prints belonged to Karen Williams and Ellen Phillips."
"His daughter and wife number two, that's not unusual," Warrick said, "Anything else you got for me?"
"If it helps, that fingerprint belongs to an index finger," Katrina sat down in front of the computer and brought up a file on Karen Williams, the picture popped up of a fifteen year old girl with black hair and a heavy layer of make-up, "She was arrested for selling prescription drugs at school, underage drinking, and has a restraining order against one of the boys at school. She's your classic case of early stalker."
"What about the wife?"
Katrina pulled up the file of a blonde twenty-three year old, "Two DUIs, but that's about it."
"Hm, good job, Kat," Warrick smiled and held up the papers, "Can I take these?"
"Yeah," Katrina stood up and walked over to the table to grab a bag with a screw driver on it.
"Oh, and about Greg, you might want to talk to your dad," Warrick said, "He knows where everyone is."
Turns out Warrick was right…Grissom knew where everyone was. Katrina tapped her fingers impatiently against the counter in the break room as the phone continued to ring…and ring, "Come on, pick up."
"Hi, you've reached Greg—."
"Damn it," she hung up the phone and sighed.
"No answer, huh?" Sara asked behind her.
Katrina turned around and shook her head, "No, I've tried his house three times and his cell five. What the hell could he be doing?"
Sara shrugged, "Who knows it's Greg."
"Yeah, well, I've got to get back to work," Katrina sighed and walked out of the break room back to the Lab. The Lab was empty of anything else to be analyzed so she asked her dad if she was free to go.
"Yeah, but be here early, I have a bad feeling tomorrow is going to be very busy," Grissom said.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then," She turned to leave, but stopped to face him, "Hey, Dad, I was wondering if—."
She was cut off by Grissom's cell phone, "Grissom…yeah. Alright." He hung up the phone and stood up quickly, "That was the local police; they found a body behind Caesar's Palace."
Katrina sighed, "Lovely."
Grissom frowned, "Honey, go home, we won't need you till tomorrow."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, all I need is Sara and Warrick."
"Alright, well I'll just go then," She smiled at her dad before turning and walking off quickly ignoring the confused stare her father was giving her.
)()()()()(
Katrina walked down the badly lit hall towards her apartment; she fumbled for her keys and within seconds found the right one. Once inside she dead bolted the door and flicked on the lights. She walked into the kitchen and pressed play on her answering machine, the robotic voice spoke softly, "One new message, received at one twenty p.m."
She pulled off her jacket and tossed it on the counter; she opened the fridge and waited for the message to be played. There was a beep then Greg's voice, "Hey, Katrina, it's Greg. I would've called your cell, but you must've turned it off. Look, something came up and I won't be able to get back to work, sorry. I faxed the files of the Butcher murder over to Warrick and kept the others for tomorrow. Um…I just didn't feel good…so I went home. Rule number one of the lab you feel like you're going to puke…go home." He gave a forced laugh, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
Katarina sighed and shut the fridge door then crossed the room to get to her bedroom; she flicked on the light and went straight to her closet. She flung it open and looked inside, but turned and walked towards the night stand.
CREAK!
Katarina froze in place and slowly turned to see a woman with blonde hair standing in the doorway of her closet. The woman's face stared at Katrina with a psycho glare; her hand came up slowly to reveal a large butcher knife.
"Mom, what are you doing?" Katrina slowly stepped backwards, but only to run into the bed.
"I'm here to take you home honey," The woman answered as her head twitched right. She ran at her daughter with the knife raised, but Katrina climbed the bed and ran for the door way. Her mother grabbed her by her ponytail and yanked back. Katrina screamed in pain. She twisted around and pushed her mother away making her way to the door; she quickly unlocked the door and ran out down the hall. Within in seconds she was down the stairs and on the next floor tears streaming down her face. A man was standing in front of a door with a grocery bag trying to open the door, "Oh, thank God, sir please help me!" He turned to answer, but his face twisted with pain and he slumped to the floor. Behind him stood her mother with a twisted grin, "Time to go home."
"No!" Katrina turned and ran back down the stairs and out the opposite door which led into the parking ramp. She whirled around in every possible direction, but nobody was there, she began to run down the ramp as fast she could, but her feet caught on a crack and tripped. She fell hard hitting her head she blacked out and couldn't move, when she finally came to she was able to roll over and look just as her mother was coming down the ramp. She crawled backwards and got to her feet and continued to run, she rounded another corner running into someone. She began to swing her arms around hitting the person multiple times in the chest, they grabbed her wrists and she screamed out in protest.
"Katrina, stop!" The voice sounded familiar and Katrina stopped long enough to look up and see Greg.
"Greg," she took a deep breath, but her eyes widened, "We need to get out of here now!"
"Why?"
"My mother, she has a knife she's following me," Katrina yelled out.
Greg let go of her and walked past her.
"What are you doing!" Katrina snapped.
Greg turned and pushed a finger against his lips silencing her; she walked up behind him and grabbed his shirt. Greg peered around the corner only to see nothing, "There's nothing there, Kat."
"What?" Katrina looked around, "That's impossible she was right there!"
"She's not anymore," Greg turned and looked down at her, "I'm calling the police."
Katrina didn't answer she stared at the ramp she came down from trying to figure out what had just happened.
)()()()()(
Katrina shook her head as the officer asked her a question, as he was about to ask another Katrina caught a glimpse of Grissom talking to another cop. She dropped the blanket that was wrapped around her and ran at her dad, "Dad!"
"Katrina," he turned just in time for her to collide into his chest. He hugged her tight and tried to quiet her crying, "Its okay, I'm here. Everything is going to be okay."
"Why is she doing this?" Katrina cried into his shirt.
"I'm not sure, honey," Grissom whispered.
"Mr. Grissom, you might want to take a look at this," Grissom looked at the officer who had called him and nodded. He pulled his daughter away from him and looked at her, "I'll be right back. Catharine will stay with you…okay?" He waited till she nodded before walking over to the officer. The officer was beaming a flash light at a knife lying on the ground next to a wall that Greg and Katrina had been on the other side of. He raised an eyebrow and looked behind him at where Sara was standing, she looked at him and Grissom held up a hand wiggling a finger. She nodded and opened up her case, she walked over to him and handed him the gloves and bag, "What did you find?"
"A knife," Grissom pulled the gloves on and grabbed the knife he looked it over before dropping it into the bag, "Did we I.D. the dead man upstairs?"
"Yeah, his name is James Carl; he's been living here for only a month. He was stabbed right in the back of the neck…but that knife is way too small to make a wound that big. Yet, that knife has blood on it as well."
Grissom stood up and looked over at his daughter, "One thing is for sure…nobody let's Katrina out of their sites until Brittany Kain is caught."