Not a great chapter admittedly, but hopefully it'll tie in nicely with the next one
x x x x
Catherine fluttered her heavy eyelids open, but her world remained inexplicably dark.
"Sara?" She attempted to call out, but her voice was hoarse and weak. "Sar?" She struggled to sit up, blinking against the incessant blackness that continued to cloud her vision; but it felt like there was a rock on her ribcage, weighing her down.
"Hey, hey." She heard a familiar voice nearby and a firm hand was placed on her chest. "Lay down."
"Nance?" She croaked, fumbling for the hand and gripping it tightly. "What happened? Where's Sara?"
"It's okay, just lay down." Her sister repeated, continuing her attempts to restrain the woman despite Cath's valiant efforts against it.
"Nancy, where's Sara?" She squeaked. "Why can't I see?"
"You're okay Cathy." Nancy assured her, perching on the edge of the bed and taking both her siblings hands. "You were in a fire. Your sight loss is only temporary."
"Fire." Catherine repeated quietly, swallowing around the bitter taste in her mouth. "Where's Sara?" Despite her current blindness, she could sense her sister's reluctance to answer. "Nancy, where is Sara?" She repeated as sternly as she could in her weak state. "Is she alright?"
"Let's just worry about you first." Nancy's attempt to change the subject fell flat and Catherine still managed to send her a withering look.
"Please tell me she's alright." She begged.
"She's … she's being treated." Nancy relented at last. "I'm afraid I don't know any more than that at the moment."
Catherine threw her head back against the pillows, tears stinging at her sore eyes.
"What the hell happened?" She gulped. She could practically taste the unburned carbon in the back of her throat; hot and smoky, like cremated toast.
"I don't know honey." She felt a tender hand brush her hair aside. "But there are some people outside who are hoping you might know the answer to that."
X x x
"I knew something was going on." Nick sighed, sitting back in his seat and dragging a hand over his tired face.
"Man, will you give that a rest." Warrick groaned, wincing in pain. He hadn't realised that he'd been burned until the ambulance had peeled out of the parking lot and one of the remaining EMTs had noticed that his clothes were smouldering. Catherine's sister had offered to treat his wounds, but he wasn't having any of it. So, as a compromise, she'd settled for dressing the burns and providing him with some strong painkillers to take the edge off.
He was still waiting for them to kick in.
"Come on, you've got to admit I'm right this time." The Texan continued. "You found Catherine in Sara's bed in her underwear, Warrick. I mean, what more proof do you need?"
"Just drop it, will you!" Rick snapped, holding his throbbing head in his hands.
Realising that he wasn't going to get anywhere with his best friend right now, Nick turned to the man on his left instead.
"Greg, you've got to know something about this."
The youngest member of the team lifted his head slowly, his red-rimmed eyes bloodshot and glazed from hours of silent crying.
He offered a shrug, having lost the ability to form words when he watched his best friend carried out of a burning building.
Before Nick could push for any more answers, Grissom appeared around the corner and all three men rose to their feet expectantly.
"There's still no word on Sara." The boss began soberly. "But Catherine's awake."
X x x
They peered around the door, before one-by-one passing through it.
"Hey." Warrick was the first to greet her, striding up to the bed.
Catherine, who had been staring blankly towards the wall, turned at the voice. True to Nancy's word, her vision had begun to clear, to the point where she could make out vague shapes now.
"Rick?" She queried, reaching out a hand towards the approaching figure. "How's Sara?"
He offered a sympathetic smile, even though he knew that she couldn't see it.
"We don't know; we're still waiting for news." He sighed, sinking into the chair beside the bed. "How're you doing?"
She shrugged, staring down at her hands, which were toying nervously with the blanket.
From the back of the group, Greg stepped up to the bottom of the bed. The movement caught her attention and she attempted a weak smile at the young man, but his only response was to shake his head in disbelief.
"You lied to me." He said bitterly.
"What?" She squeaked helplessly, squinting in a vain attempt to read his expression.
"I asked you directly whether there was anything going on between you and Sara and you swore to me that there wasn't!"
"I didn't lie, Greg." She promised, her cheeks developing a pink tint beneath the ash smears that still coated her creamy skin. "At the time there was nothing to tell."
"Yeah, right." The young man scoffed disbelievingly.
"I'm serious." She sat forward, resting her hands on her knees. "Then, Sara and I were just friends. Now … things changed."
"In two days?" He challenged accusingly. "Changed how?"
"It's hard to explain." She sat back again, a deep frown marring her features. "Everything just happened so quickly, things got out of control before we even knew what was happening."
"You know what," Nick held up his hands, stepping to the foot of the bed beside Greg. "Since you two seem to know something that we don't, why don't you catch us up to speed?"
Catherine had dropped her gaze again as she chewed anxiously on the inside of her cheek.
"Cath?" Greg pressed, waiting to see if she would take the lead. She glanced up briefly, offering little more than a helpless shrug to his silent question. Realising that he was on his own here, he took a deep breath and turned to address his colleagues.
"That woman in the parking lot the other day – her name's Kirsty Soames. She and Sara are dating." He began. "She's … she's been abusing Sara for months. Cath and I both knew about it."
"What?" Unexpectedly, it was Grissom who reacted first, rounding on the smaller man. "You let this happen and you didn't say anything?"
"No! I…" Greg retorted instinctively, his brown eyes widening in horror at the allegation that he was somehow responsible.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Warrick cut him off, slamming his hand onto the bedside table in anger and propelling himself to his feet.
"How could we?" Catherine asked weakly, looking up with fresh tears in her eyes. "Sara wouldn't let us."
"So, you guys just stood back and let it happen?" Nick asked incredulously, pushing himself off the bedpost and beginning to pace around the small room.
"No, of course not!" Catherine barked. "I was keeping an eye on the situation; I wasn't going to let it get out of hand!"
"Oh, Jesus." Warrick swept a hand over his springy hair. "How long have you guys known about this?"
Catherine and Greg shared a look; and eventually the woman answered.
"I found out about five months ago." She admitted quietly. "Greg's only known for a couple of months."
"Five months!" Nick repeated. "And you told Greg, of all people!"
"Hey!" The youngest CSI piped up, sliding unexpectedly to Catherine's defence. "Don't blame her for this! I know Sara as well as any of you! And she didn't need to tell me because I found out on my own: I actually talk to Sara, instead of just gossiping about her behind her back!"
Nick knew that that was a direct shot at him, but he was too riled to care right now.
"You should have told us what was going on!" He snarled. "Sara's our friend, if someone was hurting her we should have known about it."
"It's not that simple Nick." Greg insisted, once again defending their actions. "Kirsty's a cop!"
"A cop?" Warrick repeated, stunned. "Man, I knew she looked familiar."
"Do you get it now?" Catherine asked in a low voice, catching Nick's eye as best she could under the circumstances. "Sara didn't want to tell you guys because she didn't want the whole station to find out what was going on!"
"But it's not her fault." Grissom frowned. "She has no reason to be ashamed of it."
"It's nothing to do with that." Greg spat. "Sara's tough. Too tough, sometimes. She tried to be strong and deal with it all on her own. She wanted to keep her life private."
"Yeah, well it might be too late for that now." Sofia's sad voice radiated from the doorway, making her presence known.
"Why, what's happened now?" Cath asked weakly, straightening up at the familiar sound of the female detective.
Coming further into the room, Sofia moved directly into the Cath's line of sight. She'd already spoken to the doctors about the strawberry-blonde's prognosis so she was aware that she couldn't see well right now. Despite their tricky history, she wasn't about to make things harder for her.
"Kirsty Soames made a formal complaint against Sara yesterday."
"Kirsty made a complaint?" Nick repeated, scrunching his nose up. "About what?"
Sofia shifted her weight uncomfortably, pursing her lips.
"She claims that Sara's the abusive one. That she's been beating Kirsty."
X x x
Grissom tipped his head forwards, resting it against the cold window. Outside, a constant stream of ambulances pulled in and out of the lot. Endless torrents of injured and dying people, but he didn't have it in him to feel empathic right now. There was only one person he was concerned about in this moment.
"Hell, you look worse than the girls." A voice commented light-heartedly.
Gil turned, quirking an eyebrow at Brass.
"Have you seen them?"
"I've just been in Catherine's room." The police captain nodded. "They're not letting anyone see Sara yet."
For a moment neither spoke as they regarded each other across the corridor.
Eventually Grissom cleared his throat. "You know."
"Yeah." Jim sighed, joining him in leaning against the wall. He didn't need to ask what he was referring to, it was written all over his face. "Sofia told me about Kirsty right before the fire."
"So, you knew about Catherine and Sara?" The supervisor queried.
"No," Brass breathed, puffing his chest out. "No, that was a surprise to Sofia as much as anyone. Not that it really matters who knows now; their private life is about to be hauled over the coals for everyone to see anyway."
"Yeah, but if they can prove that Sara was seeing Catherine at the same time as Kirsty, it's not going to help her case." Grissom pointed out with a detached calmness than only he could possess.
"It won't matter." Brass growled. "Nothing's going to happen to Sara."
Grissom turned to his old friend, quirking an eyebrow.
"Jim, I want to help her as much as you do. But without proof it's going to be her word against Kirsty's and …"
"No." Jim held up his hands, cutting him off. "Nothing's going to happen, because that complaint isn't going to go through."
"Kirsty won't drop the complaint without a good reason." Grissom sighed despondently.
"Yeah, I know." Brass licked his lips, pushing himself off the wall. "And when I find her I'm going to give her a damn good reason."
Grissom's blue eyes narrowed suspiciously and he followed the police officer across the corridor.
"You can't threaten her." He stated. "That will only make things worse."
"I'm not going to threaten her. I'm going to arrest her."
Jim continued to walk back down the hall, casting a glance over the boys. They had relocated to the seats outside Catherine's room leaving Nancy to fuss around her sister. The sheer despondency surrounding them was almost tangible as they sat in conjoined silence, contemplating the situation. He could sense Grissom behind him, regarding him curiously.
"I just spoke to the fire chief" he breathed, turning back to Gil with a hard look. "That fire did not start by accident. And I know exactly who is top of my suspect list."
