Bruises

By Kimmi

CSI: pairing Sara/Sofia femmeslash

Disclaimer: They only belong to me in my dreams. This story is for entertainment purposes only, no profit is being made so there's no reason to sue.

Summary: Sara has bruises. Not as dark as it sounds, really.

A/N: I should be working on Demons but I'm suffering a little bit of writers block on it at the moment and my muse threw this at me. I'm not sure why she insisted that Sofia had to be with Sara in this story since I'm a C/S shipper. I am really starting to like Sofia since she became a detective so I decided not to fight it.

This is my twisted attempt at something resembling humor, I suck at trying to be funny. You've been warned.

"Sara what the hell happened to you!"

The brunette dropped her newly poured cup of coffee into the sink as her hand was grabbed and jerked up. "Nick what are you doing?"

"Just tell me who he is and I'll stomp him into the ground. Have you filed a report yet? Oh God, have you been to the hospital? Do you need me to take you? Who's handling the case?"

"Calm down Nicky, take a breath before you pass out from lack of oxygen." Sara cut the Texan off when he started to turn a little blue.

"Calm down? How can you expect me to calm down? Better yet, how can you be so calm?" Stokes stared wide-eyed at the woman before him.

"Yo guys, what's the problem?" Warrick asked as he and Catherine rushed into the room, having heard the ruckus from down the hall.

Nick pulled the lanky brunette toward the newcomers. "Sara's been attacked and she's trying to tell me to calm down."

As a chorus of 'what' in three part harmony was heard in the small room, Sara dug in her heels and abruptly put a stop to their forward progress. "What the hell are you talking about? Where did you get a stupid idea like that?"

Nick stumbled but quickly regained his balance. "You've got bruises on your wrists and neck. If you weren't attacked then how do explain them?"

Sara's hand flew to her neck in a vain attempt to cover up the marks she thought she had concealed with makeup before coming into work. "It's nothing."

Catherine stepped around her taller workmate to get a closer look at the blushing brunette. Sure enough both wrists had angry looking dark bands circling them and peeking out from between the younger woman's long fingers were several bruises on her long neck. "Sara I can't believe you of all people would protect a guy that's using you as a punching bag. Tell us his name and we can make sure he never comes near you again."

Sara knew her friends were concerned for her safety and she was grateful to them but she wished that they hadn't chosen the one time she didn't need it. "Guys it's really nothing, okay. I haven't been attacked and I'm not being abused. Just let it go."

"Sara?"

The silky smooth voice caused the brunette's heart to skip a beat and her body to turn without her permission to face its owner. As the blonde detective slid towards her, Sara felt the rest of the world fade away. The only thing that existed, the only thing that mattered, was the pair of gentle blue eyes that had latched onto hers. Soft warm hands cupped her wrists and a shiver ran down her spine as her body remembered exactly how the marks had come to be there.

"I am so sorry." Sofia and Grissom had walked into the break room just in time to hear the brunette's statement. It had only taken a glance in Sara's direction for the blonde to see what she was referring to and a split second for guilt to set in.

"There's nothing to apologize for. They don't even hurt." Sara rushed to reassure her girlfriend.

"Why didn't you say something?" It didn't matter to Sofia if they hurt or not, just the fact that they were there was enough to fill her with shame.

Sara pulled her wrists out of the other woman's grasp and entwined their hands. "Well at the time I was rather preoccupied and thoroughly enjoying myself. I didn't even notice to be honest. Then when I got called into work early and saw them, you were still asleep or I would have shown you. I thought my sleeves were long enough to cover them, but since eagle eye Nick spotted them I guess they're not."

Heat sped up her neck and engulfed her cheeks as Sara suddenly remembered that they were not alone. She looked at each of her friends, taking in their shock until she reached her boss. Hurt and anger were clearly displayed on Grissom's face and she wasn't sure which emotion was directed at her and which was for the detective.

"Sofia, you did this? You put ligature marks on Sara's wrists and neck?" Gil scowled as he reached for the brunette to get her away from the blonde detective, only to have Sara shy away from his touch.

Sara felt her lover's arms encircle her waist as she retreated from the entomologist. She might have once craved his attention, but no longer. Now there was only one person she wanted touching her. "Hickeys Grissom, and love bites. Not ligatures."

Gil felt his heart enter its death throes at her words and the possessive hold the blonde woman had on Sara. He gave one last ditch effort to keep it alive. "Those bruises on your wrists aren't love bites, those are evidence of violence."

Fury replaced embarrassment in an flash at the accusation and Sara had to fight to keep her voice calm. "No they aren't. The only thing they indicate is that we have a healthy and adventurous se… Wait, why am I justifying this to you? What we do in the privacy of our bedroom is none of your business."

It was amazing that such small words like we and our could inflict so much pain. Those two little pronouns firmly and resolutely hammered in the final nail in his coffin. "You're right, it's not. As long as it doesn't disrupt my lab. If another scene like this one occurs, the very least I will do is suspend you. Everyone get back to work!" Grissom knew he was being harsh but he couldn't help it. It hurt. And he only had himself to blame. He had been too afraid to deal with his feelings for either woman and he had lost them both, to each other.

Catherine shook her head as her friend stormed out of the room. She had always thought that if Sara ever finally gave up on him and moved on it wouldn't be pretty. Turned out she was right. "Don't worry about him, he'll get over it. Eventually. Anyway congratulations to you both and a word of advice, silk scarves are much easier on the skin than handcuffs."

The blonde CSI smirked at the renewed blush on the brunette's cheeks before going to look for Grissom. Once Catherine had understood that someone wasn't beating Sara up it had only taken a second for her to realize what had caused the marks on the younger woman's pale wrists.

As the older woman sauntered out of the room Sara heard an extremely unmanly giggle coming from behind her and she buried her face in her lover's shoulder. There was no way they were just going to let this go. Oh no, she was in for weeks, if not months, of teasing. It was going to be impossible for her to work with either of two men.

"So Sara, I guess you just answered that leather or lace question huh?" Nick couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice as he referenced the conversation he'd had with the lanky brunette her first year in Vegas. "So the only question left now is which one of you…

"Finish that Stokes and I swear you will never be able to father children." Sofia could feel her girlfriend's smile through her blue button down shirt at the threat.

"So how long have the two of you been seeing each other?" Warrick jumped in, in an attempt to keep his best friend in one piece.

"Three months." Sara answered. She knew she couldn't hide forever and she didn't want anyone to think her embarrassment was because of who she was dating and not just because of the circumstances.

"Well as long as you're happy, and safe, we're happy." The dark CSI offered.

"Yeah, definitely." Nick added his voice to his friend's. "So are you going to tell Greg? Oh can I tell Greg?"

The smile on the Texan's face was the biggest and brightest Sara had seen on him since his kidnapping. She didn't want to see it fade, so even though her mind was screaming no, her heart was saying yes loud and clear. But he wasn't going to get it for nothing. "On two conditions. One, you never whisper a word about what happened in here to anyone. And two, you don't give us a hard time."

Nick had to give that some serious thought. Was not teasing the enigmatic brunette and the blonde cop worth the reaction the ex-lab rat was going to have at the news? Of course Sara had only said he couldn't say anything, 'Rick still had carte blanche. He could just get his good buddy to do all his dirty work for him. "Deal."

Warrick grinned indulgently as the Texan sprinted out of the room, presumably in search of the newest CSI. He turned his attention back to the brunette still wrapped in the blonde's arms. "You deserve all the happiness you can grab Sara. But let's get one thing straight," his voice was hard he turned his gaze on the detective, "you're going to have a lot of people to answer to if you ever do hurt her."

"Understood." Though it hadn't been her intention and it had been far from malicious, Sofia had harmed Sara and while she would make damn sure that it never happened again, the blonde was grateful that her girlfriend had so many people looking out for her.

"Good. Well I'm going to go check on Nick and Greg, you two try to behave." Warrick winked at the women as he moved past them, satisfied with the rosy flush on both their cheeks.

Sara watched the green eyed CSI stride down the hall for a moment before turning to her lover. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here? I thought you had the night off?"

"I do but I thought I'd come by and see if you wanted to go grab lunch with me." Sofia snaked her arms around the brunette's waist and pulled Sara closer to her. Now that the proverbial cat was out of the bag they didn't have to be quite so discrete anymore.

"Well I ate on the way back from my crime scene but I am due for a break." Sara let her hands wander up the blonde's sides and across broad shoulders to bury themselves in long golden tresses.

"So you want to go make out in the back seat of my car?"

"Your windows are tinted right?" Sara grinned up at her lover. Normally she'd never even consider doing something like that, but since she started dating Sofia the brunette often found herself doing a lot of things she'd never done before.

"Yep."

"Let's go."

As they walked hand in hand out of the building, Sara could've sworn she heard a scream followed by a thud.

The End.