Disclaimer: see chapter one

After several minutes of standing in her office doing nothing other than breathing, Catherine turned around to find that she was alone.

"Damn her. How am I supposed to make it through an entire shift now?" Catherine was now talking to herself.

She was just about to sink into her desk chair and start working on some overdue paperwork when her pager went off. Grissom.

She went in search of the older man and found him in the break room with the rest of the team. "You paged me?" she asked as she entered the room.

"Yes. I'm about to hand out assignments. I thought you'd like to be here. You should have been in here ten minutes ago." She wasn't in the mood for Grissom to chastise her.

"Save your lecture for someone else. I'm not in the mood for it tonight, Gil. Just give me my assignment so I can go and do my job." Although she hadn't taken her eyes off of Gil, she could feel Sara watching her.

"Fine. You and Sara have a double out in Henderson. Go do your jobs, ladies."

Catherine just rolled her eyes as she snatched the assignment sheet out of Grissom's hand and stormed out of the room, yelling over her shoulder, "You coming Sidle or are you going to spend the day with your ass on the couch?"

"Good luck, Sar," Nick said to her as she got up to leave the break room.

"Glad it's not me," Greg said to her retreating form.

"Her bark is worse than her bite," Sara said before trailing off down the hall after Catherine.

She finally caught up with her down the hall and said, "Would you mind driving?"

Catherine spun and looked at her, "I thought you always wanted to drive, Sara."

"I usually do. Today, I think I'd rather enjoy the drive than have to fight the traffic."

"Uh, sure," she said as she unlocked the Denali and we climbed in.

They had been on the road maybe ten minutes when Catherine decided that Sara had been staring at her long enough.

"What are you doing?" Catherine asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're staring at me. And you have been since we left the lab."

"I'm not staring—I'm admiring you."

"Admiring? Yeah, right."

Sara shifted in her seat so that her entire body was facing Catherine. "You're incredibly sexy, you know that?"

"Excuse me?"

"I said you're incredibly sexy. Everything about you is sexy, actually. The way you walk. The way you carry yourself. Your body," Sara paused. "Actually, your body isn't sexy."

Catherine was offended that Sara didn't think she was sexy. She had always thought that despite her age and the fact that she had given birth to a child, she was incredibly sexy. "You don't think my body is sexy?" Her voice was barely above a whisper and her hurt immediately registered with Sara.

"Actually, no. I don't think sexy is an apt description of your body. Amazing. Stunning. A wonder of nature. Goddess like. Those come a bit closer."

Catherine was blushing. Her grip on the steering wheel had tightened and her eyes were clearly focused on the road.

"How does it feel, Cath?" Sara asked as she reached across the console and started twirling a string of Catherine's hair around her fingers.

"How...uh…how do … how does what feel?"

"How does it feel to walk around and know that everyone is looking at you? That they all want you. And that you can have anyone," Sara snaps her fingers, "just like that."

Catherine lightly chuckles. It's a nervous laugh, but a laugh, nonetheless. "I'm single and I haven't had sex in six months. I'd hardly say that I could have anyone I want or that anyone would want me."

They had arrived at their crime scene and each opened their door and moved to the back of the Denali to get their kit. Sara leaned over Catherine, reaching to grab hers and said, "Mmmmm. You not only look good, you feel good, too. It's a shame we have a scene to process."

For the second time in less than an hour, Sara had managed to leave a shuddering Catherine behind her as she walked away.