Catherine Willows stood in the alleyway. The clang of the trashcan falling through the nearby garbage chute, made her jump "What the hell is going on?"

"There was a busted spring in the chute." Gil replied matter-of- factly.

Catherine's mind traveled back a couple of days earlier in their initial search of the dormitory block. She'd foolishly volunteered to repel down the inside of the chute, not allowing the offer of the cadets doing the job to deter her. Thinking back now to the pungent smell that had seemed to invade her very being and the fruitlessness of the task she began to wonder why she'd insisted on doing it. She smiled inwardly, she'd done it to prove everyone wrong, they'd all tried to insist it was too risky for her, she felt patronized and that made her all the more determined to prove them wrong.

She listened as Warrick supported Gil's findings. "Oh, yeah, I had to prop that open when Catherine rappelled down."

"Relevance?" She queried.

"The trash can was missing from Paige's room." Gil replied.

It was starting to make sense. A young girl disillusioned with her first taste of college, would want to ensure every last cent she could retrieve was hers. She'd need it to start her new life. As Nick, Sara and Warrick continued to fill in the blanks of what they presumed had happened, she looked at the dumpster. A memory started to play at the edges of her mind. "Right, so ... she had to improvise." She paused for a moment contemplating the best way to tackle this dumpster. Her plan secure she looked at Nick, "Excuse me." She started to move past him suddenly aware of their quizzical glances and feeling the need to enlighten them. "This actually happened to me once before, with a set of keys. Eddie and I had this huge blowout. He threw my keys in the trash. All right, so Paige ... leans over reaches for the trash can…." She leant over into the dumpster.

Gil continued. "But just then, here comes Mark Doyle."

The five CSI's were silent for a moment as each replayed the imagined events in their minds no further words were necessary.

On their return to the lab, Catherine looked across at Gil as he held the door open for her. "You know you don't have to speak to them alone. It might help to have someone with you."

He looked at her, smiling at her offer. As he let the door close, he reached across for her hand taking hold of it. "Thanks, I'd appreciate that."

Half an hour later they were in Gil's office, he was sitting at his desk, while Catherine stood behind him a silent guardian angel, giving him the strength to convey the news no parent wants to hear, their child's death was an accident, a series of unrelated events that conspired to take a life yet leave no-one to take the blame. He watched as they angrily stood leaving his office, willing to spend their last cent to prove him wrong and have somebody held responsible for robbing them of their precious daughter. Gil sighed. "We told them what happened."

"Yeah, but we didn't give them what they needed-- some closure."

"Truth brings closure." He insisted.

"Not always." She replied sadly.

There was something that concerned him in the way she said that. The tone of her voice, something wasn't quite right. He looked at her concerned. "Cath, have breakfast with me?"

She looked at him, noting the concern. "Why?" She raised an eyebrow in question.

"Because I asked."

"What if…"

"I know you haven't got plans, you've already told me Lindsey's with Ed. Then told me in detail about how having the house to yourself was bliss."

"Maybe I don't want to be around anyone right now."

"You know, I know you're lying. Come on, breakfast, just you and me, an hour or two of your time then you can be alone all you like."

She looked at him, her stare intensifying as if by doing this, the true intent of his request would magically appear on his forehead in neon flashing lights. It didn't. She gave half a smile, "Okay, but I'm not promising I'm going to be good company."

He returned her smile. "What do you mean? You're always great company. I'll meet you outside in ten."

As Gil drove through the early morning traffic, he glanced across at his companion. She was unnervingly quiet; maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He'd been meaning to ask her for some time now, well aware that she was concerned about Lindsey, Ed, the mortgage and a multitude of other things that seemed to rise up to make her path through life a difficult one. Today it seemed to hit him hard, there was something about the resignation in her voice in his office that worried him. A sadness he was determined to help her overcome.

He waited however, biding his time until the simple meal of omelettes he'd prepared had been consumed, the coffee refilled and the two friends secured on the sofa. He took a couple of minutes just to look at her, watch her, study her.

Catherine, self-consciously looked down, placing her coffee mug on the glass table before her, she fiddled idly with her hands. Silently cursing her decision to cut her hair, so that the curtain it would so readily have provided a few months before was no longer present. As the minutes passed, she chanced a glance, an annoyed, almost accusation leaving her lips. "What?"

"You. Closure. Dumpsters."

"What?" She sighed, not willing to play his game of riddles.

"I was worried about you. Your words about closure not always coming with the truth. The way you dived into the dumpster like a pro. I just wondered…"

"Wondered, or snooping? You tell me Gil." The accusation was back in her tone.

He reached across, gently touching her arm, causing her to look at him. "It's me, your best friend. I'm worried about you. You seemed so lost. Hell, I know you put on a front for the team with your little anecdote today, but you can't hide your hurt. I'm here, I'm ready …no I'm wanting to help."

"Since when Gil. When did you decide to come out from behind the microscope? You just decided you wanted the juicy gossip, some reason to once again judge me. Go ahead. I'm a lousy mother. Can't satisfy a husband; so he finds the need to share our bed…yes our marital bed with half the whores in Vegas. I'm an addict and can't seem to keep my emotions in check to do the job I love. So what more ammunition do you want? Do you want the sordid details of how I'm having to fight to keep my daughter, my home, my husband away, even though he's not my husband?"

Gil shifted on the sofa, moving closer to her, putting his arm around her, pulling her close to him. "I don't see that. I see a strong woman, a beautiful woman. A mother who would walk through fire for her daughter. Put the lives of others before her own needs. You are an excellent CSI, I'm proud to have you as a member of my team. Hell, if you left I'd be lost." He squeezed her shoulders. "I may not have always been there for you, but I am now. If you want to talk to me I'm here."

Catherine sat there, enjoying the feeling of having Gil's arms around her. It felt good. "Sorry. The case, it hit a few nerves."

"I understand, and you have nothing to apologise for."

"Did you mean it?"

"What?"

"Being willing to listen?"

"I'm here for you Catherine, you can tell me anything and I will not judge you."

She bit her lip, pausing, deciding whether the hurt from long ago was worth uncovering. The guilt of her earlier attack on him was still fresh, she felt as if she owed him something. Decided, she took a deep breath before starting.

"You may not like what you're going to hear."

He didn't speak, just took hold of her hand gently stroking across the top of it, hoping this small act of support would help her to unburden her heart of whatever troubles lay within it.

She watched his hands, letting the soothing strokes for a moment occupy her mind. Then encouraged she continued. "The fight, the one I told you about…it, well let's just say I discovered there were more than two of us in our marriage."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. I never told you this before. I should have. I made you carry the guilt of not telling me about Eddie, as if I'd not known. Is it okay for me to tell you this?"

He smiled. "I'm here for you. I'll listen to whatever you want me to hear."

She raised an eyebrow at him in question, wondering if this was what he honestly felt, but on seeing no indication that he felt otherwise, she took a breath to calm herself. "Lindsey was about three. Staying with Eddie's parents for the night. I got a call telling me that John, Eddie's dad, had had some sort of seizure, and they couldn't find Eddie. I raced over there to get Linds, taking her to my sister's before going in search of Eddie." She shook her head slightly, casting her eyes downwards. "How could I have been so stupid? I should have known something wasn't right if his parents couldn't reach him. They would know the bars to call to get hold of him, who to contact, he was always available to them too. So I set off searching the clubs. With each new bar I entered and didn't find him, my fears grew in league with my anger. I was fast running out of places to look and facing the inevitable thought of either reporting him missing, or trying the hotels and motels. I tried to push that to the back of my mind, our marriage wasn't perfect, but I didn't honestly think Eddie would cheat on me. I thought I meant more to him than that."

She paused. Gil allowed the silence to encompass the room, he was far from an expert when it came to human relations, but with Catherine it was different. He seemed to instinctively know when to talk, when to be silent, when to touch her and when to allow her her space. It came from years of knowing and loving her.

"So, I'd exhausted his usual haunts. I found myself downtown. The Oasis bar, why do the seediest of places have exotic names? They set themselves up for failure. Lets face it, no bar in a block that has three strip clubs and a massage parlour can seriously expect to live up to the name Oasis!"

He chuckled with her, glad to see that she saw some light in all of this.

"And the Oasis is where I found him, but he wasn't alone." She closed her eyes momentarily, drawing both of her lips in, sucking them, staying like that for a few seconds, before she was ready to continue. "He was…was by the back entrance, facing the wall, his tongue down a blonde's throat, his hands up her skirt, supporting her legs that were slowly rising up his." She snatched her hand from his, to wipe her eyes, not wanting to breakdown completely before him.

Knowing how much this was hurting her, Gil, moved closer, his arm going around her shoulders, pulling him to her. "I'm sorry."

She gave a sad half laugh. "It's okay. Not your fault." She sighed then continued. "Well, as you can imagine I was less than impressed and wasted no time in telling him so. I pulled him through that rear exit, with a strength I did not know I had." She closed her eyes once more remembering the startled look on Eddie's face.

"Cath, baby…."

"Don't `Cath baby' me Ed. What the hell were you doing?"

"Baby, Baby it's not what you think."

She'd crossed her arms, her eyes on fire. "And why would your tongue down some…"

"Some what, Cath? Be careful. You are hardly one to judge others."

"So, because I took my clothes off to support you, that gives you the right to have sex with any woman who gives you a second glance!"

"We weren't having sex Catherine. Cindy was…."

She scoffed. "How did I know she had to be called Cindy?"

He turned to her, taking hold of her arm, pushing her against the wall of the club. "Cindy, is helping me promote `Nek'…

"I bet she is." Cath wriggled her way out if his grasp. "And while you two are doing your promotion, I'm running all over town searching for you. Eddie don't lie, if I hadn't have found you, you were three steps away from having sex out here in this alley." The tears had started to gather in her eyes as she voiced her sudden realization of her husband's infidelity.

"I would have taken her to a hotel."

Catherine let out a scream of frustration. "And just how does that makes this situation better?"

"Cath, baby…it's nothing, you are…"

"I'm what? Your wife, the mother of your child, the provider…"

"Now, Cath, don't be like that…"

"So what? I'm supposed to let you go back inside and do whatever with her in a hotel room and then welcome you back to my bed. Is that how this marriage is supposed to work?"

"Kettles and pots, baby."

"What?"

"Well you always seem to have to work overtime, spend extra hours at that lab, or is it with Grissom. You're really wanting me to believe you two have never had sex?"

"I work Eddie, work hard to provide food, a roof over our heads, I have no time for this I need to get back to the lab." Out of force of habit she pulled the keys out of her jacket pocket, trying to make a quick run to the car.

Eddie on realizing what was happening, grabbed hold of her right hand, which held the keys, forcing the fingers open, he snatched the keys from her.

"Ed, Eddie I'm serious I need to get back to work, and you need to get to your dad, he's in the hospital."

He scoffed. "A likely story, if my dad were ill they'd have called me. You're just saying that so I'll give you these keys back and you can run back to Grissom."

She sighed; when Eddie had been drinking it was hard to reason with him. Now he was angry and inebriated the task was a thousand times more difficult. "Eddie listen to me. Your mom called me out of work. She tried your usual friends and couldn't get a hold of you, so she called me. Your dad has had a seizure. I've taken Linds to Nancy's I've found you, told you, now I need to get back to work."

"Seizure? My dad's as strong as an ox. I don't believe you."

"Well go and see him then dammit. But at least give me my keys so I can get back to work."

"You want these keys baby." He held them up, then with a sick smile on his face, tossed them over her left shoulder, the smile widening as he saw them fall in the dumpster behind her. "Go find them."

"Ed!" As she screamed his name, he turned, going back into the bar.

"So he threw my keys in the dumpster. What was I supposed to do?" She looked up at Gil.

"You could have called me."

"Really, and say what, I'd just found my husband in a club with another woman and he threw my keys in the dumpster. I could see the look on your face. No I climbed up and over the rim and got in there to find them. Luckily there were only cardboard boxes in there. At least something was going right."

He smiled. "So Ed?"

"He sobered up, saw his dad, came home about two the following afternoon, begging for forgiveness, promising it was a one time lapse. I believed him. I thought I was to blame for not being around enough. I made him promise not to even think of getting himself in a similar situation, or that was it, he was out of the house and my life."

"So that's why you were so angry I'd not said anything."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I took my anger about Eddie out on you. I had no right."

"I understand."

"No, I never apologized. You were trying to protect me. You had no way of knowing what had gone on, how could you? I lashed out at you because of my husband's infidelity. I was blind to the fact that you only wanted to help me, protect me."

"It's okay. It happened so long ago, consider it forgotten."

She smiled. "You are so good to me. Why couldn't I have fallen in love with you not Eddie?"

He smiled at her, "No Eddie, no Lindsey. Simple, if you had to do it all over again would you, knowing what you could lose?"

She looked at him, pausing for several seconds, giving his words due consideration before whispering. "I couldn't give up Linds."

He smiled. "I know, but there's still a chance for you and me, that is if that's what you'd like. I care for you, you and Lindsey, would you be willing to take a chance, see what could happen?"

She smiled in return. "I thought you'd never ask."

The End