Title: PATTERN

Rating: PG-13 for now

Disclaimers: Sadly, I do not own anything or anybody related to CSI.

Chapter One

It was quite a slow night in Vegas and therefore at the Lab, too. It seemed like the criminals decided to take a break and provide a lazy shift for their hunters, called CSIs. Although, the graveyard loved solving crimes and giving justice to the victims and their still living families, Nick, Cath and Greg loved the rare nights when life just went on without incidents. As the time went by extremely slowly, Cath became more and more bored. She had finished all of her mags, she even read some of Greg's old treasures about the newest sports cars. Finding nothing appealing in them or at least something which could engage her attention even for a second, she finally gave up and was about to go to check on the guys when her cell went off.

"Willows," Cath answered in her bored voice without taking a glance at the display.

"Hi Catherine! Is Sara there with you? I can't reach her," the familiar warm but slightly worried voice came.

"Hi! Depends! And just who is asking?" Cath retorted.

"I see, slow night. All of your magazines are shredded and no exciting car in any of Greg's bibles," the mysterious person responded on the other end of the call.

"Gil! Sorry, I…just…um. So long time no speak. How are you? Where are you? Why are you still there? When will you come to visit us?" Cath asked through one single breath.

"Slow down Cath," Grissom laughed, "or else you will be the only case tonight."

"In 'this' case, answer my questions!" the redhead criminalist shot back with ease.

"Okay. I'm fine but getting seriously concerned, I'm in Paris because I am lecturing a 'you-will-be-sick-even-from-the-title' course and now I am considering a flying visit to Vegas because I am not able to reach my wife and the only person who is better than a GPS doesn't want to answer me." Grissom replied a little more sharply.

"Hey, Mr. Husband-in-love, calm down, will ya? First thing first. So, what has Mrs. Sorbonne done this time? I thought she went to see you for a few days and …hell, you should be more …um…balanced," the very amused supervisor of the graveyard said.

Catherine was so happy to have Sara back as a colleague, even for a short period of time. The team was reduced again after Adams had decided to quit and before she did so, she had left a few very "kind" lines in her exit interview for Ecklie to chew on. And Conrad was really a flea-bitten dog. "Thanks again," Cath thought with sour taste in her mouth. And a few days ago, Sara had left again, thank goodness, this time just for a week. Cath would have never thought that she would miss Sara but she had done so. Her returned cheerfulness and zest for life and for this soul-trying job seemed to refresh the team's dynamic. Sara was very supportive and friendly when Cath had been down in the Locker room after Ecklie's outburst. And Cath felt both extremely happy and guiltily sad about the support that she had been given. She hadn't always been very nice to Sara, she knew it and still, Sara offered her hands for her. So the new head of the old team was excited about Sara's return beyond measure. One week in Paris, visiting her husband had to be a very short time for Sara but one week in Vegas without her seemed much longer for Cath.

"Right," Grissom interrupted her with as much patience as he could muster. "Good bye, Ms Radar-out-of-order!" a suddenly irritated Grissom barked back.

"Whoa-whoa, wait! Can't you take a joke? She arrived in Vegas this afternoon and she looks great. More than great. Happy and revitalized. I can just only guess what you two were–" Grissom again cut into her high fly chit-chat.

"Would you please tell her to answer the damn cell or to call me back?" Grissom said.

"O-kay. Anything else? I'm busy, you know. I don't have the luxury just sunning myself in some rainforest, then getting married and –" the much happier and now wide awake Cath answered as she was daydreaming.

"Thank – you for your immediate help. Just for the record, not much sunshine gets into the depths of the rainforest. It was a pleasure to talk to you, enjoy your 'busy' night! Bye, Cath," and with that Grissom hung up.

"You're welcome," Cath said to no one in particular as she starred at the now silent cell with a deep sigh.

Catherine's mood was rising definitely with every step she made which rather looked like dancing than walking. "It isn't a deadly boring shift after all," she thought. Now her new mission was to find the source of Grissom's concern. First she went to Trace where Sara had been last seen but now wasn't there anymore. Next destination was the Layout room. No sight of Sara. Interesting. After rushing out of the A/V Lab, still knowing nothing about Sara's whereabouts, Cath felt uneasy.

"What the hell is going on here?" the woman pondered as she tried to think of her next move. "Perhaps Grissom missed the correct tiny buttons when he had dialed the number of his beloved," Cath thought and smiled at just how extremely smart she was and dialed Sara's number right away. "Grissom, Grissom! What was in your hand or on your mind when you tried to call her?" She laughed to herself while she continued her way up to the break room. "Oh, don't go there, Cath, you …you reincarnation of Einstein." With newborn determination, she practically bounced along the hallway of the Lab but her newly found happiness faded just as quickly. Sara, indeed, didn't answer her phone. Interesting. "Oh, come on, who are you kidding? I am a trained investigator, a sharp woman, a super-fly lady who is in charge of her own life, yeah. I will page her. Yes, I am a genius," Catherine thought but this time she wasn't as self-confident as she had been twenty minutes ago. She went to the break room and took residence in one of the not so comfortable chairs and waited. Easy. Too bad, waiting was her weakest point. After ten long minutes, she started to squirm. "Why isn't she answering?" she was sweating under her nose. Another five minutes, nothing. She was about to stand up and call the guys to help her to find their old friend when she heard a lengthy sentence - containing words a lady rather not repeated – coming from a very pissed woman's mouth.

"I can't believe this! I was stuck in that freaking elevator for more than an hour, and nobody seemed to miss me. I just hoped that whenever you guys would have loved to have my help with any case, you could have found me following the smell of my own decomp floating all around in the Lab!" a pretty miserable looking Sara complained.

"A body can't decompose within an hour," a dry voice proclaimed behind Sara.

"Huh?" Sara turned an angry gaze in the direction of the sound, ready to create her very crime scene on her own. Sensing Sara's grudge, the new lab-tech practiced his new technique of sublimation. Trying to compose herself, Sara went straight into the Break room. She felt hot and sweaty. Sara never liked small enclosed places but since the Davis incident, her tolerance of such a cage was even lower. After realizing she was trapped, she immediately felt dizzy and the ugly head of panic laughed at her making her ears ringing. She wasn't in a good mood. Her cell was useless in that metal box and she had forgotten to recharge her pager. "When you are jammed in a damn elevator, your first move is to pull out your cell and ask for help, right? But how the hell could you manage a call when there is no reception in that lousy machine at all?" Sara quarreled. Being a physicist, she understood perfectly why things worked this way or better said why cells 'weren't' working at all but understanding materials was one thing and accepting her defeat was absolutely a different matter. It was all her husband's fault. He promised to call her. He said he had recharged her pager and he just promised to call her. Her mood was still on the level of her car parked in the garage deep under the surface. She just missed her husband. And he promised to call her. "I know we are the leading power in technology in the world …. or is it Japan? I don't care. Telephone is invented already - even in France!" she murmured at the doorway of the Break room.

"Oh, my God, Sara!" Cath squealed with both her hands in the air. "Where have you been?" running towards her, "I've been looking for you for hours!"

"Well, have you checked the morgue?" Sara grilled her indignantly.

"Nope, that was the only place I didn't call. Why? Were you there?" Cath asked with no little surprise.

"No," Sara let out a sigh. "But that would have been a good call if –" her voice choked slightly.

"Look, sit down, I'm going to get you some food and drink, just calm down," the older CSI assured the fate-stricken Sara.

"I'm not nervous, I'm …I don't know… I…I panicked, I guess," Sara said.

Seeing her friend's expression, Cath seated herself close to Sara and took her hand in hers. Smiling kindly she hinted,

"You said that part of being married was attempting to share in your spouse's interests, right?"

"I think so..," Sara answered, not really knowing what Cath was insinuating.

"Then I guess, it also means that you share some part of his 'personality'..," Cath tried tentatively.

"What are you trying to tell me, Cath?"

"Oh, nothing wise or nothing 'I-am-older-so-know-better' shit. And I'm older just on paper, anyway. Just practise your cute husband's 'always-cool' façade," Cath joked.

"Oh, yeah, it is easy for him. He has it so easy. Grissom eats what bugs him," the younger woman stated smiling at Cath this time.

"Stop! Don't give me pictures…he is still eating bugs?" Cath gulped as she fought against the raising nausea.

"What?" she looked at the now much paler redhead.

"But you're still a vegetarian, aren't you?"

"Um…never mind, Cath, forget it," Sara suggested shaking her head at the misunderstanding.

"Alright," Cath agreed gratefully and she leaned back in her chair.

"So, why did you want to see me so vehemently?"

"Your bug-eating husband called 2 hours and 17 minutes ago because he had got no answer from you. Where were you anyway?"

"I was holed up in the elevator."

"And? Forgot to press the button?" Cath teased.

"You know I also learned from Griss what a baseball bat is for…"

"Hey, eat a bug instead! By the way, he 'begged' me to tell you to call him back."

"Ah-ha, he begged," Sara repeated the words doubtfully. "Okay, I am going to call him back. I just want to catch my breath, thanks Cath." As she did so, she stretched her muscles and hung her head back to ease the kinks out of her neck. She felt like a cat who wasn't allowed to sleep. Sara even let a moan slip out of her mouth in satisfaction. That's when Cath came to life again. Her eyes widened, her lips formed a grin.

"What are those on your neck? Bite marks?"

Sara's head shot back in its proper position but as she did so, her neck made a cracking sound- her eyes widened; her lips formed a grim line. She instinctively covered her neck with her hands, more out of pain caused by the sudden movement than to hide anything. It, of course, only fueled Cath's interest. She got wind of a naughty secret; she knew that, she felt with all of her being. And she wasn't about to let it go. She starved for fun. Only one thing was better than laughing with your friends and that was laughing AT your friends. Life was great.

"What are you talking about? Anyway, I better call Griss back," Sara said, "um….'til later," the brunette added as she started to stand up.

"Stay put!" Cath was now eager as hell. "Let me see!"

"Oh-uh, nope, those are just freckles," Sara answered a little too quickly turning into a nice shade of pink.

"How do you know those are just freckles if you don't even know what I was talking about?" Cath interrogated Sara methodically and she reached out to observe her finding.

"Hey, keep your hands to yourself! Or buy a cat. I have freckles all over my body. You wanna see them all?"

"Yep…..I mean, of course, no."

"Then leave me alone and let me call Grissom."

"Yeah, sure...um, nice pattern, tho," Cath said suspiciously, her eyebrows dancing.

"Pat..pattern?" Sara stammered blushing more.

"Yes, it reminds me of ....I don't know, just… ah, forget it. Do you have photos of your visit? Don't tell me you didn't take any!" Cath demanded.

"Oh, sure, I took some," Sara beamed up immediately. She was very grateful for the welcomed distraction from her allegedly marked neck. Sara jumped on this opportunity and fished some photos out of her purse. "Here. We were just having a nice dinner," she showed a picture of the two of them to Cath.

"That's it!!!" Cath shouted. "I so knew I have seen that pattern somewhere!!!!" she joyfully sang.

"What pattern?" Sara asked with a bit of annoyance, feeling a little hotter. Cath was like a shark that smelled blood. And Cath was very greedy. She momentary looked scary.

"Gil's smile! Yes, I know now! Hey, guys, come here, you gotta see this!" Cath called.

Nick and Greg came into the Break room to see what had their boss and friend on fire. "What do we have to see?"

"Check this photo out and then compare it to Sara's freckles on her neck," she giggled openly now making Sara even more embarrassed.

"No, guys, it is nothing, go back to work, I have to go to the ladies room, anyway," Sara hissed clenced-teethedly.

"Didn't you just tell me that you wanna call somebody?"

"Yes, but it can wait," Sara growled at the little party Cath created.

"Hey, that pattern...," Greg mused starring at her neck then at the photo.

"Don't start!" Sara threatened him then turned to leave.

"What do you think, Nick?" Cath asked the older male CSI. She was now deliriously happy and smug.

"Grissom's smile -- specifically his teeth -- and the pattern on Sara's neck are so similar but I don't know Cath, maybe we should just leave it alone," Nick suggested knowing very well what a furious Sara was capable of doing having been irritated.

"You? Maybe. Me? Nope, never, I need to know," Cath muttered, already on her way out of the room.

"What are you planning, Cath?" Greg worriedly asked the over-excited Catherine.

"Nothing boys, go back to work, I have to pee....right now!" and with that Cath ran towards the restroom.