Hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Regarding the 'funding' referenced in this chapter, I have no idea whether such things exist in California, where Sara's mother is, but I'm throwing it out there anyway. If it doesn't exist, then it should.

x X x

She knew that Catherine was joking, but she had been glad to let the blonde handle breaking the news to Nick anyway. She loved the Texan like a brother, but sometimes he could be a pain in the ass and she was in no mood for round two right now.

Instead, she called Jim to check in with Mrs Cooper at the station. She had managed to convince the surly detective to leave her in interrogation, rather than locking her in a cell, and she wanted to make sure that he had kept to his reluctant promise.

By the time she re-emerged downstairs, the sun was well and truly up and Catherine and Nick were both waiting for her in the layout room.

"I just phoned the Coopers' doctor." Cath explained, proffering a document towards her. "You were right; she has Dissociative Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder."

"I thought so." Sara nodded, her eyes scanning across the information that the doctor had faxed over.

"And Mr Cooper was diabetic, but he'd only recently been diagnosed and they were still trying to get his medication and diet sorted out."

"Yeah, which might explain why he had too much insulin in his system." Nick jumped in. He was significantly calmer than he had been earlier in the night, having apparently been put back in his box by Catherine. "If he began to feel unwell, he might have given himself some more, thinking that's what he needed."

"And by the time he realised that he actually needed glucose, it was too late." Sara added sadly.

"It was an accident." Catherine exhaled, closing the folder in front of her in a symbolic gesture. It was rare that they managed to solve a case in one night – especially a homicide.

"Yeah, compounded by his wife's illness." Nick added pointedly, crossing his arms. "If she hadn't psychologically shut down like that, she could have phoned an ambulance instead of letting him just bleed out on the floor."

"Doesn't make her a killer." Catherine asserted before Sara could launch into another attack on Nick's apparent prejudice. She turned to the brunette, who had set her jaw at Nick's comment and was clearly considering whether or not to start another argument. "Why don't you head down to the station and update her and Brass."

"Okay." Sara nodded, glad of the reprieve.

As the brunette departed, leaving him alone with Catherine, a petulant scowl crossed Nick's face, but he wisely decided to keep his mouth shut this time. She'd already torn a strip off him twice this evening.

Not that she looked like she was bracing for a fight, as her gaze had disappeared into the hall, leaving a pensive look on her face.

"Nicky, do me a favour." She said, her voice neutral. "Pack this stuff up. I got something I need to do."

"Yeah, sure." He frowned in mild concern, watching her scamper out in the same direction that Sara had vanished.

x X x

Alright, so, she hadn't needed to do anything, but she had wanted to.

She rounded the corner just in time to catch the scene she had been hoping to witness.

Sara was stood at the front desk, returning Mrs Cooper's items to their rightful owner. The woman had a tight hold of Sara's arm and was energetically thanking her. Sara, for her part, had a genuine smile on her face and a warmth in her dark eyes that Catherine couldn't recall seeing for a long time.

An officer stepped up to the desk and said something to them and Catherine chuckled to herself in the realisation that Sara had evidently persuaded him to give the lady a free ride home, courtesy of the department.

Before she left, Sara reached into her back pocket and produced a card, which she handed to Mrs Cooper. The woman stared at it for a moment, before curling both hands around it protectively and slinking off with the officer.

Catherine had remained stood at a distance, so as not to encroach on the sweet moment, but she didn't need to be within ear-shot to know that Sara had written her phone number on that card.

x X x

With two days having passed since Nick and Sara's little blow-up, Catherine had been careful to pair them apart. It wasn't that she didn't trust them to be professional, but she felt that they needed some downtime to let the whole matter blow over.

Thankfully, she knew her team well enough to know how to deal with such matters – better than Grissom ever did, even if she did say so herself.

By pairing Nick with Warrick, she knew that the dark-skinned CSI would put a stop to his mate's whinging and make him accept that he had been an intolerable pain in the ass. And by letting Sara go off and play by herself, she could allow the brunette some breathing room to press the reset button on her emotions.

But tonight, she had finally risked placing them together again. So far, so good ...

There was an hour left of shift and there had been no dramas all night. She had hunkered down in Grissom's office with her paperwork, lest anything should jinx her good fortune, and was counting down the minutes until she could escape.

With any luck, she may even get out on time for once.

So, when her thoughts were interrupted by a soft tap at the door, she instinctively winced.

However, her assumption that this was someone coming to inform her that her team were rioting in the lab soon evaporated, when she looked up to see Sara peeking nervously around the door.

"Hey, you got a minute?" The brunette asked with a timid smile.

Catherine hadn't heard a peep from her all shift and now she looked like she'd rather be anywhere else but here. Cath frowned softly at her unusually edgy behaviour.

"Certainly." She put her pen down and gestured to the chair opposite. "What's up?"

Sara ambled cautiously into the room, seemingly unsure of where to put herself, before eventually deciding to remain standing for now.

"Well, you know that thing I needed to ask Grissom?"

"Yeah..." Cath nodded, dredging the conversation to mind. It had been in the car on the way back from a scene – Sara has asked how long he was going to be off, because she needed to talk to him about something.

"Since he's not here, and we don't know when he'll be back, I wondered if, maybe, you could help me instead?"

Catherine tried to keep her voice level, despite the little flutter she felt in her heart at hearing those words...

...you could help me

"I'll certainly try." She folded her hands on the desk. "What do you need?"

Finally, Sara sat down opposite her.

"Well," she started, then stopped and took a deep breath. "I'm applying for something and I need my employers to sign off on it before I can submit the application. I could go to Cavallo, but ... I'd rather not."

It was splitting hairs, but Catherine chose to hear that Sara would rather come to her.

"Okay," she frowned, her interest peaked by the peculiar request. "Can you tell me what I'm signing for, or ..."

Sara bit her lip for a second, clearly debating how much to reveal.

"It's a request for funding to help towards my mother's care." She said carefully, her voice falling soft and giving Sara an uncharacteristically vulnerable appearance. "She's ... she's in a facility in California and ..."

When the brunette trailed off, Catherine held up her hands to stop her. Clearly, this was difficult for her to admit, and probably even more so since she didn't know that Catherine was already well aware of her mother's condition and the reason that she was in a 'facility'.

"Do you have the application?" She asked, ensuring to keep her voice as non-judgemental as she could.

"At home." Sara nodded, grateful for not having to explain further. "I wasn't sure whether you'd be able to approve it, in Grissom's absence – they just need confirmation that I am actually employed here and the details of my contract – full time, permanent ..." She was rambling and she knew it, but she couldn't stop.

"It's okay, Sara." Catherine smiled warmly. "It shouldn't be a problem. Just let me know what I need to fill in and I'll get it back to you right away."

She saw Sara visibly relax and felt another burst of satisfaction at having been the cause.

"Thank you." She smiled. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem." Cath assured her, scrutinising her movements carefully as she stood up and headed towards the door. Near the threshold, she paused and turned back to the blonde.

"Oh, thank you for sorting my evaluation out as well. The backdated payments were on my paycheque."

Cath nodded approvingly, pursing her lips.

"Good." She hummed. "I'll let Grissom know when he's back – you can't let him get away with forgetting these things."

Sara's lips twitched into a smile at the mere thought of how that conversation was going to play out.

"Thanks Cat."

As Sara departed, significantly happier than when she'd entered, Catherine sat back and gave in to the grin fighting its way onto her lips. That was easier than she imagined. She had done something nice for Sara and now the girl understood that she could be trusted to deal with work-related problems.

All she had to do now was convince her to extend that trust to her personal life as well.

Then again, this kind of was personal. Sara had admitted that her mother was sick and receiving long-term care. Granted, she had kept some details back – details that Catherine already knew, thanks to her snooping – but she could hardly expect Sara to just blithely explain how her mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia after murdering her husband. That was really a conversation for a more private locale.

No, this was good. This was a big step forward for them.