"Hey," she hollered at his retreating form, stalking him into the office and slamming the door behind them. "Alright, come on. Say whatever you want to say to me."

He stopped in front of his desk, keeping his back to her and tipping his head towards the ceiling.

"I don't think I have anything to say to you, Catherine." He said with an unsettlingly calm tone.

"Look, I know that you're upset..." His choked out laugh cut her off, but she quickly regrouped her thoughts. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe this isn't about you?"

Finally, he turned to shoot her a raised eyebrow.

"Then what is it about?" He challenged sceptically.

"Sara, Gil." She snapped. "It's about Sara. Maybe, for once in her life, she's doing something for herself?"

"By breaking up the team again?"

"No, by choosing a supervisor who actually listens to her, a supervisor who supports her!" Catherine raised her voice, waving her hand in his face in frustration.

He stared at her for a whole minute, his blue eyes narrowed in question.

"You think she was right to do this." He realised aloud. She pursed her lips in response.

"I don't think she would have done it if it wasn't right for her." She paraphrased tactfully.

"And of course it works in your favour." He noted. "You get a permanent promotion."

She laughed bitterly, shaking her head.

"Don't do that." She warned. "Don't try to make me feel bad about accepting this – this is on my own merits."

"Your merits and Ecklie's power trip." He scoffed.

Cath clicked her jaw angrily. He was trying his best to provoke her into a reaction, but she was determined not to rise to it. She would not let him ruin this for her.

"The fact that Sara trusts me to take over her supervision has nothing to do with you, your lack of political acumen or Ecklie's dislike of you." She pointed out tensely. "I have spent months winning her over, earning her trust and showing her that she can rely on me when she needs to. Maybe if you hadn't spent the last five years playing games with her heart, you could have done the same."

Having said her piece, and beginning to lose the internal battle with her temper, she spun on her heel and strutted out, leaving him standing in the wake of her rant with his jaw hanging open.

x X x

She almost sailed straight past the locker room when something caught her eye and she backtracked to peer into the dimness.

"Hey." She breathed, stepping into the darkened room. "I've been looking all over for you."

Sara didn't look up from her lap.

"Well, you found me." She said quietly. Catherine joined her sat on the bench and scrutinised her for a second.

"Yeah." She agreed tentatively, struggling to read her current emotional state. "I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?" Sara looked up, but didn't meet her gaze, choosing to stare straight ahead. Catherine leant closer and nudged her gently.

"For my promotion."

A small laugh bubbled out of brunette and Catherine smiled at the sound.

"I didn't realise that Ecklie was going to tell you already." Sara mumbled sheepishly.

"Well he has." Cath nodded, raising an eyebrow at her. "A little forewarning wouldn't have gone amiss, though."

Sara sank her gaze into her lap again, nodding in agreement.

"I'm sorry; I just didn't want to put you in the middle if it wasn't going to work out."

"In the middle of what?" Catherine asked softly. "What's happened between you and Gil?"

"Nothing." Sara finally met her gaze, visibly surprised by the question.

"Then what's all this about?"

"Nothing specific." She shrugged ambiguously, dragging the toe of her boot across the stone floor. "I just felt like things were going well and I didn't want to go back to how things were."

"You know that I wasn't going anywhere, right?" Cath pointed out. "If you wanted to talk to me about something, you still could have, even with Gil as your primary supervisor."

"I know. But it's just ..."

"What?" Cath nudged her again when she trailed off.

"My life has never felt this ... secure." She explained awkwardly. "For the first time, I feel settled. I feel like I belong somewhere and I know what's going to happen from one day to the next. I've never had that before and that's down to you. I guess I just wasn't ready to lose that yet."

Catherine shook her head affectionately at the quiet admission.

"Sara, honey; I'm always going to be here to support you. You know that."

A small smile tugged at Sara's lips.

"Yeah, I guess do." She agreed, seemingly to herself. "I just wanted to make it more official, I guess. In case I ever need ... more support."

Cath wasn't sure what to make of the cryptic explanation, but she didn't get chance to ask before Sara turned to her with a bashful expression.

"I'm sorry if I caused more problems for you and Grissom, that wasn't my intention."

Catherine rolled her eyes, patting her leg gently.

"Don't worry about that." She assured her flippantly. "As long as you realise what you're getting into here – I'm not Grissom; there'll be no slacking with your reports for me."

Sara laughed, picking up on the light-hearted tone to her voice and appreciating the change of topic.

"Understood." She nodded. "I really do appreciate this Catherine. And I promise I have no intention of making life difficult for you – I know you've got a lot riding on this too."

Catherine frowned softly at the younger woman. She had been joking, but it appeared that Sara was quite serious about this. She genuinely wanted this to work out, for both of them.

"Thank you." She hummed. Feeling the need to lighten the mood, she moved her hand from Sara's thigh and threaded their fingers together. "Come on, I think I need a drink to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Sara asked, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Catherine grinned at her.

"My promotion."

x X x

"Ecklie!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, inhaling sharply. It had been a long shift and he was really not in the mood for this, but before he had chance to think up an escape excuse, Grissom had appeared in front of him, his cheeks red and his eyes flaming in anger.

"Gil." He greeted calmly. "What can I do for you?"

"Why are you doing this?" Grissom demanded. Conrad, realising that the hallway was not the right place for this conversation, took him by the sleeve and attempted to guide him into a nearby lab. Gil, however, shook him off and held his ground.

Since it was evident that they were going to have this conversation here and now, he offered a resigned sigh.

"It's what she asked for." He explained, trying to ensure the conversation remained as confidential as possible in such an exposed part of the lab. "If you have a problem with her decision, maybe you should take it up with her."

"Is the lab really going to pay for this?" Grissom challenged. "I can't see the Undersheriff agreeing to alter the budget just because she asked.

"Look, I know that Sara and I have had our run-ins in the past," Ecklie acknowledged, lowering his voice. "But she is a damn good CSI. Losing her would be a big loss to the department and the Undersheriff agreed that the cost of increasing Catherine's salary is worth it to avoid us having to advertise for a new CSI and train some young grad-student up to Sara's level."

Grissom stared at him for a long moment, reading between the lines of his answer.

"Did she threaten to quit?" He asked in a low voice.

"Not in so many words, but I got that impression." Ecklie shrugged. "And to be honest, Gil, I think the Undersheriff doesn't want the headache of dealing with a potential lawsuit if Sara did quit because of whatever it is that you've done to upset her."

"I haven't done anything." He blinked, affronted.

"Maybe, maybe not." Conrad shrugged ambivalently, as if he genuinely couldn't care less. "But let's be honest, you haven't always been professional around her either, have you?"

The question was apparently rhetorical, as the Lab Director checked his watch and promptly continued on his path without waiting for an answer.

Which was just as well, since Grissom didn't have one; despite it being the second time in as many hours that someone had accused him of the same thing.

x X x

She had been crying.

Catherine had been so relieved to find Sara in the locker room, she hadn't noticed it at the time, but she realised it now. She had been sitting alone in the dark and she had been crying.

And that wasn't the only thing that had been bothering Cath. Sara's explanation made sense, to a degree. Her early childhood had been full of chaos and violence. Following that, she had spent years in foster care, where her family could change at a day's notice and her future was decided by social workers and judges she had never met.

Even as an adult, she had lived paycheck-to-paycheck in order to fund her mother's care. She probably hadn't ever experienced the kind of stability she currently had. Who could blame her for wanting to hold onto that?

But she got the distinct feeling that there was something more to this decision – something she was hiding from Catherine.

If Sara had noticed the blonde scrutinising her across the table, she hadn't let on, toying distractedly with an elastic band wrapped around her wrist.

"Alright, come on." Cath put her beer down, getting her attention at last. "I know there's something else you're not telling me about all this."

Sara flinched, snapping back to the present from wherever she had been.

"No, there isn't." She denied, picking up her own drink and scratching at a peeling corner of the label.

"Sara, you're not a good liar." Catherine pointed out with a knowing smile. "What's the real reason you asked for me to stay on as your supervisor?"

The brunette's gaze slipped off to the side and she shrugged cagily.

"I told you. I like the way things are going at the moment."

It was still a non-answer, but Catherine found herself unwilling to push it further. For whatever reason, Sara seemed disinclined to discuss it with her, and she knew the young woman well enough to know that attempting to drag it out of her would get her nowhere.

Looking at her tightly-pursed lips and anxious gaze, Cath found herself longing sadly for that glimpse of unguarded-Sara – the Sara she had seen dealing with the circus animals.

As the girl appeared to start retreating back into her quiet state of contemplation, a spontaneous thought popped into Catherine's head and before she had chance to analyse it, her mouth had already run away with itself and voiced it aloud.

"I'm taking Lindsey horse-riding on Saturday – would you like to join us?"

Sara blinked, surprised by the left-field offer. However, to Catherine's relief, her face broke out in the first proper smile she had seen all night.

"Sure, I'd love to." She agreed.

Cath matched her expression, sinking back into the booth with a satisfied nod, still wondering where the impulsive offer had come from.

On the plus side, Lindsey would be thrilled to learn they were going horse-riding at the weekend.