Act 44: Catherine
"You're busy?" I ask Sara when I walk back into my living room. She stops her reading to look at me.
"Nope," she marks her page then gives me her full attention.
I sit down next to her and take a deep breath. "I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Sounds serious," she frowns.
"Yeah," I let out a nervous snort.
"Cath, it's just me, relax," she reassures me with a tender smile.
I nod then launch into the talk. "I've been thinking about this for a few weeks already, and the fact that I'll be going to several conferences starting next month made my mind up about it."
I clear my throat and breathe in deeply in order to calm my thundering heart. "Would you be okay to be the third emergency contact at Linds' school?" I ask in one breath.
I chance a look at Sara then immediately dive into my arguments. "I know…"
"Of course, I'd be happy to"
"…it's a huge… wait what?"
"Of course, I'd be happy to," she repeats.
"Just like that?" I look at her in disbelief. "You don't want to think about it?"
"I don't need to," she smiles.
"Are you… sure?"
"Of course I am," she chortles.
"Uh… okay…" I'm a bit stunned at the easiness of the whole thing. To be honest I had prepared an argument to plead my case. "Everything is so easy with you…"
"Cath…" she starts then stops and I can feel her on the verge of saying something, then she just grins as if she had changed her mind. "You can always count on me when it comes to you or Linds. And that will always be the case regardless of what happens between us."
"I had this big speech prepared…"
"You can deliver it if you want," she offers with a smirk.
I snort with amusement. "In a nutshell I was going to say that I know it's a huge responsibility but the reason I was asking you was because I trust you with her and more importantly she trusts you."
"I fully appreciate your trust and hers, you have my word that I'll never do anything to betray that."
I lean in to kiss her. "You're incredible and I'm lucky to be with you," I tell her sincerely.
"I think the same about you every day," she beams.
"Alright, I'm going to go and prepare dinner before we overdose on mushiness," I joke, kiss her one more time and stand up from the couch while she returns to her reading.
Over an hour later we're in the kitchen finishing to eat. I'm in the middle of telling her something when I notice that she's not paying attention.
"Hey!" Sara chastises me when I steal the last shrimp from her plate.
"Serves you well for not listening to me," I retort with a smirk.
"I was listening!"
"Oh yeah? So what was I talking about?"
I'm not sure how the next action unfolds but I only that something is fluttering into my chest and I feel lightheaded and warm and fuzzy.
"You tell me," Sara's voice makes it through my current daze, I blink my eyes open and find her grinning like the Cheshire cat.
"I… uh…" it never fails, when she kisses me, my brain takes a break. I clear my throat.
"See? Even you weren't paying attention."
"That was sneaky."
"Be as it may, I rested my case," she sticks her tongue out.
I don't get a chance to answer her when the phone rings. "That should be Linds," I announce before standing up to get the landline. "Hey Pumpkin," I greet my daughter and immediately get engross in a conversation with her.
"Linds says hi," I announce upon returning to the kitchen several minutes later. "Apparently she ruled on the basket ball court today, her words not mine," I chuckle.
I frown when I'm met with no reaction whatsoever. My smile fades, Sara's staring into space with a sombre expression. I sit back down and it takes her a second or two to come back to me.
"How's Linds?"
"She's great, she had a very good day," I reply with a small grin.
"Glad to hear it."
I want to ask her what's on her mind. She told me a few weeks ago that sometimes she'd get melancholic. I know there's more to it and I know better than to ask. I can only hope that she'll tell me all about it in her own time.
I take her hand in mine and bring it to my lips to rest a gentle kiss on her knuckles, a silent reminder that I'm here if she needs to talk.
"Let me get the dessert," I announce before standing up.
I take our plates to the sink and then grab the ice cream pot from the freezer. I put a spoon in front of Sara, I don't waste time digging into the creamy treat. I sigh in satisfaction when I lick my first spoon.
"Having ups and down again?" I ask softly.
"Yeah…" she nods. "I'm sorry," she adds after a second.
"Hey, don't apologize for that," I reassure her. "You can't control the way you feel."
"I know but… I just hate being so… emotional," she declares. "It's like I was hormonally unbalanced, you'd think I'm… oh my, maybe I'm just pregnant," she paints disbelief with her face.
In a true Sara fashion she makes a 360° turn and uses humour to move away from the topic. I narrow my eyes with a smirk. "Funny, I was so sure that we were being safe on that front," I go along. "But please run that theory by me, this should be interesting," I chortle before taking another spoon of ice cream.
"You think Grissom will want to keep it?" she drives her joke home.
I choke so suddenly on the frozen cream that it almost goes up my nose.
"Too far?" she asks with a smirks clearly trying not to laugh.
I'm still coughing hard, struggling with the ice cream stuck down my throat.
"Sorry," she winces as she hands me a glass of water and I down it in one go. "It was funny though," she starts chuckling again but stops when she sees my glare.
"It was," I snicker once I get my coughing under control. "But wait, it gets funnier," I continue. "You're sleeping on the couch tonight," I punctuate my sentence with a pat on her shoulder then stand up to put the ice cream away.
"What? Oh come on!"
"No, I can guarantee that you won't be coming anytime soon," I chortle, glad to have taken the advantage back. "Oh, here's an idea, I could call Griss, ask him over so he can give you a hand with that," I push it further and give her a wink.
She closes her eyes and gags. "Now, you're just being gross."
"You started it!"
After making the dishes we watch a movie then prepare ourselves for the night. I stop at the door of my bedroom and turn to Sara, looking at her questioningly. "Where are you going?"
"To… bed?" she replies cautiously.
"I'm going to bed, you my friend have a ticket to Couch city tonight."
"You weren't serious about that, were you?"
"Yes, I was," I nod with a mischievous grin.
"Cath…" she whines.
"Sar," I tease back.
She sighs in defeat and hangs her head as she's turning her heels to go back to the living room. She puckers out to pout. "You have no sense of humour, seriously," she mutters. "It was a damn good joke."
I hold back laughter as I watch her dragging her feet with her puppy face.
I get inside my room and let Sara pout for ten minutes then go back downstairs in my birthday suit. I find her lying on the couch with an arm over her eyes.
I straddle her, she immediately looks at me and gasps upon realizing that I'm naked. "Wow…" her eyes glaze over.
I smirk. "I've heard stories about women being horny when pregnant… I feel like making some research," I bite my bottom lip seductively.
"Any…" her voice wavers with arousal and she has to clear her throat before trying again. "Anything… for science," she stutters.
"I knew we'd agree," I wink and lean down to kiss her, I grab the hem of her t-shirt to take it off her urgently.
When I'm startled out of my slumber with a loud crash I'm slightly disoriented. I need a few seconds to remember that I'm on my couch, because after our long loving passionate exploration Sara and I were too tired to move. My muscles protest when I sit up from their delightful exhaustion, I wrap myself in the blanket we were using and stand up.
I find Sara facing the sink in the kitchen. I pad to the kitchen and get closer to her.
"I broke a glass," she announces when she hears me near. "I'm sorry, Cath."
"Oh… it's alright, don't worry about it," I shrug still a bit out of it.
"I'll replace it… I'm really sorry, I don't know what happened… I'm sorry."
I frown but then I finally catch up with what is happening. Sara's agitation and now that I watch her closely I can see that she's pale, a bit sweaty and shaking. Those are the tell-tale signs that she just had a nightmare.
I once tried to make her talk about it and she got very defensive, so I've pulled back and worked on figuring out a way to be there for her without upsetting her.
I rest a hand on her cheek. "Sar… don't worry about it. It's just a glass, I still have a couple of dozen around. I promise we won't run out of them soon."
The ghost of a grin appears on her lips, letting me know that I got through to her. "Come on, as comfy as the couch is, my bed is comfier."
I grab her hand to guide us out and back upstairs. I lie down and open my arms, she obediently settles in my embrace. I can feel slight tremor coursing through her so I start stroking her hair softly then hum the first song I can think about. She clings to me tighter and I just kiss her crown in response. I keep on with my soothing attentions until she relaxes enough to go back to sleep.
I keep watching over her until I know she won't wake up again, then relax and ease back into sleep myself.
I wake up again when rays of light are stabbing my blinds bathing the room with morning light. Sara is already up to my great dismay. I sit up and stretch with a yawn then get out of bed.
I can't help the smile on my lips, I have a very good feeling about today. My smile broadens when I enter the kitchen and find the table set for breakfast. On the table, on each side of the plate she has prepared for me are two delicately folded origami flowers.
"Good morning," she greets me.
I bite my bottom lip and walk to her. "Amazing morning," I reply before kissing her tenderly. She wraps her arms around my waist keeping me close to her. I gently cup her cheeks "It'll never cease to amaze me how you take my breath away with the simplest things."
She blushes and looks away briefly before looking at me again. She's always so adorable when she goes out of her way to make something for me. She has the most amazing attention then is all bashful when I'd show her how much I appreciate it.
"Well… if you let me, I intend to do that for a long time."
Even though it's not the first time that we reaffirm our desire to make sure this relationship goes the distance, my heart skips a beat at her statement.
"Let you?" I snort with amusement. "If you think I'm ever letting you go, you're delusional," I joke.
The intensity of her gaze makes me weak on the knees. She looked at me the same way yesterday, and I wish I could translate what those rich brown eyes are trying to convey.
She suddenly laughs when my stomach makes its state of emptiness known. She bends and lifts the hem of shirt to kiss it. "Good morning to you too, Growl."
"Oh please don't give it a name…" I desperately plead, but I know it's a lost cause. I groan in defeat but Sara captures my lips and languorously kisses my embarrassment away.
I sigh when we part, a happy smile still on my lips. "Alright, let's enjoy that wonderful breakfast of yours."
I step back to walk away but Sara grabs my hand not letting me reach the chair. I look at her curiously and wait.
"Last night… when you asked me about the emergency thing for Linds," she starts.
I can feel my good mood dropping at lightning speed. I immediately assume that she went out of her way to make breakfast special in hope that it'd soften the blow of her telling me that she had changed her mind.
"You've reconsidered it and now you want to take it back," I beat her to the punch.
"No, not at all I meant every single thing I said," she replies instantly with a reassuring grin.
I don't let my guard down however. "But?"
She shakes her head "No 'but' either," her grin widens.
I look at her questioningly not understanding what she's trying to say. She licks her lips and takes a deep breath. "There's just one thing I didn't say," she explains. "I just want to amend that."
She tugs at my hand bringing me back closer to her until we're inches away. She dips her eyes into mine and stares for several minutes as if searching for something. "I love you"
I blink, nonplussed, not registering what she just said.
She rests a hand on my cheek and captures my lips in a tender kiss. "I love you, Cath," she reaffirms then gives me one of her most beautiful smiles, one that radiating with happiness and so much more, one that could illuminate a whole city.
The words finally penetrate my brain, completely shutting it down.
She just said that she loves me.
I should be leaping out of joy and tell her I love her back. Those words have been on the back of my throat for quite some time now. Yet I can't say anything, I can't even remember how to breathe.
Sara doesn't stop beaming and just guides me to my chair, makes me sit down and serves me breakfast.
I just look at her, desperately trying to get over my emotional shock, in vain.
Suddenly it's like I had received a punch in the guts knocking the wind out of me. I can feel a smile stretching all the way up to my ears. There's this something expanding in my chest making my heart implode with joy. I'm overwhelmed and all my senses are on overdrive.
I stand up without realizing it, I grab Sara's face and crush our lips together in a passionate kiss. Everything is so intense that I feel like fire was coursing through my veins as I'm experiencing the best high of the world.
I pull back panting. My smile still firmly in place, I move my lips to tell her I love her back but no sounds come out. I try again to the same result.
I can sense panic rising so I just kiss her again then wrap my arms around her to hold her tightly to me.
Try as I might, even now, those three words won't pass the barrier of my lips.
Damn
