Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy reading it. :)

Chapter Nineteen

I stirred my black coffee in silence, watching the liquid swirl as my spoon ran around the perimeter of the cheap china. I knew what this coffee tasted like, I had drunk it every day for the last four months - it was bitter, sharp and generally unpleasant but this was now my routine and I saw no real reason to change it.

I'd managed to get as far as Winslow, Arizona, on the $80 I had had in my pocket when I left Vegas, mostly from a mixture of hitchhiking and buses. I'd managed to land myself a job at a local diner, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to the few regular customers that came through the door. Nobody knew that I used to be a CSI or that my last name was Sidle - I was simply Sara, and I liked it like that.

I lived in a small room above the diner that was no bigger than one of the evidence rooms back at the lab but it had a bed and a TV and it was all I needed. I spent most of my days in the diner, dressed in the uniform of red skinny jeans and a white shirt, I had a name badge attached to my shirt which men usually used as an excuse to casually stare at my breasts as I poured their coffee.

I did my best to fit in with the other people that worked here - a young girl named Suzie and the owners Tim and Janet but I never really engaged in much conversation with them, they weren't particularly bothered where I'd come from or who I had been before I arrived in Winslow and I was grateful for that.

I sipped the hot black liquid, turning my attention to outside the windows of the diner - it was a hot day outside and there was a general bustle to the streets, despite the city being so small in population. I was on my lunch break, a quick fifteen minutes before the usual customers appeared for their usual lunches. I never bothered to eat much anymore, fueled by coffee throughout the day and scotch throughout the night, I barely had an appetite. I had noticed my clothes now hung from my body but my personal appearance had no importance any more - Would who I be making myself look good for?

I had thought of Catherine every day since I had left Vegas, I wondered what she was doing now and if she thought of me too, I wondered what would happen if I went back. I desperately wanted to go back to her and hold her in my arms but I knew I couldn't. I had taken the time away to settle my thoughts and re-assess how I had dealt with my childhood, I had even been to the local doctor to check out if my hand had healed which thankfully it had. I felt like I had finally faced a lot of demons from my past but I was still left with the gaping hole where my heart had been. I didn't think I would ever find anyone like Catherine again and I didn't want to.

"Sara!" Janet called over from the counter as the lunchtime rush began to appear.

I finished my coffee quickly and rose to my feet for another afternoon of serving sandwiches and hot drinks, a vast difference from analyzing evidence and putting bad guys behind bars.

Time ticked slowly by as I watched the clock on the far wall of the diner. It was a Thursday afternoon - 3:14pm to be exact and there wasn't a single customer to be seen. Thursdays were normally dead quiet but this was extreme. The blazing sunshine outside had convinced many people to spend time in their gardens or in the bar nearby instead of here.

To start off I had been grateful for the quietness but now I was bored out of mind. I had been on shift with Tim but he had gone home about an hour ago, asking me to lock up when my shift was over. He'd left me the keys to the building, something he hadn't done before, and I couldn't help but feel a little pleased at the responsibility. My nails tapped on the counter surface as I hummed to myself. I'd cleaned the whole diner from top to bottom and now was left without a single thing to do in the building.

Finally a customer pushed open the diner door, sending a little ringing noise throughout the quiet room from the bell that hung on the door frame. I smiled my diner-style smile at the guy as he came over to the till where I stood.

It took a couple of seconds, like I was in a dream and couldn't figure it out, but I soon realized who was now stood in front of me.

Greg.

I debated making myself known or not. It had been months since he'd seen me and I guessed I look pretty different with my hair tied back and awful red gloss on my lips. "What can I get you?" I asked.

He looked tired, his hair a little longer I remembered it, sunglasses placed on top of his gelled spikes, but he looked well and-

"Sara?"

My heart dropped. "Hi Greg."

He looked completely shocked to see me, like I was back from the dead or something of that magnitude. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here." I replied simply. What did he expect me to do after I'd been sacked from the best lab in the country? I had no references from Ecklie or Grissom, I would never work as a CSI again and I had no other experience apart from waitressing when I was seventeen.

"You look awful."

"Thanks." I replied sarcastically, breaking his eye contact, annoyed that he would say such a thing.

He reached out across the counter and took my hand in his, his fingers stroked my forearm, "You're so thin."

"I'm just on my feet a lot here," I pulled my hand back and shrugged, "I guess it's hard to find time to eat."

I caught his glance again, his shocked expression had turned to worry and I thought I had better change the subject before he expanded on his thoughts about my weight. "Do you want a drink?"

"Sure. Two coffees, black, to go." Greg smiled.

I pulled two takeaway cups from the side of the coffee machine and placed them under the machine's spouts, pressing a couple of buttons to begin the pouring process. "What are you doing here?"

"We got sent out here to do some work for some of the smaller areas of Arizona, just making sure that we're covering all bases... Ecklie thought it would be a good idea for some of us to get out of Vegas for a bit."

We? Two coffees? I was confused. "Who are you here with?" I asked.

Greg fell silent and my stomach knotted as I realized.

"Catherine's here... she's in the car outside, we're staying in Winslow for a few days to liase with PD here. We're staying at La Posada." He shifted uncomfortably as his words returned no response from me and the sound of the coffee pouring was the only noise in the diner. "I won't tell her you're here," he continued after a few seconds a silence, "if you don't want me to."

I didn't know what to say. The only thing I wanted in the world was to lay my eyes on her and hold her in my arms but the idea that her seeing me would cause her more heartache was gut-wrenching. I placed two lids on the cups and passed them over to Greg. "There are on the house." I told him.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

"I'm free tonight. I finish my shift at seven." I was slightly reluctant to talk about the last four months, which was undoubtedly what Greg wanted to discuss, but the idea of having a conversation with a friend was too inviting. I needed someone to talk to.

"I'll meet you outside here at seven then." He smiled at me, almost sympathetically, before leaving the diner, coffee cups in hand.

The idea that I could walk outside and see Catherine was unbearable. I wasn't sure I could take it and I knew a sudden appearance from me wasn't the best way to approach her, if I was to make any contact at all. The rest of my shift passed with both agonizing slowness and lightning speed as my heart and my head argued like they had never argued before.