Chapter 35

Catherine refused to leave Sara's side in the emergency room. The x-rays showed that nothing was broken and the nurse was cleaning up and bandaging the many cuts as best she could.

"I couldn't believe it when someone told me you two were back already." Catherine and Sara both looked to the door to see Julie standing there. She quit smiling as soon as she saw Sara's face. "Damn Sara what the hell happened to you?" She walked over to the nurse caring for Sara. "Hey Linda why don't you go work on someone who'd appreciate your handiwork, I'll finish up here." She watched as Linda left the room then turned back to Sara. "I hope you got at least one punch in."

Sara smiled up at Julie and then looked at Catherine. "We did better than that didn't we babe?"

"Let's just say that they will be piecing his cheek together tonight." Catherine smiled down at Sara but now that she knew she was going to be ok she was getting angry because of the chances she took.

"Let me stitch up that cut on your forehead then you can get out of here."

"Hey Cat don't forget to swab some of the cuts to make sure we get the evidence. By the way how did you guys find me?"

"You did it yourself." At Sara's confused look she held up Sara's wrist and tapped on her watch. "That's what you get for tinkering with things."

"Damn I forgot all about that." At Julie's confused look she explained. "I got bored at work shortly after I arrived in Vegas and I was playing with an old GPS unit to see if I could figure out how it worked. I took it apart then put the chip in my watch and asked Archie to see if it would still work it did but then we got called out to a scene and I never took it out. Actually I forgot about it." She turned to Catherine. "Apparently Archie didn't. Remind me to kiss him when I see him."

"He felt so bad that he hadn't remembered sooner and it took us so long to find you."

"Cat it was only a few hours."

Catherine gave Sara a worried look. "What do you mean it was only a few hours? You were gone for almost two days Sara."

"That can't be. It was just this morning."

"No Sara it was yesterday when you went to meet with Jim."

At Sara's confused look Julie spoke up. "Did you lose consciousness at all."

"Yeah I passed out but I don't think I was out for long."

"Are you sure?" Catherine took Sara's hand in hers to keep her from worrying too much. "Maybe you were out longer than you thought."

"That must be it. Are you saying I lost a whole day?" Catherine saw that she was starting to freak out so she held tighter to her hand so she knew she wasn't alone.

"Kind of looks that way baby, but from the looks of you it's probably best if you don't remember it." She smiled down and Sara returned her smile.

"I think you just might be right about that." She winced when Julie touched a particularly tender spot. "Ouch!"

"Sorry about that. I'm going to numb this spot so I can stitch it up then you two can get out of here."

"What the hell happened this time?" Catherine turned around to see Nancy standing in the doorway

"Are there any nurses left in the ICU?"

"That's not going to work Sara, you can't answer a question with another question to avoid the original question."

"Too many questions. We finally got the guy. Doesn't that count?" Sara asked and gave her her best puppy dog look.

"Don't give me that look. I'm a nurse I'm impervious to those looks, I get them every day so don't try it. How the hell did he get close enough to do that?" She pointed to Sara's face.

"Hey Nancy I haven't even been able to talk to Catherine about it yet so can we not talk about it here? I promise you will know everything after Catherine gets done with me."

"Ok I can't wait. Are you ok?" She walked over and gave Sara a hug then turned to Julie. "Is she going to be ok?"

"Yeah she'll be good as new. I'm going to put some ointment on your wrists and wrap them, I will send you home with more ointment and gauze then I'm done, do you have any pain killers left?" Sara nodded and started to get up off the bed but had to lay back down when a wave of dizziness hit her. "You ok?"

"Just a little dizzy. I think I moved too fast that's all. Let's try it again but slower." She sat up and waited for the dizziness to go away. "So far so good." She stood up and headed for the door when Catherine placed her arm around her waist. "Let's go get Lindsey and go home."

"Why don't you and I head home and we can pick Lindsey up later."

"You just don't want any witnesses when you kill me and dispose of my body."

"You got that right baby." She helped her out to a waiting cab and was silent all the way home. Sara wasn't sure if she should say anything so she chose to stay quiet and follow Catherine's lead. They pulled up outside the house and Catherine paid the cab and ran around to the other side of the cab to help Sara. Once in the house she led her to the couch and helped her sit down. She went upstairs and got one of the pain pills then poured a glass of water and brought them both downstairs and handed them to Sara.

"Cat say something. Please I can't stand the silence. I know what I did was stupid but I thought if I was able to draw him out I could get rid of him for good. I did it for us."

"No! You did it for yourself because if you were thinking about me at all you never would have done anything as stupid as using yourself for bait in the first place. Look at yourself!" She wasn't holding anything back. "You can barely open your eye, you've got 6 stitches in that cut on your cheek, your wrists look like minced meat and I bet if I kissed you, which I'm not ready to do just yet, it would hurt like hell. What were you thinking?" When she saw that Sara was getting ready to say something she held up her hand to stop her. "Don't answer that, obviously you weren't thinking. Sara he could have killed you, and probably would have if we hadn't shown up. Do you have any idea how I felt when Jim said that maniac had you. My whole world fell apart. I'm not sure I how I feel about the fact that you lied to me that night and you were lying when you left that morning. That hurts. It's hard for me to give trust and you broke that trust. Not only did you lie to me you forced Jim to lie too, I'm not mad at him for lying I'm mad at you for putting him in the position where he had to lie. I'm mad at him for giving you the means to carry out your stupid scheme. And for going along with it." Catherine had tears streaming down her face and she was pacing back and forth on the other side of the coffee table. She'd stop pacing each time she said something then resume pacing again when she finished speaking.

"Two days Sara, you put me through hell for two days and I don't ever want to feel that way again." When she finished speaking she started pacing again and as she did her anger increased when she thought about what could have happened had they not made it there in time.

"Cat you have to stop pacing back and forth it's making me dizzy. It's like watching a tennis match with a migraine." She laid her head back so it was resting on the back of the couch. "Cat if you're going to keep yelling at me can you at least get me a cold compress first? Please?"

Catherine stopped pacing and looked at Sara and saw that she really did look pale. Are you ok?" At Sara's nod she continued. "You sure know how to take the wind out of a girl's sails don't you? How the hell am I supposed to stay mad at you now?" Sara glanced up and saw that Catherine was heading into the kitchen. Her head really was pounding and it was hard to even hold her head up. She laid it back on the couch. Catherine came back into the living room and sat down next to Sara on the couch. "Did you take the pill?" When she didn't get an answer she realized that Sara had fallen asleep. She placed the cold compress on her forehead and when she did Sara let out a long sigh. "Baby can you wake up long enough to get to the bedroom?" All Sara did was nod her head just the slightest bit and started to stand up but fell back with a groan. "Come on let me help you." She put her arm around her waist again. "Lean on me Sara, let me hold you up."

"Too heavy." She said in a slurred voice.

"God you are stubborn, lean on me damn it, let me help you." She finally felt her weight shift and she had to smile. She laid her down on the bed and took her shoes and socks off then covered her with the blanket. She lay down next to her and held her as if her life depended on it and in some respects it did and that scared her. She lay there for awhile just watching Sara sleep. She looked at her bruised and battered face and imagined Timothy Trainor hitting her and she got angry all over again. She got up and called her Mother and asked her to keep Lindsey for at least one more night. She didn't think Sara would be up to it today. She went back and stood in the doorway of her bedroom and watched her sleep. Once again she was surprised at the emotions that stirred inside of her. The first was anger at Trainor for what he did and then anger at Sara for even attempting to tackle this on her own and if she had to admit it there was a small amount of pride in her for having the guts to tackle it on on her own. She had to have been scared out of her mind out there in the desert with no one to help her. Catherine walked over and lay down beside her and pulled her to her in a tight embrace, and then she fell asleep.

Sara woke with a start and looked around her and at first she couldn't remember where she was. Then she felt Catherine's arms around her and it all came back to her. She looked outside and saw that it was dark out. When her stomach growled she realized she hadn't eaten anything in two days. She decided that she would try to serve breakfast in bed again. Her first stop was the bathroom where she got her first look at her face. She gasped when she saw how bruised it was. "No wonder Cat was mad at me, I look like shit."

"It looked worse earlier."

"Damn Cat you have to give me some warning when you sneak up on me like that. Maybe you should wear a bell or something." Catherine came up behind her and put her arms around her waist. "I was going to make you breakfast in bed. You keep messing it up."

"How do you feel? Does it hurt much?" Sara touched the cut on her cheek and winced. "I'll take that as a yes. How about you go lay on the couch and I'll whip up some eggs and we can talk."

"That sounds ominous." Sara was afraid Catherine was going to tell her to leave so she took matters into her own hands. She removed Catherine's arms from around her waist and headed back into the bedroom and pulled out the duffle bag that held her clothes and put it on the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"I figured I'd save you the talk and leave now. That's what the talk is all about isn't it?" Sara reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "Let's make it easy on both of us and I'll just pack my things and go back to my apartment tonight."

Catherine walked up behind her again and put her arms around her waist and rested her head on her back. "Sara, if you want to leave I won't stop you if that's what you want but the least you can do is let me have my say first."

"Didn't you say enough when we first got home? Do you want to tell me again how stupid I was? I already know that. All I could think about while I was tied to the bed was how mad you were going to be. At least between the times he was hitting me when I was conscious. All I thought about was you. The night before I left I felt so guilty about lying to you and I knew there was a chance you would never forgive me. I woke in the middle of the night and all I could do is watch you sleep thinking it would probably be the last chance I would ever get to feel you next to me. It was killing me. I left that morning thinking I would never be welcomed in your home again. So why won't you just let me go?"

Catherine finally turned her around and looked into her eyes. "You think I want you to leave?" She looked up and saw the truth in Sara's eyes. "God no I thought you were leaving because of what I said earlier. I'm mad as hell that you would take a chance like you did but I can understand why you did it. I was angry and you more than anyone should know I strike out when I get angry."

"What about trusting me?"

Catherine reached behind Sara and threw her duffle bag onto the floor then pushed her down on the bed and straddled her waist. "I do trust you and I love you but like I said I say things in anger that I really don't mean. I don't want to think about what I would have done had anything worse happened to you. I don't want you to leave."

Sara pulled her down so that their lips met in what started out as a gentle kiss but she deepened it by forcing her tongue past Catherine's lips not that she really had to force too hard. She rolled over so that she was on top of Catherine and she started to unbutton Catherine's blouse then reached behind to remove her bra. Catherine stopped her hand so that Sara would look at her. "Are you sure you're up to this?" Sara's answer was to throw Catherine's blouse and bra on the floor and reach for the zipper on her jeans. "Sara I don't want to hurt you."

Sara stood up from the bed to remove Catherine's jeans and panties as one. She made eye contact with Catherine and slowly started to remove her own clothing. "You are a gorgeous woman as I've told you before but I'll never grow tired of the site of you as you are right now." Catherine was mesmerized by her movements she watched as her hips slowly moved from side to side in tempo to her own unheard music. Sara reached for the top button on her own shirt and slowly unbuttoned each button but didn't remove the shirt. She watched as Catherine's eyes started to darken and she was staring at Sara's hands. When her tongue came out and licked her lips it was almost Sara's undoing. She forced herself to go slow which was the opposite of what her brain was telling her.

When Catherine realized she was getting her own private striptease from Sara her mouth went dry. God this woman was a constant surprise. She had to lick her lips because they too had gone dry and she couldn't take her eyes off of Sara's hands. She had never seen anything as amazing as Sara Sidle at this moment and she had never loved her more than she did right now. She knew the gift she was receiving because she had a feeling that Sara had never before shared this side of her with anyone else and it was humbling. But it was also a major turn on and that was the overriding sensation at the moment. She lay back and decided to enjoy the show.

Sara watched the emotions flit across Catherine's face and wasn't quite sure what was going through her mind. There was a split second when she wasn't sure she could go through with it and her natural shyness snuck in but she pushed it back because she wanted to please Catherine. "I want to make love to you all night long. I want to watch you come for me over and over again." She reached down and slowly unzipped her jeans but once again didn't take them off. Her hands returned to the collar of her shirt and she pulled one arm out and then the other and threw the shirt somewhere in the vicinity of Catherine's jeans. She reached behind her to unclasp her bra and added it to the growing pile of clothes on the floor. "I want to watch you writhing beneath me and screaming for release. I can't wait to feel my fingers inside you and have you come all over my hand. Then start all over again." She saw Catherine's breath hitch and watched as her hand was snaking towards her glistening curls. "Don't you dare touch yourself."

"Sara I need you so badly, I can't wait." She was almost begging.

"You can and you will wait it will be worth it." She purred so it didn't come out like a command but a promise. Sara felt almost heady with the power she knew she had over Catherine at that moment. "Put your hands over your head. I want to look at you." She watched as Catherine complied with her wishes and almost gave in when she grabbed the bars of her headboard and held tight. "God you look amazing. You have no idea what you do to me and are doing to me right now." Sara reached down and started to remove her jeans and lowered them as slow as she could.

"God Sara you're killing me. I want you so bad, no one has ever had this effect on me." If possible her eyes got even darker and her voice even lower. She cleared her throat and continued to watch Sara. She saw just the smallest shiver snake through Sara body and knew she was just as turned on as she was and knew this was going to be a night to remember. "Come here Sara I want to touch you, I want to taste you, I want to watch you come for me."

"Tut tut Catherine this is my show." She wagged her finger at Catherine. "You'll get your turn later. You still owe me a lap dance and I intend to collect." She finally reached for the last piece of clothing and lowered her panties to the floor and stepped out of them and slowly walked towards the bed. She lowered herself down next to Catherine and reached up to take one of her hands in hers. She brought it to her lips and kissed each finger before she sucked one into her mouth before releasing it. She then returned it to the headboard and watched as Catherine's grasp on the headboard was almost painfully tight. She bent her head to Catherine's chest and took one of her taut nipples into her mouth and proceeded to thoroughly worship it while her hand paid equal attention to the other one. Catherine's undulating hips were almost completely off the bed.

"Sara I need you so bad please. Touch me, I need you inside me."

Sara chose to ignore her pleas and continued the slow exploration of her body. "I love the way your body reacts to my touches. You're so expressive."

"I'm going to express my displeasure if you don't touch me soon."

"I am touching you Cat don't you like the way I touch you?" She knew exactly what she was doing to her and she also knew she wouldn't last long when she finally did touch her.

"You know what I mean. Please Sara I am so damn close already and it won't take much to push me over the edge." As she was talking Sara was kissing her way down Catherine's stomach and when she finally reached her heated center it was all Catherine could do to not reach down and push Sara's head into her. She was so close that when Sara's tongue finally entered her her orgasm exploded almost immediately. Sara continued to lap at her juices until she felt the last spasm leave her body. "To borrow your phrase, that was amazing." Catherine smiled down at Sara and she felt Sara smile against her curls and had to laugh. "You can come up now."

Sara didn't move or say anything she just looked up at Catherine's contented face. She licked once more and watched as Catherine's body jerked from the pressure on her sensitive clit. She turned her head and kissed Catherine's thigh then gently bit it and heard Catherine gasp, She looked up and to her delight Catherine had her eyes closed and she was biting her lip. God she had no idea how sexy that was. She licked the spot she had bitten and moved to another spot and nipped there and received much the same response from Catherine. She couldn't remember ever enjoying making love this much, she always looked at it as nothing much more than a release but with Catherine it was so much more than that. She wanted to pleasure her in every way possible and then find another way and start all over again. She looked up and saw that Catherine was now watching her intently. She kissed her way back to her heated core and plunged three fingers into her wet center and set a frantic pace.

Catherine's hips kept pace with her fingers as she pulled them almost all of the way out and plunged them in again. "Sara, I'm so close…god I love you so much. Sa…ra…" She actually screamed her name as her climax claimed her body once again. Sara's pace never slowed and she lowered her head and clamped on to her swollen clit and Catherine felt her body tensing as another climax hit her. "Sara you have to stop, my body can't take anymore. Come up here please." Sara kissed her way back up Catherine's body, she stopped at her breasts and kissed each one then made her way to Catherine's lips. Catherine groaned when she tasted herself on Sara's lips and deepened the kiss. "You are an amazing lover Sara Sidle."

"Only with you. I want so much to pleasure you in every way possible. I love watching you react to my touches and you are such an expressive lover. I was thinking about how in the past I always approached having sex as a means to a release, whether it be mine or my partners. With you it is so much more." She lay down beside Catherine and rested her head on her hand so she could just look at her. Her other hand was making lazy circles on Catherine's stomach.

"I guess that's the difference between having sex and making love. I have never felt this much with anyone else. You know just how to touch my body to get the best out of me. I want to touch you and make you feel as good as you make me feel. Tell me what you want me to do. Tell me how to touch you to pleasure you."

"Just think about what makes you feel good and do that." She looked down at her hand on Catherine's stomach and watched as the muscles in her stomach reacted to her touch. "God I love your body. I want to touch you everywhere."

"Not right now, it's my turn." She swiftly reversed their positions. "First I want to let you know that your strip tease was amazing." She was straddling Sara's waist.

"I've never done anything like that before." Just a hint of a blush graced Sara's cheeks.

"I know, and that is what makes it special I want to make you feel the same way." Sara was surprised at the insecurity in Catherine's voice.

"God Catherine, you have no idea do you?"

"About what?"

"All you have to do is turn those green eyes on me and I feel special, your kisses make me feel like I'm on top of the world. The slightest touch from you turns me on and watching you writing underneath me while I'm making love to you makes me feel like…beyond words. You don't have to do anything. I know you already know how sexy you are and right now, you sitting on my stomach naked as a jay bird is the sexiest thing in the world." Sara reached behind Catherine and cupped her tight ass and pulled her forward so that once again she could smell her sex. "God you smell so good."

"Sara this is supposed to be my turn to please you stop that."

"This does please me, more than you'll ever know." She pulled her closer and Catherine couldn't stop her reaction to Sara's tongue as she once again started moving to the rhythm Sara set.

"Damn Sara!" Sara reached up and pulled Catherine down so she could reach her better. She used her tongue in ways that Catherine didn't know a tongue could be used. Catherine leaned back and she was able to reach Sara wet folds and she matched the pace that Sara's tongue was setting. Sara's hips left the bed which gave Catherine better access and the groan that left Sara's lips did things to her already dripping core. "God Sara you're so wet. Oh shit!" They both fell over the edge together and Catherine fell limp next to Sara. She giggled when she felt Sara's tongue behind her knee. "Stop that, it tickles." She turned around so she could snuggle next to Sara. "I love you Sara Sidle."

"I love you too. Now go to sleep." Sara put her arm around her and pulled her close.

"Oh no you don't I'm not done with you yet."

"Cat you're exhausted, go to sleep, I'm fine."

"No I'm not I'm wide awake." Sara had to laugh because Catherine was asleep almost before she finished speaking.