The Bliss of Lies

"Damn." Catherine Willows clicked her cell phone shut and shook her head in disappointment. Running her fingers through her blonde shoulder skimming hair, she caught Warrick Brown's eye. Her colleague for many years, Warrick was now her subordinate, thanks to a well-earned, long over due promotion Catherine had received. Switching from nightshift to swing shift had not been an easy change for either of the CSI's, or for their coworker Nick Stokes, who had made the switch with them. Originally applying for the position of day shift supervisor, the job had that had been left open when Conrad Ecklie had himself been elevated to assistant lab director. Catherine had been blind sided by being promoted to the swing shift instead, thanks in part to office politics and in larger part to Ecklie's just wanting to stick it to the night shift supervisor, Gil Grissom. She had applied for dayshift, not for the salary increase, and not even for the raise in status, but because by working days she would be able to get home before her daughter Lindsay was sound asleep.

Warrick, for his part found that he liked clocking out at midnight instead of clocking in. Though in reality, the schedule had very little to do with actual working hours, you couldn't just tell evidence to wait, that it was midnight and you had a hot date.

Now, at 8pm, the middle of their shift, their latest case solved, the bad guy being booked at that very moment, Warrick suddenly found himself with nothing to do, and sat on the break room sofa, watching Catherine cuss at her cell phone. "What's up?" He raised his eyebrows and almost imperceptibly lifted his chin.

"There's this concert" Catherine flopped onto the couch next to him "that Lindsay really wants to go to, I thought if I could get tickets. . ." Catherine let the words hang in the air, not wanting to admit what she'd been hoping for.

"You'd be mom of the year again." Warrick finished for her.

Catherine nodded slowly and closed her eyes against the image that she'd become one of those mothers who would try to buy her daughters love, but at this point in Lindsay's twelve year old life, she would sell her soul to the devil himself to have Linds not be so angry with her, even if for a few hours.

"What concert?" Warrick asked.

"Oh, you've probably never heard of her, Carly Lynne James, she's this country singer. Lindsay really wants to go to the concert at The Stardust." Catherine glared at her cell, as if it was the phones fault for not having the right number to find tickets.

"Carly Lynne James." Warrick said slowly, teasing, pausing after each name. "Not only have I heard of her. . ." he leaned forward and reached around to his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, extracting four slips of thick bright yellow paper that resembled book marks. He handed them to Catherine. "You don't think Linds would mind watching the concert from backstage, do you?"

"How the hell did you get these?" Catherine asked, her eyes as wide as her smile, holding the passes as if they were dipped in gold.

Warrick smiled and settled back into the corner of the couch, his back up against the armrest. "Went to high school with Carly. She sent these over earlier."

Catherine cocked an eyebrow, the corners of her lips tugged upward in a teasing smile.

Warrick shrugged, answering the question behind Catherine's grin. "We were friends."

Settling back into the cushions of the break room sofa, Catherine crossed her legs and waved the backstage passes in front of her like a fan, "Please, do go on."

Warrick tilted his head and let his gaze quickly trip over her, noticing the flirtatious spark her own eyes held. His tongue darted out wetting his lips. "I accompanied her at the concert's the school put on."

"Piano." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah."

Catherine's brow furrowed in confusion "You played country?"

He shook his head, chuckling at the thought. "Yeah, picture that. No, she didn't sing country then. Christmas standards. Spring concerts she'd sing jazz or torch songs, like that."

"You date her?" Catherine felt a twinge of jealousy.

"Nah. We kind of hung out, during rehearsal. Senior year, the school musical director was going through a divorce, he'd be late a lot. Carly and I'd have to wait for him. We talked."

Catherine nodded slowly while she appraised the explanation. "And just like that twenty years later, she sends you backstage passes."

"Well…" Warrick moved his head, looking away from her. "Look. You remember when I told you what high school was like for me?"

Catherine nodded. "You were a loser."

He whipped his head quickly back around; his blue eyes wide with disbelief she'd called him that. He gave her a look for the comment. It was the reaction she'd wanted, the small tug of her teasing smile let him know she'd done it on purpose. He shook it off. "Whatever. Carly was one too. She was a geek, didn't have the money or the style for the right clothes, all the girls made fun of her."

"You bonded out of gawkiness."

"Yeah. I even took her to the prom." He got quiet for a moment, his eyes glazing over, lost in the memory. Catherine left him a lone, letting him remember, watching his face change almost imperceptibly as he relived the long ago evening. After a moment, he twitched, focusing back on the present day, and shrugged again, pulling out from under the memory.

Catherine gave him an understanding smile. "So. There's four passes; Linds, me, you… and…?" She ran the back of a fingernail over the fan of passes, making a clicking sound like a playing card in bicycle spokes.

"Dunno." Warrick looked out toward the hallway, as if he'd decided to bring whomever next walked past the open door. After a moment, he looked back to Catherine. "Nick I guess. He likes that country stuff."

Carly Lynne James stood in the middle of the stage at the Stardust concert hall; she wiped the sweat off her forehead then gathered her wild, curly blonde hair, piling it on top of her head, holding it there with her left hand as she fanned herself with her right.

"The touch of his eyes / From across the room / The touch of his fingertips / Stroking my arm / The touch of his palm / Leading me across the floor / The touch of his lips / On mine / The touch of his breath / Against my ear / The touch of his voice / In his murmuring" Carly lost herself in the song, feeling the rhythm in her very pulse, allowing the beat to drown out the whispers of her heart. The music swelled to a crescendo then gradually ended, whispering itself out like a candle flame chased by a lusty breath. The white spotlight that had encircled Carly during the song blinked out; leaving the theatre bathed in darkness, save for the isle lights that looked to Carly very much like tiny runways. The roadies gathered around the stage broke into applause, breaching the silence the music had left in its wake, and when the lights came up again, her smile was gracious and real. She spun on the toes of her boots to face the musicians she'd come to consider a second family. Clapping her hands, she applauded their hard work. "Thanks guys."

"Carly." The booming voice of the stage manger came out from the darkness of the auditorium, "let's take ten while the guys reset."

Carly nodded her assent and pulled the microphoned headband off. Heels clacked their approach and she turned to find one of her back up singers, Jill Johansen approaching with a bottle of water.

"Nice set Carly; sounded good." Jill held out the bottle, the bright red talons she called fingernails clicked on the plastic as Carly took it from her hand.

"Thanks." Carly twisted off the cap. "You too. Ya'll were in good voice." She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a long swig.

"Aw, so sweet of you to say." Jill tilted her head and smiled, but Carly noticed the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Hey, Carly? You got company." The stage manager had abandoned the booming microphone, and used his normal hollering voice to call out, breaking the awkward silence growing between the singer and the back up singer. Thank God Carly thought to herself and turned away from the woman she didn't like, but had hired at Tommy's instance.

The darkness of the seating arena was like a fog that lifted as it approached the lit stage. Carly heard footsteps. "Ginger?" Her voice grew excited as she climbed down off the stage and ran out into the seating, teetering on the stiletto of her boots. "Ginger!" she called out again as Ginger James, her niece stepped out into the light echoing off the stage.

Ginger's kinky dark blonde hair was pulled up into a chaotic ponytail; strands of hair fell into her bright blue eyes. She wore faded jeans with her red cotton tank top; her dark-honey colored skin spoke of a heritage her aunt's milky white complexion had little to do with. Gingers toe-shoe like slippers trotted down the slant of the isle, bringing her to meet her aunt as quickly as she could. The two women met at the edge of the light, Carly gathered Ginger into a giant hug. "I wasn't expecting you for another couple of days!"

"I know, but Peter was giving me such a hard time, and the house is so empty now…I just threw my stuff in the car and drove."

"Peter didn't want you to leave?" Carly asked, referring to her nieces boyfriend she'd met a handful of times.

The girl shrugged. "He thinks I should have stayed and married him." Ginger placed one of her hands on her belly, only slightly swollen from the baby she carried inside.

"Well, I'm glad you're here. And the house is plenty big enough, you can have all the privacy you need." Carly rolled her eyes at the thought of the mansion-sized home Tommy had rented as a surprise for her. She would have never looked twice at the ostentatious house, but Tommy had thought it fitting for her image. They'd moved in two weeks ago, after signing with the Stardust for the yearlong engagement, and Carly was sure there were rooms she still hadn't seen.

Relief washed over Gingers face. "Tell you what." Carly glanced toward the stage where her band stood trying to look as if they weren't watching the two women. "I have to get back to rehearsal." She turned her head, and looked toward the back of the theatre, finding the man she was looking for, she waved in a come here motion. The tall black man his hair graying at the temples sauntered down the isle toward them. "Ginger, this is Arthur, the Stardust has graciously hired him to drive me while I'm here. He's gonna take you home." Carly looked toward the tall man, placing a hand on his arm. "My niece Ginger is going to stay with me for a while. Would you mind helping her with whatever bags she's got in her car?"

Arthur smiled genuinely, he liked Carly; she hadn't treated him as a servant as most of the famous people he'd driven did. "Of course. I'll come back for you after the concert."

Carly shook her head. "No, I'll drive Gingers car to the house. It's just easier this way, than to have Ginger try and find The Manor." Arthur smiled when she used the nickname they secretly shared for the house Tommy loved and Carly hated.

He nodded his understanding. "Ok then."

Carly hugged Ginger one more time before saying her goodbyes and headed back to the stage to finish rehearsal.

Just off stage, Jill Johansen watched the interaction between the two women in the audience. She felt him walk up and stand very close behind her. Keeping her eyes on Carly and Ginger, she moved her head just a little toward the man behind her. "Who's the girl?"

"Ginger. Carly's niece." Tommy Bryans, Carly's manager for five years, and husband for three answered in a whispering tone.

They watched as Ginger followed Arthur back up the isle. A sour grin spread over Jill's face as she turned her body toward Tommy and took a small step in, closing the distance "Looks like you have company."

Tommy grunted, pissed off that Carly hadn't bothered to ask him if he minded the houseguest. He knew Ginger was pregnant, his eyes clouded over with visions of being woken up at ungodly hours by a wet, hungry infant. "Yeah, guess so."

Jill felt the anger radiate off of him and giggled, enjoying the moment at Carly's expense. She stood on her tiptoes and placed a quick peck of a kiss on Tommy's lips. Tommy looked down at her with wide-eyed shock and anger. "Damn it Jill! I've told you, not where we can be seen. I think Carly's beginning to suspect."

Jill waved her hand in a 'who cares' gesture. "She's way over there, nobody saw. Kiss me again" she said and grabbed his belt buckle, pulling him closer to her.

He pushed her hands away from him. "Go rehearse. Learn how to be a star." As an exclamation point, he slapped her ass.

Jill gave him a twisted smirk before turning and heading back out on stage, letting her ass put on a private show for him.