Chapter Ten: For Sara
Everyone was silent, eerily silent as they collected their thoughts and feelings about the events minutes before. No one had expected Sara to react like that. And no one expected her subconscious confession of her father's abuse. They were shocked to say the least, and worried and scared.
"Catherine?" Greg asked, still wiping the tears from his eyes, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" She asked from the driver's seat.
"Do you think Sara will be alright? I mean the things that she said in there. Hearing it. I never imagined. I mean I knew he hurt her, but I didn't really let myself believe how much."
"I don't know Greg. I wish I did. She has a lot of demons to face, and judging by her reaction in there, it's not going to be easy." She said grimly.
"Did her dad really do those things to her?" He asked innocently. He was like a little kid worried about his best friend. It was sweet, despite the circumstances.
When Catherine kept silent and a stray tear ran down her face, they all knew the answer. Suddenly they all realized Sara's reaction to certain cases. How she interacted with those suspects and victims, why she wouldn't let those particular cases go. She was fighting for the victims but she was also fighting for herself.
"Does Griss know?" Nick asked, also very teary eyed from hearing the attack on his best friend in full detail.
"Yeah, he does." Catherine said softly. "He's been helping her face it, and if there's one person that can get her through this it's him."
"When we find this guy, I just one five minutes alone with him! That sick son of a bitch!" Warrick yelled through tears as he slammed his hand on the dashboard.
"Hey calm down!" Catherine yelled, placing her hand over his. "Now come on guys! Sara needs us right now. We're no good to her if we're all falling apart. Believe me, this guy fucked with the wrong person and he'll pay the price for it. But for now we need to focus okay? Okay?" She said angrily.
"You're right, I'm sorry Cath. It's just…God, why Sara? She didn't deserve any of that. Neither did Grissom." He apologized.
"No one ever does War. No one ever does." She retorted sensitively.
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"I GOT HIM!" Nick yelled from the layout room.
Before he could even finish he remark, Catherine, Brass, Warrick and Greg were all running into the room with hopeful expressions on their faces.
"Look! I imported the scene photos into the computer and scanned the face that Griss and Sara pointed out into the facial recognition software. And check it out, same guy at all seven scenes. That's him, that's our guy." Nick said, almost all in one breath, excitedly.
"So what now?" Warrick asked incredulous.
"Well, it's a long shot, but I have the facial recognition software scanning through DMV photos from Las Vegas that match this guys description." Nick added on.
"Otherwise we wait. As horrible as it is, if we're going to catch him with our plan, we have to hope that another couple gets attacked." Catherine said solemnly.
"How do we know if he'll even stay though? I mean all of those photos were taken right when we arrived at the scene. What if we're too late?" Warrick asked, still unsure of this plan.
"Well, we don't. But we know that he stayed throughout the entire time Griss and Sara were processing their scene. So I guess we can only hope. And make sure we're there right away." Greg added in.
"I can't believe that this guy has been there, at each scene and we were looking right at him and didn't know." Brass commented, feeling a little disturbed that they were so close.
"Well, hopefully this will end it all, for Sara, Gil and all the other victims and this bastard can rot in prison where he belongs." Catherine said a bit dismayed.