Not my best work, but let me know what you think anyway

x x x x

"Alright, before you even say it …"

"I wasn't going to." Sofia countered before Cath could finish her sentence. The older woman frowned, letting her outstretched hand drop limply to her side as her defensive mood dissipated.

The detective moved around her desk, retrieving a small stack of folders and handing them to her colleague.

"When I left your office, you thought I was going to see Jim." She stated knowingly. "I wasn't. I was coming to get these."

"What are they?" Cath asked, lowering herself slowly into the chair opposite the desk and tracing the Las Vegas Police logo embossed on the front of the brown folder.

"That is Kirsty Soames' jacket." Sofia explained, perching on the edge of the desk. "Assaults, battery, abuse of power. I have seen this woman take down male suspects better than most male cops here." She paused, taking a deep breath. "She is a very unstable person."

"Wow." Cath hummed, glancing down at the files again before deciding that she really didn't want to know the details and sliding them back onto the desk. "How did she even get onto the force with such a shaky mental state? Surely that's what the psychiatric tests are for?"

"Some people can beat them." Sofia shrugged flippantly. "And she is a good cop, when she's acting rationally."

"Yeah, just like she's a good girlfriend when she's not beating Sara black and blue." Cath muttered, looking away.

Sofia pursed her lips, electing not to answer that. Instead, she shifted slightly in order to better face her colleague.

"I warned Sara about her."

Cath blinked, surprised by this piece of information – something which Sara had neglected to mention, she noted. However, she covered her surprise quickly.

"Well your warning came too late, because this has been going on for a while now."

"How long?" Sofia asked, her steely blue eyes boring into the other woman's face. Catherine shrugged helplessly.

"I've known for about three months, but it's been going on for longer than that."

"Three months?" Sofia repeated, curling her nose up in disgust. "And you didn't do anything about it?"

"I tried." Cath snapped, resenting the accusation. "I've been keeping tabs on her, making sure she talks to me about what's happening. I've been trying to help her."

Rolling her eyes, Sofia picked up the folders again and dumped them unceremoniously in Catherine's lap, before walking around her desk and sinking into the chair.

"Why are you showing me these?" Catherine asked at last, tapping the cover lightly.

"Because I want you to see firsthand what that woman is capable of."

Cath scoffed, shaking her head.

"I've seen it." She pointed out bluntly. "Hell, I probably know better than you what she can do."

"No, you don't." Sofia countered irately. "If you knew the extent of what this woman is capable of then you wouldn't leave Sara alone with her for a second." She paused, licking her lips slowly. "But, I do agree with you."

This unexpected turn in the conversation perplexed Cath, who could only shake her head in loss.

"You do?"

"Yeah," Sofia laughed dryly, drumming her long fingernails on the table in thought. "Go figure, huh?" She cleared her throat, shifting her gaze back to Catherine's face. "I agree that we shouldn't give Kirsty any reason to hurt Sara."

Catherine knew Sofia well enough to know when she was trying to make a point. Sitting back in the chair with a suspicious look, she raised an impatient eyebrow.

"What are you getting at, Sofia?"

"I want you to leave Sara alone."

Nothing like getting straight to the point, evidently.

A startled laugh bubbled out of Catherine, quickly replaced by a look of disbelief.

"You what?"

"You heard me." Sofia flexed her hands as she spoke, cracking each knuckle in turn. Catherine wasn't sure whether it was a subtle threat, or just a bad habit but either way the sound made her wince. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but I know that she doesn't need the confusion in her life right now."

"What confusion?" Cath asked, standing up and throwing her hands out to the side as she began to pace.

Sofia stood up too, her blue eyes wide and alive with fury.

"Sara does not need people in her life making things harder for her right now, Catherine." She insisted.

"I'm trying to help her!" Cath reiterated firmly. "How is that making things harder?"

"I know you Catherine. And I know Sara." Sofia stated coolly, dropping her voice a little. "What you're doing, whatever your intentions might be, is not helping her."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I would never put Sara at risk. I love that girl."

"Yeah, I know." Sofia hissed. "That's precisely the problem."

Fed up of these ambiguous remarks, Catherine stepped around the desk until her face was inches from the detective's.

"You have no idea what you're talking about. And if you think I'm walking away from Sara now, then you don't know me at all."

She turned on her heel, stalking to the door.

"Be careful Catherine," Sofia's voice trailed after her. "Don't play games with her."

Cath hesitated in the doorway for a few seconds, her back to the other woman, before walking out without saying a word.

Outside the office, she ran a hand through her hair.

Sofia was wrong. She was … mad, even. How could she possibly think that Cath had some sort of ulterior motive in trying to help Sara? She would always be there for her friends when they needed her.

But something the detective had said didn't quite sit right with her; she just couldn't put her finger on why that was.

X x x

"Hey, you're looking better." Cath greeted, smiling brightly as she entered the small cubicle.

Sara, already wearing the clothes that Cath had brought with her the previous night, rolled her eyes.

"I appreciate the effort, but you're not a good liar." She joked light-heartedly, earning her a gentle slap on the arm.

Admittedly, the large white piece of gauze taped to her forehead was a bit of a giveaway, but other than that she was looking better.

Despite the brunette's obvious desire to leave the hospital as soon as possible, Cath was in no particular hurry. She hopped onto the bed, taking Sara's hand in her own.

"You feeling okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I guess." Sara shifted uncomfortably on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest. "Just a headache."

"Yeah, well. I'm not surprised." Cath hummed, reaching up to stroke her hair affectionately. "You're going to be okay though."

Sara nodded, smiling at her friend gratefully.

"Have you heard anything from Kirsty?" The supervisor asked, her voice taking on a different tone as her gaze fell naturally onto their conjoined hands.

"No." Sara dropped her head to hide the guilty look in her eyes.

"Have you had any more thoughts about …"

"Don't."

Cath wanted to hear the answer, but the look in Sara's eye warned her not to push the issue. Sliding off the bed, she brushed herself off and held out her hands. "Come on," she smiled, helping Sara down and slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Let's get you home."

X x x

Catherine felt like she was suffering déjà vu. She was in the same booth, staring nervously out of the same window across the same parking lot, waiting anxiously for someone who she didn't expect to turn up.

To her relief, when the door to Frank's swung open, Greg shuffled in and dropped into the seat opposite her, keeping his gaze averted.

"Sara's back home?" He assumed quietly, electing to forgo the pleasantries.

"Yeah, I just dropped her off." Cath nodded, nudging a cup of coffee towards him. He accepted it somewhat reluctantly, dragging his fingertip around the rim of the chipped mug.

"Was Kirsty there?"

"No." She shook her head. "She probably knew better than to show up at the same time as one of us."

He nodded slowly, sinking his gaze into the black liquid swirling around his cup.

He knew why Catherine had asked him here – she wanted to talk about Sara. But something else had been playing on his mind as well since their last conversation.

"Hey Catherine, what you said … about Eddie?" She flicked her eyes across the table towards him, but he was staring at his hands, which were now toying nervously with a napkin.

"What about it?" She pressed when he didn't speak again.

"Well, was it true? He used to hurt you?"

"Yeah." She licked her lips, dropping her gaze. "Sometimes."

"And the rest of the team knew?"

"Yeah, they knew." She nodded. "They tried to make me see sense, but I was too stubborn." She emitted a humorless laugh, biting her lower lip in concentrated recollection. "Nick actually took me aside one day and begged me to walk away from him after her saw one of the bruises Ed had left on me."

"So, why didn't you?" Greg asked quietly, meeting her gaze and willing himself to hold it this time.

"Because I thought I could handle Eddie." She sighed, throwing her hands up. "Abusers have a way of making you feel like you don't have the right to walk away from them."

"Yeah, but … when all your friends are telling you to…"

"It doesn't matter." She cut him off. "Greg, after a while even the boys stopped asking. Once, not long after Lindsey was born, we got into a fight. He grabbed me, tried to strangle me…" she swallowed hard, her hand stroking the back of her neck absently. "When I came into work the next day, they were all watching me, pitying me. But none of them said a word to me about it. And none of them said anything about Eddie after that day. I guess they got tired of waiting for me to accept that they were right."

"Wow." He dropped his head sadly. "I had no idea."

"Yeah, well." She shrugged meekly, clearing her throat. "Anyway, the point is I understand Sara's mindset right now and as much as she wants to leave Kirsty, she won't as long as Kirsty holds the cards."

"Well, there must be something we can do." He insisted, leaning forwards.

"Yeah." Cath licked her lips, mimicking his actions. "One day, Sara will be ready to turn the tables on this relationship. And when she does, we're going to do what we do best – we're going to present the evidence."

"What evidence?" He shook his head. "Won't it be our word against hers?"

Silently, Catherine produced her phone and tapped a few buttons before turning it around to face Greg.

He winced at the image of Sara's back presented to him, marred with dark mottled bruises.

"What is this?" He whispered, taking the phone and scanning through the other similar photos.

Her shoulders, her arms, her hips … bruised and beaten, and every colour of the rainbow.

Catherine pursed her lips, folding her hands carefully on the table.

"Proof."