Sofia stared at the check, it was wrong and still she didn't like it; yet she just couldn't quite make sense of it. Folding it up again she tucked it into her things and went up to check on Catherine. She wasn't sure if the woman was relieved to have some use of her arms back; or frustrated that it was still limited.

Taking the stairs quickly she slipped into Catherine's room. She felt awkward now, guilty in what she knew and she didn't want to talk about it. Catherine had managed to push herself to sit on the edge of the bed; she paused to watch.

The woman was edging her weight more and more onto her legs, Sofia winced as she started to tip forward. As her center of balance shifted and the woman began to topple Sofia crossed to room to prevent her from taking a header.

"You know I'll help you stand up Catherine." Pulling her up she braced her hands under Catherine's elbows. Catherine braced off her arms and Sofia watched as the woman stared at her feet.

Catherine shook her head and she saw tears welling in her eyes. "I still can't make my legs move."

"A few days ago you couldn't move your arms either; give yourself time." She didn't bother telling her that a week ago she couldn't stand either; the woman wanted her independence.

"How much more time? Damn it, I'm sorry Sofia; I don't mean to take it out on you. Bad enough you have to pick me up, shouldn't make you pick me up off the floor." Catherine shook her head and then wrapped her arms around Sofia's neck.

"Don't worry about it. Let's get downstairs, just a heads up Grissom is looking for you again." She hoisted Catherine's knees and let the woman hold onto her as they took the stairs; giving Catherine the things she could do.

"Great, I dealt with my formal leave a couple days ago. I don't want to deal with any of them yet; not until I can stand on my own." Catherine sighed and shifted, getting a hand on the counter; trying to lever herself into the chair.

"Then I'll keep sending him away, the others are for the most part respecting that." She helped her into the chair and then got water and the pain pills.

Catherine made a face but fumbled them into her palm and got them down with the water; that was progress. It had taken a lot of work for her to be able to do it, she knew Catherine wanted it badly. "Thanks."

"No problem." She looked away, finding it hard not to look at her friend. She was doing this out of friendship, she didn't want payment for it; but she didn't want to offend anybody.

"Are you okay Sofia?" Catherine stared at her and for a moment she wished they weren't both trained observers.

"Yeah, I'm alright, just trying not to think too much." It was mostly true but Catherine just studied her and waited.

"What did Sam and Grissom get into?" Catherine rolled her eyes and Sofia shook her head.

"No, nothing, I just…" She trailed off and dropped into the chair across from her.

"It was Sam then." Catherine reached for her hand and she closed her eyes. It was hard to block out someone she had tried to help for the past two weeks.

"He stuck a check in my back pocket before he left. At first I didn't even realize it, I, ah..."

Catherine cut her off laughing. "Sam would, and you thought he might have copped a feel but he just used that to give you a check. Sofia he does that, take the money; he won't let it go."

"I don't want to, Catherine, I'm not here."

"You're here because you are a really good friend, and I know that. Sofia take the money because it will make me feel better; he did the same thing to me a few years back. If they ever ask you about it you say it was payment for my care and leave it at that; he will back you up on that. He gave me a 'gift' and rubbed it in Gil's face but he has never tried to use it against me." She shook her head as Catherine nodded.

"No, Catherine I'll give it back to him; he just timed it so that when I realized he was already driving away."

"Don't bother trying, I did too, please take it Sofia. I want you too, look fighting him on it will just make him find a way to get it to you behind your back. Cash it and use it and forget it, it's clean money and he won't use it against you." She looked away for a moment and stared at the floor, Catherine squeezed her hand. "Sofia, there is something I want to know. What happened with your father?"

"I, don't talk a lot about that. I mean I took care of him; for a long time. But…" She trailed off, she never talked about her father; about what happened. If people asked she could admit that she'd taken care of him at the end but no one went further than that.

"I didn't know mine for sure for a long time. But I know he complicated my life, but I have memories with him that I wouldn't trade for the world. I could never take care of him, or my mother. I'd like to think I'd be able to help a friend but the only person I know I could care for is my child. I don't know that I could do what you are doing, at least before this, now, now I am confident that if I had to I could; but only because someone first did it for me." Catherine spoke softly, their eyes locked and she saw her friend was asking for something that in truth she had been waiting for.

"I didn't have a choice, Catherine my father was my world as a child. My mom was so caught up in her own career that I kind of got passed over, that's why it was so hard when he got sick. There was never any choice in it, he didn't want to be in the hospital and my mother didn't want to take care of him." She paused and stared into blue eyes, Catherine knew something of doing what you had to, to get by.

"He was the parent I connected with and I watched him waste away in a hospital bed, all he talked about was coming home; he wanted to die at home. He'd accepted that he was going to die, but he didn't want to do it in an institution. That spring I moved home from school and brought him home for the last three months of his life." She broke off again, it was hard to think about but in some way it felt good to talk about it in a sense; she had never been able to with her own mother.

"Catherine I did everything for him and it hurt him because I was his child. I held him as he died, my mother never even entered the room; never asked about it either. It drove a wedge between us that has only gotten bigger as time passes." Sofia stopped and looked at her hands, that was a truth that she had to live with.

"That is hard. Sofia, I can't imagine how it would be to do it, I don't know that I could." Catherine was studying her, and she just stared back.

"It took a part of me but taught me a lot, it took any piece of a good relationship I had with my mother. I respect her as a career woman, successful in her chosen path; but I've lived her dreams long enough. After that I had enough, a part of me was relieved when I got transferred to CSI just because it wasn't what she wanted for me; as much as I wanted my badge." Sofia took a deep breath; to say it out right felt better; and she knew it wouldn't go farther than this.

"I stripped because it was one step down from what my mother did as a show girl, she thought it was trashy and I thought it was fun." Catherine rolled her eyes, but she saw it was probably true; she knew Catherine was open about her past. She'd heard that around the lab, the woman kept her past in the past but still used the skills she'd learned there.

"I guess it's the same deal, kind of but I'll never have a relationship with her the way I wish I did. Like you have with Lindsay."

"I raised Lindsay without a father, she'll never a chance to get to know him more. Her last memories of him are him and I fighting. My father didn't admit he was my father for years, but he knew. I raised my daughter the same way I was raised, except I needed the relationship with my daughter that I didn't have with my mother; because we fought so much."

"You took two bullets for your father. I don't know that I could, not without knowing my own weapon was at the ready."

"I had a gun, I never even thought to reach for it." Catherine shook her head, and Sofia saw her free hand ball into a fist. "Just thought he had to move, knew he meant to kill him."

"You still got in front of him, you didn't have to. Catherine not a lot of people would, he pays people a lot of money to do that." She shook her head as Catherine stared back at her, now the tables had turned.

"I didn't think about it." She saw that was the honest response in clear blue eyes.

"I think we all know that."

The woman shook her head and Sofia smiled, they were both quiet for a long moment. They both knew the world was unfair, both fought for justice both personally and professionally; they had both earned their respect.

While they worked on the same side they had different strengths, Catherine was detail oriented while she enjoyed the leg work and competition of police work. She knew from experience competition within CSI was fierce but in the force it was slightly different; it had fueled them both.

And it was what put her friend on the road to recovery, she still had something to prove; to prove she could come back. Sofia suspected that was one of the main reasons she didn't want her team to see her, she wanted to walk back into work as though nothing had happened.

Sofia guessed it would be another week at least before Catherine was back to seventy five percent and a bit longer before she was on full. But the determination would serve her well, and hopefully see them working together again soon.