A/N: Thanks to those of you who read and reviewed the first chapter! Here's chapter two! I did my medical research for this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI
Let It Be
Gathering up her case files Catherine Willows, the new swing shift supervisor was making her way to the breakroom to hand out assignment slips to her team. Before leaving the room she became aware of Jim Brass walking towards her, "Catherine." He greeted politely.
"Hey Jim," she said flashing him her mega-whatt smile. "How's the new position treating ya?" he questioned a sly grin plastered on his aging face. "Pretty good," she answered, " I'm just about to go hand out assignments, anything I can help you with?"
With concern showing in his eyes he replied, "yeah, you're gonna have to put a hold on those assignments, theres been a robbery over at the republic bank on the strip, all hands on deck."
flashing him a look she replied, "all hands on deck, thats a pretty small bank?" "Yeah, well one of the hostages was assaulted, they're over at Desert Palms right now, critical condition." he replied.
"Do you know who the victim is?" she asked? "Not yet, the responding officer's waiting at the scene for us." With a nod he left the room, leaving Catherine to inform her team.
Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown looked up from the game they were playing as they heard the click of heels down the hallway, signaling Catherines arrival.
"Hey Cath, What do you got for us?" Nick questioned in his southern accent. "Bank robbery and assualt on the strip, all hands on deck." "Well let's go cowboy"
Warrick replied, "first one to the car gets to drive." Catherine laughed as she watched the boys race to the locker room to grab their things. With Nick in the drivers seat, the three CSIs made their way through Vegas traffic to their crime scene.
The scene that greeted them was nothing new, the streets were littered with police cars and curious bystanders. Unloiading their kits, they approached the tape seperating the crime scene from the rest of the strip, flashing their IDs at the officer, they made their way over to Brass.
"You get any information on the assault victim yet?" Catherine asked. "Yeah the responding officer was able to get her name off her ID before the ambulance took her to the hospital."
Pausing, he took a deep breath hating to be the bearer of bad news. Noting the expression on his face Catherine pressed further. "Well, who is it?" Finally finding his voice he answered "The officer identified her as Sara Sidle."
His words were met with silence and shocked faces. "Are you sure?" Nick asked. "Yeah she should be home or at the lab." Warrick added. "Paramedics found her CSI badge, it's her."
The four adults all looked at eachother, tears threatening to fall from their eyes. Breaking the silence Catherine quickly put her team to work, knowing the scene needed to be processed before they could do anything.
"Nicky you take the lobby please." Nodding he slowly walked away, Catherine saw him wipe a tear from his eye. "Warrick you take the back, see if you can lift any prints off the safe." "You got it."
Turning to Brass she asked, "Where's the officer, I wanna question him myself." Brass silentley pointed in the officers direction, not saying a word. Putting on her best straight face she marched to the officer.
"So you're the responding officer?" she questioned. "Uh yes ma'am, Officer Taylor, and you are?" "Catherine Willows, I'm with the Crime Lab, can you tell me what happened here?"
"Uh, when I arrived the suspect had fled the scene so I sent some of my boys to look for him." As Catherine nodded he continued. "When I entered the woman, Miss Sidle was on the floor, bleeding from the head, as the paramedics tended to her I checked and questioned the rest of the hostages."
Clearing his throat he went on, "One of the hostages, the buisnessman over there said as the perp turned to count his money Miss Sidle reached for her service weapon, but was caught.
The man came after her, hitting her on the right side of the head with his gun. As she fell he continued to kick and strike her, when he finished he collected the money and ran. The clerk called 911 right after."
After Officer Taylor finished filling her in she walked back to Brass who had just finished interviewing the last hostage. With a grim look on her face she said "sounds to me like he did it out of fear, definatley not an experienced criminal.
"Sighing Brass asked, "What are you going to do now?" Ignoring the throbbing in her head she replied, "I need to go process Sara, but someone needs to tell Gil." Brass quickly looked up "I'll do that, he may take it better if he hears it from me.
"Nodding she walked back to the door of the bank, pausing before walking in. Approaching Nick she called out to him "Nick, I'm going to process Sara." Nick only nodded not looking up from his task.
"What do you have?" she asked. "Theres a bullet lodged in this wall, I'm trying to get it without damaging it." After gingerly prying the bullet from the wall he held it up so Catherine could see it. "Looks like a .45 calliber, make sure you get it back to the lab and have Bobby run it."
"Alright, what are you gonna do now?" Nick asked. "I'm gonna go process Sara, you and Warrick finish up for me, I'll call you when I'm done."
Pulling up to Desert Palms, Catherine quickly parked her car and walked swiftly to the entrance. Approaching the front desk she gave the receptionist a friendly smile, "I'm Catherine Willows with the Las Vegas Crime Lab, I need to speak with Sara Sidles doctor please."
Typing something quickly into the computer, she replied, "Doctor Thomas will be out in a moment, you can take a seat over there," she motioned to an array of chairs across the room.
Taking a seat Catherine patiently waited for the Doctor. Not long after she glanced up to see a tall, dark haired man in his mid 30's approach her. "Dr Thomas?" she asked. "Yes, you must be Miss Sidles co-worker, I was worried she didn't have anyone here to be with her."
The mans eyes showed nothig but concern for his patient. "Yes, I work with Sara, what can you tell me about her condition?" Motioning for Catherine to walk with him he began,
"Well when she was brought in she was in critical condition, she had suffered a head injury and had fallen unconscious before paramedics arrived. When we did a scan we discovered Miss Sidle had suffered a chronic subdural hematoma."
He paused for a moment to let the news sink in. "Those can be fatal can't they?" Catherine had finally spoke since Dr. Thomas had started speaking. "They can be yes, but because hers was handled properly we were able to go in and relieve some of the intercranial pressure. On top of the hematoma, Sara also suffered broken and bruised ribs, a broken nose, adn several bruises along the rest of her body. Unfortuanatley after the operation Miss Sidle became agitated and the safest option was to induce a small coma"
Catherine quietly entered Saras room, kit in hand. She observed every inch of Sara that was still visible, her head was wrapped in a thick white bandage, her face was a mess of black and blue, and she noted the ventillator assisting each breath she took.
She pulled out her camera and began speaking as she snapped each picture. "Hey Sara, it's Catherine, I just want you to know we will find this guy." Putting down the camera she picked up a bindle and began to scrape her fingernails.
"It was pretty brave of you to go for your gun, I probably wouldn't have been able to move." She reached out a hand and gently put it on Saras, anger starting to boil up inside of her.
"You will pull through this, and if you need anything, I'll be here, we all will." Standing up she headed outside to call Nick and Warrick.
Brass had made his way back to the lab, navigating his way through the halls. He paused outside Grissoms office, unsure how to go on. He gingerly knocked on the door, before entering the room filled with creatures and experiments.
Grissom looked up from the file he was reading, "Yeah Jim what's up?" Clearing his throat he looked him straight in the eye, "Gil, we have a problem."