Thanks for all the reviews! (Although there has been a significant decline
{hint, hint! ( })
And now, to reward you for all your perseverance through all the angst I have subjected you to, I'm going to give you a fluffy little chapter involving some of their wedding planning woes. Enjoy!
(Oops, sorry, wedding's the next chappy!)
*********************************************
"Sara!" Catherine called to the other CSI, "I hope you don't mind having auburn hair."
"Auburn hair?" Sara echoed, confused by the statement, until she saw what looked like a dead red fox in Catherine's hands.
"Unless you plan on wearing a lacy bandana for your wedding," Catherine shot back kindly. "Personally, I think it would be a very good fashion statement on you. Reflects your personality. Take no prisoners, you know?"
Sara sighed, it was month three into the planning process of her and Nick's wedding, and there were suggestions flying right and left, some of them far more ludicrous than others.
"So, what do you think?" Catherine pressed, as she shoved the wig at Sara.
"Where did you get this?" she asked wearily, eyeing it like it was going to come alive and bite her.
Catherine gave her a big smile. "It's mine. Used to use it back in the dancing days. A very good investment, I thought. That is, until I became a CSI, and I didn't need it anymore."
"Oh."
"Oh is right. You want another wig? I've got black, blond, and maybe brown, as well as a few greens and purples, but I don't think that you'll want those."
"Probably not," Sara replied with a smirk. "Guess I should try this one on, huh?"
"Definitely." Catherine watched with a critical eye as Sara pulled the wig over her bald head. "So," she asked casually, "are you going to have another round of chemo?"
"Hmm," Sara replied noncommittally, "This one isn't too bad, it's not itchy. I guess I'll keep it on." After thinking for a moment, she replied, "Yeah, I have one more round, in about a week, and then there won't be anymore unless the tumor's still there. Radiation's going to keep on going for another year or something, but that's not too bad, I guess."
"I'm sorry Sara," Catherine replied, feeling bad for the younger woman all over again.
"Why should you be sorry?" Sara wondered, "You didn't cause me to get bone cancer, and anyway, I'm rolling with the punches, just like Warrick said. I'm used to the symptoms of chemo by now."
"That's good," Catherine replied, although she sounded a bit dubious. "How's Nick taking all this?"
"Well. I mean, the only thing that's bothering him is the fact that his parents are adamant that we get married in Dallas, and my parents insist that we get married in San Francisco."
"So what are you going to do about it."
"Have a wedding here in Vegas, and that's final. If our parents don't want to come, they don't have to."
"Ooh, she's taking the hard line," Catherine quipped. Sara smiled.
"So, Cath, I get the feeling that you had more to say to me than asking me if I didn't mind auburn hair," Sara said suspiciously, wondering why Catherine was suddenly taking interest in her wedding. Early on, Sara and Nick told everyone that they were going to plan their own wedding, and they didn't want any help. Catherine had been the best out of all their friends, not once throwing out a bit of advice.
Catherine grinned sheepishly, "And you're the one who's supposed to not be able to see through people," she complained, "I guess you learned from the best?" Sara laughed as she pretended to buff her nails on her shirt.
"Okay, Cath, spill it. What did you really want to say to me?"
"Do you have a dress?"
Sara stared at Catherine blankly, wondering what on earth she was talking about. Suddenly it dawned on her. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "You mean a WEDDING dress?"
"No, a sun dress," Catherine responded sarcastically, "Of course a wedding dress! What else would I be talking about?"
"I don't know! I seriously think that the radiation has gotten to my brain cells!"
Catherine had to laugh at Sara's attempt to wheedle her way out of this particular interrogation. "Answer the question, Sara," she demanded kindly, "Do you already have a wedding dress?"
"Um, no?"
Catherine's smile got even bigger, reminding Sara of the cat from Alice in Wonderland. "That's what I thought," the older woman replied sagely. "It seems that a shopping trip is in order, don't you think?"
"No!" Sara moaned as she covered her face with her hands, "give me chemo, give me radiation, or give me another surgery, but don't make me go shopping! I hate shopping!"
Catherine fought to control the urge to laugh at her younger friend. She failed miserably. "Sara," she gasped in between fits of laughter, "You've gone through worse things and you're terrified of going shopping?"
"Let me clarify," Sara replied dryly, fighting vainly not to break out into a smile, "I don't mind shopping, but I'm afraid that I may just break my bank book if I go shopping with you. No offence."
"Sara," Catherine said honestly and quite seriously, "If you don't want to spend too much, just tell me how much you're willing to spend, and I swear I can find you everything you need a dollar under your budget."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's a talent of mine. That, and interpreting blood patterns."
"Okay, so shopping with you might not be that bad if you promise you can do that."
"I promise. Does tomorrow sound good to you?"
"What! Cath, you've got to give me more time to prepare for it!"
"You make it sound like you're going into battle."
***********************************************
Sara was five minutes late for their little shopping trip. As Catherine waited outside of the mall she wondered if Sara had gone AWOL on her.
As she was deep in thought, the aforementioned person almost magically appeared at her elbow. "Sorry, Cath, but Nick's mom just called me and nearly bit my head off through the phone when I refused to try and convince Nick to have our wedding in Dallas, and I didn't want to hang up on her."
Catherine waved it off, "That's okay, it comes with the territory of being a parent; fight until the bitter end to have the wedding done your way."
"Yeah, Nick said that he had to disconnect his phone, or else he wouldn't have gotten any sleep yesterday."
As they started walking in the mall doors, Catherine asked the question she really did not want the answer to. "So, what's you budget?"
"Five hundred dollars."
"For the dress?" Catherine asked apprehensively.
"No, for all of it: the dress, the shoes, the earrings, you know?"
Catherine literally came to a skidding halt, causing Sara, who had been walking behind her to get in through the door, to crash into her backside. "You've got to be kidding me!" Catherine protested as she turned to face the other woman. "In the seventies, it may have been possible to do that, but not now!"
Sara smiled, making Catherine wonder what she had up her sleeve. "If I remember correctly, you said that you could get everything I would need for a dollar under my budget."
"Yes, I did say that, but that was assuming that your budget was a little bigger than that."
"Oh come on, Cath," Sara replied as she began walking through the mall again, "Think of this as a challenge."
"Oh, this is more than a challenge," she cried, "We'd be lucky to find you a nice dress for that much, never mind anything else. You sure you're not willing to spend a bit more? I mean, your wedding day is that biggest day of your life."
"Exactly," Sara deducted sensibly, "It is exactly one day. Why spend more than I need to?"
"Sara, what am I ever going to do with you?" Catherine complained as she followed the other woman into the first bridal shop they saw.
Eventually, after going in and out of half a dozen stores and some very good debating on Catherine's part, they raised Sara's budget maximum to fifteen hundred dollars. Sara just looked like she was going to get her teeth pulled out without Novocain.
As they were walking silently through the mall, three hours later, completely exhausted, Sara suddenly made a sharp turn to her right. "Sara?" Catherine asked bewilderedly.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Sara asked in awe, pointing to a simple, but very elegant looking dress in the display window.
Catherine took a good look at it, and assessed that it would look amazing on Sara's tall, slim frame. "Go in and try it on," she commanded.
"How much to you think it is?" Sara asked.
"I don't know, and I don't care. If it costs more than what's in your budget and you can't buy the shoes and other things, I will personally take care of those, so stop worrying and try it on."
"Yes ma'am!" Sara replied, slightly shocked at the forcefulness with which Catherine dispatched her statement.
The same dress was placed into Sara's arms soon afterwards, and she was shown a dressing room. The satin hugged her figure in such a way that she thought that she was being wrapped in a cloud. "Are you planning to come out in the next century?" Catherine called out impatiently. Deciding that it was time for Catherine's scrutiny, Sara stepped out, only to be received with gasps, not only from Catherine, but from a number of other woman who were also loitering around the dressing rooms.
"What? Did I rip it or something?" Sara demanded, worried that she would have to pay for it anyway.
Heads shook mutely. All that Catherine could utter was, "Wow." The figure flattering dress was made of ivory colored satin. The top looked similar to a cocktail dress, in that it had fairly wide straps that came together to form a V in the front, and covered most of the back. It's bodice looked quite snug, but it looked right on Sara, and it flared out at the hip, creating waves of white, sometimes tinged with a bit of pink from the reflections, and came to rest gently on the floor. It pooled a bit on the ground, but that was only because she was bare foot, and even then, it just looked right on her that way. To most of the other woman, it reminded them of Cinderella stepping into the Prince's ball.
A little girl who was trying on a flower girls' dress, asked, with childlike curiosity, "Are you a model?"
Everyone laughed politely at that question. "No," Sara replied, with a smile.
"Oh, that's too bad," the child answered, "Because you sure look like one." After that statement, everyone went back to their own businesses.
"So, Cath, what do you think?" Sara asked, wanting to get an unbiased opinion.
"Two words: buy it."
"Cath!" Sara protested, "You're not being much help!"
"What?" the other woman retorted, "You asked me what I think, and I told you what I think!"
"Fine, fine, so you told me what you think. Does it look nice?"
"Sara!" Catherine looked about two seconds away from beating Sara over the head with something hard and heavy to get some sense into her.
"Okay! Sorry! I guess it does look nice. It's really comfortable too. I think I may just buy it. Could you check the price on the tag for me?"
"Sure," Catherine replied, maneuvering herself so that she was behind Sara. "Okay, let's see," she began, "It's $1000, but there's a sign up at the front that says everything is 25%-30% off. So that would be . . . about . . . $700 to about $750. That's not too bad if you ask me."
Sara looked back from the corner of her eyes, asked Catherine, "So you think it would be worth it to buy it?"
"Sara! For the last time, yes!" Catherine practically screamed. "For god's sake, you looked like an angel in that dress!"
Sara turned around and lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just double checking. No need to bite my head off!" Although she was protesting, she had an irrepressible smile on her face.
"Smart girl," Catherine praised, "You do know when to just give in. Very good."
Luckily for Catherine, Sara did not change her mind on the way to the checkout and didn't have any doubts after they bought the dress. She was also lucky that Sara was so worn out from all the shopping that she didn't put up a fight when they bought shoes and Sara never commented about Catherine's choice for jewelry. Even though she felt like she could fall over at any moment, Sara couldn't keep the smile off her face.
"Cath, I'm a believer," Sara said as they made their way back to the Tahoe, "You really know how to budget shop."
"Thanks. See what a little faith can do for you?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. By the way, how much did everything cost in total?"
Catherine looked at Sara blankly. "Oh, right. Hang on, I'll add it up." And with that, she pulled out a small scientific calculator out of the glove compartment and began adding up the totals. After checking the adding over twice, she internally groaned. They had gone over Sara's predetermined spending limit. In total, the wedding dress, shoes, veil, earrings, necklace, and new makeup cost $1734.98.
"So, Cath, what's the grand total?"
Catherine held a quick debate with herself. In the end, she decided that it would probably be best if she just told Sara that they were under. "Um, about $1434.98." She hoped that Sara wouldn't notice or comment on the $300 difference.
"Wow," Sara replied, "$65.02 under. And here I was, trying to keep a running total and I got about $1750. But I guess we can't always be too accurate, right? What would the fun in shopping for wedding dresses be then?" The last part was added with a wink.
'Great,' Catherine thought, 'She knows that we went over.'
***********************************
Okay, that's my contribution to your sanities (before you go running around with butterfly nets on your heads crying about how my stories have WAY too much angst for the normal human being . . .)
Next chapter: THE WEDDING!
Please review!!!!
And now, to reward you for all your perseverance through all the angst I have subjected you to, I'm going to give you a fluffy little chapter involving some of their wedding planning woes. Enjoy!
(Oops, sorry, wedding's the next chappy!)
*********************************************
"Sara!" Catherine called to the other CSI, "I hope you don't mind having auburn hair."
"Auburn hair?" Sara echoed, confused by the statement, until she saw what looked like a dead red fox in Catherine's hands.
"Unless you plan on wearing a lacy bandana for your wedding," Catherine shot back kindly. "Personally, I think it would be a very good fashion statement on you. Reflects your personality. Take no prisoners, you know?"
Sara sighed, it was month three into the planning process of her and Nick's wedding, and there were suggestions flying right and left, some of them far more ludicrous than others.
"So, what do you think?" Catherine pressed, as she shoved the wig at Sara.
"Where did you get this?" she asked wearily, eyeing it like it was going to come alive and bite her.
Catherine gave her a big smile. "It's mine. Used to use it back in the dancing days. A very good investment, I thought. That is, until I became a CSI, and I didn't need it anymore."
"Oh."
"Oh is right. You want another wig? I've got black, blond, and maybe brown, as well as a few greens and purples, but I don't think that you'll want those."
"Probably not," Sara replied with a smirk. "Guess I should try this one on, huh?"
"Definitely." Catherine watched with a critical eye as Sara pulled the wig over her bald head. "So," she asked casually, "are you going to have another round of chemo?"
"Hmm," Sara replied noncommittally, "This one isn't too bad, it's not itchy. I guess I'll keep it on." After thinking for a moment, she replied, "Yeah, I have one more round, in about a week, and then there won't be anymore unless the tumor's still there. Radiation's going to keep on going for another year or something, but that's not too bad, I guess."
"I'm sorry Sara," Catherine replied, feeling bad for the younger woman all over again.
"Why should you be sorry?" Sara wondered, "You didn't cause me to get bone cancer, and anyway, I'm rolling with the punches, just like Warrick said. I'm used to the symptoms of chemo by now."
"That's good," Catherine replied, although she sounded a bit dubious. "How's Nick taking all this?"
"Well. I mean, the only thing that's bothering him is the fact that his parents are adamant that we get married in Dallas, and my parents insist that we get married in San Francisco."
"So what are you going to do about it."
"Have a wedding here in Vegas, and that's final. If our parents don't want to come, they don't have to."
"Ooh, she's taking the hard line," Catherine quipped. Sara smiled.
"So, Cath, I get the feeling that you had more to say to me than asking me if I didn't mind auburn hair," Sara said suspiciously, wondering why Catherine was suddenly taking interest in her wedding. Early on, Sara and Nick told everyone that they were going to plan their own wedding, and they didn't want any help. Catherine had been the best out of all their friends, not once throwing out a bit of advice.
Catherine grinned sheepishly, "And you're the one who's supposed to not be able to see through people," she complained, "I guess you learned from the best?" Sara laughed as she pretended to buff her nails on her shirt.
"Okay, Cath, spill it. What did you really want to say to me?"
"Do you have a dress?"
Sara stared at Catherine blankly, wondering what on earth she was talking about. Suddenly it dawned on her. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "You mean a WEDDING dress?"
"No, a sun dress," Catherine responded sarcastically, "Of course a wedding dress! What else would I be talking about?"
"I don't know! I seriously think that the radiation has gotten to my brain cells!"
Catherine had to laugh at Sara's attempt to wheedle her way out of this particular interrogation. "Answer the question, Sara," she demanded kindly, "Do you already have a wedding dress?"
"Um, no?"
Catherine's smile got even bigger, reminding Sara of the cat from Alice in Wonderland. "That's what I thought," the older woman replied sagely. "It seems that a shopping trip is in order, don't you think?"
"No!" Sara moaned as she covered her face with her hands, "give me chemo, give me radiation, or give me another surgery, but don't make me go shopping! I hate shopping!"
Catherine fought to control the urge to laugh at her younger friend. She failed miserably. "Sara," she gasped in between fits of laughter, "You've gone through worse things and you're terrified of going shopping?"
"Let me clarify," Sara replied dryly, fighting vainly not to break out into a smile, "I don't mind shopping, but I'm afraid that I may just break my bank book if I go shopping with you. No offence."
"Sara," Catherine said honestly and quite seriously, "If you don't want to spend too much, just tell me how much you're willing to spend, and I swear I can find you everything you need a dollar under your budget."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's a talent of mine. That, and interpreting blood patterns."
"Okay, so shopping with you might not be that bad if you promise you can do that."
"I promise. Does tomorrow sound good to you?"
"What! Cath, you've got to give me more time to prepare for it!"
"You make it sound like you're going into battle."
***********************************************
Sara was five minutes late for their little shopping trip. As Catherine waited outside of the mall she wondered if Sara had gone AWOL on her.
As she was deep in thought, the aforementioned person almost magically appeared at her elbow. "Sorry, Cath, but Nick's mom just called me and nearly bit my head off through the phone when I refused to try and convince Nick to have our wedding in Dallas, and I didn't want to hang up on her."
Catherine waved it off, "That's okay, it comes with the territory of being a parent; fight until the bitter end to have the wedding done your way."
"Yeah, Nick said that he had to disconnect his phone, or else he wouldn't have gotten any sleep yesterday."
As they started walking in the mall doors, Catherine asked the question she really did not want the answer to. "So, what's you budget?"
"Five hundred dollars."
"For the dress?" Catherine asked apprehensively.
"No, for all of it: the dress, the shoes, the earrings, you know?"
Catherine literally came to a skidding halt, causing Sara, who had been walking behind her to get in through the door, to crash into her backside. "You've got to be kidding me!" Catherine protested as she turned to face the other woman. "In the seventies, it may have been possible to do that, but not now!"
Sara smiled, making Catherine wonder what she had up her sleeve. "If I remember correctly, you said that you could get everything I would need for a dollar under my budget."
"Yes, I did say that, but that was assuming that your budget was a little bigger than that."
"Oh come on, Cath," Sara replied as she began walking through the mall again, "Think of this as a challenge."
"Oh, this is more than a challenge," she cried, "We'd be lucky to find you a nice dress for that much, never mind anything else. You sure you're not willing to spend a bit more? I mean, your wedding day is that biggest day of your life."
"Exactly," Sara deducted sensibly, "It is exactly one day. Why spend more than I need to?"
"Sara, what am I ever going to do with you?" Catherine complained as she followed the other woman into the first bridal shop they saw.
Eventually, after going in and out of half a dozen stores and some very good debating on Catherine's part, they raised Sara's budget maximum to fifteen hundred dollars. Sara just looked like she was going to get her teeth pulled out without Novocain.
As they were walking silently through the mall, three hours later, completely exhausted, Sara suddenly made a sharp turn to her right. "Sara?" Catherine asked bewilderedly.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Sara asked in awe, pointing to a simple, but very elegant looking dress in the display window.
Catherine took a good look at it, and assessed that it would look amazing on Sara's tall, slim frame. "Go in and try it on," she commanded.
"How much to you think it is?" Sara asked.
"I don't know, and I don't care. If it costs more than what's in your budget and you can't buy the shoes and other things, I will personally take care of those, so stop worrying and try it on."
"Yes ma'am!" Sara replied, slightly shocked at the forcefulness with which Catherine dispatched her statement.
The same dress was placed into Sara's arms soon afterwards, and she was shown a dressing room. The satin hugged her figure in such a way that she thought that she was being wrapped in a cloud. "Are you planning to come out in the next century?" Catherine called out impatiently. Deciding that it was time for Catherine's scrutiny, Sara stepped out, only to be received with gasps, not only from Catherine, but from a number of other woman who were also loitering around the dressing rooms.
"What? Did I rip it or something?" Sara demanded, worried that she would have to pay for it anyway.
Heads shook mutely. All that Catherine could utter was, "Wow." The figure flattering dress was made of ivory colored satin. The top looked similar to a cocktail dress, in that it had fairly wide straps that came together to form a V in the front, and covered most of the back. It's bodice looked quite snug, but it looked right on Sara, and it flared out at the hip, creating waves of white, sometimes tinged with a bit of pink from the reflections, and came to rest gently on the floor. It pooled a bit on the ground, but that was only because she was bare foot, and even then, it just looked right on her that way. To most of the other woman, it reminded them of Cinderella stepping into the Prince's ball.
A little girl who was trying on a flower girls' dress, asked, with childlike curiosity, "Are you a model?"
Everyone laughed politely at that question. "No," Sara replied, with a smile.
"Oh, that's too bad," the child answered, "Because you sure look like one." After that statement, everyone went back to their own businesses.
"So, Cath, what do you think?" Sara asked, wanting to get an unbiased opinion.
"Two words: buy it."
"Cath!" Sara protested, "You're not being much help!"
"What?" the other woman retorted, "You asked me what I think, and I told you what I think!"
"Fine, fine, so you told me what you think. Does it look nice?"
"Sara!" Catherine looked about two seconds away from beating Sara over the head with something hard and heavy to get some sense into her.
"Okay! Sorry! I guess it does look nice. It's really comfortable too. I think I may just buy it. Could you check the price on the tag for me?"
"Sure," Catherine replied, maneuvering herself so that she was behind Sara. "Okay, let's see," she began, "It's $1000, but there's a sign up at the front that says everything is 25%-30% off. So that would be . . . about . . . $700 to about $750. That's not too bad if you ask me."
Sara looked back from the corner of her eyes, asked Catherine, "So you think it would be worth it to buy it?"
"Sara! For the last time, yes!" Catherine practically screamed. "For god's sake, you looked like an angel in that dress!"
Sara turned around and lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just double checking. No need to bite my head off!" Although she was protesting, she had an irrepressible smile on her face.
"Smart girl," Catherine praised, "You do know when to just give in. Very good."
Luckily for Catherine, Sara did not change her mind on the way to the checkout and didn't have any doubts after they bought the dress. She was also lucky that Sara was so worn out from all the shopping that she didn't put up a fight when they bought shoes and Sara never commented about Catherine's choice for jewelry. Even though she felt like she could fall over at any moment, Sara couldn't keep the smile off her face.
"Cath, I'm a believer," Sara said as they made their way back to the Tahoe, "You really know how to budget shop."
"Thanks. See what a little faith can do for you?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. By the way, how much did everything cost in total?"
Catherine looked at Sara blankly. "Oh, right. Hang on, I'll add it up." And with that, she pulled out a small scientific calculator out of the glove compartment and began adding up the totals. After checking the adding over twice, she internally groaned. They had gone over Sara's predetermined spending limit. In total, the wedding dress, shoes, veil, earrings, necklace, and new makeup cost $1734.98.
"So, Cath, what's the grand total?"
Catherine held a quick debate with herself. In the end, she decided that it would probably be best if she just told Sara that they were under. "Um, about $1434.98." She hoped that Sara wouldn't notice or comment on the $300 difference.
"Wow," Sara replied, "$65.02 under. And here I was, trying to keep a running total and I got about $1750. But I guess we can't always be too accurate, right? What would the fun in shopping for wedding dresses be then?" The last part was added with a wink.
'Great,' Catherine thought, 'She knows that we went over.'
***********************************
Okay, that's my contribution to your sanities (before you go running around with butterfly nets on your heads crying about how my stories have WAY too much angst for the normal human being . . .)
Next chapter: THE WEDDING!
Please review!!!!
