A/N: Thanks to my few reviewers, I really appreciate the positive feedback. It's always nice to know that I'm doing something right :) I know I gave you guys two updates yesterday; you might only get one today unfortunately. Now that I'm no longer snowed in I actually have things that I have to do outside of writing fanfics.

Mary woke up on the couch in the break room with Sara and Catherine talking to her. "Is it true?" she asked quietly, still barely conscious.

Sara nodded, and Mary started to cry. "I know I should be happy about this," Mary sobbed, "but he was still my father. I loved him, despite everything he did to me."

"I understand Mary, I do. The same thing happened to me. But now you know you're safe, and that he can't hurt you anymore. That's good, right?" Sara asked, trying to make the girl feel better, though she knew it was impossible. She had been through so much in one day, it was impossible to come to terms with all of that at once.

The young blonde girl nodded. "Was it Manson? Who killed him, I mean."

"Probably," Sara stated, "But I have to go process the scene to be sure. I promise you, I'll find him though. I'll get him put away for life, for what he did to you, and for what he did to your father." Her mouth soured a bit at the word father, knowing that the girl shouldn't have been feeling any sympathy for her abuser, but knowing also that Stockholm Syndrome was common in child abuse cases, especially cases where it was just the child and the abuser in the house. That kind of environment created a sense of mutual need which was the perfect breeding ground for the syndrome. Then she gave Catherine a questioning look, and when Catherine returned her gaze with one of assurance, she said "Catherine's going to stay here with you and wait for the other evidence to come back while I go process the other scene okay?"

Mary nodded silently, and Sara rested her hand on the girls shoulder comfortingly before walking out of the room, and out to her car. She drove the Mary's house and walked under the crime scene tape after flashing her credentials at the officer. The sight she got when she walked in the door was almost enough to make her loose her lunch. The man, clearly Mary's father, was lying in the living room, a victim of what looked like ten, maybe eleven stab wounds. But the disturbing part was on the wall to the left of the body. Written in blood were the words. "I told you I would kill him. Catch me if you can. E Manson."

Sara started with the body, snapping photographs from every angle, but she found no evidence. Then she moved towards the wall, and took a sample of the blood after photographing the entire message for court. She looked for latent prints in the blood but there were none to be found. Then she moved towards the bedroom, following the blood trail that ended with the body. In there she found, to her great surprise, a bloody knife. She photographed it then dusted it for prints- there was one in plain sight. This is too easy, Sara thought, it's almost as if he wants to get caught. But then why would he be so careful in the living room, just to leave me all of the evidence I need to convict him in the bedroom? She didn't have time to analyze it further however because before she could continue, she felt a sharp blow to the back of her head and fell forward. She stood up immediately and turned to face her attacker. She didn't know for sure, but she had to guess it was Manson.

He swung at her with his right arm, but Sara's martial arts training kicked in and she blocked, before throwing him down on the floor in a huge shoulder throw. She didn't anticipate that he would be smart enough to grab her foot and drag her down with him. She rolled on top of him screaming "SUSPECT ON LOCATION", hoping that the officer who was standing guard at the door would hear her. He went to wrap his hands around her throat, but she punched him square in the head, then jumped up, wanting higher ground. He wasn't out yet though. He jumped up too, and lunged at her, shoving her backwards into a wall. Then he pulled another knife and sliced at her. He was aiming at her throat, but she dodged just in time, and he only managed to take a slice out of her forearm. Then she kneed him in the groin, and threw him down on the ground again, face first, before locking his arm behind him in a shoulder lock. "You're under arrest asshole" she muttered, not caring that she didn't technically have the authority to arrest a suspect.

That was the moment that the on-scene officer decided to run into the room to find out what was going on. "Jesus Sidle, what'd I miss?" He looked incredulous.

"Arrest him. Then we'll chat." She was still hyped up on adrenaline, and more than a little pissed off.

The officer got right to it, apparently trying to make up for lost time. "Sir, you are under arrest for assaulting a law enforcement officer, as well as for suspicion of the rape of a minor, and the murder of John Sherman. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you by the state. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

The man spat on the ground in affirmation, and was carted off by the backup officers who had just arrived on scene. Once he was out of the room and the other officers were gone, Sara looked at the first officer on scene. "Smith isn't it?" She asked, looking at his name plate.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, I had to call for backup and all that."

She gave him an angry look "That's not what I'm concerned about. What I want to know is why you didn't follow the proper procedure for clearing a scene?"

He looked sheepish. "It had been a long night… I walked into all the rooms, I didn't hear anything, I figured no one was there. Clearly I made a grave misjudgment."

"Clearly," Sara responded bluntly. "You do realize I'm going to have to report this to your Captain, right?"

He nodded "Of course Ms. Sidle. I really am sorry."

"I know you are, and I know you'll be more careful next time, but seriously Smith, that could have had much worse consequences than it did. Luckily, I know martial arts, so I was able to subdue him without shooting a potential rape and murder suspect, but otherwise that could have ended really badly. Keep that in mind." Sara made her point rather harshly, but she had to impress upon the rookie officer the stupidity of what he had done.

Officer Smith was at this point looking like he was nearly on the verge of tears, as well as more than a little green. "Ms Sidle… you're bleeding…"

Sara looked down at her arm that was finally beginning to burn. "Ah so I am. Alright Smith I'm done tearing you a new one…Just think next time" she said, significantly more kindly than before.

"Oh absolutely Ms. Sidle. Do you want me to call paramedics for you?" Smith was a little too eager to help at this point, although Sara could tell he meant well and was just trying to make amends.

She smirked. "No thanks, I'll just take care of this on my own. It's not that bad anyway." With that, she finished processing the scene, both the primary and secondary, and drove back to the lab.

She was about to get out of the car when she noticed that she was dripping blood all over herself. She grabbed the first aid kid in the back of the Denali and wrapped up her forearm so that she wouldn't be any gorier of a sight than she already was, then walked back into the crime lab, only to be practically assaulted by Catherine. "Sara, I got your results…what the hell happened to you?"

"Suspect on location, responding officer didn't clear the scene. I apprehended the suspect, tore the primary a new one, processed the scene, and here I am. The only thing I didn't get to do was change out of my blood soaked clothes."

Catherine looked at the brunette with a mixture of shock and admiration. "Wow. Busy couple of hours. You sure you're alright?"

Sara nodded. "Yep, he barely scratched me."

"That's a LOT of blood for a scratch," Catherine remarked suspiciously.

Sara smirked "Okay, maybe slightly more than a scratch. But seriously, it wasn't that bad. Now, results?"

"DNA of the semen matched the skin samples from under the vic's fingernails, and they brought up a hit in CODIS. Erik Manson. Prior for DUI when he was 22, probably not enough to keep the school from hiring him. They're understaffed, or so Lindsay tells me, so they were probably desperate." Catherine stated the results just like she would for any other victim, professionally and without a hint of emotion, but the pride in her voice revealed just how happy she was to give Sara the good news.

"So we've got him for rape. That's good," stated the CSI, "but I want him for murder too. That way he's behind bars for life. I got prints at the scene from a bloody knife, I just need to submit the blood and prints from the scene, then hopefully we can wrap this one."

Catherine laughed, "Woah, hang on. You're coming dangerously close to crunching evidence to fit a theory."

Sara looked indignant. "No, I'm just hoping that what the scene said to me is true."

"Yeah okay, I believe you, totally."

With that, the two laughing women walked off down the lab. Sara dropped off her evidence, and Catherine filled her in about Mary. "She seems to be doing pretty well," the blonde woman stated in response to Sara's questions, "all things considered. She sat in the break room reading for a while, then she ran into Greg and started watching him do paperwork. She's really into forensics isn't she?"

"Yeah she is. She wants to be a CSI. I can't believe she finds paperwork interesting though…ugh."

"Oh, anything's interesting the first ten or twenty times. It's when it becomes so much a part of your life that it haunts you in your dreams that it becomes a problem" Catherine stated, as seriously as she could make it with the smirk creeping into her lips.

Sara laughed out loud "True enough I guess." Then she was interrupted by her cell phone ringing yet again. "Sidle?"

"Sara its Brass. Sorry to keep bothering you, but the guy we brought in from your scene is in fact Eric Manson. Thought you'd want to know."

"Thanks Brass," she responded, "Book him for assault and rape. If all goes well we'll have the evidence to book him for murder as well by the end of the night. And I want to talk to him."

Brass's voice immediately sounded wary, but he didn't really have the authority to deny her her request either. "Alright. Let me know when you want to have your little chat and I'll arrange it. Hey, how did he get into your scene anyway?"

"Smith made a bit of a miscalculation when clearing the scene. I talked to him, I don't think he'll make the same mistake again." Sara covered for the man, knowing that if she made it seem like he had been negligent he would be facing a suspension without pay on top of the ball bashing she had already given him.

Brass exhaled, sounding relieved. "So in your opinion there's no disciplinary action needed?"

"No," Sara stated definitively, " He got the idea, and no harm done."

"Thank god" Brass whistled, "I really couldn't handle loosing another guy. These budget cuts have been killing the department, and I really couldn't condemn my guys to working the extra doubles that would be required to cover for someone on suspension."

Sara laughed. "Glad to help Jim. I've gotta make a few calls, I'll call you when I get the results back on the murder scene."

The call disconnected, and Catherine gave Sara a skeptical look. "You're gonna talk with the guy?"

"I'm going to present him with the evidence…and a piece of my mind." Her tone was such that Catherine decided not to argue.

The two women walked towards the break room, Sara contemplating what she was going to say to Eric Manson when she got the opportunity, and what she would say to Mary in response to the questions she was obviously going to get regarding her findings at the scene, and how she was going to handle the phone call to child services, the necessity of which was becoming greater and greater by the minute.

For the first time in her life, Sara Sidle had more questions than answers, and she didn't like the feeling.

A/N: Well, here you have it. I know my chapters are short, I guess that's just how I write. I like frequent pauses. It also makes it easier to update quickly :) But I'm looking for opinions from you guys- Mary is fourteen. Do you guys want Lindsay to be older, younger, or the same age? It will become very important later on in the story, so I'd value your thoughts. Please let me know in a review!