Chapter 21

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"Hey Manny, you got stuck on this detail huh? What did you do to piss Brass off this time? Or did you draw the short straw?" Catherine called out as she saw the new guard take up his position outside their door.

Manny was laughing as he watched Sara move as fast as her injuries would allow to her own bed. "I volunteered for it. It pissed me off when I found out what happened to the two of you and when Brass asked the squad for volunteers everyone signed up. Brass had more volunteers than he knew what to do with." He looked at both women. "You two look surprised. What did you expect? Two of the sexiest women on the force needed someone to watch their backs, shit I had to beat the guys back to be first in line."

"Well hopefully we'll be out of here in a day or two and the hospital can get back to normal. Then we'll see what happens from there."

"What do you mean what happens? You'll still be under guard 24/7 and we will just have to work harder when you're in the field. But in the meantime I am going to camp outside your door for the next few hours." He had a smile on his face as

"Thanks Manny, we'll try to stay out of trouble."

"Yeah like that's ever going to happen." He closed the door to both women laughing. He pulled out his phone after he closed the door and waited for the phone to be answered. He listened for awhile before he spoke. "Yeah we'll have to step up the guards once they leave here. They'll be on their guard so it will be hard to get close to them. Ok will do." He hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket. He sat down on the chair to start his shift. It was hard to interpret the smile on his face. He stood up when he was approached by a doctor. "Can I have your name please doctor?"

"Jared Case, I performed the surgery on Ms. Sidle and I would like to check up on her." Manny checked his ID and then checked it against the list and then let him into the room. "So Ms. Sidle I hear you've been giving the staff some problems."

"It wasn't me, it was the drugs. They made me do it." She looked up with an innocent look but a wicked smile.

"Oh where have I heard that before?" Catherine said with a smile.

"Hey Cat whose side are you on? Aren't you supposed to support me?"

The doctor chuckled "When I release you to go home can I count on you to behave? You can come back in about 5 days to have the stitches removed."

"I promise I will behave."

"Do you have someone to take care of you?"

Catherine spoke up. "My doctor said I would be out of here soon too, so she will be coming to my house and my Mom and sister will be checking in on us. Will that be ok?"

"As long as there are no other options I guess that will have to do." He smiled at the two women.

"Doctor?"

"Yes Ms. Sidle?"

"If I promise to behave can I take care of myself and go back to my apartment?" She gave Catherine a look that asked her not to say anything.

He looked a bit confused but he went on. "Yes that would be fine. I could give you something for the pain and you'll have to skip work for at least a week but I don't see any reason why you can't take care of yourself."

"Thank you doctor." As he left the room Sara turned and knew from the look on Catherine's face that she had misunderstood. "Cat it's not what you think."

Catherine turned her full anger on Sara. "I guess it was more than I could expect even from you. As soon as you find out you're getting out of here things change. I at least expected you to wait until we left the hospital. I suppose you've had time to think about what Grissom said and you realized what he said was true. I'm just the office slut and you've had your fun." Catherine looked up to see a look of hurt on Sara's face. "You can blame it on the drugs if you want, it's the excuse I used for many years to put up with Eddie so long. I'll even tell Lindsey it was my fault…" she couldn't finish as she felt Sara's mouth cover hers in a not so gentle kiss.

"Are you going to be quiet for a minute and let me have my say?" Catherine just nodded her head. "Move over." Catherine gladly scooted over if it meant she could hold Sara a few more hours. "I'm not going anywhere unless you've given up on me." Catherine shook her head. "Now let me explain ok? The reason I don't not want to go to your house is because you and Lindsey have become very important to me and while this guy is still after me I refuse to endanger you any further and I want to keep him away from Lindsey. He already knows he can use you to get to me and I don't want him to know he could use Lindsey too. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to her. Please try to understand baby, I would go with him willingly before I would let him close to you or Lindsey. I think it would be best for me to stay at my place until this is over."

"That's not going to happen so get that idea out of your head. Before you say anything let me explain. As far as we know he doesn't know about Lindsey so I'll call my Mom and tell her to take Lindsey on a little vacation. He may be watching both of us so if he sees her with me he could use her to get to me and in that way get to you. Can you forgive me for doubting you?" This time it was Sara's turn to nod. "Grissom was right about my track record with men. Even before Eddie I didn't make the best choices where it came to men. I just expected you to leave me like all the others have."

"There's nothing to forgive and I will think about what you said about your mother taking Lindsey on a vacation. I have to get up a minute, I need to use the bathroom." She leaned down and kissed Catherine and then made her way to the bathroom. While she was in the bathroom she heard loud angry voices in the room and she knew it was Eddie. How the hell did he get in here? She carefully opened the door and walked into the room. "Catherine are you ok?"

"Of course she's ok. What do you think I'm going to do smack her around or something?"

"Oh it's not like you've never done that before."

"Shut up Catherine I was talking to your friend here. Sara right?"

"Yes that's right?" Sara looked to Catherine to make sure she was ok.

"Is the State of Nevada too cheap to spring for a private room or aren't you important enough Catherine?"

"They felt it would be easier to guard one room compared to two rooms."

"What the hell do you need a guard for? Come on I'm taking you home." Eddie grabbed Catherine's wrist and threw the covers back and pulled her out of the bed. Sara could see her wince in pain, she couldn't tell if it was from her wrist or her head probably a little of both but either way it didn't matter.

"Take your hands off me Eddie, I'm not going anywhere with you and in case you forgot I kicked you out of the house." Before she could say another word she felt the back of his hand make contact with her cheek. When his hand went up to swing again he felt a steel grip stop his hand.

Eddie turned around and with his other hand pushed Sara away as he broke her grip. His hand automatically grabbed Catherine's wrist again. Sara could see the pain in Catherine's face and it was all she could do not to jump him right then and there. "What, you want to take me on? I'll do the same to you."

"That would be the biggest mistake of your life and the last time you ever laid a hand on Catherine or any other woman." Sara made sure she maintained eye contact with Eddie the whole time she was talking, as she headed towards the door. Catherine didn't miss the fact that she was holding her side and she looked like she was in pain but she disguised it well. "Let's see how big of a talker you are when you have to deal with someone bigger than you instead of a woman. Hey Manny this guy is giving Catherine a hard time, maybe you should escort him to the elevator."

"His name was on the list and he said he was her husband."

Sara didn't break eye contact with Eddie. "He is but I think it's time for him to leave." She turned back to Catherine and looked her in the eye and ignored Eddie. "Do you want him to leave?" All Catherine could do was nod her head. "Do you want his name removed from the list?" She nodded again. "Do you want him to let go of your wrist?"

This time she spoke in a quiet voice as she looked at Sara. "Yeah I do." She carefully removed her hand from his grasp and she lay back down on the bed rubbing her wrist.

"So that's the way it's going to be? You're not worth it anyway. You'll have the papers in the mail as soon as I can sign them. Then it's good riddance." He walked by Sara and stopped and whispered something that Catherine couldn't hear and he left the room. A small smile broke out on Sara's face.