AN: Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks as always for your support and kindness. Two things I wanted to address before the chapter:

One is the review from batjann1 regarding fears of the story not being completed. I promise that I will not leave a story unfinished baring any sort of unforeseen disaster. Even if there was going to be a long delay in updates for some reason – I would let you know that. I would never simply end a story without a conclusion and walk away from it – that's not fair to you all as readers. So, if this story suddenly stops getting updated – it's pretty much only because I've died, I've lost my computer and access to all other computers on planet Earth, I've been abducted from planet Earth, I've come down with amnesia and forgot I was in the middle of a story, or some other unlikely event. No worries. We are on this journey together until its conclusion. I promise.

The second thing - a huge congratulations to my US readers on the Supreme Court ruling on Friday. I know for me personally it has been a whirlwind of emotions. I can only hope that there comes a day when minority groups don't need things like this to go all the way to the courts for justice to be granted. It took us way too long for marriage equality, but I'm so glad we finally got there. Love is love.

Take care and enjoy.

CHAPTER 17

CATHERINE POV

"Morning."

Sara slides into the seat adjacent from me, grabbing the coffee cup in front of me and replacing it with a different one.

"There may or may not be secret stashes of real, genuine coffee around here. This cup in front of you may or may not hold one of those secret blends, a French roast imported from a free trade grower."

My brow raises, eying the new cup with interest and pushing my old one even further away.

"You had me at real, genuine coffee."

We enjoy our beverages in silence, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive for assignments. And, my God, this coffee is good. Exactly what I needed.

"How are you?" Sara tentatively asks, eyes still on her own coffee.

"Headache that rivals a jackhammer," I answer honestly. "But other than that I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yes," I tell her sincerely, touched by her concern. "You don't have to worry about me, Sara."

She looks up, her eyes saying all her unspoken words for her. How worried she is about me, namely because of the situation that reached new heights last night. She knows now better than anyone just what Eddie is capable of. How close he is to me and my daughter.

"Anyway, I should be the one asking you that question," I somewhat change the topic.

Sara's hair hides a lot of the gash along her temple, but there is still a decent potion of it that extends beyond her dark locks. It's an angry red, the skin around it looking raw and painful.

As she looks up, the discoloration near her eye only makes her gaze all that more intense – the brown and green hues in her eyes that much brighter.

"I'm fine."

"Do you own a mirror?"

"Yes."

"Do you look in it?"

"There are particular days I avoid doing that," Sara mutters, eyes moving back to her coffee. "This was one of them."

I smile, "Wise choice."

Though, aside from the gash along her temple, the younger CSI looks just as put together as she always does. You'd never know the things going on below the surface. She's a master at illusions, and I'm not really sure if that's a good thing.

In fact, I suspect it isn't.

As the boys start to filter in, Sara and I both lean back, separating ourselves once again, replacing the distance ever present between us.

"Thanks for covering for me today."

Sara tosses her CSI vest in her locker, grabbing her keys from the shelf.

"Sure," she offers. "Though I'm a little disturbed at how quickly people believe that I would run into a tree while running."

I laugh, "Does imply they think a certain level of clumsiness is in the realm of Sara Sidle possibilities."

"Apparently," Sara grumbles.

"Hey," she calls me back as I make my way to the door to head home. It's been a long shift working our case, and we're slowly making progress regarding our victims from the shed and what brought them to such a tragic and violent end.

"I know it's none of my business," she prefaces, looking uncomfortable. "But I was just wondering if you've decided what to do about Eddie and the recording."

I pause, knowing this particular conversation was coming. I want to tell her that she's right, that it's none of her business. But, that wouldn't be fair to her. Not when she's currently sporting a nasty injury she got from Eddie. Got from Eddie while protecting me.

Whether she wanted to be or not, Sara is now involved in this. To act as if she weren't would be disrespectful to her and the two times already that she's put her own safety on the line for me.

But, I know that she's not going to like what I'm going to tell her – and I was honestly hoping to put this particular conversation off for as long as possible. Sara and I have a tenuous relationship at the best of times. Breaking the shallow balance we have right now is the last thing I want.

But, I need to be honest.

"I'm going to delete it."

Sara watches me, eyes widening slightly before they narrow, like she's trying to figure out if she heard me correctly.

"I'm sorry?" she questions.

"I need to handle this situation with Eddie carefully, Sara. Jumping to using that recording against him and pressing charges, whatever you were hoping I would do with it, is not in my best interest right now."

"Your best interest?" Sara gets out, voice sounding like she's having trouble forming words to express her level of confusion. "What about Lindsey's best interest."

"Don't start down that road again," I warn her. "Don't bring my daughter into this."

"Or what?" Sara questions darkly. "You're going to hit me again? Apparently there's nothing wrong with hitting other people, right?"

"Don't you dare."

"This is bullshit," Sara gets out, shaking her head, hands now clenching into fists. "You're going to let him keep hurting you, keep threatening you and your daughter?"

She looks at me incredulously.

"How many victims have you processed who tried to do exactly the same thing?"

"This is different."

"How?" Sara poses, eyebrows raised. "How the hell is this different?"

"There's a lot to this situation that you don't understand," I tell her seriously. "A lot of history that Eddie and I have that makes this much more complicated."

"You used to work for him, most likely in a club as a dancer or stripper," she says without hesitation, losing none of her momentum. "There were drugs involved, likely cocaine based on the time…"

"Stop."

"Getting too close?" Sara asks.

I know Eddie had spewed references to my drug use and made other allusions to my past during his encounters with Sara. But, I'd hoped those particular statements hadn't been registered by the brunette.

Someone as perceptive as Sidle – I should have known better.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you have a past," Sara says quietly. "One that holds some colorful secrets. But that's the past, Miss Willows. You can't let that dictate what you do about this situation now. It was wrong what he did to you then, and it's still wrong now. You have to do what's best for you and your daughter."

"I'm doing just that," I warn her, taking a step into her personal space. "I appreciate what you've done for me, I really do. But you don't know Eddie like I do. This decision concerns me and my family."

I place my finger into her chest, gentle but firm.

"And that doesn't involve you."

Sara tightens her jaw, biting back I'm sure a thousand expletives she wants to share.

I make sure her eyes are on mine.

"Am I clear, Sidle?"

Gaze dark, Sara's eyes burn into mine.

"Perfectly."

"What the hell did you do?!"

Kelly looks uncomfortable, having arrived at the lab early to meet me for lunch. But, on my way out with her, I got a very disturbing phone call.

One that stopped me dead in my tracks. One that can't wait until the end of my lunch with Kelly.

Having spent this morning with the brunette, I thought our altercation from the locker room last night was over. She greeted me this morning at the start of shift just like she always does, both of us exchanging pleasantries before getting to work on our case. She never gave one hint, one single indication as to what was going on in the background.

Easily finding the brunette in the breakroom near the coffeemaker, I grab Sara by the front of her shirt, all but dragging her into one of the back labs.

"Get your hands off me," Sara growls out, pushing away from me.

Shoving her back into the room, I slam the door behind us.

"Uh, Cath," Kelly hedges. "I can wait outside for you…"

"No," I tell her, keeping my glare on Sara. "I need a witness to this – and someone to keep me from killing Sidle."

"What d-"

"Shut up," I interrupt Sara, advancing on her so quickly that her back smacks into the glass cabinet behind her in her efforts to keep space between us, the bottles of chemicals shaking on their shelves.

"I told you explicitly last night before I left that the recording was going to be deleted. That I was going to handle the situation with my family how I deemed fit."

I clench my fist into Sara's chest, keeping her in place.

"Was I in any way unclear during that conversation?"

Sara doesn't comment, eyes as dark as her expression.

"Answer me, damn it!"

"Cath…"

I ignore Kelly, all the anger in me running through my veins and drowning out everything else.

"Was I unclear, Sidle?!"

"No."

"Then what the hell do you think you're doing going to Jim Brass?!"

"You had the right to do whatever you wanted with your copy of the recording," Sara tells me tightly. "And I had the right to do whatever I wanted with mine."

"You had no right," I all but yell in her face. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"I did what you should have done."

"That was not your decision to make!" I push her back harshly into the cabinet, the glass doors rattling in their frames.

Sara's eyes flash with anger, her arm reaching out to try to pry mine away from the death grip I have on her collar.

"Don't touch me," she growls, tone low and threatening.

"If you can do whatever you damn please despite my requests," I retort, "then so can I."

"I'm doing what needs to be done to keep you and Lindsey safe," she says tightly. "You can hate me all you want, but I would do it a thousand times over if given the choice. You don't understand the risk the two of you are in if you keep that madman in your life."

"You don't know what's best for my daughter and I!" I tell her sternly. "Don't act like you're some sort of expert on the topic of domestic abuse."

Sara's motions pause, her eyes flashing to mine. I can see her features pale, and I know I have a choice to make.

I'm sick of Sara acting like she knows what she's talking about when it comes to Eddie's and my relationship. This doesn't concern her - this is between me and my family.

Perhaps if it were another day. If Sara didn't just betray me in the biggest way possible, I would have made a different decision. But, I feel the words leave my mouth before I can stop them.

"Just because someone beat the shit out of you when you were a kid doesn't make you an expert on abuse, Sidle. Back the fuck off."

Sara's body goes deathly still, her motions completely frozen. Her eyes barely blink, even her breathing stops.

It's in that silence, that complete break in the angry exchange between us, that the words I've just said to her finally register in my brain.

Oh God.

"How…"

Sara swallows, looking like she's about to be sick.

"How did you…"

Her eyes leave mine, her body pressing itself into the glass behind her, trying to put as much distance between us as physically possible. Her hand leaves my arm as if the mere touch of me burns her.

"In the hospital…" she breathes out, already working through to the solution on her own. "When you reviewed my chart to see if I could return to duty. Damn it, the x-ray reports..."

Sara's head hits soundly back into the cabinet in frustration, her eyes looking as far away from me as possible.

"Sara…"

Sara shakes her head darkly, her furious emotions evident in the trembling of her body making me stop my apology hesitantly.

"Don't bother," Sara gets out.

Then, with more force that I thought possible, Sara pushes me away from her, finally succeeding in freeing herself.

Hand clenching to her side, she backs away towards the door.

"We're done."

Her head turned away like she can't stand to even look at me, her gaze burns into the table alongside us.

"You can do whatever you want with the protection Brass offers you, the charges he works out to get Eddie out of your and Lindsey's life. You can accept them or not. You can do whatever the hell you want from here on out."

She tries to keep her voice steady from the anger that is making her free hand shake where it is clenched tightly beside her.

"I'm done," she states tightly. "With this. With you. With all of it."

Opening the door, she finally raises her dark gaze to mine.

"I'm fucking done."

AN: Yikes. Thanks for reading.