Disclaimer: They don't belong to me….except when I'm dreaming.

Warning: This is a femslash fic involving two females in an (eventually) loving relationship. If it offends you or is illegal where you live don't read any further.

Pairing: Sara/Catherine.

A/N: I don't have a beta reader so all mistakes are mine.

A/N 2: I'm planning on this being the first part of a series (well I'm planning that anyway), it'll be mostly fluff so don't expect much of a plot.

Title: Sex, Drugs & Crime Scene Investigating.

Sara sighed as she exited her car, she loved her job but sometimes she wished she saw more daylight. During the winter she got to work when it was dark and exited when it was dark.

She looked up at the sky and stopped short when she saw Catherine a little way away in a dark corner of the car park, she was in a heated discussion with a tall, smarmy looking man. Catherine kept running her hands through her hair in a agitated motion which Sara knew from experience meant she was annoyed she also kept looking around, the brunette couldn't work out whether it was to make sure that no-one could see them or whether she was hoping for rescue. Not sure which one it was and knowing that she didn't want the blonde annoyed with her Sara headed towards the door.

It was a quiet briefing, hardly any crime that night which meant Nick and Warrick got the only interesting case, Sara was stuck with documenting a breaking and entering in which they already had the suspect and he had confessed. Grissom had been surprised to see no sign of Catherine but Sara had quickly explained where she was, with no other case Grissom had stated she would be on paperwork.

Looking at her watch she saw that 15 minutes had passed since she had entered the building and Catherine was still talking to the same guy, it looked like the argument had got even more heated. Catherine was now gesturing sharply with her hands. Deciding to take her life into her hands, she shouted out getting the blondes attention.

"Hey Catherine, we got a case." She held up the assignment slip to emphasise her point.

Sara jumped into her Tahoe and watched the interaction through the rear-view mirror, after what looks like a few sharp words Catherine ended the conversation and jump into the car.

"What we got?" Catherine asked.

"Erm…we haven't. You're on paperwork but I thought you looked like you wanted to get out of that conversation." Sara answered.

Catherine looked at Sara blinking her eyes like she'd just had a shock. Sara left her staring as she pulled out to the car park onto the street.

"If I'm not on a case then where are you taking me?" Catherine frowned looking over at the other woman.

"I don't know. I thought I would drive around for a bit just to make sure the guy goes. Plus if you wanted to talk about it…" Sara left the invitation hanging.

"It's nothing just an ex-employer who thinks I owe him."

"You should be careful, it didn't look like he was taking no for an answer. If he contacts you again, you might want to mention it to Brass."

"I can handle it."

"Well, if you want to talk about it you know where I am."

She didn't know why she made the offer and by the look of shock on Catherine's face she hadn't expected it. They descended into silence and it got slightly uncomfortable on the third time around the block so Sara pulled into the car park, muttering something about her crime scene the brunette sped out of the car park leaving a very surprised Catherine.

Sara had done her usual trick; she had worked overtime trying to get her case wrapped up, even though it was classed as minor. She had only realised she was asleep when she had woken up with the indent of a paperclip on her cheek. Looking at her watch and deciding that it was too late to go home Sara made her way down to the locker room. The first time this had happened she had decided to bring a change of clothes in, it was not a nice experience to be wearing the same clothes for over 24 hours, plus it put Grissom onto the fact that she wasn't going home and his lectures gave her a headache.

Changed and clean she made her way from the headquarters to seek out some breakfast. She was passing the receptionist desk when she heard her name being called.

"A package has been delivered for all the night and swing shifts. As I don't see them I was wondering if you could pass them on."

"No problem." Sara said picking up the padded envelopes that were addressed to each of them.

Opening her package and seeing a videotape she decided to delay breakfast as her curiosity got the better of her.

Making her way back up to the lab she placed the rest of the envelopes on her desk while she inserted her tape in the player. Being an investigator by nature she let the tape play while she tried to get some clues about who had sent the envelope.

Her head came up so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash when she heard the aroused groan that came from the TV. Her eyes were as wide as a saucer as she looked at the picture…someone had sent her a porn video! Her eyes opened wider as she recognised one of the participants taking part in the action. There was no mistaking the blonde hair and bright blue eyes of the woman who was lying spread-eagle on the bed, an attractive red head between her legs. Sara cringed when her first observation was that Catherine was a natural blonde!

Dropping the remote in her haste to switch the video off as the moans got louder Sara eventually managed to stop the images, but not before they were permanently imprinted on her mind. Looking around guiltily to see if anyone had spotted her watching porn at work she ejected the video. Opening the envelope addressed to Grissom with a frown, Sara confirmed that it was the same.

Sara sat there frowning for a moment before deciding to do a little investigating of her own, with no other reason to send a porn video to her work colleagues Sara deduced that someone must be trying to blackmail Catherine, and no-one trying to blackmail her colleagues would get away with it! Ok she'd never been close to Catherine but she didn't deserve this.

Putting on latex gloves Sara opened the envelope addressed to Warrick and started dusting for prints surprised at the ease in which she found 2 good ones. This guy had to know blackmail was illegal and he was delivering the tapes to investigators. He'd obviously hoped that everyone would be too surprised or disgusted to try and catch the perp.

Sara took the print and ran it through the database, soon a match was flashing up on the screen. Sara frowned when she saw it, recognising the man that she had seen Catherine arguing with the previous day.

Collecting all the information she could Sara made her way out for her breakfast, by the time she got back she knew Catherine would be in her office.

Deciding to get it out of the way she made her way to Catherine's office with a tight knot in her stomach, Catherine had never been forgiving of her...sometimes being downright bitchy, she probably wasn't the best person to be doing this. Before she could talk herself out of anything she barged through Catherine's office door and closed it behind her leaning on it.

Catherine looked up when she heard her door opening and then being slammed, her eyebrows raised when she saw Sara standing against her door, hugging a package and looking like she was about to be sick.

"Did you just burst into my office for a reason or was it just to stand there?"

"I…we all received something in the mail today…hand delivered. I was in early and got given them." Sara explained.

"Good for you!" Catherine stated, she had work to do and didn't want to have to drag a conversation out of the brunette.

Getting her confidence back, mostly thanks to the sarcasm in Catherine tone, she threw one of the tapes on the other woman's desk.

"You might want to take a look at it."

Frowning at the tape and then looking at Sara suspiciously Catherine sighed knowing there was going to be no getting back to her paperwork before playing out Sara's little game. She pushed the tape into the player and pressed play, Sara hadn't rewound her tape so it immediately became obvious what was on the tape. Eyes going wide Catherine turned to Sara, hitting the stop button at the same time.

"This was in the envelopes?" The blonde asked short of breath.

"Yep, I checked Grissom's and Warwick's as well." Sara confirmed her worst fears.

"Did…Are…"

"I'm the only one that picked it up, I have the rest here…although if one was sent to Brass, I haven't got it."

Catherine nodded, now the one looking sick. Looking at the tape and then back at Sara, she opened her mouth a couple of times without saying anything. Taking the initiative Sara slid the photo she had printed out onto the desk.

"I wanted answers so I lifted a print from the tape addressed to Warrick. This is the man you were talking to yesterday, I'm guessing he still thinks you owe him and he isn't getting what he wants."

"He owned the club where I was a stripper." Catherine sighed covering her eyes. "He had a little side business that he used to say was going to make him rich one day. One night he offered me loads of money to star in...this..." She gestured to the tape. "At the time, stoned on coke, it seemed like a good idea...easy money. He's now found out that I work for the LVPD, he isn't making the money the way he thought he would so he's decided to try his hand at blackmail. I refused to pay him anything yesterday so I guess he's decided to send the videos out."

"Do you think he'll do anything more when it appears his plan hasn't worked?" Sara asks nodding in what she hoped would be taken as understanding.

"I don't know. Yesterday was the first time in ten years that I've seen Dusty; I don't know what he'll do." Catherine ejected the tape and sat looking at it. Seeming to come to a decision she looked at Sara "Thank you, I'll see Ecklie, get it out in the open." She didn't look happy at the thought.

They both knew how Ecklie would react to this and it wouldn't be good for Catherine. Frowning Sara decided on a plan of action.

"Give me a couple of days, if I haven't worked anything out then go to Ecklie." Sara said, she didn't wait for any answer, just left the office.

Everybody had been surprised to see Sara leaving the CSI headquarters five minutes after the shift had ended. She had never been the first to leave...usually it took threats from Ecklie or Grissom, or both to get her to leave at all.

But with thoughts of Catherine, led on her back, pleasure on her face, firmly etched in her mind she had decided to get out of the blonde presence as soon as possible.

Sara knew she didn't have a chance with Catherine, if it hadn't been obvious from their introduction, the fact that she had been married and had not shown any interest in women was all Sara needed to know...it didn't stop her from having a huge crush on the blonde. What had her shrink said - she formed unhealthy attractions to authority figures?

It was ten minutes later when she pulled up outside a grotty club that offered an endless supply of sexy women for all tastes. Finding the main doors locked, she entered through the door marked staff only. She got as far as the main bar before a well-built man stopped her.

"My name is Sara Sidle; I'm with the Las Vegas crime lab. I'd like to see your manager, tell him I'm a friend of Catherine Willows." Sara said showing her badge.

Looking at her suspiciously the man left. He was back less than a minute later to usher her through to a grubby office.

"You can't intimidate me Ms Sidle. The tape is completely legal; Catherine agreed to take part in it." Dusty said as soon as Sara was through the door.

"I think you've mistake my intentions Mr..." Sara said getting his attention.

"Jones, Dusty Jones."

"Mr Jones, I'm not here to try and intimidate you, in fact I liked the video. I was wondering if you had anymore...or anything as interesting." Sara said smiling conspiringly.

Dusty smiled back. "I'm sorry, you've already seen the only video I have of Catherine, sadly…but I have some others you might like. You interested in just women?"

"Tell me what you have and I'll tell you if I'm interested."

"I have a nice video of the police commissioner, that is very interesting, 3 women, none of them his wife. The deputy major, he's not happy about that one! If it got out that he liked boys, he'd be in trouble and the supreme court judge, if it was just women you liked then that would be a good one..."

"Sounds like you have a lot, is there any chance of seeing some of the tapes first, just to make sure they are worth spending money on?"

"Well, I don't have them here, that would be stupid, but I can make arrangements for you to view them." Dusty said.

Two hours and a lot of snooping thanks to her access to the LVPD's database Sara phoned up Brass, hoping that she wasn't asking too much of their friendship.

"Hey Brass it's Sara."

"Sara? Aren't you meant to have clocked off hours ago?" He asked not sounding impressed. He'd mentioned her workaholic nature a number of times saying she was going to burn out if she wasn't careful.

"I could say the same for you, but it's not about work...it's personal." She tried to explain not wanting to mention Catherine's name. "I can do you a favour but I need one in return."

The brunette told him all about Dusty and his blackmailing, mentioning about the Commissioner and the deputy major and explaining that she was sure there was more videos.

"I can give you an address where I'm sure all these video's are kept, all that you'll need to do is get a warrant and you get to be the Police Commissioners blue eyed boy. But I need one of those videos to disappear, it can't be logged as evidence, just handed to me." Sara said knowing it was tampering with evidence.

"Sara...are you in some kind of trouble?" Brass asked sounding concerned.

"No, I'm not in trouble."

"I can help, if you'd let me."

"Brass.…" The brunette sighed. "I appreciate it but I can't talk about it."

"Well, I'm here if you want to talk and I'll help all I can. I'll ring you back and let you know what's happening." He said not sounding happy.

Thanking him they both hang up.

It was two hours before her shift was due to start when Brass returned the call, it was a short conversation, he told her they had a warrant for the warehouse and there were heading there now.

Sara arrived just before Brass and his team; she'd decided to wear her CSI jacket just to look official. Brass greeted her, letting one of the younger officers do the introductory knocking and asking the owner to open up, it was a warehouse and 6pm, they all knew no-one was going to be there, so it was no surprise when they had to break the door down.

A number of the officers whistled as they entered the warehouse and Sara could see why. Expensive looking TV banks and recording equipment were set up over one entire wall. The banks showed various rooms, all of them containing a bed and other 'instruments', some of them, in Sara's opinion, looked to be for S&M purposes. It was obvious that the monitors were showing the rooms the unsuspecting blackmail victims were lured into and the recording equipment then captured the action.

It was the metal shelves that interested the brunette CSI. Tucked in one corner of the warehouse the shelves were holding well over 200 small cassettes, these were obviously the master copies as they were the type that fitted into hand held video cameras. She walked over to the shelf; quickly realising they were in alphabetical order. Skimming through them she saw that Dusty was telling the truth, the names on the labels included everyone from Hollywood stars to politicians. Locating Catherine's tape, Sara pulled it out and tucked it into her bag.

"I'm sorry ma'am but you can't do that. I'll have to ask for the video back. That's police evidence." A young cop said from behind Sara.

"You didn't see anything son." Brass cut him off before he could argue. The young man opened his mouth to say more but quickly shut it again before turning away.

"You get what you wanted?" Brass asks turning to Sara.

"Yeah, thanks Brass, I know you put a lot on the line for this."

"No, thank you." He replied holding up the video that quite clearly has the police commissioners name on. "You have 45 minutes to get to work, if you leave now you won't be late."

Sara smiled at him "I owe you one."

Sara arrived just in time to see everyone heading out of the break room with their assignment slips. Seeing her Greg spun her around and lead her back to the Tahoe explaining that they had been assigned together.

There case was pretty straight forward. It was a robbery but it obviously wasn't planned as the perp had left evidence all over the place, DNA, fingerprints, hair and fibres. After collecting the evidence they headed back to headquarters. Greg volunteered to run the evidence and Sara agreed to do the paperwork.

The brunette sat in her lab looking at the paperwork; she had been doing it for the last twenty minutes but hadn't yet written a word. Deciding to just get it out of the way she was just about to go see if Catherine was back yet when a knock sounded on the door and the woman in question walked in.

"Hey, Greg said you'd finished all but the paperwork on your case, so I was wondering if you could help us with the analysis on a car. You know more than any of us about cars." Catherine asked smiling, it seemed like she was going to make an effort to be friendly to Sara and the brunette wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Sure, nothing better to do." Sara replied smiling back.

Nodding Catherine turned towards the door but was stopped by Sara's hand on her arm. When she looked around she saw the younger woman was holding out a small cassette tape. Catherine frowned at the cassette for a moment before reaching out slowly, as if scared to take it.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah, I owe Brass a favour but he was happy to put Dusty out of business. It turns out you weren't the only person he was attempting to blackmail, you weren't the biggest fish either."

Catherine looked at Sara frowning, then back to the cassette, before looking back at the younger woman again. "Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why did you do this for me? I've been a bitch to you since you first arrived here. But you go out of your way, even calling in a favour from Brass, to help me out. Why?"

Sara sighed and shrugged. "We all have a past we're not proud of, but you've done really well to make it a past. You got out and you worked really hard to put it all behind you. The woman on that tape, she had your face but she wasn't you and it wasn't fair for someone to try and drag you back there."

Catherine felt tears in her eyes, it was the most emotional she'd heard Sara. She was about to speak when Greg knocked and entered. He looked between the two women with a frown.

"Sara, Brass called, he wants you at the station. Something about a case you were helping him on, he'd like you there for questioning."

"Sure," Sara said nodding, "Can the analysis of the car wait?"

"Yeah, whenever you're ready." Catherine said.

She watched the younger woman leave pondering on the turn of events; she'd never thought Sara could be so considerate, especially to her. They'd been antagonistic for as long as she could remember, but when needed the other woman had come forward and helped her. It made her wonder if she'd misjudged Sara all this time.

Sara arrived at the station and asked for Brass only to be told he'd already started interviewing. The officer said that Brass had left a message that if she showed up she could watch the interview from behind the one-way mirror.

Sara stepped into the small room situated beside the interview room. It was dark, to give the occupants a better view of the interview room, and it had no furniture. In the interview room there was a table and four chairs, on one side of the table sat Dusty and a man in a suit Sara assumed was his lawyer and on the other side of the table sat Brass and an officer Sara had seen on many occasion but didn't know the name of. Brass was currently informing Dusty and the lawyer of the stash they had found in his warehouse following an 'anonymous tip-off'.

"So who grassed me up? It wouldn't have been the commissioner and I doubt it was my Hollywood stars, they would have been too worried that I'd go to the papers...It had to be Catherine, should have known better than to try and blackmail a CSI. Bet she handed me to you on a plate. She always did have balls."

Sara flinched at the mention of Catherine and sighed when she saw Brass' eyes widen, he flicked a look to the mirror, obviously knowing that she was behind the glass and she saw the questioning look in his eyes. Sara sighed knowing that despite her best efforts Catherine's name had still come up, her name was on the interview tapes and so was now in this case. Knowing she didn't want a confrontation with Brass the brunette headed back to CSI headquarters.

She was in her overalls working with Catherine on the car she'd been asked to help analysis when Brass walked in surprising her. He stopped in front of both of them and Sara knew she was fidgeting, she felt like a little girl who'd just been caught with her fingers in the cookie jar.

"You let me believe it was you." He accused.

"It wasn't my place to tell you." Sara replied shuffling from foot to foot.

Nodding he held up the tape. "I brought you this. I was gonna ask Greg to take out any mention of Catherine, he's the geek with the speciality in this sort of stuff, but then I thought of the lengths you'd gone to keep this a secret. So I'm giving it to you with the warning that it can only be 'misplaced' until the end of your shift."

Catherine looked at the two of them in disbelief as Brass handed the tape to Sara.

"Jim, you can't do this. It's tampering with police evidence, if anyone found out you'd be arrested!"

"I'm the commissioners favourite person, he wouldn't arrest me." Brass laughed winking at Sara, before leaving the room.

Catherine turned to Sara. "I can't believe you've done this...are doing this."

"You heard Brass, I did him a favour."

"You could loose your job if anyone found out...hell you could go to prison."

"Who's gonna find out? Plus you'd loose your job if the video had got out and you have a daughter to support, it'd be worse for you." Sara argued.

"How can you say that? You love your job."

Sara opened her mouth to reply but couldn't think of anything to say. Catherine was right, her job was the only decent thing in her life, it was the most important thing she had. She'd never thought she'd do anything to jeopardise it, she lived for it! So why had she put all that at risk for Catherine? She'd done it without even thinking and that scared her. Did she rate Catherine as more important than her job? And if so what did that mean?

"I've got to start working on this tape. Are you OK to finish up here?" Sara asked frowning; she only stayed long enough to see a nod before she fled from the room.

Sara's shift had ended hours ago and it had been pretty productive. She had edited the interview tape and returned it to Brass with two hours left. That done she'd headed back to the garage to help Catherine and Warrick with the analysis of the car. There had been an uneasy silence between the two women but nothing that was so unusual that Warrick had mentioned it.

Now the brunette was sat at home wracked with guilt as she looked at the videotape laid on her coffee table. She'd been in the same position for hours wondering what had possessed her to do it? She had felt Catherine start to trust her after her selfless acts over the last two days. But all along, she had betrayed that trust.

If she kept this to herself she would never feel comfortable around the blonde, but if she confessed everything to the other woman she'd never be trusted again. She had seen 2 full minutes of the action on the video and had been extremely turned on. So when the opportunity came she had taken the video addressed to Greg, not being an immediate colleague Catherine hadn't questioned the absence of a video addressed to him.

Letting her anger show she picked up the tape and threw it in the garbage with enough force to tip the bin onto it's side, before opening the alcohol cabinet. Not feeling the calming effect she usually got from the liquor she fished out her car keys and the video after only a mouthful of vodka and headed out of her flat.

The brunette had been banging on the door for a couple of minutes before she saw the hall light go on and a sleep tousled Catherine answer the door. Catherine frowned at seeing Sara and for the first time the younger woman started to question how wise it was to go there at this time in the day. Pulling the two side of the dressing gown more tightly Catherine invited Sara in.

"Do you want something to drink?" Catherine asked, not sure what the younger woman was doing there but sensing the uneasy tension and the way she kept looking around as if searching for an emergency exit.

"No thanks." Sara said sitting on the couch.

"Well, I think I need one, I'll only be a second."

Sara could feel herself grow more nervous as the seconds passed, she could hear the clinking of glasses and the fridge door slamming as Catherine made her drink and wondered why she wasn't running out of the door.

"So what brings you here?" The blonde asked returning to the room. It was a simple question but being one that Sara had asked herself and not got an answer she stayed silent. "Forgive me for being bitchy Sara but I was in bed sleeping, I'm tired and want to go back their so will you just tell me."

Sara opened her mouth to speak but when nothing came out she slammed it shut, eventually she reached into her bag and pulled out the tape handing it to Catherine who looked at it frowning.

"I kept a copy, I'm so sorry."

She watched as emotions played over Catherine's face, confusion turned to comprehension and then to anger.

"You kept one? You made me believe you were on my side, my knight in shining armour and all this time you were going to stab me in the back! What were you doing, keeping it so you could blackmail me? What did you want from me Sara? Recommendation for a promotion? A good word to Grissom, what?" Catherine spat, hatred contorting her face.

"It wasn't like that, I wasn't keeping it to blackmail you."

"Then what were you keeping it for?" Catherine almost screamed.

"I wanted...I kept it to watch..." When there didn't seem to be comprehension on the other woman face she continued. "For my private collection."

That seemed to get understanding and deflate Catherine's anger at the same time. Catherine's mouth opened but she didn't stay anything, she stared at Sara until she couldn't hold the stare and dropped her gaze.

"I'm sorry." Sara said eventually. "I intended to give you them all, I really did just want to help, but...but I'm attracted to you. My shrink says I 'form unhealthy attractions to authority figures' and when the opportunity arose for me to keep one of the videos I took it." She hung her head in shame.

Sara waited for Catherine to blow up, she expected accusations and shouting but all she heard was the other woman's heavy breathing. The silence became uncomfortable and mumbling sorry again Sara stood up to leave.

Before she had even took a step away from the couch she feels a tight grip on her wrist, a tug unsettles her and she ended up back on the sofa, the hand that she put up to catch herself landed on the place between Catherine's neck and breasts and it ends up pinned there as the blonde leaned forward and crashed her lips to Sara's.

The brunette was to shocked to respond for a moment and Catherine made the most of the distraction, forcing her tongue between the other woman's delectable lips. By the time Sara realised what was happening her body had took over and she was responding with passion. Catherine was trailing her hand slowly down her body and leaving liquid fire wherever her fingers touched.

The blonde pushed Sara back onto the couch and straddled her waist, her hand slid under Sara's top as she felt the other woman's hand moving down her back, sending shivers as she traced her spine. They moved lower to cup her backside and she couldn't help letting her head drop back so she could moan. It seemed it was the wrong thing to do.

Catherine felt the body underneath her go ridged as reality exerted itself, the next thing the blonde knew she had been flipped over and Sara had scrambled to her feet.

"I can't do this..." Sara said breathing heavily. "...I don't want to. I don't do one night stands and I definitely don't do thank you fucks."

Straightening her clothes Sara headed for the door leaving a stunned Catherine still unmoving on the couch. She stopped and looked back just before she reached the door. "If you ever want anything more, you know where I am."