Day Two: A Needed Visit

[agentwillows]

Continuing from part one

After Catherine had crawled into bed the night before, but before she had fallen asleep, she made a conscious decision through the thin cloud of alcohol still surrounding her brain. "I have got to take Sara shopping." She had said it aloud to herself in her empty room, and with a silent nod, she crawled under the warm

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[saraannesidle]

Sara is not looking up cases. Instead she's on her phone, responding to a couple of emails and texts. She woke up to a "how are you feeling" from her husband and it's set her in a mood. Right now, she doesn't want him to care about how she's doing. Finally, she hauls herself out of bed, leaves the sheets to be straightened later, and after taking care of a few things in the bathroom, makes her way down the stairs. She's in pain but can't take anything until she eats because spending the morning puking is not how she wants the day to go.

For a moment, just a moment, she flashes back to that day when she had let herself hope ...

And then she's in the kitchen, pouring coffee, and coming face to face with Catherine. She's embarrassed, but just gives her a slightly hungover smile. "Hi."

[agentwillows]

Catherine perked up at the sound of footsteps on the stairs, honestly not having expected Sara to come down so early. It wasn't the crack of dawn, but still pretty early, and considering how bad Sara had looked the night before, she figured she'd be sleeping it off for a while. "Hi yourself," Catherine greeted her with a sort of sideways smile. "Feeling any better, Rambo?"

[saraannesidle]

Sara rolls her eyes at the name and despite her embarrassment at having been busted, there is an ease now. And it's clear that Catherine isn't judging her. "Not really," she admits quietly. "That's what happens when the pain killers wear off. But, it's no worse than it usually is." She takes a sip of the coffee. "For years and years it was just a dull thing and then overnight it turned into the heat of a thousand suns in my uterus." The confession feels strange, but it's good to say it to a woman. She's said it to Gil, but she knows he doesn't really understand. So all he does is worry.

[agentwillows]

Catherine couldn't help but wince. She was fortunate enough to never have any major health problems. She had been a healthy kid, and an even healthier adult. The only sort of surgery she had ever had to have done was to get her wisdom teeth removed and her tonsils out, and that hadn't been bad at all. Some anesthesia, a few hours of being out of it, and buckets of ice cream.

"Why don't you take some more, then," Catherine suggested. "Because I'm getting you out of this house today, and I'm taking you shopping."