Here's the next chapter for ya. As usual I would just like to say thank you for the reviews. I hope you will let me know what you think of this one as well.

Lady J, thank you again. I never know how to say thank you in a new way in these notes, so I'll just stick with the simple thank you and hope it's enough.

Chapter Twenty Four

SOB

"She what?" Veronica sat up in bed and looked down at Kimberly.

"She went with the guys to the jail." Kimberly repeated.

"To see him?" Veronica asked, not quite believing what she was hearing. "Why the hell would she willingly go see him? And why didn't anyone stop her?"

"I don't know," Kimberly sat up as well. "I wasn't there when they left, but I think Catherine went with her." She paused. "Which is a little weird because those two really don't get along too well."

"Neither did we when we first met, Kim." Veronica tried to clue her in.

"You think they…?" She looked at her wife. "No… Really?"

Veronica neither confirmed nor denied, but just looked back at her wife.

"How did I not see that one coming?" Kimberly shook her head. "Really?" She asked again, just to make sure.

"She went to the jail to see Dunne?" Veronica shook her head reaching for her cell phone on the nightstand. "I better call her and make sure she's ok." She leaned over and kissed Kimberly. "Get some sleep will ya? You need all your strength for this case."

"Yes dear." Kimberly smiled, and lay back down.

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"We have to get back to the lab." Catherine said, after enjoying the closeness for a couple of minutes. "We need to get moving on this again."

"I know." Sara sighed. "We need to get Warrick to check up on the guard." She kept her hold on Catherine's hands though, and didn't move.

"We have to move to do that, you know." Catherine smiled.

"Five more minutes?" Sara joked, but reluctantly let go of the blonde's hands and stepped away from her.

They smiled at each other, Sara trying somehow to express to the other woman how grateful she was. Trying to show how much it meant that the other woman had been there to catch her when she fell. To show that she appreciated how Catherine had stopped her from doing something stupid like facing Dunne.

"Thanks." Was all she could put into words. It didn't sound like much, but it was sincere and heartfelt, and Catherine understood.

"Any time, Sara." She grabbed a hold of the other woman's hand. "Now let's get out of here. I don't know if the boys think that we're killing each other or we're… well, naked on the desk having fun." She dragged a blushing Sara out of the room to meet up with the two men.

"Are you ok?" Nick placed a hand on Sara's shoulder in support. He had been worried about his friend.

"I just really want to get out of here." Sara answered him with a strained smile. "Being here gives me the creeps."

"Ok, let's get going then." The Texan noticed the two women holding hands, and he looked at Sara with a big smile.

"Nick, will you come with me to get the visitor log from Warden Matthews? Brass, you and Sara wait outside?" Catherine squeezed Sara's hand lightly before letting go and walking down the hall with Nick.

"Remember to get the name of the guard." Sara told her.

"Yes." Catherine looked back with a smile. CSI Sidle was back in the game.

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Once outside, Sara leaned against their car and took a few deep breaths of fresh air, trying to clear her head.

"You ok there?" Brass asked, moving to stand next to her.

"I will be." Sara answered truthfully.

They stood in silence for a while, taking in the surroundings. Sara was the one to break it.

"Brass." She looked over at the Captain. "I need you to get a couple of uniforms to protect Lindsey."

"Lindsey?"

"Lindsey Willows."

"Catherine's daughter?" Brass asked. "Why?"

"Because she might be in danger on this case." Sara didn't elaborate.

"How?" Brass pushed, needing to know the details.

"She's connected to me."

"If that's all you have to base this on, I can't defend using two officers to do that to the Sheriff." Brass told her apologetically. "Then we'd have to put guards on your neighbours, dry cleaner or pizza delivery guy as well. They're as connected to you as a colleague's daughter."

"Catherine is… Catherine is more than just a colleague to me, Jim." Sara looked down at her shoes. "And if this guy has had months to study me, he'll know that."

"Ok." Brass nodded. "I'll get a couple of people on it."

"Thanks."

"No problem." He looked over at her. "Does Catherine know this?"

"Yes." Sara smiled.

"All of it?"

"Yes." Her smile grew bigger.

"That explains how she could keep you against that wall." Brass chuckled. "I was already trying to figure out how I was going to explain how one or both of you got injured in a closed room with just the two of you in it."

"Yeah, she did say that you guys would be thinking something along those lines." Sara laughed with him, deliberately leaving out the naked fun on the table part Catherine had been talking about.

That did sound great, though.

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"Catherine?" Nick started when the other two had left.

"Yes, Nick?" Catherine turned her head to look at him but kept walking.

"You know, this case is really getting to Sara."

"I know."

"And you two have been very… civil towards each other lately."

"We have."

"I just don't want to see Sara hurt, so I hope it's not just because of this case that you're not at each other's throats."

"Nick." Catherine stopped and turned towards him. "If you've got something to say to me, just say it."

"I'm just looking out for her is all." Nick told the blonde.

"So am I, Nick." Catherine started walking again. "Now can we just get that log and get out of here?"

"Yeah." Nick smiled and followed her.

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"Brown." Warrick answered the phone.

"Hey Rick. It's Catherine."

"Hey, how are things going with Dunne?"

"We're on our way back now. We didn't get much from him. How are things on your end?"

"Nothing suspicious so far with the guards. Sofia and Kimberly went home to get a couple of hours of sleep."

"That's good. There's nothing they can do right now anyway. It's better to have them fresh tonight. Look, I need you to take a look at a guard called Stanley Burns. He was acting suspicious during the interview."

"Stanley Burns?" Warrick jotted the name down on a piece of paper. "Sure, I'll get right on that. How'd Sara handle seeing Dunne?"

"Better than I would have." Catherine answered him. "I'll see you when we get back to the lab. We should be there in about half an hour."

"Sure. I'll check up on Mr. Burns then." Warrick said.

"Great. Bye."

"Bye." Warrick hung up the phone and put Stanley's information in the computer, and waited for the results to present themselves.

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"Hi Rick." Catherine, Sara and Nick walked into the lab where Warrick was working.

"What do we have on the guard?" Sara asked.

"You ok?" Warrick asked her before answering the question.

"Yeah." Sara was a bit surprised at the question, but pleasantly so. "It was a little hard, but I had help." She smiled at Catherine.

"Now what about the guard?" Catherine asked him.

"Stanley Octavian Burns." Warrick started.

"Octavian?" Nick asked. "Wow, his parents really didn't like him much, did they?"

"Yeah," Warrick chuckled. "And if his initials are anything to go by, he did it."

"Stanley Oct…" Catherine thought out loud. "SOB – very funny."

"Born November 21st 1976. Originally from New York, but has moved around a lot. He graduated from Yale with a master's degree in mathematics…"

"And now he's a prison guard?" Sara asked not believing it.

"You have a bachelor's degree in physics and you're a CSI." Nick countered.

"I'm still a scientist." Sara defended herself. "Nothing wrong with being a prison guard, but with a master's in mathematics? I just don't buy it."

"It does show us that he's smart." Catherine stated.

"And there's no way Dunne would work with someone with a low or even average IQ." Nick said.

"When did he become a guard?" Sara asked.

Warrick looked at his notes.

"2003." He told them.

"That would have given him time to find out about the case and get in contact with Dunne." Catherine thought out loud. "Did he start out in Vegas?"

"Yes, Las Vegas was the only place he applied for." Warrick answered.

"And Dunne was transferred in 2000 – same time as Veronica moved here." Sara said.

"Ok, we have a lot of coincidences here." Catherine said. "But we need to look at the evidence as well."

"What evidence?" Sara asked. "This is all we have to go on."

"We need to talk to Bridget Rowan." Catherine said. "She was the best friend of the vic, and if anyone knows anything, it would be her."

"I'll get the PD run a more thorough background on Burns and the people who have visited Dunne." He took the visitor log that Catherine handed him.

"Good. When you've done that, you go home and get some sleep." Catherine told him. "We meet back here tonight."

"Ok, see you tonight." Warrick left the room.

"Nick, you might as well get home and get some sleep as well." Catherine told the Texan.

"Yeah. See you guys tonight then." Nick said, patting Sara on the back before leaving the two of them alone.

"What do we do?" Sara asked once the guys had gone.

"You up for a meeting with the Governor?" Catherine asked.