Tears stung at her eyes as she picked herself up on trembling legs.

Behind the closed bathroom door she heard running water and released the breath she hadn't even realised she was holding. With any luck, Kirsty would go straight to bed after her shower and leave Sara alone for the rest of the morning.

Perching on the edge of the couch, she ran a shaky hand through her hair and accidently grazed the fresh injury with her fingertips. She winced, sucking in a breath to prevent herself from yelping in pain.

She was going to have to do something about that; as soon as she could get into the bathroom, of course.

Until then, she would just stay quiet. Quiet and still.

Just like she had done when she was a child.

X x x

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her hand to rap on the door; but her nerves didn't hold out and she dropped it to her side again. This was ridiculous. She was going to have to face her at some point.

Lifting her hand again, she managed a feeble knock this time. It was answered with the usual grunt of approval and she nudged it open, creeping inside.

Catherine lifted her gaze to see who her visitor was and froze, her blue eyes widening in shock.

"What happened?" She asked, on her feet and moving across the office before Sara could even close the door behind her.

"I'm okay." Sara said instinctively, leaning away from Cath's outstretched hand. "It's fine.

Cat let her hand fall back to her side, but her eyes continued to frantically dance across Sara's face in search of any other injuries.

"What did she hit you with?" She asked at last.

"She didn't, it's from the coffee table." Sara mumbled, sinking onto the couch and letting her head fall back against the cushions desolately. "I need your help."

"You're leaving her?" Cath asked hopefully, but Sara shook her head before her supervisor could get any ideas.

"No, I need you to help me cover it up." She explained, sitting forward. "I tried, but …" she gestured weakly to her forehead, an act which said enough. The swelling had gone down somewhat, but there was a very obvious gash across the left side of her temple.

Catherine blinked at her in stunned silence for a moment before throwing her hands up in resignation. Snatching her purse from under the desk, she dragged a chair closer to the couch and sat down in front of her colleague.

"Alright, come here." She tipped Sara's head up and - extracting a compact from the bag - began to dab foundation around the injury. "Sar, you have to stop this."

"Don't blame me. This is your fault." Sara replied bluntly, causing Catherine to still in her movements and send her a baffled look.

"Me? What did I do?"

"That text message you sent me?" Sara quirked an eyebrow, although quickly decided that the action hurt her head too much.

Cath's expression contorted into a look of horror, one hand flying to her mouth as she realised what she'd done.

"Oh, God." She dragged a hand through her strawberry-blonde hair, cursing herself for her own stupidity. "Sara, babe, I'm sorry." She swallowed hard. "I didn't think she would go through your messages."

"Neither did I." Sara shrugged weakly. "It's okay; it's not your fault."

"I'll have to be more careful what I send you in future." Cath sighed, returning to her task of carefully covering the injury.

Sara had dropped her gaze into her lap, where her hands lay folded to prevent them from fidgeting. She felt like she should say something else, but she just couldn't find the words.

Catherine pursed her lips, debating whether to ask the question that was burning on the tip of her tongue.

"Sara," she hummed at last. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want-" she began softly, chewing it over in her mind before voicing her thoughts "-but, why didn't you tell us that you date women?"

Sara looked up, surprise flashing across her expression at the query. She licked her lips slowly, contemplating her answer.

"I don't know, it's not something that's easy to slip into conversation." She shrugged at last.

"So, it wasn't because of us?" Catherine pressed, deciding that she'd done everything she could to cover the wound and tossing her compact onto the couch. "We didn't do anything, or say anything to make you feel … uncomfortable?"

Sara's lips turned into a half-smile.

"Like what?" She asked coyly.

Sensing that she was being played, Cath smacked her lightly on the knee.

"You know what I mean." She chuckled softly. "I'd just hate to think that you feel like you can't talk to us about things like this. I love you and I don't care who you date…unless they hurt you."

"It's nothing to do with you guys." Sara assured her, straightening up a little. "I guess it's just easier to be out to strangers. Most of them don't care, and the ones that do; well, you never see them again so it doesn't really matter." She felt herself getting choked up at the shift in tone of the conversation and swallowed her unshed tears back down. "It's the people closest to you that are most likely to judge; to change their opinion of you. Strangers have never known you any other way but family and friends think they know you. When you suddenly tell them something new … they don't always like it."

"You sound like you're talking from experience." Cath frowned, softening her voice.

Sara opened her mouth to answer, although the interruption that followed came as a relief to her as she didn't actually have a response to the question.

Greg poked his head inside, frowning in bemusement at the empty chair behind the desk before shifting his gaze to the sofa.

"Oh." He blinked. "Hi."

"What's up Greg?" Catherine asked, giving Sara a quick once over before standing up. The brunette appeared to be trying and failing to sink into the sofa cushions.

"Grissom sent me; he's ready to do assignments." The young man explained, his gaze bouncing suspiciously between the two women. "Is everything alright?"

The question was actually directed at Sara but Catherine jumped in first, making it exponentially clear with the tone of her voice that the matter was to be dropped.

"Everything's fine. Tell Grissom to start without us, we'll be there in a minute."

He nodded, casting a final concerned glance in his best friend's direction before slipping back out again.

Sara stood up, tentatively touching her forehead and wincing as she brushed the mark.

"Thank you." She cleared her throat nervously. The women shared a look, their last conversation still hanging between them like a black cloud.

Without another word, Sara walked to the door and disappeared into the hallway.

X x x

"Hey, is everything alright?" Warrick asked carefully.

"Fine, why?" Catherine retorted coolly, although she suspected that she knew where he was going with this.

"I don't know, you just seem distracted." He cleared his throat, standing up and picking his way across the cluttered floor towards her. "Greg said you and Sara seemed to be having a pretty intense conversation when he walked in earlier."

"Greg needs to keep his opinions to himself." She replied quickly, instantly regretting it as she caught the brief look of shock that crossed her companion's features. Not that it deterred him any.

"Is there something going on between you two?" He pressed, daring a step closer.

With a resigned sigh, she took off her orange goggles and stood up.

"I'm fine, Sara's fine." She held her hands out. "We were just having a little girl-talk before shift. Is that so bad?"

"No." He chuckled, relief seeping into his green eyes. "Hell, as long as you two are getting on everything's good in the world."

She sent him a sarcastic smile, well aware that he was only joking. Sure, she and Sara had had their share of run-ins, but they were few and far between; and on the whole they had a good working relationship.

Happy that the issue was settled, Warrick went back to his work. Catherine, however, wasn't quite done.

"Hey," she called, shifting her weight nervously. "Has Sara ever said anything to you about her dates?"

"Not since I told you and Nick about Hank." He answered naturally before pausing. "Why? Something going on that I don't know about?"

"No, nothing like that." She lied. "I was just curious."

He frowned at her terrible attempt to shrug it off, but let it drop for the time being as a distinctive voice outside signalled the arrival of the ever-late assistant coroner.

X x x

"I know something's going on." Greg persisted, stalking her across the vacant lot.

"I told you, nothing's going on." Sara resisted the urge to snap at him; aware that his persistence came from concern, however annoying it might be. "I slipped, I hit my head. It's no big deal."

"Hey G, let it drop." Nick instructed, almost as fed up as Sara of hearing him whine after listening to it for the entire drive here. "She said she's fine."

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts." The Texan cut him off abruptly. "Go check around the back, will ya?"

With a disgruntled scowl, Greg sloped around the back of the destitute property.

Finally getting her alone, Nick put down his metal case and wandered over to where Sara was determinedly photographing something in an attempt to avoid having to converse with her colleagues.

"Hey, Sar." He cleared his throat, crouching down beside her. "You would tell us if there was something going on, right?"

She shifted her eyes to the side, catching his gaze.

"Yeah, of course." She lied. "I'm okay Nick."

He flashed her a bright smile, patting her back gently.

"Good, just checking." He winked at her playfully, standing up and dusting his pants off as he strode back to his kit.

She released a deep breath, shaking her head at her own lies.

She hated being dishonest with her team, but she was too scared to tell them the truth.

And if Catherine was willing to lie for her, then it couldn't be all bad; right?