Disclaimer: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and all related plots, characters, and sundry intellectual property are copyright. I do not own them and make no profit from referencing them in the fictional work below.
Warnings: Sexual references, strippers, coarse language and gambling
Note: The below is an attempt to take the standard rom-com trope of 'hooking up for a bet goes wrong' and take it to a darker place. (Having said that, I do love the many iterations of that trope already on ffnet, just wanted to run with it a little differently)
They looked up to see Sara leaning against the doorframe. In any other situation she could have laughed at their horrified, deer-in-the-headlights expressions.
After a moment's pause for them to register her presence, Sara strode over and looked pointedly at the cash in Greg's hand.
"That's it? Please." She snorted lightly and grabbed Greg's wallet out of his other hand. "Last time I whored myself out I charged that much an hour." She flipped through the bills present and pulled a few out. "You let me touch you for, what...three hours?" Sara enquired of Catherine lightly, before grabbing the cash Greg was still holding and shoving it, with the extra she just took, into Catherine's hand.
"Sara, I..."
"Shut up, Greg." She turned dark eyes on him and he almost choked on his own aspirated saliva as he tried to swallow and take a quick breath at the same time. She was furious.
Turning back to Catherine she continued the one-sided conversation.
"We didn't use protection...that'd cost another fifty..." she pulled out another note and pushed it into the blonde's grasp, "...and roleplaying, that's extra too." She slipped out another couple of notes and handed a now almost-empty wallet to a wide-eyed Greg, who was busy staring at Catherine.
"Hey! There was no role-playing." She denied and quickly assured Greg.
"Sure there was." Sara answered, pulling the cash out of Catherine's hand and quickly counting through it as she spoke. "You played the colleague interested in the one night stand, and I pretended someone might want me for something other than a quick buck."
She handed half of the money back to the blonde and waved hers briefly in the air. "My share of the profits." She smiled thinly.
"Sara, I'm sorry, okay? It was just a stupid bet...but seriously, I need that money to pay my rent." Greg stressed.
"Look at it this way," Sara started walking backwards out of the room, flipping one last time through the bills before shoving them in a pocket, "now you can say we all got fucked." And she left.
Catherine strode into the busy club, looking over the crowd. It definitely wasn't the sleaziest club on the strip, but she had been there during the day accompanying Brass when following a possible lead, and knew the dark lighting, crowd, booze and thumping music hid an otherwise unimpressive venue.
She had taken Nick's advice in trying to find Sara here. Taking in the crowd, she could see why the brunette might choose it as a place to get lost. The blonde made her way through the press of people to the bar, and finally getting the server's attention leaned close.
"I'm looking for someone. Tall, brunette woman – a bit of a regular?" she half-shouted.
"Why you looking?" The other woman asked suspiciously.
"We work together. Is she here or not?" Cath demanded impatiently. She endured a few more moments of scrutiny before getting a nod.
"Last time I saw, she was headed towards the stage." she tilted a glass in the direction intended.
"Thanks." Catherine left a tip on the counter and moved toward a previously unnoticed area of the club. Arriving at the edge of the crowd, she paused to find her target. Glancing around, it was a scene she was well familiar with. Businessmen, college kids and sundry others were watching a strip show. There were a few girls working and so the crowd was spread out along the stage according to preference.
She had expected Sara to be in a dark corner somewhere, nursing her bad mood, or at the very least at the edge of the crowd somewhere. Instead she finally found her in the middle of the floor show with one of the strippers gyrating over her lap and very close to her face. Despite the very sexual position and nakedness of the woman, Sara appeared to be smiling and joking with her while taking in the view. Things were just finishing up as Catherine approached.
"Thanks Lucy." Sara grinned and held a note up which was plucked from her hand.
"My pleasure." The toned young thing in question winked before strutting away. Sara took a long sip out of the glass in front of her and Catherine chose that moment to join her at the table. She saw the surprise and anger chase across Sara's face seconds before the brunette went blank.
"Catherine." Sara acknowledged and threw back the rest of her drink, replenishing it from a bottle on the table.
"You got the whole bottle?" Catherine asked, playing for time to get a feel for Sara's mood.
"I recently came into a bit of money." Sara's wide grin was slightly sloppy and her eyes a little glazed.
"Come on." Catherine sat back. "Do you really want to take Greg's money? Isn't it a little too close to actual prostitution, money for sex?" She asked seriously.
"And you didn't think of that while you were making the bet?" Sara demanded, unimpressed.
"I didn't take it."
"Good for you." Sara affirmed with a raise of her glass. "You got standards, even if they did arrive a little too late to make a difference." Catherine's eyes narrowed, but Sara ignored her anger and continued. "But me, well...it wouldn't be the first time. First time I didn't have to give someone more than a 50% cut, maybe!" She grinned again.
Catherine was torn between concern and disbelief. "You're telling me you...were a prostitute." She stated. Sara shrugged.
"Lotsa people who get money for sex that aren't what you'd call proper whores. So is that what you're doing here? Trying to get Greg's rent back? Why not just bet him double or nothing that he can't fuck Nick?"
"I wanted to apologise. It honestly wasn't about the money or even getting one over on Greg." The blonde tried.
"So, what? About getting one over on me?" Sara took another swig, her arm movements a little lazy. "Just about getting the leg over and proving I'm not immune to your charms, or was it more about demeaning me so I can finally understand how you've suffered being seen as a sex object rather than a serious professional?"
Catherine swallowed her fury at Sara's deliberate provocations, wanting to make herself heard properly. "No. I...it was pride, I guess. I told Greg I could get anyone I wanted, he said women would see right through me, wouldn't be interested." She sighed at how hollow the reasoning sounded now. "I guess I wanted to prove I still had it. Then when he nominated you as the woman in question...well I wanted to back out but..."
"You can't show any weakness?" Sara suggested with only a hint of scathing.
"Something like that."
"Guess I should have been smart enough to make the same choice." Sara grinned broadly, but behind the humour Catherine could see deep and abiding self-loathing. "Well, I'm so glad I could sacrifice my dignity and professional respect for your pride."
"Oh come on." Catherine answered. "That's a bit much isn't it?"
Sara snorted her amusement. "I didn't just walk in on you and Greg passing cash. I heard it first from one of the guys at PD. He assured me that he wouldn't screw me even if Greg paid him twice as much." Sara shared calmly.
"Oh God." Catherine had previously held hopes that the grapevine would never get hold of the details, given that only she and Greg had known about the bet. She felt her anger rising at whoever may have spread the word around, but it was immediately defused with shame. How could she be angry at someone for making public what she was foolish enough to do?
"Forget about it." Sara waved a hand dismissively, almost smacking Catherine in the face by accident. "It was a nice night. You have plenty to be proud about."
One of the strippers fresh from her set strode up to them, eyeing Catherine menacingly. "Honey, this lady botherin' you?"
"Only for the last few years. Why?" Sara asked, looking up at her. "You got a gun hidden on you somewhere?"
The other woman was, in fact, naked apart from her stilettoes. She leaned forward, bringing her breasts within millimetres of the brunette's face.
"Nah, can of pepper spray. Can you guess where I'm hiding it?" She smirked at Sara through lidded eyes.
"Gimme a break." Catherine cut through their moment, rolling her eyes.
"Done." Sara pushed unsteadily to her feet, tipped the stripper, and walked away.