I pulled my leather jacket on over my black skinny fit t-shirt, glancing at my reflection in my locker door mirror before locking the metal door and turning around the face the blonde behind me. "Are you ready?"

Catherine slid a layer of lipstick across her lips and nodded. "Sure thing."

I picked the evidence collection kit up from the long bench that separated the locker room into two halves and followed her out of the room and down the winding corridors of the building. There was a quiet hurried bustle to the building, people passing from room to room, papers and evidence bags in hand. We exited the building and my eyes fell to Catherine's hips as they lightly swayed from side to side, her heeled boots clacking against the tarmac of the parking lot. The effort she made on a daily basis always astounded me, or maybe it was natural style, I couldn't tell. I just knew in her eyes I must look like I've just rolled out of bed, when in fact when Grissom had told me yesterday that I would be spending this shift working with Catherine, I had spent an extra 20 minutes on my hair and gone through my entire wardrobe to find something that she may deem 'cute'. The more I thought about my denim jeans, work boots and black t-shirt combo, the more I doubted that I did in fact look 'cute'.

I placed the evidence kit into the trunk of Catherine's black Denali before climbing into the passenger seat. Her car smelled of her perfume, it reminded me of cinnamon and almonds. I buckled my seatbelt and she started the engine before tapping the destination of the crime scene into the sat-nav - Spring Valley State Park was a couple of hours' drive but it had only just hit midnight so I figured we would still be there with enough time to process the scene, return to the lab and start processing evidence before our official end of shift. I couldn't remember the last time I had actually left the lab when I was meant to, my body was used to 16+ hour shifts now.

Although Grissom had told me in advance I would be spending the shift with Catherine, the murder scene in Spring Valley had only just been called in as we had arrived at the lab. I hadn't expected to be spending such a long amount of time with Catherine is such a small space as a car, it made me a little nervous. It would be fairly accurate to say that Catherine and I hadn't previously gotten on with each other very well, we had had countless arguments about the most mundane things, and occasionally we did still have moments where tension would rise but we had been much better lately. I had no idea what had changed to make things easier between us but I was grateful for it. I tapped nervously on my knees as we drove through the dark Vegas streets, trying to think of something I could say to Catherine that didn't make me sound stupid.

"How are things since Hank?"

I raised my eyebrows. That was direct. "Quiet." I replied. I didn't know what else to say, how much detail did she want? I could still feel his hands on my bare skin, and I could still him with his actual girlfriend. His real girlfriend. With his hands on her too. It had only been two weeks since the horrible truth had come out... well, all of it was horrible, in retrospect.

"I know that feeling." Catherine kept her eyes on the road but her voice was sympathetic and sincere.

Silence filled the car again as I struggled to find anything to say that wouldn't make things awkward. Catherine wasn't really interested in how I felt about Hank, or anyone else for that matter, so that conversation was a dead end. "How's Lindsey?" I finally asked.

"She's doing well, I think she's made some new friends at school, she keeps talking about these girls anyway… they're part of her dance group."

We were out of the city now and onto the long dark roads of Nevada. It was quite easy to feel like we were the only people in the world at that moment.

"I'm glad."

"Do you think you'll ever have children?"

Another probing question - I felt myself squirm a little. If we had been in the lab I would have made an excuse and left, but I couldn't exactly jump from the car. "I don't think that would be a good idea." I replied. It was the truth, I was the result of two violent people who had somehow produced a child. I wouldn't dare create a life that may inherit their genes.

"I think you'd make a good mom." Catherine took her eyes from the road for a second to smile at me.

I smiled back, thankful for Catherine's kind words, but her question just reinforced the fact she barely knew anything about me. They would be memories I would take to the grave, but maybe only for the fear that if I spoke them I would uncover the feelings I had suppressed since I was a child. In an attempt to distract myself from my thoughts I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket and composed a text to Warwick to see what case he and Nick had been given that night, only to find that we were so far out of Vegas that my phone has stopped receiving any reception. "No signal." I groaned.

"I'm sure you can live without the boys for a night." Catherine responded with a little laugh. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

"No." I felt my cheeks blush. I couldn't think of anyone better to spend my shift with and always looked forward to spending time with Catherine, even if it was just a 10 minute coffee break, not that I would ever let her know what. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction to let her know that I had developed a crush on her over the last 12 months, and endless thoughts of her ran through my brain. I also wouldn't take the pity of her letting me down and informing me that she was in fact straight and very much not interested.

"Good." Catherine flicked on the radio and we settled into a comfortable silence.

I awoke to the sound of the tyres screeching across the road, Catherine turning the wheel fiercely to try and regain control of the car as it span across the road. I felt my fingers tightly grip onto the side of the seat as I tried to see through the darkness ahead of us what was actually happening to the car. Suddenly the front of the car impacted with a rock and the windscreen cracked loudly, the force of the crash jolting us both forward in our seats. My seat belt pulled me back tightly, knocking the air from my lungs. My head span as I tried to full my chest with air, unbuckling my seatbelt to check on Catherine. "Cath, are you okay?" I leant across to unbuckle her seatbelt and moved her blonde hair from her face to see if she was injured. Blood poured from a small gash in her forehead. She must have hit her head on the steering wheel.

"I'm okay." she whispered, still catching her breath too.

I took her hand and noticed how much we were both shaking. "What happened?"

"There was a deer on the road, I tried to get around it and the car just…" Catherine groaned as she shifted in her seat.

I kept hold of Catherine's hand with one hand and took the sat-nav in my other hand. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

"We need to call the lab and get someone to pick us up."

I pulled my phone from my pocket, "No signal… Stay there." I climbed out of the car, noting how shaky my knees were as I walked around to the front of the car. It was completely smashed, it looked like the rock had impacted most of the engine. "Great…" I made my way to the trunk and pulled out a flashlight and the first aid kit. I surveyed the surrounding area with the flashlight - we really were in the middle of nowhere. The road disappeared into the darkness in either direction, and both sides of the road lay steep rocks.

I got back into the car and opened the first aid kit on my knees, finding out a plaster for Catherine's injury. I peeled the tape from the back of the plaster and, moving her hair away from the wound, applied the plaster. "It will have to do until we can get you checked out."

"I don't need a doctor, Sara."

"Yes, you do." I sealed up the first aid kit and placed it on the backseat of the car. "We can't stay here."

"We can. Someone will be along soon."

"Catherine it's the middle of the night. We don't have a choice. It's too dangerous to stay in the car in case someone comes along and crashes into us and it's freezing cold, we can't stay warm enough sat here." I didn't really know what I was saying: CSI training didn't cover getting stuck in the desert but I knew I needed to get Catherine to safety. "The sat-nav says we're 40 miles away from Spring Valley National park. There must be a motel or something on the way there."

"I don't have much option other than to trust you, do I?" For the first time that night Catherine's stubbornness showed itself.

"No." I wasn't confident in my decision, but I needed Catherine to feel like I was.

I helped Catherine out of the car and pulled a blanket from the trunk to wrap around her. I tucked my handgun into the back of my jeans and put Catherine's into a rucksack I found in the trunk, along with another blanket and a candy bar - she was still very shaky and not in a position to be carrying a gun. Wrapping an arm around her, the flashlight in my other hand, we started to walk.