Author Note: A fem slash of Catherine and Sara is something I have not posted on this site in a long time…I hope you all enjoy the comedy/drama/adventure and maybe even steamy scenes of our two femme fatale's.

Please R&R and I will return the favour when I get the chance! Thank-you!

PS: I am working on this for Camp NaNoWriMo, so expect updates fairly shortly. Also, I am always open to suggestions for direction, character development etc.

BoOkwOrM-gUrl

Lover's Quarrel

Like every other Graveyard shift, Catherine and Sara arrived at the lave fifteen minutes before there shift. Since their relationship had become public knowledge, there was no point in skirting around formalities at the lab. There was still little to no affection between them happening in the walls of the Las Vegas Crime Lab but, the charade of them having to take separate vehicles to the office everyday was long gone. Except for today, the further they could be from one another the better. Before tonight it would be hard to sell the fact that the "Honeymoon Phase" of their relationship would ever end, however from the moment they both walked in through the front doors, you would have never believed they were a couple.

Judy, the five foot nothing, curly blonde hair lady who worked reception for the Las Vegas Police Department, noticed it first. She literally shuttered while pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and caught the iced glare from Catherine and puppy dog sad eyes of Sara following behind her. Obviously looking for forgiveness over something, and it appeared to be something big. Judy, who was usually a personable and friendly person to every single person who walked through the front door, or the men and women in uniform who passed by her desk every day, knew to keep her distance from the two women.

It was not the first time that Judy had seen Catherine this steaming mad. There were two other times. The first was a few years back, when Catherine discovered her now ex-husband Eddie ad cheated on her with another woman, in their own bed with Lindsey asleep for her afternoon nap in the next room. The second, was when Eddie stormed into the lab halls, demanding to see Catherine, the stench of beer and cigarettes on his breath was so strong that Judy could still remember it clearly in her mind. Before Judy could even react he was gone, stomping down the halls screaming Catherine's name, searching for her with his fists clenched as if he was ready to put it through the wall. He had found her, confronted her in front of the other lab techs and was ready to strike before Mr. Grissom stepped in and intervened before he threw the first blow. It has almost been eight years since that incident happened, eight years since Catherine had given that glare.

It was no secret that she and Sara were an item, and if anything Judy was glad that Sara and Catherine had something to look forward to beside their jobs. Before their relationship became common watercooler talk among the lab rats, many had suspected Catherine was batting for the other team. Some were jealous, especially since for the longest time, Catherine was one of only a handful of female criminalists on the labs payroll. Also, it was a known fact that before she joined the "Geek Squad" as the Detectives like to call it, Catherine worked at the French Palace as an exotic dancer. She may have aged in numbers since then but, her body, beauty and snappy attitude were just the same. It wasn't until some of the more, attractive, men roaming the halls were getting reject did the rumors begin. They were only finally proven after Sara Sidle came to town.

A two week internal investigation into the death of Holly Gribbs, a rookie who was shot and killed while processing a scene, turned into an indefinite stay for Sara thanks in large part to Catherine. Sara and Gil, who at the time was the supervisor of the Graveyard Shift, were old friends. Sara had attended some of his lectures in Los Angeles on entomology that fascinated her and got her involved in Forensics. They had kept in touch since, and he knew she was the best to handle an investigation of this magnitude. He offered her a full time position once the Holly Gribb case was closed which she accepted right away, without a moment's hesitation not because of the pay increase, or fresh location, but instead one new thing that Las Vegas had to offer that LA would never have; Catherine.

They worked the Holly case together, which spurred a relationship to blossom. It was a short amount of time but, in the midst of the two weeks that Sara was there in the lab, she and Catherine got to know each other on both a personal and professional level, almost to the point where it felt like they had known each other for months instead of days. Gil believed that this relationship that had blossomed between them to be strictly a professional one. It was not until six months did they come clean about being romantically involved with one another. Now, almost a year follow Holly's death, they were talking of getting married in two months' time.

That was if this fight did not put an end to that.

Catherine broke stride, leaving Sara in her proverbial dust as she brushed shoulders with Warrick who was just emerging from the locker rooms. He stepped to the side, raising his arms in the air as if he were surrender to allow his colleague to pass by. Warrick knew he had seen the look in Catherine's eyes before; when Eddie did something to ear himself another night in the doghouse.

Warrick nodded at Sara as she approached him, defeat deep in her brown eyes that were encircled by dark bags she was wearing from the lack of sleep, and not because of double time shifts at the lab. There was not enough concealer in the world to cover up those marks.

"Trouble in paradise?" Warrick snickered, his green eyes sparkling at the whiff of office drama that just stumbled into his lap. Sara should count her lucky stars that it was him and not Greg or worse, Hodges that came out of the locker room.

"You could say that," Sara sighed, jumping at the sudden slam of a locker knowing it was Catherine.

Warrick sucked in his breath, "I'm not one to get in the middle of office drama, but whatever you did to piss Catherine off you'd better think of a great way to make it up to her. The last time I saw her this pissed off was when Eddie cheated on her."

Sara scowled, hating the reminder that her fiancée was at one time, happily married to a man who treated her no better than a piece of garbage. It softened the blow a bit the know how much of a jerk he was however, it also how hurt and miserable she was but kept going for the sake of their daughter Lindsey. It made Sara feel a bit better to know that after the first year of marriage, Catherine no longer loved Eddie, and the only good thing that came from their marriage was their now ten year old daughter.

"Sadly, what I did is probably worse than that."

Warrick rose an eyebrow, "Worse than cheating?"

Sara looked over her shoulder, making sure no one with big loose lips was around, ready and poised to overhear the office gossip and use it to suck up to Grissom while running his trace results.

"I forgot our Anniversary." She whispered, feeling ashamed and like the worst person, let alone worst finance, in the world.

Warrick squirmed as if he had just witnessed a horrendous car crash on the interstate, "Yeah that will keep you in the dog house for a while." Warrick rested his hand on her shoulder, "Good luck Sidle." He chided and walked away.

"Gee, thanks." She muttered under her breath before turning and pushing open the door to the locker room when it collided with something hard. Sara made a silent prayer that that was anything besides her pissed off lover.

"Son of a bitch!" Someone squealed, as Sara's heart sunk even lower knowing she was now dead meat.

She pushed open the door further seeing the glaring nostrils of her fiancée as a goose egg was forming on her temple. It was now official that this shift has gone from bad to worst. Sara was speechless, fearing that a laugh she was trying so hard to keep contained, would leave her lips the moment she made a noise.

Catherine stepped to the side as Sara entered, trying to reach out and touch her forehead that she could already feel was swelling. Not was her fiancée only forgetful of the one day a year that is important to her but she also was now injuring her. She swatted Sara's hand away way beyond the point of just seeing red at this moment.

"Cath, I-I'm so sorry." Sara muttered.

"I don't need your haphazard first-aid." Catherine snarled, stepping away from Sara and the doorway to the locker room before heading to the back where the women's washroom was situated.

Sara desperately wanted to follow but knew better of it. Instead, she approached her locker that was situated next to Catherine's. She tried to tune out the sweating and sighting that was coming from behind the washroom door as she hung up her purse and coat. Sara grabbed her service pistol and strapped it to her hip, loving the familiar feel of the weight on her side. It was not usual for her to leave her weapon in her locker but, the last week she had been pulling double, sometimes triple shifts, and her mind was barely able to comprehend food let alone weapons and sadly, anniversaries. She also threw her id badge on over her neck and gave herself a once-over in the mirror held by magnets to her locker door. She was disgusted by the large bags under her eyes, and pale, almost deathly shade of her complexion. Less than two hours of sleep due to screaming, fighting and tears, tends to show very well on a person. Thankfully, last night Lindsey had spent a night at her friends and did not have to witness her mother and soon to be other mother fighting like little children.

She hoped that confronting the dragon head on would be better than anything else. Catherine was in a sour mood when she arrived and now there was no telling how high her temper was going to rise. Sara sighed, slamming her locker door shut and proceeded into the women's washroom. She leaned her head against the tiled wall as she watched Catherine's reflection in the mirror seeing the pure hatred in her eyes and scowl on her lips.

"Are we going to stay like this forever now? One of us pissed off at the world while the other tried to think of creative ways to apologize?" Sara stated, her eyes trying not to focus on the large goose egg that was forming on her fiancée's that she was attempting to cover with her bangs.

Catherine sighed, leaning over the vanity and closing her eyes trying to control the rage beast within. "You hurt me Sara, I mean, really hurt me."

"I know and I'm sorry, it was an accident."

Catherine opened her eyes wide, "An accident! You call forgetting our Anniversary just, an accident!" She shrieked, "You are treating this as if you were just involved in a fender bender or took someone else's coat at a party. Does this relationship we have mean anything to you?!"

Sara could feel a headache coming on as she opened her eyes, still having her deafening tone echo in her ears. "I, uh, I thought you meant the door." Sara whispered sheepishly, feeling a blush creep across her cheeks.

Great job Sidle, I'm going to become the 419 Grissom reads out at assignments.

Catherine swung around, fire blazing in her ice blue eyes. She was just exasperated at how clueless Sara was being about this whole situation. Sleep deprivation and stress of work can only take this so far, now they were entering a territory where this was becoming more and more like a plot to a rom-com movie. How was it that the woman she loved, the woman she vowed to marry in less than six months could be as dense as a concrete brick? Granted, Sara was six years younger than her and maybe she was just not mature enough, or experienced enough in relationships to know that what she thinks as being innocent and clueless is actually hurtful.

"Un-fucking-believable!" Catherine yelled, throwing the soggy, wet paper towels she had in her hand in Sara's face and stormed out of the women's washroom, heading back towards the hall. "We're going to be late for assignments." She called over her shoulder before slamming the locker room door shut behind her.

Sara wiped the mushy paper towel from her face and tossed it in the garbage bin next to her, afraid to admit the soothing feeling of cold water against her heated cheeks. She knew better than to chase after Catherine now. It was quite clear that everything she was saying or doing to make this situation better was, in reality, making it much worse. Sara went over to the vanity grabbing some dry paper towels from the dispenser and looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her complexion was still pale and the large circles that were under her eyes were only magnified under the bright lights of the vanity. Her lips were dry and cracked, like the Nevada desert as she patted the water dripping from her chin with the paper towel in her hand. Before she went to join Catherine and the rest of the team in the break room, Sara took a long, deep breath, trying to focus and clear her head that was more cluttered than a hoarder's home.

"Come on Sidle, chin up, shoulders back, just get through this shift, think of something perfect to give Cat to make up for this massive disaster you created and everything will once again be back on track." Sara stated, giving herself a pep talk before turning away from the mirror.

She tossed her used paper towels in the garbage bin and making her way to the break room.

When Sara approached the glass walls to the break room she could already see that everyone was already assembled like good little soldier ants awaiting their next round of commands from the Queen. Grissom was even there already, which was a surprise since he was always notorious for being either late or forgetting altogether that he needed to give out assignments at the beginning of shift. She eyed Catherine at the kitchen table in the middle of the room. She was mindlessly flipping through an out of date fashion magazine, not involved whatsoever in the playful banter happening between Warrick and Nick on the couch to her left.

Sara exhaled a deep breath while she turned the corner of the hall, grabbing the metal handle for the break room door and pushing it open with her shoulder, the familiar sucking sound of the glass door opening filling the almost silent room. She nervously smiled, trying to mask her tardiness that was very unusual for Sara to begin with and stood against the right hand wall, keeping a safe distance from everyone. She met Warrick's gaze as he was moving his eyes between her and Catherine, taking note of the distance between the two lovers as Nick was still yammering on about last night's football game. She just shook her head no to indicate to Warrick that he needed to keep his trap shut about her little confession a few minutes ago.

Gil turned around, moving his reading glasses down the bridge of his nose to notice that Sara had now joined them in the break room. He grabbed his coffee from the machine, cupping a stack of manila folders under his left arm as he gave a curt nod to Sara, his only acknowledgement of Sara being late as she returned the favor. He placed his steaming mug down on the table, along with the stack of folders, not phasing Catherine for even a moment as she continued to flip mindlessly through the fashion magazine in front of her. She did not even look up and meet eyes with Gil.

"Now that everyone is here, let's get down to business." Gil announced, eyeing Sara once more over the rim of his glasses where she sheepishly smiled in apology in return.

"Nick, you have a 419 at the Stratosphere. Seems like someone had a little too much fun at the top of the world."

"Great, a solo." Nick stated, hoping up from the couch and snatching the assignment slip out of his boss's hands. He was like a child on Christmas morning, his eyes glowing bright and a smile on his lips. Since being made a CSI Level 3 only nine months ago, this was only his fourth solo case.

"Yes, however keep me in the loop, it sounds like this case could become political."

"You got it boss," he called over his shoulder as he left the break room, winking at Sara as he passed.

She rolled her eyes, knowing that Nick was suddenly trying to pick her up. It did not matter that she and Catherine were due to get married in six months, Nick had his eye on Sara ever since she decided to join the Vegas team permanently. No matter how many times she had declined his subtle, and sometimes not so subtle hints, he always made a point to wink or smile just a little too wide in her direction. Sara hoped that Nick witnessing Catherine and her exchanging vows on an altar in front of a minister in six months' time would be enough proof that he had no chance in hell with her. That was of course, assuming the wedding was still going to take place to begin with.

"Warrick, you have a 417 in Henderson. I am going to work this one with you, the victim is Hotel and Casino Tycoon Paul Swanson. He owns the Stardust, among other high stakes properties on the Strip. This one could get messy fast." Gil explained handing the assignment and the stack of folders off to Warrick.

"What's with all the paper work?" Warrick asked.

"This Mr. Swanson, appears to be one familiar face in our databases. These are all the cases with his in direct or direct involvement over the past year, could come in handy depending on what we find out in Henderson."

"Gotcha, meet you at the Tahoe in ten." Warrick turned and nodded at Sara as he passed by, heading out of the break room once more.

Sara watched her boss, seeing the wheels in his brain turning now that it was only the three of them. He was trying to deduce the reason to why they were as far as humanly possible from one another in the break room when usually they were sitting together at the table, or on the couch, smiling and enjoying each other's company. Something had happened, it did not take a genius to figure that out, and however he was not one for getting involved in people's personal lives. He was not a people person, never was and probably never will be, so sitting down and having a heart-to-heart like a normal supervisor would was out of the question.

Catherine was still flipping through her magazine, not even missing a beat for the whole time he was talking, tuning everything out that was not applicable to her and Sara, she barely made eye contact with either Catherine or himself since she stepped foot into the break room. Gil knew about their relationship, he was actually the first person they decided to tell, wanting to make sure that their personal life choices would not compromise Sara getting hired full time at the Vegas Crime Lab. He did not even need to second guess his choice in allowing them to stay romantically involved while working the same shifts, knowing that this was exactly what they both needed and they promised they would not let personal problems and issues get in the way of their jobs. It was evident that whatever this was, it was not being checked at the door.

"Cath, am I interrupting your very intriguing reading time?" Gil asked, trying to get a rise out of Catherine first.

He had known her for years, almost twenty years in three months from now. He had seen her get married, have a baby, get cheated on and survive one of the worst relationships that Gil had even known the intimate details about. They were best friends, more than colleagues and he had known she was as lesbian for five years before Sara had showed up to handle the Internal Investigation for the Holly Gribb's case, a case that is still fresh in all their minds.

Catherine looked up from the year old Vogue she had in front of her and looked Gil hard in the eye, the red inflamed skin of the bruise on her temple was showing beneath her bangs. She could see Gil looking at it intently wondering how she got that injury, trying to solve the case with what little evidence was put in front of him. She did not have time or the patience to be treated like a China doll, or coddled like a child, all she wanted to know was if there was a case for her to work this evening or if she was going to be confined to the lab for the shift.

"Do you have something for me Gil, or can I return to the riveting world of pastels." Catherine snapped, her back to Sara who was standing next to the break room door, ready to escape the moment her boss gave her the go ahead.

"I do actually, a floater out at Lake Mead," Gil stated, dangling the assignment slip in front of her as if it were a juicy steak in front of a starving dog.

Catherine reached out to grab it when he pulled back, eyeing Sara against the wall seeing the hurt in her eyes and the discomfort in her posture, as if she was not comfortable in her own skin. "However, you're going to need back up and the only CSI I can spare is Sara."

Gil watched as all the muscles tightened in Sara, knowing that, that was probably the last thing she wanted to hear this shift. Catherine's eyes widened with hatred as she snatched the paper out of her bosses hands so fast that she actually gave him a paper cut on his fingers. She got out of her chair, turned and looked at Sara, glaring at her without uttering a word before pushing open the break room door and storming out of the room.

Sara was about to turn and follow after her knowing that Catherine will not enjoy being late to their scene because her fiancée could not follow her like a lost puppy. "Sara." Gil called as he sucked the blood off his finger from the paper cut Catherine just administered.

She stopped, turning to see her boss was approaching her with his cup of coffee in his hands.

"Do, do you want to tell me what's going on between you and Catherine?"

"Not really, it's personal Gil." Sara stated, feeling her cheeks beginning to burn from humiliation.

"I know it's personal, which is what concerns me the most. We had a deal Sara, the drama of home stays at home." Gil stated, sipping his coffee.

"I know, and I'm sorry, we'll keep it contained on this case. I promise."

"Don't make me regret my decision Sara. I enjoy seeing you happy, both of you, and you make a great team, I'd hate to break it up because of some little tiff."

If only you knew the half of it Gil Sara thought as she smiled and nodded before ducking out the door and back to her locker to grab her kit.

T.B.C