A/N…This is my first CSI story…so hopefully I've kept everyone in character. It's not long, but it is already finished so the next chapters should be up soon…assuming people want them! Let me know what you think…

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Heat

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A wall of heat hit her as she stepped out of the black SUV. She should really be used to these kinds of temperatures, she had lived in Vegas all her life, but today it seemed worse. Like a thick blanket of smog that she couldn't see but could feel all the same. It felt heavy in her lungs as she took a deep breath, trying to still the feeling of unease that spread through her. The sun was low in the sky now, giving the world a strange crimson tint, and yet the temperature showed no signs of dropping into more reasonable realms.

Catherine reached back into the vehicle, retrieving her forensics case and gently shutting the door. Taking a moment to look around and get her bearings, she felt even more claustrophobic being surrounded by so much activity. There were blue and red flashing lights all around her, a buzz of activity as cops and crime scene officers moved around. Suddenly she felt isolated. The noise of all the activity around her was deafening, and yet she felt disconnected from it, as if she was standing on the other side of a thick glass wall. It only took a light touch on her arm for the wall to shatter and the noise levels to return.

She turned her head to see Gil talking to her. Found herself walking beside him, following him through the mass of cop cars until they reached a clearing containing two dead bodies. He had been talking to her whilst they walked but as they came to a stop Catherine had to rack her brain to reprocess what he had said. She'd obviously heard it all, taken it in, but her mind hadn't initially felt the need to register any of it.

She doubted Grissom would notice the hesitation. Especially considering they were standing over two dead teenagers. He probably expected her to take a moment.

"Where do you want me to start?" She found her voice and hoped it was a reasonable delay.

"You take the one on the left, I've got the other, Nick has started with the overalls." Nodding silently, Catherine walked over to the body, crouching down beside it and carefully placing her case on a clear piece of ground a couple of feet away.

The girl was in her early teens, pretty, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked so innocent. Catherine saw far too many dead teenagers, and most of them far from innocent. Not that she believed they deserved to die any more than this girl did. But there was something about the open empty eyes staring at her as she examined the body. There was something about them when they still looked innocent. Somehow it just made the whole thing even more difficult.

And they say you get used to something if you do it enough. Nothing in the world could enable her to get used to this. Taking samples of dirt and hair from a young girl's body that appeared to have been dumped in the desert. Discarded as if she were trash.

Catherine worked meticulously collecting samples and possible evidence for quite some time before the heat began to get to her again. Standing up, and stepping away from the body, she wiped a sleeve over her forehead, careful to miss her gloved hands. She wasn't sure if her head looked damp, but it certainly felt that way.

"You alright Cath? You look a little overheated." She hadn't realised that Nick now stood beside her, having long finished overalls and moved onto close-ups of marked evidence.

"I'm fine, just a little warm." Gil looked up from where he was crouched over the other dead body, glancing at her, frowning as he did so.

"Why don't you take the jumper off?" He asked, a standard level of scientific curiosity in his voice. It was only a thin layer, but had long sleeves all the same.

"Not the most suitable top underneath – I overslept, got dressed in a bit of a rush." She gave a slight grin to accompany the light tone, though something didn't quite sit right with Grissom. He nodded anyway, not giving it much more thought as his attention turned to the evidence before him.

She crouched back down, using her legs to pull the arms of her jumper up slightly, not really giving much thought to what she was doing, having done it many times before when not wanting to have to change her gloves just to pull her sleeves up. It wasn't until she glanced back down that she realised she'd uncovered the red marks and bruises above her wrists. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the angry patches of skin, suddenly feeling incredibly vulnerable and exposed.

The feeling of someone watching her made her cringe internally. She barely moved her head, just flicked her eyes up to find Grissom staring at her arms. Looking back down, she wondered whether trying to push her sleeves back down would draw more attention to herself. Either way, she was sure he had noticed the tremor in her hands if not the marked skin. Making an instinctual decision, Catherine pulled her gloves off to push her sleeves back down. So much for not having to change her gloves. She stood to grab a new pair from her kit, aware of the presence of Gil coming up behind her.

He was standing right within her personal space when she turned around. She wouldn't meet him in the eyes and they both knew he wanted to question her about what he had seen. Suddenly she was so fully aware that they were surrounded by cops and colleagues.

"Not here. Not now." She shook her head as she dismissed the questions he hadn't even begun to ask. He sighed in response, knowing that he couldn't push her to talk and make a scene here.

"I want you to go back to the lab." He stated, deciding it was the best way to deal with the situation.

"Grissom – I'm fine."

"Take the evidence we've collected so far, go back with Nick and start sorting through it. I can finish up here." There wasn't any room for argument in Grissom's tone, but that didn't mean Catherine wouldn't try.

"Gil-"

"Catherine." She knew by his tone that the argument was over, that she wouldn't win no matter how hard she tried. For someone that kept to himself and often had no idea what was going on with the people around him, sometimes he could see straight through her with amazing accuracy.

She nodded silently, packing everything up in to her kit box and picking it up, moving away from the bodies in the direction of her SUV. Grissom had turned to talk to Nick as she walked away, and she found herself praying that he was only telling him to return to the lab with her rather than informing him that something else was going on. She felt the world around her slip into a blurred existence again, the noises and lights felt far away even as she walked straight past them.

"Hey, Cath. Can I grab a lift back to the lab with you?" Once again she was woken from her dream state by a voice. This time it was Nick, who'd obviously jogged a couple of paces to catch up with her.

"Sure. You can drive." She tossed the keys to him as she walked around to the passenger's side, hopping into the seat after placing her case in the back.

Catherine let the scenery wash over her as they drove back into town. The noises and flashing lights that had soon disappeared into desert after leaving the crime scene increased again as they got closer to the lab. If Nick wondered what was going on with her, why she was so quiet, he didn't make a comment. She felt rather grateful. She wasn't in the mood to keep dismissing concerns and certainly wasn't planning to explain what had left her in a whirlwind of emotions. The thought of having to deal with Grissom later was already making her stomach churn. She would love to just lie to him, but had a feeling it wasn't going to work this time.

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