Changing Lives

Disclaimer: I don't own anything connecting to the show.

Summary: Maybe it is the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of my favourite CSI couple. (WS of course)

Spoiler: 1.7 – Blood Drops, and this story takes place somewhere during Season 3 but it has nothing to do with it, it's just because of the timeline

"At last! We're done!" – Sara said with a touch of relief in her voice while she closed her bag and took a brief glance at her watch which didn't escape Warrick's attention.

"Well! Well! Miss Sidle!" – He said shaking his head. – "Are you hurrying somewhere?"

He has already been wondering for a while what could have happened to Sara as she was rather strange lately. And it wasn't just her changed attitude towards work but her whole behaviour. It was a totally different Sara and not the one whom he first met a little more than two years ago. However, it wasn't a bad thing as this new Sara was kinder to everybody and she was more relaxed than the old one. And what is more important, she was happy. This was the first thing that Warrick noticed. He noticed her beautiful smile which couldn't be seen before and from that moment on he was more and more attracted to her. Yes, he realized that it is impossible not to fall in love with Sara Sidle.

"Well, the truth is that…" – Sara began a little bit embarrassed – "… that I have to meet somebody and I don't want to be late."

"Oh… I haven't known that you have somebody in your life."

"Well. Not really… I mean… literally not… I mean… argh… Let's go at last!" – With this she left the house hurriedly.

Warrick was just standing there and was thinking about what he had just heard. It didn't come as a surprise to him that Sara is seeing somebody. Somewhere deep inside he knew that this could be the reason for Sara's change. Nevertheless he was disappointed. Not because he didn't want Sara to be happy but because he wanted to be the one who made her happy. Of course he was totally aware of the fact that he is the only one who can be blamed for not being that person as he did nothing to get closer to Sara. And now it is too late. He shook his head to chase these thoughts away and went after Sara.

By the time Warrick left the house Sara had already been sitting in the car.

"I'm driving." – She stated smiling. – "Come on! Let's go!"

She was really in a high spirit. Warrick just smiled and walked to the car. He was still smiling when he got into the vehicle but his smiled froze when he glanced at Sara who was talking with somebody on the phone at that moment. This wasn't the reason why he began to feel nervous but the fact the Sara's whole attitude had changed within seconds. Not long before she was extremely happy and relaxed but now she was tense and visibly frightened. She was so pale that Warrick couldn't even imagine that this is possible.

Suddenly Sara hung up the phone and without saying anything she started the engine and started off with a loud creak of the tyres. Warrick was totally at loss, he couldn't imagine what could cause Sara to change so suddenly. Many ideas entered his mind but neither of them seemed possible. He has never seen Sara like that before.

Sara was driving so fast that it appeared to Warrick a real wonder that they were not stopped by the police for exceeding the speed limit. After a while Warrick noticed that they were going out of Las Vegas. This was the point when he couldn't bear any longer just to wait for Sara to say anything.

"Sara." – He started gently as he didn't want to scare his partner who seemed to be unaware of everything but the road in front of her.

"Sara!" – He said again but this time a little bit louder as he didn't get any reaction for the first time. This time Sara turned her head towards Warrick just for a brief moment than went back to concentrate on the road.

Now Warrick was really frightened. What he saw in that brief moment in Sara's eyes shocked him. They were full of fear and despair. He also noticed that Sara was surprised at finding him sitting next to her. She was so deep in thoughts that she must have forgotten that he was also there. He also observed that Sara was clenching the steering wheel so tight that her hands became white. He was terrified of finding out what could have happened.

She was driving for a while when Warrick saw a long row of cars in front of them.

"What the…" – He said rather to himself than to Sara. The cars were approaching rapidly but Sara instead of decelerating, stepped on the gas pedal even more and pulled over to the next lane which was void of cars and drove on. After they had left most of the cars behind them Warrick saw the sirens of the police cars and the ambulances, even the firemen were there. Then he saw a yellow school bus which was lying on its side on the other side of the road and which was in a rather bad condition. Not far from the bus there was a car, too, which was crashed as well. He looked at Sara who became tenser than before.

When they reached the police cars Sara stopped the car and jumped out of it. After showing her CSI card to the man approaching her she ran towards the bus. By this time Warrick left the car as well and went after Sara. It was an awful sight that greeted him. Paramedics were everywhere and, which was worse, injured children were everywhere. The teachers were running from one child to the other to make sure that everybody was there. Unfortunately they couldn't make sure that everybody was well as well because, as Warrick could make it out, there were seriously injured kids, too. It was a total chaos which was made worse by the fact that the parents of the children also began to arrive at the scene. Warrick's heart sank when he finally spotted out Sara in the middle of this chaos standing there helplessly like a child who lost his parent in the crowd.

She was turning into every direction as if she were looking for somebody when she froze.

"Brenda!" – She shouted and began to run towards an ambulance.

Warrick followed her from a distance still not quite sure what was happening. Then he stopped and watched the scene unfolding in front of him.

Sara was crying and smiling at the same time while she was hugging a little blonde girl who was sitting on a stretcher covered in a blanket seemingly unharmed. Warrick went closer and for his surprise he recognized the little girl. He remembered well the case when a girl made her whole family killed because of her father's abusing her. This girl was the only one who wasn't killed then. He remembered, too, that Sara was the one who was looking after her during the case but as far as he could recall it she was not very happy about it. In spite of it, it seemed to Warrick that Sara and the girl got very close since then. Brenda appeared to Warrick the same as he first saw her in that police car about two years ago.

Now he was standing close enough to hear Sara hushing her. Meanwhile, the paramedic, who left them when Sara got to Brenda, arrived.

Warrick went even closer and finally he was standing right next to them. Sara smiled at him acknowledging his presence then turned to the paramedic and began to talk with her. Brenda also looked up at him and Warrick was sure that he saw a faint smile on her lips. They were looking at each other all the time while Sara was speaking with the other woman but at some point during the conversation Brenda climbed down from the stretcher using only her right arm, it seemed that the other one had injured in the accident, and went to Warrick and took his left hand still looking up at him.

He heard the paramedic talking about taking Brenda to the hospital.

"We'll take her in." – He stated without looking up.

Sara turned towards him wanting to tell him that he had better go back to the lab before both of them get into trouble but she couldn't open her mouth when she saw the two of them standing next to each other hand in hand.

"I don't want to go in the ambulance, Mummy." - Brenda turned to Sara. She hesitated for a little while as she really didn't want Warrick to get into trouble because of her. However, she couldn't say no to his daughter.

"Okey then. It's settled. Let's go to the hospital and get your arm examined!" – She said and put her arm on Brenda's shoulder while the girl was still holding Warrick's hand. This was the way how the three of them set off to the hospital after having said goodbye to the paramedic.

TBC

So this was the first chapter. I hope you liked it because I'm planning to continue it. I tried to do my best but I found it rather difficult to write about other people's feelings. Please tell me what you think, I would like to improve my style and writing skills. And before I forget, sorry for the mistakes.