This set immediately after the end of Crash and Burn. Just wanted to have a look at what might have happened next.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI.
The Cooling Effect
Catherine watched as Sara got calmly into the car, not meeting her eye. To anyone who didn't know Sara, she would have seemed fine, but Catherine knew better. "You got any plans?"
"Nope." Sara replied looking straight ahead.
"You wanna get a beer?" Catherine asked, thinking that it wouldn't be a good idea for Sara to go home alone and brood.
Sara looked over at Catherine and smiled slightly. "Drive." She said looking back through the windscreen.
Catherine put her hands back on the steering wheel and pulled away. They drove in silence for fifteen minutes, Sara staring only at the road in front of them.
They sat down at a table in a quiet corner of a bar, where the team often went after a shift, with their beers. "So, what did he do?" Catherine said when Sara was obviously not going to start the conversation.
"Cheated on me. Or rather, was using me to cheat on his girlfriend."
"The girl he was sat with in the restaurant?"
"Yep." Sara muttered laughing humourlessly. "When I went to her house to ask her about the victim, I saw a photograph of them together on holiday."
"Sorry."
"Should have seen that one coming I suppose." Sara said shrugging and taking a large swig of her beer. "All he was bothered about was whether or not I had told her."
"You're better off without him. I feel sorry for her, with no idea what he's like."
"You know, he's the first guy I've dated since before I came to Vegas."
"Wow that's a long time without..."
"Oh, no." Sara said quickly, blushing. "I've had one night stands, God, I'd have killed people if it had been that long. But it was the first relationship I'd been in for years."
"You know, Eddie used to cheat on me all the time and each time he did, I never even suspected. It's easy to miss 'cos you don't want to see it."
"You'd think being CSI's, we'd notice the signs."
"If you went into a relationship looking for signs of him cheating, you'd never trust him. Sometimes it's better to get hurt occasionally than spend the time avoiding relationships all together."
"I dunno, maybe I should just give up on romance. Maybe I'm destined to be alone."
"Ah, we all know who you're destined to be with." Catherine said smirking slightly.
"Who?"
"Oh, come on Sara."
"What?"
"Grissom! You obviously love him and he obviously loves you!"
"Don't be ridiculous." Sara said shaking her head.
"So why else did you come to Vegas."
"'Cos Grissom needed my help."
"So he called you and you up root yourself and move nearly six hundred miles, just because he needed your help. Do that for all your friends, do you?"
Sara shrugged. "You want another beer?" She asked noticing that both of their bottles were empty.
"Yeah, thanks." Catherine replied.
"So why don't you just ask him out?" Catherine asked as Sara returned to the table with two new bottles of beer.
"Come on, he'd never date me."
"Why not?"
"'Cos his job is the most important thing to him, 'cos he's not interested, 'cos I get too involved in some cases. You name it."
"You really don't have much of an opinion of yourself, do you?"
Sara shrugged again.
"Look, Sara, it's so obvious that Grissom is in to you. I think he's just not sure what to do about it. And I think he's scared."
"I don't know what to do about. I've tried to over Griss, but I can't. One minutes, he's being caring, and the next, it's like I don't exist."
"Give him time."
"I'm not sure how much longer I can wait. It's been five years already. What if I wait around and he never makes his mind up."
"Is that what Hank was about? You trying to get over Gris."
"Maybe. I mean I liked Hank but I suppose when I was with him I was always thinking about Gris."
"How did Gris react when he found out that you and Hank were dating?"
"He just gave me a weird look and avoided me for days."
"See, he wouldn't do that if he didn't love you."
"I just wish he would get his act together and decide what he wants."
"Do you want me to have a word with him."
"No!" Sara said quickly. "He'd hate it if he found out that we had even had this conversation."
"Ok, I won't say anything."
They sat in silence as they finished the last of their beers. Catherine looked at her watch. "I should get home to Lindsey."
Sara downed the last mouthful of her beer. "Look, thanks for this Cath. I really appreciate it, having the chance to get it off my chest. I'd have just gone home and sat thinking about it. It's done me good talking about it."
"Good, anytime you want to talk, you know where I am."
---
Sara sighed as she let herself into her apartment. She slammed the door behind her and sat down on the sofa, leaning back exhaustedly. She picked up a photo of herself and Hank off the coffee table. It had been taken a few weeks before. She looked at it for a few minutes and then ripped it into eighths. She stood up and walked into the kitchen, she threw it into the bin before going to bed.
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