Thank you for all the reviews. You can't imagine how much it means to actually know that people not only read my story, but actually like it as well.

Miss Olympe Maxime: Thanks for the tip about the anonymous reviews, I'm new at this site, so I didn't know I had to enable it. And great that you like my other characters, I try to make them likeable.

All the rest of you: Again thank you, thank you, thank you. Please feel free to review again, 'cause I really like it. If there's something you don't like please let me know, it's the only way I can get better.

And the biggest thanks to my beta, Jess. You are the best! Thanks for improving the story.

A/N: I made them a little younger than they would be on the show. Cath: 39, Sara: 32, Veronica: 28, Kim: 27, Lindsay: going to be 13 and Julie: 3.

In the car

Getting to the car wasn't as hard as she'd thought it would be. The only slightly embarrassing moment was when she almost walked into the restaurant door.

Getting into the car wasn't hard either, but actually sitting in this close to Catherine in such a confined space was beyond hard. They never got along very well in the first place, but now having realized that she had feelings for the older woman just made it so much harder.

What were they going to talk about? How on earth could they just have an ordinary conversation after all this time?

Catherine apparently didn't have this problem, because she started talking as soon as they got in the car.

"Well, that was really something in there." She said questioningly.

"Yeah." Sara replied, thinking that sticking with as few words as possible would make this easier.

Catherine looked over at her raising an eyebrow, silently asking the question: 'Is that all you have to say?' When Sara didn't respond further, she continued on her own.

"I mean, I knew about Shaw, but it must have been a big surprise for the rest of you."

"Yeah."

"Ok." Catherine drew out the word. And the ride continued in silence. The silence was no better than actually having to talk to Catherine, so Sara bit the bullet and started talking again.

"It wasn't that big a surprise to me, really." She offered.

"No?" Catherine asked waiting for her to elaborate.

"No, I am a CSI after all." She turned towards Catherine and flashed her a half-smile.

"Yeah right!" Catherine laughed out. "Now tell me the real reason."

"I don't know. I just thought she might be, you know."

"Be what? The mother of a beautiful little girl?"

"No. Gay." Sara said directly. "And I like Shaw, so I just thought it was her own business. But I might have to reassess that opinion now."

"What?" Catherine looked over at her briefly before looking back at the road. "You're gonna start spreading the news that she is gay, married and the co-mom to the wife's daughter?"

"No! That I like her, she is messing with my girl you know."

"What are you now? Gangsta?" Catherine chuckled.

"No. It's just that…" She paused. "Veronica has been hurt enough in the past, I know that. I just don't want to see her hurt anymore."

"Ok. And she needs you to protect her?" Catherine asked. "What makes you think that she didn't make Kim leave? That it might not be all Kim's fault?"

"Ronnie was wearing her wedding ring – Kim wasn't."

"That doesn't really prove that Kimberly is entirely to blame."

"I know Ronnie." Was all Sara had to say.

"No, you don't really. You said it had been a long time since you've seen her, and people do change."

"Veronica doesn't." Sara saw Catherine was about to argue and opened her mouth before she had a chance to do so. "Not that much. She knows my innermost secrets, the secrets I don't want anyone to know about. And I know her secret. And I know that she would not have even considered having a kid with Shaw if she didn't love her unconditionally."

"I loved Eddie once." Catherine responded.

"Yeah, but you didn't go through what she went through."

"How do you know?"

"You wouldn't have been with him if you did."

Catherine didn't have a response to that. She could hear that Sara was being serious, but a part of her was still offended that Sara would say such a thing about her marriage. She kept silent not wanting to get into a fight in the car.

"Look, Cath." Sara started. "I didn't mean it the way you might have taken it." She looked over at the blonde getting lost in how beautiful she really was. She quickly snapped out of it as Catherine glanced her way. "It's just that she is very…" She paused searching for the right word. "Fragile." She settled on.

"She could have fooled me." Catherine commented. "The way she acted around us, I mean. She acted like she had known us for years."

"That's all an act she puts on." Sara explained. "Julie really got the shyness from Veronica. Veronica just doesn't let a lot of people see that shyness." Sara stopped realizing that she had revealed a lot more than she had wanted to. She really had to get her emotions in check again around Catherine. Who knows what else she would accidentally tell the gorgeous blonde. "Look, Cath, please don't tell anyone that I told you this?"

"Your secret's safe with me." Catherine said. After sitting in silence for a couple of minutes she decided to lighten up the conversation. "So why is she calling you Sass?" She asked.

"Huh?" Sara feigned ignorance.

"Don't pull that act with me, Sidle. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Catherine smirked.

They sat in silence a little before Sara decided to answer, and in that time Catherine realized that she really enjoyed spending time like this with her younger co-worker, spending time without the fighting. She decided that she really wanted more of that.

"It's an easy explanation really." Sara started. "She started out calling me Sassy, I think mainly because she thought that I was anything other than sassy." She looked at Catherine and gave a smirk. "And she was right. She'll probably still insist that it's a combination of my names, but I think I'm right. She says she took the Sa from Sara and Si from Sidle and put the two together coming up with what sounds as Sassy. That's it."

"What? That's just it? You didn't have to earn your nickname?"

"Let's just say that I got the name before I earned it and leave it at that."

"No, you can't just say a thing like that and then leave me hanging." Catherine protested.

"Sure I can." Sara shot back. "Because you just turned down my street and we don't have the time to get into that now."

"Ok. Well, you know what that means then." Catherine said.

"What?" Sara asked, clueless as to what the other woman was getting at.

"You owe me another breakfast." Catherine smirked as she stopped outside Sara's apartment building.

"Wait a minute. I owe you breakfast? You're the one who was betting against me."

"Your point being?" Catherine asked playfully.

"You should be buying me breakfast." Sara said slapping her arm lightly. 'Ok Sara, when did the conversation get all flirty? What are you doing even thinking about flirting with her? And breakfast? That's like a date, right?'

"Well, I am the single mother trying to get her only daughter through school. You can't spare a breakfast on me?" Catherine asked batting her eyes for good measure, after all she wanted that breakfast. 'Catherine Willows! What on earth are you doing? That is Sara Sidle you're flirting with here! You two don't even like each other.' She looked at Sara and noticed a short flash of confusion in her eyes, but it was gone before she had a chance to act on it.

"Ok, don't even go there, I know when I'm beat. I'll buy you breakfast sometime." Sara smiled at the woman of her dreams. Well she wasn't really sleeping yet, but she knew that once she was, Catherine would in fact be in her dreams. "Well, I better get up there, my bed misses me. It wants me to get some sleep."

"Lucky you." Catherine commented. "I have to get home and start planning Lindsay's birthday party before I can get some."

"Yeah? That's in about a week right?" 'Get some? You can come right up and get some. I'll give you anything you want. Sleep, Sara! She meant sleep! I know, I know, but a girl can dream, can't she? And she definitely will now.' Autopilot where are you?

"Yeah, February 1st. Thank God, she doesn't want a big party. Just a couple of friends and the family."

"Yeah? That should make it easier on you. Well good luck with it." She opened the car door not really wanting to go but knowing the other woman would find it odd if she stayed much longer. "I'll see you tonight at work." She said and got out.

"Yes, I'll see you." Catherine said. "And Sara…" She added just as the younger woman was about to close the door.

"Huh?" Sara looked up.

"Don't think I'll forget about breakfast. I still want to know how you earned your nickname and how Veronica knows that you're ticklish." She smiled as Sara blushed immediately and closed the door. She waved one last time before driving off.

Looking at the car leaving Sara tried to pull herself together. She wanted to go upstairs but her legs didn't seem to agree with her. The only thing she really wanted to do was stand there and follow the car with her eyes until she couldn't see it anymore. 'Boy, you are in so much trouble Sidle.' She thought to herself as she turned around, going up to her waiting bed.

Once in bed, Sara couldn't fall asleep. The events that morning kept playing out in her head. She had had more than one civil conversation with Catherine in the same day. In fact, they had been flirting at the end of it, she was sure of that.

She loved the way Catherine kept her hair nowadays – long and wavy, framing her face perfectly. Her cute little button nose, those big beautiful blue eyes that expressed her feelings when you looked deep enough, those luscious lips just sitting there being an invitation to paradise.

The perfect curves of her body. Everything just perfectly matched together, like a beautiful peace of art. Perfect size breasts, one of the best asses Sara had ever seen, and legs to die for. Catherine knew what she had and dressed to show it the best way possible. The button-up shirts were Sara's favourites. Catherine left the top three buttons open showing just the right amount of cleavage. You could really get lost in that cleavage. Lost looking down that…

Shaking her head of those thoughts, because it was not getting her any closer to falling asleep, Sara let her mind sweep over her old friend Foxy.

She had gotten smaller in the years that had passed. She had always been tiny, but she was even smaller than Sara remembered her. She might give people the impression that she had everything under control, and that she was fine, but Sara knew better. Maybe food was her way of gaining control - again. That was what she had used after waking up from the coma, claiming that if nothing else, at least she had control over what she would eat.

Sara remembered that night as if it was yesterday. She had spent longer than she expected at the library, and when she came back to their room it had been a mess. Things were thrown around the room like somebody had been fighting. And then as her eyes landed on Foxy's bed, she saw the beaten up naked little body lying perfectly still. She had paused for just a second before rushing in the room. She didn't remember much of what she had done, but the next minute the ambulance was rushing her best friend in the world to the hospital, the paramedics saying it looked really bad. She remembered looking down noticing the blood on her hands, seeing how her white shirt had red stains on it. Even then she knew better than to throw up on a crime scene. She had sprinted to the bathroom. That was the only time she had thrown up looking at a scene.

Sara shook her head again and got up from the bed. She went to the living room and turned on her police scanner; maybe a little noise could help her fall a sleep. She threw herself on the couch and after a long while she finally drifted into a light slumber.