Act 32: Catherine

I stir awake when I feel the warmth of Sara's body vanish. I hear her moving around the room quietly, assume that she's gathering her clothes. When the door of her bathroom is closed and water starts cascading into the tub confirming my assumption I relax and just grab her pillow, a very poor substitute to her presence.

I doze off until she exits the bathroom as quietly as she had entered it. A minute later I can hear her steps heading in direction of the door.

"Hey, don't forget my kiss," I chastise her sleepily.

By the sound of her breathing I know that she's smiling as she's walking back to the bed; I feel her sit on it then she delicately pushes a strand of hair of my face before resting her palm against my cheek. She captures my lips softly, and makes the contact linger. She pulls away just enough to give me an Eskimo kiss, then her lips are on mine again.

There's something different about her kiss today. Usually it's a peck on my lips or just a soft kiss but this one is charged with emotions, so much that I want to ask her if she's alright.

"I'll see you later," she murmurs, then kisses my forehead before standing up again.

"Later, be careful."

And with that she leaves the room. I just bury my head in her pillow and inhale deeply before drifting back to sleep.

When I wake up again the alarm clock indicates that it's 8 a.m., I sigh deeply and stretch with a yawn, trying to shake the sleep off. After ten minutes I get up to shower, once that's done I head downstairs.

The house is quiet; it's something that has thrown me off the first morning I had here, in spite of being nine people around, the house is quiet most of the time. I mean they all move like ghosts.

I get into the kitchen, having a good visual memory I locate a pan easily and get what I want from the fridge.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I jump out of my skin at the grave voice, holding my chest, hoping to keep my heart from leaping out of it. "Jeez…" I hiss.

I turn and find Charlie sitting on one of the counters, a book in hand. "Sorry," he gives me an apologetic grin.

"I didn't see you there."

That's what I meant about them all being like ghost; I swear they are good at camouflage in plain sight. Now I know how Sara is good at hiding in the lab.

"I noticed," he smirks. "My question hasn't changed. What do you think you're doing?"

"I was going to make myself some breakfast."

"Uh… I thought so," he takes a deep breath and stand up, putting his book aside. "Step away from the counter please."

I snort. "What…"

"I'm sorry, that's the rule. You're our guest and as such you're not allowed to do anything but put your feet under the table and wait to be served."

"Oh come on…" I protest gently. "I can cook."

"I know, but rules are rules."

"You don't have to… I mean I appreciate everything you guys do for me, but I'm a bit embarrassed that you're always doing everything around. I want to pull my own weight."

"Uh-huh," he nods but keeps getting ready to cook.

"What do I get the feeling that nothing I'll say will make you change your mind?"

"Ah, see that's because you have great observation and deduction skills," he jokes.

"Lindsey cooked dinner with Hazy and Ruben last night," I point out.

"They were teaching her a few things here and there, so it doesn't count."

I see the logic. Lindsey is still learning whereas I already know, so she gets a pass but I don't. It doesn't mean I'm okay with it though; but I recognize a lost battle when I see one. "There's no winning this argument for me, is there?"

"Scout did say you were one of the best CSI, I can see why," he winks. "You're hungry for anything special?"

"The usual is fine, thanks."

"Coming right up," he nods and starts chopping a pepper for my egg. I sit at the table and watch him work.

"Everybody's still sleeping?"

He laughs. "I'm afraid you're the last one to wake up."

I'm surprised, it's not even 9 a.m. yet. I take it that not sleeping long is another general Sidle's trait.

"The little ones went surfing almost three hours ago," Charlie informs me.

I have to smile at his statement, it's kind of adorable how everybody starting from Sara and Sidney are referred to as 'the little ones'; and there's something even more touching to know Lindsey is included in the lot.

"Russ and Scout left almost half an hour before that, and Howie is working on the roof, on the other side," he jerks his head in direction of the bed and breakfast.

"What's with surfing at the break of dawn?"

He chuckles. "For a little while you can pretend that the ocean is your private pool, because there's no one in yet… but more than that there's something majestic about surfing at sunrise," he says with a thoughtful gaze. "Actually there's just something majestic about the ocean, and it's hard to describe how good it feels to interact with it."

I nod at his statement; I get what he's saying even though I haven't surfed enough to get that kind of feeling, I know I felt the same with other things.

"There you go, breakfast of champions," he winks at me when he puts a plate in front of me.

"Thank you," I beam. The least that can be said about Sara's family is that they all know how to make wonders in the kitchen.

Something suddenly occurs to me; it's the first time that I'm alone with Charlie, with any of Sara's brothers really, but Charlie being the fatherly figure around I realise that this is my 'meet the parent' time. It has been a long while since I've found myself in this situation, so long in fact that the thought alone makes my stomach tie itself into a knot.

My past experiences showed that I've never been good at getting approval from the family of my partners. For all the confidence I have this has always been my Achilles heel, making me nervous beyond reason; I've always been awkward and lost all my composure, as a result I was perceived as the nice but slightly dumb girl who wasn't suitable for a serious relationship.

"Something's wrong with the food?" Charlie looks up from his book after a few minutes of silence.

I chuckle nervously with a shake of my head. "We're alone," I state the obvious.

"Am I making uncomfortable?" he asks immediately with concern.

"No, not at all…" I clear my throat. "It just dawned on me that this is probably when you're going to give me the speech."

"The speech?" he frowns.

"You know the one, about how I should take a good care of Sara or else there will be six people to beat the crap out of me then expect to hear about my intentions towards her."

"Ah, that speech," he smirks.

"Yeah…"

"It seemed redundant to me to tell you something you've already figured out by yourself," he shrugs with an amused rictus. "Besides, you're on our turf, there are six of us and one of you, that setting is too much like bullying to my liking," he winces.

I release a small breath. "As for your intentions," he goes on "Your presence here speaks louder than any statement you could possibly make," he shrugs. "So, that's that."

I'm a bit taken aback by this, not sure what he means by his statement. He just looks at me with a mysterious smile playing on his lips.

"Well… thanks, I guess," I pause. "It's all… kind of anticlimactic," I chuckle feebly.

"If we had met in Vegas I'd have given you the full on brother bear routine; cold shoulder, poker face, mean stare, barely receptive to anything, the whole nine yards."

I can picture it very well, and it's intimidating, something about him being a giant next to me and having this whole dangerous edge when not sporting that benevolent expression.

"Anticlimactic isn't bad," I joke and he laughs good-heartedly. "It gives me more time to get to know you."

In the next hours I learn that he's a father of three, that he's a widower, that we have in common the fact that we never went to college or that we felt inadequate as parents; we share funny and embarrassing stories about each other; in short I feel like talking to my own brother.

Time flies so fast that I'm surprised when 'the little ones' come back from their surf expedition. I manage to exploit the loophole in Charlie's rule to help him cooking lunch by asking him to teach me something I don't know. I'm glad to finally be able to help a bit.

The kitchen crowds quickly when Linds and the others have showered and changed, soon it's pandemonium; I have a hard time following the excited conversation, all I know is that a lot of surfing is involved and that my daughter is glowing with joy.

We set the table and wait for the last siblings to join us.

"Russ and Scout aren't back yet?" Hazy asks, voicing my thought.

Charlie doesn't get a chance to reply when his phone rings. "Well, speak of the devil," he grins then walks out of the kitchen to take the call.

In the meantime, Howard has finally joined us and picks up easily on the current conversation. I'm more interested in Charlie's phone call. When he comes back he invites us all to eat saying that Russell and Sara would be there a bit later, Howard and the others don't need to be told twice since physical activity gave them appetite.

I ask Charlie if it's alright for me to wait for Sara and Russell's return, and he assures me that it is. I stay at the table nonetheless but don't pay much attention to what is discussed, my mind on Sara.

I must admit that last night when she told me that she would go visit her mother, I was expecting her to ask me to go with her, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hurt when she made me understand that I wasn't part of the plan.

A lot of things ran through my head as to why she kept me away. I decided to put my pride aside and trust Sara. If she didn't want me to meet her family I wouldn't be here, therefore I know there is a reason why she didn't take me with her to visit her mother. I just have to be patient, maybe one day she'll tell me the story behind it all.

I'm a bit worried about Sara to be honest, last night she had a panic attack after a bad dream and was really emotional afterward.

She never talks about her nightmares, and I can understand why, but I also know that she's keeping me at distance; there's something more, something running deep that is affecting her at times, something she won't share. Again, I know that I have no choice but be patient, but it's hard to stand aside without being able to do anything.

I notice a change in Charlie, or maybe I'm just imagining it but he seems preoccupied, I don't know why but I instantly think about Sara.

Instinct is a funny thing, it will stir at what seems to be the oddest moments and the temptation to dismiss or rationalize it is strong, but if there's one thing I've learnt it's that one should always trust their instinct, as unexplainable as it is, it's seldom wrong.

I have this unpleasant feeling settling in the pit of my stomach, I can't explain why but it's about Sara, the worried I felt last night is back full on and try as I might I can't shake it off.

Damn it.


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