Day 6 (Saturday)

"You know it's pretty early for discovering the anatomy of a female body." Sara said. She and Sofia had left the ranch two hours ago and were long away from the meadows and up in the hills, the beginning of the Grand Teton National Park.

"I beg your pardon?" Sofia let Kirundi walk slower so that she was next to Sara and Caza.

"Grand Teton National Park."

"What has our national park to do with a female body."

"You want to tell me you didn't read the history of the park? What kind of tour guide are you?"

"Apparently a bad one. So tell me what has the national park to do with a female body?"

"The first trapper coming to Arco in Idaho were French and when they saw the hills they got reminded of nipples. It must have looked for them like a lot of naked women laying around, so they called it 'tétons', the French word for nipples. Year later they took the name wrongly for the mountains we see today because they thought the trapper had talked about them. Obviously a case of bad map-making and map-reading of that time."

"You read a guide about the park."

"Sure. I planed to stay two weeks close to it, planed a few rides through it, I wanted to know something about it."

"You didn't think your tour guide could tell you all the important facts?"

"Bette safe than sorry. I got proved right by having a guide with no idea about the name of the park."

"People usually don't ask that, they want to know how big the park is, what animals they can see on their rides, what areas we'll see and where to go for a day trip by car. I can tell you there are around 200 miles of hiking trails and the park has a size of 484 square miles."

"And we'll see which animals?"

"Horses."

"Really?" Sara rolled her eyes.

"Coyote, moose, squirrels, a black bear or wolf would be the most exciting ones."

"Do you have your gun with you?"

"Are you scared?"

"I don't know if Caza wants to walk away from a bear and when she starts to gallop…well I survived the canter yesterday."

"You did a good job." Sara had tried to canter for the first time yesterday and had to say, she felt safer when Caza did a canter than a trot.

"You say that all the time and I fell three times this week."

"Everybody falls down a horse, nobody can ride without that. A good rider gets up and back on the horse, the bad ones stay on the ground and get scared of riding.

"Poor Caza will think I don't like her."

"Caza is a beginner horse, she is used to people falling down that's why she isn't running away. She stays and waits until you climb back on her and enjoy your ride again. I'm sure if she could she would try to catch you all the times."

"I think so too, she's a great horse." Sara bent forward and hugged her horse. "You made a good decision when you told me she'll be mine for this time."

"I hoped you like her."

"Like you hoped I'd like the room better than the bungalow?"

"Yes."

"Jamie told me you knew it's me but you weren't sure if I should stay with you in the house or in a bungalow. How came that I'm allowed to stay in the house? What did I say to qualify myself for that room?"

"You weren't bitchy."

"I've never been…I mean…we worked together quite good after a rough start. I didn't bitch after you became a detective."

"You did."

"When?"

"When I talked to Grissom during the Bell investigation."

"You weren't supposed to be there, he was investigating your case, you couldn't talk to him. It could have been used against you and him. You knew that."

"I needed a friend, Sara and not a shrink."

"And it's hard to have friends out of the department, I know. Not my best suggestion. But I worried about the two of you and the case."

"And you let me wait for hours in front of the telephone box."

"I didn't get your message earlier."

"Sure." Sofia grinned.

"Maybe I could have been a little bit faster but I didn't let you wait on purpose."

"Apart from that we worked together good, yes."

"We had some very funny moments together…I can remember the first case with the miniature killer, the rock star…"

"…we met his ex-wife and she asked us if he was sleeping with the babysitter again. A thing we had found out a little bit before." Sofia fulfilled the memory.

"Yes." Sara laughed. She and Sofia had shared an amused look before they had answered that question.

"Or I remember when you were demoted to a messenger girl to get Grissom for the Sheriff." Sara had been surprised to see Sofia at that scene.

"From acting supervisor to CSI and from detective to messenger, that wasn't funny, Sara."

"It was for me. I was surprised to see you at the scene."

"Surprised or annoyed because I was looking for your guy?"

"Surprised. He was mine at that time, no need to be jealous. You're not enough of a challenge for him."

"You on the other hand are a challenge, I do believe that. But hey, I can remember a case even the it was fun working with you even that we two were CSIs and you weren't that nice at that time."

Sara furrowed her brows. Sofia made it sound like Sara had been a pain in the ass for the whole time they had worked together. That wasn't right.

"What?" Sofia smiled.

"I wasn't that bad."

"Sometimes you were even worse. Do you remember the casino guy with the hidden room?"

"Yes, he had this baby fetish, wanted to be a baby." The hidden room was one of the weirdest things Sara had ever seen as a CSI.

"I think our conversation about the pregnant woman was quite funny. You told me about your professor in college who breast-fed her six years old."

"Yeah…that was weird. The case and the professor. A two leg topless buffet." Sara chuckled when she remembered Sofia comment.

"I had to think of that a few times when I had Pat and breast-fed him."

"Not that I really want to know that but I hope you don't do that anymore." Sara laughed.

"Only on the weekend and on public holidays." Sofia answered dryly.

"I don't believe you."

"Pity. No I don't do that anymore, I think a few months is alright and then they can have their own food. I don't want to breast-fed my son with his teeth. He likes biting and I'm not into pain."

"Don't you miss working as a detective sometimes?"

"Yes I do. There were some funny moments, some moments I thought, the suspect must be kidding me. You remember the case with the body in the chimney?"

"Yeah, we let Warrick and Cath in because they had tried to find evidence the owner of the chimney had killed a young girl. We thought it's his son in the chimney and at the end the son was fine, the body was placed by the father of the girl to give us the opportunity to look around the house we had to arrest him too. But at least we got the guy for killing that girl. He tried to frame it to his son – at that time dead son. What a great father."

"His son wasn't amused when he heard that. He was very flirty and relaxed before, when I wanted his cell phone number for further questions he wanted to know if I wanted to ask him out. Sure, I ask a teenager out, an arrogant rich one."

"He was twenty-one, it was legal. His old man had a soft spot for young girls, maybe the son went for older women."

"Older? I was…barely over thirty." She was still young. Not an older woman.

"Over ten years older than he was, he would have been your toy-boy."

"I prefer men my age. And no suspects, please. No matter how charming they can be." Sofia shook her head remembering one man. "You're too pretty to be a cop. I wonder if he thought he could get me this easy."

"He was right." Sara smiled.

"Be careful, Sara."

"Huh?" Sara looked around. Was there something? A bear? Something on the ground that could make Caza fall?

"No, not the area, I'm talking about you. You made me a compliment. Not your style."

"Ah, okay." Sara laughed. "Sorry. I mean, he said that to get out of custody, it's obvious that he was lying."

"Maybe you should try to find something between a compliment and an insult. Something neutral."

"The weather is really nice today, isn't it?" Sara looked innocent at Sofia.

"Yeah, that's better."

"You never answered my question about the gun."

"Yes I have my gun with me. It's not standard on day trips but on the overnight trips. With coyotes, bears, wolves and moose around it's better to have a gun. That's why only Jon and me do the overnight trips. We've registered guns. Well, most of them, Cat does them too but I don't like when she does them."

"Means if there's anything attacking me you can shoot it."

"Or if you're too mean I can shoot you and tell everybody it was self-defense."

"You wouldn't do that, detective. Serve and protect the CSI and not kill and leave her. You might not be working as a detective anymore but you still act like one. There's no chance that you can scare me, I trust you. You won't use your gun against me. You might handcuff me to a tree and leave me there for an hour or so but you'd stay the whole time with me to make sure I'm safe. Don't waste any time and energy to deny that, Sofia."

"The time can change people."

"Yes time does that sometimes. It didn't do that to you, Sofia. I never believed you the bad ass cop."

"Why not?"

"You're way too pretty to be a cop." Sara repeated too serious for Sofia to believe her.

"Bite me." Sofia got Kirundi close to Caza and started to poke Sara's sides.

"Stop that!" Sara tried to defense herself but she needed to concentrate on her horse and her balance. Again and again Sofia's index finger found it's way in Sara's sides.

"Run, Caza, run!" Sara moved her heels to Caza's body and the Quarter Horse started to canter. Not worrying how she looked, Sara held on the saddle and tried to keep her balance. Caza became faster and faster. Sara knew, if the horse would stop itself they would go on like this forever. She had lost the rein and all she did was holding on to the saddle and keeping her balance.

Trees and bushes flew past and the horse seemed to keep its speed. Without any problems Caza climbed the hill and stopped on top of it. Sara fell forward and hugged her horse, more or less because she wanted it. Most of all she was happy that Caza had stopped and she didn't fall. That was a ride. That wasn't canter, that was gallop and she was sitting on a Quarter Horse, the fastest horse over a quarter mile. Had it been only a quarter of a mile or more? Sara had lost her feelings for distance.

"Are you okay?" Sofia stopped Kirundi next to Caza. She had tried to follow Sara but Kirundi had no chance to keep up with Caza and all the blonde could do was hoping that Sara held her balance and didn't fall.

"Yeah." Sara didn't want to let go of neck, had her face buried in the mane.

"Sara." Sofia had left Kirundi and stood next to Sara, holding her arm.

"I'm fine." Sara moved her head a bit so that she could see Sofia.

"Come down."

"I don't think I can move my legs."

"You can. I'll help you." Sofia got Sara's shoe almost out of the stirrup. Slowly Sara moved her right foot out and over the back of the horse to get down carefully.

"I'm glad you're okay." Sofia hugged her.

"You lost the race." Sara mumbled into Sofia's hair, holding on to her. Her legs felt strange, the ground was shaking and she felt like after a long trip on a boat.

"Double the distance and we can try it again."

"Caza is too fast for you."

"I'm happy she wasn't too fast for you. I was afraid you would fall. I'm so sorry."

"Nothing happened and I told Caza to run."

"I shouldn't have tickled you."

"Nothing happened. But I think I don't want another gallop so soon. I want some more lessons before I'll try that again."

"That sounds like a good plan." Sofia stroke Sara's back. "Are you really alright?"

"Yes. But I could use a whiskey now."

"Don't drink and ride." Sofia chuckled and got Sara out of her arms. "What do you think of a coffee and a break?"

"After I didn't break anything I can use a break, yes." Sara got Caza's rein and looked around. They were really on top of the mountain and there was nothing to tie her horse.

"Let her walk she won't run away." Sofia got the coffee out of her bag. With the two plastic mugs she had a seat on a stone. Kirundi was grazing and Caza joined her.

"It's a nice view, what a pity I didn't enjoy it on my way up to here." Sara sat next to Sofia.

"Yes, you missed some nice photos spots. This one isn't too bad either."

"It's great. As soon as the coffee makes my hands steady I'll take some photos. Will we take the same way back?"

"No, we'll take another way but we can come back to here if you want. Just ask Cat to get you here tomorrow in the afternoon. It's a nice three hours ride."

"I might do that. I didn't know Caza can be that fast."

"She is fast, yes. Only because she is too old for a racing horse it doesn't mean she's slow. She can still run faster than any other horse we have. Well Xin is a Quarter Horse too, he can hold up to her, is even faster, but none of our riding horses for guests is as fast as her."

"You gave me the fastest horse because I'm a beginner. Thanks Sofia."

"I gave you the most reliable horse. Why didn't you tell her to stop?"

"I don't know, I didn't think of that. I was like: hold on to the saddle, keep your balance, heels down, weight in the stirrups, balance, wow is that fast, hold on to the saddle, was that a tree? Will she ever stop? Balance."

"This is our usual break place so I was pretty sure she'd stop here. Your run up the mountain wasn't bad. I'm impressed how good you kept yourself up. You've got talent, Sara."

"Yeah for ending up in trouble. I knew that before."

"Oh come on, that was no trouble. You did better while we worked together. Getting in Ecklie's face, arguing with Cath, threatening suspects…"

"Will you shut up or do I have to put my coffee with the cup into your mouth?"

"Just showing what trouble means."

"I know trouble, thanks." It was one of the first things she learnt when she was a child. What trouble was, how it felt to be in trouble. The second thing she learnt was to see, feel, know when trouble was coming up and third thing was to run and hide. Unfortunately run and hide in a house wasn't something that was successful often. Too many times she had picked the wrong hideout, ran the wrong way, didn't see trouble coming fast enough, could duck and run to a safe place, had felt what it meant not to be fast enough, well hidden enough, in the…

"Sara."

Sara had no idea why she was suddenly in Sofia's arms.

"It's alright. Calm down, it's alright." Sofia's voice tried to calm her down. Sara felt how she was shaking, how her hands trembled, she had spilt her coffee, lost the cup.

"It's alright, you're safe."

"I…" She what? She had no idea what happened?

"Do you want me to call Jamie to get you back to the ranch by car? You don't have to ride anymore."

"What? I want to…" Sofia thought this was about her gallop. No, it wasn't. It would be a perfect excuse but Sara didn't want the blonde to make her stop horse riding. It wasn't Caza's fault, it was her past. Again.

"Sara, you're shaking."

"It's not about the ride."

"But?"

"It's…please don't make me talk about it. It has nothing to do with the ride."

"Was it anything I said?"

"Just…forget it, okay?"

"I can't forget but I can stop asking you. Although I'd prefer to know what I said to upset you so I won't repeat it. I was just mocking you with the trouble, I wasn't serious…"

"It's nothing what you said, I don't care about the trouble I had in Vegas."

Sofia could feel Sara cared about trouble she had at another place and this was the part she didn't want to talk about.

"Okay. If you want to talk about it I'll listen. You know being a mom you have to be a good listener."

"I'm not one of your kids."

"No, you're too old. I could be yours."

"Three years, Sofia. Not three decades."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Anyway kid or not a kid if you want to talk I'll listen. No matter if today on our trip, tomorrow on the veranda or at any other day and place. Just let me know."

"Thanks." Talking didn't help to change anything that happened in the past. Nothing could change that.