To Sara, everything seemed to be a blur after that. She was so focused on holding it together with the gunman's body still right there in the foyer, the image of him shooting Sophia fresh in her mind, that she barely seemed to process that Catherine had arrived to take the scene and was gently herding her outside where she could change into coveralls, shielded by the back door of the Denali and Warrick who had obviously been called in on his night off. There would be questions later to be certain; Nick would most likely be getting the brunt of those since his weapon had been fired, but Sara knew she needed to be ready for a round of them herself. At the moment though neither one of them was really thinking about what had happened to them personally, they were more concerned with Sophia and whether or not she was going to survive the gunshot wound.
Grissom had disappeared somewhere, but with the arrival of Brass, it was logical that he was giving him his statement.
Sara was vaguely aware of Warrick asking Nick some questions about how many rounds he'd fired as he took possession of his weapon; standard procedure in any officer involved shooting, but for some reason it pissed the hell out of Sara and she snapped out the words. "If Nick hadn't shot him, he might have shot Sophia again, he might have shot me...Nick didn't do anything wrong."
Warrick's eyebrows gently curved upwards. "You know this is procedure, Sara, no one's saying that Nick wasn't justified in shooting the suspect." He could see that Sara was deeply affected by the whole turn of events and he wished at that moment he could stop being Warrick the CSI and be Warrick the friend to both Nick and Sara.
"Suspect! The asshole shot an officer point blank...I had my gun pointed at him and he wouldn't back down." Something within Sara started to break. "It's my fault he shot her...if I'd called for back up sooner...if I just could have taken the damn shot..." Tears were streaming down her face uncontrollably as the shock of the entire ordeal finally overwhelmed her.
"Sara, it's not your fault." Nick impulsively pulled his friend into a hug; he knew what she meant though, he was feeling guilty as hell for not seeing her first two text messages asking for help in the first place. But he kept reminding himself that if he hadn't gotten there when he did, the gunman would have had no problem shooting Sara as well.
Sara found some semblance of comfort by the strength in Nick's arms and then the touch of Warrick's hand on her shoulder.
"Sara, Nick's right, it isn't your fault." The number of times Warrick had seen Sara cry could be counted on one hand and as he exchanged concerned glances with Nick they weren't sure what to do other than what they were doing at that moment. He half expected at any time for Sara to push them all away and lock herself in the Denali embarrassed that anyone had seen her cry.
Catherine let out a sort of sigh as she started to mentally compartmentalize what needed to be done at the scene and as much as she could appreciate the trauma that her coworkers had just witnessed, she was now in charge of this crime scene. As gently as she could she addressed Nick. "Nicky, why don't you take Sara home so she can change. Ecklie wants everyone available to make a formal statement."
Nick furrowed his brow deeply and nodded, Sara probably would want a quick shower and some fresh clothes. "Yeah, that's a good idea."
Sara stepped away from Nick and offered up an embarrassed smile. "Thank you." She really didn't want to spend the rest of the evening in these coveralls which only seemed to underscore the reason she was wearing them in the first place. Wiping at her eyes, she gestured towards the Denali. "I'll just wait over there." Truth was that she wanted some semblance of privacy to puller herself together.
Nick glanced back at Catherine and then over at Warrick with a curious look. "Where's Grissom?" It occurred to him that he had been remanded from this investigation as well and by all rights, he also should be heading back to the lab until either another case came in or until they were all formally cleared, which none of them had any doubt about, but it was standard procedure. As for himself, he fully expected to be put on administrative leave for a few days, also standard procedure.
Catherine pursed her lips together. "He's giving his statement to Brass and trying to talk Ecklie into staying here to help process the scene since he wasn't downstairs at the time of the shooting." Of course she was already formulating how she was going to talk Gil out of the scene once he got off the phone with Ecklie; why Conrad couldn't have come out here himself she wasn't sure, but then again, she was the people person.
"He can't do that." Nick remarked somewhat annoyed. It seemed to him sometimes that Grissom was more about the job than the people; but then he had to remind himself of the compassion he'd received after his own ordeal. This was difficult for Grissom just like it was difficult for him and Sara; Sophia was a colleague that had become a friend and they were all a little worked up over it.
"I know that and you know that, and believe it or not, Grissom knows that, but it's gonna take a little time." Catherine tried to sound as diplomatic as possible. "If Brass has to remove him personally he will; we've already had that conversation."
Warrick laughed. "That's something I'd like to see." To interject a little levity at that moment seemed to relieve some of the tension that had been so thick for the last hour or so.
"Well you may just get to." Catherine smirked at him before turning towards Nick. "Now get out of here before I have to get Brass to remove you and Sara." She knew she wouldn't have to, but she got the impression that the quicker Sara got out of there, the better off she'd be.
"Yes, ma'am." Nick smiled back at her and then headed towards the Denali. Sara turned as he approached and he quirked a brow at her. "You ready to get out of here?" He could tell by her body language that she needed to get out of here.
Sara nodded. "Yeah." She didn't say anything else she simply climbed into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt. She was still thinking about how easily she could have been wounded or killed back there and she was feeling guilty that she had walked out of there and Sophia hadn't. She hadn't liked Sophia when she'd first been assigned to the nightshift, but as she'd worked with her and gotten to know her, she found that she had the same easygoing people skills that she'd always admired in Nick. Sophia was hard not to like after a while; despite the impression she'd gotten that perhaps the blond had her sights set on Gil Grissom.
Nick paused as he inserted the key in the ignition and looked over at Sara. "You do know that this wasn't your fault. You did what you could. If you weren't there, none of us would have seen what happened and he would have gotten away." He let out a sigh as she looked back at him. "I'm just sorry I didn't get in there sooner...I'm feeling pretty shitty that I didn't notice the text messages earlier...you did what you could, you really did."
"Hey, this isn't your fault either, Nick. If you hadn't come in there, he probably would have tried to shoot me too..." Sara felt emotion welling up in her throat as she spoke.
Nick's brow furrowed and his voice caught a little in his throat. "Let's just get out of here." This had affected him in a way that he hadn't quite expected and he really was looking forward to the few days he was going to be on paid leave to sort of decompress. As the engine roared to life he gently eased the Denali away from the curb.
They had driven a short distance when Sara turned in her seat to look at Nick and broke the comfortable silence that had descended on the vehicle. "Nick?"
Nick glanced over at her, his brow still furrowed. "Yeah?"
There was an earnest quality to Sara's voice. "After we stop at my place, do you want to go over to the hospital and see how Sophia is?"
Nick smiled; both he and Sara really needed to know how she was doing. "Yeah, I do."
