Before she could say any more, they were interrupted by the arrival of a young nurse.

"You can see Miss Sidle now." He offered a friendly smile, pointing them in the direction of the wards.

Greg sent Catherine a look which clearly said their conversation was not over yet, before rising to his feet and stalking in the direction of the cubicles.

X x x

Sara stirred at their entrance, attempting to lift her head before deciding it was too painful and giving up.

"Hey lady." Catherine smiled at the confused hazel eyes blinking up at her. "How do you feel?"

Sara shifted, kicking weakly at the blankets tangled around her legs.

"What happened?" She managed to mumble in a voice still thick with sleep.

Cath reached out a hand to graze the stark-white bandage covering half of her forehead.

"You slipped in the shower at work." She explained softly, letting her fingertips caress Sara's hair line. "You gave us all a bit of a fright, but the doctor said you're going to be fine. It's just a nasty concussion."

Sara nodded slowly, the events of the night slowly coming back to her.

"Slipped." She repeated under her breath.

"Hmm?" Cath inquired with a frown, having missed what she said.

"Never mind." Sara murmured, quickly changing the subject with a guilty smile. "Sorry I scared you."

Gradually becoming more alert with every passing second, she flicked her eyes around the tiny cubicle, catching sight of her other visitor for the first time.

"Hey Greg." Her voice brightened somewhat as she reached out towards him. Inching closer, he extended a shaky hand and gripped her fingers tightly, rubbing his thumb in small circles on the back of her knuckles. Even from her prone position, she could see the tears glistening in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Catherine turned to the young man, an uncertain fear settling in the pit of her stomach at what he might say. Fortunately, he didn't look like he could say anything right now.

He was opening and closing his mouth, his wide dark eyes flicking between Sara's concerned face to her every inch of exposed skin he could see.

Interjecting, before he could say anything they'd both regret, Cath placed a firm hand on his shoulder and fixed Sara with a reassuring look.

"Nothing's wrong honey." She promised the young woman. "He's just a little shocked, that's all."

Sara's face paled a little and she held Greg's hand tighter.

"I'm fine." She assured him, attempting to catch his frenzied gaze. "Don't worry about me."

Deciding to put an end to the touching moment before Greg's bout of speechlessness wore off, Catherine gently encouraged him to let go of the brunette and suavely positioned her body between them.

"Well, we just wanted to see that you were okay." She smiled, stroking Sara's hair. "Someone will be back to drive you home in the morning; until then you just try to get some rest."

She leant down, pressing a kiss to the girl's cheek.

"I'll try." Sara smiled weakly, gesturing towards the pained howls coming from the next cubicle. If the sound alone was anything to go by, it would appear the young man was in labour.

As Catherine moved aside, Greg took her place and wrapped Sara into a fierce hug.

"I hope you feel better." He finally managed to whisper, inhaling the scent of her shampoo before reluctantly stepping away from the bed.

Before they even left the cubicle, Catherine noted how Sara's dark eyes were already starting to drift closed again. With an affectionate smile, she tugged the curtain closed around their friend for some privacy.

Now he was back in the cool corridor again, Greg sobered up and grabbed Cath lightly by the arm, swinging her around to face him.

"I still want an answer." He demanded.

Cath threw a glance back towards the curtain.

"Not here." She countered pointedly. Accepting the proposition, he nodded and allowed her to lead them back towards the parking lot in silence.

X x x

"Alright, she can't hear us now." He pointed out, coming to a sudden halt immediately outside the front doors. "So talk."

"Greg," Cath dropped her shoulders tiredly. "Can we at least get to the car?"

"No." He stood firm, folding his arms across his chest. "I want to know where those bruises came from. And if you don't tell me then I'll go back in there and ask her."

Realising that arguing with the stubborn young man would be futile right now and not wanting to risk him carrying through with his threat, she released a sigh.

"Alright, fine." She threw her hands up, walking back towards him in slow measured steps. "You want to know the truth?"

"Yeah." He tipped his head back slightly, a dubious look filling his dark eyes. Something about the woman's actions made his wonder if he really did want to hear this.

"Alright." She pursed her lips. "Sara's dating someone, a cop. They've been hurting her."

Greg's reaction was somewhat milder than she expected; he sucked in a deep breath, balling his hands into tight balls at his side but he managed not to make a sound for a whole minute.
Cath thought he had handled the news remarkably well, until he suddenly whirled around and threw his fist at the wall, emitting an angry growl.

She jumped, instinctively reaching out towards him.

"Hey, hey!" She grabbed the shaking man by the shoulders, pulling him back and cradling his injured hand between her own. "Now you see why I couldn't tell you in there?"

He flicked his dark, brooding eyes to hers, ignoring the statement.

"Who is he?" He snarled, jerking away roughly.

"It's not that simple." She shook her head sadly. "It's … it's complicated."

Tiring of Catherine's reluctance to answer, he turned back towards the hospital with the intention of getting the information from the source itself.

"No Greg!" She barely managed to pull him back, hauling him away from the main doors. "Listen to me. It has taken weeks for her to trust me with this information. What do you think she'll do if she finds out that I told you?"

"I don't care!" He wrenched his arm free, but she quickly caught it again.

"Well I do." She snapped. "Look, for the time being she's doing okay. Every time Kirsty hits her she tells me and I deal with it."

The shocked confusion on Greg's face registered long before she realised what she'd actually said.

"Kirsty?" He repeated quietly, relaxing slightly in her hold. "It's a woman?"

Cath chewed on her lower lip anxiously, offering a meek nod.

"Yeah, it is." She agreed quietly. "Which is exactly why you can't go running your mouth off about this to anyone."

"But … how?" He stuttered.

"Women can be abusers too, Greg." She explained sadly.

"I know that." He scoffed, shaking his head against the tears that had begun to form again. "But, Sara's so strong. She wouldn't…"

"She's not as strong as people think." Catherine countered. "She's only human."

"Why wouldn't she tell me?" He squeaked, leaning his back against the cold wall. "I'm her best friend; she could have told me this. I wouldn't care that she's a …"

"I know." She hummed, thinking back to her own conversation with Sara about the matter. "I think she's had a few bad experiences with coming out to people in the past."

Now that she thought about it, she had never actually got an answer to that question.

Greg blinked at her, indignant anger seeping into his features. It was a strange look on the normally docile young man.

"I'm her best friend." He repeated. "I don't care who she dates!"

"I know, neither do I." Cath hissed, resenting the implication that this might have something to do with her lack of action on the matter. "But without knowing what she's been through there's no way to know why she didn't tell us."

He released a shaky breath, absently stoking his grazed knuckles.

"So, this Kirsty." He spat, already disliking the way her name felt on his lips. "What's the deal?"

"She's got a temper. Sara said something about her getting help for it, but I don't think it's proving very effective." Cath shook her blonde hair out. "Right now, I think Sara's just scared about what repercussion there might be if she ends things."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Kirsty's a cop. She knows Sara's friends, she knows a lot about her job."

"So, you're letting this happen because Sara's scared that Kirsty might out her?"

"I'm protecting her privacy." Cath countered through gritted teeth. Greg laughed humourlessly, pushing past her towards the parking lot.

"Yeah, well you keep doing that." He waved a hand at her. "I'm going to protect Sara."

"Greg, you can't tell anyone about this!" She hollered, jogging to catch him up. It briefly crossed her mind that he didn't have a car with him, but that didn't seem to matter as he made a beeline for the line of awaiting cabs outside the ER.

"Watch me!" He barked in return, throwing one of the taxi doors open. "You might be able to live with what that woman's doing to her, but I can't."

X x x

It would have been a hell of a lot easier to find him if she'd known what he was planning to do.

Initially she assumed he would go to Grissom, so she'd been heading there. However, half way back to the lab she recalled a conversation she'd had earlier in the night.

Greg, like Sofia had been, was riled and too impatient to wait for Grissom to get his ass in gear. Greg wanted something done now.

He was going to Jim.

Thankfully, the lab and the station were not that far apart and with one daring swerve into another lane she was heading in the right direction again.

X x x

He could hear her voice bellowing his name down the hall, but he didn't stop. He had one hand raised to knock on the door, when a heavy weight tackled him against the wall.

"Listen, I know that you think that you're doing the right thing; but this is not what Sara wants." Catherine gushed, pinning the small man firmly against the glass.

Winded by her assault, his pathetic attempt to free himself had little effect on her fierce grip.

"I don't care what Sara wants right now." He hissed. "I cannot stand back and watch this happen to her!"

"Hey, neither can I." She agreed earnestly. "But if you go charging in there you're going to do more damage than good. Sara will never forgive you."

"She'll understand." He insisted.

"No, she won't." Cath challenged firmly. "If you out her to the whole station, I can tell you right now that she will walk out of here and never come back."

That, at least, finally seemed to get through to him and she relaxed her hold enough for him to free himself.

"I can't believe that you're willing to let this happen." He shook his head in disgust.

"Greg," Cath sighed, casting a furtive glance around them. Apart from a few lingering cops sending them suspicious looks, the hall was fairly empty. "Look, when I was still with Eddie do you think people didn't tell me to leave him?" She asked, holding his gaze. "He was abusive, and he was mean. But I stayed with him because I thought I could handle him."

"That's not the same." He shook his head in perplexity.

"Yes, it is." She scowled. "Sara will not take kindly to people telling her how to run her own love life." She paused, throwing up a helpless shrug. "I already tried."

He met her eyes again, some of the fight draining out of him at the realisation that this had probably been going on for longer than he'd initially assumed.

"So what do we do?" He asked sadly.

"We keep trying to find a way to get through to her." Catherine shrugged. "Other than that, all we can do is keep a close eye on her and try not to give Kirsty any reason to hurt her. No phone calls to her flat, no suspicious text messages …"

"Alright, I get it." He nodded, straightening up. "But I don't like it."

"Me neither Greg." She agreed. "But it's our only choice until she wants our help."

He nodded slowly, running a hand through his hair. It was still greasy from his scene. He still hadn't had a shower yet.

"Well, I'd better…" he gestured weakly towards the front doors. "I told Nick and Warrick I'd let them know how she was."

"Yeah, okay." She stepped aside, watching him slope miserably down the hall.

She still wasn't convinced that he understood Sara's motives for keeping quiet, but she trusted him to keep his mouth shut for the time being at least.

As soon as she could have a proper talk with him in private, she would explain things better. Maybe the two of them together would be able to come up with a solution.

Releasing a deep breath, she flicked her eyes to the office she was lurking outside. Jim was at his desk, oblivious to the kerfuffle that had just occurred outside his door. She could certainly understand Greg's actions, even if she knew they wouldn't help right now.

"Is that what you had planned for me, too?" A cold voice inquired from somewhere nearby. "Rugby tackling me into a wall?"

Cath winced, instantly recognising the sound of those heels as they slowly approached her.

Sofia came to a stop directly behind her and leant forward, so her breath tickled the back of the CSI's neck.

"I believe you and I have some unfinished business."

Cath dropped her shoulders despondently.

She just could not catch a break today.