Catherine kisses Lindsey's forehead when she settles in bed and pulls the covers up.

"Sleep tight baby."

"Mommy?"

"Yeah Linds?"

"Are you and Gil ever gonna get married?"

"Someday honey."

"Okay."

"Get some sleep baby."

"Okay." Catherine kisses Lindsey's forehead again and walks out of the room shutting the door quietly behind her. She goes into her room and climbs into bed after slipping into one of Gil's button downs. Soon she's fast asleep and around four Gil slides in next to her.

"Mmm what time is it?"

"Just a bit after four go back to sleep honey." Catherine kisses Gil and snuggles into his chest.

"Love you."

"Love you too."

"You okay?"

"Yeah just glad I'm home." Soon the two of them are sound asleep holding the other close.

********************************************************************* ***

"Hey you got up before me."

"I couldn't sleep." Catherine stands behind Gil rubbing his shoulders as he reads the paper.

"Must not have. You got home at four and it's seven now. Gil what's wrong?"

"Nothing I just had a bad night at work."

"You wanna talk about it?" Gil shakes his head and Catherine moves her hands to his temples.

"Can I do anything to make you feel better?"

"I'm fine for now."

"Okay." Catherine kisses his forehead and she smiles.

"I'm gonna get Linds going and once she's off we can spend the day doing whatever you want."

"That could be dangerous."

"Oooh." Catherine smiles and goes upstairs getting Lindsey up. Soon the little girls walking out of the house to the bus leaving Catherine and Gil alone.

"So what do you wanna do tiger?"

"I don't wanna hurt you."

"I know that, but when we started this relationship we agreed that we would work this out together."

"Can't I just go alone?"

"No Gil. We go together or stay home."

"I'll call Heather." Gil picks up the cordless and Catherine snags it out of his hand.

"Go take a shower and I'll call her."

"You saying I stink?"

"Yes now go." Gil gets off of the couch and pads down the hall while Catherine calls Heather's private line.

"Hello?"

"Heather it's Catherine."

"Catherine how are you?"

"Okay. Listen Gil had a bad night at work last night…this morning and I was wondering if we could maybe get two hours in?"

"Of course you can."

"Thanks."

"And if you're done early maybe…"

"That sounds great."

"When are you gonna be here?"

"45 minutes."

"I'll see you then." Catherine hangs up the phone after saying goodbye and runs a hand through her hair sighing.

********************************************************************* ***

Catherine moans as she rolls onto her open wounded back and rubs the whip marks against the silk of Heathers bed. Gil pulls his shirt on and Catherine rolls back onto her stomach. Gil buttons his shirt up and pulls the whip back into his hand. Heather comes rushing in with one of her girls and grabs the whip from his hand.

"Get him out of here. Now." The girl grabs Gil's wrists and coaxes him out of the room. Heather drops the whip and goes over to Catherine.

"Catherine…Catherine. Are you okay?" Catherine lightly shakes her head and spits blood out of her mouth.

"Sarah! Get in here!" A girl with long black hair and deep blue eyes comes running in.

"Yes Lady Heather?"

"Call the paramedics. Now." Sarah calls the paramedics and soon they come and load Catherine onto a stretcher before taking her out to the ambulance, passing Brass on the way out.

"Captain Brass."

"Lady Heather. What the hell happened to Catherine?"

"Gil." Heather and Brass go into the closed off ballroom where Gil's on the old Victorian couch brooding.

"Gil…"

"Where is she?"

"She's on her way to the hospital."

"What the hell did you do to her Gil?"

"I…I don't know…I just lost it."

"Gil you know what I'm going to have to do."

"Jim…She's still alive and conscious. If she wants to press charges then let her, but you will not arrest me right now." Gil looks up at Brass with furry still burning in his eyes.

"Gil come on I'll drive you to the hospital."

"I've got it. But thanks." Gil grabs his keys out of his pocket and walks out of the Dominion. He gets in his truck and drives to the hospital. Once there he stays in his truck and just stares out the window.

"What have I done?"

A few hours later found Gil in Catherine's hospital room. Catherine opens her eyes and looks around the sterile white room and sees Gil sitting in a chair next to her bed watching TV. She squeezes his hand and he smiles at her.

"Hey how you feeling?"

"Okay. Kinda sore, but okay. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just got carried away at Heather's and…"

"What did you do?"

"I…"

"Gil what did you do to me?"

"The whip marks were normal, but you have a lot of vaginal trauma and a few facial bruises…Cath I'm so sorry about this."

"Come here."

"What?"

"Come here." Gil stands over her bed and she pulls him down kissing him deeply.

"I love you."

"What?"

"I love you Gil."

"I love you too." Catherine tugs him to sit on the edge of her bed and she strokes his cheek.

"It's okay that you lost control Gil."

"It's not okay for me to take it out on you."

"I'll be fine. I'll be fine." Catherine closes her eyes and her heart monitor goes off.

Gil shoots up in bed and cries out Catherine's name. Catherine sits up next to him and pulls him to her, stroking his back softly as he calms down from his obvious nightmare. Once calm Gil notices that they're still at Heather's.

"Wh…we're still at Heather's."

"Yeah. Gil hon calm down and just breathe." Gil flops back on the pillows and Catherine kisses him.

"What was you're dream about?"

"We were here and I…I just lost it and…I hurt you really bad then you were in the hospital and everything…it was so bad." Catherine kisses Gil.

"Everything's okay. I'm okay. We're okay." Gil pulls Catherine onto his chest and kisses her deeply.

"God it was so horrible." Catherine nuzzles Gil's neck and he kisses her forehead.

"Marry me?"

"Wh...what did you say?"

"Marry me?" Catherine pushes up onto her elbows and looks at Gil.

"Gil I…"

"I know we never really talked about getting married, but I wanna have you by my side forever and I want you to be required to be there when I wake up." Catherine kisses Gil and rests back on his chest.

"Gil you know that I love you more than anything."

"I know."

"So what do you think my answer is?"

"Yes you'll marry me?"

"Mmhm." Gil kisses Catherine and rolls her onto her back.

"Really?"

"Yes really. Now make love to me Mr. Grissom."

"My pleasure."

*****

TBC