AN: Thank you, thank you, thank you to my reviewers. You guys are absolutely wonderful - I'm glad that you are enjoying this story and are kind enough to take the time to comment. Means a lot.

Hope everyone's weeks are going alright.

Take care and enjoy.


CHAPTER 7


CATHERINE POV

Entering into the back lab, I silently step aside Sara and reach out and ruffle her hair.

Looking up at me with a start, Sara shakes her head, trying to put her hair back into place.

She is about as successful at is as she is from hiding the smile playing at her mouth.

"Sorry," I shrug. "Couldn't resist."

Sara rolls her eyes at me, giving up on taming the wayward strands.

"How are things going in here?" I ask her, noting that Sara has disappeared for most of shift to work in her back lab.

I don't think she is purposely avoiding me after our conversation last night at the bar, but I don't think she has exactly gone out of her way to find me, either.

She was quiet when we arrived home last night, and this morning she was called in on a scene before I even woke up. This is the first time I have gotten to see her all day.

I can't express how terrible I feel for what I said to her. What I accused her of.

Sara Sidle, of all people.

"Mostly good," Sara replies, bringing me back to the present. "Just getting a bit frustrated with this one case."

"Yeah?" I question, taking a seat beside her.

Resting my hand on her leg, I am happy when she doesn't pull away.

"Yeah, the scene was supposed to be the primary…" she trails off, staring at the pictures in front of her.

"But you don't agree?" I question, handing her a coffee that it looks like she desperately needs.

"Thanks," she says, sending me a tired smile.

"Sure," I tell her, wishing I could do something more to take the dark circles and the tension away from her.

"Want me to take a look?" I offer instead.

Sara shrugs, "Sure."

Handing me over the pictures in her hand, I look at them closely.

"You're right, Sar. I don't think this is the primary site," I say with a sigh, trying to look at the picture from a different angle. "The drops of blood centered around the vic are uniformly angled outward, which doesn't make sense for weapon cast-off."

Sara puts down her pencil.

"Yeah, I was just hoping I was wrong."

Sending her a sympathetic glance, I take in the images on the rest of the photos displayed across the wall.

"Sorry," I tell her sincerely, hating to see more work piled on to her already obscene caseload. I wasn't the only one with desk loads of work waiting for me when I returned. "Looks like you're headed back out to the scene."

Sara shrugs, characteristically calm about it all.

"Part of the job, right?" she says simply, reminding me once again that Sara is one of the most easygoing people I have ever met.

Even when sleep deprived.

"Want me to join you?" I offer. "I just closed my case and have a bunch of charts to review. Which, I'm not particularly eager to spend my day doing."

Starting to take down the pictures, Sara turns to me with a raised brow.

"Sure."

Smiling at her expression with curiosity, I hand her the photo in my hand.

"What?" I question.

She sends me her own rueful smile.

"Well, it's just, you're my superior," she says. "You don't really have to ask me about joining my scene. Technically, they're all your scenes."

Stepping up close to her with a raised brow, I run my fingers softly up her side.

"Oh? So you would like it better if I didn't ask? Just…took…what I wanted?"

Sara's eyes turn a couple shades darker, and I can feel her breathing quicken.

Before I know it, her lips are on mine and I have her backed against the layout table.

Just as my fingers are curling into her hair, she pulls away so that her lips are at my ear.

"You can't take something that's already yours, Miss Willows."

Smiling at her words, I pull back and I can see the love and devotion emanating from her eyes.

I am absolutely relieved to see that Sara doesn't appear to be harboring any ill feelings towards me despite my accusations to her last night.

Admittedly, she seems a bit more rattled today than usual, but her interactions with me have brought nothing but the kind gentleness that I have come to know and love about her.

Leaning in, I place a soft kiss on her lips, my hands holding her waist.

Smiling herself, Sara tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I would love the company, Catherine."

Stepping away, she finishes gathering up the paperwork to put in the case file.


Walking together down the hall towards the parking lot, Judy flags me down from the front desk.

"Catherine! Someone just dropped off a package for you, can you sign for it?" she asks, holding out a package to me with one hand while trying to type something into her computer with the other.

Handing Sara my kit, I head towards the front desk.

"Meet you in the Tahoe?" I question.

Sara nods, heading outside without a word.

Taking the package from Judy, I raise my brow in curiosity as it appears to be a thin envelope the size of a piece of paper. The part that peaks my curiosity is that there is no return address.

In the line of work that we do, no return addresses are usually an omen pointing directly towards disaster. However, the package is thin enough that I am rather confident that it is at least not going to explode when I open it.

Probably not.

Tearing at the seal as I step out of the lab into the morning sun, I frown as four photos drop out of the package into my hand.

The images have been enlarged, and the subject matter is clear as day.

In my hands, I am holding four 6 by 11 images that distinctly show two women engaged in various stages of intimacy.

Not getting the point of the pictures, or more specifically why in the hell they were sent to me, I take a closer look at the subjects caught on film.

The person facing the camera I do not recognize, her features are quite beautiful but are meaningless to me.

Looking at the other participant, I feel my feet come to a halt and my heart drop to the floor. I, without a shadow of a doubt, recognize the other woman.

The dark brown hair, the lean frame. But most telling of all, the tattoo running up the woman's side.

The tattoo that is in Latin.

Flipping through the rest of the photos, they are only further confirmation that the brunette is Sara.

What also catches my eye, is that her bedmate has black hair.


AN: What? Say it isn't so… ! As always, thanks for reading and would love to hear your thoughts.