back in black
Title Chapter Nine
Fandom CSI
Pairing Sara/Catherine, Nick/OFC
Rating R
Comments I'm aware that it has been forever since I've updated and even longer since I've even thought about this story but her it is...
The headphones were pulled off my ears and I groaned and peeled my eyes open.
“What?” I growled.
“You asleep?” Catherine asked in a hushed voice.
”Well I was.” I glared.
“Sorry…but Sara is freaking out and I can’t wake her up.” She said. I sat up and nodded. I ran a hand through my hair and swung my legs off of the bed. I padded my way to Sara’s room and crawled up beside her. I took her wrists and pulled her to me, keeping a firm hold as she struggled.
“It’s okay.” I said calmly. “It’s okay baby, I’m right here.” She stopped struggling and curled towards me. “I got you baby…I’m right here.” I let go of her wrists and wrapped my arms around her. “Babe you scared your girlfriend.” I said smiling at Catherine who was watching from the doorway. I tried to move away but Sara whimpered and held onto me. “I got you.” I said again. “I’m right here baby, it’s okay.” I got her calmed down again and then motioned for Catherine.
It was complicated and painful but eventually Catherine took my place and I went back to my room. I checked my clock and sighed. There was no point in going back to bed. I pulled my hair back and pulled on a hoodie before heading to the kitchen.
Breakfast was almost done when I heard Sara’s alarm go off a split second before the stereo started itself up. My cell phone buzzed across the counter and I grabbed it before it fell off.
“Hello?” I asked checking the clock.
“You’re up!” Nick said and I grinned.
“Yeah, what’s up?” I asked checking the ham.
“I’m at Starbucks, thought you might want coffee since you’re out.” He reminded.
“You’re a lifesaver.” I said remembering. “Can you get three extra large black?”
“Three?” he asked.
“I’ll make you food…” I taunted.
“Fine minutes.” He said.
“Door’s open.” I said before he hung up. I unlocked the door and set another place at the table. A few minutes later Nick walked in.
“Hey babe.” He said putting the coffee down and coming up behind me. I spun around and kissed him.
“Go sit.” I ordered and took two of the coffees. I knocked on Sara’s door before walking in.
“Hey Sparky.” Sara said with a soft smile. I handed her the coffee.
“Nick brought coffee, breakfast is on the table.” I said and walked back out.
“Who’s in there with Sara?” Nick asked with a devious grin as I put the eggs Benedict on the plates. I turned to answer but Sara and Catherine strolled out.
“Morning Nick.” Catherine said with that grin that could melt steel. I just grinned and put the food down in front of them.
“Close your mouth baby.” I whispered before kissing his temple.
“This explains…a lot.” He said before nodding to himself. Sara just grinned and started eating.
“Jamie…this is amazing.” Catherine said.
“Thanks Cath.” I said with a smile. Sara looked down at her food and winced.
“I woke you up.” She said with a sigh. I shook my head.
“No, you woke Catherine up, Catherine woke me up.” I corrected. “Eat your ham.” She scowled but ate some ham regardless.
“You guilt her into eating meat?” Nick asked with a grin. I nodded happily. “So, what are you two doing today?” he asked. Sara and Catherine exchanged a look and shrugged.
“He’s plotting.” I said glancing at him.
“Does Lindsay like the zoo?” he asked overtop of me.
“What kid doesn’t?” Catherine asked. Nick’s face lit up.
“Let’s all go to the zoo!” he said. “We can take Lindsay out of school.” He said giving Catherine his best little boy lost smile.
“I’ll go get her.” Catherine said shaking her head.
“I’ll go get ready.” I said with a sigh.
“Dishes.” Sara said. Nick smiled and followed me to my room.
“You could help Sara.” I said with a grin. He pouted.
“I wanted to help you.” He said.
“Take a seat.” I said motioning to the bed. He shook his head and walked towards me. I raised an eyebrow as he took the hem of my hoodie and tugged it upwards. I smiled as his hands slipped under the fabric and rested on my waist. He pulled me closer and pressed his lips against my collarbone eliciting a moan from the back of my throat. Much before my liking he was pulled back. I opened my eyes to see Catherine pulling him out by the collar of his shirt.
“On second thought, you’re coming with me Romeo.” She said.
They shut the door behind them and I went back to getting ready. I met Sara on the couch and we waited for their return.
“You do realize you just outed both of us.” Sara said with a playful glare.
“He won’t say anything if you ask him not to.” I said with a shrug. “And don’t try to tell me you don’t want to be outed.” She shrugged.
“It’s not up to me.” She reminded. I nodded, pretending to agree. “So the zoo huh?”
“I guess.” I said with a sigh, my boyfriend was such a geek. I was about to tell Sara this when the buzzer rang.
“We’ll be right down.” Sara said as I grabbed my purse.
“Look at you ditchin’ class at you age.” I said tsk-ing when I saw Lindsay waiting for us.
“Yeah at least Jamie waited until she hit Junior high.” Sara said taking Lindsay’s hand as we walked to Catherine’s car.
“See, Sara will act like she never ditched class…but I seem to recall and entire week where Sara refused to attend class.” I said opening the car door and letting Lindsay climb into the middle while Sara took shotgun.
“A whole week?” Lindsay asked; her jaw slack.
“Extenuating circumstances.” Sara growled.
“Bull, like what?” I challenged.
“Like you kidnapped me you moron.” She shot back.
“I kidnapped you for the weekend, I was fully prepared to head back to school on Monday, but you didn’t want to. It was your idea to stay the whole week.” I reminded.
“I missed a whole two weeks in highschool.” Nick said. “I had mono.”
“This kissing disease? Gross!” Lindsay said moving closer to me.
“Sickness doesn’t count as ditching.” I said rolling my eyes.
“It’s as close as I got to ditching.” He said with a shrug. I smirked. “Hey c’mon now, I had to get the grades for a scholarship.”
“Did you ditch mom?”
“Not even once honey.” Catherine said in a perfectly straight face. She turned on the radio to drown out our laughter.
“When you’re out with your friends in your new Mercedes benz and you’re…on drugs.” Lindsay and I sang at the top of our lungs.
“What is this?” Catherine asked with a disgusted look on her face.
“Weezer.” Sara answered bobbing her head along. Catherine switched the station much to our dismay. We groaned as country filled the car.
“Brutal!” Nick, Lindsay, and I said in unison.
We walked a few steps behind Nick and Lindsay, letting him fill her with all sorts of random useless facts. It would have been impossible to miss the smile on Jamie’s face.
I elbowed her in her side, breaking the trance Nick had her in. “You have to remember to blink.” I said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes.
“Shut up Biff.” I said with a sigh, letting her eyes settle back on Nick. She walked over to Nick and Lindsay. “So, what lies is he telling you now?” she asked.
“They’re cute together.” Catherine said.
“Huh? Oh…yeah.” I said trying to keep my voice even.
“You okay?” she asked stopping and turning me to face her. She brushed some hair from my face as I nodded.
“I’m fine.” I assured her and turned to catch up to the others.
“Does it bug you?” Catherine asked carefully, lacing her fingers with mine as we walked a few steps behind them.
“Why would it bug me?” I snapped a little too harshly. Catherine just nodded and took her hand from mine with the same ease as she had slipped it in. I stopped and swore to myself as she caught up with the others.
Ten minutes later she slowed down to walk with me again.
“I’m sorry.” I mumbled to which she nodded. “I just have to keep an eye on her sometimes.” I thought that would be all the explaining that I needed to do. Jamie needed someone to watch out for her. I was used to being that person.
“I’m pretty sure that falls under Nick’s jurisdiction nowadays.” Catherine said. I knew she didn’t mean it the way I took it, but it stung just the same.
“Yeah well, he doesn’t know her like I do.” I said. Catherine just nodded. “No one does.” I added as Lindsay came running over ot relate things that Nick had taught her to her mother.
I watched as Catherine listened intently, looking incredibly interested despite the subject matter. I watched as Nick and Jamie kissed, oblivious to their surroundings. She used to kiss me like that.
We walked slowly down the path through the zoo, coffee in hand as Nick and Lindsay ran ahead to look at all the animals, prompting more then one of Nick’s animal impressions.
“He’s such a goof.” I said with a sigh.
“He’s good with kids.” Sara said letting the sentence drop like a bomb. I ignored her as well as I could. “Does he know?” I shook my head.
“Know what?” Cahterine asked innocently. I sighed.
“About my kid.” I said shooting my roommate a glare that suggested she should learn when to shut her mouth.
“I didn’t know you had a kid.” She said lowering her voice as we neared Lindsay and Nick. I nodded slowly and took a long sip of my coffee.
“It’s not really something I bring up.” I said slowly when I realized they were both waiting for me to continue. “People have a tendency not to look kindly to women who do not raise their own children.” I inhaled and tried not to be mad at Sara for bringing it up.
“So you don’t have a relationship with your child?” Catherine asked cautiously. I chuckled.
“My child is a girl, her name is Jett, and I see her all the time, but she lives with her dad.” I said with a smirk. I dug into my purse to pull out my wallet and found a picture of her to hand to Catherine.
“Why does she live with her dad?” she asked. I should have been getting annoyed with all of the questions, but she was an investigator and on top of that, I hadn’t talked about Jett in a very long time.
“He’s reliable.” I said shooting Sara a smirk. “I don’t really stay in one place for long.”
“And why haven’t you told Nick?” Sara asked. “I mean, she’s bound to show up sooner or later.” I chuckled, she did have tendency to show up unannounced.
“It’s not something that’s easy to bring up.” I said with a sigh.
“I think you should tell him.” Sara said in her matter of fact voice. I raised an eyebrow and snatched the picture back.
”Nick!” I yelled, he stopped the giraffe impression and walked over to us. “Wanna see a picture?” I asked. He shrugged and I handed him the photo. “That’s my kid, she’s thirteen, she lives with her dad. Sara thought I should tell you.”
“She looks like you.” He said handing the photo back with a smile before kissing my cheek and going back to Lindsay who was watching us with a confused look on her face.
“Happy?” I snapped at my roommate, shoving the picture back into my wallet and catching up with Nick and Lindsay.
Jamie and Nick took Lindsay to the movies, leaving me alone with Catherine for the first time of the day.
“That was nice.” Catherine commented as we drove back to her place. I just nodded.
“Jamie loves the zoo.” I said as we pulled into her driveway.
“Looks like Nick does too.” Catherine said. “I’m glad he found someone, he’s been alone for a long time.”
I gave a dry chuckle as I killed the engine. “I wouldn’t count on it lasting. Jamie doesn’t do long term things.”
Catherine narrowed her eyes when she looked at me. “Except for you.” She noted. I shrugged before getting out of the car.
Jamie and I were different, our relationship was different. I wouldn’t expect any one else to understand that. Catherine stormed past me into the house, when I caught up and shut the door behind me she was already glaring at me.
“I have an idea.” Catherine said with a pointed look in my direction. “How about we go the rest of the day without mentioning your ex-girlfriend?”
“What?” I snapped. I knew it had been a long day. I knew I should have just shrugged it off. But I was in the mood to fight, and no one could hold their own against me like Catherine could.
“All day long it’s Jamie this and Jamie that, I’m sick of it Sara.” She said with a glare.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking at her like she’d grown another head. “We were with her all day!”
“Not just today Sara, everything you say has something to do with Jamie!” she said, her face flushed with emotion.
“And everything you say has something to do with Nick, what’s your fucking point?” I yelled back. She gave a bitter chuckle and stepped forward, her finger pressed against my sternum.
“If you’re so in love with her why are you even boterhing with me?” She seethed. I took a step back and clenched my hands at my sides.
“I stopped being in love with her ages ago, but I’m not going to stop loving her and you can’t ask me to do that.” I said, my arms were shaking, I could literally feel the anger pulsing through my system, and willed myself to calm down. “and if you think, for even one second, that this is just about screwing around you need to tell me and you need to do it now.”
“I didn’t say that. God you’re impossible!” Catherine said turning and throwing her hands up in defeat. I slumped my shoulders, I really was impossible. People had been telling me that my entire life, and Catherine knew that. Shit, at this point Catherine knew almost everything. There was a heavy silence between us for a few moments.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” I said more to myself than her.
“Why the hell not?” she snapped as she spun around to face me again. We were way past the point of no return.
“Because you’re Catherine Willows!” I screamed at her, as if the volume would make her understand.
“Oh. Right, I forgot. I’m the cokehead ex-stripper with a kid, right?” she spat in my direction. She was just determined to turn everything I say around.
“No! Because you’re supposed to be untouchable! You’re the Catherine Willows who has overcome every single obstacle that has been put in your way with an ease that everyone in the entire world must envy. You’re the Catherine Willows who was never supposed to end up slumming it with me.” I rambled before I could stop myself. “I think we need a break.”
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Catherine’s jaw dropped open for a moment and then she gathered herself.
“If that’s what you want.” She said in the cool voice that she used for suspects at work. I just nodded and let myself out of the house.