Author's Note: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! This is a historic moment. We should all remember this chapter as the chapter that broke the 200 mark. That's right. This story is almost sixty chapters and over 200 pages on word. That's some accomplishment. Well not really but we all need something to look forward to. ANYWYAS…enjoy the chapter. We have a little more on my new character, Stephanie Brennan. (I named her that because my best friend's name is Stephanie and Brennan after my favorite show after CSI, Bones's main character, Temperance Brennan)

Chapter 58 – Stephanie Brennan

Charlotte walked into her mom's bedroom. "Are you ok now, mommy?" she asked timidly.

Sara jerked awake and looked up at her daughter for a moment then flopped her head down on the pillow, taking a glance at the clock. 7:16.

"I'm better," she said, her voice sounding raspy. Charlotte beamed and hopped up on the bed.

"Good! Can we go to the park today?" she asked excitedly.

Sara winced. "No, pumpkin. I'm not that better…and besides, you have school today."

Charlotte went into whining mode. "But I don't wanna go to schoooooool."

Sara coughed. "You have to go to school." Very little effort was put into the sentence.

"Whyyyyyyy? It's so much funner when I get to stay here with yooooooooou."

"Well that's sweet but you need to go to school. You missed too much last week to not go to school today." Sara opened her eyes and looked at Charlotte. "Go get ready."

Charlotte flopped off the bed and stomped out of the room.

SnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickers

Sara felt a lot better by the end of the day. She hated being sick and she decided that her "recovering" would be done by the end of the day. She made sure she was ready for a day at work before Charlotte even got home. She left a half hour early and walked into the break room to find Catherine already there.

"What are you doing here so early?" she asked, pouring herself a coffee.

"I have work to do," she said without looking up. "Aren't you sick?"

"Was. Not anymore." She sat down opposite Catherine. "So what happened while I was gone?"

Catherine looked up and smirked. "About a thousand new cases came in." She looked back at the file in front of her. "Grissom did something stupid."

Sara's eyebrows pushed together and she paused a beat, staring at Catherine. "Scientifically….or politically?"

Catherine smirked again and looked up. She was about to speak and her eyes cut behind Sara. She assumed that whatever "stupid" thing Grissom had done was standing right behind her, so she turned. Her mouth dropped.

Stephanie stared at Sara in disbelief. Sara returned the look and Catherine was simply confused. She waited a few uncomfortable seconds then decided to speak up.

"Sara Sidle, Stephanie Brennan." She got no reaction. "Do…do you guys know each other?" she asked after another beat.

Sara suddenly stood. "This is the stupid thing Grissom did?" She phrased it as a question but it was more of a statement. And with that she pushed past Stephanie to go look for Grissom. It took her ten minutes to find him and her anger hadn't subsided at all. He was in the print lab with Jackie, his eyes cemented to the microscope.

"What in hell were you thinking?" she asked by way of greeting.

Grissom slowly looked up. "I thought you were sick," he said, purposefully ignoring her question.

Sara gave him her don't-give-me-any-of-your-shit look.

Grissom thought a second. He could almost see Sara's scalp sizzling and decided an explanation would be better then avoiding the subject.

"We are short handed and Stephanie is the most qualified person I could find."

Sara opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She couldn't decide if yelling at her boss was the best route to take, but right now she could barely contain herself. She tried to keep her voice level and calm.

"In this…entire…country, the most qualified woman, that you just have to hire…is her." Sara pointed in the general direction of the break room.

Now Grissom was confused. "Wait a second…you know Stephanie?" he had thought it was just having another team member that Sara was mad at.

"Yeah," Sara said as if it was obvious. "Don't you?"

Grissom looked at her. He did some mental scampering, trying to remember a Stephanie Brennan from anywhere in his life. "…no…" he eventually said.

Sara had actually thought Grissom had met her before. "Harvard. She was in my biological chemistry and theoretical physics class. She was going the same way I was and I figured she was taking one of your classes."

Grissom did a little more brain combing. He still had no idea who she was talking about. "I've never met her."

Sara looked at him suspiciously. She couldn't tell if he was lying of if he genuinely had no clue who she was talking about. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Grissom.

"You've never met her," she repeated.

Grissom shrugged and looked back into the microscope.

Sara looked at him expectantly. Was he just going to dismiss this? She gave an exasperated huff and turned, storming out of the print lab.

By the time she got back to the break room, Stephanie had left and Warrick was there. Catherine was still reading her file.

"What did he say?" Catherine asked without looking up.

Sara huffed again. "Nothing that's going to change anything."

Catherine smirked. "Join the club. I haven't even been able to talk to him alone for two days." She turned the page. "I think he's avoiding me."

Warrick snorted and smiled. "That's the understatement of the year."

Sara glared at him. "What are you so happy about?" she sneered.

Warrick looked up and paused. "What are you not so happy about?"

"What? That doesn't even make sense."

"Yes it does," Warrick and Catherine said at the same time.

Sara rolled her eyes. "I don't like Stephanie," she said sitting down.

Catherine and Warrick looked at each other. "I thought you just met her," Catherine said.

Sara shook her head. "I met her in university. She screwed me over."

Their eyebrows rose. Sara sighed. She would have to elaborate. "We were lab partners. At Harvard. I didn't have any friends in that class so we went together. We ended up being friends after a little while. Then, once, in the middle of a lab, I bumped into her and she was carrying a beaker of hydrochloric acid. It spilled all over the prof's back and the beaker fell and broke. The prof was furious and Steph blamed it on me. He had this…temper. He completely flipped out at me and no matter how much I tried; he wouldn't hear what actually happened."

Warrick smiled. "Well you know there's no use crying over spilt…hydrochloric acid."

Catherine smirked and Sara rolled her eyes.

"So anyway, I was really mad at Steph because that prof decided to pick on me all the time and would mark me so hard that I got my first F I've ever gotten in that class. I tried to get her to tell him that it was her that did it but she wouldn't so I got even angrier.

"Then, about a week after that, we were both at a party. She was pissed that I was pissed and told a guy that I was…dancing with that I had…an STD."

Catherine's jaw dropped. "No!"

Sara nodded. "Well that was…so uncalled for. I got back at her by…" Sara smiled.

"What?" they both asked.

"I cut a chunk of her hair out while she was sleeping."

Catherine and Warrick's jaws dropped again. "Remind me never to piss you off," Warrick said.

Sara smiled again. "Actually it didn't really end there. It went on for….almost a whole year. We pulled pranks, started rumors, sabotaged relationships, cars, and…reputations. By the next fall she transferred out to Yale. I don't know why but…"

"My boyfriend moved to Connecticut to play basketball and I decided to go with him."

The trio looked to see Stephanie framed in the doorway. She gave them all a tight smile and crossed her arms.

"Now that you all know my life's history, Sara, can you join me in the hall please?" she looked expectantly at Sara.

Catherine and Warrick looked at her. "Why?" she asked after a beat.

Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Please. I need to talk to you."

Sara was just about to answer back when Grissom walked up behind her.

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "I got caught up in something." He was carrying a stack of files and books and put them all down on the table with a soft thunk. Sara and Stephanie never broke eye contact. Grissom straightened and noticed the two women not paying attention. He looked from Stephanie to Sara then to Catherine.

"Don't ask me. Even I don't get between two women with history." She stood and held out her hand to Grissom. He handed her a slip and she left.

Grissom looked back at Sara. She was still staring down Stephanie. Then he looked at Warrick. Warrick smiled and snapped his fingers in front of Sara's face. She looked at Warrick then Warrick looked at Grissom.

He handed her a slip. "You and Warrick have a 419 on the strip." She stood and took the slip and lead Warrick out of the room.

"Rein check," Stephanie said as Sara passed.

"Don't count on it," she replied and kept walking.

Grissom watched the exchange and looked at Stephanie. "History?"

"You don't know the half of it."