Sarah's POV
That night, I couldn't sleep. Ryan had decided to spend the night at my house, instead of the other way around, and that was fine with me. All night while we cuddled near the fireplace, I tried to work up the courage to tell him. But I couldn't do it. For some odd reason, I'm scared.
The Next Day
As I entered the lab, I said a few quick 'good mornings' to a couple people, and made my way to the locker room. There, I ran into Jesse Cardoza once again.
"Hey, Stacey right?" He had mistaken me for the AV Lab Tech. I wasn't offended, because people used to do it all the time.
"No," I laughed. "I'm Sarah. But, you're Jesse Cardoza, correct?" I asked.
"Right." He flashed a smile. "I've seen you before, haven't I?" He asked.
"Yeah, we met in this very room a couple months back." I reminded him while entering the combination on my locker.
"Ah, I remember now." He smiled again.
"I thought you worked on the night shift, no?" I asked.
"I did, but Horatio transferred me back to the day shift." He answered.
"Back? I never knew you were on the day shift." At this point, we were both headed upstairs to Horatio's office.
"A couple years back, I used to work here." He explained. "Then, I got a job offer to work in the Los Angeles Police Department, and it was an offer that I just couldn't pass up. So I left this job to work there. But a couple years after that, I decided to come back here."
"What made you want to come back here?"
"Well, my wife was murdered." I saw the pain in his eyes, and now I wished I had just kept my mouth shut.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry." I sincerely apologized.
"It's okay. I wanted to find her murderer, so I came back on the team. But, I never got that lucky."
"Jesse, I'm sorry. I feel like an idiot for even bringing it up." He smiled.
"No, it's okay, really. Now what made you want to join?"
"Well I've always wanted to study criminal justice. So that's what I went to school for. After I graduated, I put in a résumé for some of the best crime labs. Luckily, Horatio picked me first. Since then, I've had an amazing time working here." I explained.
"Sounds nice." He smiled. He checked his watch. "Perfect, we're right on time." He said as he opened the door to Horatio's office.
"Ladies first," He offered.
"Thank you." I smiled as I sat in a seat next to Calleigh.
"Hey Sarah!" Her accent made me smile.
"Hey Calleigh."
"So," Her voice lowered. "Did you get the results yet?" She asked. I felt a lump in my throat begin to rise.
"It was positive." I looked down before I looked at her. She was extremely happy, but she kept her excitement within.
"Did you tell Ryan yet?" She anxiously questioned. I shook my head no. "Well what are you waiting for?"
"I don't know Calleigh," I began. "I'm just scared." Before Calleigh uttered a sound, Horatio began to talk.
"I hope everyone has had a good morning so far. First off, let me say, Welcome back to the team Mr. Cardoza." The room erupted in hand-claps and smiles. "Today, we need all hands on deck. We have another Mala Noché case. Alejandro Sanchez was murdered and it is believed to be gang related.
"How do they figure?" Natalia inquired. She was always the brightest one on our team. Always the first one to ask questions.
"Where Sanchez was shot," Frank started. "There were security cameras posted everywhere. We were able to recover the tape of the murder. We took it to the AV lab, and looked at the video frame by frame." He pulled out a picture. "We were able to enlarge this frame. The tattoo on the suspect is an exact resemblance of the symbol used by the Mala Noché. There was an accomplice there as well, but we have yet to I.D. him."
"Wait," Calleigh called out. "Let me see that." Tripp handed her the picture. She analyzed it quickly.
"It's Dominick Swaye." She muttered. My heart quickly sank. The blood immediately sank from my face, as if it was in a race. I locked eyes with Ryan, and he sensed the uncomfortable feel in my eyes.
"He's supposed to be in jail. How did he escape?" I had an uneasy feeling down in the pit of my stomach.
"There was a security breach at the jailhouse, in which the suspect helped Swaye get out of jail. We want to find Dominick Swaye first. When we find him, we should be able to get some information and the whereabouts of the other suspect." Horatio spoke. We exited out of the room. I grabbed the keys to my hummer, but stopped when I was pulled to the side.
"Baby, I don't want you to feel like you have to do this case if you don't want to." Ryan said.
"I don't like the guy." I started. "But I'm doing the case." I began to walk, but I was stopped again.
"Just," Ryan exhaled deeply. "Just be cautious. I don't like the guy any more than you do. Nobody does. But he's still a psycho-maniac. So he will try to kill again. Be careful, please."
"Yes, dad." I joked. He cracked a bit of a smile. I gave him a kiss and then ran my hand through his hair. I looked into his deep, brown eyes. They were so easy to get lost in. "But I want you to be careful too. You trying to protect me can put you in the line of fire too." I sighed.
"Okay." He promised. We kissed once more, and I went downstairs to grab my coat.
"Seems like we always meet here." I heard a voice. I looked up, only to meet Jesse's dark brown eyes. I smiled.
"Everytime." I agreed. Just then, Natalia came down the stairs. Her 4 ½ inch heels clicked against the floor.
"Hey Sarah, mind if I ride with you to the scene?" She almost stuttered.
"Yeah, sure." I answered. "I'm about to leave right now, you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm just getting my jacket." She got her jacket and slammed her locker shut.
"Let's go." We walked upstairs and headed to our crime scene.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, please don't hate me too much ? . I'm soooooooooo very sorry that I haven't posted in like… forever . And I'm sorry this wasn't a very good chapter . believe me now though; this story will end in a B A N G ! I couldn't post as often as usual because school has been hectic; and especially with the holidays. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I'm looking forward to 2O11; how about you ?