DISCLAIMER: CSI is the property of CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer. The song
'Through The Dark' belongs to KT Tunstall & Martin Terefe.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first attempt. Feedback is welcome!
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Through The Dark
By MBInc
Oh, how do I show
All the love inside my heart
For this is all new
And I'm feeling my way through the dark
Through The Dark –KT Tunstall
Part 1
Catherine entered the locker room. She was completely lost in thoughts about a case she and Warrick had just solved. They had been working on a B & E for three nights and tonight they finally had a break-through.
As she headed over to the bench she was suddenly shocked by the sight in front of her: Sara, rummaging through her locker, completely clad in a leather motorcycle-outfit.
Her throat went dry and her mouth fell open. All thoughts that had filled her mind just seconds before were replaced by Sara and how extremely sexy she looked in that outfit.
Over the last few weeks Catherine had noticed the tension between her and Sara had changed. Their work-relationship had developed positively –of course they still had some arguments, but those helped them to get the best out of each other during cases- and they had even started to do stuff together with Lindsey after work once a week. Which was greatly appreciated by Lindsey who loved the attention she got from both her mother and Sara.
After Eddie's death and Sara being unable to solve the case –despite the fact she tried really hard, and punished herself really bad for failing- they avoided each other for a few days. In specific, Sara avoided Catherine. She couldn't stand that she had been unable to give Catherine, and especially Lindsey a closure to all this.
About a month ago, Catherine had asked Sara to look after Lindsey for a few hours, because she was called by Grissom to come in and help on a triple homicide. Sara offered to go instead, but one look at Lindsey –who was looking forward to spending some time with Sara since "she will know all this cool stuff to do" Lindsey had already told her mother when she suggested Sara (instead of aunt Nancy) to look after her– and she decided to stay with Lindsey.
From then on the bonding between Lindsey and her had started resulting in a better relationship with Catherine –which Sara had wanted from her first day in Vegas. She had always hoped there could be more between her and Catherine, and therefore she saw this developing bond with the young Willows woman as a good start.
Sara grabbed a small toolbox out of her locker and turned around to see Catherine staring at her. "Something wrong, Catherine?" She asked with a smug smile on her face. Definitely the reaction I wanted, she thought seeing Catherine's face color deep red.
"I…Uhm…What are you still doing here?" Catherine quickly asked, avoiding Sara's question. She tried to pull her thoughts together and save herself from this embarrassing moment.
Seeing Catherine's embarrassment Sara decided not to tease her any further so she answered "My bike won't start. I just got it two days ago, paid big bucks for it." Then she raises her hand with the toolbox, and continues "Came back in here to get my tools, see if I can get her to run again."
Catherine walked over to her locker, trying to forget about the fact that Sara just caught her staring at her. She opened the door of the locker, and took out her bag. Meanwhile Sara walked to the exit, and just before she walked through the door Catherine looked over her shoulder once more taking Sara's appearance in "Well, good luck with that" she said.
"Thanks" Sara said waving once before closing the door behind her.
PART 2
When Catherine exited the locker room she crossed paths with Grissom. Despite telling Grissom she was on her way out he had asked her about her case. So, after fifteen minutes Catherine was finally heading outside. When she walked out of the CSI HQ she saw Sara still trying to fix her motorcycle.
"Damn piece of crap." She had to stifle a laugh as she heard Sara mutter under her breath.
"Can't fix your new baby?" Catherine teased.
"Well, apparently this baby is more of an old lady." Sara sighed "I've tried all things I can think of at the moment" she added while she wiped sweat off of her forehead, leaving a big black smudge behind.
Catherine tried to stifle a laugh, but failed miserably.
"What?" Sara asked, not getting why she was laughed at. But before Catherine was able to answer her question Sara saw her dirty hands. "Oh, I get it. I wiped my face, and now there's dirt all over, right?" she said while looking up at Catherine.
"Yeah" Catherine nodded, avoiding Sara's eyes.
"I could give you a lift?" Catherine said still looking at the ground like there was something very interesting there.
"Well, I…" Sara started as she wiped her hands on an old rag, but before she could finish Catherine interrupted "I have to make a quick stop at my house first. Lindsey will be glad to see you."
She held out her hand and pulled Sara onto her feet. Looking into her eyes Catherine's body got a will of its own. Her hand reached for Sara's face, and she started to wipe at the smudge. Both women seemed lost in the touch and after a few seconds Catherine realized what she was doing. She quickly took her hand away, and started off into the direction of her car.
"Aren't you coming?" She asked as she put her sunglasses on and opened her car.
Sara, still completely lost in the marvelous feeling of Catherine's hand on her face, snapped out of her thoughts and grabbed her stuff.
The first few minutes of their trip passed in silence as they were both still thinking about what had happened on the parking lot, but as they stopped at a red light Sara turned to face Catherine who was persistently watching the traffic light while holding the wheel in a firm grip.
"So," Sara started "Why that death grip?"
Catherine turned and looked at Sara questioningly. Pointing to Catherine's hands Sara added "Seems like something's wrong."
"No….not really" Catherine started getting more nervous. Jeez, I'm feeling like a lovesick teenager again.
Seeing Sara didn't buy that answer she continued. "It's just…euhm…I…I had a long day. Guess it wore me out more than I thought."
"Right, that explains it." Sara laughed turning her head to look outside the window. Sara thought she knew what was really going on inside the strawberry-blonde's head. She felt the same way. When she had been working on her bike she had been thinking about the way Catherine had looked at her. That look had shown her all she needed to know and made her decide to no longer hide her own feelings she had for Catherine.
"What? Now you're the people-person?" Catherine said. Seeing the smug smile still plastered on Sara's face she decided to play along with Sara. "Well, then you tell me what's on my mind."
The car pulled up and Catherine focused on the traffic again, so she didn't see Sara turn her gaze over to her again. Fully serious she answered.
"I am"
"Excuse me?" Catherine almost shouted surprised at Sara's directness. Stopping at another red light she turned to face Sara again.
"You were thinking about me" Sara said raising her hand and taking off Catherine's sunglasses so she could look her in her eyes.
"Why…how…I.." Catherine rambled nervously. Sara pushed a string of strawberry blonde hair behind the older woman's ear and kept looking into her eyes.
Surprisingly calmed by this gesture Catherine continued. "Am I that transparent?"
"Well, back in the locker room you were practically undressing me with your eyes."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean t.." Catherine started but was stopped by the brunette as she put a finger on her lips –sending a shiver down her spine.
Catherine had only dreamed of what happened next. Sara removed her hand from the blonde's lips, and started to inch closer to the face in front of her. The hand that had just before pushed the hair away, now clung to the older woman's neck, pulling her closer.
She could feel Sara's breath on her own lips. She saw Sara had closed her eyes already, and she decided to close them also….to concentrate on what was coming….. what she had wanted to do for a long time.
But seconds before their lips connected they were interrupted by a loud honk. Sara backed away, and started laughing loudly.
"Damn, this close" Catherine muttered while quickly accelerating the car.
Ok in her dreams there was less laughing and more kissing, but hey, she wouldn't be stopped by one impatient driver. She would get what she wanted, she always had. A big smile crept on her face as she felt Sara rest her hand on her thigh.
PART 3
As they entered Catherine's street Sara was still watching Catherine, a content smile on her face. Suddenly she saw Catherine's look of new-found happiness change into a look of complete shock. Sara turned her head, following the path of Catherine's shocked gaze. Then she saw it: fire, and a lot of smoke.
Getting closer to the Willows residence it dawned upon both of them -it was Catherine's house that was on fire. Even before the car was completely stopped both of them jumped out, both running towards the house. On the lawn Nancy was screaming for Lindsey. Catherine grabbed Nancy by her shoulders.
"Where's Lindsey?" she shouted, becoming more and more anxious. Nancy -being in shock- didn't respond immediately. Catherine hadn't even noticed Sara was already at the front door. "Call 911!" she screamed at Catherine before walking inside.
Thinking about the fact that she was still wearing her leather bike-clothes –and therefore being reasonably protected- Sara didn't wait any longer before heading inside.
"Lindsey? Lindsey where are you?" Sara screamed. The smoke made it difficult for her to see her hand in front of her face. Despite the fact that it was morning already and the sun was shining brightly outside, inside it was as dark as night. Sara reached -what she thought was- the living room. Not getting an immediate reaction Sara called out for Lindsey again.
"I'm here!" she suddenly heard coming from the left.
"Lindsey?" she said, "Keep talking so I can find you!" Sara carefully walked towards the screaming voice of Lindsey, but because of all the smoke she overlooked the coffee table and tripped which caused her to hit her head on it. Shaking her head a few times to get rid of the dizziness she called out for Lindsey again. As she was still with both hands and feet on the floor she decided to crouch further. Almost flat to the ground she was now able to see a bit more, because smoke ascends.
Entering the kitchen Sara saw Lindsey hiding under the table in the middle of the room. Quickly heading towards Lindsey Sara scanned the room for possible ways out, but all the smoke made it impossible. Grabbing a crying and shaking Lindsey in her arms, she decided to go back the way she came.
"Lindsey, stay low. There's less smoke there." Sara said as she pushed Lindsey in front of her. Sara heard several sirens outside coming closer. She distinguished the different tones: fire engine, ambulance, and the police. "I'll get us out of here."
By now parts of the living room had also caught fire, and Sara saw there was only a small pathway towards the front door that was still free of fire. Protecting Lindsey by hanging over her, they crawled forth. When they're only inches away from the front porch Sara helped Lindsey to her feet, and told her to run.
Seeing Catherine wrap Lindsey up in her arms Sara also scrambled onto her feet, and started to head outside. Just as she reached the threshold an explosion threw her a few feet forward on the front porch. The last thing she remembered was Catherine's worried face as she was being lifted onto a gurney and into the ambulance.
One of the paramedics was already inside the ambulance working on Lindsey and Nancy who both only seemed to suffer from smoke inhalation.
But Sara's condition seemed to be worse. Two other paramedics –who had just arrived with another ambulance- were looking after Sara.
The explosion had thrown her hard against the floor, leaving her unconscious. The fire fighters that had arrived had started extinguishing the fire and two of them had carefully carried Sara away from the porch. As she was put on the gurney she came to.
Catherine saw Sara being transported into the back of the second ambulance. Turning back to Lindsey she said "I'll be right back. I have to check up on Sara." Lindsey and Nancy both nodded. They both weren't in an as bad shape as Sara. The paramedic had said they still had to go to the hospital for a total check-up, but probably the extra oxygen they got would be enough.
As Catherine reached the ambulance she felt someone pushing her away. "Step aside ma'am" one of the paramedics said while closing the doors "We need to get her to the hospital a.s.a.p."
Just before the doors were closed completely she caught a glimpse of Sara's eyes.
The ambulance sped off, and Catherine was nailed to the ground –still remembering the scared look on Sara's face. That look made her whole body shake, and she started to cry.
A black Tahoe pulled up beside the ambulance with Lindsey and Nancy in it. Warrick stepped out of the car, and quickly walked over to Catherine. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her whole body was trembling.
He had seen the ambulance drive off, and had got a sick feeling in his stomach. "Why are you still here?" he asked, thinking that Lindsey had been in the passing ambulance. "Shouldn't you be with Lindsey on the way to the hospital?"
Catherine's cries became a bit louder. Between sobs she said to him "Lindsey's OK, considering what happened, but …" A big lump formed in her throat.
"What?" Warrick asked "Who was in it then?"
"Sara."