Sofia in Wonderland
Rushed because she slept in Sofia sat opposite of Greg in Starbucks. Her six hours of sleep were everything but recreative. She dreamed she was Alice in Wonderland, fell into the rabbit hole and chased the Queen of Hearts. Her queen of hearts wasn't an evil woman, she was a woman everybody wanted, Sara, and she fought the hatter for her. Justice was Chesire Cat and followed her all the time, a spooky grin and some mean comments about how easier she could have had it all, if she had asked Sara for breakfast. Not rested, with sleepy eyes she sipped on her coffee. Tonight she needed a lot of the black magical drink to get through the night.
"You look like shit." Greg commented dryly.
"Thanks, I'm glad to see you too."
"What made you look like this? Trouble at work?"
"No, bad stupid dreams. I was Alice in Wonderland and had a fight with the hatter." Who looked like Greg, now that she thought about it. Greg was the hatter and they both fought for Sara. Crazy. And yet, it made sense.
"The hatter? Weren't Alice and hatter friends? I think there's even a version, in which borh fall in love."
Her and Greg in love? Didn't sound right, but nobody else but Sara sounded right for her. "I can't remember, in my dreams they…well, they didn't fight because they hated each other, they both wanted the same thing, it was more a competition."
"Are you fighting for a promotion with somebody? Am I talking to the future lieutenant Curtis?"
"No!" She was happy as a detective, had no intentions to become a lieutenant. A promotion, a higher rank meant more stress at work and she had more than enough problems with her private life and her feelings, didn't need something else to ruin her already poor sleep.
"Your mother would love this idea."
"My mother?" Yes, she'd love the idea, but how did he get captain Curtis on his mind?
"Yes, I talked to her last night, worked a case with her. She told me, she worries about you, you're still not married, not even a boyfriend and she really wants grandchildren."
Sofia sighed and buried her face in her hands. This couldn't be true. Wasn't it bad enough her mother told her those things all the time, did she have to tell it the whole world?
"And then she asked if I'm single and why don't I date you. I seem to be a nice guy, a good law enforcement man and even when I'm not a cop, she'd be happy to invite us both over for dinner - which she did for Sunday." Greg grinned.
"No! Please tell me this is not true!" How bad could it get? Her mother arranged dates for her. With Greg. Okay, he was the best choice, if she had to pick a man, she wanted to bring home for dinner with her parents, it was the young CSI, he was a friend and understood, that he was a friend and nothing more, plus he didn't want her, so Greg was perfect, but how could her mother do this to her?
"All true. We're up for a dinner date tomorrow night."
"I want to die. Please, take my weapon and shoot me. Have mercy, end my torture, please. I write down that I wanted it this way, that you only did, what I begged you to do."
"It's a torture to have dinner with me? Thanks Sofia."
"It's a torture to have dinner with my parents for both of us. You know they, or mom, will try to set us up. That's the only reason for her to invite us, she desperately wants grandchildren and now she tries everything to get me married and pregnant. You're her newest victim. Didn't you tell her you're not interested in me?"
"I wasn't sure she wanted to hear this."
"No, she didn't, but it's the truth."
"Yeah but how am I supposed to know you're not in love with me? Maybe you told your mother to set us up because you're too shy to ask me yourself."
She stared blank at him. Was he joking? She seriously hoped so. Otherwise…no, he wasn't joking, he was slightly amused, but the question had been serious. And after she was too stupid to ask Sara for breakfast this morning, how could she be mad when Greg thought, she was too chicken to ask him out for dinner.
"You were the hatter in my dream."
"We fought? What for?"
Should she tell him? If she did…she was out of the 'maybe you want to date me' thing and he knew why she wanted to know, whom Sara saw, or who sent her all the messages. Wasn't it only fair to play with open cards after they worked together on their Rubia Elo case. And he would understand her, more than anybody else.
"The Queen of Hearts."
"We fought for the Queen of Hearts? In the same army?"
"No, we both wanted her…guess who the Queen of Hearts was."
"Uhm…I've no idea…I've no idea who your Queen of Hearts is, when I recall the story correctly, she was an evil woman, my personal Queen of hearts is a lovely woman, adorable, not evil."
"Your Queen of Hearts is Sara."
"Yes."
"And so…" Screw it, it was time for the truth. If she blew the breakfast because she was too chicken, she shouldn't blew the next chance to come clear she had. All or nothing, otherwise she'd find herself angry with herself again. "And so is mine." Her eyes stayed on his, trying to read his mind. He didn't look shocked or irritated. It was the first time she saw something like a poker face on him.
"I knew it."
That's all. All he had to say? And how did he know? Was she this obvious? Please not, when he knew, Sara might knew too and the rest of the guys…she better left town ASAP if everybody knew. An open secret in the police department was no secret at all and when her mother heard this…Sara and Sofia better left town fast and go far, far away…together!
"How?"
"Why else would you want to know, who is the secret person, who sends her the messages."
"Warrick and Nick also want to know."
"Yeah, in another way. Plus I saw it the way you smiled at her, how disappointed you were when she left while we were together for dinner. I'm a CSI, I can read evidence."
And she was a bad cop, had no poker face.
"Shocked?"
"No, why should I?"
"I don't know."
"I can understand your feelings, better than anybody else from our shift. So, we'll fight for the Queen of Hearts?"
"The Queen of Hearts doesn't seem to be interested in neither one of us."
"I'm afraid you're right on this one, Alice. Our Queen of Hearts has the next two nights off, left town this morning. There must be somebody else, she wanted to see. The rabbit?"
"Sara left town?" Didn't she say to Sofia, see you later? She didn't say she'd be away for two night.
"Yes, she sent me a message around noon, she asked Grissom for two nights off and will be back Monday night. Didn't say why and to where. But a weekend away sounds to me like a date. With somebody, who works from Monday to Friday."
"Fuck!"
"Exactly. So what can Hatter and Alice do?"
"Well…first we'll have dinner with the evil Queen of Hearts, otherwise we're both in trouble. And then we have to make her understand we're not a couple…and can we keep the fact I…I like Sara between us? Please? I'm not ready for anything else."
"Of course." He took her hands. "My lips are sealed."
"Thanks. I hope my parents accept the fact we're friends and nothing more."
"We don't have to tell them the truth."
"You don't lie to the captain."
"No, but we can tell her, we're friends, she might not accept this, might want to change it, but it's up to us to keep her on a distance. No need to tell her why we won't be more than friends. She wants to have dinner with us, if that makes her happy, we have dinner together and that's it."
"She won't stop there, but yes, we can tell her the truth about our relationship and leave out the rest of the story."
"Sounds like a solid plan to me. Now we need an equal good plan for Sara. Got one?"
"Hack into her cell phone records, find her GPS on the phone, locate her, go there and get her away from whoever is with her."
"Love the ideas and now something we can really do."
"Ask her where she was, like you do when a friends goes away for a weekend."
"A friend, who doesn't want to share her private life with other people. Not likely to get us anywhere. Except in trouble."
"We need some answers otherwise we both go crazy. I rather know what's going on than wonder the whole time. And if she has to date some guy, can it be you? I prefer to lose my Queen of Hearts to the Hatter."
"Like the Hatter prefers to lose his Queen of Hearts to Alice." He took her hand. "Thanks for telling me the truth, I know it wasn't easy for you."
"I haven't told anybody before, took me ages to allow myself these feelings and…I'm afraid what happens when the others ever find out. Especially Sara."
"From my own experience I can tell you, she's quite good with taking declarations of love, if you don't push her to something."
"Yeah, you're a man, I'm woman. Not the same, more complicated. Why can't life be easy?"
"Because we're fighter, we have to fight our way through life but in the end we succeed one way or another."
She hoped he was right. At the moment it didn't feel like she succeed anywhere nor was on a good way to better. There were way too many bad news to be positive.