DISCLAIMER: Not mine, not making money off them, give me a break. :)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Christmas Wishathon-fic for scorpio2097.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Boundaries
By Rach
"Where are the boundaries for women?"
Catherine paused as she walked past the tea room, intrigued by the question Greg was asking from behind the closed door.
"Boundaries like what," Nick responded. "What are you asking about?"
"Well," Greg's pause was followed by the sound of a mug being replaced on the table. "You know how chicks are, they do each other's toe nails, and... things that no guy would do for another. I mean, no offence dude but, even if your hair looks shit there is no way I'm fixing it for you. That would be totally gay, but chicks can do that kind of stuff without it meaning anything. Right?"
"Is this about a case Greg?" Nick sounded confused.
"Well, not exactly, it's just I was walking past the lab earlier, and I saw Catherine doing Sara's hair. She was pulling it back in one of those plaits. I didn't think Sara and Catherine did that kind of thing, right?"
"Hey, maybe not usually," Nick sounded like he was smiling. "But you do remember that Sara sprained her wrist, right? So maybe she just can't manage that kind of thing right now."
"Yeah, I'd forgotten about that."
The sound of a mug being rinsed prompted Catherine to duck into a deserted office. She was just in time for Greg to walk by without realising his conversation had been overheard. She waited a moment to be sure he was gone before attempting to resume her original mission.
She paused again by the tea room door when she heard Warrick laughing.
"Wow, if Greg was confused by hair braiding he would have had hysterics the other day."
"Rick my man, what happened?"
"Picture the scene," Warrick went into story mode. "The locker room, mid-shift. Sara and I had been out at a scene, dumpster duty. There were definite odour issues by the time we got back here. So I had a shower, put on my spare clothes. I was just checking my hair when Wendy walks out of the women's change room. Now, it's not like I'm in the habit of looking through doorways, it was just a momentary alignment of swinging doors and mirrors that brought the briefest glimpse to my eyes."
"Rick, are you deliberately drawing this out to annoy me. First you tell me you saw something, then you start waxing lyrical about dumpster odours and the alignment of doors."
"But my friend, that's all it was. Pure serendipity, otherwise I'd never have seen it. Now maybe it might just be a girl thing, one of those boundaries Greg was talking about being slightly stretched because of Sara's wrist, but I'm not so sure."
Catherine was blushing slightly as she thought of what Warrick might have seen through that doorway.
"Spill the beans my friend," Nick was trying to sound patient.
"Well, Sara must have been having a shower too, but obviously she was having a little trouble getting re-dressed because Catherine was helping her with bra."
"What? You saw Catherine doing something with Sara's bra?"
"Nick, if it weren't for the explanation that Sara has an injured wrist I could have a lot of fun making assumptions about those two. That would be a fiery duo. Sadly I've been around enough women to know that doing up a bra with one hand is impossible. I guess Catherine was just helping Sara out. If Catherine hadn't been there she would probably have asked Wendy."
"Ah, now that would be a sight too," Nick sighed. "How is it that we work with so many extraordinarily beautiful women."
"We're blessed Nicky."
Catherine bristled slightly at the suggestion that Wendy would touch Sara's underwear, then grinned to herself before resuming her walk down the corridor. So much discussion based on hair braiding and friendly assistance. It was true, Sara had asked her to help her because a sprained wrist and a back fastening bra were not an easy combination. But bra fastening was a rather intimate act, and had prompted perhaps a little more 'closeness' than was usual in the office. It was just a good thing none of the guys had seen what they were doing when that wrist got sprained in the first place.
The End