Thanks to those of you that was kind enough to leave me a review.

Keep in mind that the only thing I know about cars or engines are what I need to drive my car.

Here is the next instalment.

NOW BETA READ

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Chapter 2

Picking Lindsey up from school on a Friday was one of Catherine favorite times. On Friday's Lindsey was extra bubbly and today didn't seem to be an exception to that, but Catherine had problems just enjoying her girl today. Nancy called earlier and said that she couldn't take Lindsey for the night and Lindsey's best friend's mom was sick so she couldn't do a sleepover either. All this forced Catherine to call Grissom to ask for a favor, not a thing the blonde CSI liked doing, because that only led to owing favors and that was never a good thing with Grissom. Knowing him he would call it in when she was on vacation.

"Please Gil, I can't find a sitter, and I have to do something. I can't just leave her alone all night she's too young for that, so can I please have the night off."

"Sorry Catherine, but I cannot do that. Day Shift has been swamped and they are already handing some of their new cases off to us. I cannot spare you; you'll just have to bring her in like last night, that worked fine, and I'm sure the techs could help keep an eye on her."

"Can't you just send Sara out in the field? I know she maxed on her overtime but can't you bend the rules a little this time? You know she'll be ecstatic."

"You know I cannot do that, and the best that I can do right now is to not call you in as of right now."

"Yeah, I know but I had to try. See you tonight Gil."

Damn Sara, why does she always ruin things for me? Now I have to bring my little girl to a place where the cruelty of life is exposed; the one thing I have never wanted her to see.

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Sara was definitely not looking forward being on lab duty for the next week, and she had even begged and pleaded with Grissom to let her out in the field when the night shift was so overloaded. But there was no talking sense into the man.

So here she was stuck in the lab doing mostly paperwork, and not only her own but also some of Grissom's, because he never spent any time on it himself, if he had the chance to get out of it. When he told everybody that he was doing paperwork in his office he was really spending time with his pet spiders often choosing to leave his paperwork to Catherine.

Sara was waiting in the break room before shift, hoping to hear that Grissom had changed his mind and there was a case for her, but instead Sara found herself getting ready to flee the room at the sound of Catherine's heels coming down the hall. There was no way she could get away now without Catherine seeing her, and there was no reason to give the other woman the satisfaction of seeing her running away. Or allowing Catherine the knowledge that the blonde's comments from yesterday hurt Sara. That would only lead to more acid comments of that Sara was sure.

The surprise was clear on Sara's face when Lindsey entered the room ahead of her mother, loaded with her teddy bear and backpack, and followed by Catherine with the sleeping bag.

As Lindsey saw Sara she jumped right into her arms and squealed, "How cool is this! I get to stay here again tonight, are you staying in the lab? Can we talk like last time? Uh, do I get to help you like you said I could?"

"Hi to you too Shortstuff, you really have to remember to take a breath in between sentences like we talked about yesterday." Sara laughed and smiled at the girl.

"Lindsey sweetheart, remember what we talked about in the car. You can't run around taking up people's time, they all have to work. Speaking of work I have to run, Grissom has already assigned cases." Catherine smiled as she kissed Lindsey goodbye.

"Catherine wait a second. Grissom already handed out cases. Was he too chicken to actually talk to me?"

Catherine actually smiled at that, though just a little, before she walked out saying, "Most likely yes but there's a car coming in that you get to process."

As Catherine left she could already hear Lindsey talking a mile a minute, and it also sounded like Sara was taking part in the conversation; not just ignoring her daughter's long and often weird topics. Topics which Lindsey tended to jump to randomly. This brought a smile to Catherine's face for the second time in short while. Though it did give her a strange feeling she couldn't quite explain. Not that she really wanted to. She didn't have time for confusing thoughts if she was going to get back to her little girl before breakfast. So Catherine pushed it all aside for later.

After talking for half an hour in the break room, even though Lindsey did most of the talking, Sara got paged that the car had arrived in the garage and was ready for processing.

"I have to go take this car apart. Will you be okay in here by yourself?"

"Mom said I could stay up for awhile because it's Friday. So can I come watch you? I won't be in your way or talk too much. I promise, please?"

"Yeah you can come, but only if you are sure it's okay with your mom, I don't need her to be madder at me than she already is. I know you won't be in the way and you don't talk too much. You just get excided and forget to breathe, but we are working on that, right?"

"Yes! She really said I could stay up, and I promise that I'm trying to remember breathing."

"Then come on Shortstuff, this way. I think I might just let you help. I can show you how to take a car apart."

"That's so cool! My mom doesn't know anything about cars. You really think I can learn how to do that?"

"Yeah, I could teach you, but I can't give you hands on with this car because that's evidence and you don't have the proper training. But if you want and your mom gives the okay, I can take you to a friend of mine's garage, and we can borrow one of her cars so you can work on it."

Lindsey's only response to that was to jump up and down and squeal.

"I'll take that as a yes, but only if you get permission from your mom."

Lindsey kept jumping but she stopped squealing. This was followed by her beginning to talk a mile a minute again about how cool this was, and how envious her friends would be when she told them that she got to help taking a car apart.

Sara was softly laughing at Lindsey's excitement. "Breathe, Lindsey breathe. Okay, here is the deal Shortstuff, you can help me with the tools and I'll talk you through everything. You are allowed to look, but no touching of any of the car parts. Deal?"

"Yeah, totally, I get to look at everything and I can ask questions, right?" As she asked the last part she looked pleadingly at Sara.

"Sure Shortstuff, any question you like."

Lindsey loved this time alone with Sara. She had no idea why her mom didn't have Sara over when the rest of the team came to parties or dinners, because Sara was so much cooler than all the guys combined. Lindsey put that thought aside to ask her mom about later. Now she was just going to enjoy her possibility to ask all the questions she wanted answered. She had the full attention of an adult that was willingly spending time with her; that was not something that came around all that often, and she was going to take full advantage of this time. She could beg her mom about Sara later.

As all this flew through Lindsey's mind she started firing questions at an unsuspecting Sara.

Sara just held up both of her hands while saying "Calm down girl. First you have to remember to breathe." Silently watching the girl calm herself down by taking a big breath, Sara continued, "Yes, I promised you could ask any question you wanted, but you have to give me some time to answer you." At this Lindsey looked embarrassed but Sara just said, "Where would the fun be if it was only you asking questions and you didn't get any answers? You okay with that?" Sara smiled as she saw Lindsey's bright smile and eager nod.

Sara started working on the car and Lindsey kept asking all sorts of questions, not all of which concerned the car, but Sara happily answered all the girl's questions. Sara's was working somewhat slower than normal, but that didn't bother her as much as it usually would. To her surprise she was having a great time with Lindsey.

When Sara noticed that Lindsey kept yawning every so often she decided that it was time to get the girl into her sleeping bag.

"You want to have a little something to eat and drink before you fall asleep, Shortstuff?"

"Yeah, but can I have some of your lunch like yesterday? Mom didn't bring me any. We're going out for pancakes in the morning and I get to choose which kind I want. I think she's sorry for dumping me in the lab for the second night in a row, but I'm having a great time."

"Sure, but I actually want some this time," Sara's lips curled at Lindsay's guilty expression.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to eat it all, and I promise that won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't because you will have fallen asleep before half my food is gone." Sara smiled sweetly at the girl while Lindsey was rubbing her eyes.

"You have to change into your pajamas before we eat because you're so tired. Deal?"

Lindsey liked that Sara asked if things were okay and not just demanding that she did what was told like everybody else. By the time Sara had gotten her food and something to drink for the both of them Lindsey was already in her pajamas and on her way into her sleeping bag. "I'm ready for the food now, you coming Sara?"

Sara's prediction of Lindsey falling asleep had come true. The girl was asleep within 15 minutes and had barely eaten anything. Sara quietly tucked Lindsey in and finished the rest of her lunch before she turned the lights of and left the room. On her way out she hung a note on the door that warned people with bodily harm if they disturbed or woke Lindsey up and signed the note.

This note ensured that all the lab techs that came looking for a cup of coffee, very quietly left the hall without getting their coffee. No one was going to chance Sara carrying out her threat.

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By the time that 8 am came around no one had had the courage to enter the break room and chance waking Lindsey. Sara had been by regularly to check on her and make sure she didn't have more nightmares.

Catherine finally had time to come back to the lab. She was ready to take off and spend the day with her daughter. There was no way Catherine would take any calls today. She really owed Lindsey for the last two nights.

The blonde softly chuckled as she reached the door to the break room and saw the note. She had no doubt that Sara would follow through on her threat. Catherine just didn't understand why Sara cared so much about Lindsey that the brunette would threaten the techs away from the break room. Considering the fact that the techs usually got cranky if there was no coffee around, and all of them were easily bribed with good coffee not like that stuff the County was willing to pay for.

Catherine turned and saw her sweet little angel sleeping. She slowly sat down next to Lindsey on the couch to wake her up so they could get out of here. "Lindsey, sweetie we can go now."

At the same time that Catherine leaned down to kiss Lindsey on the head, Sara came bursting through the open door while saying, "Don't think that the note is just an empty threat." Realizing who she was talking to Sara stuttered, "Uh, Catherine sorry I didn't know it was you. I thought it was one of the lab techs. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean that I would hurt you, and I didn't mean that you couldn't come see your daughter. I only put that note on the door to make sure she got some sleep and I checked on her to make sure she didn't have more nightmares."

"Sara, calm down. You're babbling." Catherine grinned "Hey, you did well, I'm not mad at you. It looks like Lindsey is doing great, so just relax and have a cup of coffee before you head home."

What!! I think I walked into the twilight zone, I'm babbling and Catherine reassured me that I did well with Lindsey and that she isn't mad.

"Hey, Sara can we go take that car apart today after pancakes?" Lindsey asked with a big yawn as she woke up and interrupted Sara's rambling thoughts.

"Shortstuff, first of all I have to talk to Cam, because we cannot just invade her garage without asking her first. It's her garage so her rules go. Second of all the deal was that you needed to talk to your mom and get her approval first, 'member?" Sara was smiling softly and sat down at the coffee table while talking to Lindsey.

Through the conversation Catherine wore a baffled expression and couldn't stop thinking; what the hell? Lindsey wants to spend time with Sara and they already made plans without checking with me first!?! And why would Lindsey want to go to a garage?

While Catherine was caught up in her thoughts, Sara had quietly said goodbye to Lindsey and left.

She would swing by Cam's on her way from work just to talk to her again. That way Sara could spend some time relaxing and talking with her friend. The younger woman didn't have to wait until Catherine gave Lindsey the okay to join her, which would most likely never happen. This way her and Cam could get caught up again. It had been a month since Sara had the time to stop in. Maybe one of the guys would have some news about any of their kid's test results. That would be just what Sara needed after being stuck in the lab for the past two nights.

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Catherine didn't know what she was going to say to Lindsey when she saw her daughter's expression. "Come on sweetie, let's go have pancakes and then we can do whatever you want to do today."

"Hey Mom, why did Sara look at me like that when I told her to come have pancakes with us?"

"Look at you like what?"

"Like she didn't really know what to say, and like she wanted to be anywhere but here. She just mumbled that she didn't want to take away from my time with you."

At this point Lindsey was looking lost, confused, and a little sad. "Why didn't she want to come with me, Mom? We had fun with the car, and the night before when she helped me after my bad dream. Plus she didn't mind all my questions like everybody else. She answered them all and reminded me to breathe." Lindsey explained before she had to take a deep breath.

"I don't know sweetheart. She was probably really tired, and couldn't think straight, just like you sometimes get when you are overtired."

While Lindsey wasn't paying attention to her mother, the older Willows looked extremely guilty. I must be the reason Sara left in a hurry, and she didn't tell my little girl. She has gotten so used to me yelling at her, and picking fights with her for no good reason, that she excuses herself from the room when I'm around. Maybe I should take a page out of Lindsey's book and be nicer to Sara. She can't be that bad if she was willing to answer all of Lindsey's questions, and still be willing to take her to a friend's garage after that. Nobody, not even me, can handle all my daughter's questions without going a little crazy.

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All through breakfast Lindsey was telling her mom everything about Sara. In between her praises she kept begging her mom to let her go with Sara to her friend's garage. Lindsey even told Catherine about her nightmare and what Sara had done after some prodding from Catherine's side. That was a new side to Lindsey that Catherine hadn't seen since before Eddie died. The little girl had not been willing to share any of the many nightmares that Catherine knew she was having.

This only added to Catherine's guilty conscience about the way she treated Sara, and what she blamed Sara for doing even if the worst parts where never spoken out loud. Not like all the other times she had said things to deliberately hurt and belittle the brunette.