Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were, but they belong to Anthony E Zuicker and co. I'm merely borrowing them.

Author's Note: Well, I don't think anyone's reading this anymore, but never mind. I'll continue it for the moment anyway, since when I have ideas I'm always gonna try follow them through, since it doesn't happen that often.

Chapter 5

Sara paced the room, paused at the front door with her hand on the knob, pulled her hand away as if it had been zapped, then went back over to her couch, plonked herself down and sighed. She had been following this pattern for 10 minutes, but every time she grasped the doorknob, assuring herself that everything would be fine, her mind was flooded with all the images of what could go wrong and she would retreat to the safety of the couch, before building up steam, pacing around the room a few times and then trying again. But have the exact same result as each previous attempt. It just wasn't working. And if she didn't leave soon, she was going to be late.

She rested her head on her hands, grinding the heel of her palms into her eyes. Having a few days off may have prevented any new faces from popping up in her nightmares, but ut hadn't lessened those featuring the cold, dead eyes that had already bored into her brain. The only way that she had been managing to get any nightmare free sleep was drugs. But they made her slow and her brain even more sluggish than they made her body. Not only was that effect not worth it, but she wouldn't be able to use them while she was working anyway. She needed all her senses sharp for her job. And though they may have been dulled from lack of sleep – though caffeine was taking care of that somewhat – the drugs were much, much worse on her sharpness.

Sara was jolted out of her unsleeping dream-state by the shrill ringing of her doorbell. Frowning, she approached the door. She wasn't expecting anyone. She certainly wouldn't have organised anything for tonight when she knew she was going out. She stood behind the door, peering cautiously through the peephole. And was greeted by the sight of the familiar form of Catherine standing there, smiling merrily and waving a set of car-keys at her, obviously indicating that she was here to give Sara a lift. Groaning, Sara unlatched and opened the door. Catherine knew her too well. She had probably figured that Sara was going to chicken out and decided that wasn't on. This was her way of forcing Sara to try out her class.

"Surprised to see me?" Catherine grinned at her, "Knowing you, you've been cooped up in here since Wednesday. You're coming out now, whether you like it or not! It's not good for you to be inside all this time." Her grin softened and sobered to a concerned look, "You're still not getting much sleep, are you? You look a little better – the panda look's gone- but that about it. Maybe you should ask Gris for some more time off. He'd let you. We don't have too much to do, and he's worried about you," she paused, holding Sara's eyes with her own, "We all are, you know."

Sara could not stop a soft sigh from passing her lips. "I'm okay, Cath. Really, I am. These nightmares can't hang around forever, and I can't let them run my life or stop it in its tracks while they are around. Hell, I'm probably better off being at work. It gives ,e less time to think about them." That was only half a lie. She was half dreading, half looking forward to going back to the lab. On the one hand she hopefully wouldn't have time to be preoccupied with the horrors, but on the other, she would be back to seeing everything that had caused them in the first place. She loved her job, but these nightmares had been draining her sense of satisfaction from it and replacing it with doubts of whether what they did actually helped anyone in the long run.

She found her arm being held in a vice-like grip as Catherine propelled her towards the door, away from which they'd drifted while they had been talking.

"Come on, or we'll be late," Catherine told her firmly, keeping her strong hold on Sara's arm as they made their way down towards the parking lot. She didn't really think of Sara as the sort to make a run for it, but she wasn't taking any chances. That girl didn't get out enough. Catherine was damned well going to try and make sure that Sara had some fun tonight. Though she hadn't informed Sara of the fact, the entire class tended to get together once the official class was ended and go out somewhere together and socialise. Tonight was a bar night, as luck would have it. Not that she thought getting Sara blind drunk was the best way to get her to relax, but a few drinks probably would get her to loosen up and maybe forget her nightmares for a few hours.

Sara laughed and batted at Catherine's arms, "I can walk on my own, Cath! You don't have to drag me!"

But by this time they were at Catherine's car anyway, and Sara was being herded into the passenger seat. Catherine made sure she was ready before closing the door on her and walking around the other side of the car and hopping into her own seat, twisting the ignition and heading off towards the gym that hosted her classes.

Turning her head slightly to smile at her passenger, Catherine came to the conclusion that she should probably give Sara some information on the people that she was going to be meeting tonight, and hopefully making friends with over the coming weeks. Everyone in the class was rather… unique. They were all lovely, but she didn't want to chuck Sara into the midst of them with absolutely no warning or knowledge of them. She wanted Sara to feel comfortable among them, or she surely wouldn't stick with the class. S

"You want to know some about the girls?" she queried, waiting for Sara's uncertain nod before continuing, "There's only the five – six with you- so it's a fairly small class. But what they lack in number's made up in enthusiasm. The gym's dubbed us the Loony Bin, we end up laughing so much. My girls are… um… exuberant at times."

A spooked look came into Sara's eyes. Catherine was going to stick her in with a group of crazy people? Maybe getting away would be a good idea… was it possible to jump out of a moving vehicle without breaking anything? Would Catherine let her if she tried to jump out, or would she engage the central locking and trap her in? It probably wasn't the best idea, but it was one she might continue to entertain just in case any of the people Catherine told her about sounded truly terrifying and she felt the need to bolt.

"Oh, don't worry, they're not that scary!" Catherine laughed, unable to keep a straight face at the look that had come over Sara's face, "They're not going to try and eat you or anything. They're great women, just not what you'd exactly call typical, and probably not exactly who you'd imagine being in a pole-dancing class. They're fun! They are! Really! Well, you'll see." The look had changed to one of disbelief, and it wasn't budging even with Catherine's assurances.

"Right. So, who are these wonderfully unusual women I'm going to be learning to… dance with?" Sara was resigned to her fate, for now. It was only for an hour after all. She was only giving it a try; if it wasn't her thing, it wasn't as if she was committed or anything. If she wasn't comfortable, well then she would just tell Catherine that and try to find something else that could help her to keep her mind from constantly being on the faces in her nightmares. Maybe Grissom would let her play with his bugs… not that she really liked that idea, but maybe she would once she got to know the creepy-crawlies. It could hardly be any more out there than pole dancing, surely. And here she was, giving that a try.

Catherine considered. How best to describe her girls, without spooking Sara too badly? "Well, there's Joanne. She's the youngest in the group, one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met. Then there's Mel, the quietest of us… though you may take that position if you stay. She's only a couple years younger than you, in the same boat too; needed a hobby to take her mind off work." In fact, Catherine had been drawing parallels between those two since Sara had agreed to try her class. If Sara was willing to open up a little and let someone near her, she could imagine those two becoming good friends.

Sara but back a sigh of relief. So far, these people didn't sound so horribly intimidating. Unless the three yet to be described her horribly scary, this might not be too bad after all.

Jo and Mel were the two in the class that Catherine knew the least of, which made them the easiest for her to sum up in a few words. From here, it got a little more difficult as she moved on to the members of her class who had been around her for longer, and who she had built up close friendships with.

"Well, Katy's the utterly crazy one in the bunch. She'll do anything, real daredevil sort. Some of the tricks she tries, it's amazing that he hasn't broken anything." Catherine smiled, remembering some of Katy's antics. She was always good for a laugh, though Catherine always had an overwhelming urge to tell her off when she did something stupid. The entire class adored her, but despaired of her ever learning caution. She was 22, older than Jo, but acted younger sometimes, and always had at least one of the other members of the class wincing at what she was attempting, and keeping an eye out for her.

"So that's the one I need to look out for?" Sara pondered, "She's not going to, I don't know… swing around the pole and off it and try to land on her feet after doing a flip or anything is she?" Sara wasn't entirely certain that she was kidding. She didn't understand people who were total daredevils. She was a reasonably cautious person if she had the choice and the time to be and preferred to be able to think things over before entering into them, something she had learned to do after getting in trouble a lot when she was younger. That could work both ways sometimes, but she always felt better about things when she thought them through, and in her time she had managed to talk herself out of doing a fair pile of stuff that would have been ill-advised. She was still wavering as to whether this class should be on that list or not.

"Well, if she tries it, she'll be sorry! She hasn't been doing this for anywhere near long enough to pull anything that fancy off," Catherine replied gaily, the images of Katy trying that being just too funny. She wouldn't put it past the girl to try it either… though not if there was anyone around that she could hurt. Katy was a daredevil, but she didn't drag others into it with her.

"Oh, wonderful," Sara retorted drolly.

"Well anyway," Catherine continued hastily, swerving the topic away from Katy before she really scared Sara, "The last two of our little group are Louisa and Jane. Those two are best friends and well into their fifties, not that they let that slow them down at all. They're a little less energetic than Katy and Jo, but they'll try everything, and work at it til they've got it. They never give up or let the younger ones get ahead of them. I only hope I'm that fit when I'm nearing sixty!"

"Yay, pole-dancing grannies," Sara sighed.

Catherine grinned, "Oh, not quite! Though Louisa's eldest has twins on the way. They're all we ever hear about from her at the moment. As soon as they're born, and she can pry them away from their mother, she's going to bring them in so we can coo over them."

She pulled into a parking space close to the gym, and raised an eyebrow at Sara, "Ready?" she asked, unbuckling her seatbelt and popping the trunk so she could get her gym bag out of it. Sara sighed and popped her own door, trailing after Catherine as she entered the lobby of the gym.

"Well, here we go," she murmured to herself.

Author's Note: Well, if you've bothered reading this, please take a couple more minutes to review and tell me what you think. You all know where the little blue button is, I'm sure! Click it and write something ;)