Catherine called the hospital that night to check on Sara's condition before going into work. She was told that her young colleague was sleeping peacefully. With that in mind, Catherine took a deep breath and prepared herself for breaking the news to her team. She knew that she should have called Grissom earlier but couldn't quite find the words to do it. She had not yet gotten her head around it herself yet.

She knew that Sara had things to deal with but she never thought it was this serious. And the brunette seemed so insistent that she hadn't done it. Catherine wanted more than anything to believe her friend, and a part of her did, but why would someone want to make it look like Sara tried to kill herself? The only person she could think of was Lydia, but seeing her at the hospital showed her how much she cared about Sara. She was a little clingy but she wasn't an attempted murderer.

She sent the guys a page telling them to meet her in Grissom's office at the start of shift before she headed into the safety of her own office to organise her thoughts and compose herself.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey Griss, what's up?" Warrick asked, entering the bugman's office, followed closely by Nick and Greg, Grissom looked up from his laptop, confused by the intrusion from his team. When he didn't speak Warrick continued. "Catherine paged us, asked us to meet her here. She didn't tell you?" Before he could answer the blonde herself entered the room.

"Hi guys. Thanks for coming." She announced, walking around Grissom's desk to stand next to him.

"Catherine, what can we do for you?" Grissom asked politely, raising an eyebrow. She sighed.

"There's something I need to tell you and it's going to hurt." She opened her mouth to carry on but Greg interrupted her.

"Wait, Cath, where's Sara? Shouldn't she be here?" The boys looked around, as if noticing for the first time their missing colleague.

"It's about Sara. She's not going to be coming in tonight, not for a while actually." She paused, trying to form her next words without throwing up. "She's in hospital. She tried to kill herself today." Her voice was almost a whisper, and when she finished a deathly silence fell over the room as everyone processed the words.

"No, not…is she ok?" Nick stammered, a frown etched into his handsome features.

"Physically, she's fine. Emotionally…that's anyone's guess." Catherine answered. Warrick rubbed a hand over his face wearily.

"What happened? Why did she do it?" He asked, not really sure he wanted to know but knowing that he had to ask anyway. Catherine sighed.

"She slit her wrists. But she insists that she didn't actually do it."

"Well maybe she didn't." Greg spoke for the first time. Catherine looked at him sympathetically.

"Greg, I really want to believe that but…"

"What? She could have been attacked."

"Greg, she was found in her apartment by her girlfriend. The door was locked, Sara was alone."

"Girlfriend?" Grissom asked, startling Catherine slightly. She had forgotten he was behind her.

"Lydia Hart. They've been seeing each other for a few months. She went round to Sara's, found her unconscious in the bathroom."

"Maybe she did it." Nick announced.

"No Nicky, Lydia wouldn't hurt Sara. Look, I know that this is really hard to believe but Sara needs our help right now. She's…lost."

"No, this doesn't make sense. We would have known if something was wrong." The Texan insisted.

"Sara told me the other day that she had a lot to deal with but that she was talking to someone about it. She's been feeling like this for a while."

"You knew? And you didn't try to help her?" Nick did not get angry often but when he did it wasn't pretty. Catherine tried to placate him.

"I offered my help, she knew that she could talk to me."

"Well that's not enough!" Warrick put a hand on Nick's arm, calming him down.

"Hey man, it's not Cath's fault. You know Sara; she's too stubborn to ask for help. And this isn't helping her." Warrick's words seemed to strike a chord with Nick and he settled down, nodding his apology at Catherine. The blonde smiled weakly in acceptance.

"Sara is in a very vulnerable place right now and she needs our support." She said quietly.

"Yeah, of course. Man, I can't believe we let her down like this." Warrick sighed, dropping into a seat.

"She could have told us, she chose not to." Grissom's voice not as Cath expected it, it was hard, distant.

"Gil, I don't think this was her plan. She was probably scared, reached breaking point and didn't know what else to do."

"You spoke to her? Today? What else did she say, I mean did she give you any clue as to why she might have…wanted to…"

"No," she cut him off, "all she said was that it 'wasn't right' and she didn't do it. She was…frightened, and confused."

"We should go see her, she'll need us." Nick stated.

"No, not right now. We've still got work to do." Grissom's voice was still cold, detached.

"Gil's right, and besides, Lydia's staying with her. She'll be ok. After shift we'll go for breakfast then we'll go see her." Catherine assured the boys before they all shuffled out subdued, leaving Catherine and Grissom alone.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" her voice was low, dangerously low. "Our girl is lying in that hospital, scared and distressed, and you don't seem to care. What is with you?"

"She should have told me." He said softly, letting the smallest hint of emotion show through for the first time.

"And what would you have done Gil? Told her to take a few days off, supplied her with a quote from some long-dead poet that's supposed to make everything better? It doesn't matter anymore Gil, our main concern now is to help Sara deal with her demons and to show her that we love her and we're here for her. If you can't do that then just stay away from her. The last thing she needs right now is you blaming her." She turned and walked to the door, stopping briefly to fix him with a warning glare. "I will do everything in my power to protect that girl, from anything or anyone that I have to."