A/N: Thank you for the reviews 3 I know you can do even better :P I was especially happy about those who complimented my writing, because the story isn't beta-ed & english isn't my native language ;) So keep making me happy, there's one more part to come...
Part 2
„Sara? Sara, answer me! Sara, can you hear me?" a desperate Catherine Willows yelled into her cellphone before taking it away from her ear and looking at it in shock. It took her a moment to wrap her brain around her younger colleagues words, before she turned on the motor of her Denali and began speeding in the direction where she knew Sara had gone. Driving, she dialed 911 and another few minutes passed until she had convinced the lady at the other end of the line to send an ambulance to where she thought Sara was.
At the beginning of the week the two women had been assigned to a case in a small village somewhere in the desert, miles away from Las Vegas. Earlier that day a suspect had brought a new aspect to the case and Sara went back to the crime scene to look for anything they could've overlooked. The brunette CSI had went alone because Catherine had been called by Lindsey who had needed her help. Now she thought how much better it would've been if her daughter just hadn't called her or if she had decided to go with Sara. She bit her lip, remembering the argument they had had the day before and how she had still been angry at her younger colleague so the chance to get away from her had been more than welcome.
Her grip around the steering wheel tightened and she stepped down a little harder on the gas pedal. If Sara hadn't answered anymore because she'd lost consciousness, minutes would matter. Catherine tried to not think of all kinds of horror scenarios that had made their way to her imagination. Sara would be ok. Maybe her battery was empty. Or she didn't get any signal, Catherine tried to calm herself down.
From Las Vegas there was only one street on which you could reach the village and Sara had to be there somewhere. If the accident had happened in the city somebody would've seen her.
Catherine made herself believe that, because otherwise she wouldn't be able to find Sara, nor were the paramedics. She just had to be somewhere on that street.
Outside it was already dark. The lights of her car lit the road barely and she knew there was still a chance that she wouldn't find Sara, even if she was on that street. Her eyes were glued to the asphalt in front of the Denali, trying to find any hint of Sara or her car. Catherine had slowed down a little, but only so much that she wouldn't overlook anything important. She knew she was probably still over the speed limit, but who cared anyway? If nobody had found Sara until yet, it wasn't likely for a police car to drive by and pull her over.
It could've been minutes or hours, Catherine wasn't able to tell, when she finally spotted something on the side of the road that made her stop with screeching tires. Taking the first-aid kit she had underneath her seat, she jumped out of the car. Her eyes searched for something more real than she'd thought she'd seen, but it was hard to make out anything. Even with the Denali's lights it was still pretty dark. And cold.
Catherine probably wouldn't even have realized exactly how cold it was if she hadn't been only wearing a short sleeved top. The wind made her shiver and so did the fear about what could've happened to Sara.
She stepped farther into the bushes, but it had to have been her imagination. She turned around with tears of anger burning in her eyes. It would be her fault. Nobody else could find Sara, she was on her own and she had to find her colleague. Soon.
Back in her car she realized her hands were shaking and the tears had actually started falling. She wiped them away before turning on the motor again. She just had to find Sara. The other possibility simply didn't exist. She just couldn't not find Sara. She had to.
Minutes passed and while she was driving, Catherine's thoughts were on some kind of rollercoaster in her mind. She tried desperately to bring them back in order again and sort the thoughts about what if.. out, but it wouldn't quite work.
Her attention was more fixed on her mind than on the street and she almost overlooked the black car covered in the darkness of the night, that was standing at the side of the road. Again, she jumped out of the Denali to assure herself that it really was a car. Carefully she stepped closer and the sight made her heart jump for a second. The whole front was dashed, there was a huge crack in the windshield and the window on the driver's side was smashed in. When she finally was able to see the driver, a wave of shock and terror hit her. Sara's face was almost white, her dark lashes and her hair were the only contrasts beside the deep red bloodstain that had made it's way from her forehead over the left temple. Catherine was painfully reminded of one of her older cases and it took her a moment to gather herself, before she checked Sara's pulse. Relief hit her in another wave, a better one of course. For a second she lost control over herself and tears fell free from her eyes, but then she ran back to her car to get the first-aid kit she'd left there this time. On the way back she tried to calm herself down a little. If she wanted to save her colleague she had to get a grip on herself. Recalling the first-aid methods she'd learned years ago, she carefully opened the car's door, before she unstrapped Sara and pulled her out of the vehicle with great caution.
When she had managed to lay Sara down on the ground next to the car she looked for other wounds, finding the one on Sara's stomach and a leg that looked pretty broken. Tears were still running down Catherine's cheeks but she had stopped putting any effort in stopping them long ago.
„Sara? Sara, I'm here. I found you. Please wake up, honey?" she pleaded while she put Sara in the lateral recumbant position. She had left on the lights of her car so the ambulance would see her and hopefully stop, but she had driven pretty fast and it could take a while until the paramedics arrived.
With shaking hands she pulled some bandages out of the kit. The wound on Sara's stomach didn't look good and it was still bleeding a little, so Catherine decided to look after this one first. After she had somehow managed to bandage the injury she stabilized her colleague's swollen leg. The head wound wasn't bleeding and Catherine wasn't sure what to do about it. She put another bandage on it, so there wouldn't get any dirt into the wound, before looking for any other possible injuries. She felt helpless not being able to do more for Sara, but what else was there to do?
She sat down next to her colleague and put Sara's head into her lap and began softly stroking the dark hair.
„Sara sweety, wake up? Come on... It's not that hard. I'm here." Catherine's voice was barely above a whisper and the words were more for her to calm down than for Sara to wake up. When the brunette woman actually opened her eyes, Catherine was taken aback for a second.
TBC
