Title: not a pretty girl
By: lewis771750
Pairing: Cath/Sara
Rating: G
Challenge: Ani DiFranco song titles
Spoilers: After The Show
Disclaimer: They are not mine. I know it, you know it, and they know I know it. I took them out to play and put a smile on their faces.
Words: 365

***

I knew she was pissed at me already, but the question slipped out before I could stop myself.

"Did your father ever tell you you were pretty?"

"I guess." That was all she said in reply, but that shrug, I knew it all to well. I'd hurt her on top of stepping in to what could be her career making case. OK I was the right person, Delhomme fixated on me, on the ex-showgirl he could see in me, but she was right, this should have been her case in any other circumstance. We'd just started making bridges again and I go and ask her if her father ever told her she was pretty. I knew she was insecure about her looks, didn't get why most men and more than a few women fantasised about her: tall, slim and gorgeous, smart too. I had to do something to reassure her, otherwise she would probably never talk to me again, and I couldn't cope with that.

"He ever tell you you were smart?"

"Yeah." Back onto safer territory there. She was so smart she scared me sometimes, how insecure she was about her looks she was secure in her brains. Even in this outfit with Grissom around she shone as the brightest of us. It was my experience that let me keep up with her, Grissom's too, and as time passed she was starting to pull ahead of both of us as she learnt more about the job every day than I could in a year.

"So, it probably never occurred to you that you wouldn't be successful. If all you ever hear is that you're gorgeous, you can let everything else fall away, and it can leave you in a very dangerous place." Unashamed flattery. Well the truth, but a truth I wanted her to remember I was big enough to say to her.

Ever since those drinks we'd got closer and closer. We were friends now, and I was still hoping she'd realise how I felt about her. But even if she never did, I would keep repairing those bridges. Keep her as my friend, fantasise about kissing her, taking her to my bed.

***