Reassigned
Two days and two nights, almost every hour of them dedicated to the investigation, and the LVPD was no closer to finding the murderer. The press trailed their every move, like rabid dogs after a bone. They played clips of Sofia's 'No Comment' and the Sheriff's press conference in every news cast and the rumors were growing wilder and wilder. The speculation was driving the citizens of Vegas wild. Gun stores were doing booming business as was the security business.
Sara stared at the computer screen before her. Bastardized forms of Satanism, cults, old rituals of child sacrifice. Horrors of human kind that time had ebbed away at until they were fuel for bad science fiction films and nightmares. The more Sara read, the more she wanted to find the killer. She wanted to stop the wave of paranoid insanity before it completely took over Vegas.
Grissom sighed as he stared at the assignment board. There were two dead girls, but each night brought in more crime scenes to work, he couldn't have three CSIs working the same case. He knew that taking either Sara or Catherine off the case would cause fireworks in the labs. He also knew that taking Greg off the case would make the younger CSI angry, this case could be very important to his growing career. It was not a case of want or preference, though, but practicality. With two more 419s, three break ins and a hit and run, he needed CSIs.
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" Catherine's outrage echoed down the hall. The woman paced the break room, coffee cup in her hand. "You're taking Greg and me off the case!" Grissom sighed, "Yes, Catherine, Nick and Warrick are closing their cases and are going to tackle two more. I need you on another case." Catherine let out a very vicious sounding growl. "I suppose you're letting Sara stay on the case." Though he winced, Grissom nodded. "I am."
Sara, who had broke off her work for a cup of coffee and an update, leaned against the counter and watched the argument play out, silently hoping she wasn't about to be dragged into the middle of it. Grissom's calm voice continued, trying to soothe the savage beast that was Catherine's ambition. "The LVPD is taking Vega off the case too, Catherine. We just don't have the man power to keep going on this case with three CSIs and two detectives." Catherine mumbled a few choice words under her breathe, then looked up. "Fine, but if another body turns up..." Grissom nodded, "Then it is priority and you will be back on the case." He held up an assignment slip, "Now, a dead body at the Tropicana." She snatched the slip from his hand. "Fine." Catherine left the room with a toss of her red gold locks and a muttered curse.
Her heel clicks were the only sound that followed Catherine down the hall. She hated that Grissom had decided to throw her off the case. HER! She was the senior CSI, she was a supervisor. She was being looked over for Grissom's pet CSI.
The anger boiled and thrashed around in Catherine's gut like a thrashing sea during a hurricane. She had paid her dues. Since her career switch she had worked through night school, worked as a tech, worked her way from CSI I to Supervisor. She'd solved hundreds of cases. She wanted this case.
Sara did not understand what the mothers were going through. Sara didn't have a daughter. Hell, Sara probably never came into contact with anyone under the age of twenty-one outside of work. Sara never saw anyone outside of work.
Catherine, on the other hand, had Lindsey. She lived life. She deserved this case.
Her anger continued to simmer as she rushed down the corridors. Through the glass walls, she saw her various coworkers, the techs that ran every aspect of every case that came through. Archie bent over his computer, Bobby test firing some pistol for Nick's case and Wendy. Wendy was running a test for someone.
Catherine slipped into the DNA lab quietly and came up behind the tech. Her hands slid around the woman's waist, "Don't move." Wendy froze in place, her hands midair, holding a dropper full of distilled water over a test strip.
Catherine leaned in, her mouth only a breathe's away from the other woman's ear. "Have I ever told you how sexy you look in that lab coat?" Wendy sucked in a breath. "No." Catherine grinned, "Well you are." Wendy tilted her head to the side, trying to get a glimpse of the older woman's face. "Catherine?" Catherine smiled and brushed her lips across Wendy's cheek and then caught the brunette's lips with her own. The kiss was as hot as a brush fire and just as uncontrolled. Wendy could feel, as she put the equipment on the table and turned in to Catherine's embrace, the tension in the other woman's body. Wendy's eyes fluttered shut and the only thought that her over heated mind could come up with was that Catherine's kiss tasted like anger.
When they parted, Wendy had to wipe Catherine's lipstick from her cheek. The other woman's shade was much darker then hers today.
Catherine smiled and patted Wendy's firm backside, "Thank you, I needed that."
Wendy watched as Catherine left the lab. When she turned the corner, Wendy went to her chair and all but collapsed. Her fingers danced across the lips that Catherine Willows had so recently assaulted. "Yeah." The beep of her computer caught her immediateattention, but the hot and bothered feeling lasted the rest of the night.