"Hey, you alright?" Warrick queried delicately as they crossed the parking lot.

Mid-yawn, Catherine paused and turned her gaze up to his face.

"I'm fine, why?" She asked casually, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets.

"I don't know," he narrowed his emerald eyes. "You just seem pretty tired tonight."

Well, she couldn't argue with that. She offered a weak smile, humming in agreement.

"I'm okay; I just didn't sleep well."

It wasn't a lie; she hadn't really slept at all. In fact, she'd spent most of the night in Sara's room, just watching the brunette sleep. She'd been so engrossed in staring at her peaceful face, she hadn't even realised how late in the day it was until Lindsey clattered in from school.

Warrick didn't look completely convinced, but he let it drop as Nick jogged towards them from the lab.

"Hey, have you guys seen Sara on your travels?" He asked breathlessly, skidding to a halt in front of them.

"No, why?" Cath frowned, her well-honed instincts kicking in at the panicked look in the Texan's eyes.

"You know that case they're working at the mental hospital?" He asked, not pausing long enough to hear their answer. "One of the inmates attacked her."

The words hit Catherine square in the gut and she stopped in the middle of the parking lot, her whole body turning cold.

"You're kidding?" Warrick breathed, his shoulder's tensing involuntarily at the news.

"She's alright." Nick held his hands up quickly. "He locked himself into a reception area with her, put some makeshift blade to her neck but she managed to get out before he could hurt her."

"Thank God." Cath swallowed hard around the lump that had appeared in her throat, shaking her head against the tears trying to materialise. "How … how did that even happen?"

"I don't know the full story yet, but I heard Brass tore Grissom a new one for it." Nick ran a hand through his hair, which currently stuck out in an unruly fashion, suggesting he'd been stressing out for a while. "She stuck around to do some interviews but she should be back by now. Grissom sent me out here to wait for her."

"Grissom's already back?" Catherine asked, unsettled at the thought that he could have left her alone in that place after what happened.

"Yeah, Brass stayed with Sara." Nick reassured her, sensing the reason for her worry. "Griss came back with the evidence."

As he'd been speaking, a car had pulled into the lot and they all released a unified sigh of relief as a familiar figure climbed out of the Denali and strode towards them.

There was something off about her demeanour, less self-assured than usual, but she offered them a small smile as she approached to assuage some of their obvious fears.

"Hey Sar." Nicky grinned, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "We heard what happened. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." She smiled weakly, sinking against his strong body.

Catherine ran a comforting hand up and down her arm, casting a concerned look over her body.

"Damn girl," Warrick scowled, reaching out to trace a faint bruise on her jaw line. She flinched away from his touch, catching Catherine's eye knowingly. Most of her injuries from yesterday were well concealed under makeup, but that one must have escaped during the struggle.

"It's okay." Sara shrugged meekly, gesturing pointedly towards the lab. As they made their way across the lot, with Sara flanked protectively by her teammates, a pair of eyes narrowed at them through the dim light.

"Aw, and I don't even have a camera."

The callous voice caused both women to stop in their tracks, sharing a look of horror. The boys turned in joined confusion as a tall, slender figure emerged from the shadows, a cocky sway to her hips as she approached.

"Well, aren't you Little Miss Popular at the moment?"

"Kirsty." Sara gulped, shrinking back as far as she could.

"So, it's equal opportunities I take it?" The woman snapped, gesturing to Nick's arm still slung around her shoulders. "One minute you're in bed with me and the next you're all over the first guy you set eyes on." Sara's first reaction was to step away from the man, but he held her firmly against his chest.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" He queried, a deep frown etched into his forehead. He recognised her, but for the life of him he couldn't think where from.

"Nick, take Sara inside." Catherine jumped in before she could answer.

Kirsty emitted a hollow laugh, throwing her head back.

"Figures." She scoffed, holding Sara's gaze. "What is she, your girlfriend or your bodyguard?"

Both women stiffened at the comment, although probably for different reasons; but Catherine held her ground.

"Boys, take Sara inside now." She repeated sternly through gritted teeth.

Nick and Warrick shared an uncertain look, but eventually Warrick did as requested and gently took Sara's arm to guide her towards the building. Nick hovered for a moment longer, flicking his brown eyes suspiciously between Cath and Kirsty before jogging to catch his colleagues up.

"Well well, we meet formally at last." Kirsty smirked, taking a threatening step closer. "The wonderful Catherine Willows … I've heard a lot about you."

"Ditto." Cath retorted, straightening up to her full height, not that it had much of an effect on the lanky cop. "What, it's not enough to beat her up at home; you have to come to her place of work now?"

Adding to the blonde's growing anger, Kirsty merely laughed.

"Let me get this right; you're sleeping with my girlfriend and you're taking a pop at me?" She accused.

Catherine threw her head back, releasing a deep breath which frosted in the cool night air.

"I'm not sleeping with Sara." She contradicted, catching Kirsty's gaze again. "But if I was, I would treat her a damn sight better than you do!"

"I know that she slept at your house yesterday." Kirsty continued, ignoring the direct shot at her. "And now I come here and find her wrapped up in some guy's arms!"

Catherine emitted a humourless laugh, daring to take a step closer.

"Sara was attacked at a crime scene today. She could have been killed." Perhaps she was being a tad melodramatic – she didn't know the full story yet so she couldn't be sure, but it seemed to have a small effect on the other woman. "That guy was holding her because he cares about her. We all do … unlike you."

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a sudden movement and recoiled. Kirsty's hand stilled over her hip, realising what Catherine was thinking, and a smirk spread across her lips.

"You get the same look that Sara does when she's scared." She hissed, digging into her pocket and producing a familiar item. "You recognise this?"

"Sara's phone." Catherine cleared her throat. "You do know that taking that won't do you any good, right? I have a copy of everything on there."

"Oh, I bet you do." Kirsty nodded. "What you don't have is the proof that I gave Sara those bruises. For all anyone knows, you could have put them there."

Catherine scoffed bitterly.

"You know what, you're right. There is something between Sara and I." She barked. "And it doesn't matter what you've done to her, because I can love her for both of us!"

Even from the distance between them she could see the spark of anger in Kirsty's eyes and quickly regretted her words.

"You need to get out of here." She continued, lowering her voice. "You can't hurt Sara here."

She turned towards the building, determined to end the conversation before it could get any further out of hand, when that ugly, course voice hollered after her.

"You don't know who you're messing with, Catherine. I can hurt Sara and you worse than you can even imagine!"

Catherine kept walking, her whole body shaking after the confrontation. She scarcely made it to the bottom of the concrete steps, her body relaxing ever so slightly, when she looked up and found herself staring into the deep, wounded eyes of Greg Sanders.

She didn't know how long he'd been stood there, but it was clear from his expression that it was long enough.

X x x

"Where's Sara?" She barked as they entered the reception, blatantly ignoring the young CSI's question.

Greg opened his mouth to speak, but it was Grissom who answered.

"I was hoping you could answer that." The calm man quirked an eyebrow at her from across the waiting area, a look she instantly recognised as meaning she was in trouble. "My office."

Catherine dropped her shoulders despondently and sloped after him. He stood by the door, waiting for her to enter and sending Greg a pointed look when he tried to follow as well.

"Alright," he pointed towards the chair behind the desk. "What's going on with Sara?"

"How much do you know?" She asked nervously, folding her hands in her lap.

"Nothing. I came out of my office to talk to her only to see her take off down the hall. The boys couldn't tell me anything and I can't find her in the lab. So, I repeat, what's going on?"

He sat back, waiting for an explanation. Cath relaxed a little, comforted by his lack of knowledge.

"I've been helping her with a personal issue." She answered vaguely. "As much as I'd love to clue you in, I owe it to her to keep quiet until she's ready for you to know. It's nothing to do with the lab and it's not affecting her ability work so there's no reason…"

"Catherine," he held his hands up, putting an end to her nervous babbling. When she shut up, he sat forward, holding her gaze. After speaking with the boys, there was only one thing he wanted to know right now. "Is there something going on between you and Sara that I should know about?"

X x x

Warrick scoffed. "Come on, Sara's not gay."

"Well, it sure sounded that way to me." Nick countered. "And it didn't sound like Cath was too surprised by any of this either."

"What are you getting at?" Warrick asked suspiciously.

"I'm just saying, it sounded like this woman and Sara have something going on … and Catherine clearly knows about it. Maybe she's even involved…"

"Nah, no way man." Warrick shook his head adamantly. "Catherine doesn't swing that way!"

"What about Sara?"

Rick cocked his head to the side, pursing his lips. "Alright, I'd buy that Sara does … but either way she obviously doesn't want to tell us." He pointed out. "I say we wait until she's ready to talk."

"I don't care, man." Nick scowled. "We're a team, she should tell us stuff like this. We have a right to know."

At the centre bench, Greg slammed his hands down and pushed himself off the stool.

"You want to talk about rights?" He barked. "What the hell gives you the right to talk about her like this?"

"Hey, hey!" Nick held his hands up, backing off from the irate young man. "Sara's my friend; now if something's going on, I want to know about it. We shouldn't have secrets like this between us."

"Did you ever think that there might be a reason she doesn't tell you everything?" The youngest CSI challenged. "When this is what you call helping? Gossiping about her behind her back?"

"Now come on Greg." Nick tried again, earning himself a forceful shove from the younger man.

Slightly stunned by the action, it took Nick a moment to react, by which point Warrick was already attempting to separate them.

"Hey, hey! Cool your jets, both of you!" He chastised. "G, if you know something…"

"What's going on?"

They all turned, some less pleased than others to see Catherine lurking in the door with a suspicious frown.

She had given up looking for Sara, who was apparently playing an elaborate game of hide and seek somewhere in the maze of labs.

"Ask Nick, he seems to think he knows everything around here!" Greg spat, lunging again for the older man.

"Hey! Greg, calm down!" She reached out, grabbing his flailing arms and dragging him backwards.

"He thinks it's cool to talk about Sara behind her back." He continued to snarl, forcefully shrugging the woman off.

Cath turned to Nick, quirking an eyebrow for elaboration.

"Look, all I said was that it sounds like there's something going on in her life that we don't know about." He defended himself.

"Unless you know something that we don't?" Warrick added.

Catherine released a breath, straightening up beside Greg.

"It doesn't matter what I know." She said coolly. "Whatever is going on in Sara's life, it's none of our business and until she tells us we're going to stay out of it."

"Yeah, but …"

"No buts Nick." She stated bluntly. "Leave Sara alone. She doesn't need this, today of all days."

Turning on her heel, she left the room before they could question her any longer on the events in the parking lot.

However, she got barely ten feet down the hall when she felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Hey, Cath." Greg asked, falling into step with her. "What Kirsty said out there … is it true? You and Sara?"

Catherine paused, contemplating her response. This was the second time today that someone had asked her this question. And the truth was, she still didn't know how to answer it.

"No, Greg." She shook her head almost sadly after a long moment's consideration. "There's nothing going on between Sara and I."

X x x

She didn't know how things had gotten this bad. She'd promised that she would help Sara, and look where her help had landed them.

The guys knew that something was going on.

Greg was trying to knock seven bells out of Nick.

Even Grissom had cottoned on to something being amiss.

And Sara had vanished off the face of the earth.

Catherine paused in her frantic circling of the office, cocking her head to the side. For a second she thought she'd heard someone knock on her door, but she must have imagined it.

Resuming her pacing, she ran a hand through her hair again. Nobody had seen Sara since she ran off, she wasn't answering her phone and according to Sofia, Kirsty hadn't been in the station all night.

Cath was on the verge of pulling her hair out when she turned and froze on the spot.

"Hey." She breathed, her blue eyes softening with relief as they settled on the figure who had mysteriously appeared in her office.

Dried tear tracks were visible on her pale cheeks and her longs sleeves were stretched and screwed up in her hands from endless anxious tugging of them. But she was okay.

"Hi, um, I'm sorry." Sara mumbled helplessly. "I know I shouldn't have vanished.

"It's okay honey." Cath assured her, reaching out and gently coaxing her inside. Sensing the need for privacy, she walked around her, peering into the hallway before closing the door and pressing her back against it. "Are you okay?"

Sara pursed her lips, shaking her head wordlessly.

"I don't know what to do Cat." She whispered.

Taking her by the hand, Catherine led her to the couch and sat down opposite her. She had lost count of how many times they had found themselves in a similar position recently. Out of habit, Sara pinned her hands between her knees and looked away while Cath scrutinised her closely.

"I can't face them." She whispered at last. "Not now."

"It'll be alright Sara." Cath assured her softly. "They're just worried about you. When you disappeared, we didn't know where to look for you."

"I know." Sara nodded. "I needed to think." She paused, licking her lips in thought. "How much do they know?"

"As far as I can tell, they don't actually know anything." Catherine replied. "Nick thinks he knows something but without any proof…"

"Cat." Sara cut her off, her hazel eyes pleading for honesty. Cath exhaled slowly.

"He thinks he knows that you date women." She explained. "And he knows that I'm involved somehow."

"Oh, God." Sara dropped her head into her hands to hide the flood of emotion in her eyes.

"It's okay baby." She cooed sweetly, tenderly prising Sara's hands away and holding her face firmly, wiping away her tears with the soft pad of her thumb. "Everything's going to be alright."

"How?" Sara squeaked, desperately searching her gentle features for some answers.

Helpless to provide any, Catherine did the only thing she could think of left to do.

Never breaking their strong gaze, she leant forward and captured the girl's lips in a sweet, firm kiss.

x x x x

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