Hope you're all still enjoying it. I know the last couple of chapters have been a little slow, but it'll pick up pace soon x

x x x x

"I don't know when it started; I guess it just snuck up on me." She swallowed, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was used to being centre of attention, but this was unchartered territory even for her. Frankly, she was glad that she could barely see right now; for it would be even harder to talk about her feelings for Sara if she could see their expressions.

"How long have you and Sara actually been … an item?" Grissom pressed awkwardly.

"We're not really." She answered unhelpfully with a weak shrug. "We left work yesterday, went back to her flat…" she paused, shaking her head slowly. It seemed like so long ago now, so much had happened in the interim. "We talked. Nothing happened."

"Cath, you were found in her bed … in your underwear." Nick pointed out sceptically, raising his eyebrows.

"I know." She blushed. "But nothing happened. We … I … I fell asleep. I don't know what happened after that."

Glancing down, she smiled sadly at Sara. The brunette hadn't moved an inch, her head remained tipped against Catherine's hip.

"Hey!" A sharp voice barked from the door. "You people can't be in here!"

The nurse placed her hands on her hips, staring down the mass of people from behind her thin-rimmed glasses.

Sofia took the bait, striding towards her in slow, measured steps.

"Actually, we can." She countered coolly, producing her badge suavely from her belt.

The nurse narrowed her eyes at it suspiciously before seemingly discounting its importance altogether and turning back to the rest of the room.

"Miss Sidle is in a serious condition, she can't have visitors right now." The short woman insisted snippily.

"Well, we're not leaving." The detective continued calmly. "So you can leave us alone, or I can call my supervisor and get them to verify our right to be here in person."

For a moment neither woman moved. Eventually the nurse began to twitch and visibly straightened up.

"I'm going to consult my supervisor." She snapped at last, stalking back out of the room.

With a proud smile, Sofia made her way back to the bed.

"Nicely played detective." Catherine noted drolly. Sofia offered a small nod, resuming her position of leaning over the back of the bed frame.

For the first time, Nick turned his attention to the police officer.

"Did you know about all of this as well?" It hadn't really occurred to him to ask until now, but she seemed oddly familiar with this situation. Too familiar.

She locked eyes with Catherine across the bed, pursing her lips in careful thought.

"I knew." She nodded after a moment. "I tried to get Sara to leave Kirsty; I tried to talk to Kirsty, but nothing worked."

"I could have gotten her to leave." Nick sulked moodily.

"Yeah, right." Warrick scoffed, earning him a mildly offended scowl from the Texan. "When has Sara ever done what's she's told?"

The comment gained a snort of agreement that reverberated around the room.

"She's not the easiest person in the world to convince." Sofia conceded, casting an affectionate smile over the sleeping brunette.

The boys, too engrossed in their own thoughts about their injured colleague, missed the look which passed between Catherine and Sofia. It was no secret that the females hadn't gotten along in the past, but they had one important thing in common; and that thing was currently dozing peacefully between them.

It was clear from Sofia's expression that she didn't believe Cath and Sara hadn't slept together, but that was not an argument the older woman was prepared to have right now. Besides, their sex life was no-one's business except theirs.

"So what's going to happen next?" Grissom breathed, stuffing his hands into his pockets and hunching his shoulders. She looked up, confusion written across her face. "With you and Sara." He elaborated, gesticulating nervously between the two of them. "As a couple." He didn't like this and he fully intended on making that point to Catherine once he could get her alone.

Oblivious to his discomfort, she took a deep breath and instinctively pressed Sara closer to her; an action that went unnoticed by nobody.

"I don't know." She answered honestly. "Like I said, everything happened so fast, we haven't really had a chance to talk about it. I know what I want to happen, but …" she glanced down at Sara's face, willing the hazel eyes to blink up at her.

The men wanted to question the statement, but none dared to breech the awkward silence that quickly settled over the room at her half-answer. It almost sounded like she was implying that Sara might not want the same things.

Instead of voicing the question burning on his tongue, Nick cleared his throat.

"I'm going to go call the lab and update everyone." He gestured weakly towards the bed. "They'll be waiting for news."

"I'll come with you." Sofia added, ducking her head as she slipped through the door after the CSI.

Truth be told she had no one to call, but she couldn't stand watching Catherine and Sara together any longer.

X x x

"Okay, thanks Nick." Doc sighed, hanging up the phone.

"Well?" David hovered over his shoulder, hopping impatiently from one foot to the other.

"Catherine's fine, she's discharged herself. Sara's still unconscious." Albert explained, gathering up his crutches and clicking his way across the morgue.

"Do we know what Catherine was doing there?" Dave asked, halting his boss' path towards the doors.

"Nick wouldn't say." He frowned. "But it sounds like there's more to this whole thing than first blush would suggest."

"You're not suggesting that there was something going on … between them?" The younger man asked. Not that he had a problem with it of course, but it did not sound like the girls he knew.

"It certainly sounds that way." Doc sighed again. "Nick wouldn't go into details but …" he raised his eyebrows suggestively, letting the sentence hang.

"Wow." David hummed. "Sara and Catherine? I didn't see that coming."

"Yeah, well. We still don't know the full story yet so until we do, keep it zipped."

Dave nodded eagerly in agreement. He loved the CSIs and he would certainly not be party to spreading rumours about them. However, something about this did not sit right with him.

"Well, I'd better go tell the rest of the lab rats." The coroner sighed, turning back towards the door. "I bet the grapevine is already in full flow."

X x x

At first she thought that she was imagining the movement against her leg, until she felt a firm tug on her sleeve.

Glancing down, she was surprised to see confused eyes blinking up at her.

"Oh, hi! Hey." She greeted in surprise. "You're awake!"

With the breathing tube still in her throat, Sara was unable to respond but her expressive eyes said enough.

"You're alright baby." Catherine assured her, understanding the silent question. "I'll be right back; I'm going to get a nurse." She hopped off the bed, leaving Sara to reach out pitifully after her. She attempted to sit up but the effort was too much for her and she had to settle for staring helplessly at the door until Catherine returned.

The boys had left to get showers and sleep, but Cath had opted to stick around for a while – after much argument of course. Grissom, in particular, had not wanted to leave her alone here; but she wasn't going anywhere until she knew for herself that Sara was alright.

After what felt like an age, she returned with a pair of nurses in tow who began instantly checking Sara's vitals before beginning to remove the breathing apparatus.

From her position hovering behind them, Catherine could see Sara's fingers drumming impatiently on the mattress and smiled affectionately at the action. She couldn't help wondering absently whether this was the first time she had endured this procedure.

Finally, with a spluttering cough, Sara could breathe again.

"Hey." The strawberry-blonde smiled brightly, moving back to the bed despite obvious protestations from the medical staff. She dragged her fingers through the dark waves spilling out from the stark white bandage wrapped around Sara's head, scanning her bemused expression.

"What happened?" Sara managed to say at last, blinking against the fog clouding her vision.

"Don't worry about that now Miss Sidle." One nurse remarked. "No sense stressing yourself out over nothing."

Catherine rolled her eyes and caught sight of Sara doing the same thing. Clearly these people knew nothing of the stubborn nature their patient possessed. She smiled down at her companion and nodded at her, encouraging her to wait until the medics had finished what they were doing.

"Cat, what happened?" Sara repeated as soon as they were alone again.

"There was a fire in your building." She explained softly, perching on the edge of the bed again and splaying one hand across the pillow.

Sara swallowed hard despite the pain it caused, reaching up towards Catherine's face; however, when she caught sight of the bandage around her own hand she paused, staring at it with a frown.

Catherine carefully took her hand and brought it to her lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the exposed knuckles.

"You're okay." She assured the woman. "Just minor burns, from the heat through the floorboards."

"Are you?" Sara asked, tilting her head to get a better look at her.

"I'm fine baby." Cat whispered. "I promise."

Sara nodded slowly, looking around the room again.

"The boys know?" She asked at last, although it wasn't so much a question as a statement. If she and Cath were both here, the boys wouldn't be far away.

"Yeah." Cath's tongue darted out unconsciously to wet her lips. "But it's okay." She added quickly. "They're alright with it; they're just upset that they didn't know about Kirsty before."

"They know about that too?" Sara squeaked, attempting to sink further into the flat pillows. "How?"

Catherine pursed her lips, considering whether or not to tell Sara everything. However, one look into those intense dark eyes and she just couldn't lie to her.

"Sara, babe … the fire wasn't an accident." She began carefully. "Jim thinks that Kirsty had something to do with it."

"Kirsty? She wouldn't …" Sara shook her head, her gaze wandering across the room to stare in concentration at a benign spot on the sterile white walls. "She wouldn't go that far, would she?"

"I don't know baby." Cath shrugged weakly, leaning down to peck her lips. "I don't know what happened. I'm just glad you're alright."

The kisses were chaste and sweet, but the feeling of hot breath on her lips again was enough to assuage Catherine's fears about Sara. She was awake, she was okay.

She had survived, again.