Disclaimer: I do not own CSI.
AN: I'm starting to realize that season five has a staggering amount of fun material. This should be interesting.
It figures. My first long-term relationship since Paul, and the bastard cheats on me. The worst part is I didn't even know. With Eddie, I was aware of his extracurricular activities for months until I caught him. With Chris, I didn't have a clue. It shouldn't have surprised me, really. After all, like he said, he's a nightclub manager.
I wonder how many different waitresses from his club he's slept with. How many younger, prettier women he's fucked behind my back. Definitely more than one. After all these months, if it was only one, he would have had a better excuse than, 'What do you expect? I run a nightclub'.
I concentrate on keeping my car on the road. I'm headed back to work. I don't want to go home and see my daughter while I look so defeated. I doubt Grissom will complain if I throw myself into my paperwork.
Honestly, I should have known that Chris was cheating on me. Why else would he ask if he was going to see me tonight when he was already planning to work late? I stop the car in front of the lab and look at myself in the rearview mirror.
I'm getting old. My appearance isn't what it used to be, and tonight has made me painfully aware of that. I sigh and get out of the car.
By the time I get to my office, I am cursing glass walls. As if I really needed every tech who works in this lab knowing that I came into work after a date. Not that it was a date, but that's what they'll assume. Knowing the office grapevine, by next shift everyone will have heard about 'Catherine's lousy date' or something similar.
"Coffee?"
I look up at Sara and smile. She has the best timing. I reach out for the offered cup of coffee, inhaling the scent. Before this job, I never understood the people who would wake up and immediately start their coffeemakers. Of course, before this job, I was snorting cocaine.
"What did Chris do?"
I take a sip of the coffee and close my eyes. "What makes you think Chris did something?"
"Because you put on a dress before leaving the lab, and you only do that when you're seeing him, and you came back less than an hour later. What did he do?"
I sigh and place the styrofoam cup on my desk. "I walked in on him and one of his waitresses."
"He cheated… he cheated on you?" She actually sounds surprised. I wish I could be.
"Yeah. Not that I can blame him. The woman in his lap was a lot younger and cuter than I am. I doubt she has any wrinkles or needs reading glasses or-"
"Shut up." I look into the eyes of a furious Sara Sidle.
I've seen her angry before, but nothing like this. Fury is rolling off of her in waves, and if anyone else looked at me like this, I would be fearing for my life. 'Pissed off' doesn't even begin to describe the look in her eyes.
She marches towards me and slams her own cup of coffee down on my desk. For a second, she seems breathless with rage, but then she starts speaking in a soft, slow tone that tells me just how close she is to losing control.
"Catherine, you are one of the most beautiful, sexy, intelligent women I have ever met. Unless the woman in his lap was Aphrodite herself, there is no way she could even begin to compete with you. He's the one with the problem- not you. He's the idiot who couldn't see what he had."
She raises a hand to cup my face, brushing away the tears that have fallen from my eyes. There's not a single trace of anger in her touch, though she's obviously still upset. I close my eyes against a new wave of tears as I remember what happened the last time one of us broke up with someone.
I hear Sara moving things around on my desk, but I ignore it, still enjoying the feel of her hand against my cheek. When I feel a weight against my legs, I open my eyes. Her boot-clad feet are dangling off my desk, brushing my legs.
Without really thinking about it, I wrap my arms around her neck, letting her draw me into her arms. I sigh into her shoulder before lifting my head to kiss her cheek. "Thank you."
"For what?"
I can think of at least a million things to thank her for right now. "For being you."