A/N: Man I'm so sorry for not updating guys. Thank you all so much for still reading and your continued wonderful reviews. I promise I will try and update sooner! Homework is a killer. But I hope you will all forgive me with this longer chapter :) This chapter goes into more detail on how Catherine and Sara met and how their relationship came to be (and yes, it will be continued in next chapter too ;)). I hope you guys enjoy it!

"How's she doing?"

Lilly's voice snapped Catherine out of her sleep-deprived, emotional, tear-stained reverie as she stood in the doorway of her daughter's bedroom. They had brought Sara home after a quick check-up at the hospital that day to make sure she was doing okay and she had done nothing but sleep for the entire day. The doctors had recommended it-- she was suffering from severe exhaustion, they had said. So there Catherine had sit with Sara, all day long. She hadn't left her bedside even to go to the bathroom, and it had remained that way ever since Sara had come to their house in the first place.

"Surviving," Catherine mumbled in response, throwing a hand over her mouth to try and stifle her own yawn. "Still sleeping," she then clarified. "She has yet to really wake up. She still has a fever, so I guess it's good that she's getting some rest."

Lilly nodded in agreement, before turning her attention to her own flesh and blood. "Cath, you should really get some sleep. If she wakes up I'm sure you'll be the first to know."

"I can't," Catherine shook her head in disagreement, stifling another yawn. "What if I fall asleep and she wakes up and needs me and she can't wake me up? Or what if something happens during the night and I'm asleep? I can't take that risk. She was there for me when I needed her, so now I need to be here for her when she needs me."

Lilly relented, realizing this was one battle she wasn't going to be winning anytime soon. "I'll put a fresh pot of coffee on, then," she told her with a small smile. "Something tells me you're going to need it."

"Thanks, Mom," Catherine shot her a tired yet appreciative smile. After Lilly turned and left down the hallway, Catherine let out a sigh and placed a tentative hand on Sara's forehead. She frowned and quickly withdrew her hand as if she had been burned. Grabbing a washrag she had kept with her in the bedroom, she walked to the bathroom and rinsed it in some cold water before returning to Sara's bedside and starting to dab up the sweat along her forehead.

"I know it's cold, Sar," Catherine whispered to her when she saw her begin to stir in protest. "But you've got a fever and it's not going away." When she was finished she set the rag back on her nightstand and sat back down beside Sara, fighting to stay awake.

The past few days had been chaos-- when Sara finally told the detectives at the police department what had happened, she was bombarded with question after question about very sensitive details. She had broken down in tears twice, and then when they finally told her she could go she was so exhausted she could barely stand on her own. They had told them that they would be in touch and they hadn't heard much since other than the hospital calling to check up on Sara.

The first night, Catherine woke up to Sara whispering things in her sleep. She had calmed her down enough to get her to be able to sleep somewhat soundly. The second night, Sara woke up in a panic when she heard Lilly's footsteps outside the bedroom door as she was walking down the hallway to the kitchen to get a glass of water. It took forty-five minutes to get her to stop hyperventilating. The third night, Sara scratched herself in an effort to ward off an invisible assailant from her dream and had required a bandage job.

So Catherine knew, despite how much Sara had been laying in bed and how it may have appeared that she was sleeping soundly, she wasn't really sleeping at all. She was reliving the past in her dreams, or to be more specific, nightmares. All Catherine could do was sit and watch Sara sleep, feeling completely helpless. She couldn't protect her from her dreams.

"Things are going to be different from now on, Sara," Catherine quietly told her, resting her head on the pillow beside Sara's. "Soon you won't have to be afraid anymore... I'll make sure of that. No one's ever going to hurt you again... I promise."

About fifteen minutes later Lilly cracked the door open and was walking into the bedroom with a steaming mug of coffee for Catherine.

She set it down on the nightstand when she saw Catherine sound asleep by Sara.

---

One year earlier...

"Get the hell out of my face you fucking dyke!"

"You won't have a face when I'm done with you!"

Almost the entire school was gathered in the hallways to watch the smackdown. Kids were throwing paper airplanes and cheering and betting lunch money on who would win.

"What the hell is going on here?" Catherine asked, shoving past kids in the crowd and showing them her class president sash. If something was going on, she needed to know so that she could break it up, especially a fight. The principal and her professor would be all over her if she couldn't break up a fight and let it escalate to the point of bloody noses and black eyes. "What, no one's going to tell me?" she barked, clearly irritated. People were simply ignoring her and continuing to cheer on whoever it was in the middle of the crowd.

"Let me through!" Catherine finally shouted, pushnig past the final group of kids before she saw what the commotion was. Bobby Grant, the football star quarterback of the high school team was harrassing and taunting a girl with that stupid "dead behind the eyes" look of his and his friends were watching and cheering him on. It appeared he hadn't even noticed Catherine yet.

"What're you going to do, Sara?" Bobby sneered at the girl. They were circling around the group of kids like they were animals in the wild fighting over a piece of meat, just daring the other one to try and take a bite. "You want to be put in a fucking nuthouse for the rest of your life?"

Catherine watched the girl now identified as Sara and she could see the silent fury in her brown eyes, the way her fists were clenched so tight her knuckles were turning white. Before it could escalate further, Catherine wanted to try and end it. "Bobby, shut up and leave her alone, will you? This is an all-time low, even for you. Did she reject your invitation to go to the prom with you?"

"That freaky bitch?" Bobby looked wounded and appalled that Catherine had even suggested it. "You've gotta be kidding me. The only person that would ever go to the prom with her would have to be retarded or looking for an easy screw." Catherine winced at his harsh words as she watched him slowly make his way toward Sara.. "Because that's what you're all about, isn't it Sugarplum?" he whispered, his hand moving from his side, "Maybe Daddy would take you to the prom..." his hand lightly grazed her arm.

Catherine was about to tell Bobby to knock it off, but she didn't have time to. In a matter of seconds Sara-- who was half Bobby's size and had stayed quiet and controlled during the whole ordeal-- had punched him square in the face and grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, ramming him into the nearest row of lockers with his arm locked tightly behind his waist.

"You ever touch me again you son of a bitch and I swear to God I will rip your arm square off," she hissed, her tone stinging with venom. Bobby was trying to act cool and collected despite the blood pouring out of his nose and dripping from his mouth, but everyone watched and saw that he could not remove his arm from her vice-like grip. "Maybe I should break it right now, just to make sure."

"You're a fucking psycho Sidle, and you know it," Bobby managed to ground out through gritted teeth as he struggled to get his arm free. "You're a fucking psycho, and you--"

"That's enough," Catherine finally spoke up. As impressed as she was that this girl had single-handedly reduced Bobby Grant, the school's number one strongman/heartthrob to a pile of mush, she still had a duty to maintain. "Bobby, leave her alone." Maybe he would listen to her, she thought. Under that stupid hollow skull of his he had to have some sort of brain, pea-sized or not. He had to be smart enough to know that this girl could and would very easily kick his ass.

"Just watch, Catherine," Bobby grinned at her, shooting her his winning smile. He had had a stupid crush on her for as long as she could remember. All the guys did. "I'll show you how strong I am." Bobby used the arm Sara had been pinning behind his back to elbow her in the gut and she moved back, winded. He flipped around with his arm and managed to whack her in the face with enough force to send her hurling backwards into the opposite row of lockers across the hallway. She was nursing a bloody nose as he creeped toward her.

"Bobby, you stupid bastard leave her alone!" Catherine shouted, running inbetween the two before he could get to her. "Principal Baker is going to be back in fifteen minutes from lunch, do you think he wants to see his star quarterback player beating up on a helpless girl?"

"Principal Baker can kiss my--"

"What about your free ride to Princeton?" Catherine continued. "Would you want to jeopardize that? Would you want to have to actually do some work to earn it?" she asked him. She wasn't surprised when it only took a few moments before he shot her an icey glare and stormed off, wiping more blood away from his nose with his arm. His friends trailed behind him shortly after.

"What are you all looking at?" Catherine shouted at all the kids still gathered around the battlefield. "Show's over! Go to your classes!" With muted grumbles and mutters the crowd of kids skipping class gradually dissipated until it was just Catherine and Sara left standing in the hallway. "Are you okay?" she quietly asked her. "I wouldn't worry about him, he's an asshole. The only reason he's still here is because he makes the principal look good... but you didn't hear that from me."

Catherine didn't get a response from Sara, which was something she was not used to. Sara simply stood leaning against the row of lockers in the hallway, almost stoic. Occasionally she wiped her nose and stared at the blood covering her hands. "Do you, uh, want to go wash up?" Catherine offered. "I can--"

"I don't need you to patronize me just because you're class president," Sara finally replied. "I know who you are. You don't have to act like you're interested in me and invite me to your house for a slumber party just so you can earn another gold star from the principal."

Catherine was starting to get pissed off. Here she was trying to be nice to a girl who had no friends and was always getting into trouble, and she becomes her verbal punching bag. "Yeah, well you know what? I know who you are, too."

Sara's eyes flickered briefly in Catherine's direction.

"Yeah, that's right. So why are you always getting into trouble? I've seen you around before, and you're definitely on the principal's radar. You get the best marks in the school, I've heard. So what, is this bad-ass 'who-gives-shit' attitude some sort of act?" Catherine shot back.

"It's not an act," Sara growled through gritted teeth, the fury evident in her eyes.

"So then what is it," Catherine continued, not backing down, "some sort of plea for attention? And don't say it's not because you're way too hard to miss in the halls. If you didn't want to draw attention to yourself, you wouldn't act this way."

"Shut the hell up!" Sara finally shouted, moving away from her stationary post at the lockers. "You don't know a goddamn thing about me, so just run along with all your friends, kiss some more ass, and go home to be worshipped by Mommy and Daddy and get everything you want!"

Catherine stood in the middle of the hallway as she watched Sara turn and storm off toward the restrooms, at a loss for words. Never had anyone ever spoken to her like that before, and neither had she. She didn't know who this girl thought she was, but now that she had started it she wasn't going to let her just walk off without a fight.

Catherine followed suit down the hallway toward the restrooms shortly after Sara, throwing the door open to find her standing in front of the sink soaking cheap recycled paper towels under the water faucet. When she took a step into the bathroom Sara finally acknowledged her.

"You just don't give up, do you," she stated, rather than asked.

"Not after someone talks to me like that, hell no," Catherine retorted. "What is your problem?"

"What do you care?" Sara asked, washing the blood away from her knuckles, "You run out of topics to discuss at the lunch table with your friends?"

"No," Catherine told her, fighting to remain calm, "I know it's hard for you to believe, but it's the truth. I've never seen someone so angry as you before, and I want to know why you're this way."

"Do you need to know everything?" Sara asked, looking at Catherine through the mirror.

"Curiosity," Catherine replied. "It's a flaw."

Sara didn't say anything in response. Catherine just wouldn't let up, and it was driving her insane. Why did she give a damn what was wrong with her? No one else did. She was just supposed to believe that she came in to see what was wrong and make everything better? There had to be some sort of catch.

But there was something about this girl-- something about Catherine-- that was making her want to believe her.

"You're still bleeding," Catherine softly told her, taking several more steps into the bathroom to grab another paper towel and soak it in some water. Without waiting for Sara's permission she began to dab up the blood surrounding Sara's knuckles and she flinched in response. Catherine stopped, backing off.

"...I-It's not mine," Sara told her, taking the towel from her and wiping it up herself. "It's that asshole's."

Catherine bit her lip to hold in a laugh. "Bobby?" Sara simply nodded in response. "Yeah, he is an asshole. I'm not surprised you kicked his ass. What started that fight anyways?"

Sara clammed up again and grew silent, and Catherine silently cursed to herself, letting out a sigh. "Look," she started. "I'd be more than willing to continue this conversation outside of school if that would you make you feel more comfortable. If you want to, you can meet me down at the ice cream place downtown. If not, that's fine too." Silence followed until Catherine turned and walked out.

What the hell did you just do, Cath? Catherine thought to herself with a frown as she walked down the hallway to her next class. She had just asked the misfit of the entire school to go have ice cream with her. She was always told not to associate with people like Sara, but there was something about her that was making it hard not to. There was something about her that made her want to know more.

She probably won't even come later. I shouldn't even bother and just go home.

To both their surprise, Sara showed up.

---

Nearly fifteen minutes of silence had passed and it was starting to make Catherine feel uncomfortable. She had already gotten a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach when she had discovered Sara had actually shown up, but it was nothing compared to the awkward silence that had engulfed them both. They hadn't actually ordered ice cream, so they had sat at a table across from each other looking at anything but each other the entire time they had been there.

"...I'm really glad you decided to come," Catherine finally said to break the silence. Sara finally turned and looked at her. "I know you probably didn't want to."

"No, but I figured if I didn't you'd come looking for me anyways," Sara wryly smiled.

"I resent that," Catherine smirked back. "You know just because I'm the class president doesn't mean I'm a--"

"Stuck-up bitch?" Sara finished for her.

"Exactly," Catherine couldn't help but laugh. And for a split second, there it was. For a split second, Sara actually offered a real smile, and Catherine wasn't so sure she had ever seen anything so beautiful in her entire life.

"Listen." Catherine blinked when she realized Sara was actually talking to her. "I think we got off on the wrong front, and I'm sorry for the things I said to you. I was... pissed off."

"Yeah, I could tell," Catherine offered a wry remark of her own. She could've sworn Sara was blushing. "But I do agree. I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to turn this into the Spanish Inquisition. I guess my curiosity just gets the better of me sometimes."

Sara simply nodded. "And my temper gets the better of me... quite a bit of the time."

"So I've noticed," Catherine replied. "But all kidding aside, are you going to tell me? What the fight was about, I mean," she clarified.

Sara stared at her for a minute, mentally slapping herself in the face for letting her get so comfortable so quickly with Catherine. Turning to look over at the old man behind the counter of the ice cream shop, she shot him a rather charming, innocent smile and said, "On second-thought, I think I will have some ice cream."

Damn it all to hell, Catherine mentally cursed.

TBC