Forgive

By Clara

Disclaimer: They’re not mine

Info: Third part of twenty

Year: 1988

Archive: My site, Working Love, ShipperWorld, Catherine Willows, Graveshift

Rating: PG

Category: CGR

Author’s notes: This started as answer to a challenge over at ‘Working Love’ and some how it turned into this! Thanks to Jo for the beta! None of the fics in this series will have a summary on them. I don’t want to give it away!!!

Dedication: To the wonderful Jo R. What would I do without ya? ;)

*****

She crossed her arms and stared at her feet, wondering how it had ever come to this. She could feel his eyes on her back and she waited until she was sure she wouldn’t cry before turning around.

Eric’s eyes bore into hers as she began to move around the room gathering her things together, stuffing them into an overnight bag.

“Where are you going to go?” His words were almost whispered and Catherine could almost forget that this was the same man she had just caught having sex with someone else, in their bed.

The anger returned and she glared at him before shrugging and walking into the bathroom, scooping up an armful of cosmetics and toiletries before tossing them in the top of her bag.

Quickly, she zipped it up and lifted it off the bed; it was only then that she let her eyes meet Eric’s again. “I’ll be back for the rest later.” With that, Catherine grabbed her keys and a coat before walking out of the apartment, slamming the door as hard as she could.

Once in her car Catherine let her head drop to the steering wheel and the first few tears fall. Now that Eric had mentioned it, she couldn’t think of many places that she could stay until this was over. In the few months that she’d been there she hadn’t become particularly close to any of the girls at Dream Dolls and although it was only a short drive to her sisters, she didn’t particularly feel like getting lost in the abyss that cocaine would give her.  Later on she came to believe that she’d drove there deliberately, but for now it surprised Catherine when she pulled up outside Gil’s townhouse.

They’d become what she supposed you’d call friends over the last few months and there was a certain safeness that his company offered that she found irresistible that night.

Carefully, Catherine climbed out of the car, pulling her bag with her and started up the steps toward the door, before she had a chance to reconsider.

Ringing the bell, Catherine waited for him to answer, she took the time to try and brush the last few tears from her face and hoped that he would be home that night and not at the lab. If there was one thing she’d learnt about Gil since they’d met, it was that he was married to his job and could frequently be found there long past the time when he was supposed to have left. She smiled slightly then and looked up as the door opened.

Gil stared at her for a moment, taking in the bag clutched in her hand and the tears shimmering in her eyes. Without saying a word he opened the door the rest of the way, letting her in and grabbed her bag as she passed.

He hadn’t been sure, but he’d thought Catherine had been unhappy at home for a while. He hadn’t thought much of Eric after his first meeting with Catherine when her boyfriend had stood her up and his opinion hadn’t changed after meeting the guy. He’d seemed brash and Gil hadn’t been impressed with the way he had talked to Catherine, expecting her to take everything he said as gospel.

Carefully he set her bag down by the side of the couch and gently pushed Catherine into sitting down, before lowering himself down next to her.

He watched as Catherine wrung her hands in her lap before letting her eyes meet his. “He was cheating. I caught them in my bed and I didn’t know where else to go.” More tears fell then and she angrily pushed them away. She had always hated needing help from anybody and tonight was no exception, but she was also a person who knew when she had run out of choices and this was one of them.

She didn’t protest when he pulled her against him, although she could tell he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the action, but she let herself find comfort in him for a few minutes before pulling back and wiping her eyes again with the back of her hand.

“You know you can stay. I wouldn’t turn you away.”

She wondered how far his words extended but knew that tonight wasn’t the time to explore that. So she nodded and smiled her thanks at him before letting him pull her up and lead her towards the guest room, snagging her bag up as they went.

On impulse, she kissed him on the cheek quickly before turning and setting her bag down on the chair at the bottom of the single bed. She heard the click of the door as he closed it in order to give her some privacy.

Sighing softly, Catherine lay down on the bed, not bothering to change her clothes, suddenly too exhausted from the nights events. She let her eyes drift shut and wondering if there would ever be a night in Las Vegas that turned out the way she’d envisioned her life here would be like.

~Forgive; oh that’s a mighty big word for such a small man. And I’m not sure I can~

Forgive- Rebecca Lynn Howard