Turn Back Time

Chapter 10

By Joey

AN: Once again, I don't own the characters or anything. I think this will be the last chapter; although I am considering writing an epilogue.. so review if you want one. I think the ending is kind of short… I've been just wanting this story to finally be over.. and it is :) Yea me, considering I usually never finish stories and I wrote and finished TWO csi fics now…I'm so proud..

Anyway, thanks everyone's for the reviews and getting me over 100.. you guys all rock. And onto the story…

"Brass?"

"Nick?" The two looked at each other in shock, guns still at the ready, before the two relaxed their arms, quickly placing the safety on again.

"Brass?" A weak voice joined the cries.

"Sara?" Brass moved further into the room, as Nick stood in the way of the rest of the officers from entering and ruining the crime scene.

"Hi Brass," came Sara's soft reply as Brass moved around in front of her.

"Nick, how come you've yet to remove her bindings?" Brass faced Nick.

"I actually only arrived here a few minutes before you did."

"I told him not too," Sara once again spoke up. "It's a crime scene, Brass, he'll ruin the evidence. I told him to go get his kit when we heard someone coming down the stairs."

"I thought Chris might be back," Nick added.

"We've still got him down at the station, but he's not saying anything," Brass replied.

"Then how'd you know where to go?" Nick posed the question, confused.

"You left everything lying out in the break room, and once Grissom saw it, he quickly put everything together as you had and it took almost no time to convince a judge into giving us a warrant." Brass replied, before he turned away to face his men who were just standing around, waiting for further instructions. "Abbott, Ruben, can you two round up Grissom and the team. Tell them Sara's here, but we need a couple of kits down here ready to process the scene. We don't want Domino to be able to get away on a technicality."

The two young officers hurried from the room, and Brass turned his attention back to Sara. "Sara, did you ever actually see Chris' face. Would you be able to identify him from a police lineup?"

She shook her head slowly, a sad frown crossing her face as she did so. "He wore a navy blue ski mask whenever I saw him. His voice… I felt like I heard his voice before." Sara stopped moving for a second, before exclaiming loudly, "Wait, who's Chris?"

"Fuck!" Nick exclaimed, realizing too late his mistake in mentioning their suspects name.

"Well, that puts a line-up out of the question," Brass muttered, having followed Nick's exclaim with a few choice words of his own. "Even a voice line-up now that you've heard…know…"

"Shouldn't matter, you should be able to get all the proof you need out of this room, this house alone." Sara inserted, a slight smile gracing her faces. "Any chance the kits going to be arriving soon? As much as I enjoy preserving evidence, I don't really relish the feel of this cloth against my eyes, or the handcuffs cutting into my wrists."

"Have no fear, help is here," Greg's voice brightened the dimly lit room as he entered, followed closely by Grissom, Catherine and Warrick. The latter two immediately opened their kits, selecting the tools they would need, (tweezers, bags, labeling markers, scissors, lock picking kit) in order to free Sara.

"Sara," the word left Grissoms' mouth with more emotion that any other statement the team had ever heard. Even Sara could feel a few tears well up in her eyes (although they were immediately soaked into the cloth covering her eyes).

Warrick headed over to the back of the chair, bending down so his eyes were level with the handcuffs that were clutching Sara's wrists in their evil grip. "Hey Brass? I think these might be police issue, any chance you have your key on you?" Brass pulled a key ring from his pocket, selected the right one and tossed it to Warrick.

Catherine had moved to Sara's front, and using a pair of tweezers grasped a small portion of the blindfold, pulling it up and off of Sara's face before sticking it into a small plastic bag that she immediately labeled. Now that Sara's eyes were free, she blinked rapidly, trying to get use to what felt like blinding light, although appeared dim to the others. Nick moved back to in front of her, slightly pushing Catherine out of the way. He bent down, making his eyes level with hers, "Oh my god, Sara."

Once again Sara could feel the tears welling up, although this time when the first few broke free, they were able to slide down her cheeks, creating paths in the dirt and grime that seemed to be caked on.

"Yes," Warrick exclaimed as the click of the locks fell free, the handcuffs falling into another plastic evidence bag he held under them. Her hands free, Sara immediately brought them to the front of her, gently looking at her wrists which were rubbed raw, a few places cracked and bleeding from her attempts to get free.

Nick reached out to grab hold of her hand, but this time it was Catherine who stopped him, reaching out and pulling him back softly by one shoulder. "Just let me get samples from under her fingernails and take a few swabs." Nick nodded mutely, watching quietly, before standing up and moving over to one of the officers who was standing by the door. "Do you have a first aid kit?" He asked him, to which the officer nodded, turning quickly to leave the room and retrieve. Standing in the doorway, Nick looked around at all the people at work in the room. Catherine and Warrick were still gathering evidence from Sara, who hadn't spoken much since everyone had entered the room. Brass stood off in one corner watching the proceedings, and Greg and Grissom went about snapping pictures and searching the room for any other evidence to tie Chris to the crime.

As Catherine was finishing up with Sara's hands and wrists, the officer returned with the first aid kit. Forgetting to thank him, Nick took the kit and hurried back to Sara's side. He opened the kit, retrieving alcohol?? to place on her wrists, and some gauze bandages to wrap them with, before taking Sara's right hand in his, and tenderly going about the process of cleaning away the blood from the cuts and bandaging up her wrists.

Sara watched silently as Nick went to work on her wrists, drawing warmth from the touch of his hands on her bare skin. It wasn't until Nick shifted positions, causing him to wince slightly from pain, that the memories of the event returned.

"Oh my god, Nick." Sara's words caused Nick to stop mid-motion, moving his gaze from her wrist to her eyes. But they weren't looking back at him, well at least not his eyes, they were staring at his right shoulder, where, when he turned his head slightly he could see the bandages from his arm was peaking through. "Your shoulder."

"It's almost completely better now," Nick tried to reassure her, giving her his infamous grin.

"He… he told me you were dead," Sara whispered, the tears that had been threatening for minutes to overflow did just so. Ignoring the protests from Catherine and Warrick, Nick immediately leapt forward, pulling Sara into his arms, letting her cry onto his shoulder as he did the same on hers. He leaned back on to his heels, supporting both their weight, as Sara was now sitting pretty much in his lap.

"Nick… Sara…" Catherine tried to quietly interrupt their moment. After a few more minutes, she was a bit more successful, the two turning their teary faces to look at her. "Come on guys, let's go upstairs. Sara, we're going to need your clothes for evidence, I've got some coveralls you can put on in my trunk, and Nick, we're going to need your shirt now too incase of cross-contamination."

"There's a set of clean clothes in my trunk," Warrick offered, tossing his keys to Catherine.

"I have clothes," Nick stated, looking up from where he still had a firm grasp on Sara. "I have my Tahoe here too, remember."

"Right," Catherine nodded, remembering the hastly parked Tahoe they'd found when they arrived. "Come on," she motioned to them to stand up, which they did so, but Nick kept an arm wrapped around Sara's shoulders, the two refusing to let the other go as they followed Catherine out of the room and up the stairs. Once the reached the main level of the house, Catherine left the two in one of the side rooms, sitting on a couch as she left to retrieve some clothing for the two.

The two sat there, both not moving, or talking, just holding on to each other, afraid if they let go for a moment they'd lose each other again.

Catherine returned with a pile of clothes. She handed Nick a pair of his pants and a t-shirt she'd found in his vehicle, before turning to Sara. "Sara, Nick had some extra clothes, so I brought you a pair of his sweatpants, a t-shirt and sweatshirt, and… well and a pair of boxers. We need all of your clothes," she handed the stack of clothes to Sara. "I'll give you a few minutes." She left the room, shutting the door behind her to give the two some privacy.

She hadn't been waiting long, before Nick opened the door to let her back into the room. They'd left their clothes in a neat pile for Catherine, the two standing together again, the tears still apparent on both of their faces.

"Nick, Sara, why don't we get someone to drive you two to the hospital, so we can get Sara checked out." She suggested, and the two just nodded mutely, following her as she left the room again, this time locating another young cop and delegating the job to him. "We'll bring your Tahoe by in a couple of hours," Cath informed Nick, before letting them climb into the cop car and watching it pull away from the curb, away from the madness. Catherine then turned back to the house, ready to process what ever evidence still lay behind.

Sara was looked after almost immediately upon entry to the emergency room, and although dehydrated, was declared fine physically, just in need of liquids. Mentally, well, no one needed to even diagnose her condition on this one, it was apparent just from her lack of speaking, that there was emotion damage. But it was also apparent that the best cure was probably just for her and Nick to spend some time together, and, if need be later, for her to seek out a psychologist.

They found the Polaroid camera, and blue ski mask left behind at the house. The blue ski mask contained a few hairs and skin cells that they could link through DNA to Chris, guaranteeing his imprisonment for the crime.

Chris finally confessed, in an attempt to get some leniency for his crimes (not likely to work as he had kidnapped an officer of the law, as well as attempted murder on another). The original crime, that had started the whole case off turned out to be a murder/suicide, except that in this case, the one who'd committed suicide hadn't also been the murderer. Fred, the husband, had committed suicide, but a note was found at the house where Sara had been kept explaining that he was doing so because he was depressed over his wife's cheating. Chris had been listening to the police scanner, and had headed over to the house as soon as he heard the neighbour phone the police on account of shoots heard. He figured if he wasn't lucky that time with Sara being at the location, he'd just try again. He got to the house, planning to find a hiding spot, but while he was searching, the wife, Silvia, arrived home and found him. He'd pulled his gun, shooting her down, before grabbing the suicide note he'd found earlier, setting the stage for mis-interpretation. Unfortunately, before he had a chance to get to Sara, Nick had discovered the difference in the bullets and had started on the search of the house, running into him as he hid. In his rush to escape, he did the first thing that came to mind, pull the trigger, getting Nick out of the way so he could move downstairs. He was actually just going to get out of there, and try again another day, but then Sara had come around the corner, giving him the perfect opportunity, one that he didn't let go to waste.

The End

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