Disclaimer: All characters are owned by someone else (i.e not me, unfortunately). Hopefully, no copyrights were breached in my making of this fic (I didn't mean to!) and I made no money doing this whatsoever. This is purely for my entertainment, instead of studying!





Catherine awoke feeling like crap. Her head pounded and it hurt to breathe. She was momentarily distracted and a little disoriented by the feeling of softness and warmth surrounding her bruised and aching body. She cracked an eye open against the white light streaming in the window. All of a sudden, she realised what had happened and bolted straight up - a big mistake. Sara was jarred awake by the sudden gasp of pain coming from beside her and the movement of the bed. Cursing herself for dozing off, she soon realised what had woken her - Catherine. She was sitting with her knees tucked to her chest, having difficulty breathing.



"Cath? Catherine? Can you hear me?" Sara asked, unable to keep her anxiety out of her voice.



"Yeah," Catherine gasped out, "I didn't lose my hearing overnight." It took a second for Sara to realise that Catherine had actually made a joke, and nervously exhaled.



"Seriously, Catherine, are you okay?" Sara asked, skirting around the obvious question until she made sure Catherine was alright. She put a hand to Catherine's forehead, avoiding the nasty laceration still starkly evident.

"How about your ribs? Do you want some painkillers?" Sara asked, relieved that Catherine didn't have a temperature.

"Actually, that would be nice," Catherine said, the realisation of what had happened last night sinking in. She was starting to feel extremely sore and was glad Sara was there. She was pretty sure Sara had been the one to comfort her when she had thrown up during the night, though she hadn't realised it at the time; she vaguely remembered a cool hand on her brow when she felt hot as well. While that part of the night was a blur, she couldn't forget what had happened previously. Terror struck her, and she grabbed Sara's arm as she was leaving for the bathroom.



"You didn't..." Catherine rasped, but before she could say any more, Sara said "No, I didn't" and gently pushed her back onto the bed.

"I didn't tell anybody...except I had to tell Grissom that something had come up and we wouldn't be in to work for a couple of days. He said we needed a break anyway, and since things are kinda quiet right now, he was more than obliging to give us a breather."

Catherine sighed as she sank once more into the bed, her head swimming with emotions and thoughts. What would Sara think of her now? What happened to Eddie? What about Lindsey? What about her work?

It was as if Sara read her mind...or at least the look of consternation on her friend's face.

"Don't worry about anything, it's all taken care of." Sara laid a soothing hand on Catherine's head, smoothing back her hair and tucking her in. For some reason, Catherine felt extremely comforted by the small touches and reassurances, and while Sara was out the room, managed to relax a little for the first time after the incident.



Sara returned a little while later, a glass of water in her hand. Catherine watched as Sara bent gracefully to retrieve the bottle of aspirin by the bed. Sara could feel Catherine's eyes on her, and turned to face her, bottle in hand. She could see that Catherine was a little flushed, but she almost laughed at the sight she saw.

"You look like an eskimo in that comforter," she laughed lightly. Catherine did, indeed, look quite a picture: the thick duvet was loosely draped around her, and her hair was sticking out in all directions. Sara was glad when Catherine laughed - she had been trying to lighten the mood, and she hadn't expected a response. Then again, this was Catherine - the laughing, joking friend she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt. It was as if a chord was struck deep within Sara - she genuinely cared about her friend, but was incredibly angry with Eddie. She clenched her jaw slightly when she thought of him, but pushed her feelings out of the way for the present.



"Here you go," she said, handing Catherine the pills.

"Thanks, Sara," said Catherine, pausing, as if she wanted to say more. Sara gave her a minute to collect her thoughts.

"I owe you a lot, Sara. I don't know quite what happened last night, but I'm sure as hell glad you came. Thank you."

Sara didn't know what to say in reply - instead, she just put her arms around her friend, hugging her close, wanting to make her feel loved. It seemed to work, as Catherine's body relaxed in her arms, and it soon became evident that she was asleep. Planting a chaste kiss on her friend's head, Sara tucked her in once more, then hesitated. Eventually, she decided to join Catherine, feeling more than a little tired after the events of the previous evening caught up with her. She curled up beside the smaller woman, half-consciously draping a protective arm over the other woman's abdomen. Moments later, she was asleep too.

On to Chapter 4...