Yeah, ok so this is another post Dead Doll 'fic but hey, we never got to see what happened afterwards and I want to know. As usual, I own nothing, if I did we would be watching this on TV rather than reading it and I would be a very rich person rather than a poor student.
Retrograde
Chapter One – Day One
It felt like hours but he knew it wasn't. He sat with his head in his hands completely oblivious to his surroundings.
"Gil?" He looked up and saw Catherine coming down the corridor followed by the rest of the team. "Have you heard anything?"
He shook his head and let it drop back into his hands."She regained consciousness on the way to the hospital."
"We'll that's a good sign."
"Mmm."
They all sat impatiently in silence. "What's taking them so long?" Gil muttered under his breath.
Catherine opened her mouth but closed it again when she realised that she didn't know what to say.
Finally a doctor appeared before them wearing a white coat. "Mr. Grissom?" He asked looking at the group.
"Yes." Gil said standing up immediately.
"Ms Sidle is now stable. She has two fractures to her left arm, we've put her arm in a cast, it should be fine in a couple of months. She also has a head injury and concussion, severe dehydration and multiple cuts and bruises. She has swallowed a lot of rain water so we're giving her antibiotics to prevent any lung conditions like pneumonia developing. We're also giving her fluids and we'll monitor her for twenty-four hours but I feel confident that she will make a full recovery." The doctor said smiling at Gil.
"Thank you, thank you." Gil said sighing with relief. "Can I see her?"
"Yes, she's resting now but you can sit with her. She's in room 342, on the third floor."
"Thank you, doctor."
"You're welcome." The doctor said before walking away.
"Gil, we'll leave you two alone. Give her our love."
"I will, thanks guys."
"Give her a kiss from me." Nick said standing up.
"Same." The other three agreed.
Grissom walked quickly towards the lift, he couldn't stand to be away from her any longer. He hovered outside her room for a moment looking through the window before entering. He opened the door and stepped through. She looked so peaceful, lying there with her dark hair spread on the white pillow. Her skin was raw from sunburn and abrasions. He sat down beside her and took her right, uninjured hand into his.
He felt her hand close around his and looked up to see her eyes looking at him. "Hi." He said immediately feeling tear well up with the relief of seeing her awake.
"Hey." She replied, her voice a little hoarse.
He stood up and kissed her gently on the forehead four times. " They're from Catherine, Nick, Warrick and Greg. They send their love. " He kissed her lips. "That's from me."
He sat back down. "How are you feeling?"
"Ok but I think that might be the painkillers. When can I go home?"
"The doctor said that they wanted to keep you in for observation for twenty-four hours, so tomorrow I guess."
"I want to be home with you."
"You will, sweetheart, soon. I'm not going anywhere until you do."
"I knew you'd find me, if I just held on a bit longer."
"We found you, honey." Gil lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. "I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"I'm so sorry." He said looking down because he couldn't meet her eyes.
"What are you sorry for?" She asked seeing tears leak from underneath his eye lids.
"It was all my fault, Natalie did this because of me, to get me back."
Sara placed her hand on his chin and lifted his face up to meet her eyes. "Gil, listen to me. This is not your fault, in any way. Natalie did this. She and only she is responsible."
"I was so scared. I thought that I'd never see you again."
"You don't get away that easily." She replied tenderly, lifting his hand to her lips gently kissing it. "I'm not going anywhere. You look tired, when was the last time you slept?"
"I'm not sure, a day ago, maybe."
"You should go home and sleep." Sara said, wiping the tears away from his cheeks tenderly with her thumb.
"I'll sleep when you're home with me."
"I know there's not much point in arguing with you." Sara said, Gil was just as stubborn as she was. Perhaps that's why they were so well suited with each other.
"You need to rest sweetheart." Gil said, watching her yawn.
"Wandering around the desert really takes it out of you." She said smiling tiredly, within seconds her eyelids were becoming heavy and she was asleep with her hand still in his.
---
Gil woke to the sound of footsteps coming into the hospital room. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at Sara, who was still sleeping peacefully, before turning around to the door. Catherine and Brass were stood in the doorway.
Gil gestured for them to come in. "How is she?" Catherine whispered.
"Ok, just tired."
"We need to get her statement soon. Natalie can't tell us anything so Sara is the only witness to what happened. We need to know if Natalie was working alone or if she had an accomplice." Brass said in a low voice.
Grissom bit his lip, he knew the importance of Sara's statement for the investigation but he didn't want Sara reliving the nightmare while she was still so weak. "Ok, if she thinks she's ready." He compromised.
"Sara, sweetheart." Sara's eyes flickered open and she looked confused for a while. "Catherine and Brass are here, they want to know if you're ready to give your statement."
"It's ok if you're not kiddo. We can come back when you're ready." Brass said.
Sara bit her lip and looked from Catherine and Brass to Gil and back again. "Ok." She said nodding, she took a deep breath, "I'm can do it."
"Are you sure Sara? You don't have to do it now. It can wait." Gil said looking at her with concern.
"There's no rush, Sara. We've got Natalie, we don't need to do this now if you're not ready."
"No, I'd rather get it out the way. Then I can just forget about it." She said, everyone in the room thought that she wouldn't forget it that easily.
Brass sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the bed to Gil. "Ok, Sara, we know that you had been eating at the vegetarian place in the mall and left there at about seven fifteen. What happened after that.
"I was heading back towards the car, I was in the elevator when Gil called me on my cell, told me that they had a name for the killer, Natalie Davis. I got out of the elevator and walked through the parking lot to the car.
I was just putting my field kit into the trunk when I heard her call my name. I turned round, I thought she had a gun, but it was a taser. I remember falling to the ground, I could move, couldn't breathe." Her hand gripped Gil's tightly as the memories washed over her.
"The next thing I remember is waking up in a trunk. My wrists were tied with a zip tie. I unlocked the zip tie with the barb from the taser and I opened the trunk but the car was moving too fast for me to jump out. So I ripped out the speaker and released the back seat. I hit Natalie's head against the window, she slowed down enough so that I could jump out but she was moving faster that I thought.
I was dazed, I saw her driving towards me, I, I thought she was going to hit me but she didn't. She dragged me back into the car, tied my wrists again and forced me to drink some water. I tried to talk to her, to reason with her but it was no good. I started feeling dizzy, drowsy, she'd put something in the water."
Sara paused, she was shaking slightly. "Sara?" Gil said gently. "Are you ok?"
She nodded and swallowed loudly.
"Do you want to stop?" Brass asked.
"No, no just give me a minute. I'm ok." She said but her voice was still wobbly. Gil placed a glass of water in her hand and she gripped in tightly. She took a mouthful, swallowed and continued.
"When I came round I was under the car. I was lying on my front and the car was coming down on top of me. I couldn't move, my arm was trapped. Then I watched her walking away.
When it started to rain, I knew I had to get out from under the car quickly or I'd drown. That's how I broke my arm, getting it out from under the car. I took the rear view mirror with me so that I could draw attention to me when the sun came up. And I just started walking. I don't know how many hours I was walking for. I remember the sun coming up, and the ground drying.
When the ground dried I wasn't leaving foot prints, I thought you'd find the car eventually and that if you could follow me, I stood a better chance of surviving so I left piles of stones instead. I didn't know if you'd see them but..."
"We saw them sweetheart. We we're following." Gil said stroking her cheek.
"Eventually I couldn't go on any more. I was so tired and dizzy. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't keep on walking. I fell to the ground and I couldn't get up again. I remember voices saying my name, Nick I think, and Sofia, and the, the sound of a helicopter. Then there was so much noise but I could feel Gil holding my hand and I knew I was going to be ok."
"Thanks Sara, we'll leave the two of you alone now." Brass said.
"Call us if you need anything, anything at all." Catherine said kissing her on the cheek.
"Thanks." Sara said smiling at them.
---
"Are you ok?" Brass asked as they walked down the corridor away from Sara's hospital room.
"That was harder than I thought it would be." Catherine admitted.
"I know."
"While we were looking for her, I never stopped to think about what she was going through. Jim, she must have been so scared."
"She's safe now." Jim replied as they exited the hospital.
"Can you imagine it, breaking you arm to stop yourself drowning, and not even knowing if you'd be found after you did."
"But she was found. She's a survivor, Catherine, I think you said that. She'll get through it."
---
As soon as Catherine and Jim left the room, Gil instinctively moved to sit beside Sara on the bed, facing her. He gently pulled her towards him and wrapped his arms around her shaking body. She leant on him, his shirt became damp with the tears that she not been able to let out while Catherine and Jim were in the room. "I was so scared." She whispered, so quietly that he could hardly hear her.
"I know sweetheart. I promise, I'll never let anyone hurt you again. I promise."
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