Rock Steady
Pairing: Warrick/Sara
Rating: PG
Word Count: 988
Notes: For the LiveJournal warricksara Sting title challenge.
It was at the end of a long shift, at the end of a long case, the kind of case that always pushed her buttons, that of the rape and murder of a young woman. It was all too brutal, too senseless, too familiar, sending shivers through her soul, turning her stomach, disturbing her sleep. What made it worse was that, this time, even though they knew who had done it, they couldn't find enough proof to pin it on him to a forensic certainty, so he'd walked out of the interrogation room, his lawyer at his side, a smirk on his face that had driven Sara and Detective Vartan completely to distraction.
Days like that came along only rarely, a fact for which Sara was thankful, but when they came along, they invariably hit her hard. Which is why, that day, she found herself sitting in the locker room long after the shift had ended, wanting to get the hell out of the lab, (and the way she felt right then and there, returning was debatable) but lacking the energy to even move. She was sitting on the bench in front of her locker, her head in her hands, her elbows on her knees, having sat down supposedly for only a moment. She didn't know how much time had passed, only came back to herself when she heard a voice saying her name, looked up into Warrick's concerned gaze.
"Sara, you ok?" he said, and something in his voice told her that it might not be the first time that he’d said her name. His gaze only got more worried when she opened her mouth to speak, then discovered too late that even answering him with one or two words required more than she had to give. Instead she just shook her head, pushing her hair back with her hands, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. She looked away from him quickly, because if anything, his obvious concern and sympathy was only making her feel worse, and when he sat down carefully on the bench beside her, she knew that that had been the wrong move.
There was a long moment where neither of them spoke, and when Warrick finally broke the silence, it was with careful, measured words. “Tough case.” It was a statement, not a question, and she realised that the lab grapevine must be working overtime if news of her suspect’s release had already hit the corridors.
He didn’t say anything else, waiting for her, and suddenly, it was as if a dam broke inside her, and she couldn’t hold back her words. “We were so close Warrick… so close. It had to be him… we knew it, and he knew we knew it… there was evidence… just not enough to link him conclusively…” She sighed, looked to the ceiling, hoping only that she would be able to keep her tears back. “You should have seen him when he walked out… he knew he’d got away with it…” She swallowed, the better to keep back her tears, grinding out, “Damn it…”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Warrick nodding knowingly. “Is there anything I can do?” he asked, and she smiled bitterly as, once again, the words fell from her lips without her even thinking.
“I could really use a drink right now,” she told him, and he chuckled, standing up, looking down at her expectantly.
“That I can do,” he said, his smile wide and ready. “I know this great little place…”
His voice trailed off as she shook her head, staring up at him. “No,” she said slowly, because she knew that he didn’t understand. “I could really use a drink right now.” She spoke deliberately, emphasising every word, and she thought she could see light dawning in his eyes. “That’s the problem,” she concluded, just in case he hadn’t figured it out, and his eyes grew wide as the penny dropped.
“Oh,” he breathed, and the expression on his face would be comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. He sat down heavily on the bench beside her, never taking his eyes off hers, blinking a couple of times as he collected his thoughts. “I didn’t know,” he finally said, and she smiled, letting him off the hook.
“No-one does,” she told him, letting out another long breath. “I don’t have a drinking problem,” she told him then, knowing she might as well get everything out in the open. “Not really… but I think… I know… I could. So I don’t drink any more. Much as I’d like to.”
The last was said with a wry smile, and wonder of wonders, the edges of Warrick’s lips turned up too. “OK,” he said, then repeated it with a nod. “OK.” Then, “So you don’t drink… do you eat?” Curious, she narrowed her eyes, nodding, and he stood up again, jerking his head towards the door. “In that case,” he said, “I know a place that does the best chocolate cake in all of Vegas...”
She smiled, standing up, grabbing her jacket from the bench beside her. “Do they have chocolate sauce?” she asked, and this time, his smile was bright enough to light the room.
“And ice cream,” he said, leading her out into the morning light.
In times to come, when she thought back on it, Sara would be glad that it was Warrick who found her, but she couldn’t be surprised. Because, after all, thinking back on it, Warrick was the one person she knew who had never let her down, had always been there for her, never asking her for explanations she couldn’t give, accepting her just the way she was, supporting her unconditionally. Rock steady, he’d always been there for her, and, as they sat in a small diner, talking about everything but the job, she realised just how much that meant to her.