DATE: July 2007
TITLE: Reality is Always Better
AUTHOR: losingntrnslatn
(Jennifer, LosingInTranslation)
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own anything associated with the show… I just like
playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: M-Mature (for adult sexual content)
PAIRINGS: Yo!Bling
SPOILERS: Season 7
SUMMARY: The unresolved issues in Catherine’s life decided that
this was the night she needed to deal with them. Smut
A/N:
Okay, I have been seriously looking for a way
to write another Yo!Bling Smut story for quite a
while, but frankly nothing jumped out at me during Season 7. Well, sometimes he
helps to re-watch episodes without all of that anticipation, so when I was
watching Leaving Las Vegas the other night I started thinking about that “big
hole in the ground” and what would happen if Sam’s legacy was ever finished.
That led me to Catherine in a hotel room, and we all where that’s gonna end up.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This one wouldn’t have been possible without my Yo!Bling inspiration, and my Yo!Bling consultant. They both got me through a rough spot
in this one, and their input was invaluable.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the
work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least
a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to
read.
Reality is Always Better
She could
never be sure just how long she had been standing there. She had spent the
entire night in a fog, wandering from room to room, speaking without thinking
to the countless, nameless faces which fought to penetrate the haze over her
perception. It barely registered to her that the din of the party seemed to
have faded, but she was unable to pull herself away to investigate the reason.
There was
nothing that seemed to be able to tear her from that spot. She stood perfectly
still, staring out into the Vegas skyline, the lights dancing in the heat
rising from the desert floor surrounding them. Nights in
The sound
of her father’s voice filled her thoughts, and the glow of the lights
reflecting into the window glinted off of the tears that began to streak down
her cheeks. It had been more than a year since she shed a tear for the man who had
died in her arms, for the man who was her father. The long absence of her tears
made her wonder if she truly was the cold-hearted bitch most people thought she
was.
Still,
she remained standing there, her arms clutched around her, and her eyes still
fixed on the view from the top floor of the newest incarnation of her father’s
legacy.
From the
moment the remaining investors managed to pull the whole thing back together
following her father’s death, she knew this night would come. She knew that one
day she would have to look on the monument to her father’s dreams whenever she
saw the strip. She knew that there was no way she would be able to avoid the
place forever, but it certainly never dawned on her that she would be there to
open the place in her father’s name.
She
managed to make it through the opening ceremonies and most of the party on pure
auto-pilot, but when they opened the penthouse suite of the new Rampart, she
could no longer handle the people. She somehow managed to slip away from the
crowd and into the back bedroom. Originally, she only planned to get away for a
few minutes of peace, but when she glanced out the window she was captivated
with the view.
Unconsciously,
she squeezed her arms more tightly around her, desperately trying to fight off
the chill which seemed to have soaked straight through to her very core all
night long. It was all just too much for her to deal with any longer; her
father’s murder, her and Lindsey’s abductions, the whole sordid mess with Mike Keppler, and then finding out under the worst possible
circumstances about Gil’s relationship with Sara.
During
the three days it took them to find Sara, she knew that one misstep and the
whole thing was going to come down around them. And when she and Nick arrived on
the scene, it took every ounce of strength she had to keep it all together.
That was proven to her as Gil jumped into the ambulance with Sara and it sped
away. The moment she saw those lights begin to pull away, she just collapsed.
She woke
up in the hospital a day later, with a room filled with people waiting for her
to regain consciousness. Lindsey was draped over her, with her fingers twined
within her vacant hand. Her mother was lying on the couch in front of her bed.
Her sister was sitting in a chair next to their mother, sleeping just as
soundly. But the big surprise came when she went to lift her other hand to wipe
some of the fuzz away from her eyes.
With her
fingers curling up into the soft surface they rested on, she found that they
were actually sitting on another hand. She could not imagine that her
brother-in-law would be there, and so she turned her head to see who the hand
belonged to. She was not expecting to find the glassy green eyes that met her
confused gaze.
Before
anything could be said, Lindsey woke with her mother’s stirring and everything
turned into a whirlwind. Her daughter told her that the doctors said it was a
simple case of exhaustion, but that they were all very worried, and that she
was not going to let her out of their sight for at least a week so that she
would actually rest.
True to
her word, Lindsey never let her out of her sight for a full week after she was
released from the hospital. And by the time she went back to work, things were
more hectic than ever. With Gil and Sara out indefinitely, they were scrambling
to keep all of the cases covered. Ecklie even stepped
up to handle all of the lab paperwork so that the rest of the CSI’s could run cases.
It went
on like that for a couple of months, with everyone worrying whether or not
their favorite geek couple would ever return to work. When the first of
September came upon them, they were all shocked to find them both sitting at
the break room table waiting for assignments. She continued running the shift
for a couple more weeks, until Gil could get back into things, and so that he
could be sure Sara was ready for the strain. However, true to form, they both
snapped right back into the routine with very few growing pains. And best yet,
the revelation of their relationship actually seemed to help them to a very
comfortable place with their work.
She was
just getting used to all of the changes herself, when she got the call from the
Rampart Group. She cringed when they had broken ground. She would get a little
nauseous every time she caught site of the crane, or later when the
superstructure became visible from anywhere near the strip. So, she knew the
call would be coming, but no matter what, she was never going to be ready for
it. The moment she hung up the phone, after they had asked her to stand in for
her father at the ribbon cutting that was when she started to feel the cold
enter her body.
Her hand
ran up and down her arm, trying to warm herself against the icy sensation
coursing through her veins, but her gaze was still transfixed on the view of
the Vegas skyline from the penthouse of the new Rampart; of the dream turned
reality.
Staring
out into the night, she knew that if Sam had been there, it would have taken a
crowbar to remove the smile from his face. He would have walked the room, one
arm around her mother, the other around her or Lindsey, giving each guest a
little of that aloof Braun charm he was so well-known for, and he would be
running the party and the casino and anything else that needed his attention,
all at the same time, and would have never broken a sweat. If there was one
thing she knew about her father, it was that he certainly was a smooth and
extremely capable business man.
Thinking
about her father so fondly, she began to feel a strange warmth reach out to her
skin. The corner of her mouth turned up slightly and she sighed, “I hope you’re
proud now, Sam.”
“He’d
have been a fool not to be,” The warmth draped a jacket over her bare
shoulders. “And Sam Braun was no fool.”
“He
certainly wasn’t.” The source of the warmth ran his hands up and down her arms,
bringing her warmth out of its hiding place to greet his.
“You want
me to see if anybody has a shawl for you, or something?” She sank into his
warmth, resting her back against his chest.
“Thanks,
but I think I’ll be fine.”
“You sure? You’ve looked a little cold all night.” Warrick rested his heavy
hands on top of her shoulders as he looked around to catch a glimpse of her
face.
She gave
him a timid smile and shook her head. “No, I’m fine…really. I just needed to
get away from the crowd for a while.”
His deep,
resonating laugh vibrated into her back before he said, “Then you’re in luck…
The party’s moved down to the ballroom.”
Shrinking
a little with the idea of having to leave her view, she tried to find the
strength to keep up her end of the deal and follow the party again. “Don’t
worry about it, Cath…your Mom and Linds
are holding court with the masses. In fact…I was sent to keep an eye on you by
a very serious blonde, with the cutest dimples.”
She
quirked an eyebrow in his direction and asked, “Is that so?”
“Oh yeah.
I have been instructed to make sure you’re okay, that if you need it, I’m
supposed to make you rest.” He wrapped the rest of his suit jacket around her,
and his arms quickly followed the jacket until she was completely enveloped in
his soothing warmth. “And if I even suspect you need it, I’m supposed to get
you tomorrow night off from work.”
“My
daughter said all this?” She was going to have a serious talk with Lindsey
about just who the parent was in the morning.
“Well…
That last part came from your mother.” Leaning over, Warrick looked directly
into her eyes and added, “You know… She’s kinda scary
when she wants to be.”
With a
raised brow for extra emphasis, she answered with, “She is my mother… Where’d
you think I got it from?”
His
comfortable laughter reverberated through her body with the force of an
earthquake, shaking her loose from the last of the chill in her soul. “Got it.” He released a heavy sigh, and she felt Warrick relax
around her, holding her just a little more firmly than before. “I’ll give the
guy credit for this… He certainly knew how to pick a spot.”
“Sam did
have a knack for being in the right place at the-” the rest of her statement
was lost when she realized what it implied. She must have stiffened with the
thought, because Warrick returned to running his hands up and down her arms,
only with a bit more pressure that time.
Instead
of launching into one of the many platitudes she had been hearing since her
father’s death, Warrick simply blew out a nervous breath and continued to
massage her arms. “Thanks.”
“What for?”
“For not
trying to tell me some crap about nothing being my fault, or that he’s in a
better place, or one of a hundred other stupid sayings.” She shook her head
with her disgust at the thought of them and added, “I’m just so tired of people
acting like they understand, or that those ridiculous little sayings are gonna help me in any way.”
She
sucked in a trembling breath and felt the walls starting to crack. “He was
shot… He was killed… It wasn’t okay… We were right in the middle of a real
knock down, drag out fight, and some asshole with a gun and a grudge shot him,
right there in front of me. I watched the blood pumping out of his body and I
held him in my arms while he died. It wasn’t a fucking blessing that it was
fast. It wasn’t the way he wanted to go. And it sure as shit wasn’t what I
wanted!”
With
those last words, the walls fell completely away and her body was instantly wracked
with frantic sobs, but somehow she remained upright. Her legs could not
possibly hold her up with all her strength gone, and it took a few minutes
before she realized that it was not her strength keeping her up, but the warm,
strong arms of another, holding her close to him and leaning his head against
hers as she continued to wail.
After a
while, when the sobs began to subside, she was finally able to find the
strength to turn in his embrace and return some of the strength he had given to
her. With her face buried in his shirt, she finally choked out, “What is it
about you always being so close when I’m falling apart?”
He rested
his chin on top of her head and sighed. Warrick was silent for quite a while,
and she began to think she had said the wrong thing. Just before she was about
to pull away from him, he held her in tighter to his chest and practically
whispered, “It’s the only time I get to do this.”
She
gasped with the subtle impact of his carefully uttered words. Pulling away so
that she could look at him, she simply had to ask, “What?”
He
refused to meet her gaze, leaving his head hanging when he answered, “I’m
sorry… I should g-”
“Warrick…
Don’t.” She held his arms in her grasp and squeezed them tightly. “What is it?”
“Look…
You’ve got all this stuff goin’ on, and I really
shouldn’t have said that.” He started to pull out of her grasp and turned away
from her. “I should probably get outta her-”
Tightening
her hold on him, she stood firm and pleaded, “Please… Don’t go like this.
What’s going on?”
“Ya know… Timing just isn’t my thing, okay. You’ve got this
stuff you’re dealin’ with and I don’t need to be
pulling this kind of crap when you’re in such a vulnerable place. And ya know what; this is just a really bad idea.” He removed
her hands from his arms and put them together before he placed a gentle kiss on
the backs of her fingers. “I should go… I’ll tell Linds
to come check on you later.” He dropped her hands and started to walk away.
“You’ve got the suite for the night. So, just kick back and relax. I’ll lock up
on my way out.”
She would
never know where the source of her voice came from that night, but despite the
confusion and awkwardness of the whole scene, she knew one thing more clearly
than anything else in her life at that moment; she did not want him to leave.
“Warrick, don’t leave me!”
He
stopped cold, his hand on the door handle, his back rigid with tension.
“Catherine… This isn’t the
Her feet
moved of their own accord and she was instantly at his side, her hand on his
arm, when she said, “I don’t give a damn about what’s right or wrong at the
moment. I need to know what’s going on, Warrick.”
His eyes
squeezed shut, and she could see the white in the knuckles of his hand as it
held onto the door knob. She watched as his chest filled with each heaving
breath, and how it shrank with each strained expiration.
Seeing
his desperate struggle, she decided to try another tack. With her other hand,
she laid it across the middle of his back, and leaned in to say, “If you really
want to go…I’ll understand, but…” She pulled in a deep breath to supplant her
strength and added, “I don’t want you go, and I really do want to know what
you’re thinking.”
His
breathing increased, and became slightly ragged when he finally said, “I’m
thinking…that your hand is on my back.” Startled by the intensity
in his voice, her hand instantly pulled away from his body. “And how
much I want…both of them there.”
Feeling
the full force of his statement, she was nearly knocked over by all of its
implications. Her total shock was short lived, when her natural instincts
finally kicked in. She slid her right hand down the length of his arm until she
was covering his hand as it wrapped tightly around the handle. Gently, she
pulled his hand off of the knob and then led it out of her way as she stepped
into the space between him and the door.
He
finally looked up to see what she was doing, and she managed to catch his
frightened gaze. The fierce emotion she found in those sharp green eyes was
enough to send a trickle of anxiety along her spine, but it only served to give
her the confidence she needed to continue.
Dropping
his hand, she kept her gaze locked with his, an azure stare to pierce through
the swirling green pools. Her hands trailed up his finely muscled arms until
she reached his shoulders and paused for an interminable moment. When she began
to drag her palms down over his chest, Warrick slammed his eyes shut and
clenched his fist as he gnashed his teeth.
With only
her fingers, she danced along the perfectly defined muscles of his abdomen that
were evident even through his dress shirt. When she reached his sides, she
flattened her hands into his body and slipped her palms over the expanse of his
rigid back until they were firmly pressed into the middle. She felt his gasp
through her hair and then she leaned forward to ask him one last question. “Is
that all you wanted?”
She half
expected that she would need to take another step before he was ready to react,
so when his arms wrapped around her and his lips crashed down into hers she
actually yelped in astonishment. Her surprise evaporated with the heat of his
kiss and she held onto him for all that she was worth when he deepened the
kiss. Her knees began to feel weak from the passion he drove into her with each
breath he left in her mouth as he tried to capture her soul with his lips.
The
instant his tongue reached in and made contact with hers, she simply let go and
fell into his embrace. His thick, firm arms held her tight to his body. Without
the need to hold her up, her legs began to twine around his, bringing her in
just a bit more into the heat being emitted by his taut body. She wanted to get
as close as possible to him, to feel his smooth skin, to press her bare skin
into him, for his hands to touch every part of her body, to feel each rigid
muscle moving beneath his searing flesh, but most of all, she wanted to feel
him moving over her, around her, and inside of her.
She
wanted him more than anything else she could imagine in that furious moment of passion,
and she knew that she had wanted him longer than any man in her life. It all
came down to the fact that this was her chance at the dream, and she was going
to grab for it with both hands, and wrap her legs around it to keep from losing
it this time.
When she
tried to move her arms to wrap around his neck and bring herself further up his
body, she was stopped as he surged forward and pressed her into the door.
Pinned in place by the weight of him, she could only stand there as his lips
made their way down to her neck. It left a sizzling trail over her skin in the
wake of their fiery touch. But the feel of his lips was nothing compared to the
sensation of his wide palm and long fingers dragging up along the outside of
her bare thigh as the hem of her dress rose with the scorching path of his
hand.
He gasped
into the crook of her neck when his finger skirted along the crescent of her
ass. But when he used his firm grip to press those fingers fully into the
cheek, it was her turn to gasp. The move caused her to throw her head back into
the door and exposed her throat to his view. He wasted no time by dragging his
lips and tongue over the full length of it. When he ran his nose along the
underside of her jaw until he reached the space behind her ear, she managed to
get her right hand onto his neck, and she pulled him in closer as he sucked her
ear lobe into his blisteringly hot mouth.
His right
hand began to circle back to her thigh, moving beneath the fabric of her dress,
and then dipped down along the line of her hamstrings until it reached her
knee. She felt him gently lift her leg against the length of his until she took
over, bringing her knee up and pressing her heel into the back of his leg,
losing her shoe on the way. Warrick slid his palm back up to her ass and pulled
her into him, grinding her against the perfectly palpable evidence of his
arousal. If there was an edge to be thrown over, there was no way for her to
see it any longer as he surged forward again, pressing her into the door once
more, but this time with the full weight and heat of his desire for her.
Her
attention was shifted when he once again took hold of her mouth with his
powerful lips. She was so distracted by the sensations his tongue was stirring
within her that she failed to notice the activity of his right hand. That was
changed the moment his thick finger grazed through her center and he discovered
one of her closely kept secrets; she never wore panties when she had on an
evening dress. Her alarm caused her to almost nip at the lip she was sucking on
at the time, but it was the wicked glint in his delighted eyes that sent the
blush to her cheeks. Instead of saying anything in her defense, she reached up
and draped her arms over his neck and gave him a kiss with the same emblazoned
passion he had given to her.
Taking
the cue, he accepted her wordless request and returned to his original plan.
His broad grip wrapped around the top of her thigh, with his thumb dipping down
into the junction. She could feel the path of his thumb as it moved further
toward her core, and then pressed into the folds in its quest to find just the
right spot. When the digit made the first tentative touch, her back arched and
she involuntarily bucked into his grasp.
He
continued to tease at the petals of her sex as his mouth kept her from making
an intelligible sound. Her hands kneaded through the rippling flesh of his
chest until they had landed on his waist to hold herself
steady as he moved to bring his fingers into the game he was playing between her
thighs. And when he finally inserted one of those long, strong fingers deep
within her center, she really did bite down that time. He was sending her whole
body into a furious frenzy of arousal, and she was barely able to contain all
of the sensations soaring through her.
Her
breath began to follow in a halting pattern of strangled gasps as his fingers
started to stroke over and within her in a maddening rhythm. When she could
take it no longer, she slipped her hands from the sides of his waist to the front
and frantically worked the buckle of his belt off, not even bothering to remove
it before moving on to the button of his trousers. She was finally able to
escape the rapture of his lips when she ran her fingers down the length of him
through the fabric of his pants and he gasped, as he too bucked forward at the
sensation.
That gave
her just enough leverage to get his pants and underwear down over his hips in
one swift motion. Once free of the confines of his clothing, she marveled at
the rigidity he possessed as she pressed him up into his belly. When she
gripped around him and pumped her hand up and down the engorged shaft she heard
and felt the growl that escaped his lips as he reached down around her to grab
her up by the ass, and then he brought her off of the floor as she wrapped her
slender legs around his waist.
She held
him tightly with her well-toned legs, he took his right hand off of her
backside and then suddenly, she could feel the head resting at her center. His
mouth descended upon hers once more, and she welcomed it with the caress of her
tongue along his lower lip. She gripped his body with her legs again as his
left hand slipped up to the middle of her back, just before he pushed them into
the door and himself into her.
She was
unable to restrain the cry that escaped her throat as he plunged into her. Her
walls tightened around him; they pulled him in further as he pulled her into
him. She held him as tightly as she could when he began to move within her,
slowly building up into a crescendo of thrusts, stoking the fires of their
combined arousals until she was sure that the door was going to come off of its
hinges from the pounding they were both receiving that night.
He must
have sensed her concern, because he wrapped both of his arms around her body
and lifted her away from the door. She clung to his shoulders as though he was
her only rock in the ocean and buried her face into the crook of his neck as he
crossed the room with her in his arms.
Laying
her down onto the bed, he went down with her, but it still left her with an
empty feeling as he was pulled from her center. On their path to the bed he had
kicked off his shoes, and somehow managed to free himself of the pants as well.
When he sat up on his knees on the bed, he quickly stripped out of the shirt,
and as he crawled along the bed to hover over her she was blessed with the full
view of his naked body. She tried to memorize every dip and curve, and the
lines of each muscle on his perfectly sculpted frame.
Warrick
reached up for the zipper on the side of her dress and slowly brought it down
to the end, tickling along her ribs as he went. His fingers found the ties at
her hip and released the rest of the strapless gown from her form and pushed it
aside, giving him his first real look at her bare body. She would have felt
horribly self conscious under any other circumstance, but the look of
unquenchable desire in his blazing eyes was enough to burn away any doubts she
could ever have about his pleasure in seeing her naked form.
When his
arms bent, she was sure that it was time to get back to business, but instead
he dipped his mouth down to kiss her once more. With her breath effectively
taken away by his passionate kiss, she was forced to helplessly wait for him to
finish burning a path down her neck with his lips. However, he did not stop
there, but continued to lay warm wet kisses over her collarbone, and then down
the length of her sternum. He paused for a moment, and she thought he was going
to return to her mouth, but that was when she felt him snake his tongue out and
trace along the outer edge of her nipple.
As much
as she wanted him to continue to tease and please every inch of her body, the
ache his motions were creating in her core left her with only one option; she
needed him buried within her walls, bringing her home to a climax before she
lost her mind.
She
grabbed both sides of his head and brought him back to her mouth so that he
could understand the depth of her desires and frustrations. Once his eyes met
hers, she poured every ounce of passion into them that she could muster and
simply breathed, “Take me.”
He seemed
to understand exactly what she meant, because he took the last of her brief
words with his mouth over hers. Reaching down, he grabbed her leg and brought
it up with her foot resting flat on the bed. Warrick pushed back on his knees
for a moment, but when he came back to hover over her he was holding himself up
with only one arm. When his body began to fall into hers, his lips led the way,
and just as they crashed into hers, he entered her again, sinking into her with
the gasp he robbed from her throat with his kiss.
His arms
slipped beneath her as he rested on his elbows and began to slowly arch into
her with a deliberately gradual rhythm. Little by little, he began to increase
the pace and depth of his strokes, she brought her bent leg up to wrap around
him to encourage him even deeper within her walls.
The long,
deep and tortuously slow thrusts were bringing her body into a fury of sexual
tension that was practically begging to be released. The sheen of perspiration
that fell over both of their bodies spoke of the toll their joining was taking
out of them, and the only thing on her mind was that she never wanted it to
end, but she really wanted him to hurry up and get there before she exploded
from the buildup.
Burying
his face into her shoulder, he managed to strangle out, “I don’t…know…how
much…longer…I can…hold…out.”
With her
leg, she pulled him down into her with such a force that she nearly cried out
from the sensation, and held him tightly in her arms when she asked once again,
but with more conviction, “Take me, now.”
The
message was finally received and he held her around the shoulders with his one
arm as the other was planted into the mattress and he reared back before
thrusting into her with the arcing motion of his hips and curling of his back.
Up and out, down and in; pumping his body in a circular thrusting that forced
him to begin hammering into her, filling her to the brink with the full impact
of his being.
The
spasms started in her belly and spread out through her entire body as he
continued to pound away inside of her. She held onto him for fear that letting
go would make her vanish completely when she became lost in the ether of her
orgasm.
When she
started to be able to string together two thoughts in a row, she found that her
body was still feeling the effects of the intense climax as small muscle
contractions were still flitting through her, all the way to the core. The next
thought that made it into her conscious mind was that Warrick’s
heavy, overheated and very sexy body was pressing her into the mattress, but
she really could have cared less. Instead, she held him to her tighter and laid
tender kisses into his shoulder.
As she
felt him stir, she wondered what it was that had finally brought them to this
point. Warrick rolled over onto his back, but with their arms intertwined
around each other, he simply pulled her over with him until she was resting her
head in the center of his chest. He slowly drew in a full breath, raising her
up with the inhalation, and allowing her to sink down into him as he blew the
breath out in a calming rush.
He
chuckled slightly and she sat up to look into his eyes. “What is it?”
“Oh, it’s
nothing…” He inhaled again and she enjoyed being able to feel the rush of air
on her skin when he released the breath before he asked, “I was just
wondering…about how the reality stacks up to the dream? Because
for me…there’s just no comparison.” His solid arms brought her back down
into his sleepy embrace.
Stroking
his chest as she thought about his question, she was brought back to the words
of her father and it was her turn to start chuckling. “Reality… That’s what
keeps ‘em coming back for more.”