Chapter 4

They arrived at restaurant at the same time as Brian.

"Hello Sidle!"

"Hello Brian!"

"And you must be the Detective," he said to Sofia.

"Yep, this is Detective Sofia Curtis!" Sara confirmed.

"Nice to meet you Brian," Sofia smiled.

"Nice to meet you too, Sidle you forgot to tell me, how beautiful your friend is" Brian teased.

"Nope, I did that on purpose. But your right, she very much is" Sara snickered.

Sofia's face had turned fiery, "will you two please stop it."

"Sure, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Sorry" Brian apologized.

Sara leaned in to Sofia, her mouth close to Sofia's ear. "Sorry, but you are," she said.

"Let's get inside," Brian said, "I'm hungry!"

"Nice to see something never change," Sara grinned.

"Ha ha Sara, so funny you are. How do you live with that?" He asked Sofia, rolling his eyes.

"What choices do we have? So full of surprises she is!" Sofia retorted.

"So true" Brian agreed.

Sara glanced at them, her expression a mix of surprise and amusement. "Hey I'm still here," she laughed.

"So you are! Well let's go girls, before I start eating one of you."

After ordering their food, Sara and Brian started talking about the old days. Sofia was just observing Sara. She had never seen this side of Sara before, so happy and relaxed, and what smoking?

"What do you think Sofia?" Sara asked.

"Huh..? About?" Sofia hadn't heard a word of the conversation.

Sara couldn't help but smile. "Where do you go then you take off?"

"Nowhere, I was just thinking. I don't think I have seen you smoke before."

"Maybe not, is it a problem?"

Sofia shrugged the slightest bit. "No, I don't mind, I used to smoke myself, until my mom drove me insane. So what was it you were asking me about?"

"What you think about the seminar?"

"The same as you, it's boring. Brass is in deep trouble when I get home!"

They all laughed, after dinner Sara excused herself and went to the restroom.

"Nice to see the two of you, finally are talking to each other" Brian said simply.

"Yeah, I like it too," Sofia smiled.

"I guess she told you?"

Sofia pressed her lips together and steeled herself to look into his eyes. "Yes she did, and apparently you too!"

Brian smiled; "yes we talked about it last night. So how do you feel about her?"

Sofia winkled her brows; "I really don't think that's any of your business!"

"Your right it's not. But Sara is like a sister to me, and I don't like seeing her getting hurt. She has been throw a lot of shit in her life, and been hurt more than enough" Brian exclaimed.

Sofia sighed. "The truth is that I never expected her to have that kind of feelings towards me, and right now I'm quite confused about my own feelings towards her. I have never considered myself as being gay!"

Brian smiled, "fair enough. But please promise me, that no matter what you choose to do, then at least be honest to her."

"What are you two talking about?" Sara asked, as she returned to the table.

"You..! What else is there to talk about?" Brian grinned.

"Ha ha who's the comedian now?" Sara chortled.

"Do either of you want coffee and dessert?" Brian asked.

"Coffee will be fine," Sofia answered.

Looking at Sofia's body, "depends…. what can I have?" Sara said with a smile on her face.

Brian shook his head, "Sidle, behave… Try looking at the menu!"

"Ooh… Thought I was," Sara grinned, "coffee will be fine."

Sofia tilted her head back to look at her. "Sara was you always like this, before moving to Vegas?"

"Like what?" Sara gave her an incredulous look that morphed into a wide grin.

"Stop that innocent look, you know exactly what I mean," Sofia laughed.

"I don't know, was I Brian?"

Brian cocked his head, memory surfacing. "Yeah, the woman I see today, is much more the Sidle I used to hang out with, than the woman I meet last night; I think Sofia is having a good influence on you."

"I just wished, influence wasn't the only thing she had on me," she said with a very dreamy look in her eyes.

Sofia totally flushed, while Brian shook his head.

"Well Detective, I didn't know you could flush, but you are very cute when you do so" Sara gave her the barest flicker of a wink.

Sofia glanced at her from the corner of her eye. "No..? Guess there's a lot of things, we don't know about each other."

Brian was yawning, "Sorry ladies, but I'm really in shortage of sleep, thanks to Sara who kept me up last night, and since I'm no Sidle, who never sleeps, I really need go home and get to bed."

"Well well Brian, are we getting old?" Sara laughed.

"Fuck you, Sidle!"

"In your dreams Brian," Sara laughed.

Sofia couldn't help chuckle, "so so kids we better get out of here, before we get thrown out."

They all stood, threw some money on the table, and left.

"Well, Sidle it's been fun, as always hard to keep up with you, but definitely good to see you again. Will you keep in touch this time?"

"I really goner miss you Brian, and yes I will keep in touch, but you better do the same."

"I will, Sofia it's been very nice meeting you, keep an eye on her for me will you?"

"Nice to meet you too Brian, and yes, I will watch out for her!"

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself," Sara taunted.

"So you say, and still you always end up in trouble," Brian grinned.

"How many times is it you have been sent on leave?" Sofia asked smiling.

Sara made a disgusted noise. "That's not fair; Ecklie gets all in trouble, even you have paid!"

"Yeah, but it was my conviction, and not my temper, who got me in trouble!" Sofia smirked.

"Whatever," Sara murmured.

"What's that Sidle? Did she just shut you up?" Brian laughed.

"Remind me again, why is it I hang out, with the two of you?" Sara growled.

"Because you love us" Brian answered cheerfully, and turned a little to give her a proper kiss.

"Oh, that's why! Guess I am crazy." Sara groaned.

Brian grinned, "Can't fight the true."

"I don't understand, how anyone have survived working with you two, you sound like an old married couple" Sofia intoned, and watched them grin.

"Why do you think I left?" Sara snorted.

"Love you too Sidle, and with these words, I will bid you ladies goodnight and goodbye."

"Goodnight Brian sweet dreams," Sofia said.

"You know I don't do goodbyes, so goodnight and later!"

"Later Sara," he said giving her a big hug, "take care of yourself," and with that, he went to his car and left.

"He seems like a great guy Sara."

"Yeah the best, are you tired?" Sara breathed out, lips curving up.

"A little" Sofia admitted.

"Want to go back to the hotel?"

"Depend… what's on your mind?" Sofia asked curiously.

Sara smiled, wide and beautiful. "Have you ever been to Twin Peaks?"

"No, isn't it a movie?" Sofia asked.

"Yeah, but that isn't what I'm talking about, want to go?"

Sofia shrugged, "sure" she smiled.

They got into the car and drove off; it was a silent but pleasant drive. Sofia had her eyes closed, thinking about her day.

"Sara is in love with me ...wow… So why do I hesitate? I know I like her too, so why am I holding back?"

Sofia slowly exhaled well aware of why. Finally she dozed off.

Sara couldn't help smiling. She knew she had thrown a bomb at the blonde today, but at the same time she couldn't stop wondering, if it had been a mistake telling Sofia about her feelings. But she was getting sick and tired of hiding herself and her life away in work. Coming to Frisco and meting Brian again, had been quite a wakeup call.

Sara was still shocked about how pathetic her life had turned, after moving to Vegas. She had always loved to work a lot, even before Vegas, but never before had it been the only thing in her life. But that was going too changed! Sara had already made up her mind; if Sofia wasn't interested in a relationship, she was leaving Las Vegas.

Sara pulled in and killed the engine; she turned and looked at Sofia, who still had her eyes closed. Sara jumped out of the car, walked around and opened the door in Sofia's side, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Sofia opened her eyes, she hadn't even registered that the car had stopped. She looked around, but it was too dark to see anything, the only light came from the moon. She turned her head and looked at Sara.

"Hi there," Sara smiled.

"Hi, where are we?"

"Twin Peaks," Sara answered, she took the blondes hand, "come on."

Sofia jumped out of the car, and followed the brunette, never letting go of her hand. Sara soon stopped and brought Sofia in front of her. Sara wrapped her arms around Sofia's body so the blondes back was leaning up against her own, and rested her head on the blondes shoulder.

Sara looked straight ahead; "this is why I go to Twin Peaks!"

Sofia followed Sara's gaze, from where they stood, they could see most of the light of San Francisco and the Golden Gate. The light from the bridge and the moon was reflecting on the dark quiet bay. Sofia couldn't remember, ever seeing anything like that.

"Wow Sara it's beautiful!" Sofia said abruptly.

"Yeah.., don't think I ever can get tired of looking at that view!" Sara conceded.

Sofia didn't say anything, she just pressed her body a little closer to Sara's, and Sara tightened her hold on Sofia.

For the next couple of minutes they just stood neither of them said anything, they just enjoyed each other's warm and the sight in front of them. Finally Sara released her hold on the blonde and walked over to a big stone; she sat down and leaned her back up against it.

Sofia followed, and sat down beside the brunette. Sofia was only dressed in a thin jacket so she quickly began to feel cold, and she missed Sara's warm. She crawled over and sat down between Sara's thighs, just the same way they had been standing a few minutes earlier.

Sara just smiled and wrapped her arms around Sofia. For a long time none of them spoke, but when the silence was broken, it was Sara who spoke.

"This place, used to be my hideaway when I lived here. Whenever a case got to me, or other things in my life went wrong, I would drive up here and scream at the world or get drunk. Often I would go alone, but if things had gotten really rough, Brian would tagalong. I guess, to prevent me for doing something stupid!"

After a moment, Sara's shoulders relaxed and she started speaking again. "I still remember this one case. I had been a CSI for about two months, and still convinced that I could handle everything …was I wrong…" Sara smirked.

"We got called out to a house, where a 7 years old girl had died. She was a foster child. She had been removed from her home two years earlier because her dad were beating and abusing her sexually. She had been living with her foster parent for about eighteen months, when she died. She was lying in her bed, and it was obvious to all of us, that she had been redressed. Even though, I still was new in my job, I couldn't shake the felling that something was totally wrong in that house. After her autopsy, the doc could tell that she had been squeezed to dead, and she had been raped repeatedly over a long period of time."

Sofia could feel Sara's body quiver, so she pressed her own body closer. Sara immediately tightens her hold; she thought a moment longer before speaking again.

"I knew, even before the evidence was conclusive, that the foster dad was in on it. But we were quite confused when the sperm samples came back with two donors, one came back to the foster dad, but we couldn't find a match to the other. The foster dad was arrested, he declared guilty to the abused accusations, but denied killing her. He refused to explained the other sperm sample, said he didn't knew what we were talking about. I was really starting to get pissed off at him, he was going to jail, but I wanted him for the murder too. His wife was brought in too, but she didn't say a word, until one of the detectives came back from vacation. He was the type that scared me, even when he was in a good mood, and apparently he scared her too, because she started talking. I don't think I ever felt sicker than I did, listen to what she told. Her husband had started abusing the little girl, the minute she moved in. After a while, he had decided to earn some money on her, so he had rented her out to other men. She also admitted, it was her husband who had killed the girl, but it had been an accident. He had been so caught up in satisfying himself, he had forgotten it was a little girl, so he had slowly anguished her in the process."

Sara stopped talking for a moment, taking a deep breath, before she went on. "I stood behind the double glass, watching, while the detectives went back and told the husband what the wife had told, and finally he confessed to it all. I knew, I wasn't allowed to go in to the interrogation room, but I didn't care, I wanted… needed to know why? How he could do that to a little girl! When I asked him, he just looked at me and then he started laughing and said he hadn't done anything she wasn't was used to already."

Sara snorted at a few particular memories. "When I heard that, I snapped! My temper simply took over. Before anyone could react, I had pushed him and the chair to the floor, and thrown myself on top of him, beating the crap out of him. It took two detectives to pull me off him and drag me outside. The only reason why I didn't lost my job that night, was because everyone in the department wanted to do the same. So no one had seen anything!" For a while she just sat, winding down but eventually she kept telling.

"The minute my shift was over I drove up here, with a bag full of beer. By the time Brian arrived; I was already pretty drunk; I was standing over there on the edge with a beer in my hand looking down on the water. I know I almost scared Brian to dead, even if he never said so he was so afraid I was going to jump. And to this day I honestly don't know what would have happen, if he hadn't turned up! I finally brook down and for.., I don't know how many hours, Brian just holds me while all I could do was cry. I couldn't understand how anyone could do this to another human being, and up till this day I still can't. That night I lost three things: my youthful idealism and optimism in the good of the human race, me ability to blindly trust people, and my trust in god. But I did promise myself that day, to never let anything or anyone, come that close to me ever again. I don't think I will survive, hurting like that again!"

Sara stopped talking and exhaled deeply. Sofia didn't know what to say, she turned her upper body around and looked into Saris eyes. She didn't see sadness, or anger, as she expected, but she could see the pain Sara still felt. The blonde wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck, and pulled her in for a hug.

"I'm so sorry Sara, no one, should ever have a case like that, hell there shouldn't be a case, like that, but at least you got him, so he can't hurt another child again."

"Yeah… I'm sorry too; I shouldn't have told you, it's not a nice story."

"No, don't be Sara; although it is an awful story, I'm glad you did."

"Yeah well, it's too late taking it back anyway," she sighed. "Well sweetie, I better gets you back to the hotel, it's getting late, and you were already tired, before we went up here."

Tbc…