Hope you enjoy. Still more chapters to come.


Connie awoke early the next day. She saw me still sitting at the window.

'How long have you been sitting there? Did you sleep at all last night?' She asked quickly. I shrugged; she didn't need to know how nervous I was about today.

'Well we should get ready. We can find a nice café to eat in before we go in.' I nodded. I knew where I was taking her- the diner we sometimes ate at after shift. I took her there as soon as we were ready. I got a very large coffee and my usual bagel and cream cheese. I was used to going without sleep but with jetlag on top of that, I was extremely tired. I had to get another coffee to go. It soon perked me up.

The crime lab was only across the street. I watched from across the road as Nick and Warrick drove off, thankfully they didn't see me. It was the end of their shift. I hoped they were the last to leave. In my coffee fuelled state, I wasn't ready for a confrontation with anyone. I was glad that we were working with dayshift, because I never got to know any of them. They wouldn't care about what happened in the past, even though they probably wouldn't know what happened.

I remember the feeling crossing that road. It wasn't a big road, but it was a big step. I felt like I was walking into my past that I had tried so hard to forget about these last few months. Connie told me that she had my back, with whatever happens. I smiled at her, she was such a good friend.

We walked into reception and got the badges Ecklie had left for us. I walked straight to his office. Inside I heard voices-

'I don't care what you sat Ecklie, we don't need help on this case. You can just tell them to go back to New York.' My heart stopped. Only one person could belong to that cold, black voice. Catherine.

'Look Catherine, they are here to help and they should be here soon. We are going to use their help and stop trying to be so Grissom-like. We do need their help.'

'No we don't Ecklie! But fine. If you want to give my case to some stuck-up FBI agents then you go ahead.' I took that moment to knock on the door and walk in. The look on Catherine's face was priceless. Shock, fear, disbelief all rolled into one priceless look. Payback time.

With a grin on my face I stuck out my hand in greeting. 'I am Special Agent Sidle. This is my partner Special Agent Winters. Nice to meet you.' Surprisingly Catherine took my hand and tightly cramped it. I'm guessing she was trying to hurt me, but she wasn't very strong. She shook Connie's next. Afterwards she left the room. Ecklie looked pissed at her.

Ecklie updated us on the case. I felt like a whole weight had been lifted off my shoulders once I had seen Catherine so I paid all my attention to the case. Once he had finished, we called a meeting to discuss further plans to catch the guy who had been killing elderly women in their homes. In 7 months the dayshift team had changed a bit. I gathered that Catherine had finally gotten the position she had wanted- dayshift supervisor. A few of the faces looked familiar and there were a few new ones too.

We got down to work. With the evidence the CSI's collected we were a long way off catching this guy. He struck every two weeks, another victim was due in like 3 days. Sadly, all we could do was wait and hope that this time it would be a break in the case.

Me, Connie and a few people from dayshift had been sitting in the break room for about an hour drinking coffee and having a laugh when Catherine walked in. Barking orders to her dayshift employees she sat down beside Connie and I. Connie excused herself, thinking that Catherine and I needed to talk and the CSI's followed her.

'You bitch, Sara Sidle. You think that you can just march back in here after 7 months and just run the show. Who do you think you are?'

'Excuse me? When I left 7 months ago, your stupid mistake cost me all my friends. This is my job now and if you have a problem with that then blame yourself. You used me to get what you wanted, in my terms that makes you a cruel, selfish bitch, not the other way about Catherine. If you have a problem, its your own fault.'

'I didn't make you leave, you did that yourself.'

'You expected me to stay here after what you did! Not only could I not stand working with you, I couldn't stand working with anyone else who thought of me that much less.'

'I had to do that Sara. You wouldn't understand.'

'I want to hear your reasons for doing that Catherine. I deserve that much.' I noticed people beginning to hang around the door. Catherine didn't see them as she was facing the wall, but I did. One face especially stood out. Ecklie.

'Look. I knew if I took the blame then I could never be supervisor. Grissom wouldn't trust me again. I really wanted to be a supervisor Sara! You were the easiest person to blame. Don't take it personally.' Her voice was loud enough for everyone in the doorway to hear. I couldn't stop the grin that was forming on my face. This was just fantastic!

'CATHERINE!' Ecklie's voice caused the various other people standing there to scatter. Catherine's face went pale and anger formed in her eyes while she looked at me. There was no way she could get out of this.


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