Disclaimer: it aint mine. ñ
Thanks for all the reviews fellas. I really do appreciate it. Since the season opener has finally been aired, I would just like to say that it in no way affects the aspects of this story. Also I apologize for the long update, I am suffering from an extremely unpleasant shoulder injury.
Chapeter 7 - Let's chat.
Grissom stood in the hallway, leaning up against the doorframe. He stared at the unconscious body of Sara Sidle. Even while sleeping she looked uncomfortable in the hospital bed. Tubes and wires seem to come from various body parts at random. Numbers on various machines had no meaning, just gave rise to a slighty off beat symphony of beeps and alarms. Grissom had felt like he was suffocating and he wasn't even in the room. Herds of doctors and nurses made their way through the hall, making rounds or en route to some unknown destination, all of them seeming oblivious of his presence. He sighed defeatedly and wondered when he had started to care when he was alone. He was vulnerable and lonely and he knew that this came from letting her in to his life. The more he thought about how much better he would be handling this had she not been so involved as part of his daily life, the more angry he got. Mostly at himself. He made the conscious decision to open himself to weakness. A weakness that has thus distracted him from his work, when it was necessary that he be at his best. He turned away from the room and joined the stream of mobile people, his destination unknown.
Sara jumped at the feel of the chair underneath her. All remenants of the terrible scene she just left were now gone. She stood on shaky legs and began to warily inspect her new surroundings. She recognized nothing and became more confused when she couldn't read the titles of any books or records in the room. She turned around and gazed over at the chair she had just been occupying. She looked beyond into what seemed to be a foyer and part of the kitchen. Minimal light shone into the room through closed curtains, beneath the window was a couch. On that couch was the sleeping body of..
"Catherine?" Sara whispered aloud. The body stirred at the sound of the noise. Sara released a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. She knelt beside the sleeping figure, gently placing her hand on Catherine's back. Sara was relieved to find the body to be warm. She called out to sleeping blonde once again, more firmly this time.
"Huh? Linds? You home already?" Catherine's voice was muffled by the couch pillows. The absence of the non-stop chattering from the youth aroused her curiousity enough to flip gingerly on to her back. She was surprised by the lack of pain but even more startled to see Sara kneeling beside her. Catherine sat up quickly, nearly knocking Sara on her back.
"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty. Why so jumpy?" Sara said, regaining her balance. She smirked inspite of herself, glad to not be haunted by a zombie-like, ghastly and decaying Catherine. She briefly wondered if that would be worse than what she had just escaped from. Her lips stretched into a thin smile as she tried not to dwell on the thought.
"When.. How.. Why? You're here?" Catherine managed to get out. Sara let out a soft chuckle and returned to her chair.
"For now it appears that way. This must be what I think the inside of your house must look like. It's very nice." Catherine didn't seem to hear the statement, her mind still seemed to be clouded from sleep. But she quickly found her voice.
"How did you get here? When were you released? Have you been to see Gil yet?" Catherine quickly shut her mouth, she didn't want to interrogate Sara so soon after being released. However, something seemed to be off about this, but she was still too sleepy to understand.
"Grissom? I wasn't aware that I was being held captive. I don't know how I got here. One minute I'm," she paused, "Somewhere else. Next thing I know, I'm sitting right here in this chair." She trembled slighty at remembering where she had been previously.
"Are you alright?" Sara's shaking had not gone unnoticed by Catherine.
"I'm fine." Sara sat there with her eyes closed, afriad to open to what she may find. A dead Catherine. Or worse.
"You don't look fine." Catherine's face had dissapointment written all over her face. She had thought Sara was finally awake.
"Sure I am. Fanatical, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional, FINE." Sara heard the other woman chuckle dryly. The proceeding silence removed all desire for Sara to open her eyes. Her mind raced with all the scenarios she could open her eyes to. The only thing that stopped her from bolting blindly from the room was the chair she was sitting in. Logically, in her mind, a truely terrifying nightmare would not allow her to sit in such comfort.
"Hm." Catherine grunted, deep in thought. Sara slowly looked over at her.
"What?" The question has snapped Catherine from the recesses of her mind and back to this psuedo-reality.
"I was trying to figure out why you are here. The last thought I had before falling asleep was just wanted to talk to you." Sara absorbed the information, and let her train of thought take off. But the train quickly hit a wall. Catherine is dead. Sara suddenly felt very uncomfortable sitting still, and began to walk around the room.
"You're starting to make me dizzy, Sara Sidle." Sara stopped, and looked at Catherine. Frustration clearly present in her features.
"You're dead Catherine. I watched you die. Th-the accident." Sara trailed off. Catherine slowly approached her until she stood squarly infront Sara.
"I'm alive, Sara. We both are." Sara violently shook her head, clenching her jaw.
"I saw you die. You're dead, you're dead." Sara's voice was thick with emotion, but her defiance quickly frustrated Catherine.
"Will you just listen to me?! Yes, we were both in an accident. But no one died! I saw you myself before I left the hospital. You were hurt bad, Sara. You're still unconcious. But you are alive. I'm still alive!" Catherine's outburst stunned Sara into silence. Catherine could feel her heart beating and her face flush. She grabbed Sara's hand and placed it on her cheek.
"You see? Warmth," Catherine then moved her hand to her chest, "You feel that? My heart beats, Sara. I'm alive. You need to let that go, you have to wake up." Catherine released Sara's hand, which slowly returned to her side. She heard everything Catherine had said. She felt the warmth, the blood pumping from her chest. She wanted to believe. If Catherine wasn't dead, then she was unconcious, holed up in a hospital somewhere. Sara felt dizzy. And that strange wind sound wasn't helping.
"Do you hear that?" Sara asked, returning her gaze to Catherine. The sound persisted and grew louder. An invisible hand places a lock of Catherine's hair behind her ear. Then the sound, louder now.
"Mommy?" The normally high pitched voice of the little girl had risen a few octaves from fear.
"Baby?" Catherine mumbled. Her head throbbed, her side ached, and the new attachment of Lindsey wasn't helping. But she bit the bullet and slowly sat up.
"Wait, Mom. Let me get you some water." Catherine made a small nod as Lindsey ran into the kitchen to get some water. She handed the cup to Catherine, who gulped it down quickly, unaware of how thirsty she had been.
"How was your day with Uncle Greggo?" Lindsey seemed to be re-energized at remembering the events of the day.
"He's sooo cool. I had so much fun. Don't worry about dinner, Mom. I brought you back some tacos." Lindsey retrieved the luke-warm dinner from the kitchen and brought it to her mother. She plopped down in the chair and turned on the tv as Catherine quickly ate her food. They sat in silence for a few hours, neither one of them paying attention to whatever program was on.
Ecklie snapped his phone shut and began to rub his temples. Ignacio glanced at him over a bottle of Corona. He had a feeling more bad news was on the horizon. He was acutely aware of how angry Conrad was at the failure to dispatch the female CSIs. However, he was delighted to hear that most of the evidence had been destroyed, and the others were likely unusable. And the befuddlement of the 'Bug-lover', as Con referred to him, due to the momentary loss of his leading ladies and crucial evidence, had bought him some more time. Ecklie's jaw tightened, and Ignacio braced for the news.
"They identified the dead guy." Ignacio waited patiently for him to continue.
"John Ramirez sound familiar to you at all?" Ecklie seemed to get angrier by the second.
"I do believe so. He was involved in a few hits for me." Ignacio lit and puffed on a cigar.
"Yeah. Which turned into a few cases for me. A few shakily unsolved cases. With my name on them." Ecklie's eyes burned, each word filled to the brim with contempt.
"What would you have me do amigo? He was sloppy, no? That's why I had him killed. Besides, his old buddies figured out where he was hiding. He was a huge liability to us. He turned traitor once, I wouldn't doubt that he would do it again to win their forgiveness. I did him a favor. After using him for information against us, they would have killed him anyway." Ignacio continued to puff and sip, seemingly not bothered by the situation. Ecklie boiled inside, but had to curb his rapier tounge at the presence of a stranger.
"Iggy!" The young black strutted up to Ignacio and slapped his hand around for a little bit before pulling him into a half hug. He locked eyes with Ecklie, who gazed back with equal disgust.
"Who's the stiff in the suit?" The man never broke eye contact with Ecklie. Ignacio laughed at their behavior.
"That's Conrad. Con, this is Christopher." Ignacio lazily waved his hand in introduction, then offered Christopher a seat.
"Come on, G. I told you to call me Crazy D." Crazy D seemed slightly embarrassed at being called his given name and vainly tried to cover it up.
"And what could that D stand for? Delinquent? Degenerate?" Ecklie smirked at the boy.
"You old bitch! I'll fucking shoot you dead right now!" Crazy D screamed at him as he pulled his gun out. Ignacio abruptly stood up.
"That would not be wise, Chris. Conrad is a great asset to me. Actually, Con is the reason why I have asked you here today. You see, my boys have left some rather nasty unfinished business to tend to. Business that could get Conrad and I in a lot of trouble. So I am in need of your services."
There might be more errors in this one than normal. The rest of this story should come up rather quickly. Not that I'm rushing it, but I refuse to write two stories at a time. I'm thinking massive Songfic Spoof. In the form of a CSI: Rockpra. A Rock Opera. Or basically a musical using contemporary music. In classic c/s format. Well I suppose it would be a spoof of c/s fics too. Since I feel like I robbed some people in this one. I feel robbed myself actually.
Coming up: Good Morning! See that? That's your lead floating away. Santa's Unlikely Helper. Deadly Alliances. Big war. And a minor whoopsie.