Thanks for the reviews and for sticking with me even with the long waits between chapters.
Chapter 27
Life was finally looking up for Sara and Emily. Emily was thriving in her new life and school, and Sara was getting settled in her new job.
Sara wanted to celebrate Emily's school start and her new job with their friends. From the minute Sara brought up the idea of a party Emily was excited.
The idea evolved from something small they could hold in their home, only hours after they had started talking about ideas and guest list. The question of a location got harder when Emily had the idea of a pool party. Emily had loved it the day she was allowed to join in at Jeremy's pool party and had wanted one with her own friends ever since. Sara didn't want to disappoint her little girl, but they didn't have a pool, let alone a house with enough place for all the people Emily wanted to invite. Sara had been willing to beg Nancy for permission to borrow their house and pool.
That hadn't been necessary, Nancy and Peter had offered their place before Sara had even finished asking.
Sara wanted to share their good news with her old colleagues, and introduce them to Emily. She called each person on the night shift as well as Brass and Dr. Robbins to invite them to the pool party.
Nick and Catherine never called back or gave any indication that they had gotten the message Sara had left.
Catherine's dismissal, hurt more than Sara wanted to admit. She had believed that they were friends. Sara blamed herself for allowing herself to fall for that. She thought she should have known that Catherine's friendship was only temporary, their past had shown that several times. Sara had thought Catherine respected her and wouldn't go back to the old ways.
No matter the reason for Catherine's lack of response, Sara refused to let it ruin Emily's day.
Greg had taken Sara's invitation as his chance to apologize and get back into the brunette's life. He loved getting to be an uncle to Emily, she lived a lot closer than his nieces. When he had gotten Sara's call he had been so eager to make things right that he had babbled on and on before Sara had finally gotten his attention by yelling his name. They had talked for an hour before Sara had had to leave. Greg had gotten an invite to have dinner with them before they had hung up.
Warrick had been happy to accept Sara's invitation. Catherine hadn't been too happy about that, fully expecting her friend to side with her.
rrrr
Sara's invitation to a party held at Nancy's home, had directed Catherine's anger toward her little sister.
Both sisters had been used to Nancy giving in to Catherine's demands. Only a few times in their lived had Nancy refused to see things Catherine's way.
Nancy's advantage of knowing Catherine sometimes better than the older woman knew herself, was why Nancy had no trouble going against Catherine's wish of not having the party.
Lindsey was caught in the middle. She didn't know what was going on, but she did know something was wrong. Her mom was sad again. Not laughing or smiling as much. Not wanting to see Sara. Home was quiet, Catherine's mood effected Lindsey, and the normally talkative girl didn't say much.
In Lindsey's young mind everything that had happened added up to Sara having hurt her mom. Anyone that did that, Lindsey disliked. Usually it was some guy she never saw again, so it didn't mean much. It was different with Sara. Lindsey thought Sara had been her friend and was angry at Sara hurting her mom. So even though both Lindsey and Catherine had been invited, neither of them wanted to attend.
Sara had suspected Catherine wouldn't come after the older woman hadn't returned any of her calls. That Lindsey had stopped talking to her, didn't come as a surprise. Sara knew and respected Lindsey's fierce protection of Catherine. But that didn't mean it hurt any less when Lindsey withdrew.
It wasn't entirely possible for Lindsey to avoid Sara when Nancy was still watching Lindsey on most nights Catherine worked. Even though Emily didn't spend nights at Nancy's anymore, both Sara and Emily visited often.
rrrr
Emily had hardly been able to fall asleep the night before the party and had woken early almost dragging Sara out of bed.
Emily's joy the day of the party, made all the difference to Sara, and Sara couldn't help getting swept up in Emily's enthusiasm.
Not wanting to wait any longer than necessary. Emily had pleaded until Sara agreed to leave earlier than planned.
Sara had always been ashamed of her scars. Before she had left San Francisco, Sara had learned to live with some people seeing them. That comfortable feeling in her own skin had disappeared when Sara had moved to Las Vegas and she still hadn't come back to that. With Emily living with her and the girl's easy acceptance of anything and everything Sara, meant Sara was getting more comfortable with her past again.
That and that she didn't want to disappoint Emily made it possible for Sara to join the children in the pool even when her friends and old colleagues would be able to see most of her scars.
By the time Sara's old colleagues showed up at Nancy's house, Sara could be found in the pool with the children. Sara had been incredible self-conscious when she had first walked outside in just her swimsuit. Sara had never liked to show her scars, but she was willing to make an exception to make Emily happy.
Emily had seen Sara's scars since she was a baby, and never thought much about them, they were just a part of her mama like the color of her hair.
The other children had soon been too busy playing in the pool to look at Sara. With Emily and Jeremy getting Sara to boost them high out of the water before splashing back into the water. All the children was soon begging Sara for a turn.
Playing with the children, Sara herself forgot all else, even that more people were still arriving.
Greg was the only one from her old job that knew a little of Sara's past, but he too had had no idea of what his friend had been through.
Nobody had seen the effect of Sara's childhood, few even knew Sara hadn't had a normal upbringing, and Sara liked it that way. She didn't want the pity that came with the knowledge.
Sara would have liked to avoid the looks from her friends as she got up from the pool.
It was hard to pretend that she didn't notice the way Greg, Warrick, Brass and Dr. Robbins were looking at her. The tattoo's only shortly distracted from the scars. Sara was sure they would be able to at least guess what some of the scars were from. After all it was something they had all seen during their careers. To feel more comfortable Sara quickly shrugged into a T-shirt without drying off first.
It was awkward for some time, but after Brass had taken Greg and Warrick inside for a talk, the two CSI's was more discreet with their looks.
Sara knew they talked about her and she caught the looks. She appreciated that Brass had at least stopped the worst of it.
rrrr
Besides from the awkwardness, Sara had enjoyed the day, but she had hoped Catherine would show up. Not giving up on seeing either of the Willows until she had to carry Emily out to the car when they were leaving.
Nancy was the only one that had noticed Sara looking for someone all through the day. She had no doubt that Sara was looking for Catherine. She had seen the look in Sara's eyes when she told Sara that Lindsey and Catherine wouldn't be coming. Sara had quickly masked the hurt, but not before Nancy had seen it.
Nancy normally didn't try to change Catherine's mind, when her sister blew up at someone. It usually didn't matter, because Nancy rarely knew the person. But this time Nancy thought it might be worth it to figure out why Catherine was so angry with Sara.
Sara was like no one else Nancy had ever meet. And she found a friend in a woman she had only offered to help because of Catherine.
Talking to Catherine about Sara turned out to be harder than Nancy had expected. Catherine was talking to her again, but the CSI refused to talk about Sara. Nancy had never known Catherine to continuously refuse to talk about anything. Nancy knew Catherine tended to mull things over before talking to her.
Nancy saw no other way than to give Catherine more time to let the anger cool. Catherine's temper was known to burn fast and bright, but it also burned out quickly.
By waiting and being patient, Nancy knew Catherine would come to her eventually. Catherine was confused and like all the other previously times, Nancy knew Catherine would come to her when ready. Nancy just didn't know when that would be, but she suspected it wouldn't be anytime soon.