(no subject)
Title: Subtle Looks and Sarcasm
Author: Smartyshortie
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Catherine Willows/Sara Sidle
Spoilers: A few minor spoilers episodes from every season of CSI except 4&6...major spoilers for season 7 finale and 8 premier
Disclaimer: All scenarios and characters referred to in this manifesto belong to CBS. I am merely using the stuff they have provided to build a theory of my own.
The Women
Catherine Willows is a single mom. Besides Grissom, she’s been working with the night shift the longest and has therefore established herself as the Alpha Female figure. She is a level 3 CSI with an attitude that was honed by her past. She was raised by a single mother who kept her moving around the west coast. She left high school and became an exotic dancer. Her past does not have an official established timeline, but from the sounds of things, she met her ex-husband while she was still dancing, before she got her life cleaned up. He introduced her to the world of drugs and she quickly became addicted to cocaine. She left him after catching him sleeping with another woman. Catherine took their young daughter, Lindsey, with her. In some cases, it is said that Eddie left Catherine with the cocaine problem, however in season one, when they are in a heated argument in the hallway, Eddie brings up the question “Who paid to close up your nose?” One can only assume that is an underhanded shot at her old snorting habits. It is not clear whether he left her while she was still a stripper or after she became a CSI. What is clear is that she met a man by the name of Detective Tadero while she was dancing and he convinced her to go back to school and get a degree, thus pushing her in the direction to become a CSI.
Sara Sidle’s past is constantly being changed, but what is known is that she grew up in an abusive home. In Nesting Dolls, she mentions being in and out of hospitals and thinking that was the way everyone lived their lives. Her mother killed her father when she was about 11 or 12 and she was put in foster care. Fanon usually believes that these were her hippie parents, although it is never mentioned on screen. Either with her birth parents or in foster care, Sara had an older brother whom she got in trouble for having pot. Again, a fanon assumption is that this was in foster care. Her college years are always up for debate, but what is known is that she has a Bachelor’s in Theoretical Physics. She worked in a coroner’s office in San Francisco and met Grissom while he was there giving a lecture. They have never stated the nature of their relationship, but he was the one that called her to help work on the Holly Gribbs case. Since Sara has arrived, she has been pretty guarded about her past. She has a habit of blowing up during cases of suspected domestic violence and it has often gotten her in trouble.
The Pairing
This is the first fandom pairing I ever began to ship hardcore. What first attracted me to them, in all honesty, was the attractiveness of the women. They were beautiful separately, so I figured they would be stunning together. I began to watch CSI reruns when they came on and I soon realized that my pairing had a basis. It’s all about the way they look at each other, and the subtle, yet not unnoticed way they check each other out.
Justifications: You may, at first, be led to believe that these women are completely straight. However, if you really think about it, there are signs that they could choose a partner of the same sex. First of all, Catherine was a stripper. This means she had to be pretty comfortable with her sexuality. This also means that, if she’s as popular as she says, she probably had regular male AND female clients. Catherine also shows signs of flirting with women. In Slaves of Las Vegas (Season 2 Episode 8), Lady Heather compliments her, telling her that she would make a good dominatrix and tells her the things needed to be one. When she asks Catherine how she survives her job, Catherine gives her a look and repeats exactly what Lady Heather just said. She even lowers her voice to a husky almost-whisper. Catherine even mentions the fact that as a dom, she would get to beat and torture men and it would be THEIR fantasy. There’s also a scene in Felonius Monk that shows Catherine in her stripper days. She’s with another stripper, Stephanie, who asks if they “are still on for tonight.” Catherine says she has a gig and asks Stephanie to forgive her. Stephanie decides to, just this once. Now, at first, it can sound like just friendly talk, but if you watch the clip, (available at clips.omaetoy.net, Season 2 episode 17) you can watch their body language and hear the tones of their voices. The stripper is on the stage and Catherine is on the ground. The stripper leans forwards, her voice with a slight edge to it and asks Catherine.
Sara is different. She actually really gives no true signs to her sexuality. She flirts majorly with the boys, however, if you watch closely, she flirts with Catherine as well, teasing her about the “bling bling” in her very first episode. Also, Sara has seen very little love in her life. She’s going to cling to any shred of love she can find. I believe, therefore, that gender would not be an barrier when finding a partner. She would just want to know that they loved her and would care for her and accept her for who she is.
Onscreen Chemistry
This pairing is one based on subtle looks and sarcasm and it starts from their very first meeting. In season 1 episode 2, Sara arrives to help with the case of a murdered CSI. Sara walks into the room where Catherine is working, knowing full well who she is. She asks “Do you know where I can find Catherine Willows.” Catherine is in a particularly bad mood and says “She’s out in the field.” However, she does turn to look at Sara and says “Let me guess, Sara Sidle.” Sara immediately retorts with “I know who I am. I think you’re a little confused.” She has a really cheeky grin on her face. Catherine confronts her instantly about taking the case from her. But Sara appeases her, saying two sharp women are better than one. This may not seem like much, but if you think about it, you already see the connection that they have. They can already snap back and forth at each other AND Sara is already able to read Catherine enough to be able to know exactly how to deal with her when she’s angry, something that shows itself better later on in the relationship. Anyways, the scene continues with a small invasion of personal space and some general smiles, glances and flirting. At this point, it is mostly from Sara, as Catherine still wants to protect her position as the Alpha Female.
From here on out, their relationship gets slightly more complicated. They go through phases where one minute, they are insulting each other, and the next, they are grinning at each other as if sharing some inside joke. This behavior continues on until Season 1 episode 21 when Sara and Catherine are working a case together at a carnival. In the end, Catherine confronts the mother about killing her own daughter and storms off down the hall, practically in tears. Sara immediately turns and hurries down the hall after her, grabbing her coat and calling the older woman’s name. She asks her if she’s alright and if she wants to go get something to eat with her. At this point, they aren’t really close enough for Catherine to confide and she quickly answers that she has to go home. However, upon seeing the slightly hurt look on Sara’s face, Catherine immediately thanks her and asks for a rain check and Sara smiles a little half-smile.
Not much happens in season 2, except more invasion of personal space and of course more snarking. Episode 9 is their major flirtation episode in this season. They are put on a case together and Catherine is pissed because it’s a case in the middle of nowhere and she feels she deserved a better case because of seniority. Sara again shows her ability to read Catherine and deal with her anger. Sara is using fluorescent powders and Catherine tells her protocol is black. Without missing a beat, Sara says “Since when do you care about my choice of powders,” a flirtatious smirk spread across her face. Catherine continues her ranting and Sara lets her go for a little while before finally rising and moving around the counter, grabbing a candy bar or something of the sort from the shelf and handing it to Catherine with a smug look on her face. From there it’s more general snarking and more ranting from Catherine until the assistant coroner arrives.
Season 3 starts out the same as 1 and 2, more general snarking, personal space invasion, and looks. It is at episode 15 that things get interesting. Sara is working the case of the murder of Catherine’s ex-husband. Catherine is rightfully pissed because she wants to be working the case. At one point, she watches an interrogation from the other side of the mirror. The suspect says something about Catherine’s daughter and Catherine storms into the room, leaning on the table and threatening the woman. Sara immediately grabs Catherine, pulling her back. Her arms wrap around her ever so slightly as she guides her out the door and into the hallway where she confronts her. She seems to reach out a hand to steady Catherine, even as they fight and she finally walks away, calmly telling Catherine to go home and be with her daughter.
At the end, Sara is unable to solve the case and you can hear the sob in her voice as she has to tell Catherine that she couldn’t do it. While Sara does have a habit of letting cases affect her, this type would normally not. Eddie was involved in drugs and all manner of other awful things and Sara would normally have had little sympathy. However, here she is, about ready to cry because she can’t give Catherine closure. Catherine can barely look at her and yet she stays in the room. Sara quietly says, “Cat, I did my best.” Catherine fixes her with a sad stare.
Sara calling Catherine “Cat” does have some significance. Everyone either calls her Cath or Catherine. Grissom will occasionally call her Cat, but he is the only one that she has allowed to do it up to this point. In fact, there is an episode in Season 2 where Greg is trying to get her attention and he says “Hey, yo, Cat.” And she immediately gets a little angry edge to her voice and says “I’m going to pretend you didn’t call me that.” Yet when she is already furious with Sara, she says nothing when Sara lovingly uses the name to try and apologize. Greg and Catherine are good friends, but only her closest friends are allowed to call her Cat.
You would think that Catherine would be angry with Sara for a long time after that incident, but two episodes later, Sara is having personal problems and it is Catherine to the rescue. The team manages to find out that Sara’s boyfriend cheated on her. While we have been led to believe that Sara is closer to the boys on the team than to Catherine, we now find that it is Catherine that she has turned to for comfort. As they leave the building, they come across Hank and Catherine immediately says that she will wait outside. Sara deals with her little issue and walks outside where Catherine is waiting with the car. She gets in and stares straight ahead. Catherine looks her over once and immediately realizes that talking about it would not be the best thing for Sara.
Catherine: You got plans?
Sara: Nope.
Catherine: You wanna get a beer?
Sara turns to look at her and Catherine gives her a reassuring smile.
Sara: Drive.
Sara grins a little and Catherine smiles gently at her before pulling the car into drive. She glances again at Sara and they head off as the episode ends.
Nothing extremely significant happens in season 4 between the women. They exchange more looks and a little more snarkiness. There is a lot of invasion of personal space and a lot of love-hate, but again, nothing particularly relationship defining.
Season 4 eye shag scene
Season 5 episode 13 is their next major relationship fluctuation. Sara goes off the handle about a case of domestic violence and she and Catherine argue in the hallway. Catherine tries to remain calm, to get to the bottom of it.
Catherine: Every time we get a case with a hint of domestic violence, you go off the deep end. What is your problem?
She is trying her best to keep her voice level, being very patient with Sara who has insulted her only a couple minutes before. Sara then bursts back.
Sara: Yea I probably do. And you let your sexuality cloud your judgment about men and I’m gonna go over your head.
At this point, Ecklie breaks into it and we don’t get to see Catherine’s reaction. But I have to wonder. What was Sara talking about when she said “sexuality?”
Catherine and Sara don’t seem to really have many cases together after that. My guess is they had a little break-up and could therefore not bear the sight of each other. Then again, this is also when the writers decided to start shoving Grissom/Sara down our throats, so that could be part of it.
In episode 22, however, they are right back to flirting again. Sara tells her about a judge making a comment on the color of her suit and asks Catherine if she thinks the judge was flirting with her.
Catherine: I thought judges were supposed to be colorblind.
Sara: (mumbles) Yea, right. That’s cute.
It’s hard to tell with just the words, but if you listen to Sara’s voice, you can tell she is kind of snarkily teasing Catherine.
They work on the evidence for a little bit longer before Catherine realizes something and says that she needs to go pick Lindsey up from school. She flashes Sara an award winning smile and asks Sara to cover for her. Sara immediately agrees and as Catherine leaves, Sara asks her to say hey to Lindsey for her. Whoa. How does Sara know Lindsey? Granted, in Season 3, Sara was investigating the death of Lindsey’s father and therefore had to question the girl, but that was over two years ago. Besides that, Catherine hasn’t brought Lindsey in to work and when she has, she’s only seen talking to Warrick. Hmm. Sounds to me like Sara has been paying visits to Catherine’s house.
Season 6 is another season that passes with relatively little in the way of a relationship. More eye shagging, invasion of personal space, flirtatious looks, and snarking, but that’s about it. Again, when the writers were deciding to shove Grissom/Sara down our throats.
Season 6 eye shagging scene
Season 7, however, starts immediately with Catherine/Sara moments. In the first episode, Catherine is kidnapped. She wakes up in a hotel room, naked and alone, thinking she has been raped. In the second episode, she calls up Sara and immediately gets straight to the point, obviously very comfortable with the other woman. She tells her what happened, and tells her she improvised her own rape kit as they begin to walk together.
Sara: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you call it in?
Catherine: (turning to look pointedly at Sara. Their eyes lock.) I called you.
There is no hesitation after Sara says “Did you call it in?” Catherine immediately just says her bit. Sara agrees to work the case for her without telling anyone else, i.e. she has just taken on extra work to help the other woman AND she has just agreed to help her carry a huge secret, one that will be very hard for them to keep from the rest of the lab as night shift tends to be very chatty. She walks Catherine to the cab, holding her arm out as if to steady the older woman who heads off quickly. Sara holds up her end of the bargain, finds out what happens, and keeps the secret between them. Not even the female lab techs know, and they are the ones processing the evidence. Sara has obviously told them it is a case that she and Catherine are working together because Wendy nonchalantly brings Catherine the results, as if it was a standard case.
At the end of Season 7, Sara is abducted and left under an upside down car in the middle of the desert.
At the beginning of Season 8, the search for her begins. They narrow down the area and head out to the desert. Greg spies the car and they all head to it to see if she is under it. Sara has managed to escape. Grissom sees footprints, and who does he immediately call to his side? Catherine. She runs over to him and he shows her. Catherine instantly takes charge, telling the team that they are going to continue searching on foot. They soon lose the footprints, but find that Sara has left them a series of rock stacks to follow. Catherine runs to each one and one the second one (well the second one we see anyway), she pauses for a second, smiles a little, looks around her and says “Good girl.” When they don’t see another one, they panic a little and Grissom notices a body nearby. They panic and run to it. While Grissom paws at the dirt like a dog, Catherine sinks down tenderly and begins to move the dirt away gently, as if she were afraid of hurting Sara. If it had been Sara, it would have meant that she was dead, but still, Catherine is very tender while trying to dig. They soon discover it is a male, however and the search continues. Grissom starts to panic, but Catherine keeps her cool. He mentions that Sara is dehydrated, disoriented. But Catherine says, “She’s a survivor.” She has faith in her girl. She believes she is alive, even while the others are giving up hope. When Nick and Sofia find Sara, they call it in over the radio. Catherine and Grissom immediately drive over there. Catherine hops out of the car and races over to her, watching helplessly as the paramedics struggle to get a pulse. They lift her onto the gurney and Catherine follows closely beside it as they carry her to the chopper. As they finally lift her in, Catherine calls out “Where are you taking her?” I know she immediately rushed to the hospital, I’m sure keeping an eye out for the chopper carrying her lover. And I’m sure there was serious hurt/comfort going on as she nursed her back to health.
This, unfortunately, is the last major example of Catherine/Sara because after this, Grissom/Sara was officially canon and the writers tried to stop any subtext between Sara and the other characters. I know in my heart, however, that Catherine and Sara are meant for each other and that canon is nothing compared to the flirtations and looks that pass between these women.
Fandom Guide
Ralst
Fanfiction.net
Myspace
CSI Wiki
Youtube (granted there are more videos, this is just with the general 'catherine and sara' search')
PureJorja
and Omaetoy
for episode clips
Fan History Wiki
Author: Smartyshortie
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Catherine Willows/Sara Sidle
Spoilers: A few minor spoilers episodes from every season of CSI except 4&6...major spoilers for season 7 finale and 8 premier
Disclaimer: All scenarios and characters referred to in this manifesto belong to CBS. I am merely using the stuff they have provided to build a theory of my own.
The Women
Catherine Willows is a single mom. Besides Grissom, she’s been working with the night shift the longest and has therefore established herself as the Alpha Female figure. She is a level 3 CSI with an attitude that was honed by her past. She was raised by a single mother who kept her moving around the west coast. She left high school and became an exotic dancer. Her past does not have an official established timeline, but from the sounds of things, she met her ex-husband while she was still dancing, before she got her life cleaned up. He introduced her to the world of drugs and she quickly became addicted to cocaine. She left him after catching him sleeping with another woman. Catherine took their young daughter, Lindsey, with her. In some cases, it is said that Eddie left Catherine with the cocaine problem, however in season one, when they are in a heated argument in the hallway, Eddie brings up the question “Who paid to close up your nose?” One can only assume that is an underhanded shot at her old snorting habits. It is not clear whether he left her while she was still a stripper or after she became a CSI. What is clear is that she met a man by the name of Detective Tadero while she was dancing and he convinced her to go back to school and get a degree, thus pushing her in the direction to become a CSI.
Sara Sidle’s past is constantly being changed, but what is known is that she grew up in an abusive home. In Nesting Dolls, she mentions being in and out of hospitals and thinking that was the way everyone lived their lives. Her mother killed her father when she was about 11 or 12 and she was put in foster care. Fanon usually believes that these were her hippie parents, although it is never mentioned on screen. Either with her birth parents or in foster care, Sara had an older brother whom she got in trouble for having pot. Again, a fanon assumption is that this was in foster care. Her college years are always up for debate, but what is known is that she has a Bachelor’s in Theoretical Physics. She worked in a coroner’s office in San Francisco and met Grissom while he was there giving a lecture. They have never stated the nature of their relationship, but he was the one that called her to help work on the Holly Gribbs case. Since Sara has arrived, she has been pretty guarded about her past. She has a habit of blowing up during cases of suspected domestic violence and it has often gotten her in trouble.
The Pairing
This is the first fandom pairing I ever began to ship hardcore. What first attracted me to them, in all honesty, was the attractiveness of the women. They were beautiful separately, so I figured they would be stunning together. I began to watch CSI reruns when they came on and I soon realized that my pairing had a basis. It’s all about the way they look at each other, and the subtle, yet not unnoticed way they check each other out.
Justifications: You may, at first, be led to believe that these women are completely straight. However, if you really think about it, there are signs that they could choose a partner of the same sex. First of all, Catherine was a stripper. This means she had to be pretty comfortable with her sexuality. This also means that, if she’s as popular as she says, she probably had regular male AND female clients. Catherine also shows signs of flirting with women. In Slaves of Las Vegas (Season 2 Episode 8), Lady Heather compliments her, telling her that she would make a good dominatrix and tells her the things needed to be one. When she asks Catherine how she survives her job, Catherine gives her a look and repeats exactly what Lady Heather just said. She even lowers her voice to a husky almost-whisper. Catherine even mentions the fact that as a dom, she would get to beat and torture men and it would be THEIR fantasy. There’s also a scene in Felonius Monk that shows Catherine in her stripper days. She’s with another stripper, Stephanie, who asks if they “are still on for tonight.” Catherine says she has a gig and asks Stephanie to forgive her. Stephanie decides to, just this once. Now, at first, it can sound like just friendly talk, but if you watch the clip, (available at clips.omaetoy.net, Season 2 episode 17) you can watch their body language and hear the tones of their voices. The stripper is on the stage and Catherine is on the ground. The stripper leans forwards, her voice with a slight edge to it and asks Catherine.
Sara is different. She actually really gives no true signs to her sexuality. She flirts majorly with the boys, however, if you watch closely, she flirts with Catherine as well, teasing her about the “bling bling” in her very first episode. Also, Sara has seen very little love in her life. She’s going to cling to any shred of love she can find. I believe, therefore, that gender would not be an barrier when finding a partner. She would just want to know that they loved her and would care for her and accept her for who she is.
Onscreen Chemistry
This pairing is one based on subtle looks and sarcasm and it starts from their very first meeting. In season 1 episode 2, Sara arrives to help with the case of a murdered CSI. Sara walks into the room where Catherine is working, knowing full well who she is. She asks “Do you know where I can find Catherine Willows.” Catherine is in a particularly bad mood and says “She’s out in the field.” However, she does turn to look at Sara and says “Let me guess, Sara Sidle.” Sara immediately retorts with “I know who I am. I think you’re a little confused.” She has a really cheeky grin on her face. Catherine confronts her instantly about taking the case from her. But Sara appeases her, saying two sharp women are better than one. This may not seem like much, but if you think about it, you already see the connection that they have. They can already snap back and forth at each other AND Sara is already able to read Catherine enough to be able to know exactly how to deal with her when she’s angry, something that shows itself better later on in the relationship. Anyways, the scene continues with a small invasion of personal space and some general smiles, glances and flirting. At this point, it is mostly from Sara, as Catherine still wants to protect her position as the Alpha Female.
From here on out, their relationship gets slightly more complicated. They go through phases where one minute, they are insulting each other, and the next, they are grinning at each other as if sharing some inside joke. This behavior continues on until Season 1 episode 21 when Sara and Catherine are working a case together at a carnival. In the end, Catherine confronts the mother about killing her own daughter and storms off down the hall, practically in tears. Sara immediately turns and hurries down the hall after her, grabbing her coat and calling the older woman’s name. She asks her if she’s alright and if she wants to go get something to eat with her. At this point, they aren’t really close enough for Catherine to confide and she quickly answers that she has to go home. However, upon seeing the slightly hurt look on Sara’s face, Catherine immediately thanks her and asks for a rain check and Sara smiles a little half-smile.
Not much happens in season 2, except more invasion of personal space and of course more snarking. Episode 9 is their major flirtation episode in this season. They are put on a case together and Catherine is pissed because it’s a case in the middle of nowhere and she feels she deserved a better case because of seniority. Sara again shows her ability to read Catherine and deal with her anger. Sara is using fluorescent powders and Catherine tells her protocol is black. Without missing a beat, Sara says “Since when do you care about my choice of powders,” a flirtatious smirk spread across her face. Catherine continues her ranting and Sara lets her go for a little while before finally rising and moving around the counter, grabbing a candy bar or something of the sort from the shelf and handing it to Catherine with a smug look on her face. From there it’s more general snarking and more ranting from Catherine until the assistant coroner arrives.
Season 3 starts out the same as 1 and 2, more general snarking, personal space invasion, and looks. It is at episode 15 that things get interesting. Sara is working the case of the murder of Catherine’s ex-husband. Catherine is rightfully pissed because she wants to be working the case. At one point, she watches an interrogation from the other side of the mirror. The suspect says something about Catherine’s daughter and Catherine storms into the room, leaning on the table and threatening the woman. Sara immediately grabs Catherine, pulling her back. Her arms wrap around her ever so slightly as she guides her out the door and into the hallway where she confronts her. She seems to reach out a hand to steady Catherine, even as they fight and she finally walks away, calmly telling Catherine to go home and be with her daughter.
At the end, Sara is unable to solve the case and you can hear the sob in her voice as she has to tell Catherine that she couldn’t do it. While Sara does have a habit of letting cases affect her, this type would normally not. Eddie was involved in drugs and all manner of other awful things and Sara would normally have had little sympathy. However, here she is, about ready to cry because she can’t give Catherine closure. Catherine can barely look at her and yet she stays in the room. Sara quietly says, “Cat, I did my best.” Catherine fixes her with a sad stare.
Sara calling Catherine “Cat” does have some significance. Everyone either calls her Cath or Catherine. Grissom will occasionally call her Cat, but he is the only one that she has allowed to do it up to this point. In fact, there is an episode in Season 2 where Greg is trying to get her attention and he says “Hey, yo, Cat.” And she immediately gets a little angry edge to her voice and says “I’m going to pretend you didn’t call me that.” Yet when she is already furious with Sara, she says nothing when Sara lovingly uses the name to try and apologize. Greg and Catherine are good friends, but only her closest friends are allowed to call her Cat.
You would think that Catherine would be angry with Sara for a long time after that incident, but two episodes later, Sara is having personal problems and it is Catherine to the rescue. The team manages to find out that Sara’s boyfriend cheated on her. While we have been led to believe that Sara is closer to the boys on the team than to Catherine, we now find that it is Catherine that she has turned to for comfort. As they leave the building, they come across Hank and Catherine immediately says that she will wait outside. Sara deals with her little issue and walks outside where Catherine is waiting with the car. She gets in and stares straight ahead. Catherine looks her over once and immediately realizes that talking about it would not be the best thing for Sara.
Catherine: You got plans?
Sara: Nope.
Catherine: You wanna get a beer?
Sara turns to look at her and Catherine gives her a reassuring smile.
Sara: Drive.
Sara grins a little and Catherine smiles gently at her before pulling the car into drive. She glances again at Sara and they head off as the episode ends.
Nothing extremely significant happens in season 4 between the women. They exchange more looks and a little more snarkiness. There is a lot of invasion of personal space and a lot of love-hate, but again, nothing particularly relationship defining.
Season 4 eye shag scene
Season 5 episode 13 is their next major relationship fluctuation. Sara goes off the handle about a case of domestic violence and she and Catherine argue in the hallway. Catherine tries to remain calm, to get to the bottom of it.
Catherine: Every time we get a case with a hint of domestic violence, you go off the deep end. What is your problem?
She is trying her best to keep her voice level, being very patient with Sara who has insulted her only a couple minutes before. Sara then bursts back.
Sara: Yea I probably do. And you let your sexuality cloud your judgment about men and I’m gonna go over your head.
At this point, Ecklie breaks into it and we don’t get to see Catherine’s reaction. But I have to wonder. What was Sara talking about when she said “sexuality?”
Catherine and Sara don’t seem to really have many cases together after that. My guess is they had a little break-up and could therefore not bear the sight of each other. Then again, this is also when the writers decided to start shoving Grissom/Sara down our throats, so that could be part of it.
In episode 22, however, they are right back to flirting again. Sara tells her about a judge making a comment on the color of her suit and asks Catherine if she thinks the judge was flirting with her.
Catherine: I thought judges were supposed to be colorblind.
Sara: (mumbles) Yea, right. That’s cute.
It’s hard to tell with just the words, but if you listen to Sara’s voice, you can tell she is kind of snarkily teasing Catherine.
They work on the evidence for a little bit longer before Catherine realizes something and says that she needs to go pick Lindsey up from school. She flashes Sara an award winning smile and asks Sara to cover for her. Sara immediately agrees and as Catherine leaves, Sara asks her to say hey to Lindsey for her. Whoa. How does Sara know Lindsey? Granted, in Season 3, Sara was investigating the death of Lindsey’s father and therefore had to question the girl, but that was over two years ago. Besides that, Catherine hasn’t brought Lindsey in to work and when she has, she’s only seen talking to Warrick. Hmm. Sounds to me like Sara has been paying visits to Catherine’s house.
Season 6 is another season that passes with relatively little in the way of a relationship. More eye shagging, invasion of personal space, flirtatious looks, and snarking, but that’s about it. Again, when the writers were deciding to shove Grissom/Sara down our throats.
Season 6 eye shagging scene
Season 7, however, starts immediately with Catherine/Sara moments. In the first episode, Catherine is kidnapped. She wakes up in a hotel room, naked and alone, thinking she has been raped. In the second episode, she calls up Sara and immediately gets straight to the point, obviously very comfortable with the other woman. She tells her what happened, and tells her she improvised her own rape kit as they begin to walk together.
Sara: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you call it in?
Catherine: (turning to look pointedly at Sara. Their eyes lock.) I called you.
There is no hesitation after Sara says “Did you call it in?” Catherine immediately just says her bit. Sara agrees to work the case for her without telling anyone else, i.e. she has just taken on extra work to help the other woman AND she has just agreed to help her carry a huge secret, one that will be very hard for them to keep from the rest of the lab as night shift tends to be very chatty. She walks Catherine to the cab, holding her arm out as if to steady the older woman who heads off quickly. Sara holds up her end of the bargain, finds out what happens, and keeps the secret between them. Not even the female lab techs know, and they are the ones processing the evidence. Sara has obviously told them it is a case that she and Catherine are working together because Wendy nonchalantly brings Catherine the results, as if it was a standard case.
At the end of Season 7, Sara is abducted and left under an upside down car in the middle of the desert.
At the beginning of Season 8, the search for her begins. They narrow down the area and head out to the desert. Greg spies the car and they all head to it to see if she is under it. Sara has managed to escape. Grissom sees footprints, and who does he immediately call to his side? Catherine. She runs over to him and he shows her. Catherine instantly takes charge, telling the team that they are going to continue searching on foot. They soon lose the footprints, but find that Sara has left them a series of rock stacks to follow. Catherine runs to each one and one the second one (well the second one we see anyway), she pauses for a second, smiles a little, looks around her and says “Good girl.” When they don’t see another one, they panic a little and Grissom notices a body nearby. They panic and run to it. While Grissom paws at the dirt like a dog, Catherine sinks down tenderly and begins to move the dirt away gently, as if she were afraid of hurting Sara. If it had been Sara, it would have meant that she was dead, but still, Catherine is very tender while trying to dig. They soon discover it is a male, however and the search continues. Grissom starts to panic, but Catherine keeps her cool. He mentions that Sara is dehydrated, disoriented. But Catherine says, “She’s a survivor.” She has faith in her girl. She believes she is alive, even while the others are giving up hope. When Nick and Sofia find Sara, they call it in over the radio. Catherine and Grissom immediately drive over there. Catherine hops out of the car and races over to her, watching helplessly as the paramedics struggle to get a pulse. They lift her onto the gurney and Catherine follows closely beside it as they carry her to the chopper. As they finally lift her in, Catherine calls out “Where are you taking her?” I know she immediately rushed to the hospital, I’m sure keeping an eye out for the chopper carrying her lover. And I’m sure there was serious hurt/comfort going on as she nursed her back to health.
This, unfortunately, is the last major example of Catherine/Sara because after this, Grissom/Sara was officially canon and the writers tried to stop any subtext between Sara and the other characters. I know in my heart, however, that Catherine and Sara are meant for each other and that canon is nothing compared to the flirtations and looks that pass between these women.
Fandom Guide
Ralst
Fanfiction.net
Myspace
CSI Wiki
Youtube (granted there are more videos, this is just with the general 'catherine and sara' search')
PureJorja
and Omaetoy
for episode clips
Fan History Wiki