Disclaimer: I don't own CSI. For gods sake, don't you get that! :)
Just Another Day.
Life isn't easy. The grave shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab new that well. Saying they were incident prone would be an understatement. Somehow, every time they had a raid, or an arrest or a search warrant, they managed to go headfirst into danger.
Sara had been with through everything with the team. The good which was limited, and the bad which had become more and more frequent.
So when the crime lab-including her makeshift family-was put in danger, her protective instincts kicked in.
They'd been in the layout room, her, Greg, and Nick. Going over the triple homicide case that had been torturing them for countless, and excruciatingly slow weeks. The guy was good, he left no trace behind. Other than his signature; a star drawn in sharpie.
"Look, the star has to mean something. Something from his past?" Nick said in his ever present Texan accent.
Greg looked up at him. "Maybe not his past. It could be a metaphor or something." The younger CSI then looked at Sara for support, like he always did. This was all routine.
Before she could answer, they heard a yell from the hallway. It wasn't a common thing around here, so she stuck her head out the door curiously.
Nick and Greg continued to banter pointlessly, Nick taking a far more offensive route. But Sara didn't bother with them, her eyes were elsewhere.
At first she saw nothing. Just an empty hallway and receptionist area. But it wasn't as empty as she had thought on first glance. Because Judy the receptionist, that had been working here for years, was crouched behind her desk. Her short hair was messy, her posture giving away her terror.
Sara had never seen Judy scared before. And when their frantic eyes met, she knew it was bad.
Only seconds had passed, and she doubted Greg or Nick had even noticed her freezing up.
She tried to think clearly. She was armed, thank god for that. Greg and Nick weren't, and she doubted anyone else in the building was. Sara had just come back from a search so naturally, she didn't bother to take her heavy holster off.
It was then that she saw him. The man was tall and well built, but she didn't notice anything else about his appearance. She was too busy looking at his loaded rifle in his hands.
She jumped away from the door, looking at Greg and Nick. They'd noticed her silence and jerky movements.
Nick was staring at her warily, but Greg looked worried.
"Sara?" Greg asked, but she shot him a death glare and he shut up instantaneously.
"Gun. In the hallway. Get down." She whispered urgently.
Nick stepped in front of Greg, quite protective and Sara sighed internally. She knew Greg hated being treated like a rookie.
Silently they moved to the back of the room, the carpeting thankfully muting their footsteps. Sara pulled out her gun, finding her hands firmer than usual, a commonality when she was in danger. Nobody was going to hurt her family.
Greg and Nick crouched under the table, exchanging a fierce look with her.
The room remained silent, and if she wasn't imagining it, cold. Really cold. Whether it was her fear, adrenaline, or an unseen force, the room was suddenly freezing.
A few footsteps echoed down the hall and Sara tried to focus on her breathing. A strand of brown hair fell into her eye and she blew it out of the way impatiently, unwilling to take even a finger of the grey, metallic gun. It was her lifeline.
Two more footsteps. Slow, and menacing. Sara Sidle had dealt with a lot doing this job, but not once had something quite like this happened.
Only the sounds of their breathing filled the room, despite the constant hum of scientific machines flowing from the hallway. After working here for so long, you were able to tune it out, like a truck driver would the overbearing sound of his engine.
Through the tinted glass window, she saw his figure. Crouching warily behind her, she felt Greg and Nick's eyes move in unison with her's as the man advanced down the hallway. He was getting closer to the door.
And time seemed to go faster than it should, faster than she wanted. All of a sudden he was there, and before she could react, he had spotted them huddled under the table.
Her finger acted on instinct, the trigger flicking, and the large bang filling the air.
She realized she had missed, because a return shot was fired, barely missing her by inches. Her hands responded to her frantic, heat of the moment commands, firing shot after shot.
The bullets whizzed through the air, crashing through glass, ricocheting of the cement floor.
"Sara!" Nick yelled, and she realized the man had finished reloading his shotgun, and it was zeroed in on her head.
A hand grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her behind the table that had been overturned in the commotion. Two shots rang out, the wood of the table splintering around them. During the silence that followed, Sara pieced together what happened. Greg's hand was still gripping her leather jacket, his eyes fixed on her.
She nodded, the silence to perfect to break. It may have been irrational to think that way, but the fear of ending it was a risk no one took.
Sara peeked over the table and saw nothing. But oh did she hear it. The loud shriek echoed through the hallway, and she stood up, ignoring her better ideas.
Nick and Greg stumbled after her.
"Stay here." She said firmly, they weren't even armed.
The look on Nick's face was ludicrous. "No."
She stared hard at the two men who had become like brothers to her, after working here for over ten years.
"Fine." She muttered quietly, sighing out of frustration. "Stay behind me then."
They followed her down the normally pristine hallway, hugging the wall's. She carefully avoided the broken glass and shattered beakers, hoping her two friends were making sure to do the same.
And then they saw him. The man was standing at the entrance of the fingerprints lab. But it was who, that was being held tightly in his arms, struggling against the knife against her throat, that made Sara's stomach drop. Mandy the fingerprint tech was being held hostage.
"Shit." She said under breath.
"Don't move! Nobody come any closer! Or she dies!" The man said roughly, his voice deep. His ice blue eyes held an anger that was spiralled with fear and panicked anxiety.
Nobody moved a muscle, knowing one false move could cost Mandy's life.
"Let her go. Just let her go and you can walk out of here safely." Nick said strongly, stepping to Sara's side. Her gun kept its target firmly, but she didn't move to stand in front of Nick.
"No. You wont let me leave!" The man shouted and shook his head, the movement making his wavy blonde hair become messy.
"Yes. We will. I promise you." Greg said from beside her and she had to use all her willpower not to stand in front of him. He was like her little brother, and no way in hell, was he going to get hurt on her watch.
The man just shook his head. He pressed the knife harder into Mandy's neck, causing a small drop of blood to roll down her skin. Her eye's were wide, Sara concluded she'd never been threatened before.
Sara stared into Mandy's eyes, trying to calm her down. There was a moment of silence before a loud voice came from behind the two.
"Let her go immediately Mr. Barton. This wont do anything for you niece." Said a voice they all recognized as Catherine's.
She appeared to the side, followed by Ray, both had their guns ahead of them.
"Trisha didn't do anything!" The man said, sounding surprisingly like a small child.
"I believe you." Sara said, speaking fro the first time. "We all do. So just let our lab tech go, and you can see her."
Mr. Barton stared for countless seconds, which felt more like hours. Finally, his hands loosened from around Mandy's neck, and the knife clattered noisily to the floor.
Sara let herself relax as Ray handcuffed the man and led him away. Mandy, still petrified, barely reacted as Catherine put a soft hand on her shoulder.
xxx
It took several hours to give statements, figure out the frightening events, and quite honestly, suck up to Ecklie. They didn't need another suspension. He wasn't being fair, no. He wasn't even being civil. But that was Ecklie.
Sara grabbed her bag from her desk, listening to the tiny crunch of glass beneath her feet. If it didn't already, her mind seemed to race at the speed of light. A million things ran through her head, clouding her thoughts.
But really, she was overreacting. And she was aware of that. Yes, Mandy was shaken to the point of extreme fear. Yes, Greg and Nick were mad at her for being stubborn. And yes, this was something she wouldn't forget.
But how was this different from anything that's happened before? They'd all had their fair share of confrontations, hostage situations and witnessed murders. Hell, one of them had been murdered. They'd been kidnapped, shot at, buried alive, beat to near death, almost date raped and so, so much more. In comparison, this seemed small and unimportant, like a pebble, beside a cliff face of previous experiences.
It was nothing.
When her phone rang shrilly in her pocket, and Sara saw the caller ID was Grissom, she picked up immediately.
And when he asked her how her day was, she simply replied, "Oh, just another day.", with a small smirk on her face.
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