A/N: Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. We're back with another new chapter. This one is shorter than most of the others have been so far and I hope you will enjoy it. A lot more excitement will be coming up in future installments, but I appreciate everyone who is reading and sticking with the story as we begin to build to the action-packed chapters. Anyway, please enjoy and review if you like :)

Time seemed to freeze as Catherine tried to process what exactly it was she was seeing. One moment she'd been lying in the guest bedroom of her mother's house, trying to catch the sleep she couldn't seem to find, the next she found herself outside in the cold and standing in the street, watching two cops who looked like they were moments from arresting Sara.

She stuffed her gun in the waistband of her shorts, the only place she could think to put it short of dropping it on the ground, as she took a few steps closer to the scene in front of her. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, or rather, demanded, a second time. "Why do you have her on the ground?" Sara's arms looked pinned painfully behind her back, her left arm held at a strange angle, and she let out a soft grunt as she tried to turn her head to the side so her chin was no longer scraping the rough pavement.

"Ms. Willows," Deputy Reeves held a hand up to pause her from coming any closer. "You shouldn't be here. Deputy Lewis and I found this woman sitting in her car across the street, watching the house—"

"You mean her police issue car?" Catherine pointed to Sara's Tahoe parked a short distance down the street, but still in view of the house. The LVPD sticker was clearly affixed to the corner of the windshield. "Do you have any idea who this woman is?"

"Ms. Willows—"

"Let her go right now! She's not a criminal, she's a goddamn CSI! This is Sara Sidle; she works grave with me!" Catherine was nearly in Reeves' face at this point, her finger pointing menacingly at him. Somewhere, a soft voice reminded her that this probably wasn't the best way to be approaching this situation; after all, Catherine may have had seniority over the two deputies but in no way did she have actual authority over them. Her anger kept her from listening to that voice right now, though, and she also helped to quiet it with the knowledge that if Brass were here, he would be ripping the two deputies a new one.

Reeves and Lewis both exchanged glances with one another, before Reeves stiffly nodded to his partner. Lewis hesitated a moment before he released his hold on Sara's arms. The brunette let out another grunt as she tried to encourage circulation to return to her arms, slowly bringing them in front of herself to push herself to her knees. Catherine quickly closed the distance between them both and held out her hand to Sara, pulling her the rest of the way into a stand.

Sara dusted off her clothes, the same outfit she'd been wearing at work that day. Catherine moved to help her, picking a loose piece of asphalt out of her now-disheveled hair, when she noticed the scratches on her face. Along her chin and the right side of her jaw was a pattern of red, rough scratches, which were clearly a result of her face being pushed against the ground.

Catherine's blue eyes burned nearly black with anger as she turned to Reeves and Lewis. "What the hell made either of you think it was okay to pin a CSI to the ground and nearly hold a gun on her?"

"Ms. Willows, Captain Brass sent us here to watch the house," Reeves tried to remind her. "We were instructed to be on the lookout for any suspicious persons, and we saw this woman sitting in her car, watching the house. When we approached to ask what her business here was, we noticed she had a gun. She refused to step out of the car, so we had no choice but to detain her for our own safety."

Without giving her body license to, Catherine took a step toward the officers, only pausing when she felt Sara's firm hand on her shoulder pulling her back. The blonde turned to glance at Sara, her look of absolute rage softening a bit when she met the younger woman's gaze.

Catherine absolutely wanted to tell the officers that they were full of shit and were damned lucky Brass wasn't here right now, but she instead let out a breath to calm her nerves before turning back to them. "I'll ask you again," she repeated, "did neither one of you bother to notice that she's driving a PD vehicle?"

"It's very dark, Ms. Willows, and once we saw the gun—"

"How about the fact that both of you have worked crime scenes with her?" Catherine shot back. At this, both of the deputies seem to run out of lame excuses, and the blonde clenched her hands into fists as she fought back her anger. "Is she under arrest?"

Reeves bit his lip, something between a deep frown and a scowl fixed on his face. "No, Ma'am."

Wordlessly, Catherine placed a hand on Sara's forearm and began to lead her back toward the house. She only took a few steps, though, before she turned around again to face the officers. "I'll be calling Captain Brass about this. You two better come up with a damn good apology to CSI Sidle." With those final words said, dripping with every ounce of venom she could muster, Catherine continued to lead Sara to her mother's house, gently guiding her inside once the front door was open again.

Catherine closed the front door, bolting the lock back in place, before turning to look at Sara. Both women were breathing a bit heavily from the adrenaline of the situation, and Catherine bit her lip so she wouldn't say something she'd regret. Most of her anger was directed at Reeves and Lewis, but she was also irritated with Sara for not sticking up for herself. She'd practically been able to reduce Catherine's abusive ex-husband to a harmless puddle but wouldn't even speak up to defend herself?

"Come with me," Catherine said, leading the path through the living room toward the hallway bathroom. The words weren't an invitation and her tone didn't leave anything open for question or discussion; it was clearly an order, and one she had no doubt that Sara would follow. Sure enough, she heard the brunette's quiet footsteps following behind her.

The blonde felt along the wall for the light switch and turned it on, illuminating the small bathroom. Once Sara was inside, Catherine pushed the door shut and began rummaging through the medicine cabinet for first aid supplies. Sara stood still and silent, and Catherine briefly glanced her way just long enough to motion to the toilet seat. "Sit down."

Finding a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some cotton balls, Catherine nudged the medicine cabinet shut before walking toward Sara. She grabbed the small laundry hamper in the corner of the bathroom, flipped it upside down, and pulled it under herself to use as a seat while she tended to Sara.

"Cath…" Sara finally spoke, her voice soft, as she watched the blonde prepare a cotton ball with alcohol.

"Turn your head," Catherine ordered her.

"Catherine—"

"Look, Sara, we're going to talk, but I want to clean those scratches on your face first so they don't get infected. Just… humor me for a second, okay?"

Sara pursed her lips, giving a silent nod of agreement as she turned her head to the side to give Catherine full view of the scratches marring her skin. She doubted they were very bad, but she still wasn't looking forward to having them doused in rubbing alcohol which was sure to burn like hell no matter what.

Catherine gently angled Sara's head a bit so she could see the worst of the scratches better. Now that she was examining them under light, she noticed a few of them were actually bleeding, and she bit her tongue so she wouldn't curse out loud. "I'll do this quickly," she told Sara by way of warning before she began to carefully dab the scratches with the cotton.

Sara let out a soft hiss from the sting of the alcohol, but otherwise remained silent while Catherine worked. True to her word, Catherine worked quickly, and within a couple of minutes all of the scratches on the brunette's face were cleaned and the dried blood was wiped away.

The blonde tossed the soiled cotton balls into the trash can beside the cabinets, letting out a tired sigh. "How are your arms?" she asked. "Are they sore from being held on the ground?"

"Catherine, I'm fine," Sara shook her head. "I promise. You didn't need to do all of this…"

"What the hell, Sara?" Catherine finally lost her cool with the brunette, her eyes still full of fire at the entire situation. "What was that out there?"

"Catherine, look—"

"Why the hell didn't you do something? Not fighting back I could understand, given they're cops, but not even saying something?"

"Cath—"

"You have no problem stepping in to protect other people, but when it's yourself, you just let people do whatever they want?"

"Catherine!" The brunette finally seemed to lose her composure, jumping to her feet. She ran a hand over her face, wanting to pace, but given how small the bathroom was and her close proximity to Catherine, there was nowhere for her to go. With a frustrated sigh, she lowered herself back onto the toilet seat. "Are you going to let me talk for one fucking second?"

"Then talk, Sara," Catherine growled.

"You think I was okay with what happened out there? That I didn't try to tell them who I was, why I was there? That my gun, like my fucking car, is police issue? That I wasn't doing anything wrong? Do you honestly think I didn't try any of that?"

Catherine held Sara's fiery gaze, her heart still pounding in anger. She recognized that it wasn't fair to be directing all of her anger at Sara right now. Even though she had no idea what had led to what she'd come across outside, she knew with absolute certainty that the brunette hadn't done anything to warrant it. If she was being entirely honest with herself, her anger was coming from a place of exhaustion, but more so from a place of fear. The evening had been difficult enough, recounting the events of the past few days to her mother, and when she heard the shouting voices outside, the fear that gripped her heart as she imagined her ex-husband outside her mother's house still hadn't completely faded.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a few moments, before letting it out shakily. "No, Sara," Catherine finally replied, her voice much softer than it had been. "No, I don't think you didn't try those things. I just… you… what happened?" she finally got out.

At that moment, Sara saw the exhaustion painting the blonde's features. Her eyes were still full of fire but were red from lack of sleep, dark circles accentuating them against her fair skin, and her brows were furrowed in a look of concern. Every ounce of anger Sara was holding in her body seemed to melt away as she held Catherine's gaze, and she let out another heavy sigh. "I grabbed some dinner after shift, and started on my way home. But I was thinking about you staying here with your daughter and your mother, and I got worried. I knew I wasn't likely to get any sleep anyway, so I drove over here and parked across the street just past the officers."

Catherine blinked in surprise. "…How did you even know where my mother lived?"

"I, uh… I called Brass. Told him I wanted to know exactly where the posted officers would be incase we needed to contact them. He gave me the exact location of the squad cars for your mother's house and my place. When I pulled up, I recognized your mother's car in the driveway and knew this was her house." She cleared her throat at how strange this all probably sounded, and then winced when she realized that it may actually come across as downright creepy.

Catherine shook her head slightly, wondering how she hadn't figured that out herself. "So you were just going to… what? Park and sit in your car all night long, watching my mother's house, and then head to the lab for the start of shift with no sleep?" The brunette remained silent, but that told Catherine all she needed to know. She sighed, running a hand through her hair, as she reached a hand out and gently placed it on Sara's arm. "Sara… as much as I appreciate that, it's not necessary. You need to rest, and we're well protected here." She wasn't actually sure how much she believed the second part of that statement, but she refused to admit that, not wanting Sara to realize just how paranoid she was about everything right now.

Sara bit her lip, suddenly unable to maintain eye contact, and Catherine frowned as she watched her. "So what happened with Reeves and Lewis?" she asked.

She felt Sara tense in response, and she placed her hand over one of her own, giving it a squeeze. "It was just a simple misunderstanding, that's all."

"Sara," Catherine frowned, "they held you on the ground and nearly pointed a gun at you. There may have been a misunderstanding, but there was nothing simple about it."

Sara met her eyes again, and knew that she wasn't going to be able to sidestep Catherine's probing. She was also much too tired to put up much more resistance and had no desire for an argument. "I'd been here nearly an hour," the brunette began, "and then I noticed one of them getting out of their cruiser. I think it was Reeves, but it was dark, and honestly, I wasn't paying close attention to whose car belonged to who. Anyway, a few seconds later it was both of them, and they started walking toward my car. I rolled down the driver's side window and reached for my ID clipped to my belt. Reeves walked up to the window, started to ask who I was, and spotted my gun in its holster on the front seat. I'd taken it off my belt to drive and forgot it was there." Catherine watched the muscles in her jaw clench and unclench several times. "Reeves yelled at me to put my hands on the dash, and after I did, I tried to explain who I was and that my ID was on my belt. I never even touched my weapon, Catherine, I promise. A few seconds later, Lewis started yelling at me to get out of the car, but I didn't exactly get a chance to comply before they yanked the door open and pulled me out. I continued to try and explain who I was, but they didn't give me a chance, and before I knew it I was face-down in the middle of the road. You know the rest."

Catherine stared at Sara in horror, her mind racing with a million different thoughts. At the forefront, though, was the bone-chilling realization that either one of those deputies could have drawn on her and fired. "Jesus Christ, Sara," she whispered. "Didn't they check your ID? Realize who you were?"

"Wouldn't have made a difference," Sara said with a scowl.

"What do you mean?"

"I knew it was Lewis and Reeves because Brass told me. It was one of the reasons why I—" Sara stopped herself before she let the rest of her sentence slip out, but it was too late. Catherine was staring at her expectantly, and the exhaustion in her body reminded her that she was in no mood to argue right now. "Let's suffice it to say, Reeves, at the very least, definitely knew who I was."

"How can you be so sure?" Catherine asked, not wanting Sara to think for a single second that she was implying that what Reeves or Lewis did was in any way excusable, but feeling as if she had to ask. As she watched Sara avoid her eyes once again, she suddenly put the pieces together herself. "You had some sort of falling out with him, didn't you?" She felt the brunette tense again under her fingers, and she suddenly moved herself closer to her, tugging the overturned laundry hamper along with her. "Sara," she slowly began, "what happened?"

Sara chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, running an anxious hand through her messy hair. "It happened a few weeks after I arrived in Vegas. I went out for drinks with the guys as a sort of welcome party."

Catherine felt a pang of guilt stab at her chest. She remembered. It had been Nick and Warrick's idea, and she recalled how that had surprised her given how much tension there had been between Warrick and Sara initially. They'd gone around the lab extending the invitation, saying it was going to be a fun, laid-back evening to officially welcome Sara as part of the team and get to know her a little better. Even Gil had agreed to go. Catherine had made up an excuse not to attend.

"Anyway, we went to this bar and had a few rounds of drinks. We'd been there an hour and a half, maybe? A few people from PD were there, too, including Reeves, but I never interacted with him. I got up to use the restroom but on my way back, I ran into Reeves. He made a few crude comments that I chalked up to booze and I ignored him. But then he blocked my path, and when I tried to side-step him, he—" The brunette's eyes once again shifted to anything except Catherine as her cheeks burned a bit in embarrassment. "He grabbed my ass, so I removed his hand and threatened to break three of his fingers if he touched me again. I also told him that if I ever saw him touch a woman without her consent again that I would go straight to Brass. So yeah, he and I had a bit of a falling out, and let's just say I'm probably not his favorite person."

Catherine stared at Sara in stunned silence, mouth half-hanging open. She wasn't sure whether to laugh at the fact that Sara had put a pig like Reeves in his place or put her fist through the wall. "Shit, Sara," she finally sighed. "Jesus. I'm sorry. Did you… I mean, did you tell anyone what happened?"

"Of course not," Sara replied, a humorless smirk tugging at her lips.

"What? Why? Weren't the boys still there?"

"Catherine, they invited me out for drinks, but we were still practically strangers at that point. I had no idea if Nick, Warrick, or even Grissom were friends with Reeves, and he had other officers there who could back him up. I was about three shots of tequila and one and a half beers into the evening. I didn't think anyone would believe me, even if I'd tried. So no. I said nothing, but it pissed Reeves off all the same. It's one of the reasons I drove over here tonight," Sara said this last part so softly it was nearly a whisper. "When Brass told me Reeves was one of the officers assigned to you, I got worried. I don't trust him."

"Sara…" Catherine slowly shook her head, not even sure where to begin. For one, it hurt her heart that Sara hadn't thought that any of the boys would have believed her, not even Gil. She'd heard the same thing from too many victims who feared that they wouldn't be believed if they came forward. The blonde didn't know a tremendous amount about the brunette's relationship with him prior to her coming to Vegas, but Gil had made it clear that he trusted her. It took a lot for Gil to trust anyone, let alone admit that he did, so she knew that they had to have been fairly close, if not as friends, then at least as peers.

It also hurt her to think of just how alone and isolated Sara must have felt. She'd uprooted her life and career in California to come to Vegas and had faced resistance from day one – from Nick, who was still young and competitive enough to perceive any newcomers as a potential threat to his advancement; from Warrick, who had found himself on the wrong end of the investigation; and from herself, who had tried to push the brunette away at every possible opportunity she had. No wonder she hadn't felt like she could go to anyone with this.

"I'm so sorry," Catherine finally said.

"It's fine," Sara shook her head dismissively.

"Don't you dare. It's definitely not fine. It wasn't fine when he assaulted you, and it's sure as hell not fine after the shit they pulled tonight. Has he done anything like this before? Maybe come up to you at crime scenes?" At Sara's continued silence, Catherine let out a heavy sigh, lowering her head. She had her answer.

"Alright," Catherine said, giving her hand another gentle squeeze. "Look, this can't slide. I'm going to call Brass later and tell him what happened, and then you need to be honest with him and tell him about all the other shit Reeves has pulled. I won't make you tell me, but you need to tell Jim. If not for yourself, then do it for me, for Lindsey and my mother, so that a sleazy bastard like him isn't one of the people charged with their protection."

Sara slowly pulled her eyes up to meet Catherine's gaze again. Despite her eyes looking heavy with tiredness, Catherine could also see a steely resolve there. "I promise, Catherine."

Catherine's lips tugged into the smallest of smiles, and she slowly leaned forward, pressing her lips to Sara's in a soft kiss. The pounding in her heart was finally starting to calm now, her body feeling heavy with exhaustion as the adrenaline began to wean. She pulled herself to her feet, stretching her arms over her head, before holding a hand out to Sara.

"Come on, let's get some sleep. Lindsey's in the guest bedroom, but my sister's room is still intact, as long as you don't mind a double bed."

Sara bit back a smirk as she grabbed Catherine's hand and pulled herself to her feet. "And your childhood bedroom is…?"

"The guest bedroom," Catherine replied, playfully slapping the side of Sara's arm when she noticed her trying not to laugh. "Not a word. Yes, my mother and I may have gotten into an argument years ago that resulted in her transforming my old room into her guest bedroom, but that's a long story I'm sure as hell not going into tonight."

"I wasn't going to ask," Sara finally laughed.

The brunette followed behind Catherine as she was led to the bedroom on the furthest end of the house. "Hang on a second," she whispered, pausing in the doorway of what Sara assumed was the guest bedroom. Catherine cracked the door open to glance inside, shaking her head in disbelief as she saw Lindsey, miraculously still sound asleep somehow, but now lying in the very center of the bed, her body wrapped in layers of blankets. Satisfied that she appeared undisturbed, and that her mother hadn't woken up – or, if she had, as Catherine suspected was probably the case – she had the wherewithal not to make that fact known – the blonde cracked the door shut before continuing down the hallway, waving Sara along to follow her.

Sara stepped into the small room, too exhausted to make any teasing remarks about the early 80s-looking décor, especially when her eyes fell on the double bed. She suddenly felt like she might collapse if she didn't lie down, and she moved to the mattress, placing a hand on it to test its softness.

She started to turn around to thank Catherine and tell her goodnight, but the blonde had already walked around to the other side of the mattress to start pulling the blankets down. Wordlessly, she tugged them down and crawled onto the bed, lying down with a tired sigh, before tugging the blankets up over her chest. When Sara continued to stand and stare at her, Catherine quirked a confused eyebrow and patted the space beside her on the bed. "Come on, get in."

For whatever reason, Sara felt her cheeks burn a light shade of pink as she toed her boots off and bent down to place them neatly against the wall. When Catherine had said they were going to sleep, she'd certainly hoped that she would be sharing a bed with the blonde, but hadn't expected it. After all, it still wasn't entirely clear what they were to each other at this point, and she figured it was probably a bit presumptuous to assume they would sleep together under these circumstances even if they had already slept together.

Sara pulled up the blankets, about to tug them down, when she heard Catherine snort back a laugh. "What?" the brunette asked, her voice a whisper so as not to disturb anyone else in the house.

"You're going to sleep in your work clothes?"

"Well, I just thought…"

"Sara, I've already seen you naked. Go ahead and get comfortable. Please. I guarantee you'll sleep a thousand times better."

Sara bit her lip in slight embarrassment and also a little in sudden shyness as she started to tug her long-sleeved sweater up over her head. She knew Catherine was right, but she'd thought it might have been rude to not only insert herself into the blonde's evening, but then make herself at home in her mother's house, when the home's owner wasn't even aware she was here.

She tugged the sweater the rest of the way off, tossing it by the foot of the bed, leaving her in a white tank top. She hesitated when her hands moved to the button on her slacks, and then she remembered she was being ridiculous and unfastened them, sliding them down her legs. She stepped out of them before walking back to the bed, sighing as she crawled under the blankets.

"There," Catherine said, and Sara could hear the smile in her voice despite not being able to see her face very well in the darkness. "Isn't that better?"

"Yes," Sara bit back her own smile. "But don't you think this is just the slightest bit awkward?"

"What's awkward about sleeping in my sister's kid bedroom?" Catherine asked, her voice very serious, and this time it was Sara snorting back a laugh. Catherine smiled as she turned onto her side, glancing at Sara as her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Despite the circumstances that had brought her here, the blonde was suddenly immensely grateful for Sara's presence. She already felt more relaxed, and as sleep was pulling at her tired body, she no longer felt like her mind was fighting it.

Catherine rolled closer to Sara, closing what little space remained between them on the small mattress. She rested her head against the brunette's shoulder, closing her eyes as she breathed in the smell of her shampoo and tried to mold her body against her own. She felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her closer, and a hand loosely thread itself through her hair.

"Goodnight, Catherine," Sara whispered in her ear, and it was the last thing the blonde heard before she drifted off into an easy slumber.

TO BE CONTINUED