Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or the characters, merely playing with them
Hi guys :) This one is going to be a lot darker than my last one, but I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.
No ships this time, just a lot of friendship and team spirit :)
x x x x
Catherine released a sigh, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. It was a slow night and apparently she'd done something to piss Grissom off, the combination of which only led to one end: paperwork.
She emitted a frustrated groan; tossing her pen onto the desk and watching it bounce across the scattered folders. It was barely mid-shift and she was already bored out of her skull. She shook her hair out, rolling her tense shoulders. If she was going to spend another four hours doing this, she needed coffee.
Someone must have it in for her tonight, because before she could get her fix her cell phone trilled. She snatched it up without bothering to check the caller ID.
"Willows." She drawled lazily; a surprised smile making its way across her face when she recognised the voice. "Oh, hey Nancy. What's up?"
She heard her sister take a deep breath on the other end of the phone. "Cath…"
"Hey, while I've got you here," Catherine interrupted without giving her chance to answer. "Did you know you left your spare work uniform at my house?"
"Yeah, I know. Catherine…" Nancy didn't know actually, but she brushed the comment off, trying to regain the older woman's attention with little success.
"I washed it for you; you can pick it up next time your over." Cath continued chirpily, glad for the unexpected interruption to her boring night. "You need to clean out your pockets more often!"
"Catherine." Nancy erupted in a frustrated tone. It had the desired effect; Catherine fell silent.
"Yeah?" She asked uncertainly. She heard her sister release a shuddering breath on the end of the line before she continued in an even and gentle voice.
"I need you to listen to me. Is your Sara at work tonight?"
"Sara?" Catherine echoed, certain she must have misheard. When the nurse didn't say anything, she answered. "No, it's her night off. Nance, what's going on?"
Nancy pursed her lips, cursing the person who'd called in sick tonight leaving her to deal with this. "I think you should come to the hospital." She said softly. Catherine felt her blood freeze.
"Nancy…" she repeated weakly. "What's going on? What's happened to Sara?"
"Just … come, okay."
"Nancy?" She practically whimpered but it was too late. She had already hung up.
X x x
"Hey, where's the fire?" Nick joked, dodging around Catherine as she tore past him in the corridor.
"I'm going to the hospital; tell Grissom I'll call him from there!" She hollered over her shoulder.
"The hospital?" He repeated, all humour draining from his face. "What's going on?"
"I don't know yet." She turned briefly to respond, before hurtling through reception and out of the front doors. He remained an island in the middle of the hallway, watching her disappear with a helpless expression.
X x x
"Nancy!" she yelled over the sound of medical jargon and clattering of metal trays. The nurse stopped what she was doing and reached out to catch her as she skidded to a halt. "What's going on, the front desk wouldn't tell me anything." She was breathless and her side was burning. Nancy tugged her aside so they weren't blocking the hall.
"We had a female brought in from an RTC – collision between a vehicle and a motorbike." She explained with the calmness of someone who deals with this sort of horror every day. "They haven't found any ID for the biker but I think it's your Sara." She paused, waiting for her the words to register. Catherine's face paled, her mouth opening and closing silently in shock. When she didn't say anything, Nancy continued. "We need someone to positively identify her."
Those words were far too familiar for the CSI's liking.
"Is she..?" She stuttered, trying to keep the tears back.
"She's alive." Nancy surmised softly. "Barely. She was DOA when they brought her in but we got her back." Catherine smothered a sob with her hand. She shook her head slowly, trying to understand what she was being told. "Cath?" Nancy pressed softly, fixing her with a questioning look.
Cath met her gaze, realising what she was going to have to do. Straightening up in an attempt to muster some strength, she offered a small nod.
X x x
It was a private room. The bed was surrounded by satellites of machines, beeping and hissing at rhythmic intervals. A young woman was scribbling something on a clipboard; she barely spared them a glance when they entered so engrossed was she in the patient's stats.
On the bed, barely visible beneath bandages and bruises, was a young dark-haired woman.
Catherine crept closer, unable to the tear her gaze from her but not quite daring to reach out and touch her.
There was a bandage wrapped around her head, and another around each arm. A piece of gauze was taped to her chest, peeping out from beneath the gown. Her face was littered with bruises and cuts, scrapes and abrasions. A tube, taped across her mouth, was helping her to breath. She looked like a train wreck.
But she was, undeniably, Sara Sidle.
Catherine reached out a hand, letting her fingertips graze the top of her head.
"No, Sara, no." she whispered, blinking back tears. Having got the answer she needed, Nancy mumbled something to the other nurse and waited for her to scamper off before creeping up to the big sister's side. Catherine sniffed, casting a brief glance at her sibling.
"You said … it was a car crash?" she asked, trying to recall the conversation from minutes ago.
"Yeah. A car hit her motorbike." Vaguely, she remembered being told that, but she still looked up in surprise.
"Sara doesn't have a motorbike."
"Well, she was riding one." Nancy shrugged, pointing to a table on the far side of the room. "The paramedics prised that off her."
Cath's eyes fell on the cracked and grazed helmet. It was a whole minute before she finally tore her gaze from it, turning her attention back to her prone friend.
"I have to call the team." She murmured absently. "They need to be here."
"Well, right now there's not much more we can do for her." Nancy said sadly, letting her hand trail across Sara's arm. "Now we have a positive ID, at least we can track down her medical history."
"Is she going to be alright?" It suddenly occurred to Catherine that she hadn't even asked that question yet.
"She's got a fractured skull, a dislocated shoulder, three broken ribs, a broken pelvis …"
"Nancy." Cath cut her off tearfully, her voice cracking. "Is she going to be okay?" Her sister held her gaze firmly.
"Honestly, I don't know." She placed a feather-light kiss on her cheek before leaving her to digest the information.
Not even bothering to disguise her sobs this time, Catherine sank on to the floor beside the bed and let her tears fall.
