I'm trying to finish this story and have some chapters and are writing more. I'll upload chapters as I finish them.
Chapter 22
Two days after Catherine had taken Emily and Sara to the park and spent the day showing Sara that the brunette could be a parent, Grissom called revoking Sara's time off. The supervisor had been able to hold from calling for the last two days, but Ecklie had told Grissom he would order Sara back to work if Grissom didn't do it.
Grissom had expected anger and sarcasm, and even to some extent some yelling from the brunette. He hadn't expected the anger to come from Catherine. No matter how many times he had tried to explain that he had no choice in the matter, Gil hadn't been able to get Catherine to agree or even stop the yelling. It hadn't gotten better when Sara had to show up at the start of shift. Again it had been Catherine that had shown the most anger, and Sara had just looked resigned.
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Sara hadn't known how to react to the call, the only good thing was that she at least didn't have to be at work that night. It had seemed unreal at the time of the call. It wasn't like this surprised her, Gil had been trying to persuade her to come back to work, for days now, and Sara knew that there had to be something other than the night shift being one CSI short. Sara would have liked to have more time getting Emily used to living in Las Vegas, and have found a babysitter for when she had to work. But that wasn't the case and this wasn't the first time things didn't go her way, and it most likely wouldn't be the last either. It was the way of her life, and Sara expected things to go wrong when she was able to find something good. That was the way her life had always been.
That day Emily and Sara had spent with not only Catherine, but also later with Lindsey, had helped them both. The day had given Sara the courage and support she needed to stop doubting everything. Emily got what she needed to come out of her shell and started talking to her mama again. It didn't mean that both of them didn't have any more problems, but it did give them a good starting point. And Catherine believed that given the opportunity, Sara would be a great parent. The brunette just needed to believe in herself, and having Emily talking to Sara again went a long way in establishing that belief once more.
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Finding someone willing to babysit Emily when she had to work wasn't easy. And finding someone that Sara was willing to trust Emily with, was even harder. Only having a day didn't improve matters. But that wasn't the worst part, that was explaining to Emily that she would have to spend the nights with someone the girl didn't know, because she had to go to work. Sara wasn't sure how Catherine could make working night shift and taking care of Lindsey work.
What saved Sara was when Nancy called to offer her help till Sara could find someone else.
Nancy had heard from Catherine that Sara had to go back to work. She didn't think one more child would be the end of the world. As Nancy put it when Sara had tried to talk her out of the offer. What persuaded Sara in the end was that Emily already knew Nancy, and Lindsey would be there. Emily's new hero.
Nancy normally wouldn't have offered to one of Catherine's coworkers, but after Sara had started spending time with Lindsey, Nancy had seen more of the shy brunette. Nancy now considered Sara a friend, and she didn't miss a change to invite the brunette in for coffee and talk, whenever Sara came to pick up or drop of Lindsey.
The first night Emily was to spend at Nancy, she had been exited about the sleepover. That held until it was time for bed, by that time the novelty had worn off, and Emily wanted to go home.
Sara had had to spend an hour at Nancy's to calm Emily enough for the girl to be able to sleep. That had been the first night of many that Sara had left work to go talk to Emily. After two weeks of doing that every night, Emily was satisfied with talking to Sara on the phone.
Sara was relieved that, after the first week, Nancy had suggested Emily stay with her, instead of Sara trying to find another babysitter.
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Normally Sara loved her job, but after she had been forced back to work, it hadn't been the same. She hadn't been able to put her finger on what was wrong, it was just a feeling. It didn't help that Emily wasn't comfortable with Sara working nights.
It worked in Sara's favor that she didn't need much sleep, as Emily needed entertainment during the days, not giving Sara much opportunity for sleep.
Even though the other CSI's were supportive and willingly helped out when Sara needed to go see Emily, they couldn't keep Sara's absence, during the night, from being noticed. The trouble started when Ecklie somehow found out.
Grissom called Sara into his office to talk to the brunette about what he saw as the trouble with her leaving the lab during shift. Gil, as always, wasn't so smooth in expressing what he wanted to say. He ended up saying some not so well received things about Emily. He had ended with asking if Sara thought it was a good idea for her to get custody of the young child. He hadn't even remembered Emily's name. That had been the last thing for Sara to get angry. It wasn't that bad, she raised her voice and told Grissom some truth. Raising your voice at Gil never had the effect you wanted in the moment. Especially because Grissom kept his calm and quoted something obscure.
Grissom never mentioned anything about Ecklie and Sara didn't find out about the Lab Director knowing about her absence for some time.
It was after that conversation with Grissom, Sara started noticing what was wrong.
Sara's requests for nights off were being ignored, and her schedule didn't at any time during the next month give her, the earlier dreaded, two nights off in a row. She would have been ecstatic about that before Emily came to live with her. It took some time before Sara noticed the pattern and even longer for the other CSIs to notice it as well. They usually didn't keep track of each others shift schedule.
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After Sara had come back to work, it had been hard to spend time with anybody, but Emily. Her nights off never coincided with Catherine's or weekends. Effectively isolating Sara.
It was the smaller day to day things Sara noticed first. Getting the simplest and most disgusting cases. Or when working as a part of a larger team, she got the routine assignments. It wasn't that Sara minded doing any parts of a investigation, but she enjoyed the more challenging cases more. And then there was Greg's training. Most of it had been given to the other CSIs. Again it worked to isolate Sara.
The changes occurred slowly, nobody noticing at first. It wasn't until all Sara seemed to be doing was going through dumpsters, printing hotel rooms or processing decomp sites.
Not only would Sara spend most nights working alone. She also smelled most of the time and spent a lot of time showering. Thereby extending the time she had to stay at the lab.
This all continued through the summer, making Sara's working conditions worse with every week. By the time the summer vacation for Emily was ending, coming to work was feeling more like a chore than what Sara had loved doing.
Sara had on several occasions tried to talk to Grissom, but he had avoided talking about her complains of her working conditions.
Sara didn't have much time to dwell on work. All the time she had was spent with Emily. The girl was getting settled in, though she still wasn't happy about Sara being gone at night.
Sara had found a school for Emily. Though the girl was scared and didn't want to start in a new class, it helped that some of the children from the summer camp, Emily was going to during the summer, was going to start in the same first grade.
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As Emily was improving, Sara's work life was becoming worse. It even felt like the other CSIs were withdrawing from her. When actually it was Sara that didn't have the time or wasn't in the same place as the others at work. Sara saw less of them than usual and wasn't sure of why. It was getting worse than when she had first come to Vegas. Then she had had no friends in town or at work. Now she didn't have time for any of them. Cam was the only friend that didn't care or even mind when Sara withdrew, she just kept coming around and offered her help with anything Sara might need. The only positive part of Sara's life was Emily and Cam.
Cam would do small things that would make everyday life easier for Sara and Emily, such as doing their shopping, but Cam also took them out of the house almost every time Sara had a night off, no matter what day of the week. The advantage of working for yourself.
What seemed like endless nights of work and an active almost first grader, was draining Sara's energy. It was true that Sara usually didn't need much sleep, but that was mostly because her body had gotten used to what little amount her nightmares allowed. Though, there were times where Sara slept for most of 24 hours. Trouble at work and the added responsibility of Emily, had not helped Sara's insomnia tendencies.