Title: Love, Death, and Justice
Author: CATH.fan4
Rating: T (PG-13)
Summary: Sara is attacked by the Strip Strangler. Warning - Character death! NS GCR
Spoilers: Strip Strangler, Lady Heather's Box
A/N: Sorry, I know it's been a long time since this episode originally aired, but it was on Spike last night, and this came into my head. I took some liberty with the dates and all, actually the Strip Strangler aired way before Lady Heather's Box, but I switched it around a bit. Sorry! Also, this is my first Character Death story, so please be nice. Whether you love it or hate it, I wanna know, so hit the little button at the bottom. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If you think there is any possibility of my owning CSI, please check yourself into a mental healthcare institution immediately, 'cause you need some serious help. I don't presently own, nor have I ever owned CSI. Still holding out hope for the future though... Yeah, right
Sara's Apartment
Sara collapsed into bed just as the sun rose, too tired even to change her clothes. The night had been an emotional rollercoaster - first she was a decoy for the worst serial killer Vegas has seen in years, then she had to stay up the rest of the night investigating the murder of another woman. She breathed out deeply into her pillow, letting the waves of sleep lap over her.
The dark-cloaked man stood in the shadows of her closet, watching the young brunette sleep. He stared as her thin body rose and fell with the rhythm of her breath. He inched forward, reaching out to touch her. His hand halted, just above her face.
Slowly, he lowered his fingertips, gently brushing Sara's cheek. Her eyelids fluttered softly against her face, but remained closed. The man crept up onto her bed, positioning himself beside her. He continued to stroke her face through his gloves, leaning over so he could see her. Sara turned in her sleep, moving a few inches toward her unknown predator.
Sara stirred uneasily. Deep in her subconscious mind, she could sense something was wrong. She half-woke, her eyes still closed. "Nick?" She asked softly. Sara's eyes snapped open. The man saw her flash of knowledge and pounced on top of her, pinning her to the bed. He held her arms down with his knees, and slammed a towel over her mouth.
Sara shook desperately from side to side, trying to throw him off. The man slipped to one side for a split second, pulling the towel off with him. "NICK!" Sara shrieked her voice raspy from the dryness of the cloth. "NICK? HELP!" The man regained his balance and gripped his hands around her neck, cutting off her desperate cries.
Sara gasped and tried to push his hands off, but her own arms were still pinned down. The man grabbed a syringe out of his kit, and leaned forward, crushing Sara's lithe frame against the mattress. He pulled up one of her arms and forced the needle through the tender skin.
Sara's eyes widened in fear as the drug seeped into her veins. The man stared straight into her face as Sara dropped out of consciousness. Crouching atop her now-limp body, the rapist smiled at his newest victory.
CSI Lab
That evening, all the CSIs (except Sara) gathered around the television in the Break Room. On the screen, Culpepper was delivering a speech to the cameras, heralding his prowess as an investigator. Grissom turned around to face the rest of the team. "Alright. Quite frankly, I don't think we have him-"
Nick interrupted, "Hey guys, where's Sara?" They looked around in silence. "Where is she?" His voice rose. Nick pulled put his phone and speed-dialed Sara. "Come on, girl." He muttered under his breath. "Pick up, damn it!"
As Nick stalked around the room waiting for Sara to answer, Grissom called the feds. "Culpepper, where are your agents?"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Grissom. What are you talking about?"
"Where the hell are the agents who are supposed to be watching out for Sara?" Grissom growled.
"Doctor, please calm down. We caught the Strip Strangler, remember? Haven't you watched the TV this afternoon?"
Grissom gritted his teeth. "Do you mean to tell me that, after you had one of my CSIs play decoy for a rapist, you left her unguarded?"
"We had already arrested the perpetrator. There was no need for our continued presence."
Behind Grissom, Nick was hanging up his phone. "She's not answering." He stated, his face drawn and pale. With that, he rushed out to the parking lot to go to Sara's apartment. The rest of the team followed immediately behind.
Grissom snapped his phone closed, too angry and scared for Sara's safety to finish the conversation.
Sara's Apartment
Nick raced through Sara's door, unnerved by the stillness. Please don't let anything have happened. Oh, God, let her be all right! He rushed into Sara's bedroom, and froze at the door. "No! SARA!" He started to run toward her, but Warrick and Grissom both held him back. "NO!"
Catherine stood behind the trio, her hand placed on Nick's shoulder. "Nick, you can't go in there. We have to catch whoever did this, but you have to go home." He stared wildly past her, not hearing her words. "Nick, if you want to help Sara, you have to go home."
Nick sank to his knees in surrender, torn between wanting to see Sara and knowing that doing so would destroy any hope of a conviction. "Sara!" He cried, his body wracked by sobs.
Later...
Catherine, Warrick and Grissom moved carefully around Sara's room, taking pictures as they went. Doc Robins had come in earlier to take Sara to the morgue for an autopsy. Each of them scanned their own corner of the room, going over every surface a dozen times at least. Catherine straightened, moisture filling her sky-blue eyes.
She gazed around the space, her mind filled with gruesome images of what must have taken place in the house the morning before. One side effect of being a CSI was that she could look at the aftermath of any chaos and 'see' what had happened to cause it. The pictures which now tormented her mind seemed worse than those of any other crime scene because she had known Sara.
Sighing, she bent to pick up the bags of evidence beside her. "Hey guys." Her voice broke the silence. "I'm going to run this stuff back to Greg. You got anything you want me to take?" Following the jerky gestures from the other two, she snatched the appropriate pile and headed outside.
As Catherine fled the quiet apartment, Grissom rose to his feet. "I'm going to go see- I mean, I'm going to check on- I'm going with Catherine." He finally said.
Out in the parking lot, Grissom caught up with Catherine just as she reached her Tahoe. "Cath? You all right?" Catherine turned to him, tears rolling down her checks.
"I don't know if I can do this, Gil." She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face into the warmth of his chest. "I am in there, and everything's fine, but then I start to see things... You know - the evidence talks. And, it's like its happening. It's like I can see what's happening, but can't do anything to stop it."
Her voice hitched, and then she continued. "And, I feel guilty, because I never thought about the other girls. I was in their rooms, and I saw all of that, but I never cared like I do now. And I keep thinking - all their families. We must have seemed so cold, so cruel in our impartiality. Now..."
"I know. I know, honey." Gil ran his hand soothingly up and down her back, feeling her tension ease. "We'll find him. We'll find the bastard who did this. I promise."
Catherine pulled back slightly to look him in the face. "Can't promise that." She stated flatly, half-smiling through her tears, then ducked her head back into his protecting embrace.
Gil stared her full in the face. "But I do promise. Sara is - was - one of my good friends. She was part of 'our family.' I will find out who killed her. I swear it."
Catherine looked up, surprised at the ferocity in his voice. They stayed like that, gazing into the other's eyes for several minutes. Then Catherine pulled away from him and got in her car. "I'm going to take all this to Greg. The sooner we get started processing, the better." With that, she swung the car door closed and pulled out.
CSI Lab
Greg stopped Catherine as soon as she walked through the door. "Catherine, I don't know what to do. Nick is just sitting in the Break Room. He won't go home; he won't sleep; he won't talk; he won't do anything!"
Catherine passed him the stack of evidence from Sara's house. "I'll go talk to him, you start on all this." With growing trepidation, she approached the room that Nick had taken up more or less permanent residence.
She tapped on the door frame quietly. "Hey, Nick?" He raised his head and looked up at her.
"What am I going to do?" His voice was hoarse and his face was drenched in tears. "She was my life - what will I do without her?"
Catherine sat beside him, unsure of what to say. "I don't know, Nick." His shoulders started shaking again. "What I do know is that she loved you with everything she had. You were her best friend - the person she could always talk to." Catherine paused, feeling like she was floundering. "Look, I know it's hard, but you have to go on. Sara wouldn't want you to sit here mourning her like this forever. I know it will take a long time, and the hurt will never really go away, but you have to try."
Nick looked up at her. "I can't." he muttered. "It hurts too much. I don't want to let her go."
Catherine's heart constricted as she recalled the pain of loosing her ex-. "I know." She tried to soothe him. "Nick, I know it hurts. It feels like your heart has been ripped out of your body, but is still pumping, still bleeding out, still hemorrhaging until there is nothing left. I know how that feels, but you have to listen to me. It will stop eventually. The hurt will ease. We will find out who did this, Sara will not be just another in a line of senseless deaths."
At the mention of Sara's killer, Nick stood and began pacing around the room. He slammed his fist into his other hand then, deciding that wasn't enough, into the wall. "When ya'll find out what happened," he started, his southern Texas accent more pronounced than usual. "I want to know."
Catherine nodded mutely from where she still sat on the couch. "When ya'll find out, I'm going to kill him!" Nick shouted.
Just then, Greg peered into the room. "Is this a bad time?" He questioned tentatively.
"No, Greg, come on in." Catherine motioned him into the room. "Did you find anything?"
Greg glanced at Nick as he passed the DNA printouts to Catherine. "I'm running it through the AFIS network now."
Nick leaned over to see the papers and Catherine folded them up so he couldn't read them. "Sorry, Nick. Any evidence you look at is 'tainted' in court. Beside, we don't have a name yet. It's all just DNA markers on a piece of paper."
After that comment, Nick realized that he would not be kept informed of the team's progress, that he would be treated like any other victim's family member, With that fact in mind, he stormed out of the Break Room and into the cold, empty hallway.
TBC (?)