A/N I know I'm a dork…but I mean come on, what else could you name a hairy spider but Fluffy??
Chapter 22
Catherine approached Grissom's office warily. She hoped Sara wasn't in there, because she hadn't come up with a good way to apologize yet. Listening closely, she heard nothing but the sound of Grissom murmuring to his tarantula, Fluffy. She knocked and pushed the door open at the same time. Both Grissom and Fluffy looked up in surprise.
"Catherine. Do you need something?" He was afraid he knew what she "needed," and he was right.
"I want to know what happened between you and Sara. I'm dying of curiosity, and I promise I won't tell her you spilled." She didn't mention that Sara would probably like to kill Catherine right about now, and Grissom would be added to the list if he talked.
He removed his glasses, sighing. This was not shaping up to be a good night. "Catherine, I'm not going to tell you anything of the sort. Nothing is going on between Sara and me other than what you saw. That's all you need to know, and that's all you are going to know."
As Sara rounded the corner near Grissom's office, she heard Catherine's strident voice coming from behind the door. "Oh come on, Gil! I know there's something more to it than you running into each other in a doorway. Sara's never going to know, so tell me!" Sara jerked back, heart pounding. He wouldn't! Would he? She had to know. She crept toward the door again, straining to hear Grissom's response. He was speaking, but she couldn't distinguish any words, just a low rumble of sound.
Then Catherine's laugh. "Are you serious? I didn't think you were really going to tell me!" Sara felt like he'd slapped her. Well . . . now she knew where his loyalties lay. Fine. She didn't need Grissom. She didn't need anyone. She made her way to the locker room as fast as she could, and grabbed the journal she always kept in her bag. Then, peering around the corner to make sure none of them were coming, she ran to Archie's small lab.
She knocked lightly and waved at Archie through the glass. He motioned for her to come in. "Hey Sara. What's up?"
She faked a smile. "Oh, not much. Slow night. Would you mind if I, uh, hung out in here for a while? It's too . . . loud . . . in the breakroom."
Archie shrugged, waving her to a chair. "No problem. Make yourself comfortable."
"Thanks." She settled into the chair he had indicated, trying to get absorbed in the journal article she had found utterly intriguing last night. No such luck – the events of tonight were spinning around in her mind. Betrayal, first by her coworkers, then by Grissom. She could have handled just the CSIs - as long as she had Grissom she felt like she could face the world. But to have both relationships disappear in the space of a few minutes . . . she ground her palm into her forehead. "Read, Sara. Don't think about it."
Archie surreptitiously watched the woman perched across from his table. Sara looked really upset. He didn't mind letting her hide out in his lab – he was always glad that he had the calmest place to work in the whole building – but he hoped there was nothing really wrong. Sara obviously wanted privacy, though, so he said nothing and returned to his work.
He surfaced into the real world again two hours later and looked over at Sara. Things had apparently not gotten any better; she sat with her head in her hands, reading – or trying to read – the journal on her lap. As he was about to turn back to his work, Archie saw something he'd never in a million years have expected to come from Sara Sidle: a tear. Just one, but it fell with a "plop" onto the page she was reading. Sara wiped it away without a thought, lost in whatever world she was in.
Ok, now he was really worried. He needed to find another CSI and find out what was wrong and whether he could do anything. "Hey Sara?" Her head jerked up and she bit her lip, hoping Archie couldn't see the flush on her cheeks. "I'm going to go get a, um, soda. Do you want one?" Sara shook her head. "Ok, I'll be back in a few. Hold down the fort while I'm gone, 'kay?" he asked with a weak smile. Sara wasn't listening; she was back in her world.
Archie left his lab at a near run. Who should he seek out? Catherine was too abrasive to deal with a Sara this troubled. Nick and Warrick tried, and they'd be good at comforting her . . . but someone needed to calm her down first. He'd find Grissom, then – the most rational member of the team, who always seemed to understand Sara.
