Disclaimer: Don't own, don't make money from etc

New story :) This chapter is based heavily on the episode Unbearable (s5e14)

There are a lot of unanswered questions here, but they will all be answered ... all in good time :P

Leave a review, let me know what you think :)

x x x x

"You started without me?"

"Actually, I finished without you." Sara released a heavy sigh. "Take a look."

Greg peered over her shoulder into the trunk of the car. "Carpet's black. Fibres on the vic's clothing were red." He conceded, realising the reason for her despondent tone.

"Obviously we can rule out this car." She hummed, staring forlornly into the trunk.

Greg sent her a sideways glance, pursing his lips for a moment.

"I don't mean to pry," he started carefully, "but … you want to talk about what happened with you and Ecklie?"

Sara levelled her gaze at him as she answered coolly. "Not really."

The young CSI, however, was persistent.

"I don't know if you noticed but I'm a good listener." He flashed her a warm grin, drawing a smile from the cagey brunette. Despite her every instinct telling her to hold her tongue, she just couldn't help falling for his big puppy-dog eyes. She released a breath, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I … blew up at Ecklie." She stated. "It was very unprofessional – and very satisfying. And now we're moving on." He offered a half-shrug, smiling at her forthrightness; although slightly disappointed that the story hadn't ended with her and Catherine working out their differences in a more amicable way…

"Thanks for asking." Sara added, breaking his thoughts. They shared a small smile before she rolled her eyes at his uncanny ability to tease information from her and slammed the trunk shut.

X x x

Okay, so there was more to the story than she had let on, but he had only asked about Ecklie.

If he had asked about Catherine, that would have been a whole other can of worms. And it was one that she intended to keep securely shut.

Although it seemed today that the God's of fate were plotting against her; for as she made her way down the hallway her heart sank to see Grissom and Sofia leaning over a table, heads bent conspiratorially. Before she even reached the door, she could hear their jovial chortling.

Now, Sara didn't like the blonde former-day's CSI at the best of times. But she had a particular issue with working with her today, of all days.

For only Sofia knew exactly why Sara had blown up at Catherine. And she was not averse to bringing to subject up, despite the brunette making it exceptionally clear that she did not want to discuss it.

Taking a deep breath, Sara steeled herself in the threshold for a moment before clearing her throat softly.

"DNA from, uh Laurie's shirt came back. It matches her husband."

"That could be probative." Sofia hummed, giving Sara a once over as she spoke.

"Or casual transfer unrelated to the case." Grissom added. Sara pursed her lips, opting not to offer a theory of her own. Instead, she presented a sheath of papers to her supervisor.

"I also picked up your trace results."

He scanned the top sheet, his eyebrow quirking in interest.

"Baby powder on Laurie's palms is consistent with the baby powder we found at the Kyman's residence."

"According to the girlfriend Laurie washed her hands at the club." Sara said, studiously avoiding Sofia's gaze at the mention of the g-word.

She could feel those inquisitive blue eyes on her throughout the entirety of the subsequent conversation, although if Grissom noticed then he didn't let on as he continued to blithely poke holes in Sofia's theory regarding the husband.

Clearing her throat, Sara finally voiced her own idea of events.

"Maybe Laurie came home, she and Mark had a fight. Maybe she found out he was fooling around – again." Her voice became strained as her theory overlapped into a memory, all the while still feeling Sofia's gaze burning into her skin. "She takes off, drives around. Tyre eventually goes flat, she pulled over to the side of the road and a stranger comes along and abducts her."

"A stranger driving a Bentley?" Sofia quirked an eyebrow, softening her voice.

"Hey," Grissom chastised, oblivious to the atmosphere between the women. "The rich are just as deviant as the poor."

X x x

Catherine inhaled sharply, recoiling from the screen.

"They're called 'Canned Hunts'." Nick explained sadly as the Rhino snorted and yelped in agony on the monitor. "Going on all over the country."

For the tenth time tonight, she thanked the lord that Sara had not gotten this case.

The only thing that upset Sara more than domestic abuse was animal abuse.

And this was, without a doubt, abuse.

Also for the tenth time tonight, Cath found her thoughts wandering back to the woman. It seemed the more Sara tried to avoid her, the more desperately Catherine wanted to speak to her.

Shaking the distracting thoughts away, she focused her tear-filled eyes back on the Rhino as it lurched helplessly in circles before collapsing to the ground with a resigned grunt.

X x x

Sara rapped her knuckles softly on the door, not waiting for an invite before wandering into the office.

"Hey." She greeted smoothly. "Oh, filling out reports."

"They tell me it's my job." Grissom rolled his eyes, dropping his pen onto the stack of forms. She smiled, taking a seat opposite as he fixed her with a curious look. "You doing okay?"

Her smile turned tight and she gritted her teeth, but after a few second's contemplation she nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks." His concern was touching, but he just wouldn't understand the truth.
He scrutinised her for a long moment, waiting to see if she was going to offer anything else. When his unwavering gaze started to get unnerving, she changed the subject back to the case.

She knew that her colleagues were confused by her behaviour, and with the exception of Sofia they probably all though it had something to do with her recent suspension.

Truth was, her life went to hell two weeks before her run in with Catherine and Ecklie.

X x x

"If you added up every cent I've ever made my entire life, I still wouldn't be able to afford half this car." Greg moped as the women sidled up to either side of him.

After suitably raining on Greg's parade about the downsides of owning a luxury car – like she'd ever actually know what that felt like – Sara moved around to the trunk in an attempt to put more distance between herself and her colleagues. Which worked fine, until they followed her.

"Same shape, size, colour." The blonde CSI hummed when Sara extracted a plant pod from the rim of the car. "Too bad we can't ID this pod and tie it to the tree."

Sara smiled silently before Greg even opened his mouth to disregard the comment, his eyes lighting up at the opportunity to delve into his extensive knowledge of plant DNA and effectively prove Sofia wrong.

He scampered off with the pod in tow to temporarily reclaim his residence in the DNA lab, leaving the women alone in the garage.

Sara busied herself fingerprinting the bonnet of the car. She felt Sofia creep up beside her, hovering quietly over her shoulder.

"What?" She asked calmly when the woman didn't say anything.

"Have you talked to Catherine?"

"No." Sara turned abruptly, almost walking into her colleague. She narrowly danced around her, moving over to the bench in a failed attempt to put more space between them. Sofia sauntered after her, leaning casually against the table.

"Maybe you should hear what she has to say." She suggested. "It might help heal things between the two of you."

Sara put down what she was doing and turned, her eyes flashing with anger.

"Look, this is really none of your concern." She said, barely restraining herself. "What happened between Catherine and I will stay between Catherine and I."

Sofia, ignoring the blatant hint, stepped closer to the brunette and lowered her voice.

"I was there that night, Sara." She reminded her, somewhat needlessly. "I saw what state you were in."

God knows, Sara did not need to be reminded of that night. She had had no intention of telling anyone at work what had transpired. However, Sofia had stumbled upon her, entirely by accident, as she sat at the side of the road; her bike propped up on its stand. She had been in tears, on the verge of downing the bottle of whiskey she'd acquired en route to her lonely location.

And as Sofia – on her way home from work – had wandered out of the early morning mist and sat down beside her, Sara had just started talking.

Sofia could tell from Sara's glazed, reminiscent look that she had touched a nerve. She placed a hand on the brunette's arm, startling her.

"Talk to Catherine." She said. "Otherwise you're just going to keep beating yourself up over this."

"Over what?" Sara shrugged her off. "There's nothing to talk about. We were together. Now we're not."

She ripped off her gloves and stalked out of the garage, leaving Sofia to stand and stare in her wake.

X x x

After abandoning a bemused Greg in the hallway, Sara shuffled into the locker room only to curse her terrible timing.

"Hi." Catherine breathed, appearing equally as surprised to run into her ex. Due to the recent shift changes, they rarely crossed paths.

Sara debated spinning on her heel and departing, but settled for nodding at her silently and wandering to her locker. She could sense Catherine creeping closer, until the strawberry-blonde was lurking right behind her.

"I saw you taking to Sofia earlier…" The older CSI mumbled, fidgeting on the spot.

"She's got nothing to do with this." Despite her earlier coldness towards the woman, Sara couldn't help but note the irony at defending her now. "She was just checking I was alright."

"And are you?" Cath asked cautiously, biting her lower lip.

"I'm fine." Sara gritted her teeth, purposefully taking an unnecessarily long time rifling through her locker. "I'm just tired."

"You don't get tired." She countered softly. "When did you last sleep?"

"When did we break up?" Sara asked, her voice turning darker. For a long moment Catherine didn't say anything.

"You're not serious?" She said at last, although it came out as more of a scared question than a statement. Sara shrugged, finally closing her locker and turning to leave. She was stopped by Catherine's hand on her arm and the blonde could practically feel her defences rise beneath her touch.

"Sar, can ... can we talk about this?" She begged weakly.

"What's there to talk about?" There was a cold detachedness to Sara's voice that sent a chill through Cath's blood.

"Us?" She shrugged weakly. For the first time she saw a sign of emotion in her companion's eyes.

"There is no us, Catherine." Sara explained, her voice beginning to crack. "Anything we had ended the night you jumped into bed with another woman."

Catherine dropped her head in shame. She couldn't deny that everything that had happened was her fault, but she wanted a chance to explain; a chance to salvage some part of their friendship.

While she searched for a way to begin, Sara tugged her arm free and set off towards the door.

"Sara, wait!" Cath hollered after her, frantically scrambling for something to say. Sara paused in the threshold, turning to her with the sad eyes of someone who had long since lost hope.

"Just leave it Cat," she mumbled softly. "Go home to your new girlfriend."

Catherine dropped onto the bench disconsolately, watching her disappear into the deserted hallway.