A/N: This is my first slash fic, and I'm desperately to know what you think. Please review, even if you didn't like the story. Jayne, thanks for being my beta :)
If you don't dig slash, don't read it. It's as simple as that.
I don't own CSI or whatever comes with it.
Enjoy
Take-out
"Have a seat, Mr Melton." Said Catherine, as he stepped forward and looked at her.
Catherine closed the door and didn't notice the repulsive look in Sara's eyes, who sat down just before Mr Melton did. Mr Melton still looked nervous. He probably thought the two women in the room were wondering who the girl was, because the minute Catherine sat down he explained that the two of them were married. Only one year after his first wife 'left' him.
With this information Catherine glanced at Sara, who looked back, knowing that they were thinking the same. She was beginning to like where this case was heading. There was something about him that made her think it was very likely he beat up his ex-wife.
"...I never hit her."
"Why would she lie?" Asked Sara.
"I don't know." Was Mr Melton's answer.
Again, Catherine looked at her colleague. There was something bothering Sara, she could tell. The way she talked to the suspect, the way she asked that last question... It wasn't just the fact that she didn't believe him, there was more to it. And she kept looking at him in a way that kind of scared Catherine. What was going on behind those eyes?
She turned her attention to Mr Melton again. She let him tell his story.
"...it was like she fell off the face of the earth." He said.
"Or got burried a few feet underbelow it." Responded Sara.
Catherine turned to Sara. What did she say? Sara knew better than to make remarks like that!
Mr Melton tried to defend himself, and why wouldn't he?
The interview went on and Catherine could feel the tension increase in the room. Sara was attacking this man and she was not holding back, despite Catherine's failed attempts to bring the interview on the right track again.
"So what happened, the Russian agency denied your application for another wife, or you just lost your taste for white meat? Too tough?" Said Sara.
Catherine's jaw dropped. Did she really say that? What was she thinking? She put her hand to her forehead in thought. Normally she would have shown Sara her place, but with the suspect in the room, it would be even more inappropriate.
"I dated American women, like you. They don't want to be anyone's wife, or mother..." He said.
Sara looked at Catherine. As Catherine stared back, she would have liked to say that Sara crossed the line, before she would make things worse.
"...it's nice to be needed. Not resented." He finished his sentence.
"Yeah, I find isolation and dependency really sexy, too." Sara said, provoking him.
"You can think whatever you want." He said, before he stood up and walked to the door to leave. The door closed behind him, and as Catherine gathered her papers, she looked at Sara with disbelieve and displeasure in her eyes. What had gotten into her?!
x
"Look, all I'm asking is to have a black-and-white do regular welfare checks." Sara said.
They were walking down the hallway and continued their conversation there. Sara was so determined in getting protection for Mr Melton's current wife that it almost looked like she wanted to make things right. Catherine had noticed this about Sara before; she got emotionally involved in some of her cases and most of the time it wasn't for the sake of the case, nor Sara's. To get justice to those who suffered, mostly women, she wore herself our and jeopardiced her objectivity on the case. Catherine had her suspicions about the reason of Sara's behaviour during those cases, but in her head they all sounded riciculous.
It made her think about her own flaws regarding this work. One of them being the weak spot she had for single mothers and little children. She utterly did her best in cases like that. Maybe Sara experienced something similar. Only difference was that Sara couldn't see the point where she should stop listening to her own feelings and start concentrating on the case itself. Too bad it had to get this far. Again.
"Did the wife ask for help?" She said to Sara, not very patiently.
"Well, that is kind of hard to do when you don't speak English and you're a sex slave. I'm sure she doesn't know her rights." Said Sara, still holding on to the idea that the second wife was also a second victim here.
Catherine sighed. "You can't arrest someone for marrying the wrong person."
"You would know."
That was one hell of a hit below the belt. Catherine ignored her initial reaction to this remark and continued defending her own opinion.
"If the guy's an abuser, if he killed his first wife, we will build a case and we will nail him." That was her plan, and that was how they were gonna do this. As far as she knew, she was, after all, still in charge.
"And in the meantime, he can just keep using her as a punching bag." Sara responded, obviously not happy with Catherine's idea.
"Sara, I was there, there was no mark on her."
"Not that we could see, Catherine." Said Sara.
Catherine noticed the anger in the way she said her name. She suddenly stopped, in the middle of the hallway, thinking about how to put the next sentence. "You know, every time we get a case with a hind of domestic violence or abuse, you go off the deep end. What is your problem?" Her voice lowering, but her tone oh so determined.
She expected Sara to go immediately into the defense-mode, but she didn't. In fact, she attacked her colleague this time, her voice much louder than Catherine's. "Yeah, I probably do. And you let your sexuality cloud your judgement about men, and I'm gonna go over your head!"
"Sidle!" It wasn't until then that they noticed Conrad Ecklie standing a few feet away from them, listening to what they were saying.
"Get in my office. Now." He demanded her.
Catherine watched Sara walk away, followed by Ecklie. What a perfect timing for the new assisting lab director to show up in this part of the lab. Sara would get into trouble for shouting at her. Ecklie overheard just the things he needed to make up his own story about it. She wouldn't be surprised when this would lead to a suspension. Poor Sara, Ecklie didn't have a clue of what was going on.
x
Catherine entered the lay-out room with a sigh. Warrick was proccesing some evidence of the case and looked up when she came in.
"What's going on around here?" He asked her. Apparently news travelled fast.
Catherine moaned and raised her her hands. "I don't wanna talk about it." She said, hoping that he wouldn't ask any further.
Making sure of that, she began talking about the case. He took the hint and let her know what he had done until now, giving her the heads up on where they were in the procces of the case.
But she was hardly paying attention, her mind occupied by thoughts about Sara. Maybe Sara was the one who wanted to talk about it. Maybe all she wanted was someone who would listen to her and all Catherine did was being mad at her for being inappropriate with suspects.
Catherine suddenly felt ashamed. She realised Sara could be going through some tough times, and although Catherine knew that she would never admit in to anyone, she also knew that there was a good chance that she would be grateful and relieved once someone took the time to sit down with her.
She decided to go by Sara's house after shift. She was curious about a possible explanation, but she also felt sorry for her colleague. She wanted to let her know that she could be a real friend. After all the fights the two women had had while being on the job, it was about time to be there for each other and to focus on each other's good qualities.
Maybe it would be a good thing to go and talk to her. And maybe she would be able to tell Sara things she just needed to hear.
x
She knocked on the door of Sara's apartment. She realised she had never been there before. Strange, after all those years they worked together, they hadn't been in each other's houses once. It must have been because they both felt that the time they spent together in the lab was about as much as they could take while staying polite and proffessional and keeping their temper. Most of the time anyway..
Sara opened the door with some kind of emotion in her eyes, which changed into something different the moment she realised it was Catherine who had knocked on her door. Was she happy to see her?
"Well, if you're here it can't be good." Sara said.
Catherine noticed the bottle of beer in her hand. "Can I come in?" She asked.
When Sara hesitated, Catherine held up her hands in which she was holding two plastic bags. "I brought Chinese food."
Sara opened the door a little more and stepped aside to let Catherine pass. The blonde walked over to Sara's couch and placed the food on the table near it.
Sara closed the door. "So, uh, what are you doing here?" She said, a little rude. Apparantly she didn't know how to behave, which was quite understandable.
Catherine decided not to wait for Sara to sit down or to tell her she could sit down. She just let herself fall on the couch as if it felt like home, like she was there for the hundredth time, in an attempt to break the ice.
Sara hardly noticed it. She was still struggling with the fact that Catherine was in her house, the last person she had expected to visit her. Though, Catherine was sure, it wasn't that Sara didn't want her there. She knew her colleague's hostile attitude more than well to recognise it when it was there, and at the moment it wasn't.
"I came here to talk to you." Catherine said, trying to bring it as cool as she could.
"Talk about what?" Sara was apparantly trying her hardest not to think about what happened earlier that day.
"Anything, I don't care." Catherine said, a little more careless this time. "Got any more of those?" She added, pointing to Sara's beer.
Sara shook her head in a way that she always did when she was confused, her mind still being at the previous subject. She walked to her kitchen nevertheless and came back with two more bottles of beer.
Catherine undid the boxes with food from their plastic bags and grabbed a pair of chopsticks which came with it. She had always loved it to eat with chopsticks. She hoped Sara did too.
She took a bite and just enjoyed the delicious taste in her mouth for a minute. Meanwhile, Sara had recovered from the minor shock and sat down, taking a sip from her beer.
"So.. talk." Catherine said with half her mouth full with food.
Sara, who sat on a chair next to the couch, pulled up her knees to her chest. "What's there to talk about?"
"What's on your mind?" Catherine asked.
"Right now?"
"No. I mean when you get cases like the one today." Catherine said, before taking another bite.
"Can we not talk about that?" Sara said, frowning her eyebrows.
"Okay..."
For a moment neither of them said anything. Then Catherine broke the silence.
"You should really taste this." The food came from a little place at the Strip. It hadn't been there for too long, but Catherine already named it one of her favorite places to eat. Or to get take-out.
"I'm not hungry." Sara said, not even looking at the food.
"Oh come on, it's wonderful!" Catherine moved over to the other side of the couch so she sat closer to Sara. "Here, try it." She held out her sticks to her. "Please?"
Sara saw no other way and opened her mouth for Catherine, who held Sara's chin up and let the sticks slide into her mouth. Sara put her lips back together and chewed. All this time they kept eye-contact.
For a moment the thought popped up in Catherine's head that this was the sexiest bite she had ever experienced.
Sara ran her tongue over her lips. "That is wonderful, indeed."
Relieved by her approval, Catherine held out another bite. Sara took it and closed her eyes. Catherine could see that she enjoyed it, it was written all over her face. She took a bite herself and something inside of her told her to suck the sticks extra hard, to try and taste Sara. Then she took another bite and did the same thing.
Sara sat on the edge of her seat now. "Hey, save some for me!" She said with half a grin.
Catherine put the sticks into the box and then moved it to Sara's mouth. The brunette wasn't just eating it, she was looking hot, Catherine could tell. Was she seducing her?
The last bite left some food at the corner of Sara's mouth. "Wait a sec." Said Catherine. She grabbed one of the paper napkind which were in the bag as well and gently brushed Sara's lips. Sara looked at her, not exactly knowing what her next step should be.
Finally, she grabbed a pair of chopsticks herself and gave Catherine a bite of an other box of food, which contained a certain sort of rice.
"Oh, that's my favorite." Said Catherine.
Sara couldn't control what she was doing next. She dipped the sticks in the same box again, brought them to her own mouth and tried to hold as much rice between her lips as she could. Which was, truth to be told, quite difficult.
Nevertheless, she stretched her back and leaned over to Catherine, who happened to not only like the food, but also the way this was offered to her.
She opened her mouth and let Sara softly press her lips to hers. She tasted her favorite dish of rice in her mouth, but that was nothing compared to the taste of Sara's lips on hers.
She had her eyes closed while she was chewing and when she opened them she saw Sara chewing some rice of her own.
When Sara had swallowed it she pointed to the box she was holding in her hand. "Want more?" She asked.
"I want you." Said Catherine.
This didn't seem to scare Sara. She took some food between the sticks she was holding, put down the box on the table, and placed the food between her lips again. Then she stood up and bent so she remained on eye-level with Catherine. She pressed her lips to the blonde's again while pressing slightly to her shoulders. They both laid down on the couch, Sara on top of Catherine.
Catherine had swallowed the rice and now the two of them were kissing each other gently. Sara took her time to explore Catherine's mouth and tongue with her own, while she felt Catherine's hand on the back of her head.
Then she broke free to leave a soft trail of kisses in Catherine's neck. Catherine moaned of enjoyment and let her hands slowly run up and down Sara's back.
"And here I thought you just wanted to talk." Sara said, smiling.
Catherine smiled back and pressed her lips to Sara's. "You know, I was right before." She said.
"About what?" Sara asked, between two short but passionate kisses.
"That you're mine tonight." Catherine's eyes twinkled.
When Sara's mouth found Catherine's again, and when Catherine's hand disappeared under Sara's shirt, they both realised that this was probably the thing that had been bothering them during all those lost years.