A/N: Again guys, I apologize for the lack of updates. A lot has been going on, and my muse has been suffering as of late :) But here's a new chapter, hope you guys enjoy it and thank you for all your continued reviews and encouragement!
"Okay Sara, you're doing good honey. I'm almost done."
Catherine had been watching her mother apply a healthy dose of rubbing alcohol to several cuts and scrapes along Sara's face after helping her take a warm bath. The larger cut on the side of her face had been dressed with a large white gauze and the other minor cuts had been dressed with small band-aids. Catherine was amazed at how compliant Sara was being; she hadn't protested to her care even once, which was unusual considering that it was Sara. But right now Catherine doubted Sara felt like she was in any state whatsoever to argue.
"Okay, all done," Lilly announced, snipping off the rest of the bandage she was using with a small pair of surgical scissors. "Catherine, go find her some warmer clothes."
"Sure," Catherine nodded. She threw a glance Sara's way before leaving and couldn't help but frown; she hadn't really said a word since they had come back to her house albeit her polite replies and thank yous to Lilly for everything she was doing for her. With a sigh she turned and headed down the hallway to her bedroom and rummaged around her closet and drawers looking for something warm enough for Sara to sleep in. She finally settled on a pair of sweatpants (ratty, but comfortable and warm), and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
"Do you think these will be warm enough, Sara?" Catherine asked, handing her the clothes as she reappeared in the living room.
Sara simply nodded, keeping her eyes averted to the carpet, the coffee table, a speck of dust floating through the air, anything but Catherine or Lilly. "Thanks." It wasn't everyday she got clothes that actually had no holes in them!
"Honey why don't I make you something to eat?" Lilly asked her, trying to move so that Sara would look at her, but each time Sara simply looked away again. "You really should get some more meat on your bones."
When Sara didn't reply, Catherine spoke up, "Thanks, Mom. That sounds great." With a nod Lilly turned and walked off.
After a few moments of awkward silence Catherine found that for once in her life she could not read Sara. It was just so difficult to do; she didn't know if she was sad, tired, or simply numb. She looked a fair combination of all three. Her eyes were dark and glassy and void of emotion, her lips were looked to be curled in some sort of frown, it was hard to be sure. Her hands were resting in her lap, never moving, remaining still. There was even the absence of the usual nervous gnawing of her bottom lip.
"Hey," Catherine finally spoke up, sitting down on the couch beside her. She didn't get much of a reaction from Sara, but she wasn't about to give up. "It'll be okay... I promise."
Sara nodded stiffly, though Catherine could tell that the wheels were working in her head. She obviously thought there was no way she could promise such a thing. No one could ever promise everything would be okay for Sara Sidle.
"Look at me," Catherine finally said. This stirred a bit of a reaction from Sara, though not much. "Sar, come on, look at me." At the mention of her nickname Sara blinked, as if freed from the trance she had fallen into. Finally after a few moments Sara was making eye contact. "Don't worry about anything right now, okay? You really need to rest. We'll sort everything out in the morning."
"I don't deserve this, Cath," Sara whispered. For the first time in hours she had said something other than a "okay" or "thank you". Sara felt like the lowest animal on the totem poll. She felt like a small child. Here she was, in Catherine's home, being treated like a second child to her own mother incapable of even making her own meals. She was sitting on Catherine's couch, going to be sleeping in Catherine's bed, and she had nothing to give in return.
"Bullshit," Catherine scoffed.
"Catherine!" Lilly scolded from the kitchen.
"Sorry, Mother," Catherine rolled her eyes. This earned her a small smile from Sara. "Sara... I know this is hard for you, but you just have to trust me, okay? If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't be doing this, so you are worthy of someone caring about you... alright?"
Sara finally answered with a small nod and a whispered, "Okay."
Sara had grown up in the sort of environment where coddling was out of the question and love and tenderness was nowhere to be found. When she was little and scraped her knee on the pavement while she was playing outside, she had to pull a chair from the kitchen up to the cabinets and reach the box of bandaids herself. She was responsible for getting herself up in the mornings to go to school, and she quite often she was also responsible for making sure the bills got in the mail before the cops starting banging down their door.
But Catherine... Catherine was perfect, and Sara couldn't understand what sort of reprieve Hell was trying to give her, but she knew she was sitting down beside her on the couch right this very moment, gazing over at her with those piercing blue eyes of hers. All she knew was that she would never give Catherine up for anything, and she was going to try her best not to screw her life up as well.
"Come on, let's get you dressed," Catherine suggested. After Lilly had helped Sara take a warm bath she had her sit down on the couch and wait until she had dressed her injuries to get dressed. It only took a few minutes, but she had to be cold in just a pair of Catherine's panties and a towel draped over her. Under any other circumstances Catherine would've found the sight of Sara sitting half-naked on the couch wearing her underwear erotic, but at this moment it was difficult to even force a smile. "Hold your arms up, Sara."
Sara complied, not much unlike a robot. Both arms went through the sleeves of the t-shirt, and in a matter of moments Catherine had Sara fully dressed, sweatpants and all. As if on cue Lilly came through the doorway with a plate of food and a large glass of what appeared to be milk.
"Here you go honey," Lilly handed the plate of food to Sara, and Sara wasn't so sure she had ever seen that much food in her entire life. To Sara it looked as though Lilly had given her a generous portion of her famous pork chops-- their dinner that night-- along with at least a few spoonfulls of mashed potatoes and about three slices of buttered bread. "Eat up!" With that she turned and walked off.
Catherine couldn't help but laugh at the look on Sara's face. "Hey, don't look so surprised. The woman lives for cooking."
"But... but there's just so much!" Sara exclaimed. "I can't eat all of this!"
"This is a normal dinner for me," Catherine admitted. "It's really not that much, Sara."
It really wasn't.
---
A few hours later Catherine exited her bedroom with a sigh, carrying the dirty dishes that had held Sara's dinner for that night. Carrying it into the kitchen she set them all in the sink and simply stared out the window into the front yard of her house.
The truth was, Catherine was just as scared about this whole thing as Sara was. Maybe even more. She didn't know what was going to happen to Sara, she couldn't guarantee things were going to go as she had planned. The system was a tough thing to fight, and any judge was going to want Sara to go into foster care. She just knew that she was going to work as hard as she could to make sure that didn't happen.
"Asleep?" Lilly's voice brought Catherine out of her trance. She simply nodded. "I'm not surprised, the little dear looked exhausted."
"Mom..." Catherine started, watching as her mother began to wash off the dishes sitting in the sink with the faucet. "...What are the chances... of us maybe taking Sara? Would the state fight us for that?"
"Really Catherine, it's hard to say," Lilly sighed. "The state generally wants to give kids-- and teens," she added, when Catherine was about to protest, "to nearby or living relatives."
"Sara doesn't have any relatives," Catherine told her. "Just us." They were as close to family as Sara had.
"Then that could work in our favor," Lilly nodded. "However the state is going to want a full background check on us; financial situation, housing, past employments..."
At this Catherine let out a groan. "Don't tell me..."
"I don't exactly think my history of being a showgirl would work in our favor," Lilly confirmed Catherine's fears.
"Yeah, or the fact that you banged the top-grossing casino mogul in Vegas," Catherine muttered. Lilly shot her a look. "Sorry," she sighed. "I guess I'm just tired. I'm going to go check on Sara, okay?"
Catherine turned and headed down the hallway. She stopped when she reached her bedroom, standing just inside her doorway.
Just watching Sara sleep, she blinked back the tears that were forming in her eyes before they could fall.
TBC