Well, this one wasn't planned to turn out like it did. Someone unintentionally made me change my plans and I made damn quick work of it, I think. Now I really don't have many clues how to go on, but I'll just go with the flow. Hope this one's alright... Really hope it's you will have to wait some time for the next chapter, I guess...

Well, I'm excited. And happier than yesterday, thanks for your reviews, they're much appreciated!

6. Don't look back

After having spent most of the last two hours bent over the layout table, Eli stood up straight, put the lid on the storage box and stretched her sore back, tense shoulders and neck. A few plops and cracks told her she really needed to go home and sink into her soft bed, probably without even attempting to take off more than her shoes rather than sitting in a diner, explaining and apologizing.

She had noticed the silent contemplation that went on behind the other woman's eyes. She had felt Sara's scrutinizing glances, even if they had just been from out the corner of her eyes. And she couldn't help wondering what it was Sara had been thinking about. The change in her body language would have been easily missed by someone who didn't know Sara very well, but since she'd spent endless hours watching the lanky brunette back in college, she'd instantly noticed the subtle change from remotely comfortable to almost nervous and angry. If she'd only had the balls to explain to Sara what had gone on in her mind back in the day. How afraid she'd been. But too much time had gone by and obviously Sara's opinion about her was settled for all eternity. Why the hell did it have to be Vegas? Couldn't they have offered her a job in, say, Boston or even somewhere in Alaska. She would happily run around in a big, fluffy winter coat and catch people who stole each other's firewood to be spared from spending every waking moment thinking about Sara Sidle. She should've just stayed in San Francisco.

"Fuck!" she jumped at a sudden sound piercing through the otherwise silent room, Sara looked up annoyed and Catherine cursed under her breath.

Welcome back, tense shoulders...

Reaching for her ringing cell, she saw Det. Curtis number on the little screen. Sighing wearily, she closed her eyes and answered her phone.

"Trent. Yeah. I was about to call it a morning. No. What about days? Nah, okay. Willows and Sidle are with me. I got it! Meet you down in the lot Detective!"

Sara locked eyes with Catherine. They both knew what came next. Sara rubbed her temples and Catherine fixed her strawberry blonde mane into a pony tail. Forgotten was clocking out and having breakfast, let alone talking.

Eli spoke up.

"Someone heard shots being fired in a house out in Henderson and supposes someone has been shot. Grab your kits and follow up. Could be nothing. Call just came in and the black and white is on its way, you don't have to hurry. I gotta go and meet up with Curtis. See you there." Trent scribbled the address down and left the building in a hurry.

Sofia Curtis hit the brakes hard as she came to an halt in the lab's parking lot. It had been a long and tiring shift. She pulled a strain of hair behind her ear and winced as she rose her arm. A suspect had tried to resist being arrested and she had suffered a rather hard elbow-check into her ribs before Brass had gotten a tight hold on the man again. Then the vending machine had eaten three of her dollar bills until reluctantly spitting out her much craved candy bar. Finally she had spilled coffee over her almost finished report and she had to fill out the form all over again. In one word, Sofia was pissed. And now she had to work into a double with Trent. Oh, and she'd forgotten her shades on her desk. Fuck!

She couldn't exactly put her finger on what it was that made her grumpy whenever she had to work with the new Detective, but she just couldn't stand Elizabeth Trent.

No doubt, for someone being a Detective for less than a year, she certainly did a very fine job. She was dedicated and worked hard, put in a lot of overtime and spent more time over at the lab than any other Detective. She knew her cases down to the last little piece of evidence; she didn't shy away from the scientific facts that so often only enabled them to catch their perps. Where she had learned to use a mass-spectrometer, Sofia had yet to find out. She had seen Trent use it once as Hodges had been on break and she had wanted her paint chips from a hit and run processed right then and there and not in 20 minutes. Maybe she should peek into her file someday, to find out a bit more about the multi-talented woman. No, she shouldn't...

The hard thing was though, just about everyone in the lab seemed to like her. Still remembering the contempt with which she had been (un)welcomed after Ecklie had demoted her, she had a hard time understanding why the Detective got along so well with just about everyone, especially Catherine Willows, for Christ's sake! The only one who seemed to dislike her even more than Sofia did was Sara. The brunette CSI had never spoken about Trent, nor had she treated her with the same respect or warmth than she did when Brass or Sofia herself were at a scene. It had taken her and Sara quite some time, but after she'd come back to Vegas and joined the PD they got along much better. And once she had learned to understand Sara strange sense of humour, you could even say they started to develop a loose kind of friendship.

Well, something about the Detective was off. She was just too friendly, too kind and polite, she rarely got angry or showed when she was getting tired or frustrated. Everyone had character flaws and Sofia hadn't found one yet in Trent, that made her suspicious and careful around the short-haired butch. Yeah! Maybe she curry-favoured with everyone because she was afraid of being treated with less respect because she was gay.

Sofia thoughts were cut short by the passenger door opening and a not so flawless as usual looking Det. Trent fell into the seat at Sofia's side.

"Morning Curtis."

"Morning Trent. Buckle up, we're already running late."

Fastening her seatbelt, Eli had to repress a smug grin. Even with her dishevelled hair and crumpled clothing, Sofia Curtis was eye-candy. Fabulous, strutting down the PD hallways, glorious, blonde, blue-eyed eye-candy. A couple of years ago Eli would have left nothing untried to get into her tight slacks and rip those button-down shirts off her lithe, perfect body. Putting on her sunglasses, Eli withstood the temptation to let her gaze wander over to Curtis. She almost had to laugh about her little almost-relapse into college behaviour the first time she had met Sofia. The other Detective didn't even like her, but she could as well be looking hot not liking her and Eli sure wasn't after flings anymore. When had she become such a grown-up? Ah, yep, over Sara.

Sofia took sharp turn and they had arrived at their scene.

It was a nice neighbourhood, very suburban, a few sprinklers were keeping lawns green in the desert heat and a paper boy rode by on his BMX-bike, throwing the latest news into people's front gardens. Oh, this one was going to get too wet to read. The house itself looked quiet and undisturbed. The typical two-storied home, complete with a new and shiny family van in the driveway.

Det. Curtis walked over to the two cops who stood beside their patrol car.

"Did you clear the scene?" she asked the older of the two.

" No, we waited for you to arrive, Ma'am," he answered.

"Okay, then let's go check it out. Trent?"

"Right behind you Curtis."

Weapons drawn, they stood by the front door. One of the officers knocked hard on it.

"LVPD, open up!"

No response.

He kicked the door in and they fanned out into the ground floor. The house was dark, the curtains were drawn and not a sound got to Eli's ears. Too quiet. She saw feet behind the kitchen counter and went after one of the cops, who'd gone to clear the area.

Then everything happened in a blur. A man in a black hoodie rose from behind the kitchen counter and started firing rounds at them. The cop in front of Eli was hit in the chest and collapsed, Eli jumped aside behind a bookshelf as the more bullets flew into every direction. She felt a sharp pain in her side. Knowing she had just been grazed, she didn't even waste a second thought at the pain but looked around her shelter and aimed at the shooter. Det. Curtis had dived behind the couch and pulled the other cop down with her, he had been shot in the leg but was still firing back at the suspect, who just shot out the kitchen window, dropped his gun and jumped through the broken glass into the back garden.

"Shit!" Eli cursed and left her cover, ripped the patio doors open and started running after the perp.

"Check on your partner, can you do that?" Sofia yelled at the cop by her side as she got up, grabbed her radio and starting running after Trent.

"Yes, Ma'am," the only slightly injured man confirmed.

Sara and Catherine just turned the last corner as they heard Sofia's strained voice over the radio.

"Dispatch, this is Det. Curtis, I have Officers down, I repeat, Officers down, I need an ambulance ASAP. We have a DB in the kitchen area and the suspect has been on the scene, now on the run heading west from current location, Det. Trent and I are pursuing on foot, back-up urgently requested."

The perp was almost out of her sight as Sofia tried to catch up with Trent. That guy was fast and athletic. He climbed over fences and swung himself over garden furniture with ease, jumped over kids toys and those small garden pools occupying the backyards they were running through. Sofia almost slipped on freshly sprinkled grass sparkling in the early sun and was still a bit behind Trent, who just tried her best to balance herself over a high fence. On the other side a small dog ran up to her and bit into her trouser leg, scratching her calve with tiny but sharp teeth. Eli was reluctant to let the cop shooter get away and shook the little Terrier off a bit too forceful. The white dog squeaked and vanished limping behind a tool shed. She ran on as fast as her lungs and legs would allow her to, years of smoking and her weight quickly taking a toll on her speed and ability to breathe. She hadn't even taken her time to button up her shirt and slip into her leather jacket, despite the cool morning air, let alone putting on her Kevlar vest. It didn't matter now anyway. She would be even slower wearing it now. She tried to keep an eye on the perp. Where was the back-up? What took them so bloody long, they'd lose him. Her legs grew heavier with every step, every jump tore at her muscles and her bleeding side started throbbing, but she kept on fighting for every yard.

Sofia wasn't feeling the blow from earlier that day anymore, adrenaline had kicked in and she was fitter and faster, so she quickly overtook the Detective now.

Then she could hear the sirens, they were coming closer by the second.

"He'll get away, Trent, come on!" Sofia yelled over her shoulder as she accelerated once again, elegantly avoiding a huge plastic dwarf, jumping over a low hedge and running into a shadowy back alley.

"Fucking let him, we have back-up coming." Panting and angry, Eli cursed once more and silently promised to smoke less and go for a run more regularly.

Out of the corner of her eyes Trent saw the suspect stopping right then and something reflected light in their direction. He had drawn a gun and aimed at them, just as Sofia turned around to check how far Eli was behind and where the back-up was at. Hadn't she seen him discard his weapon at the house, all rounds fired?

Sheer willpower made her legs comply into one last jump and short desperate sprint as she yelled:

"Curtis, down!"

from behind and then all but tackled Sofia to the ground as gunshots started flying through the alley. White hot pain shot through her left shoulder as she landed with a loud thump atop the perplexed Detective. She ignored the stinging pain and used all her weight to keep the blonde down and beneath her, who tried to push her off to aim at the guy, too as Trent already shot back in one swift movement. Her second bullet hit its target and the shooter stumbled over backwards. Not 15 seconds later two police cars screeched to a halt. Officers jumped out and handcuffed the bastard and someone called for an ambulance.

With a pained groan Eli rolled to her side on the hard asphalt.

"Are you alright, Curtis?" She almost grunted. The other woman's weight finally lifted off of her, Sofia turned towards the other Detective, aware that she had been injured. Not taking any care of her own scratches and bruises from Trent's hard tackle, she searched for the wound on Eli's body. Hands frantically moving over Eli's black shirt, she found the bullet wound and pressed down on it.

"We need the EMT's here, she's loosing blood quickly." Sofia yelled as more and more blood trickled through her hands, still firmly planted on the Detectives shoulder. The sudden pressure on the wound caused Trent to utter another long and hurtful groan.

"Fuck, Trent, I'm fine. What the hell has gotten into you?" Sofia tried to replay the last minute in her head, searching for what she'd missed to make it necessary that Trent threw her to the ground.

"He aimed at you, Sofia, just as you were turning around." Eli grunted.

"I didn't even see he still had a gun. Damn! Trent, you're losing too much blood."

"It's okay. It's just a flesh wound. Aw, fuck, that hurts. Don't worry. Thank God I got you down." Trent got out between gritted teeth.

"You got me good, you just got shot trying to save my stupid ass. Lay still, for heaven's sake! Throwing yourself in the line of fire, playing linebacker!"

"I just saved your fucking life, Curtis. Don't bitch!"

Sofia pressed down harder on Eli's shoulder and Eli let out a pained cry.

"It already hurts enough, Sophie!"

"Didn't seem like it a second ago. I'm just trying to stop the bleeding, jerk!"

Just then, the EMT's arrived at their side and a paramedic carefully peeled Sofia's hands away from the wound to take care of the Detective. They quickly loaded her into the ambulance and Sofia could do nothing more but watch them.

"Go back to the scene. I'll be fine." Eli told Sofia with effort. She nodded and yelled, just before the doors closed, "I'll come see you at the hospital as soon as I can!"

Sofia Curtis stood in the alley, neighbours looked over their fences, officers secured the scene, dogs barked and she looked at her bloody hands.

She hadn't even said thanks.

So, please let me know what you think...