Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been and never will be.
A/N: This chapter is for Astralis, because I have been dangling this story in front of her and never given her much more to read other than chapter 1 and that wasn't very nice of me.
Fade to Black
Catherine
I knew who was calling, but I asked anyway, wanting him to tell me he needed me, that he needed me professionally and personally. I could hear him breathing harshly into the receiver of his cell phone and I waited, waited patiently until he spoke the words I had craved to hear for so many months.
"Catherine, I need you."
Then he continued with words I should have expected, but didn't.
"It's Sara."
I could restrain myself and didn't reply with the words which were already formed but hadn't left my mouth yet.
"Isn't it always?"
I went to find Nick and Warrick. I needed them to keep me focused, I needed them to make sure my growing dislike of Sara wouldn't interfere with me doing my job.
It wasn't hard to find Nick. I had noticed he had taken up the habit of putting in overtime after every shift, he was supposedly finishing up backed up paperwork, but I knew he was staying late just in time to see the night shift arrive. I had tried to mold him into a real swing shift CSI, but I should have known of all people he would stay loyal to his friends on the night shift, but then again I don't think any of us really felt at home at the swing shift, not even me.
I observed him for a little while, he was tapping his pencil against the table in a steady rhythm. I knew he only did that when something was bothering him. Watching him I realized how much he had grown up, how much he had grown over the years, becoming the CSI most of us wanted to be.
I told him we were needed on a night shift case. I failed to mention something was wrong with Sara. I was going to need him to use his people skills with the night shift team especially Grissom as my own people skills had been failing me lately. I needed him to stay calm.
Nick
I was supposed to be doing my paperwork, but my thoughts kept drifting to Sara. They kept drifting back to the day that we hesitantly started to act on our feelings. I'm still grateful that it wasn't pain or desperation which led to that first kiss we shared. I will be eternally grateful that it didn't start on one of those dark days filled with horror. One of those days, which chills you to the bone and keeps you shivering for days.
A soft summer breeze was making her curls dance. The sight of her standing next to me on the rooftop of the building was keeping me mesmerized and she must have known I was watching her as she turned towards me, her head slightly turned to the side. I couldn't help myself when I tucked one of her curls behind her ear and as I did that I let my finger linger on her cheek. She closed her eyes and I continued my path tracing every line and curve, trying to remember them as if I would never see her again after that day. I leaned in and softly brushed my lips against hers. We just stood there and she never opened her eyes.
But that was then and this is now and somewhere in between the beauty of that first day was lost, but something that gets lost can be found again. I just pray it can, because this morning I did something I thought I wasn't capable of: I had hurt her and I had wanted to hurt her. I had purposely set out to hurt her, because she was hurting me like no one else had ever done before, like no one else would be able to do ever again.
The roller coaster we had been riding for the past week abruptly came to a halt this morning when my words, which are making me sick this very moment, caused a look in her eyes, which I will never forget.
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced my words may have done irreparable damage.
Snapping out of my reverie I see Catherine standing in the doorway. She tells me we are needed on a night shift case. I'm exhausted, but I welcome the distraction. That look in her soulful brown eyes will be haunting me wherever I go.
TBC