Chapter 6 –

Disclaimer – Not mine. Never will be… I just like to have a little fun with them.

A/N: Sorry, long time no update. You can thank Marlou's bribery of me with Eric Szmanda and cherries for this one.

ooooo

It would be the one day that she was this late, that there were no parking spaces anywhere wouldn't it? She considered it just her bad luck of the moment. Sara pulled her fingers through her hair to straighten it out a little and speed walked into the break room, just ten minutes late in the end. She was surprised that she had even made it in that quickly.

"Sorry, I had a little bit of a rush on tonight" The strange looks she gained from the rest of the nightshift made her stop and look around. "What? You lot have got to learn not to give me these weird looks it could really hurt my ego you know."

"You just got to stop giving us the reasons girl." Warrick smiled and raised and eyebrow at her. Sara gave a wry smile turned and folded her coat onto the back of the chair before turning back to the others. "So where are assignments?"

"Just waiting for you," Grissom stood in the doorway, "-was wondering where you'd got to." Sara didn't miss the double meaning behind his words and blushed lightly.

"Sorry, had a busy day." She smiled slightly, a smile which was returned by him, and watched closely by Catherine who was quietly reading into the subtle body language.

Catherine's conclusion seemed to please her and she leaned into Sara who was sat beside her, "Nice to know you finally got round to it. Tell me when you tell the rest of them so I don't drop you in it." Catherine muttered under her breath, she gave Sara a wicked grin.

"You wouldn't" Sara whispered back her eyes widening.

"If you don't get on with it I might explode, two months is a long time for me to keep something like this under wraps." The two shared a silent battle of wills.

"Fine, later today." Sara relented. Their whispered conversation had not gone un-noticed by the men and their interest forced them to finish it a little earlier than Catherine had hoped.

"Right, we have only one crime of the moment, attempted arson at the palms. Nick, you finished up your case yesterday, I think?" Nick nodded slightly. "Right, then this is yours, you're working it solo. Have fun. Catherine you can help Sara and I. Warrick, I think you have some things to finish off, if not I have plenty of paperwork for you."

"That's ok, I'm sure I'll be able to think of something" Warrick chuckled slightly, before leaving he retorted. "Man, what a choice." The three remaining CSI's left the break room and started their journey down the corridor.

"Sara we have an ID from our girl up a tree, Robbins has her in autopsy now, you can fill Cath in on the way." I meanwhile have a pile of paperwork waiting for me, you know where I'll be if you need me." He gave an ironic smile and turned into his office. The women carried on with their journey to autopsy. "How did you know I told him?" Sara questioned she older woman as they entered Doc Robbins domain.

"It's the first time I've seen you take your coat off without a substantial top on underneath. I figured you weren't too worried about anyone finding out anymore." Catherine gave her a knowing look. "Four months right?" Before Sara could say anything Doc Robbins rounded the corner and both women were immediately silenced. Sara gave wide eyed look at Cath and a look of worry crossed her features.

"Hey Al, what've you got for us?" Cath broke the quiet of the room.

The older medical examiner hobbled deftly across the room towards a covered gurney with what the women assumed to be their victim. "Her name is Samantha Aster, 17, she was on the missing persons register. Her parents reported her missing 3 days ago. Rigours fixed, puts her TOD at about 18-20 hours ago, so you didn't find her that long after. Her tox report is pending but she doesn't have any signs of drug abuse or long term illness. From what I can see, she died from exposure probably was alive when she was left in that tree."

Robbins paused for a few seconds before continuing eyeing Sara closely.

"She has multiple breakages, one leg, several ribs and a fractured wrist, also quite a lot of defensive wounds on her hands."

"Sexual assault?" Catherine questioned.

"it would appear so. I've sent the kit to Greg." Robbins pulled the sheet back over the body. "I cant tell you for sure until the tox screen comes back what the cause of death is but I'll page you when I get it."

"Thanks." Sara muttered, rubbing her forehead distractedly and staring at the ground as she turned to leave.

"Oh, and Sara… Congratulations." Her head jerked up her eyes wide once more, catching his eyes with her own, and noting the cheeky grin on his face. He had known exactly what they were talking about. Sara smiled slightly back.

"See, that wasn't so difficult, was it?" Catherine said to the brunette by her side once they had arrived at Greg's lab where it appeared he had taken a break, so they simply stood to wait.

"That's only because I didn't have to say anything. I'm dreading Nick and Warrick, and Greg actually."

"He'll be so upset his dream girl's taken." Catherine said her hand over her heart in a mocking gesture. Sara gave her a look and gently cuffed her arm. "…actually, you're going to have to tell all these love-struck lab rats. I don't envy you." Catherine then turned a little more serious. "You know they're all going to speculate about the father. If Cavallo… or even Ecklie finds out about this you could both lose your jobs."

"I know that. That's why I'm not going to say anything. Can you just sit on it for a while?" Sara sighed "I'm not too worried about Nick, Warrick, or even Greg. But for the rest it's probably better not to say anything. The rumours are gonna fly enough as it is."

Catherine nodded. "You sure you don't want to sit down or something?"

Sara glared at her "I'm not fragile, besides, I can't sit down comfortably in these trousers anymore, they already don't do up properly."

"I think we need to get you some new clothes."

"No." Her firm response prompted a surprised eyebrow raise from Catherine. "I don't need to resort to that yet. It can wait." Sara could be stubborn but it was becoming obvious that she was avoiding admitting that anything had changed. She was keeping up her general pace, wearing her everyday clothes, and didn't appear to have any inclination to change.

"If you're having such issues with them why will you not just admit you need new ones?" Catherine gestured vaguely at her

"Need what?" Greg entered his lab and eyed the two women standing by his desk.

"What I need are my DNA results." Sara replied quickly. Her eyes went straight back to Catherine, who had evidently decided that today was probably not the day to test her boundaries.

Greg squinted at them a little. Sara's fixed smile did nothing to make their excuse more believable. "OK, well here they are, ran the results through CODIS, Nada. But I did get a hit on our very own PD database." Greg handed the results sheet to Sara who examined it carefully, Catherine leaning over her shoulder.

"Uh oh, we got war" Cath groaned slightly remembering the last time they had tackled members of law enforcement. It wasn't pretty, it was kind of a one rule for us one for everyone else kind of deal. Unfortunately they all knew what happened when you mess with cops. "This could be interesting."

"Thanks Greg."

As the two left Catherine made time to say "I'm still taking you shopping after shift." just loud enough that Greg could overhear. Sara glared at her.

"We'd better go tell Grissom we've got a fight on our hands."

Catherine entered Grissom's office to give him the news. Leaning both her hands on the desk she smiled deviously at the man across the desk. He took the end of his glasses from him lips in a typical gesture and appraised her carefully before phrasing his question. "I'm guessing you have news." He said in a way that hinted at something a little deeper.

Her smile grew wider. "I have that." Catherine paused before continuing more seriously. "I also know who the girl was and the guy who raped her. We have an in-house match. Ray Miller, LVPD; could cause us problems."

Grissom's face too fell slightly at the news. "We still have to follow it. The evidence takes it out of our hands." Catherine nodded resolutely.

"I'll go talk to Brass, have him brought in. I'll have a warrant for his home done later for you."