''Sara, you ok here?'' Catherine asked me her eyes focused on Hank. I didn't answer, or even move, and Catherine knew it meant I wasn't.

''I think you should leave.'' Catherine said to Hank in a firm and almost scowling voice, she took a step closer to him hoping to intimatate him. To my relief it worked as he walked away, skulking and unhappy but without another word. As he walked passed me I closed my eyes and turned away. My hand instinctively reached up too my stomach, and a coldness washed throughout my body.

''Thank you''

''No problem...'' came Catherine's reply. She had paused, and I knew that she wanted to ask me more, which is how I ended up here. Catherine's apartment. Id fallen asleep on her sofa almost as soon as I had sat down. Emotions drained me. Id only been asleep a few hours, but my body felt like it had been asleep for at least a week whilst my mind seems to have not had any sleep at all.

So now I am sat at her kitchen table, holding a warming cup of coffee in my hands. We sit in silence for a while, Catherine doesn't want to ask, and I don't want to tell. Clearing my throat I look up, I see my hand reach across the table, though I'm sure I am not giving my body permission to do so. My hand reaches Catherine's arm and tentatively touches it.

''Catherine...?' I say quietly, her response is a muttered yea, whilst her hand moves to hold mine. Suddenly I have become uncomfortable with this and wish to pull away from her, I don't even know why I reached out in the first place, but my hand unwillingly stays put.

''Catherine..Umm..I'm Gay..Well..Um, I know you know that already...I think..I mean, it's no big secret..but..Hank, he..he was really something..' I feel Catherine's hand loosen slightly, before her grips gets tighter, her thumb moving in small circular motions in an effort to comfort me. Strangely it seems to be working.

''I know'' is her reply, calm and honest. The Willows women is hard to shock. ''I know Sara, I know why you broke up...what you went through...''

''No, no you don't Catherine, you really don't''

Catherine cocked her head, her hand stopped and she smiled the peculiar smile she smiles ''So tell me''

I froze, my mind spinning. Catherine shouldn't know. I shouldn't even be here now. My plan for the night..the morning..had gone wrong. All I wanted to be doing was slumping on my sofa, watching tv, or better still, to be reading one of my favourite books, perhaps a hot water bottle to soothe the phantom pains in my stomach...Oh, those phantom pains. The hand that Catherine wasn't holding moved to my stomach once again. And once again without my permission. I sighed, my head dropping.

''Catherine...Remember..Remember when you blew up the lab?'' I smiled a little, despite myself, my eyes closed, awaiting her reaction, and just as I thought her hand moved from mine. Harshly, and fast. Burning.