Thank you all again for the reviews! Standard disclaimer, I don't own CSI or any of its Characters (obviously) and no infringement is intended
Pouring the rich black coffee into her mug Sara savoured the aroma and closed her eyes in momentary bliss. Both her and Catherine had returned from Jason Patrick's house with their meagre findings and were now trying to finish up the accompanying paperwork before the end of their shift. Catherine had invited the younger CSI to use her office rather then try and use an empty lab or the break room and Sara had gratefully accepted, but she hadn't had an caffeine fix since she started work so after working away along side her blonde colleague for an hour she had slipped away to the break room to get some.
Taking a long gulp of the hot bitter liquid Sara felt the slight tingle of anticipation for the tiny buzz that the coffee would bring and let her mind wander back over the past few hours. Her attraction to Catherine had been from almost the instant that they had met, or rather the moment of their confrontation she corrected herself. They hadn't got off to a good start and the antagonism between them had simmered for a long while. Even so there was something about Catherine Willows that commanded the brunette's attention despite her trying to dismiss the thought of the possibility of having any kind of relationship with the attractive blonde. Their working relationship had slowly gotten better and they had started to be able to be quite comfortable with one another, but Sara had never shared the same sort of rapport or banter that Catherine seemed to give to her male colleagues. Until tonight that was. It started with the little comment about her having Sara tonight, which wasn't much in itself but it was the almost flirty tone in which she said it. As one of Sara's high school teachers was fond of saying, 'it's not what you said, it was your tone'. Then the little thing about having a few little numbers that Sara could slip into, that had been an almost definite flirt on Cat's part. She took another sip of coffee and wondered if it was just a throw away remark or whether Catherine would one day follow through.
"Hope you left some for me, I could use a little pick up" a warm voice said from behind and Sara gave an involuntary yelp as she jumped, spilling a little from her mug as she whirled to face Catherine.
Cat' gave a slight smirk at the shocked look on Sara Sidles face, and was childishly pleased to have caught the normally controlled younger woman off guard.
"Catherine" Sara said between gritted teeth, "you scared the hell out of me, I didn't hear you coming."
Cat's smirk changed to a shy smile that caused Sara's heart to skip a beat and she found herself wishing she could see that wonderfully vulnerable look more often. The blonde CSI nodded her head down to indicate the reason for her stealth.
"My feet were hot and aching so I slipped my boots off" she confessed and wiggled her bare toes in pleasure. "I'm probably breaking a few rules by going barefoot but right now I don't care."
Looking down at the dainty toes of her companion Sara noticed that Catherine painted her toenails. They were a deep and lustrous red which considering that Cat' didn't as a rule use polish on her fingernails was a little odd. Catherine seemed to know what was going through Sara's mind and arched her eyebrow at the brunette.
"I know the colours a little more intense then what I ordinarily show, but it's a kind of vanity thing from when I was a dancer." She said and made to move around Sara to get to the coffee. "What about you?" She asked as she reached for the mug that sat upturned next to the pot. It was a mug that her daughter Lindsey had decorated for her, it had a hand drawn heart shape on one side and a little cartoonish cat on the other.
Sara gave an embarrassed shake of her head saying "no, nothing. I mean I just never did do the whole makeup thing."
Pouring herself a coffee from the pot Catherine turned to gaze at Sara with a look of mild astonishment. "What, never?" she asked her warm voice tinged with a little sadness "what about when you were a teenager, didn't you ever spend an afternoon with a girl friend and do one another's nails or hair."
Sara felt herself flush slightly and looked away trying to cover it by taking another taste of her coffee. She knew that Cat' meant the term girlfriend in the sense that most women did, just a close female friend who you hung out with, but it caused a whole swirl of emotions in the dark haired woman that she wasn't comfortable with. It touched on her childhood and that wasn't a place she wanted to go.
"Did you finish up your report" asked Sara in an effort to change the subject. Catherine felt the shift in attitude and saw what Sara was doing. Sighing inwardly she decided to go along with her obvious wish and shook her head no.
"Still got a bit more to do, so what do you say we get back to it and then maybe catch a bite to eat after we leave?"
Sara's immediate reaction would have been to make some excuse, anything to avoid a potentially awkward social interaction but it seemed that Catherine Willows was a step ahead of her because as the blonde woman came close to Sara she lightly laid a hand on the younger woman's arm as she went to pass her.
"Don't tell me you've got plans or an appointment. Come on Sidle I can't be such bad company as that now can I?" Asked Catherine and she forced a little laugh.
Giving Cat' a rare flash of her smile Sara just shook her head and said "no, your not."
"Great" Catherine said walking out of the break room "then lets finish up and then go eat, I know just the place." Draining the last of her coffee, Sara put the empty mug on the counter and followed Cat back out into the corridor.
*** *** *** ***
With deft strokes of the fingerprint brush Warrick Brown dusted the little data card in an attempt to see if he could retrieve any latent prints from it. The jacket he had found it in had already been passed over for DNA testing of the little blood residue on the sleeve. Taking the adhesive strip Warrick pressed it flat against the card and peeled it away and gently placed the white backing strip on it.
"Bingo, now lets have a look at you" he muttered to himself and turning away to the scanner placed it carefully face down on the glass plate and closed the lid. Then hitting the start key with a causal tap he began to run the trace. It was only a partial print but it was better then nothing and with the lack of evidence that the case had so far given up he was willing to take what he could.
"Warrick, are you done dusting the memory card? If so can I have it to check it out" called a voice from behind the CSI.
Turning to face Archie Johnson, Warrick gave a grin and nod of assent to the visual trace technician and quickly slipped the little flash card back into its evidence bag before passing it across to the Asian lab rat.
"All yours Archie, let me or Catherine know if you find anything before we split for the day will you?"
"Sure thing" Archie replied and left the lab with a wave.
*** *** *** ***
"Thank you for coming in Miss Chapman, We realise how terrible this must be for you but we do need a formal identification of the body." Brass said to the short dark haired woman who stood across from him and David Phillips who was the assistant M.E.
The woman gave a simple nod in reply, her face was a mixture of apprehension and apparent grief, given more weight by the puffy eyes which had caused her eyeliner to run in smudgy black lines. The detective gave Philips the signal to open the freezer. The M.E did so and pulled out the gurney on which the body lay, then after waiting a few heartbeats to allow Chapman to compose herself, the sad faced Police Captain gently drew back the cover and asked formally.
"Miss Chapman can you identify the deceased?"
Raising a hand to her mouth the woman nodded and mumbled "yes that's Jason."
Pulling the sheet back to cover the body, Jim Brass gently guided the woman away while Phillips pushed the gurney back and closed the freezer.
"Miss Chapman," Brass continued "may I call you Helen?" The woman nodded "we need to clear some things up, can you tell me how long you've know Jason Patrick?"
Her voice steady despite the way she seemed to be shaking under Brass's hand, Helen Chapman responded. "I've known Jason for four years and have been living on and off with him for three and half years more or less."
Leading her out of the mortuary and back along the corridor towards his office, Brass asked her "in all that time did you ever hear of Jason being called by any other name, or did you find any documents in his house that had a different name on them?"
Entering his comfortably furnished office the detective indicated a plush chair and Chapman sat down, her face a blank, but her eyes wandering as she shook her head in response to the question.
"You see Helen, all the evidence we have so far points to Jason Patrick being an alias, there is officially no such person that we have been able to trace so far. Do you know who his parents are, where he lived before you met him, anything that might help us identify him and so possibly the people or person who murdered him?" asked Brass as he settled himself behind his desk.
Helen Chapman stared at the Policeman sitting opposite her and shaking her head once again in response said "Jason didn't talk much about his parents, I know he said his mother passed away when he was a teenager and his father worked in insurance but he never really went into any detail about his childhood." She paused for a moment as if searching her memory and then said "he grew up in New England somewhere, I can't recall where."
Brass gave a weary smile and skimming through his notebook which he had taken out, thought about what he had been told. As an officer with over twenty years experience in police work and having had to deal with people who were either trying to hide something or were suffering from some kind of trauma, Brass had learned to read the little signs that most wouldn't even notice. Call it gut instinct or simply a practiced eye, Jim Brass could generally tell when he was being given the run around, and that is what he felt he was getting now. He knew that men had deceived their spouses or partners for years over issues like an affair or sexual preferences or the like, but to live an entirely new life without any reference to the old one was something special.
Looking up from his notes he gave the bobbed haired woman a sympathetic look and asked. "Helen do you own a pair of patent red shoes?"
The question caught the woman off balance as for a few seconds she hesitated before answering "yes I do, Jason gave them to me last year."
Brass tilted his head to one side and took an obvious glance down at what he could see of Chapman while saying "I imagine you're a small size, what are you a seven and a half or an eight?"
With brows knitted in confusion Chapman replied "I'm a seven and a half. Why do you ask?"
Spreading his hands in a casual gesture Brass said "It's just the size of the shoes in Jason's house had us confused."
Helen gave a fleeting timorous smile before saying "They were from Britain, Jason has" she checked herself "had friends there, he travelled a bit, you know, Europe and all over."
Raising an eyebrow at that Brass asked her "He has a passport, do you know the last time he left the country?"
The woman shrugged her shoulders "Sure, I mean I assume so, Jason would come and go, sometimes I wouldn't see him for a few weeks at a time."
"Well thank you for your help Miss Chapman, we appreciate it." Brass said indicating that the interview was over and getting up to show the woman out. "One of the officers in the foyer will escort you out."
Without another word Helen Chapman left Brass's office and the detective followed her with his eyes, his mind turning over everything she had said, and also the one thing she hadn't. 'Do you know who did this?'
*** *** *** ***
Having finished up their paper work both Sara and Catherine made their way down the corridor towards the exit. They passed the lab in which Warrick was still working and Catherine gave the door frame a knock as both women passed by and called out a quick goodbye to her friend.
Warrick glanced up in time to see Cat' walking away and was surprised to see that Sara was leaving along with her, shrugging his shoulders he turned back to his work.
Outside in the early morning sun, Sara reached into her breast pocket for her sunglasses and settled them in place before looking over at Catherine who was walking towards her parked SUV. "You want to say where you have in mind or shall I just follow" she asked the blonde who was unlocking the driver door.
"Neither, hop in and I'll drive." The older woman said. Sara hesitated for a moment and looked over at her car which was parked a few bays down. "What is it?" Cat' asked "has my driving put you off?"
"Just don't like leaving my baby alone" the brunette joked referring to her car and walked over to the passenger door. Catherine gave a pout and laughingly made an 'awww' noise as she and Sara got in.
As she buckled up Sara found her head was buzzing with a combination of caffeine and anticipation, though what she was hoping for she honestly couldn't put into words. Her night working alongside Catherine in her office had been quietly maddening, the two of them occasionally chatting as they worked, with Sara finding she had to concentrate more then usual on the dam forms which were the bane of every CSIs life because of the beautiful blonde sitting across from her with her glasses perched on her nose and which brought to mind a teacher she had once had a crush on in high school.
That memory brought a grin to her face which Catherine noticed as she started to pull out of the parking lot. Not for the first time she wondered about Sara Sidle and the way she could be so cute one moment and infuriating the next. Catherine would find it hard to admit to anyone but she was intrigued by her co-worker, and it wasn't simply the air of hurt that would occasionally seep through her controlled exterior. There were moments in their working relationship that the two women would suddenly just 'click' and in those moments there was a look in Sara's eyes that made Catherine's heart seem to skip a beat. Despite those moments Cat' still had to admit that the gorgeous brunette was more or less a total mystery to her. However, perhaps that was going to change she thought as she drove towards their destination, she had managed what was almost the impossible and got the socially shy Sara Sidle to come and have breakfast with her, so who knew what else could happen!
*** *** *** ***
"You're pushing the overtime budget here, Warrick!" said Grissom as he wandered into the lab where the CSI was still sitting trying to finish up his own paperwork while waiting for a hit from the fingerprint database. "Let it run with the day shift and go home."
Warrick Brown nodded "I know, but I'm not booking it" he replied meaning the overtime "so I figured I'll just finish up doing last months expenses while I wait."
Grissom moved over to look over at the print search which was going on and said "You have a hit there" he said gesturing to the blinking icon on the screen to the surprised Brown who put his expense sheet down with an irritated snort. "I never heard it find a match" he muttered
Gil looked over his glasses at the task bar on the screen and said "I would have a word with Greg, and remind him to turn off the mute option when he's finished with the equipment."
Warrick shook his head with slight exasperation, he hated it when people messed with any of the lab equipment.
"I think you had better let Brass know he's going to have to interview another possible witness" said Gil as he and Warrick read the match profile "Seems Melissa Clark was mistaken. She did have something stolen after all."
