Title: Healing Hands
By: Alison
Pairing: Cath/Sara
Challenge: Picture of hands, with a side order of AU
Rated: PG
Spoilers: None
Word count: 816 if MS Word is to be believed
Disclaimer: standard response
AN: I am not a chiropractor, nor do I know any so the procedure is a mystery to me. But it's an AU fic anyway and so in my twisted world you have to strip down to your underwear.

***

Placing her hands gently above Sara's hips, Catherine pushed her slightly forwards and spoke. "Ok, bend over and touch your toes."

"Hell, you could at least buy me dinner first." Sara joked. The hands on her back hesitated in their movements, then lifted off completely. Sara straightened up and twisted slightly to look at Catherine.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I was just kidding around." Sara said, worry causing her brow to crease. She couldn't quite read the expression on Catherine's face. Catherine finally met Sara's eyes with her own and smiled briefly at her.

" It's ok. You just surprised me a little. And don't twist like that. It's probably why you ended up here in the first place." Placing her hands once more on Sara's hips, Catherine corrected Sara's posture then ran her hands smoothly over Sara's back muscles to check for tightness before nodding to herself with satisfaction.

"You seem to be aligned much better now. If you continue with the strengthening exercises I taught you and start lifting correctly you shouldn't need to come back for a while." Catherine began writing up notes while Sara replaced her clothes.

Thoughts flooded through Sara's brain. These trips to the chiropractor had become a regular and not entirely unpleasant distraction from the day to day grind of her job, and if she was honest with herself to wasn't purely because her back didn't hurt so much any more. Why else was she wearing new $200 underwear that matched. She couldn't remember the last time she had bought lingerie for someone else's benefit. Especially another woman who kept a picture of her daughter on prominent display. She knew deep down that this was a futile crush, but being with Catherine for a couple of hours each week had really brightened up Sara's lonely existence. It was all coming to an end, unless she damaged her back again, which was not something Sara really wanted.

She had spent several weeks in agony until Grissom had quietly placed a piece of paper with a time and address on it, with the instruction to go or stop moaning. Sara had reluctantly picked the paper up, and headed out, fully expecting to be pawed over by some sweaty middle aged man. How wrong she had been. The strawberry blonde woman had instantly made her feel at ease and comfortable, and they seemed to have built up a good rapport over the following weeks. Now it seemed that she had no excuse to see Catherine anymore, and it hurt.

Prolonging the inevitable as long as possible, Sara slowly pulled on her jeans, did up her blouse and pulled on her boots. Picking up her bag she headed towards the door.

"Well, so long, Catherine. I really appreciate all you've done for me. I feel so much better since coming here." Sara put her hand out to shake Catherine's, just to have a little more contact before she left.

Catherine slowly took Sara's hand in both of hers. She raised her eyes to Sara's, seeming to search for something in the tall brunette's. Catherine realised that she had been holding Sara's hands for longer than necessary, and abruptly broke contact.

"The pleasure was all mine, Ms Sidle."

"It's Sara, not Ms Sidle. You have seen far too much of me to be so formal." Sara tried to break the slightly awkward feeling that had descended on them by making light of the situation. She turned and headed towards the door, internally kicking herself for being such an idiot. Her hand was just turning the handle when she heard Catherine's hesitant voice behind her.

"Sara?"

"Yeah?" Sara turned back to look at Catherine.

"Did you mean what you said, about dinner?" Catherine was busy fiddling with some papers on her desk, not looking at Sara.

"Uh yeah, of course. I mean, um, if you want to." Sara felt, and sounded, like some teenager. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Did Catherine mean a date, or just dinner?

"I'd like that." Catherine finally raised her face. She too looked flushed. "How about tomorrow? Or is that too soon?"

"Tomorrow is fine." Sara knew she would have blown off a visitation with the Pope, Elvis and JFK to make dinner with Catherine. "I'll pick you up at eight?"

"That would be great. I'll give you my address and phone number." Catherine quickly scribbled down her details on a scrap of paper. She handed it over, allowing her fingers to brush over Sara's palm.

It was not until Sara was sitting in her car, trying to calm down enough to drive without crashing, that she looked at what Catherine had written. There in her beautiful flowing writing Catherine had written her address, phone number and underneath, '...make sure you wear the underwear you had on today.'

The end, maybe.

***

Next story in series - Healing Hands II.