Dusk Till Dawn

V

"Messalina," I typed on my laptop early in the next morning. I stared at the white screen as it pulled up a bunch of girls under that name as I sighed and continued to research only to hear my phone buzz as I grabbed it and looked down at it. It was from Nick. 

Nick: Hey we still on for this afternoon?

Me: Yes

Nick: Good. Meet me at 12, at this address. 

I sighed and put the phone down as I went back to my research on Skylar's cousin. It looked like she was a very beautiful woman, with an extraordinary life. Good friends, good career, good living arrangements. I didn't see anything on her social media that would give away anything bad in her life. I checked off each box on my notebook as I sighed and scratched my head. "What am I missing?" I asked myself as I looked at the time as I groaned. "That was fast," It was 11, and I would have to meet Nick in an hour. I got up from my desk, leaving my things on my table, and got dressed. I did my hair, my makeup, and nails before grabbing my heels and walking out with wallet, phone, key card, and earbuds.

I got to the diner as I entered the building and walked over to an empty booth while looking out the window. What am I missing? If Skylar can't even find her through his magic fingers, then where is she? I questioned to myself as I heard a short cough beside me as I looked over and saw a girl with fair brown skin, light brown hair, and gentle green eyes. "Hello miss, what can I start you off with?" She asks as I answered her with a smile. "A water would be nice, if you don't mind," I told her as she nods. "Of course coming right up," She walks away as I was left alone only to see Nick walking over but only to be followed by a female as I narrowed my eyes. Great...i bet that's someone he got together...I knew this was a bad idea. Before I could make a move, Nick sat down with the woman go in front of him and sliding into the booth sitting near the window. "Hello, Miss Clancy, I'm Catherine Willows, I work with Nick," She introduces herself as I nodded and shook her outstretched hand as she smiled at me. "I don't mean to be rude, Nick. But why is she here?" I asked as Catherine answered while I looked at him before focusing on her. "I actually wanted to ask you personally what your relationship was with the man who took you. It's not a surprise why Nicky here, was taken. He was on the case when Kelly Gordon was put into prison," She explains as I sighed. "But there has to be a reason he took you," She says as I nodded and leaned onto the table as the waitress came over and put my glass down while she asked the two CSI's what they wanted. After she left, I started to explain. 

"Kelly Gordon was an old classmate of mine back when we were in high school. I didn't know her father. But at the same time, I didn't know Kelly like you guys think I did. She was the smart girl, had normal friends. I was the outcast kind of girl, I had my own friends. We had one class together. Biology if I remember right," I told her as she blinks at Nick who stared at me as I took a drink of water. "That doesn't say anything about why he took you," She says as I put a finger up as I put the glass down and continued. "It's not what I did. It's what my ex, at the time boyfriend, had done," I told her as she squints her eyes. "Okay, so your boyfriend cheated on you, with her, and her dad hates you for it," She guesses as I shook my head. "Can I finish before you interrupt me?" I narrowed my eyes at her. "Okay, sorry," She apologizes. "As I was saying, we were both Sophomores. It was a regular day at high school. Classes just got out, I headed into the cafeteria to see my friends. When we heard the echo of a shot. We all thought it was some stupid senior prank, it was in April. So of course, Graduation was approaching pretty soon. So we shook it off, but then we heard another shot. We all stopped and looked around just as one of the administrators came in and told us what was going on. There was people shooting inside the school and we all needed to go and hide in classrooms. Of course, I tried to warn everyone that was upstairs in the library. We shortly found out, that the shooters were my friend Dominic and my boyfriend, Duncan. The reason Kelly's father targeted me was that Kelly was traumatized by the school shooting," I explained as she stared at me as Nick spoke. 

"But the shooting was not your fault though," He says as I looked at him. "He chose the closest from Duncan. Me. Duncan and Dominic are gone, so why not go after the girlfriend of the shooter," I said as I finished as the waitress brought us our food. "What high school was this?" Catherine asks as I nodded. "Grandview," I told her as she widens her eyes. "Grandview high? Was it like Columbine High?" Nick asks as Catherine shook her head. "No, 15 died and 24 were injured. Grandview's highest was 200 killed, 100 injured," She answers him as I nodded. "That's correct, I was one of the injured ones," I agreed with her as Nick stared at me. "Were you shot?" Nick asked as I shook my head. "No, I tried to be a hero and face off with Duncan with hand to hand combat.  I got stabbed in the leg," I pointed to where I was hit as he blinks at me. "Thank you," Catherine says as she looks at Nick who gets out of the booth and lets Catherine out before sitting back down as he looked at me. "So how are you feeling?" He asks as I looked out the window. "I don't know, it's still surreal to still being out of a damn box," I hummed out as he stares at me. "Let's get off that topic, I spoke to your mother about you," He states as I snapped my head to look at him. "About?" I asked clearly annoyed. "About your skills, I mean you knew how to calm yourself," He says as I nodded. "I just knew what to do, I mean it's not good to just go and panic and literally kill yourself with fear," I told him as he nods.

"But your mother told me that you work or worked a job that had you tracking, and she said you were excellent at that. And I want to know if you can help with some cases if we need your help?" He says as I stared at him. "You gotta be kidding me? Me work for the CSI or helping. That's ridiculous, no offense, but I rather have you guys do it on your own," I told him as he smiles a little. "What if it involves children?" I state as I blinked up at him. "That I won't mind helping you guys, I rather save children and bring them home," I answered him as he nods. "Well, then I'll contact you on those cases if we have them. But for now..." He looks at his watch. "I gotta go back to work," He says as we both finished our lunch and got up as Nick pays while head outside and waited for him. Once he was out, he walked me to my car as I got in. "Have fun," I told him as he smiles brightly as I drove out of the parking lot.