DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI or any of it's characters, Jerry Bruckheimer, Alliance Atlantis and CBS have that priviledge.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A tiny spoiler for "Iced". Thanks go out to my cool beta Ez!
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

Cinnamon Girl
By Maaike

 

Chapter 2

Sara was walking towards the interrogation room after dropping off the evidence they had collected. Sara wanted to barge into the interrogation and get everything out of the girl who was sitting there, but since she was quite fond of her life she voted against it since, knew Catherine was interrogating the girl already. Catherine would bite her head off if she butted in now, so instead she opted for looking in through the two way mirror.

When she looked into the room, her anger towards the girl being interrogated subsided within a second. The girl was looking into the two way mirror and seemed to look straight into Sara's eyes. She couldn't be a day over 25, but her eyes made her look much older. Sara knew those eyes; she had seen them many times before. She saw something familiar in those eyes, something that drew her to the girl. To her surprise, Catherine wasn't in the room.

"Sara Sidle, are you checking out cinnamon girl?" A voice asked.

It was Catherine, Sara just knew it. She knew because Catherine was so close; she could feel her breath on her skin, which made her warm inside.

"I'm not," Sara said, turning around to see a playful smile on Catherine's face. Sara decided to play along. "Are you jealous, Cath?" She asked, letting her name linger on her tongue as long as possible. She loved calling her Cath. it was smooth and sexy.

Catherine chuckled. The always cool and together Sara Sidle was flirting with her! It was a miracle.

"If I didn't know any better Sara, I'd think you were flirting with me," Catherine smirked.

She saw Sara turn red at her remark, so she thought maybe Sara really was flirting with her. Now that would be... well what would it be actually? Nice? Inappropriate? Catherine realized it even made her lose her cool. She felt herself blush and almost wanting to run out of the room. She would have to talk about that with Sara later.

"Well I'm going in again, Brass wanted to take a break because cinnamon girl here was getting on his nerves," Catherine said, putting her hand on Sara's shoulder.

'OK, where did that come from?' Catherine asked herself when she felt Sara's burning skin underneath her hand, and she liked it.

"Ok, good luck," Sara said, flashing Catherine a shy smile.

Sara wondered what had just happened between her and the love of her life, did they just actually flirt? Did Catherine blush because of her remark? Did Catherine feel what she felt when she put her hand on her shoulder?

Sara shook her head to clear her thoughts when she saw Catherine and Brass enter the interrogation room again. She saw Jane tensed up immediately when she saw the two enter. Sara wondered why.

Catherine was losing her patience with the girl she was interrogating. This girl was lying to her about everything she asked about the girl's personal life. The questions about the victim seemed to be answered truthfully. This girl, according to herself named Jane Smith, was holding back a lot. And who was named Jane Smith these days? It made Catherine think of a movie she saw with Lindsay not too long ago, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The woman in that movie was named Jane Smith too, and she was a secret agent.

She heard Jim Brass asking the girl questions, but the method Jim was using only seemed to make the girl crawl back even more. Her shoulders squared and she looked even more tense then she already was. She looked like she was about to burst.

"Jim, could you leave me alone with her please?" Catherine said.

Brass looked at her and raised his eyebrow. He saw Catherine's determined look and knew better than to argue with the blonde CSI. He nodded and left the room.

"Ok Jane, he is gone now. Will you talk to me?" Catherine asked, sitting down across the table from 'Jane'.

The girl just looked up and stared at Catherine. The girl's eyes made her look so much older than she really was. There was a look of pain in there as if she had been through much more than she should have been at that age.

"Now, we can start with being honest with each other. My name is Catherine Willows, now you tell me yours," Catherine said calmly. She was determined to break through this girl's walls.

"Jane..."

"Don't lie to me. Jane Smith is nothing more than a name from a movie. If you really had done your research well you would've told me your name was Jane Doe," Catherine said and smiled at the reaction she got.

The girl looked up at her; the desperation was visible in her eyes. Her face seemed pretty emotionless, but her eyes gave everything away. This girl, the so called Jane Smith, was about to fall apart.

"Please, I can't tell you," the girl said.

"And why is that?" Catherine asked, raising her eyebrow at the girl.

"It will cause a lot of trouble," the girl replied calmly.

Catherine looked at the girl and could see she was telling the truth. But what would the problem be? Was she famous or something? Rich daddy? An escaped felon maybe?

"Listen, I'm really losing my patience here. I can get that Detective back in here and make this talk a lot less pleasant. You are wasting my time," Catherine said firmly after the nice approach didn't seem to work out.

"Look, I want to talk. I will tell you everything I know, but I have nothing to do with this, so any personal information is not relevant! I've been working with you all the way. I can also lawyer up, now THAT would waste your time," the girl suddenly spat at Catherine.

Catherine was stunned; she hadn't expected the girl to lash out at her. She grinned at herself. She had found a way to push the girl's buttons. Now she was getting somewhere.

"My name is Emily," the girl suddenly said before Catherine could react on her previous statement.

"Now we are getting somewhere Emily," Catherine said, stressing the girl's name. "Will you tell me what happened, and why you were at my crime scene?"

"I didn't know crime scenes belonged to people," Emily noted with a hint of sarcasm.

"Don't start," Catherine said. She could see Emily was trying her out. "I have to give it to you; you definitely have guts sitting in an interrogation room, trying out the cops who are interrogating you. Do you realize this is a murder case, and that you are one of my suspects?"

"I'm sorry," Emily sighed. "I'm just tired of all this. I have been sitting here for over an hour now, and all you guys want to know is about me. I'm not the victim here, nor am I the killer, so I don't see how you peering into my history will help catching the bastard that did this to Dana," she continued calmly.

In a weird way, Catherine was impressed with this girl even though she was a serious pain in the ass when it came to smart answers. This girl had to be damn brilliant.

"Ok Emily, but that still didn't answer my questions. What were you doing at my crime scene?" Catherine asked again.

"I was going to pick Dana up. There was a note on her door, saying she was over at the room you found her in."

"And who does that room belong to?" Catherine asked. This was finally going somewhere.

"I don't know, probably some guy," Emily looked up at Catherine. "Dana wasn't the most monogamous person."

Finally some of the pieces started to move into the right place. Catherine could see the pain in Emily's eyes; why was Emily so upset about Dana being with some guy? Where they dating?

"Continue..." Catherine encouraged her.

"It took me a while to find the room; I'm not really at home at the dorms. When I found it, the door was open, I kind of assumed Dana left it open for me.."

"Why were you looking for Dana?"

Emily looked up at Catherine; she didn't want to answer that question. She hated the blonde woman for what she was doing, yet she felt safe in a weird kind of way. It was a feeling she never had before.

"We..erm..we were going to watch a movie together."

Catherine noticed the little crack in Emily's composure. So she was human after all. It still amazed Catherine this girl was so composed, so together, after what she had seen.

"What movie?" Catherine wasn't satisfied with the answer. She had a feeling Emily wasn't telling her things.

"Does that really matter? It's not like she was killed over a bad taste in movies"

"I'm just trying to help you refresh your memory, so we can find out what happened," Catherine tried.

"My memory is fine, thank you," Emily bit back. "When I entered the room, I found her¼," Emily paused, she tried to compose herself, but it wasn't working anymore. A single silent tear rolled down her cheek. "...I found her like that." Emily sighed deeply after finishing the sentence.

A familiar smell filled Catherine's nostrils; the proverbial light bulb seemed to pop up over her head.

"What's that you are eating?" Catherine hadn't noticed Emily had something in her mouth until now. The smell was the same as what she had smelled at the room they found Dana in.

"Cinnamon gum," Emily replied. She blushed, her face turning a light shade of pink "I'm addicted to those."

"I smelled it at the crime scene," Catherine said.

"Could be, I was there. I was there when you and your colleague barged in with your kits," Emily sighed again. She was embarrassed by the whole situation.

"So, you are cinnamon girl. Why did you hide in the closet?" Catherine asked.

"Nothing says 'I'm guilty' like standing in the middle of a room with a body lying at your feet," Emily said harshly. "And I prefer not to be called cinnamon girl."

Catherine was getting annoyed, every time she thought she broke through Emily's walls she bumped into another one. It was a lot like with Sara. Why did her mind bring Sara up now?

"Why don't you want to be called cinnamon girl?" Catherine said, her voice sounded harsher than she meant it to be. She saw she made a mistake with that right away, it seemed Emily had built an instant wall after hearing Catherine's voice.

"Can I go now?" Emily asked "I told you everything I know. I'm tired, I'd like to go."

Sara had been overlooking the whole interrogation. The girl, Emily, reminded her so much of herself when she was younger. She did find that Catherine was being too soft on the girl who obviously knew more than she was telling. When Emily asked if she could go, Sara got up and decided to risk it.

She opened the door to the interrogation room. Catherine looked up at her, she seemed a bit confused.

"Hi Emily, I'm Sara Sidle, and I would like to ask you some questions." Sara said, sitting down next to Catherine.

Catherine looked over at Sara, trying to say 'what are you doing here' with just her eyes. Sara answer the look with a 'just let me' look which made Catherine wonder since when they could have conversations without speaking to each other.

Both CSI's didn't see Emily's shocked reaction. Sara turned her attention to Emily, too late to see her reaction. By the time Sara was facing her, she had her composure back. She was showing off the same coolness as before.

"Emily, you said earlier that you didn't know your way around the dorm. Don't you live there too?" Sara asked.

"I knew someone was behind that mirror. There always is." Emily said, totally ignoring Sara's question. Instead she just stared at Sara. She was busted, she just knew it.

When Sara looked into Emily's eyes, she saw the girl was scared. Something was terrifying the girl to no end.

"I just didn't think it would be you," Emily continued, not taking her gaze away from Sara.

Catherine instinctively raised her eyebrow and looked at Sara. Did they know each other? Then her attention went to Emily, who had a tear rolling over her face again.

Sara had no idea what this girl was talking about. This girl knew her? From where? She felt herself get angry; she always got angry when she didn't understand something.

"Excuse me?" Sara said while getting up from her chair.

Catherine saw she had to do something, Sara was losing her patience and she didn't want to think about what could happen.

"Emily, please tell us what you mean with that," Catherine said.

Emily looked at Catherine and then shifted her gaze to the floor, staring at it as if something mighty interesting was lying there.

Sara slammed her hands on the table, startling both Catherine and Emily.

"I've been standing behind that glass, I've heard the whole conversation and you have said NOTHING yet. You better start talking or else¼"

"Sidle," Emily mumbled to interrupt Sara's rant.

"What? What did you say Emily?" Catherine tried. She hadn't heard what Emily said, or well she wasn't sure if she had heard it right.

Emily faced both Sara and Catherine. Her eyes had changed; they were dark and seemed emotionless.

"My last name. Sidle. Are you two happy now?" Emily said while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Part 3

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