The idea for this fic has been gathering dust for a while, but I was never sure of it. I thought I'd give it a go and try to write it, hope you all like it, please review let me know if you think I should continue :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Whisper Something Fragile: Chapter One
The door came crashing down as LVPD trickled into the hotel room. She lay in the centre of the chaos completely at peace, the juxtaposition of the situation illuminated by the harsh morning light that flooded through the windows.
The armed officers stood awkwardly having lowered their guns waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Detective Vartann finally made a slow move towards the woman that lay face down on the round bed that seemed to be the centre piece of the room. Gently he pushed the dark hair out of the way so he could check for a pulse, it was then that he realised who it was; Sara Sidle.
Her pale skin was ice cold to the touch but he could feel a faint pulse. As he slowly peeled the covers away Sara's back became exposed to his worried eyes; bruises and scratch marks covered like paint on a canvas.
Detective Vega had already disappeared into the hallway to make the 911 call for an ambulance. There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach causing him to grit his teeth. There was something about seeing one of their own like that made them feel as if whatever work they were doing wasn't enough.
Vartann soon noticed that the clothes Sara was wearing was ripped almost to shreds revealing the lacy black lingerie she wore underneath. What would have been natural embarrassment of seeing a colleague's underwear was replaced by fear of what may have happened to her.
"Sara...Sara can you hear me." He spoke in the hope that she's not too far gone. A slight stir in her body causes his heart to jump into his throat.
The first thing Sara felt was the cold; a cold breeze through the window causing goose-bumps to cover her skin. The second thing was pain; it felt as if every inch of her body was bruised. As she attempted to pick herself Sara found herself crippling unable to hold up her own weight. She tried her hardest to stay conscious but the drowsiness that she had only just awoken from hadn't given up on her yet.
"Sara...stay with me..." a familiar voice seemed to be saying but it was as if the sound was miles away.
Soon enough it all disappeared into silence and darkness.
Sara's eyes fluttered open only to be blinded by the overhead lights and the brightness of the white that surrounded her. White walls ran into white ceilings that over looked white floors which held up white furniture. A blanket had been pulled over in attempts to keep her warm and tucked in at the sides of the bed almost as if to pin her down.
"Sara." A familiar voice distracted her from piecing together her surroundings. Catherine appeared next to her followed by Nick. Their expressions filled with concern. Sara attempted to respond but her throat was dry and the words felt like sandpaper in her mouth. Nick poured her a glass of water and offered it to her with a sympathetic nod. They gave her a few moments before attempting to probe her about what had happened in the past nine hours.
"Sara...I'm going to have to process you...but before I start is there anything you remember...about what happened?" Catherine spoke slowly not knowing exactly how to word her question. It didn't feel right. The amount of training they had about talking to victims wasn't enough to prepare them when it came to attempting to meet the eye of a friend who had suffered an ordeal that would scar them forever. Physically it would be a week or so before all the bruising disappeared, the cuts and scratches faded but mentally there was no saying how long it would be.
"We...we were having a beer...at that place we always go to..." Sara's voice was low, the sound breaking every so often like a radio with bad signal. Catherine turned to Nick as if to signal "this is bad".
"Nick can you pick up Sara's clothes and take them back to the lab, put a rush on results." Catherine instructed him hoping that her voice sounded calm. She turned back to Sara who looked up at her with tears welling up in her coffee coloured eyes. Catherine tried her best not to stare at the bruise on her jaw but she had never seen Sara like this before. The Sara Sidle she knew was not a victim; she was someone who fought until the bitter end. But in front of her was a woman that looked scared, vulnerable and helpless. She took Sara's hand in her own, gently stroking it with her thumb in attempts to comfort her.
Sara's head ached to the point she thought she was going to black out. All her memories had been smudged into uncertainty. The last nine hours seemed to disappear and reappear in her mind like clips from a movie she had seen years ago and could barely remember.
The sound of a lock clicking as Catherine opened her kit refocused Sara's attention on the present. She pulled the blanket away freeing her legs she swung them over the edge and sat facing Catherine ready to be processed as if she were evidence rather than a person.
Each flash of the camera as it snapped photographs of Sara's injuries made her jump slightly. She felt unsettled in the way the harsh light would attempt to gather every detail of her skin. After Catherine had gathered all the scrapings and samples she needed she waited patiently holding Sara's hand for the nurse.
"I...I think...an SAE kit would be a good idea Sara..." Sara simply nodded and lay back on the bed.
She closed her eyes hoping that she could drift away into an alternate reality where she went home after that beer with Catherine. But the feeling of the plastic speculum reminded her that was not the case.
A lump built up in Sara's throat as she attempted to dissect the decisions she had made, but the flashes of memories weren't enough to dismiss the cocktail of feelings that had forced themselves upon her.
Sara wanted nothing more than to be able to say that everything was going to be fine.
But the more she attempted it the harder it became.