DISCLAIMER: These characters and situations do not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I have borrowed them as part of my sanity maintenance.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For Maxi's birthday because I haven't written my CSI ladies often enough this year and it was a perfect excuse! Thanks: As always to Ann for the beta work and to Maxi for becoming an important part of my inner sanctum.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To deb123em[at]gmail.com
Anger Management
By Debbie
"I've just received a voicemail from Sofia, she wants one of us to meet her at the phone booth on the corner of Henderson and Third… " Catherine glanced at her watch, and smiling evilly, added, "… give her another hour and then make your way over there. I guarantee she'll be so angry with you she'll be gagging for it later."
Seeing the look of disbelief cross Sara's face, she teased some more. "Just watch that vein in her temple; it's bound to be throbbing away. That, Sara, will be your cue that you're getting to her."
Sara nodded and checked her own watch; concentrating on thoughts of an angry Sofia, she only just caught Catherine's final words on the subject.
"Oh, and you can lay odds that the toothpick will be out, too."
A rumble of amusement welled up in Sara's throat as she thought of her lover's faithful toothpick. She waved to Catherine and left the room, a bemused smile flicking across her features. Who would have thought, all those lonely weeks ago, that she would be taking love advice from Catherine Willows?
Sara spotted Sofia the moment she pulled the Denali into the curb, leaning against the phone booth, toothpick held jauntily between two fingers and settled in the side of her jaw. She jumped out and strolled nonchalantly over; a few feet away from Sofia, she saw the tell-tale sign of spittle that proved Sofia was sucking angrily at the invading toothpick.
"I've been waiting for you."
Sara grinned at Sofia's angry tone.
"Sorry, I headed out as soon as I got your page"
"Really, 'cos I left a voice mail several hours ago."
Sofia's reply was indignant, and Sara had to hide her smirk; despite Catherine's words, she really didn't want to upset Sofia further.
"What's up?"
"The anonymous call was traced to this phone booth, so I figured you'd want to process."
As she bent her head into the phone booth, the CSI saw signs of fingerprint powder on the phone; it appeared old habits die hard. Allowing her smirk free rein, she turned back to the ex-CSI and queried how it had got there.
"I got bored waiting; I thought you might need some help." Sofia shrugged her shoulders and looked sheepishly towards Sara, who was now staring straight at her. Spotting the smirk on Sara's face, she continued, "No useable prints but check out the floor. There's a lot of hair, similar to the crime scene." She was well aware that Catherine's murder victim had been found to be suffering from Hypertrichosis, the human werewolf syndrome.
Automatically knowing that her lover was now totally in the CSI zone, Sofia, too, became very businesslike. "The victim was killed twelve hours before this call was made. If that's his hair, what's it doing here?"
Sara collected the hairs quickly, and the two women chatted about the case as they worked. There was obviously some mystery held in this evidence that might help break Catherine's murder case.
After Sara and the new DNA technician had proved the hair collected in the phone booth was not actually from the victim, but from a female, and not just any female, a female with seven alleles in common with the murdered young man, Catherine had gone back to the crime scene. There, she had found Alison Bradford tucked away in her own private, secluded world, hidden at the back of her brother's home. Unfortunately she suffered from the same genetic condition as her brother.
New evidence from Dr. Robbins that Hayden Bradford's body had been moved to the original crime scene from somewhere with blue carpet meant that Catherine and Sofia were now in Alison Bradford's home. Catherine had remembered such a carpet in the girl's hidey-hole and now had to find if there was any evidence of a shooting; protocol insisted that a law enforcement officer be present during the search.
Suddenly, finding something of interest, Catherine asked Alison to step outside the room for a moment, and Sofia took the opportunity to study Alison. She'd managed to hide her initial surprise at the young woman's appearance as best she could, although she'd been unable to hold in the small gasp that escaped her lips.
Glancing away from the girl, she saw Catherine highlighting a patch of blood; she just shrugged her shoulders when Catherine came to stand by her side and started to question Alison. Sofia allowed her CSI colleague to instigate the questioning as it appeared the older CSI had formed some sort of immediate bond with the human werewolf.
Alison claimed to know nothing about the shooting, and Catherine's gentle questioning was getting her nowhere, *until* she asked a direct question.
"Did you kill him?"
The two women saw the look of anger cross Alison's eyes as she immediately protested her innocence; it was as if both of them could feel the girl's love for her brother. Catherine tried to probe more by saying that Alison was jealous, afraid of losing her brother to his girlfriend. Alison's response was spoken without hesitation.
"Do you think I'm some sort of animal?"
Sofia winced and felt Catherine shudder at the haunted expression in Alison's eyes; at that moment, they both knew the girl was innocent; they just had to find out the truth.
Sofia decided to push Alison as gentle probing hadn't seemed to work. Angrily, she announced, "Okay, I'm sorry, but we can do this here or we can take it downtown."
Her abruptness seemed to work as Alison started to open up a little, and Sofia smiled when Catherine turned to look at her with a pleased smile on her face. Catherine mouthed the word, 'Mine', and then subtly asked Sofia to leave her and Alison alone for a few moments.
As always, Sofia complied willingly.
Hours later, the two women were once more side by side, this time interrogating Brad Moyer. Catherine had taken great pleasure in getting a warrant to search the suspect's home, and Sofia had taken even greater pleasure in finding the piece of evidence that had broken the case; the silver bullet maker. All that was left was to find the reasons why.
"Hayden was going to marry my sister. I couldn't let that happen. He was diseased. Wasn't a problem for me, but my sister deserved better."
Sofia was appalled at Brad's answers; she couldn't understand how anybody could have so much hatred to take the man his sister so obviously loved away from her. She just couldn't understand how any brother could do that to his sister and just through plain old-fashioned ignorance. She couldn't help snapping, "So… you killed him?"
The young man continued to spout filth and hatred against his so-called best friend
"It means my sister could have given birth to freaks."
Sofia flinched again; she had absolutely no doubt that her own brother would stand by her through anything; he'd already given his absolute blessing to her chosen lifestyle. Indeed, it sometimes appeared he adored her partners more than she did. If she blew her current relationship, she was pretty sure he'd kill her, before killing any lover.
Brad's next words brought her wandering thoughts back to the table.
"My sister's out there waiting, and since I've confessed, can I at least go out and talk to her, explain why I did it."
Sofia jumped; there was no way this bigot was going to soothe things over with the distraught young woman she had comforted earlier. Sofia eyed the man with distaste and snapped, "Why don't I do that for you?"
Catherine heard the pure hatred in Sofia's tone; it was a tone she'd not heard before. Worried for Sofia, she still allowed an inward smile to surface; suddenly, she knew her earlier suggestion to Sara was definitely going to work. Sofia was beyond angry.
After closing out the case, Sofia excused herself to go home, while Catherine made a phone-call to Sara.
"Sara, I'm going over to Alison Bradford's house; I need to make sure she's going to be okay."
"Yeah, that makes sense; do you want me to come with?"
Catherine smiled at the suggestion. "Nuh-uh, I think you need to get home, Sofia's not only angry with you about earlier, but she's really, really pissed off with Brad Moyer, and I'm not sure why. She's going to need you… " she paused, "… all of you, Sara, understand?"
Sara sighed, knowing exactly what Catherine was getting at. "Okay, I get it. I'm out of here then, see you later."
Making her way home immediately, Sara was shocked to find the apartment empty, save for three empty beer bottles and the sound of very loud rock music.
She called out her lover's name, only just hearing the reply from the vicinity of the bathroom. Making her way across the room, she took a moment to clear Sofia's mess; she had better things to do later.
Sara crossed to the bathtub and knelt down at its side. Caressing Sofia's damp hair, she asked, "Hey, are you okay?"
Sofia gave a wry grin as she answered, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Well, you don't look fine, come on let's get you out of here, the water's freezing."
Allowing herself to be pulled out of the tub, Sofia took a moment to enjoy the gentle ministrations of her lover. It had taken so long for Sara to open up to her, she'd thought it would never happen. But, once it did, once Sara let down her barriers allowing Sofia to see all of her, their relationship had grown stronger and stronger.
Sara guided her back to the sofa, immediately drawing her down and continuing to pat her body dry. Sofia sighed, only now realising the true extent of their connection: strength. More often than not it was Sofia who gave her strength to Sara, Sofia who supported Sara through some deeply hidden demons, and yet, when it mattered, the strength flowed the other way, and Sara was there for Sofia.
Sofia found herself drifting in the warmth, telling Sara about her own brother and his total trust in his policewoman sister, and how, because of knowing that depth of love, the imbecilic actions of Michelle Moyer's brother had so turned her stomach. As she talked some of her anger began to dissipate, and then, she remembered; remembered the other reason she'd been so angry to start with…
She turned quickly, thumping the shocked Sara hard in the chest. "And you, you fucking left me standing in the middle of nowhere, probably making nice to Catherine while I shivered and thought…"
Sara grabbed Sofia's hands quickly; it had hurt when the detective had used her full strength against her. "Whoa, just a minute; I was working on the case when the call came though." Holding tight to the hands, she glared back at her lover. "I might have been with Catherine, but we certainly weren't, what did you just call it… " she mimicked Sofia's hurt voice, "… making nice. *We* *were* *busy*."
"Yeah, I bet you were busy, cosy together in headquarters, why couldn't you both come get me, huh?"
"Because sometimes we have to work, and you, my wonderful detective, managed quite well without us… the fingerprints and hair were all collected before I got there. Maybe we should have a word with the sheriff to get the rules changed now that we have a turncoat in our midst." The smile on her face showed that she was teasing, somewhat.
Sofia chuckled and lifted her face up for a kiss. "Ah, such sweet words from you, my tough, no-nonsense crime scene investigator. Don't let the others hear you suggest my CSI skills are better than yours…"
"I didn't say anything like that, and you know it." Sara's laughter joined Sofia's as they wrestled on the sofa. Dropping onto the floor with a thud, Sofia rolled on top of her lover and stopped, motionless.
She grabbed Sara's hands and took them over her head; holding them down to the floor. Biting down on her lower lip, she muttered, "I'm still angry with you, Sara Sidle, so how come I'm laughing?"
"Because you love me, that's why."
Sofia smirked, "I do, do I?"
The blonde seemed to go into a trance as she squeezed hard with her knees, bringing a gasp of pain from Sara as her ribs constricted. "Hm, maybe I do, but that doesn't alter the fact that *you* left me all alone in the middle of an evil Vegas night. What's a girl supposed to think?"
Sara watched as the vein throbbed in Sofia's temple, and knowing she was in for a treat, she acted her part to perfection. "That her lover was hoping she might get a chance to say she was sorry in the only way she can…"
Sofia's eyes twinkled, almost caught up with the way things had panned out during the day. "So, you did it on purpose, huh; so that angry Sofe would let repentant little Sara have her wicked way…"
Sofia watched as Sara's eyes darkened in agreement and smirked. "Well, you were wrong. It's angry little miss detective who's going to have her delicious way…" She bent forward and plundered Sara's more than willing lips. Their kiss grew in the comfortable intensity of lovers who knew each other well.
It wasn't long before Sara's clothes had joined Sofia's towel somewhere across the room, and it was even less time later that Sofia's fingers hovered tantalisingly close to Sara's throbbing, waiting centre.
The detective, however, still not fully forgiving of Sara's actions, had one more thing to do to make her lover squirm. Pulling her lips away from the delicious tasting skin, she glared down and whispered words to taunt.
"She'll be mad."
Sara audibly growled, "Don't worry about her; just fuck me."
Sofia's laugh was soon drowned out by their mutual sounds of absolute passion.
So engrossed in Sofia's anger management programme, neither woman heard the sound of the apartment door opening or saw the sly 'I told you so' grin of success that fluttered across *her* face.
The End