Title: Dealing With Grief
Author: cjacsifan
Pairing: Catherine/Riley
Disclaimer: CSI is owned by CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer
Summary: A new friend helps Catherine deal with Warrick's death.
Spoilers: None

Riley Adams was new to the team and didn't know her new co-workers
all that well, but she could tell when someone was feeling sad and
trying to keep it to themselves.

The someone in question was Catherine Willows, strongest member of
the team, Oh out in the field Catherine was all business, but
whenever the two of them were teamed together on a case and were in
the locker room after the case was complete, Riley could tell
Catherine was hiding something.

Riley even asked her fellow CSIs what the matter was with Catherine,
they all told her it had to do with Warrick Brown's death. Riley
knew they had all taken it hard but Catherine was different, she
would, stare at his locker for minutes on end, tear up at the mention
of his name, Riley even caught her crying in the locker room once
while holding a picture the two of them together at the last
Christmas party before his death, of course she never said anything
to Catherine or anyone else because she didn't want the others to
think she was spying on Catherine.

After a particular hard case Riley and Catherine got back to
headquarters, Riley could see Catherine was about to break so she
offered to take all the evidence to the correct labs so Catherine
could go to the locker room.

About 10 minutes later after dropping all the evidence off and
chatting with Wendy, Hodges, and Archie, Riley made her way to the
locker room and was heartbroken by the sight: Catherine sobbing while
holding on to that Christmas party picture.

"Catherine, are you okay?"

A surprised Catherine turned her head, wiped her face and put the
picture back into her locker, "Wh...Why yes Riley I'm fine why do you
ask?"

"It's just that as I came in here I saw that you were crying and was
wondering why."

Catherine tried to hide from Riley, "Crying, I wasn't crying....what
makes you think that."

Riley would have none of it, "C'mon Catherine I have seen you cry in
here before, and before you get all angry on my I wasn't spying on
you...Besides I wasn't born yesterday...is this all about the CSI I'm
replacing Warrick Brown."

Catherine could no longer hold in her emotions, she let a torrent of
tears fall as she put her head in her hands so the new CSI would'nt
see her.

Riley seeing her friend in anguish ran to her side, sat down beside
her and held her in a bear hug until she felt Catherine pull
away, "Want to talk about it?"

Catherine shook her head and started telling her about how strong her
feelings were toward Warrick, and that she even thought of him as
boyfriend material but when the two of them met she was going through
a divorce, then she had a series of boyfriends, and by the time she
was free to date him, he secretly got married and that ruined all her
fantasies.

Riley consoled Catherine again as a new wave of tears began, and
after they subsided she said "Catherine I understand the grief you
are going through I, lost my girlfriend...", Riley realized she had
just outed herself to Catherine but kept right on going. "to a drunk
driver and it took me awhile to get over it but I knew in my heart
she wanted me to get on with my life, and I'm sure Warrick would want
you to do the same...Now are you feeling better."

"Yes I am feeling much better thank you...", Catherine leaned in and
gave a hug and kiss on the cheek to Riley, "And don't worry your
secret is safe with me."

Riley released herself from the hug, looked into Catherine's eyes and
knew she was telling the truth, the two women smiled at each other,
hugged once more then left the locker room to see what the rest of
the shift had in store for them.