DISCLAIMER: Jerry and CBS own CSI and the characters. Sarah McLachlan owns the lyrics to 'Drifting.'
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

Bend and Break
By Corbeau's Alcove

SARA:

"You've been gone so long all that you know
has been shuffled aside as you bask in the glow
of the beautiful strangers who whisper your name
do they fill up the emptiness?

Larger than life is your fiction in a universe made up of one

You have been drifting for so long
I know you don't want to come down
Somewhere below you, there's people who love you
And they're ready for you to come home
Please come home"

Another drink in another dive bar is where she sits. Face long, emotions mixed up in the next swirl of the glass. Fire as it hits the back of the throat; a peace like state follows the taste. Bad at first then so very good.

Where did this come from? Heavens only knows. The only truth is found in the glass now refilled but does it tell the truth? Is it distorted? It's only a small comfort and its only replacement is the next kind of drink.

On and on the cycle of self hatred spins. Where there once was a strong woman successful and intelligent sits a broken woman, the past running in the darkness for so long now finally unleashed and setting up permanent residence in the organ once known as her heart.

CATHERINE:

"You walk in a room and the world stops to stare
Mesmerize all who are caught in the glare
Of the spotlight that follows wherever you go
Does it light up the emptiness?

Larger than life is your fiction in a universe made up of one

You have been drifting for so long
I know you don't want to come down
Somewhere below you, there's people who love you
And they're ready for you to come home
Please come home."

Beauty in and out. Looks that make the years marked off the calendar weigh less. Every year she gets older but where did those youthful years go to? Shaking her arse for money and justifying it by calling it a temporary position. The power she held, it soared through her veins. She was a Goddess when she was up there and the men shaking their cash at her were her subjects.

A daughter who may be drifting too far from her, deceased ex husband, no love life to be proud of. Is this what the master plan was for her?

Sure the looks of appreciation made her feel young again and for a while she could forget that she was old; that parts of her were looking older. Makeup only does so much. There is no magic cure for getting old.

Cases were frustrating her. Co-workers were fighting, where did the harmony go? Promotions and suspensions. Cases with smarter criminals. Was there anything left fighting for if one case closed just meant another was opening? Jail wasn't a deterrent, why bother?


Sara looked up as the door opened. The sun shone through, her eyes squinting at the powerful force. Her head not alerting her fast enough as to the intruder.

"Sara?"

Sara tried to hide but she wasn't moving. Catherine had found her and she wasn't ready for the fight she knew was coming.

"You look like shit Sara."

"Go away."


What is Sara doing here? Catherine just assumed she'd be at work but she's at the bar and from the look of her she'd been there a while.

Catherine was drawn to her sad eyes. There is, in place, a tentative friendship and the next move will make or break it.

"Bartender, two of whatever my friend is drinking."

"I don't need your charity," Sara spits out.

"It's not charity. I want a double next time." Catherine says placing her hand on Sara's arm.

Two drinks turned into more then the promise of coffee at Catherine's.

Will two lost souls unite in solidarity?

Find the peace to breathe again and be themselves?

"They're ready for you to come home

Please come home."

The End

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