By the time Catherine managed to coax Sara into the building, the brunette had calmed down significantly and was even beginning to convince herself that she could do this.
But as soon as she walked into the break room, even with Catherine bolted to her right side, her nerves rocketed back into place.
It didn't help that four pairs of eyes immediately gave her a concerned once-over when she stepped into the room.
"Sara," Grissom greeted, removing his glasses in order to better scrutinise her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Thanks." She smiled tightly, relaxing just a little when she felt Catherine's hand ghost up her back. "I want to be back."
He narrowed his eyes in clear disbelief, but eventually nodded in acceptance of her answer. For now, at least.
"Alright." He agreed sceptically. Having already rifled through the case files before the girls entered, he offered her a pre-selected folder. "You and Warrick have a 419 on the Strip."
"Great." She exhaled, satisfied that she was not going to have to endure his close supervision all night. Granted, Warrick would be watching her too, but at least he would be subtle about it.
Sure enough, as Grissom handed the file over, he shot a silent look at the dark-skinned CSI, who nodded in understanding.
"Come on, Girl." He placed a protective hand on her shoulder and guided her towards the door, forcing Catherine to reluctantly relinquish her hold and take a step to the side.
"Are you sure she should be back already?" Nick asked once they were gone. "She looked pretty pale."
"She's okay." Catherine assured him softly, but he shot her a dark look in response.
"I wasn't talking to you." He spat, turning his attention back to Grissom.
Gil flicked his blue eyes between the two of them, not particularly in the mood to get between this argument tonight. He knew that Nick was still angry with Catherine over the situation, but he had expected things to have mellowed by now, especially now that Sara was fit enough to return to work.
"I'm sure Warrick and Brass will look after her." He declared at last, electing not to pick sides. He didn't want either of them on his case right now.
He also didn't particularly want to spend the night listening to either of them bitch about the other one.
Glancing back down at the two folders in his hand, he made a quick mental substitution.
"Greg," he declared brightly. "You're with me. You two are going to Summerlin."
While Greg slipped out quietly to retrieve his things, equally glad not to be paired with either of the warring CSIs tonight, Nick and Catherine shared a tense look.
Finally, Nick released a heavy sigh and strutted towards the door.
"I'll drive." He muttered on his way past.
In the wake of his sulky exit, Catherine met the cool gaze of the only other person left in the room.
"So is this it?" She asked helplessly. "Am I confined to the doghouse permanently?"
"I don't know, Catherine." Gil replied unhelpfully. "I guess it depends how long it takes you to earn their trust back."
"You know, Sara never lost her trust in me." She pointed out curtly. "Surely that should count for something?"
He pursed his lips, seemingly considering this for a moment, before releasing a slow breath.
"I ... I have to go." He said at last, sloping towards the door and leaving her question hanging.
x X x
"I don't think she's going anywhere."
The amused voice startled Brass out of his staring and he shot Warrick a disdainful scowl.
"Yeah, well I'm not taking any chances." The detective fired back, resuming his protective supervision of Sara.
The young woman seemed contented enough as she followed the trail of blood drops around the crime scene, meticulously marking and photographing each one in turn.
But that didn't stop the two men from continuing to quietly monitor her for a few minutes longer.
"Hey," Warrick said at last, lowering his voice. "You know this whole rape thing – how much do you really know about it?"
Jim choked out an embittered laugh, wiping a hand over his mouth.
"Oh, don't go there Rick." He warned lightly. "That's best left where it is, dead and buried."
"Come on, Jim." The CSI challenged. "I don't buy that you just sat back and let Catherine shelve the evidence without at least doing a bit of digging."
Brass finally managed to tear his gaze from Sara to face the sceptical man.
"You really want to know what I know about it?" He asked rhetorically. "I know that the best thing for her is for you to leave it alone."
He began to walk away, leaving Warrick to roll his eyes in frustration at the non-answer.
However, before the seasoned cop managed to escape completely, Warrick stalked after him with one more question, which had been burning in the back of his mind for a while.
"Hey," he demanded. "Did you know that she had a motorbike?"
x X x
Flashback: Lady Heather's Box
She kicked her foot out petulantly, causing a small sandstorm to swirl around the toe of her sneaker. It was overcast today, but close and she could feel her wispy hair starting to stick to the back of her neck. Still, she had no inclination to move.
So when she felt a figure sit down beside her, she resisted the urge to look up.
"Hey," Catherine said softly, brushing her daughter's bangs aside affectionately. "I've made some lunch. Why don't you come inside?"
"I'm not hungry." Lindsey replied moodily.
"Oh baby," Cath sighed, sliding an arm around the little girl and tugging firmly against into her side. "I know it's really hard right now, but I promise we'll get through this."
"How?" Lindsey asked, staring up at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Catherine felt her heart break at the pleading question. She wanted desperately to be able to answer it, to reassure her little girl that they were going to be just fine, to have the words to make it all alright again ... but the words simply were not there.
Fortunately, she was prevented from stammering out a response of any kind by the gentle roar of a motorbike, getting louder as it approached the house.
Lindsey's head shot up, her eyes narrowing in hopeful concentration at the sound.
Surely enough, the bike slowed as it appeared in sight, before turning up the driveway.
"Sara!" The child called, jumping to her feet and scampering down the path to greet her.
Catherine picked herself up more slowly, uncertainly.
"Hey," she said warily. "What are you doing here?"
Sara remained sat on the bike, but had removed her helmet, shaking her waves out. She offered a meek smile at the cautious welcome.
"I'm sorry, I should have called first. I just wanted to come and see how you were both doing, after yesterday." She explained softly, attempting to read their emotions from their stance.
Lindsey had dropped her head sadly, dragging her toe through the dirt. That was predictable enough – she had buried her father yesterday, she was understandably still shaken by it all.
Catherine's mood was harder to read. She appeared to be sizing Sara up in return, perhaps attempting to gauge her true motive for being here.
They hadn't spoken much since Sara closed Eddie's case. She had wanted to go to the funeral, purely to support Catherine and Lindsey, but it hadn't seemed right somehow. So she had sat all day, staring at the phone, debating what to do. In the end, she had done nothing. And the guilt had been eating her up inside ever since.
"I was going to come yesterday," she began awkwardly when Catherine's intense gaze began to unsettle her. "But I wasn't sure whether you'd want to see me or not. After, you know..."
"I did." Catherine cut her off softly.
A silent look of understanding passed between the two women, watched on curiously by Lindsey, before Catherine finally reached out and dragged Sara into a hug. The brunette steadied herself on the handlebars, startled by the sudden movement, before wrapping both arms around Catherine's waist and pulling her closer.
"I'm glad you're here." She felt Cath mumble against her temple and smiled, tightening her grip.
There wouldn't be an apology – there was no need. Neither of them had handled the situation well, but none of that mattered now.
Pulling out of the embrace, Catherine surreptitiously wiped at her eyes in an attempt to disguise the tears that were creeping out and quickly dragged a hand through Lindsey's hair to try and sooth the child's visible confusion.
Lindsey mirrored her small smile, the first time she had done so in days, and Catherine exhaled a deep breath. Turning back to Sara, she gestured towards the house.
"I've made lunch."
x X x
Present
Catherine knew that working with Nick was not going to be a barrel of laughs, but she had not anticipated just how anxiety-provoking it would be. She had spent all evening watching what she did and said, attempting to make sure she didn't accidently set him off again.
It was exhausting.
"You tired?" He asked coldly when he caught her stifling yet another yawn as they worked on their evidence at opposite ends of the layout room. "Maybe you should take some Speed."
She flinched, lifting her startled gaze towards him. He had already resumed his work as if nothing had transpired, but his stiff body posture spoke volumes.
"Okay," she huffed. "I know that you're upset with me, but you cannot seriously believe that I would do anything deliberately to hurt Sara."
"To be honest Catherine, I don't know what to believe anymore."
At her incredulous look, he placed his hands flat on the table and stared her down.
"We're supposed to be a family, Catherine." He pointed out. "We have to trust each other. How are we meant to do that when we find out that you've been hiding things from us?"
"I wasn't intentionally hiding anything from you." She protested. "Someone gave me the pills outside of work and I just forgot to get rid of them. I never planned on taking them myself and I certainly never intended on Sara taking them!"
"I'm not just talking about the drugs, Catherine." He raised his voice, ripping off his blue gloves and throwing them onto the table. "I'm talking about what happened to Sara before. You've been lying to us for so long now..."
"Hey, I never lied about that." She argued firmly. "I didn't tell you because that's what Sara wanted, but I never actually lied about it. And you of all people should understand her desire to keep it quiet."
It was a low blow, but it had the desired effect of stalling him. In response to that personal shot, he crossed his arms and stalked slowly around the bench towards her.
"I understand her not wanting the whole world to know." He agreed with an eerily low voice and a cold stare which was contrary to his naturally warm brown eyes. "What I don't understand is you willingly protecting the person who hurt her, especially when you knew what kind of position of trust he once had over her."
This time, it was her eyes which sparked with a flicker of anger.
Straightening up to her full height, she met his gaze squarely.
"What exactly do you think you know, Nick?"
He rose to the challenge, his lips turning into a tight smile,
"I know that you lied to us about who really raped Sara."