My Way is Clear

by Simply Ginger

Nick meets a paramedic after getting injured at a crime scene. In an AU, this is their story. This is not a slash and all the characters from CSI show up eventually.

30. Diamond Eyes

Chapter 30 – Diamond Eyes

The night had gone by like caramelized molasses. It was incredibly slow at work which hadn't happened in ages. The hit and run case Warrick and I got assigned was easy and in the middle of processing, Brass came in and told us they caught the suspect and for us to finish up. Given the fact it was a hit and run with a stolen car versus a light pole, the car was easy enough to process and about an hour after we arrived, we were done.

I was bored and kept bothering Anna who was also at work after signing up to work an overtime shift with Bryan. Unfortunately for me, she never could break free for longer than a few minutes at a time to keep me entertained at work. Bobby Dawson got sick of Warrick and me pestering him and threatened to shoot us if we didn't leave his office. After screwing off in the DNA lab with Wendy for a while before leaving her to go bug Hodges, we were finally able to clock out and after a mad dash to the time clock in the hallway, I beat Warrick and swiped my ID badge through the reader. As he stood behind me glaring at me for beating him, I gleefully pressed the clock out button and headed home.

After finally getting home after being delayed by a train, I pulled in the driveway and saw that Anna wasn't home yet. I parked on my side of the carport and got out, stretching as I opened the back door to my truck to get my bag out. As I approached the door, I could hear Draco and Cassie barking wildly at me. When I opened it, they both met me and the barking quieted down when they realized I wasn't a monster. Cassie left me alone in the living room while Draco got on her bed in the corner of the room next to the fireplace.

Tossing my work bag on the floor in the living room, I once again scared the cat. "If cats could cuss, I know you'd have a lot to say to me right about now. I know by now you'll never be my friend no matter what I do." I had to laugh as Cassie came running up front again this time with a brightly colored stuffed fish she loved, sending Danilla running towards the back of the house. As I knelt down to pet Cassie, she dropped the fish at my feet and responded to the attention by leaning her full weight against my thighs, knocking me off balance and sending me falling into the bookcase by the front door. One of the picture frames on the top shelf fell off and landed next to me on the floor after the glass in the picture frame shattered. "Thanks. If Anna gets mad, it's your fault." I moved Cassie off of me and got up, being careful to pull on her collar to get her to follow me, rather than traipse through the broken glass on the floor. When Draco started towards the front door after hearing a car go by thinking it was Anna, I yanked on her collar and let both dogs out in the back yard so I could clean up.

I had just got the glass from the frame thrown away when Anna got home. The flash of her headlights shone through the living room window as she made the curve of the driveway from the street. I could hear her outside baby talking to one of the dogs or one of the horses that came up as she parked her truck. After I put the broom and dustpan back up, I looked through the front window of the house and saw her black Xterra in the driveway with her duty bag on top of the hood, but she was nowhere to be seen. I put my shoes back on and stepped outside into the frigid air and went to find her.

The barn light was on so I knew she was in there with the horses. Our barn kid, Josh, had broken his arm playing basketball and Anna and I were doing most of the work ourselves when Josh's younger brother couldn't help until Josh got his cast off in a couple of weeks. As I crunched through the dead leaves heading to the barn, Cassie found me and walked along beside me until a squirrel caught her eye and she was gone again. When I rounded the corner and stepped inside the barn, Draco was sitting next to the hay bins and was watching as Anna put up one of the horses. "Welcome home."

Anna was smiling as she latched the gate to the stall, "Nicky. Hey. Puddin here got out. Sneaky devil. One of us forgot to tie the door shut. Did Austin work last night?"

"I have no idea. I was asleep."

"Remind me to tell him or get Josh to tell him that she can bump the gate open until the latch comes undone. I would let them out, but the weather guy says rain is in the forecast and it's too cold for them to be out in the rain." After kissing me, she reached over the slats of the gate and tied the strap around the post before she petted the gray mare's head. The horse responded by stomping her back foot and nudging Anna's hand again to get more attention. When that didn't work, she nipped at Anna's shoulder, leaving a slimy spot on the side of her uniform shirt. That got her attention as Anna turned and reached for the horse.

"Puddin? You never use her real name anymore do you?"

She shrugged, "Puddin. Diamond. Horsie. Aggie's Last Diamond from the Lakes. Whatever. She answers to all of them."

Shanti, another one of our horses who shared the stall next to Diamond, stopped eating and started to pace in her stall. Shanti had become my favorite out of the group and whenever I rode, I usually put a saddle on her back. When Anna and I started riding together after work, I swapped between Gus and Shanti before finally settling on Shanti. "You named your horse after yourself?" When she nudged me wanting attention, I leaned against one of the posts making up her stall and reached over and petted her.

"Partially. I had to register her when I got her. Her name was Diamond because of the patch of white on her forehead. The Lakes were the family that raised her and who I bought her from and she was their last mare as they were getting out of the horse business and moving to Colorado I think. When I got her, she wasn't registered officially, so Bryan suggested Aggie's Last Diamond from the Lakes and I liked it. Puddin fits better these days since she's such a sweet mare. Cody loves to ride her." Anna stepped up on the bottom rail of the fence after fishing a handful of oats out of the barrel in the corner of the barn. As she held her hand out between the slats, Diamond came over and started to eat. When Shanti saw what was going on, she got jealous and started to pace even more which was her way of showing she wanted attention as well. I reached in the bucket for another handful of oats and after feeding her, Anna's other horses started to protest. As she fed Amy and Gus, I held my hands out and fed Gypsy and Zack. Anna told me right after we started dating that Gypsy, Shanti, Gus, Zack and Amy came with the house. The former homeowner was an elderly lady who was being put in a nursing home. The daughter of the former homeowner was going to call animal control to pick them all up and when Anna heard that, she had her realtor get in touch with the daughter and offer to keep all the horses with the property. When the former owner found out about the deal Anna had made with her daughter, the lady gave Anna the house for what she owed on it rather than her asking price, which saved Anna a lot of money, as a thank you present for keeping all of her horses together. After she moved in, Anna befriended the next door neighbors. Diamond was the only horse left after the family sold all their other horses so Anna bought her and registered her with Bryan's suggestion as the name. "So after all the Lake family moved, Bryan and Cathy bought their house and moved in. My realtor got two record sales from me and from Bryan and Cathy. No wonder she sent us both Christmas gifts that year." I was about to respond, but a set of headlights flashed through the windows of the barn, "Who's that?" As short as Anna was, she couldn't see who it was through the window in Diamond's stall which was up higher than the rest of the windows. I followed her out of the barn as we started towards the house, "Another Tahoe? Someone from work?"

"Oh. I kinda forgot to tell you. I sort of told Warrick he could crash here today. His apartment building is being fumigated."

Anna started to smile, "Now that's tragic. I don't care if he stays here. He can take one of the back bedrooms. He can swim if he wants, but no skinny dipping."

I picked Anna up fireman style and slung her over my shoulders and started to carry her towards the house with her laughing the whole way and begging me to put her down. Draco and Cassie noticed Warrick and took off towards the front yard barking all the way. "Warrick."

He opened the back door to his Tahoe and got his bag out of the back, "Hey. Both of you."

After Anna started to wiggle enough to where I was about to drop her, I put her on the ground after I let the dogs inside. "Warrick, hey. What brings you by?"

I smiled because I knew Anna knew the answer to that already and she was about to mess with him a little bit. She started up the brick path to the side door of our house, "Termites."

Anna turned around and stared, "Are bugs that eat wood."

She stepped in the house and I followed her in as I opened the door a bit wider so Warrick could step in as I put my hand through the belt loops on the back of Anna's uniform pants. "I know that. They're fumigating my townhouse."

"Well, that's terrible." Anna shut the door as Warrick stepped to the side. "Where are you gonna stay?"

"Nick kinda told me I can crash here tonight. He still owes me one. Actually, he still owes me a lot more than one."

"Well then come in. We can call someone who cares." Anna started smiling, "Maybe you can stay at their house."

Draco and Cassie came running into the room and stopped at the edge of the room and started barking at Warrick. He took a step back and bumped against the bookcase by the door, "Thanks for the welcome." Draco stepped forward and just as she did me a long time ago when I first met Anna, she sniffed Warrick until she was satisfied that he meant us no harm. After she completed her inspection, she took her stance between Warrick and Anna while Cassie presented Warrick with her stuffed fish that she brought me earlier. Warrick bent down and picked up the slobbery toy and gently tossed it into the kitchen, sending Cassie out of the room.

"Anytime. You can throw your stuff in the side bedroom. Nick'll show you where it is oh, and if you want to use the pool, it's back that way." Anna pointed over her shoulder, "But no skinny dipping."

"Great. I'll try to resist the urge to swim in the buff. Thanks for letting me crash here. I do appreciate it." He moved out of Cassie's way as she chased after the fish again after Warrick threw it a second time. When Warrick set his stuff down on the couch, he saw our Christmas tree, "Nice tree."

"Thanks. This is our first Christmas together so Nicky and I went all out."

"I know and I have something for the two of you." As Anna stood next to me and leaned against my body, I put my arm around her waist as she yawned. I knew she was about as tired as she looked having only had a day off in between shifts due to the overtime shift she and Bryan worked. We watched as Warrick put his bag on the couch and started to dig around and pulled out a small red box and held it out towards us. "For both of you. Little birdie at work said you didn't have one of these and I thought since I was staying here, I'd do the honors."

Anna held out her hand and let go of me so she could grab the box. As she yawned again, she used her fingernails to tear open the tape across the top and pulled out an ornament. As she turned it round to look at it, she started to smile, "Okay. You can stay here now. I approve." Anna handed me the ornament and I saw that Warrick had bought a silver bell and had it engraved with 'Nick and Anna's First Christmas' on one side and on the other, 'May there be many more.' "Perfect and we did need one. Nicky hasn't gotten one yet after I've been bothering him to get one now going on two weeks." Anna told me she was getting ready to head to bed and let me hang the ornament on the tree. I found a spot near the center of the tree and after hooking the satin ribbon over the branch, Anna hugged Warrick and thanked him one more time before kissing me and heading back to our room.

"She work last night?"

"Yeah. She worked an overtime shift on Wednesday on the engine then worked Thursday with Bryan on the ambulance. She's wiped. I know they were busy as hell all day yesterday. Anna barely had time to text me during the day."

"Does your Christmas tree have eyes?"

"Excuse me?"

Warrick could tell by the look I was throwing him that I thought he was insane. "Get over here." He pointed towards the tree, "Your Christmas tree has eyes." He leaned forward to get a better look, but stood upright before standing behind me, "Your Christmas tree is blinking at me."

"Oh." I recognized the golden eyes of Danilla, "That's Anna's cat. She hides in the tree from Cassie and Draco."

"Good to know I'm not going crazy." Warrick looked over at the entertainment center where our TV was, "You have a Wii, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Warrick reached in his bag again and pulled out a copy of a football game I had been dying to get. Anna didn't care too much for anything other than hockey and I hated playing sports games by myself. "You're on." He didn't even have to ask. I put the game in the machine as I grabbed the controllers and sat down on the couch. Cassie was lying on the floor underneath me and made for an excellent foot rest.

Almost two hours later, Warrick and I were still in the middle of our game. I was starting to yawn more and more. Cassie had gotten up and had gone to the bedroom with Anna who was sound asleep when I went to check on her to make sure our bantering hadn't kept her up. Finally, after I beat him, he admitted defeat and said he was headed to bed. I showed him where the second bathroom was and told him I'd see him later tonight.

I took a shower, being as quiet as I could not to wake Anna up. When I got out and got dressed, she was awake and had her notebook out and was lying in bed, writing out more details for our wedding. "Did I wake you?" I tossed the damp towel into the hamper and climbed into bed with her, kissing her softly as I went to lie down next to her.

"Sort of, but it's okay." Anna put her notebook down long enough to kiss me back. "So who should we invite?" After adjusting her position in bed, she was in bed with her left knee propped up and had her notebook resting on that knee with a pen in her hand. I could tell as I got in bed that she had written some after she had left Warrick and me up front. "We have the groomsmen and the bridesmaids all planned out. Now for the invitations."

"There's another detail we haven't thought about." I got out of bed to turn the bathroom light off that I forgot and left on.

"I know. I was thinking on just playing around online and seeing what I could find. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Construction paper and glitter is fine with me."

"Anna…" Twinkies instead of a wedding cake was bad enough but glittery construction paper for invitations was pushing it.

"Kidding." Anna smiled as she started writing, "So I'll send one to each of your family members plus mine but I'm just wasting a stamp…" She kept writing in her notebook until I threw the covers off the bed, sending her notebook flying to the floor. She lightly shoved me as I got out of bed to open the door for the cat who was scratching as Anna bent over and got it, "What about everyone at work? I have your team members on there plus Vartann since I already told him he could come. Who else?"

"Mandy, Hodges, Wendy and Henry from the lab. I'll have to get you their addresses from HR. Also, Brass. We've worked together for years. It'd be disrespectful not to invite him."

"Good point." As I got back in bed, I was beginning to yawn and was fighting to stay awake, "How's your foot?"

At the bus crash a couple of weeks ago, Anna had tripped and caught herself on a guard rail but she wound up piercing the side of her boot with a piece of glass from the wreck and had a slightly sprained ankle. Though she didn't need stitches, she had a pretty nasty cut on the side of her foot and had to replace her boots, "Fine. The cut is almost healed but my ankle is kind of sore still. Diamond backed up in her stall and caught me off guard and I stepped wrong and aggravated it again but I'm fine for work. If I wasn't fine, I wouldn't have stayed on the shift. I'll be plenty fine to walk down the aisle."

"I'd have someone carry you if that was the case. Bryan can always throw you over his shoulders and do the fireman carry." I started laughing as I got a mental picture of Anna in her wedding gown being carried down the aisle by one arm and a leg. "That'd be memorable."

"So would the black eye I'd give you at the altar." Anna took her glasses off and set them on the night stand as she dropped her pen and wedding notebook to the ground, "So what else do we need to figure out. We have the date, the cake…"

I interrupted, "The Twinkies you mean."

"Close enough." Anna yawned and scooted in closer to me, "The guests and the dress. Oh, wait. What about your tuxedo?"

"I've got that covered. My mother said she'd send my sister with explicit instructions to have her help me with one when Jillian comes for her bridesmaids dress fitting. I guess she thinks I'd pick out another one like what I wore to prom."

Anna groaned, knowing what I was talking about, "I'd give you two black eyes for that one. Anything else we can think of? Honeymoon?"

"You leave that one to me." I kissed Anna as I turned off the light on my side of the bed, "I've got something in the works I know you'll love."

"No clues?"

I shook my head, "Not a one. This one you'll just have to find out on your own."

Two weeks later, Anna was getting ready to head in to work. I had just gotten off work and was about to head inside to sleep. We had been working hard on a robbery case that was taking up much of my time at work. Between work and the overtime at court I was collecting, I was seriously reconsidering our San Jose Sharks honeymoon road trip and replacing it with a week in Maui.

"I give up." Anna pulled the hood of her rain jacket over her head, "Building a boat. Collecting two of everything." She reached up to kiss me, "I love you, Nicky."

"Love you too." I opened the door to her truck and watched as she backed out, headed in to work.

With the gentle sounds of the rain against the tin roof on our house, I fell asleep pretty easily and woke up with just enough time to stop by the station before work. Anna and Bryan had gotten another Xbox and were playing Doom. She gave her controller to one of the firemen and spent some time with me before I had to leave.

I got drenched running from the station to my truck and got soaked even more from my truck to the lab. I was on my way down to the locker rooms to change when Grissom said he wanted to hand out assignments and get back to a case he was assigned to. He handed out one slip to Warrick and Sara and handed Catherine a slip and told her to take Greg and me. "Where is Greg?"

"I don't know. It's not my day to keep up with him." Catherine stood up and pushed her chair under, "We'll text him on our way over there."

"Fine. Just tell him his shift starts promptly at eleven. It's a few minutes past eleven."

Greg said he was running late but would meet us at the apartment we were heading to. We had been assigned to a DB inside of an apartment. The downstairs neighbor came home from a trip and said his ceiling was leaking. When the PD got there, they went upstairs and found the homeowner dead on the floor.

Catherine and I got to the apartment complex and parked. The two officers out front told us that the body was in the front room off to one side, but said that we'd smell it before we got in.

"Great." Catherine stepped in under the overhang of the stairs and out of the rain. "Nothing like a smelly corpse to get the night started. Between the corpse and the floods, what else could happen?"

"I learned long ago not to say anything because inevitably, something always does." When I got to the top of the stairs and turned to head inside the apartment, the stench of decomp hit me in the nose, "Damn."

Hearing stomping on the concrete steps behind us, we looked around and saw Greg running up the steps, taking them two at a time. "You're late." Catherine waved her hand in front of her face in a fruitless attempt to rid the stench of the dead body from her nose.

Greg set his field kit down and started to put on gloves, "I know. I got held up."

I shook my head, "By what? Traffic? Gunpoint? Giant squid?"

He laughed, "Giant squid. You should have seen the size of that thing. It was climbing up the side of the Eiffel Tower at the Hotel Paris when I came down the strip to get here. I think it ate Ecklie.

"I don't think we could get that lucky."

"So. What do we have?" Greg started to look around, "DUNS I take it?"

"Your powers of deduction are overwhelming." I pointed over towards the spot on the carpet where our victim was, "We elected you to collect bodily fluids. Have at it."

Greg shot me the finger as Catherine's phone started to ring, "Eddie?"

A clap of thunder rattled the glass panes in the window, "Much more rain and we're all gonna need boats to get to work." I watched as Greg started to get sample kits out of his field kit and had to laugh when he started to cough and gag as he put his arm across his face in an attempt to keep the smell away.

"Eddie? Where are you? It's…I can't hear…" Catherine looked at her phone, "I don't know where they are, but wherever they are, they're not getting a signal."

I was in the hallway going through the victim's coat closet when she walked by me, "Problems?"

Catherine shook her head, "No, I think it's just him calling to tell me Lindsey wants me to come home. She's with Eddie tonight and thunderstorms always did scare her."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw that I got a full signal. "I don't think it's our phones. We have the same phone and same carrier and I've got full service."

"If Lindsey wants to come home, she'll call back." She put her phone back in her pocket and turned as David came in, "Stinky is over there. Hope you brought your vapor rub. This one's pretty nasty."

David directed another person with him to put the gurney over to one side so they could figure out how to pick up the decedent's bloated body, "Should have used more sunscreen." David's assistant started to cough after he spoke, "Jesus, this stinks."

"Breathe with your ears."

The assistant looked over at me, "Do wha…" He couldn't finish his sentence. In the midst of a coughing fit, he turned and threw up in the corner of the room we were in, "I hope I did…" After throwing up a second time, he was finally able to help David load the body onto the stretcher and Catherine, Greg and I watched as they left, grateful that they and the main source of the stench were gone.

"Alright, now that that's gone, let's finish up here." Catherine started towards the back of the apartment when her phone rang again, "Lindsey? Honey?" Catherine dropped her field kit on the floor and the contents spilled out, "You're where?" Apparently still having signal problems, she started to move around the room, "Honey, I can't hear you. Where's dad?"

"He's out…"Catherine had turned the speaker on her phone on, hoping to get a better reception, "He fell out of the…Lots of…Mommy!"

I could tell from where I was that Lindsey was upset about something, "What's going on?"

Catherine shook her head, "I don't know." Lindsey tried saying something but the phone went dead, "Damn it." Immediately redialing the phone, Lindsey answered again, "Honey, where are you?"

"Mommy! Help me!"

"Honey, where are you?"

Greg had stopped processing and was watching Catherine with me. I could tell by the tone in Lindsey's voice that something was wrong, "There's too much water…" The speaker phone crackled again as the signal dropped. "…Car off the road."

"Daddy's car ran off the road into the water?"

"Yes."

Catherine's face paled when she realized what was going on as she and I started towards the door. Greg told one of the uniformed officers at the door to keep an eye on the apartment until another CSI could finish up. I escorted Catherine out with Greg right behind us. Unlocking my Tahoe, Catherine got in the front seat and Greg got in the back while we were trying to find out where Lindsey was. When we finally figured out where she was, Greg radioed in to dispatch to get fire and EMS started towards their location.

When we got to the scene, a LVPD squad car had already beaten us there. Catherine got out of my truck before it even had stopped and tried to break the barricade between the officer and Lindsey, but the officer held firm and wouldn't let her pass. I could see from where we were standing, Lindsey was in the back seat of the submerged car and was beating on the back glass. After begging, Catherine was fed up and stomped down hard on the officer's boot and when he released his grip on her, she darted past him and down the embankment and to the sinking car.

The flashing red and clear lights of the fire department engine were reflecting off of the pouring down rain as they approached. One of the firemen got out and the officer told him that Catherine was already down there, trying to rescue Lindsey. He ran back to the truck and came back with two other men dressed in harnesses and after tying off leads to the edge of the fence, they started to climb down the embankment to help out.

After tying off the edge of the car with one of the leads, one of the men got Catherine out of the water. She was struggling against his grip, but he held on to her. The second fireman in the water managed to break the glass on the car's window and got Lindsey out. As soon as they emerged from the water, the ambulance got here and I was relieved to see it was Anna's radio number on the passenger side of the door. The fireman holding Catherine had picked her up and was carrying her back to the ambulance. I followed them back there and watched as he put her on the steps of the ambulance. The second fireman came with Lindsey in his arms and as soon as Catherine saw Lindsey, she started crying even harder.

Anna picked Lindsey up out of Catherine's arms and put her on the gurney in the back of the ambulance. Greg had come over and was standing behind me, out of the way as we watched as Anna took care of Lindsey. Bryan attempted to help Catherine, but she kept shrugging him off and instead, got off of the back step of the ambulance and sat down on the bench seat next to Anna.

"What happened?" Detective Vega was standing beside me as he looked inside, "Catherine?"

She didn't hear him or she wasn't paying attention, so I filled in the blanks, "Catherine got a call from Lindsey a little bit ago. The car they were in drove off the road and wound up over there." I pointed towards the drainage culvert, "LVFD got Lindsey out of the car and Catherine who jumped in after her. They're trying to get Lindsey's dad out now."

A second ambulance came to the scene and Bryan told Catherine and Lindsey that the paramedics in that rig would take them to the hospital, "We're gonna stay here and wait on Eddie." As Bryan's eyes met mine, I knew what he was trying to say. He wanted to say "We'll transport the body to the hospital," but with Lindsey in earshot, he kept his thoughts to himself.

Bryan helped Catherine and Lindsey off as he and Anna ran to the edge of the fence after one of the fireman shouted that they found Eddie. I could tell by his limp arms and posture that it wasn't good. I told Greg to take my Tahoe to the hospital and be with Catherine and I'd catch a ride with a uniform or someone to the hospital. He took my keys from me and after glancing back once more at Eddie as the fireman put him on a gurney, he ran back to my Tahoe, thankful to be out of the rain and not having to watch what was going on.

I stood back out of the way as they rushed him to the back of the awaiting ambulance. Anna slammed the back door and got in the front seat, not paying any attention to anyone around her. When she worked, she was totally focused on her job and zoned out everything else. I sighed and watched as they sped off.

"Need a ride?"

I turned around to see Detective Vega standing behind me, "Yeah. Can you take me to the hospital?"

"Sure." He started towards his police cruiser and I got in the passenger's side. "What happened?"

Vega started the car and buckled his seatbelt. I did the same and repeated what I told him earlier, "I don't know much more than that. Lindsey is going to the hospital with Catherine. I'm sure you can interview her there."

By the time we got to the hospital, I saw both ambulances and two more Tahoes in the ambulance parking lot of Desert Palms. I figured they belonged to Grissom and Warrick. I knew Sara was assigned to work with Grissom, so I knew that she would have come with him. "Nick?" Grissom pulled me to one side, "Are you okay?"

"Fine. I'm fine. Have you heard anything?"

He shook his head as I started to explain what happened. Catherine came out of the ED doors and told us Lindsey was going to be fine. She had changed out of her work clothes and had on a pair of pale green surgical scrubs and had pulled her hair up in a ponytail. "Anything on Eddie yet?"

She shook her head, "No. I know the ambulance got here a little bit ago, but they haven't told me much more than he's here. How did he look?"

I didn't want to lie to her, "Not good. I'm sorry, but it didn't look good. I couldn't tell from where we were if he was breathing or not. Anna and Bryan loaded him into the ambulance so fast that I didn't have time to ask. I caught a ride up here with Vega. He wants to interview Lindsey."

"Can it wait?" Catherine looked over at Detective Vega with her eyes pleading, "Please?" He said that he could wait until she heard something about Eddie. "They took Lindsey down to radiology to take some x-rays. Linds said her ankle was hurting."

About an hour after we had arrived, Anna came out of the ED with Bryan right behind her. I looked over at her and she shook her head slightly to let me know Eddie didn't make it. "Catherine?"

"Yeah?" She stood up and looked at Anna's somber expression. Her hand went to her mouth as she started to back up, "No, no…" Catherine started to shake her head as she kept walking backwards until her legs made contact with a chair and she sat down, "He's, no…He can't be."

Anna sat down next to Catherine while Bryan stayed by me, "The doctor is coming out in a minute to explain what happened."

Catherine stood up quickly and started towards the door of the ED but without access, she couldn't go further than the receptionist's desk. "Let me in!" She started to bang on the door but stepped back when one of the doctors came out, "Eddie Willows. What happened?"

"Are you all family?" She was looking over at the group of us that had assembled in the waiting room, "Do you want some of them to leave?"

"Yes, they are all my family. I'm his ex wife. My daughter was also in the car with him."

The doctor led Catherine over to the same chair she was sitting in earlier and sat down next to her. Anna put her arms around my waist and sighed as I put my left arm over her shoulder and held on to her tightly.

"Mrs. Willows, I'm Dr. Amanda Townsend and I was one of the trauma surgeons working on your husband. There's no easy way to say this but your husband didn't make it. I'm terribly sorry."

Catherine started to cry as Warrick sat on the other side of her. He put his hand on her back and pulled her over to him. She cried into his shoulder as Dr. Townsend explained that they did everything in their power to bring him back, but Eddie was in the water too long to be brought back, "Is there anything we can do? Can we call someone for you?"

Warrick spoke up, "No thank you. We'll take care of her from here."

Dr. Townsend excused herself and left the room. Anna started to leave but Catherine stopped her. "What happened?"

"Catherine, we tried everything we could and I know the doctors here did the same thing. I'm so sorry."

Catherine stood up and started towards Anna, "This is all your fault."

I started to defend Anna, but she stopped me, "Catherine, I'm sorry. We tried. I know you know that." Anna looked down at the floor before returning her gaze upwards. She was trying not to cry. I had seen Anna do that more than once, "Bryan and I have to get back to the station. I'm so sorry about everything. Please say hello to Lindsey for me and let me know if there's anything Nicky or I could do."

When Anna turned to leave with Bryan following her, Catherine reached out and pulled Anna's shoulder until she turned around. Warrick stepped between Anna and Catherine before Catherine could do anything else. When Catherine saw his face and realized what she was about to do, she broke down once again and in between sobs, told Anna how sorry she was. Anna repeated her condolences and we walked out with Bryan behind her.

Bryan left us at the ambulance bay to give us some privacy while he went back inside to get a run report signed. "I'm sorry about Catherine. I'll talk to her."

"No, don't." Anna shook her head, "I know she didn't mean what she said. I've been doing this job long enough to understand grief." The automatic doors behind us opened and Bryan came out with his clipboard in hand and got in the driver's seat of the ambulance, "We've got to head back, but let me know if Catherine needs anything."

It still bugged me that Catherine talked to Anna the way she did, but I let it drop, "I will. I love you, Anna."

She reached up to kiss me before she said she loved me too and got in the ambulance with Bryan. I smiled when Bryan blew me a kiss and Anna slugged him in the shoulder as they left the hospital.

Heading back inside, Grissom assigned Sara and me to process Eddie's car. Lindsey had said that there was another woman in the car and he wanted the two of us to find out who this woman was. I looked around for Catherine, but she had already gone back with Warrick to tell Lindsey that her father had passed away. I said a silent prayer hoping they'd find a way to tell the little girl her father drowned as I turned to head back to the lab to start processing the car.

A/N: I've been dealing with a bit of writer's block on this story and haven't written much. I was rewatching my CSI DVDs for my other crackfic story when I came across Lady Heather's Box and decided to include it in my story. Kinda bleak, but we're moving along. Reviews are welcomed and encouraged.

More backstory on Anna and how she came to be. There will be more wedding details in the upcoming chapters as well as other interesting stuff including the return of Nick's sister. Stay tuned.