Thank you all so much for the reviews on chapter 17… I'm so happy you like it. Hope you like this next one as well… Please review – I'll take both good and bad feedback…
Jess, thank you, thank you, thank you… I'm running out of ways to thank you, but you know how much I love that you are my beta.
Chapter Eighteen
Nick Superglue Stokes
Arriving back at the lab, Nick and Sara went their separate ways - Nick to see Wendy about the DNA results, and Sara to read through the rest of the letters.
"Gotta say, Sara, I never knew you had such great taste." Nick said with a wink as he dashed off, leaving Sara staring at his back with a big smile on her face.
"Great taste in what?"
The smile was soon replaced with a deer caught in the headlights look as she heard Catherine asking the question. 'I'm gonna kill him! And I would get away with it too!'
"Uh… food." She answered as she turned towards the older woman.
"Food?" Catherine asked, confused.
"Yeah, we've been out for lunch." Sara told her. "Nick told me that you practically ordered him to take me out to eat."
"Yes, yes I did." Catherine answered with a smile. "You need a little meat on your bones." She added, patting Sara gently on the stomach.
Sara looked down at the hand, then back up at a smiling Catherine.
"Uh…" The brunette was at a loss for words.
Catherine sensed the confusion in Sara's voice and suddenly realized where she had placed her hand. 'Shit! Dammit Warrick, getting ideas in my head." She tried to casually remove it while saying:
"I better go phone Lindsey. I promised her that I would call to hear how her test went yesterday."
"Yeah," Sara was still confused. "I'll just finish those letters."
"Good." Catherine looked at her once more. "We have a meeting at 1."
"Nick told me." The conversation was getting awkward and neither knew what else to say.
"Ladies." Warrick interrupted the growing silence between them with his greeting.
"Warrick." With the relief evident in her voice, Catherine turned towards him.
"Got the autopsy report from Doc," Warrick informed them. "Haven't read it through yet, I was just going to go to the conference room to do that." He looked at the two women and saw the awkwardness between them. "What are you doing?" He asked with a smile.
"We were just…" Sara started.
"… Updating each other." Catherine finished.
"So, I'll just go finish those letters." Sara said, turning to go towards the conference room.
"And I have that Lindsey call to make." Catherine turned towards her office. "And we'll just meet up at 1." She threw over her shoulder as she walked down the corridor.
"Yeah." Sara answered, looking back at her to catch one last glimpse of the perfect sized round… Door! She really needed to stop almost walking into doors while checking out Catherine's butt.
"Did you have a nice lunch with Nick?" Warrick asked as he followed her into the conference room.
"Yes." Sara answered shortly, picking up a letter and getting back into work mode – they had a case to solve after all. She would have to think about Catherine later.
"We did too." Warrick told her as he sat down opening the folder in his hand. "You and Catherine seem to be getting along better." He added casually.
"Yeah," Sara looked up at him. "We do. Not really sure how that happened."
"Me neither." He said, thinking that mentioning the bet he sort of made with Catherine during their breakfast at Foxy wouldn't be a good idea. "But it's good though, right?" He pushed, fishing for any sort of indication that Catherine's feelings were reciprocated.
"Beats biting each other's heads off." Sara answered with a deliberate noncommittal shrug.
"Yeah." Warrick looked closely at her, trying to read her body language but with no success. "Well, we'd better get on with it."
"Yeah." Sara mumbled, already reading the letter she was holding.
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After having spent the last ten minutes talking to Lindsey about plans for her birthday, Catherine prepared herself for the call she really didn't want to make. She knew that she should have made it sooner, but now that she knew what had happened to Sara, she didn't want to be the one who would possibly have to tell the brunette that her attacker had escaped from prison. Just as she reached out for the phone a voice interrupted her.
"Catherine," Nick knocked on the open door. "Am I disturbing you?"
"No, Nick." Catherine sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "What's up?"
"I thought you might want to hear this before the meeting."
"Hear what, Nick?" She asked, wanting him to get to the point so she could get the call over with.
"Wendy just finished processing the hair from the vic." Nick said, and handed her a piece of paper.
She looked at the report before looking back up at him.
"This is not good, Nick." She said as she got up from her chair and went for the door. "Where's Sara?" She asked urgently.
"Conference room, I think." He said and followed her as she went towards the room.
"You have your gun with you?"
"Yes."
"Good." She stopped across from the conference room. "You get in there, and you stick to her like glue."
"Sure." Nick said, but apparently not forcefully enough for the blonde.
"I mean it, Nick. Even if you have to follow her into the bathroom, you do it. You got me? If this guy is on the loose there's no way of telling where the hell he could be, and we know he has it in for Sara. Like glue Nick!"
"My new name is 'Nick Superglue Stokes'," Nick said, and walked into the conference room.
Catherine looked at the piece of paper in her hand again, as if the information on it might have changed in the two minutes it had been since she'd last looked at it. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair again. This was the worst possible news she could have gotten. She cast one last glance towards the conference room and went to see Wendy about a DNA result.
"Wendy."
"Catherine." Wendy looked up from the paper she was looking at.
"Are you absolutely sure about this result?" Catherine asked the lab tech, and showed her the report.
"Yes. I just finished going over all the steps I took, and it's definitely a match to Mr. O.C.D." Wendy confirmed.
"Crap." Catherine sighed. "Ok, thanks Wendy." She said and walked back to her office.
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"What the hell are you doing in here, Nick?" Sara shouted when she realized that Nick had followed her into the bathroom. "This is the women's bathroom! Get out!"
"Sorry, Sara." Nick was just as embarrassed as Sara was. "I promise I won't look or listen or anything, but I promised to stay close to you."
"What the hell are you talking about? Get out!"
"No." Nick stayed firmly where he was - arms crossed over his chest and determined not to move an inch.
"Nick!"
"Nope, sorry." He shook his head.
"Who did you promise to stay close to me?" Sara demanded to know.
"I can't…"
"Oh, yes you can. Tell me right now, Stokes!"
"Sara, please…" Nick tried.
"Now!"
"Catherine." Nick told her.
"Catherine?" Sara asked. "Why the hell would she tell you to follow me into the bathroom?"
"I don't think I should be the one to tell you that. Just go do your business and we can get on with this." He said waving his hand towards the stalls.
"I am not doing anything with you standing in here." Sara said, storming out the door with Nick hot on her heels.
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Just as Catherine was about to reach for the phone again, Sara came rushing into the office with Nick following right behind her.
"Why on earth would you tell Nick to follow me into the bathroom?" Sara demanded to know.
"We got the DNA results." Catherine told her.
"What?" Sara didn't see the connection between her question and Catherine's answer.
"Nick, go get a cup of coffee or something." Catherine told the Texan, who left them alone.
"Why did you tell him to…"
"Wendy found a match on the hair." Catherine interrupted. "It's Dunne's hair."
"Oh." Sara's anger deflated and she sat down in the chair in front of Catherine's desk. "Positive match?"
"Yes." Catherine nodded. "Just got back from checking with Wendy."
"So, he's on the loose?"
"I was just about to call and find out."
"Ok." Sara looked up at her. "You mind if I stay here for that?"
"No." Catherine sighed, and reached for the phone.