Title: Jet Lag 5
Author: neo-chef
Pairing: Catherine/Sara
Rating: PG for now, will progress later
Spoilers: anything is fair game
Archive: let me know and it can go anywhere
Disclaimer: If they were mine, I wouldn't have the time or the energy to write about them…
A.N. Sorry for the slight delay in posting this chapter. It required a substantial rewrite to keep the flowing in the direction I intended. Thanks in advance for reading.
------
Part 5
"Sara, what are you doing here?"
The brunette stared unblinking at the cups of coffee in her hands. The look of defeat gracing Sara's slender frame broke Catherine's heart. Pushing the door wider she beckoned Sara into her house. "Come sit down on the lounge Sara," instructed Cath as she closed and locked her front door. Catherine wasn't aware the Sara knew where she lived, so her presence here, while not unwelcome, was a bit of a surprise. Especially at 6:30 in the morning.
The younger of the two women sat in the corner of the lounge, eyes still fixated at the warm beverages in her hands. "What's wrong, please talk to me," encouraged Catherine as she sat a short distance from Sara. She was still aware of what physical contact had done for her in their previous meetings. She looked down to the cups of coffee gripped in Sara's hands. They started to shake lightly. Not wanting to spend the day cleaning coffee out of her carpet, Cath slowly reached up and took the cups from Sara, placing them on the coffee table.
Turning her attention back to Sara, she watched a single tear track its salty path down Sara's right cheek. Unused to seeing this much emotion from her younger co-worker, especially to the point of crying, Catherine was momentarily stunned. Tentatively reaching out, she brushed the tear away, her thumb gently gliding across the soft skin beneath.
"Sara, please say something. You're starting to worry me."
The reply came out barely above a whisper. "I can't do this anymore Cath."
"Can't do what sweety?" said Catherine, edging across the couch to be closer to Sara.
"This," answered Sara, waving her hands in the air between them, "I can't keep running away from this."
"What is this Sara," replied Cath, gesturing between them. "Maybe you should start from the beginning." Seeing momentary deliberation from Sara, she wondered if the younger woman would flee from her presence like before. Sara was never one to talk much about herself, and seeing her in this situation, Catherine wondered if Sara would say anything at all.
With a shaky voice Sara began to talk. "The other day, before you saw me in the locker room, I was in the break room with Greg and in one of his usual juvenile moments was talking about the new lab-tech he is interested in. I was trying to dissuade him talking about the downfalls of office romances. And Greg never one to be put off such a situation asked me if there was anyone I was interested in the lab."
Catherine had started to run her fingers gently along Sara's thigh in an effort to relax her and keep talking. In truth, the feeling of Catherine's fingers were proving a great distraction to Sara, causing her mind to waver off the story. Grasping Catherine's hand in her own she forged on.
"Greg kept badgering me with names and I kept telling him to mind his own business. Thinking he would give up I figured if I said yes to one name he would accept that and leave me alone. When he said your name and I answered yes on instinct, I instantly froze up. Realising what I had said, I fled the room and that's when I ended up in the break room."
"Earlier in Greg's lab, he had apologised for basically blind-siding me into answering and promised not to tell anyone about what I had done. He had taken it upon himself, given that he found out first, to get me to do something about it." Cath's mind was reeling with all this new information. This is the most Sara had ever talked about herself in all the years they had worked together. And she knew how hard it must have been for the younger woman to bare so much of her soul. "When you came into the lab, you startled me and that's why I lashed out and stormed out of the room."
It was all starting to come together for Catherine now. She now understood Greg's parting statement, 'be kind to her.' Having the feelings out in the open for Sara would be a new, and daunting, thing, especially when they were dragged out without her consent. Knowing how private Sara was, it told Cath a lot about the woman sitting before her. The courage it took to come and confront her feelings. Especially when she was unsure about how the other party would react.
It had been an emotionally draining morning for Sara. Working herself up to come to Catherine's house to explain her actions over the last couple of days. Without realising, tears had started to flow down her cheeks, leaving damn imprints on her soft cheeks.
'Here goes Cath, the $64,000 question.'
In a quiet voice, Cath asked, "Do you have feelings for me Sara?"
Brown eyes met blue. Tears trickling down the face of the younger woman. Sara's head dropped, as if ashamed of what her answer would be. She couldn't look into the eyes of the woman she had had feelings for, in case it was the answer she dreaded. With trepidation she answered, "yes."
That one word made Catherine's heart swell. She struggled not to sweep her younger co-worker up in her arms. Instead, she placed a finger under Sara's chin, lifting her eyes to meet her own. "Good, so I'm not the only one."
Sara's eyes went wide. "You…you have feelings for me too?
------
TO BE CONTINUED…
