"You still with us, girl?"

The question stirred her out of her musings and she managed a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She exhaled. "I'm just having one of those weeks."

"Everything alright, Sara?" Nick asked, sharing a look of mild concern with Warrick.

"Yeah," she repeated, dragging a hand through her hair. "Nothing I can't deal with."

"If there's anything you need, you know where we are." Warrick placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze as he ambled past the bench towards the door. Sara smiled, nodding appreciatively at him. Nick offered her a wink, following his mate out.

Alone in the locker room, Sara exhaled heavily and heaved herself to her feet. Swinging her locker door open, she caught a glimpse of herself in the little mirror tucked inside it and winced. She looked exhausted.

There was no way she was going to get past Catherine tonight.

x X x

"Alright," Grissom declared, wandering into the room nose-deep in a folder. "Nick and Greg, you're with me. Catherine, you're solo tonight – 420. Sara, you and Warrick also have a 420."

Assignments doled out, he left as swiftly as he had entered without ever looking up from whatever had his attention so enraptured.

Sara released a sigh of relief. She had been sitting at the bench, hunched protectively over a cup of coffee, hoping and praying that she would not be working with her over-protective supervisor tonight.

Warrick she could handle. He already knew that she wasn't on top of her game today and would be willing to cut her some slack and not ask too many questions.

However, as the boys began to file out towards the door, Sara felt a presence lean over her shoulder and a low voice mumbled in her ear.

"When you get back from your scene, come find me."

She pursed her lips, shifting her gaze to the side. Catherine had already straightened up and was stalking out of the room, satisfied that her message had been received.

Sara groaned weakly, slinking off the seat.

She had been so close.

x X x

"Alright," Cath closed the door and dropped onto the couch beside Sara. "What's up?"

"I'm fine." Sara said instinctively, before cursing herself. Catherine caught it and nodded slowly.

"'Fine'. We back to that?" She challenged gently. She thought she had gotten the brunette out of that habit, but apparently not.

"I'm sorry." Sara sighed. "It's really not that bad, I've just had kind of a rough week."

"Okay." Cath pushed. "So tell me?"

"Well," Sara choked out a bitter laugh. "My oven broke on Wednesday. My car broke down on Thursday. And my aunt died on Friday."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Catherine said with a frown. "Were you close?"

"No, not really." Sara shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. "It's just another thing that I don't really want to deal with right now."

Sensing the reason Sara didn't want to deal with it, Catherine hazarded a guess.

"Have you heard from your brother again?"

"River?" She set her jaw at the mention of his name. "No. I guess I'll need to try and let him know, if I can find him. Asher and Felix too."

Catherine slipped a hand into Sara's, threading their fingers together.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Sara seemed to seriously consider the question for a moment, her brow furrowing in thought.

"I guess I'll need some time off to go to California and sort everything out." She mused aloud.

"Of course, take as long as you need." Cath agreed.

"Thanks." Sara mumbled, sinking her gaze into her lap. If she had noticed Catherine caressing her knuckles, or if she was bothered by it, she didn't let on; something which caused a small flicker of gratitude to spark in Catherine's heart.

After a moment of silence, Cath cleared her throat.

"While I've got you here, how was your first counselling session?"

Sara blinked at her, surprised.

"How did you know?"

"I asked them to keep me in the loop." Catherine explained. When Sara's eyes widened, she quickly held up her hands. "Just about when you've completed your minimum sessions – not about what you discuss. That's confidential."

Sara nodded, appeased.

"It went okay, I guess." She answered with a non-committal shrug. "I'm still not sure about it all."

"Give it some time." Cath assured her. "It'll help, I promise."

Sara narrowed her eyes at her colleague, attempting to read something behind her blue eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked.

"Of course." Cath answered easily, tightening her grip on Sara's hand.

"Why are you so concerned about this?"

The older woman cocked her head to the side, puzzled by the question.

"Shouldn't I be concerned?" She asked. When Sara shrugged helplessly at her, Cath's lips spread into a warm smile. "Sara, the people who were supposed to look out for you when you were little didn't do it. Now, it's my responsibility to look out for you, and I'm not going to make the same mistakes that they did."

Sara was scrutinising her closely as she spoke.

"So, this is a guilt thing?" She asked.

"No." Catherine leant into her, nudging her shoulder playfully. "I know that you like to play superwoman and pretend that nothing can hurt you; but I also know you better than that. Whether you want to admit it or not, there's a lot of trauma there that needs healing."

"I guess." She shifted, a small frown settling on her face. "I just don't know whether I'm strong enough to tear my past apart. I don't know whether I'll be able to put all of the pieces back together."

It was a quiet confession, but it caused a ripple of shock to run through Catherine. For the first time since she had met Sara, she felt like she was seeing the true person – no mask, no bravado. Just raw truth.

Reaching across her colleague, she took both of Sara's hands and turned her around so they were facing each other on the couch.

"You are one of the strongest people I know." She promised her earnestly. "I know it won't be easy, but I know that you'll be even stronger for it afterwards."

"If I get through it." Sara pointed out sceptically.

"Well," Catherine inched closer, caressing her hands. "If you start to struggle, all you have to do is tell me and I can take some of the pressure off you."

Sara offered a mildly incredulous look, prompting Catherine to nudge her again.

"I'm serious. I can reduce your workload, keep you off the high profile cases for a while. There's no reason you have to be on top of everything all the time. You just focus on yourself for a while and leave everything else to me."

Sara had dropped her gaze and for a moment Catherine thought she was going to decline the offer. She knew how much Sara's work meant to her and the idea of taking a step back from the big cases would go against everything that motivated her.

However, when she finally looked up, Cath got another glimpse of that unbridled honesty. It was the eyes, she realised. When Sara left her eyes unguarded, they revealed every emotion lurking beneath.

"Thank you."