Title: In times of need
Author: Joyce
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
Timeline: Written in the time frame of ep 9.01 'For Warrick.' So beware if you haven't seen that episode yet. I'm sure we all have but still for those of you who live under a rock, beware!
Note: I wanted to write about the few hours between Sara receiving the news of Warrick's death and her showing up in Grissom's office. It's a short piece but I needed to write about Sara dealing with Warrick's death in a way that is true to the show. So there is no romantic undertone here. I know, for a Swarrick shipper there is a first for everything. Writing this helped a bit but I still resent the fact that the writers killed my Warrick. I wanted a happy ending for him, darn it! Ok, rant over. On with the story.
In times of need
She sat there, silently. The phone had dropped to the floor after she had said goodbye to Nick. She knew she had to pick it up again, she had a plane ticket to book, she had to call work. She had to do so much. Instead she did none of those things. Nick's words repeating in her mind: Warrick was shot, Sar. He died. Nick had been crying and that scared her even more then the words he had said. The last time she had seen Nick cry had been when he was buried alive, facing death. He only cried when things were real, this was real. Warrick was shot, Sar. He died.
Warrick couldn't die, it seemed almost impossible that he would die. He was their rock, her friend and nothing faced him. Sure, she knew he had his problems but he dealt with them on his own. Only needing help on rare occasions, he was strong and now some coward had murdered her best friend. She had talked to him only two weeks before. Grissom never knew about the conversations she still had with both Nick and Warrick. He didn't know that they called and kept in touch. She never ran away from her friends, she ran away from her job and while staying in touch with Grissom was to hard it helped her to stay in touch with her boys. They made her laugh, they made her miss her old life so much that she often contemplated going back to it. Now she had to go back to it. One of her boys was gone. Warrick was shot, Sar. He died.
A few hours later...
On the plane she recalled her last talk with Warrick. He had been troubled by something that she couldn't quite grasp. It wasn't his ongoing struggle with Gedda that he sometimes informed her about hesitantly. He knew that she wanted him to let it go. To leave work where it belonged once he was done and start living his life in the few spare hours that he had a private life. But something else was bothering him and at one point he had almost cracked, babbling a bit about being a good man and having to make the best of it because he had to now. She had asked him what he was talking about and he had laughed the question away. She could still hear that deep chuckle that always made her smile and had to refrain herself from crying. She couldn't cry yet, she was going to Vegas to offer support. To be the rock of the team, they needed a new one desperately. She closed her eyes for a bit, trying to gather her strength....the words still ringing in her mind. Warrick was shot, Sar. He died.
Four hours later...
She had come in through the back, using a door that few people ever used. She was surprised by how easy she got into the lab, having knowledge about a building made it very easy to get into a place that she didn't have access to anymore. Her first instinct was to find Grissom but something stopped her when she realized that she was near the morgue. She was near Warrick. She walked into the hallway she knew so well but this time it wasn't some victim she was collecting evidence from. He was there, lifeless and the thought of that scared her more then Nick's phone call had before. She stood there for a couple of minutes before she had to courage to open the door. The morgue was empty which she appreciated. She wanted to say goodbye to him in private.
Finding him wasn't that hard, she had always been good in making sense of the way Doc Robbins and his team labeled their bodies. He was a body now. Warrick was shot, Sar. He died. The first thing she noticed was his throat, his killer had done everything to make sure that his characteristic chuckle would never be heard again. He was cold and his eyes, the eyes that she had loved so much for all that they could say without words, were closed. She cried right then en there, finally allowing herself to fully feel the pain that had been growing inside of her. The team she knew was destroyed. When she left they had been damaged. With him gone they were broken. She cried for several minutes before she regained her composure. Warrick would have never allowed her to be broken. He would have told her to stay strong, that it would be ok. She wasn't quite sure that it would ever be ok again but she would try. For him. Covering him up again she prayed that he was in peace, that he felt how much they all missed and loved him. Then she made her way to Grissom's office.
Warrick was shot, Sar. He died. Their rock was gone, her family needed her...