A/N: Here's chapter two. This is just a short story so there will be only one more part after this.

Special thanks to all those of you who left me review :-) I just love them!

Stormy

Chapter 2

Sara took another sip of her beer. It just wasn't fair ... life wasn't fair. She couldn't stop thinking about Lilly. She wondered where she was right now. With her father in custody and her mother dead there weren't that many options. Relatives would have been a possibility, but she couldn't find any tonight. That left the social services, which meant that the little girl was now with a complete stranger, shocked and scared. Sara knew those feelings - more than she liked to admit.

Maybe she should have worked harder tonight. Maybe there was some relative of Lilly out there who would take care of her. She shouldn't have given up like that. The girl deserved more than that. So why was she not still working like she normally would? Catherine...

The blonde had sent her home early and to her own surprise Sara let her. She had felt exhausted. But was that an excuse? Maybe she was just too tired to fight with Catherine. But did that ever stop her from working a case before? It never had until today. But besides trying to find Lilly's family there was nothing she could do. That drunken bastard who had called himself Marina's husband wasn't even denying anything. He had made a full confession. That left Sara to analyse a few pieces of evidence and crime scene photos, and to be honest she had felt sicker and sicker with every minute she looked at them.

She was sure that Catherine had picked up on that. The blonde probably felt sorry for her and wanted to do her a favour. Any other day she would have fought her tooth and nail - but not today. The brutal crime scene coupled with the memories of her own childhood had worn her out. She had figured that if she stayed any longer she would either break down completely or blow up at someone - and neither option seemed very appealing at that time. So she just gave in and left.

Sara was sure that the blonde had expected her to go home, not to a bar to get drunk. Well, you can't always live up to everyone's expectations, she thought bitterly. Another thing she had learned early on. At least she knew that Catherine wouldn't beat the shit out of her, if she found out - not like her parents had done. But she wondered what was actually worse ... the physical pain her family had usually caused or the disappointment and disgust that she would read in her co-worker's eyes if she found out.

She tried to take another sip of her beer only to find it empty once again. Sara cursed. This wasn't helping at all! In her current state of mind she would probably need another ten beers to forget enough about the case to sleep a little bit. Maybe it was time to switch gears. She signalled the barkeeper to come over to her. "Another beer?" The man in his forties asked her. The brunette slowly shook her head. "I'll take a scotch."

Why is this world so cruel...

#######

Catherine came back from the ladies room. Again she stopped to take a look at Sara. The brunette was still sitting at the bar, still holding her beer, still staring at the same invisible spot on the wall behind the bar, still looking ... defeated? Depressed? Sad? She wasn't sure how to describe the empty look on Sara's face. Like so often before she was worried about the younger woman - and like so often before she had no idea how to approach her.

She was a very social person, a person who could easily communicate with everyone. Well, at least most of the time. But Sara was a mystery to her. No matter what she said to her, it ended in an argument most of the time. She had often wondered why, but never came to a satisfying answer. Somehow the brunette just managed to get under her skin.

Catherine could think at once of five different situations where she had wanted to do nothing more than comfort the other woman - situations where she wouldn't have hesitated if one of the boys was concerned. She would offer comforting words, listening ears, and a friendly hug.

But not with Sara. With her it was different. Even though she felt the urge sometimes, she knew that the younger woman wouldn't accept her offer anyway. Sara was not one to accept physical contact. She was not one to talk about her feelings or her problems. Instead she kept to herself most of the time, dealing with her problems her own way. Not always a healthy way, Catherine added as an afterthought, when her eyes fell on the beer bottle again.

Suddenly remembering Jack, she shook her head to get rid off all the disturbing thoughts that were running through her mind right now. Sara knew what she was doing, didn't she? With one last concerned glance at her co-worker she turned and moved back to the booth where her companion was waiting.

Jack immediately picked up on her mood change. "Are you okay?" Catherine sent him a smile, even though it didn't reach her eyes. "Sure, I'm fine." Before he could ask any further questions, she picked up their earlier conversation. "So, you wanted to tell me how you cracked that serial murder case of yours." Jack shrugged, figuring that - whatever it was - she didn't want to talk about it. Fair enough, he thought, and started to tell her about the case.

During their chat, Catherine couldn't help but glance at Sara every now and then. She knew that the brunette could get upset over cases. She knew that she could get angry, lose her temper. Right now she thought that she would prefer that to the lack of emotion Sara displayed right now. Even if she didn't want to admit it, she was really worried. "Who is she?" Jack's voice ripped her out of her thoughts.

She blinked and looked at him. "What?" Jack smiled and took another sip of his beer. "Who is she?" he repeated his question, gesturing to the lonely figure at the bar.

Catherine sighed. Her plan to forget about Sara and enjoy her time with Jack obviously went out the window. "I'm sorry, Jack." She paused, glancing at Sara again who was still nursing her beer. "Sara. She's a co-worker. She had a pretty rough case last night. I guess I'm just a bit worried about her."

Jack nodded. "It shows." He smiled at her again to indicate that he didn't mind her divided attention. "Well, our job is rough sometimes. I guess we've all been where she is right now. Sitting at a bar and trying to drink away the memories..." He glanced at Sara before turning back to Catherine. "What was the case about?"

"Domestic violence. A drunken husband who was known for his temper beat his wife to death in a drunken rage. From the rumours I heard around the lab Sara found their daughter sitting beside the body and begging her mother to wake up. It must have been a bizarre scene." She inevitably shuddered at the thought.

"Sounds awful." Jack agreed. "Why don't you ask her to join us? Some company would do her good. She looks really devastated." Jack, like herself, was someone who had a special way with people. If it was any other co-worker they were talking about Catherine wouldn't think twice about his suggestion. But with Sara...

"That's not a good idea, Jack. Sara is..." She paused looking for the right word. "...different." She stopped again, not sure how to continue and how much to reveal without violating Sara's trust. Jack gave her time to collect her thoughts. "Sara is not the most social person in the world. She keeps to herself and hardly talks about her life. I've been working with her for six years, but I know almost nothing about her." she sighed. "And we are not exactly getting along. I would say we just tolerate each other most of the time. So I'm sure I'm the last person she would like to spend time with right now. And besides, she's probably mad at me anyways, because I send her home early."

Jack raised an eyebrow at her last remark. "Why did you do that? When I have a hard case I bury myself in my work and try to solve it. That's the only way for me to settle my mind." His tone wasn't accusing. It was just a question.

Catherine shook her head. She knew what he meant. Every CSI probably did, but she also knew that it was different with Sara. "You know I have a daughter. I'm a mother and that's the reason why I take cases where children are violated especially hard. For Sara it's the same with cases of domestic violence. I don't know why and I know she will never tell me." Jack nodded and waited for her to continue. After she had taken a sip of her beer she did. "We try to keep her away from such cases, but tonight my boss obviously had had a bad day. He gave her the case, solo."

"What happened?"

The blonde shrugged. "Fortunately there was not much to do for her. The husband is in custody and made a confession. I had expected her to be mad as hell, maybe attack the man or something, but surprisingly that wasn't the case. Instead she was distant. Even after she had done everything which was demanded by protocol, she was still analyzing the crime scene photos. To me it looked like she was torturing herself... maybe blaming herself for something she had absolutely no power over. That's when I send her home. And to my astonishment, she didn't even protest. She just left. And that look in her eyes had worried me." She glanced at Sara once more. "I had hoped that she would go home. This was really the last thing I wanted."

Jack reached over the table and gave her hand a squeeze. "I think you did the right thing. And if the case upset her that much, then give her a break. I think we all have been there...drinking the horror away..." Catherine nodded. She sure as hell had been there, but it was different with Sara. "There are rumours around the lab that she has a drinking problem. She almost got herself a DUI last year."

"Oh." Was all Jack said. That explained Catherine's sorrow. He tried to calm her down. "Maybe she's just having a beer before heading home."

"I sent her home two hours ago, Jack."

"Then talk to her."

"I don't want to upset her anymore than she already is."

"Then don't. But I think you should."

"Why? She's a big girl. Maybe you are right after all. Just a beer..."

Then Jack's face darkened. "She just switched to stronger stuff, whiskey would be my guess."

Catherine's head snapped around in time to see the bartender place the glass in front of Sara and take her empty beer bottle with him. Damn! This wasn't good. But talking to her would only make things worse, right? Especially when Sara was drunk there was no way they could carry on a reasonable conversation. "I would only make things worse." She muttered.

"Or better." Jack said. "Go talk to her. She listened to you before without a fight, right? Chances are good she will again. Maybe she even wants to talk. Give it a shot."

The look on his face told her that he wasn't accepting 'no' for an answer. She glanced at Sara again. Half of the drink had already vanished. Not good! "Fine." She took another sip of her bottle, placed it back on the table and stood up. "I won't be long."

"Take your time. This is important."

Catherine sighed. He was right. This was important. She could only pray that it wouldn't cause an argument... Slowly she made her way over to Sara. Even when she stood right beside her, the brunette didn't notice her. Not a good sign either. She turned back to Jack for a moment. He gave her thumbs up and sent her an encouraging smile. Right, she could do this.

Carefully she sat down on the bar stool beside Sara.