AN: ArtemisFire - I love you! Any particular favourite song? :)
x x x x
When Sara didn't move, Catherine stepped closer and placed a tentative hand on the small of her back.
"Is that why you wouldn't tell me?"
"What do you think?" Sara asked rhetorically, trying to move away as she wiped surrupticiously at her eyes. Cath, however, looped a strong arm around her slender waist to hold her in place.
"Hey, look at me." She instructed softly, waiting until Sara nervously complied. "Do you really think I'm that shallow?"
She didn't answer and Cath decided that she didn't really want to hear the response anyway.
"Sara, hon, I don't care who you date as long as you're happy." She insisted, touching a fading bruise on her collar bone and stroking it with the pad of her thumb. "But I do care when they're doing this to you."
Sara stepped out of her grip and pressed her back against the wall behind her, finally taking the time to re-dress herself properly.
"Who is she?" Catherine asked at last, clearing her throat. "Give me a name."
"Kirsty Soames." Sara mumbled, toying with the hem of her shirt.
Cath was almost surprised that she gave it up so easily this time, but now that the truth was out there was little need to be evasive anymore. She furrowed her brow in thought.
"I know that name." The muttered comment was said to herself rather than Sara, but the brunette nodded anyway.
"Yeah." She pursed her lips. "She's a patrol officer."
"Here? She works at the station?" For some reason that thought unsettled Catherine even more. Until now she'd been working under the impression that Sara was at least safe from her abuser at the lab.
"Yeah." Sara straightened up. "Which is why no one else can know."
"Sara, honey." Catherine shook her head, softening her voice. "I'm not going to stand back and let this carry on. I can't."
"This is none of your business!" Sara snapped, launching herself off the wall and brushing past her colleague.
"I am your supervisor, that makes it my business!" Catherine didn't quite manage to catch her; but the harsh tone of her voice - leaving no room for argument - was enough to stop the girl in her tracks. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, but she remained in place until Cath could walk back over to her.
"Look, we can do this discreetly. I can make sure no one will find out that doesn't need to."
"There's nothing to find out Catherine." Sara said, spinning on her heel to face her. Any previous evidence of tears had vanished, replaced by a blank mask perfected over years of keeping her emotions locked inside. "Nothing's going to happen."
"You have to end it …"
"No." Sara cut her off adamantly, shaking her head. "You don't understand … Kirsty, she's had a rough life and sometimes she gets angry. But she's getting help - she's seeing a counsellor."
"Oh Sara," The older woman shook her head, emitting a dry laugh. "Counselling is not going to fix this, honey. If she thinks it's acceptable to hurt you like this, to hit you, then she's never going to change."
"She can…"
"Trust me, people don't change."
Apart from the slight paling of her cheeks, Sara showed no sign of having heard blonde's words as she backed towards the door.
"You're wrong." She insisted, half-walking half-falling into the locker room.
"Sara!" Cath barked as the woman disappeared from view; but by the time she swung herself around the doorframe, the room was empty.
X x x
"There you are."
The hollered comment caused her to skid to a halt halfway down the hall and turn on her heel with an impatient raised eyebrow.
"What?" She barked, too riled for politeness.
Grissom blinked, taken aback by the bluntness as he shuffled towards her.
"I've been looking for you." He frowned. "What's going on?"
Catherine ran a stressed hand through her hair.
"Nothing, forget it." She shrugged at last. "What did you want?"
Before he even began to answer, her attention had wandered – to the far end of the corridor to be precise. It was only a glimpse, but she could have sworn she saw a flash of chestnut hair disappearing in the other direction.
"Yeah, great. I've got to go." She mumbled vaguely, dancing around her boss and heading after the figure.
"Catherine?" Grissom called, attempting to grab her arm as she slipped past him.
"I'll talk to you later!" She waved in his general direction, not sticking around long enough for him to contest the behaviour.
He watched her go with a growing frustration at his team's lack of discipline lately.
"Women." A voice tutted nearby. He looked up, almost not surprised to find Hodges lingering in the doorway of a lab. "Never there when you need to talk to them, but when you're trying to work you can't get them to shut up."
Grissom, having limited experience of this phenomenon and very little desire to converse with the lab rat, offered a silent nod and walked away, leaving David hanging.
X x x
"So this is where you're hiding."
Sara froze, her hands momentarily stilling over the keyboard. She turned slowly towards the door, uncertainty written across her face.
"Did you tell him?" She asked nervously.
"Tell who?"
"Grissom." Sara explained. "I saw you talking to him in the hall."
Cath cleared her throat, pushing herself off the doorframe and walking over.
"No, I didn't tell him." She assured the brunette. "I should have."
"I told you, there's nothing to tell." Sara flicked her eyes back to the screen but Catherine wasn't done yet. She rested one hand on the table, using the other to lift Sara's head towards her.
"Sara, listen to me." She said firmly. "As admirable as it is to try, you cannot change a person."
"You're…"
"No." Cath interrupted, determined to get her say this time. "You can't fix her Sara. And you can't stay with her. It'll only get worse."
"You don't know that." Sara dropped her gaze.
"Yes, I do." She insisted. "She will get more violent and less careful until eventually everyone will know what's going on. Or she'll kill you, whichever happens first."
Perhaps she was being harsh, but right now it was the only way she could think of to snap Sara out of her hopeful delusions.
The brunette lifted her gaze again, opening her mouth to speak, when Grissom's puzzled voice interrupted them.
"What is going on around here?" He asked from the doorway, noting with suspicion Cath's close proximity to Sara and in particular the arm draped around the brunette's shoulders. He may not be the most observant person in the world when it came to other people, but he knew that Sara was not especially tactile.
Sara looked up at Catherine pleadingly.
"Everything's fine." Cath said slowly, turning her attention to Grissom. "Sara just needed my help with something."
"Oh." He nodded, not in the slightest bit convinced. "Well, I need you in the garage"
"Okay, I'll be right there." She hummed, waiting until the sound of his shuffling footsteps had faded before leaning down to Sara again. Unexpectedly, she pressed a kiss to the girl's temple and squeezed her shoulder gently. "This isn't over."
X x x
To her surprise – and utmost relief – when Catherine sloped into her office at the end of shift Sara was already there, waiting for her.
"Oh." The blonde squeaked, startling the young brunette, who was busy surveying the photos scattered on the cluttered desk. She turned, replacing the frame with a sheepish smile. It contained a recent picture of Lindsey in her new school uniform.
"She's grown up so much." She commented softly.
"Yeah, she has." Cath agreed with a small smile, closing the door and walking slowly across the office to join her colleague. "She hasn't seen you in a while, I'll bet she misses you."
"I miss her too." Sara hummed absently, picking up a different frame. This one contained a photo of the whole team in Franks. It had been taken by Frank himself at the end of a big trial. Sara was between the boys – Warrick had one arm draped around her shoulders and she had her head tipped against Greg's. She looked genuinely happy. Right now, she could barely remember how that felt.
"Did you want to see me?" Cath cleared her throat softly, snapping her back to the present.
"Yeah, sorry." Sara nodded, straightening up. "I was wondering if you wanted to go for coffee … or something." She mumbled shyly. "I guess I owe you a proper explanation."
"Yes, you do." Catherine agreed, her calm voice belayed by her frantic, concerned eyes. She flicked her gaze briefly to Sara's phone, sat on the edge of her desk. "Does Kirsty know you're going to be late?" She asked, making it clear with her voice that the question was more to make a point than as a general inquiry.
"Yeah, I told her I've got another case." Sara nodded.
"Good." Cath hummed. "We've got some time then."
Sara took a deep breath. She knew that she wasn't going to like what was to come, but she needed Catherine to understand the situation fully before they could come to an agreement.
"Here." Cath suddenly produced a set of keys from somewhere. "Go wait in my car; I'll be out in a few minutes."
She hesitantly accepted the keys, frowning at them.
"What are you going to do?" She asked nervously. Not that she didn't trust Catherine, but she couldn't risk her telling anyone else. Understanding her concern, Cath placed a hand briefly on her arm.
"I just need to call Nancy and check in with Linds." She explained softly.
"Oh, okay." Relief flooded Sara's face and she smiled gratefully. Taking her jacket off the back of the chair, she sloped into the deserted corridor and shut the door behind her to give Cat some privacy.
Catherine stared at the closed door for a long moment before a cell phone vibrating on the edge of the desk snapped her out of her reverie. Out of instinctive habit, she snatched it up and clicked to open the text message before it registered that her own cell was still clipped to her belt.
She glanced down at her hand, taking a deep breath as Kirsty's name blinked up at her from the small screen.
Hope you don't have to work too late. See you later x
Short and sweet.
Her finger hovered over the touch-screen. She chewed on her lower lip, fighting an internal battle. A part of her felt guilty for prying, even if it was accidental, but the overprotective mother in her felt the urge to check the previous messages.
Sara was ready to tell her everything. She should hear her side of it and trust that it was the truth.
But what guarantee did she have?
Sending a silent apology to her friend, she scrolled back through the past texts.
Taken on face value, you could be forgiven for thinking that Kirsty was two different people, for they ranged from sweet love messages to angry threats.
Tell anyone what happened and I'll make sure they know everything
If you're not home in the next five minutes, don't bother coming home at all
One, in particular, caused her breath to hitch. Out of context, it didn't really mean a lot but the implication was as clear as the bruises littering Sara's delicate bones.
Don't say a word.