A/N: This is the last chapter of Cinnamon Girl, it's set three years from the murder. I want to thank everyone for bearing with me and for their patience! I'm still in Spain (will probably come back home somewhere in August) but I do actually have some time to write a little. I will post my new story ASAP. Thanks guys!
Emily was sitting in her dorm room. It had been 3 years since Dana had died and she was about to graduate. After the whole case, Emily had moved back to campus and everyone seemed to have forgotten about it. No one ever harassed her about it anymore, although Emily suspected it had something to do with her sister walking around on campus, gun clearly visible, when she came to visit her.
There wasn't a day that had gone by without thoughts of Dana and Emily knew it would always be like that. But there also wasn't a day that had gone by that Emily felt she couldn't take it anymore; she knew she had someone to fall back on. Emily smiled at the thought of her sister, it was just like she had imagined as a kid, and it even got better. Sara had moved in with Catherine and now she had three people to turn to, every one of them had their own specialty. Catherine had been there for her a lot the past three years, to help her boost her self esteem. Lindsay was there for advice on boys, she might be the youngest of the three but she had all the knowledge about boys. And Sara, well she basically went to Sara for everything that didn't have to do with boys or self esteem.
And there was someone else who was playing an important role in her life, someone by the name of Gil Grissom, who she always went to for advice about school and pursuing her dreams. He would even let her hang around the lab on the weekends, if it wasn't too busy and she didn't have to stay with Lindsay. Even though Lindsay was old enough to take care of herself, Catherine still preferred it they were together when Catherine was working on the weekends. Fortunately that always went down without any problems since Lindsay liked hanging out with her and vice versa.
All in all her life was good, apart from the one black void she had to carry with her. The black void that she and Catherine had discussed so many, maybe too many, times. Today she felt the need to talk about it again and had called Catherine, she had asked her to meet up in a diner near the CSI headquarters.
Catherine was driving her car towards the diner, it was probably the millionth time she was meeting Emily there. Sara knew they would meat up occasionally to have a coffee and chat, but Sara didn't know what they talked about. In a way Catherine was glad Emily was talking about it to her, but she thought Sara should know about this too.
When Catherine entered the diner, Emily was already sitting at their spot with two cups of steaming coffee.
"Hey," Catherine said.
"Hey Catherine," Emily replied with a faint smile as she handed Catherine her coffee.
"Emily, don't you think it's time to move on? Or to tell Sara about this? I mean, it's not that I dislike our meetings here, but I think you shouldn't dwell on it."
"It was my fault Catherine, Paul killed Dana because she had me and he knew it would never be him."
"Emily, Paul killed Dana because something in his head was wrong, not because of you, there was nothing you could have done about it."
"Dana told him, you know. Dana told him that he should stay away from me, that he would never get as close to me as she was."
"Please Emily, we've been over this so many times already. I understand how you feel, I really do, but don't you think Dana would have wanted you to move on with your life? You helped catching the one who hurt her, there wasn't anything else you could have done."
Catherine reached over the table and took Emily's hands in hers. "It's time to move on Emily, to go on with your life. Trust me, I know how you feel, something similar happened to me when I was younger, and there isn't a day I don't think of her, but I've moved on. I have moved on because I know she would have wanted me to."
Emily looked up at Catherine in surprise. "Really?"
"Yes, Sara wasn't the first woman I've been with; it was a long time ago. It doesn't mean that I don't care about her anymore, I just moved on. Just like you should."
"Grissom talked to Ecklie today," Emily said, changing the subject.
"Normally I wouldn't let you change the subject, but I think you got my point," Catherine smiled and winked at Emily, "do tell about the talk, I'm curious."
"He is trying to get me a job," Emily smiled.
"I have never seen Grissom put his ass on the line like this before, well not for someone who doesn't have the last name Sidle," Catherine said, "is that what you want?"
"Yes," Emily answered.
"Are you sure? Is it not just because you want to impress Sara?"
"That too, but yes, I really want this. When I'm at the lab, it gives me a rush, and when I hear you talk about your cases, I just want to dive right in. I know I have a lot of years to go before I can actually go out in the field, but even knowing I can be part of the team makes me feel like I've had too much coke," Emily smirked.
"About that, I still have to find a suiting punishment for you, it's your fault Lindsay drinks nothing but coke these days. I'm sure that if they'd draw blood from you two, they would find there is coke running through your veins."
Emily chuckled. "I think Lindsay is old enough to make her own choices."
Catherine mockingly punched Emily's shoulder. "You know damn well you have a huge influence on her, she's been looking up to you since the day she met you."
Emily's smile made Catherine truly happy. The relationship she had with Sara, and the one she had with Emily all started under the most bizarre circumstances, but now they were really like a family. Emily had changed so much over the past few years, she seemed happier. Hanging around Lindsay sure had made her forget about her bad past. Catherine was glad she could show the Sidle women the values of being a family.
"Let's go, your sister might be going crazy, you need to save her," Catherine mentioned as she handed Emily her keys.
Sara was still at home with Lindsay and would take Catherine's car to work as soon as Emily would report for 'Lindsay-duty'.
"Catherine," Emily said, getting the older woman's undivided attention.
Catherine looked at Emily's face and already knew what she was going to say. Just like Sara, Emily couldn't hide the emotions her face was showing. Both Sidle women seemed to be confident and maybe cold to the outside world, but to Catherine they were two open books, different books, but still quite the same.
"Thank you," Emily smiled.
"Anytime Emily, anytime, you know that."
That morning when Sara and Catherine came home after quite a boring shift, they found Emily and Lindsay sleeping on the couch. They had been having their weekly Buffy marathon and probably fell asleep.
"I'll wake them up, you go get ready for bed," Catherine said in a sultry voice.
She didn't have to say that twice, before she could even look at Sara, the brunette was already halfway the stairs. Catherine grinned and walked to the couch to wake her daughter and Emily up.
"Ladies, time to get up," she said with a smile. She was so glad Lindsay got along with Emily, they both influenced each other in a very good way.
Lindsay was the first to wake up. As she realised she was on the couch she smiled weakly at her mother and walked upstairs to her bedroom without saying a word.
"Emily," Catherine repeated.
Emily stirred and opened her eyes. "Oh hi, I'm sorry, I fell asleep," she mumbled.
"I can see that," Catherine chuckled, "want me to take you home?"
Emily nodded and slowly got up.
"Mom," Lindsay shouted from the hallway.
Catherine stuck her head out of the kitchen to answer her daughter's call.
"Yes?"
"I'm going out with Em, see you tomorrow," Lindsay said as she put on her coat.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who is Em? And where are you going looking like that?" Catherine asked her 16 year old daughter. Lindsay had her hair up, her face full of make-up and she was applying extra lip gloss on the already God knows how many layers of lipstick on her lips.
Lindsay rolled her eyes and looked at her mother as if she just said the dumbest thing ever.
"Duh mom, Emily, you know, my aunt?"
"Are you sure?" Catherine asked, not believing a word Lindsay told her. Besides the fact that Lindsay kept calling Emily her aunt, she just didn't believe Emily would go out. Or maybe she just didn't want to believe her daughter had gotten to the age of going out and applying way too much make-up.
"Yes, she just finished her last exams. She is going to graduate soon."
Suddenly Catherine remembered that Sara's younger sister was indeed about to graduate, hell how could she forget, even Grissom seemed excited about it. She still hadn't figured out why though.
"MOM!" Lindsay whined, "I'm off, I'm sleeping at Em's place."
Just as Lindsay was about to leave the house, Sara entered with her arms full of bags from the grocery store.
"Ah Linds, can you take these, thank you," she said as she dumped the bags in Lindsay's arms before walking over to her lover to greet her with a kiss.
"Hey baby," Sara said after gently kissing Catherine, "what's up?"
"I will tell you what's up! Mom forgot I was going out with my aunt," Lindsay interrupted.
"Your aunt?" Sara asked, wondering what Lindsay meant.
"Oh my God, you know, Emily Sidle, your sister, tall, brown hair, brown eyes, spitting image of yourself, only a little bit more intelligent," Lindsay mocked as she put the grocery bags on the floor.
Sara chuckled, "technically she is not your aunt."
"Technically that is only because you two keep beating around the bush" Lindsay replied, "Em is too old for me to call her my friend, she would cramp my style," the young adolescent informed.
"I'd say my sister is cool," Sara mocked, sneaking her arm around Catherine, stealing another kiss of the woman she just couldn't get enough of. Inside she had to laugh about Lindsay's comment.
"My daughter wants us to get married," Catherine said as she kissed Sara back.
"Yuck, you guys, I'm still here!" Lindsay said as she waved her arms.
"What's wrong with Sara showing her love for me?" Catherine asked her daughter.
Lindsay sighed. "Parents," she said with another deep sigh before leaving the house.
Both Sara and Catherine chuckled at the reaction of Lindsay.
"Don't worry Cath, she is really going out with Emily," Sara said to calm Catherine down a bit.
"I know, she wouldn't lie about that. She is just growing up so fast, I was just looking at her and I just wanted to wipe all the make-up from her face. She looks so much older with all that make-up on."
Sara smiled at her lover. "Says who?"
"Sara Sidle, are you implying I look old?" Catherine said in mock anger.
"I wouldn't dare," Sara said before sweeping Catherine of her feet and into her arms.
Suddenly Sara stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the blonde goddess in her arms. "Did Lindsay just call us her parents?"
Catherine smiled at her younger lover, who seemed slightly panicked. "I guess she did."
Sara smiled and decided to let the subject drop. Now was not the time.
"Do you know what day it is?" Sara asked Catherine.
"What do you mean?" The blonde asked when Sara put her down on the couch.
"Today is the day that Lindsay is not coming home for the night," Sara said with a low voice, just before attacking Catherine's neck with kisses.
Catherine let out a soft moan, even after all the time they had been together; she still couldn't resist Sara Sidle.