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Chapter 4: Breakdown

Christina didn't return from her "break". In fact, nobody saw her very often, since she was now always at the lab during day shift. In addition to that, she avoided any contact, if possible, with both Nick and Sara when they came in early and their paths crossed. She practically turned her back on them.

She seemed to be contemplating things though, steeling glances towards Nick and Sara when she thought they weren't looking, before shaking her head and going on with her work.

Nobody seemed to have found out any more about Christina. The only thing they really knew, was that she had done time in juvenile prison and that she had a strong resemblance to Amy Stokes.

Without legitimate reason, however, one could not just look into her record. Christina herself refused to talk about it, and shut down when someone asked.

Then one day, suddenly, tides changed. At first, everybody thought that Christina just wouldn't show up anymore, when she was over an hour late. Someone called the shelter where she was supposed to be staying, but the people there said that they hadn't seen her all day.

She did come in though; three hours late. She entered the break room without a word and started rummaging around in cupboards, looking for the stuff she needed to continue the cleaning. The Night Shift had just gathered there to hand out assignments.

"We're kind of late, aren't we?" Warrick asked with a significant look at the clock.

"I got held up," she answered. "But I'm here now, aren't I? Don't worry, I'll catch up the hours I missed," she added in a sarcastic tone. The team just raised their eyebrows at each other.

"Would you mind sharing by what you were held up?" Greg asked.

"Is that really any of your business? Like I said, I'm here now, right?"

"And you were doing so well on your behaviour towards us," Catherine muttered under her breath. Christina seemed to have heard anyway.

"Well, if my behaviour doesn't suit you, why don't you just leave me alone?" Christina said when she spun around to face them. Somehow that movement seemed to hurt her: she flinched ever so slightly before she angrily picked up her stuff and stalked out of the room.

It didn't go unnoticed that she'd flinched. While the team headed out to their respective crime scenes, practically everybody spoke about it, wondering what it meant.

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Meanwhile, Christina had sought out the solitude of the garage, not only to clean up the graffiti – which finally started disappearing from the walls – but also to let her emotions run free.

She sank to the floor with her back against the wall and put her arms around her knees. Tears were running free now, reddening her eyes and leaving trails on her cheeks.

She cried for a good half hour before the flow of tears seemed to subside somewhat. She leaned her forehead on her knees, still hiccupping and closed her eyes to prevent new tears to fall. She didn't even notice that she started to fall asleep.

She started awake when somebody gently touched her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Sara crouching in front of her, looking concerned.

"Hey, you okay?" Sara asked quietly. She could clearly see the tearstains and knew that something was up. "Shift's almost over, you know."

"Yeah," Christina said, but suddenly tears sprung to her eyes. "No," she choked out.

Sara sat down next to her, waiting for Christina to continue. She noticed the girl was breaking.

"It happened on my way over here… And it hurt… you'd think that after so many times it wouldn't h-hurt any-ymore, but it does… it hurt so badly… and I tried to scream for help, but no one came… no one came…"

That's when she just broke into tears again. Sara's maternal instinct took over and she put her arms around the girl, knowing she was probably compromising evidence, but just wanting to comfort her.

Christina completely broke down, but couldn't help but feel safe, being held like this, and how much she missed and wanted it. She just held on to Sara as if holding on to dear life, until she couldn't cry anymore.

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TBC