Chapter II

Friends

The nurses made them leave, Jim needed his rest. They broke off, headed for their respective homes. They had all had a day full of cases and worry. Now that everything was solved and Jim was on the road to recovery, they could go home. Not that home was a very appealing place for him right now, but he could really go for eight horizontal hours in a quiet place.

He was half way out of the hospital, another less then fuzzy reminder of his wife and his royal mess up, when Catherine caught up with him. "Hey, you mind giving me a ride back to the labs?" He shook his head, "Nah, come on, let's get you to your car so you can get home to Lindsey, how is she, by the way?" He always asked after Lindsey, the teen was a big part of Catherine's life. Catherine sighed, "She's getting better, but she still thinks the world revolves around her, but she's fourteen so that's to be expected." He shrugged, "It's a tough age." Catherine sighed and attempted to rub the fatigue from her blue eyes. "I love her though." Warrick grinned, "Well we'll get you home so you can go hug her, in fact, give her a hug for me too." Catherine sent him a trademark Willows grin, then her eyes sparked. "Speaking of hugs, what was that between you and Sara?" He unlocked his SUV and they got in. "She's taking this all pretty hard, she just needed a hug, that's all. Don't worry, you're still my favorite girl." The last part of that sentence fell on deaf ears, because Catherine was already on one of her 'Sara rants' Being one of his best friends, he'd heard many of Cath's rants. The Sara rants were not uncommon. It shamed him to admit it, but in the past he'd at best ignored them and at worst, he'd agreed whole heartedly with Catherine.

"Taking it hard? She's been too busy playing with Gil all day to acknowledge that Jim has been in a coma. I don't think I saw her at the hospital, not until now. Unless it's rape or domestic abuse, she is one cool customer. I mean even Gil showed emotion! He was really upset, we all were. I even heard that Sofia went all protective!"

Warrick found himself gripping the steering wheel so hard that his hands hurt. "Listen, Cath..." What was he supposed to say? He couldn't come right out and tell Catherine that he'd held Sara while she'd cried, that was private. Had Sara been at the hospital? Yes. Too much, probably. She'd stayed there, keeping watch when she should have been sleeping. She wasn't the only one who had, either. "Just because Sara doesn't wear her emotions on her sleeves, doesn't mean she doesn't have them. This really upset her." Catherine rolled her baby-blues. "Yeah, because all the laughing and smiling I saw her doing with Griss really screams 'upset'. He scowled, sometimes when Catherine got on a roll, it was very hard to stop her. "Catherine, you think what you want about Sara, but she's my friend and I'm going to defend her. You ride her too much as it is, but don't you say she doesn't care about Jim. This is killing her on the inside. Take a look at her the next time you see her. Bags under the eyes, fake smiles, she's been picking at her food. Before you jump to conclusions you should really look at her." He pulled to a stop in the lab's parking lot, two spaces over from Catherine's car. "Lighten up on Sara, she's not as bad as you make her out to be...and she could really use some good friends." Though Catherine scowled at him as she got out, he knew that his words had gotten through. Catherine was a good person, sometimes she just let her temper get the better of her. Now that he'd pointed out the obvious, she'd see and she'd understand.

Now that he'd played the role of Sara's knight in shining armor, he was at a loss. He drove around Vegas, unsure of what to do. Could he go home? Should he go home? Should he try to talk to Tina? He'd accused her of cheating on him, he'd been wrong, so very wrong. He scrubbed his hands across his face. It was times like these, when he was upset and restless, that he regretted giving up Blackjack.


By the time his next shift rolled around, he'd done a lot of thinking, a little sleeping and not much else. He could feel the strain with every step, but he wouldn't let it effect his work. Bringing your problems to the lab was always a bad idea, sometimes it made you slow...and sometimes it got innocent people hurt and even killed.

He was finishing up a slam-dunk B&E. It was a simple case, something so routine that he barely had to exert himself. It was one of those nights when he was morbid and wished for a juicy murder investigation...to take his mind off of his own troubles. It was a quiet night, though, and after he closed his B&E, he was on paper-work duty. Mindless, repetitive work that gave him ample time to think about all of his woes. He finished up half of his never ending pile and decided that it was time for a break. He stretched and stood. The trip to the break room was full of greetings and shouts. The lab was in a very good mood tonight. With Jim in recovery and no pressing cases, everyone was light of heart. He walked into the break room. Well, not everyone. There Sara sat, poking at her salad, thinking intense thoughts about something or other. Before he'd have ignored the intense look on her face, or worse, he'd have ignored her completely. That was then, though, and this was now. He flopped down across from her. "What are you pouting about?" She looked up at him and gave him a half grin. "This is not pouting. This is brooding." He shrugged, "What's the difference?" She put her fork down. "Pouting is a a childish pity-party, brooding is a very adult-like long and thoughtful process of working out a problem." He feigned understanding. "So it pouting with a purpose." The half grin turned into a whole one and some of the tension dissipated from her face, "Exactly." They sat for a moment, the he started again, "So want to tell me what you're thinking about?" She shrugged and her brown eyes suddenly became very distant. "Did you ever get something you thought you wanted...only to find that you didn't really want it at all...that it wasn't what you'd thought it would be?" Warrick blinked, there she went, Sara being psychic again. He absently twisted his wedding band around his finger. "Yeah, actually." She looked up at him, "So what would you do about it?" Her tone and question were both casual, but there was a sense of desperation behind her words. Some how Warrick had a feeling that this had something to do with the way she'd car-pooled home with Grissom last night...and why the slightly eccentric etymologist was in such a good mood today. "Well...I know that if you make a mistake, especially a personal one, you have to face it down and make a decision. Every decision can potentially have huge consequences, even small ones." He shook his head, "Like leaving a crime scene for just a few minutes or a coin-flip." Sara reached out and patted his hand, "How did you get so smart, Warrick?" He grinned, "Well I didn't have to go to Harvard, I was born this wise, girl." They both smiled and moved on to less...serious topics.

Author's Note: And that is ALL I'm going to say about that three times damned scene at the end of Way to Go. As we can see, Sara is...not happy with it...she regrets it. Of course it all comes back on Warrick and his own problems. Once again, we see the return of Bitchy Catherine, but no worries, Warrick set her strait, she'll behave herself...and those who are familiar with my work are rolling their eyes and going "suuuure" but I promise, I'll...she'll behave herself...mostly.