$link .= $cat_name;
if ( isset($show_count) && $show_count )
$link .= '<span id="pagecount"> (' . intval($category->count) . ')</span>';
$link .= '</a>';
I added a span tag so that I can style the color of the page count differently then the html, it works well.
now in the css
#pagecount {
color : #34859c;
}