Hey guys, wow I'm on a roll today :) This is a one-shot. I really like this one, so I hope you do too. Please read and review they make me happy and help me know that other people enjoy what I'm writing or actually read what I'm writing since I get pretty self-conscious about it. So please Read and Review if you have the time. Thank you.
Oh and the title was suppose to be a play off mommy dearest, if any of you were wondering.
Sitting in the stuffy and overly sanitized hospital waiting room. Cath drank her coffee while waiting for the nurses to finish checking up on Sara.
It had been two days from the kidnapping. Her dehydration, unset broken arm, and high profile injury brought her to be kept at the hospital until all possible tests were returned with good news. Which meant she had a week or so until her check out if all went well.
Using the few minutes of waiting time to people watch, Cath followed a familiar looking woman walk up to the nurses station, with her eyes.
Due to her proximity to the nurses station, Cath could hear the woman ask for Sara Sidle's room in a shaky voice.
Greg would've made a snide remark about Cath's stare, had he and the rest not been called into work.
"She's being checked up right now, but that woman to your left is also waiting for Ms. Sidle if you would like some company." The nurse instructed handing the women some tissues.
A muffled, "Thank you," escaped her lips as she turned around to Cath.
Her red-rimmed eyes were noticed first by Cath, as well as the ankle-bracelet worn around her foot.
Starring at Cath, Grissom had been allowed to stay during the examination, the women took a seat in front of her.
"Are you here to see Sara?" Cath asked after a quick glance to the double doors leading to Sara's room.
The women nodded her head, fiddling with something in her lap.
"There's nothing to be worried about anymore. The doctors say she'll recover soon." Cath says trying to comfort the distraught woman.
"Do you have kids? Any daughters?" The women asked still starring at the object in her hand.
"Yeah, I've got one daughter." Cath responds, a little unnerved by talking about her daughter with the stranger wearing a tracking anklet.
"You know how when you find out they got hurt, for whatever reason, and you can't help but go to the worst? And no matter how many times people try to tell you she will be fine, or she's okay, nothing will comfort you until you can see her for yourself?" The woman questioned, tear drops falling from her eyes.
Remembering the day Lindsey broke her arm at camp, Cath couldn't stop the "Hell yeah," from escaping her mouth.
"Well that's how I'm feeling right now and have been feeling since I saw her on the news in California. How could that bitch do this to my little girl? Why target someone who has already been through so much?" The woman rambled.
"I don't know. So you're Sara's mom?" She asked trying to start a happier conversation. "Do you have any pictures?" She finished with a smile.
The women glanced up from her lap and handed the key-chain she had been jingling to her. "That's her when she was ten, we took a trip to the beach." The woman narrated her memory.
The picture showed a skinny, younger Sara wearing board shorts and a tank top. What Cath should've seen was the smile on her face or the sandcastle she had built, instead all her eyes were greeted with were the unconcealable bruises.
Catching Cath's stare, the women spoke, "I was never the best mother, but I tried my best." taking the picture back and glancing at it once again she continued, "She had a better life after the incident, that's one of the only things I can say I did right by my daughter."
Raising her brown eyes to stare into Cath's confused face she boasted as any mother would, "She got into Harvard at sixteen, you know? She even graduated their with Honors. No I may not have done right by my daughter back then, but after the incident she had a better life."
Cath nodded her head reminding herself to call Jim later to try and figure out what the incident this woman spoke of could be.
"Cath, Laura, Sara is ready for visitors now." The nurse said and they both stand up to visit the strongest women they know.
"Thank you." Cath says to the nurse as they finally are allowed past the double doors.
Stopping outside Sara's room, Cath and the woman watch from the window as Sara and Gil talk with their hands clasped.
As Cath reaches to open the door, the woman turns to walk away.
Releasing her grip on the door she whispers, "Where are you going?"
Turning back to face Cath, Cath was greeted with relief and sorrow in the eyes of the woman. "Sometimes no matter how much you love someone, you need to be able to see that with your presence comes a string of hurt, that you don't want them to feel. No matter how much I don't regret the incident, and how much I love her and want nothing more than to hug my baby girl. I know, if I go in there, she will break. She may be the strongest person I know, but her past and I are her kryptonite. And I will not be the reason my daughter breaks down again." Taking a shuddering breath and one last look to her daughter, the woman walks back out the double doors.
Turning to watch her friend through the window again. Cath can't help but see that little girl in the picture in her eyes.
'One day she'll be strong enough to see her mother. One day she'll realize all of us will support her. One day she'll realize she doesn't have to be strong all the time.' Cath thought, as she steadied herself with a breath, glanced back at the double doors, and turned the door handle.
"So did you get a hot nurse to give you a sponge bath? The one that changed your I.V. yesterday was smokin'." She exclaimed hugging her friends and taking her regular seat beside Gil.