Three more chapters to go after this one! Thank you to all who have read and reviewed so far :)
x X x
"So, let me get this straight." Ecklie had begun to pace and was simultaneously tapping a pen thoughtfully against his chin, two things which were setting Grissom's teeth on edge. "You broke into Catherine's office, stole an evidence number for a case you had no involvement in, ran the DNA with no authority from the investigating officer or the victim and then breached the victim's privacy by blurting it out for the entire lab to hear."
He stopped abruptly, turning to face the sheepish men with a raised eyebrow.
"Is that about right?"
"Pretty much." Greg moped, sensing that it wouldn't be wise to try and fight their way out of this particular mess.
"And where were you?" The Director spun on his heel towards Gil, who flinched at the accusation that he was somehow responsible for the situation.
"I had nothing to do with this." The supervisor pointed out indignantly.
"It doesn't matter, Gil." Ecklie spat in frustration. "They're your team, you're supposed to keep them in line."
"Well, I can't watch them all every minute of the day..."
"Sara was raped, and you had no idea until now." The irate man cut him off. "Catherine has been out gathering and hiding evidence right under your nose, not to mention the mess she got herself into recently. And now this – you're dropping the ball, Gil."
"Sounds like I'm right on cue." Catherine sighed resignedly, skulking back into the room just in time for her share of the lecture.
However, to her surprise and relief, Ecklie looked right past her to her companion.
"Good, you're here." He announced, crossing his arms. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Uh, Warrick wasn't involved in this." Greg piped up in defence of the dark-skinned CSI. "He was against the whole thing, he told me and Nick to stop."
Conrad appraised the two men warily, weighing up the sincerity in Greg's imploration, before finally nodding in acceptance.
"Well, I'm glad someone in this team has some sense." He snapped.
Grissom quickly used the brief pause in Ecklie's rant to turn his attention towards Catherine.
"Where's Sara now?"
"She's in my office." She cleared her throat, shifting her gaze between the two bosses. "If it's alright with you, I'm going to take her home."
"I think that's a good idea." Conrad agreed, checking his watch and making as if to leave the room. However, just when Cath thought she had escaped her share of his wrath, he paused in the threshold. "Come to my office at the start of shift tomorrow. We still have a lot to talk about."
"Oh good." She hummed sarcastically in the wake of his departure.
Far from offering sympathy, the boys shifted their awkward glances around the room. The tension between Catherine and Nick had simmered down, for now, but the underlying issues remained and though nobody said it out loud, things were far from copacetic in the little group.
"I'd better get back to her." The blonde cleared her throat once the silence became too unbearable for her to stand.
"Catherine, wait." Greg called her back before she could escape. "I know that Sara never wanted us to find out about this; but now we have, I need to know – did ... did he hurt her before, or was it just once?"
Feeling every pair of eyes in the room latch onto her and realising that she wasn't getting out without answering, she offered a weary sigh.
"He never did anything to hurt her in San Francisco." She assured them. "In fact, they worked very well together. He had feelings for her, but they were never reciprocated and it never caused an issue when they were working together, until right before she left."
"What happened then?" Nick pressed, taking up residence at the bench.
"Well, one night she'd had a bad case. He took her home, because she was upset. They shared a drink and ..." She threw her hands up, assuming the rest was self-explanatory. "Sara made it clear that she didn't want it to happen again."
"But he did." Grissom asked with a scowl. He had spoken to this guy when he first invited Sara to Vegas – he had needed to get her boss' permission to steal her, after all. The man had been reluctant to let her go, but Grissom had simply assumed it was simply because he didn't want to lose a good CSI. Evidently, he had had another motive for trying to keep her in California.
"Yeah. Things got pretty awkward between them, until she left."
"So, that's why she stayed on in Vegas?" Greg assumed. "To get away from him?"
"Well ... that was part of it, I guess." Cath frowned. "It certainly wasn't the only reason she stayed. Or even the main reason."
"So, what happened that night, in Vegas?" Nick pressed, getting them back onto the topic at hand.
"He was here on other business and asked her to meet with him. He was trying to entice her back to San Francisco. They'd gone out for a drink and he drove her home." She explained, softening her voice. "You can probably figure out the rest."
"Why didn't she press charges?" Warrick asked. He had slid onto a stool beside Nick, allowing him to intervene if the Texan's temper began to get the better of him; but thankfully he appeared to have mellowed since receiving a serve from Ecklie.
Catherine shook her head sadly.
"Do you have any idea what can of worms it would open if she did?" She asked rhetorically. "The head of the San Francisco Crime Lab arrested for rape? It would compromise the integrity of the entire lab. Sara wasn't prepared to do that."
"So, she just let him get away with it?" Nick scowled.
"She made the decision not to put herself, and her former colleagues, through the hell of a very public trial." Cath paraphrased. "And whether you agree with that or not, surely you can understand her desire to just leave it in her past?"
It was posed as an open question to the while room, but she was staring at Nick when she asked it and he understood what she was getting at, even if he didn't appreciate the message.
"Alright," She pushed herself away from the table, satisfied that she had made her point. "Can I take her home now?"
Grissom waved a dismissive hand at her, allowing her to leave.
As she began to depart, the boys appeared to deflate over the bench, lost in a shared depression.
She hovered in the doorway a moment longer, feeling a wave of sympathy for them. Their actions truly were based on concern for Sara, above all else. And that was certainly something she could empathise with.
"Sara's a tough chick." She pointed out gently. "This knocked her for a while, but she really is okay. I wouldn't let her be any other way."
x X x
She wasn't entirely sure that the guys had believed her, but once she got Sara out of the lab and into the private security of her car, she knew that she was right. The brunette was just fine, as long as she didn't have to dwell on what had happened.
They wouldn't talk about it tonight. She would get Sara home, make sure she was okay and leave her in peace. There would be plenty of time for talking tomorrow.
By the time the lab was just a blur in the rear view mirror, Sara was already starting to doze off in the passenger seat. Catherine reached over and patted her friend's leg affectionately, letting her sleep off her stress.
After all, it wasn't like she needed directions.
x X x
Flashback: You've got male
She was almost at her car, exhausted from playing in the woods all day and ready to crash in bed, when something caught her eye that stalled her.
Sara was sat very still, her gaze fixated on the ground and her hair falling across her face. If not for the tiny strip of light cutting across her, she would have been hidden in the shadows and Catherine would have passed her by unnoticed.
Instead, the older woman released a tired sigh and ambled over towards her.
"Hey." She greeted, causing Sara to look up, startled by the interruption to her deep thoughts. "What are you still doing here? I thought you left ages ago."
"Yeah, I started to." Sara admitted, trailing off before she offered any particular excuse for loitering in the darkness.
Dissatisfied, Catherine sat down beside her on the low wall and nudged her gently in an effort to elicit a more useable response.
Sara lifted her head, staring out across the empty parking lot for a minute.
"Are you happy with your life?"
The question blindsided Catherine, who scrutinised her friend for a moment before even attempting to proffer an answer.
Sara looked tired. Not so much physically tired, more weighed down by some invisible weight.
"What's wrong Sara?" She asked firmly, electing to ignore the girl's question for now.
When Sara also declined to answer, Cath twisted round to better face her and noticed for the first time that she had been crying.
"Is this about your case?" She asked curiously, reaching out a hand to tenderly wipe away the drying tear tracks with the pad of her thumb. "Warrick just filled me in on it."
"I guess, in a way." Sara agreed, turning away in embarrassment at being caught in such a vulnerable state. "I was just thinking about one of our victims – how her life was so ... isolated. I guess it just struck a nerve; a little too familiar, you know?"
Catherine nodded slowly in understanding, finally realising what it was that had her young colleague so morose. Not the case itself, per se; more the realisation that she had adopted a rather lonely lifestyle.
"Well, maybe if you let us in every once in a while, we could do something about that." She elbowed her young counterpart playfully. "We don't bite, you know."
Sara laughed softly, glad that Catherine had picked up on her meaning without needing further explanation.
"Yeah, I know." She mused. "I'm just not good at this."
Cath grinned, humming in agreement. She did indeed know that Sara wasn't the most trusting of people. She had already tried to break down those defensive barriers a few times and barely made a dent in them. However, Sara's current mood appeared to indicate that she might be willing to relax them a little...
"Well, lucky for you, I am." She patted her knee lightly.
"Yeah, lucky me." Sara teased half-seriously. Catherine smiled tightly at her little joke, but let it slide for now.
"Come on," she took Sara's arm and hoisted her to her feet. "I'll take you home. You look shattered and we can't have you bouncing off the kerb, can we?"
Sara looked like she wanted to argue for a moment, but the physical effort appeared altogether too much and she allowed herself to be led across the parking lot to Catherine's car.
As Cath got herself settled for the drive, Sara stared straight ahead out of the window, patiently waiting. However, when they didn't go anywhere, she turned to find her companion appraising her with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" She asked uncomfortably, causing Catherine's lips to twitch into a smile.
"Where do you live?"