4. The book of shadows

"Would you kill to save your child?"

"I don't have a child - as you know - so it's a hard question to ask." Sofia stabbed the carrot with her knife. "I can imagine a mother does whatever it takes to save her child. When your child is diagnosed with a deadly disease you want to do whatever is possible to save him. The ordinary medical treatment didn't work anymore, so you are trying something else."

"Kill to save your child. Kill somebody else's child."

"Fight or die."

"Yes."

"Would you?" Sofia asked.

"I'm not sure but I have no idea what I do when I'm desperate. When Nathalie kidnapped me and left me under the car to die, somehow I got the strength to get out, I walked through the desert in the heat and somehow I survived. Also thanks to you. Before you saved me my body came up with a power I never had before or afterwards. So I believe you never truly know what you're capable of until you are in this special situation."

"I think you're right. We have our limits but under certain circumstances we break these limits."

"Yes."

"Do you believe in spells or anything like this?"

"I believe when you believe in these things it can work out because you do everything so it works out. But I don't believe they can heal cancer or make you find a million dollar. It's all in your own work, when you do more to achieve a goal, you're more likely to get where you want to be."

"I like to believe in good spirits but whenever there is good there is bad too."

"I'm afraid so."

"Do you think Mason will survive?"

"I have no idea, I hope he does but it doesn't look good for him. Now he has lost his mother, his last family member."

"It's very kind of the neighbors to take him in although they haven't been friends in many years. This could be a new chance for both of them. From what I read, Hannah has her own problems and her life isn't as wonderful and easy as it always seems."

"A lot of people pretend to be happier than they are because society wants us to be happy."

"Are you happy, Sara?"

"There were times when I was happier and there were times when I was not as happy as I am today. It's kind of a balance at the moment. What about you, Sofia?"

"I'm happy where my job is taking me, I could be happier in my private life. But having said that, I'm happier since we meet and talk."

"Your boyfriend doesn't make you happy?"

"He does, yes, but what we have is different. You understand my problems because of work and he doesn't. He lives in a different world, I have to explain most things, with you I can just talk because you know what I mean."

"That was almost romantic." Sara smiled.

"Don't make fun of me, Sara Sidle."

"Sorry. I like talking to you too, Sofia."

"Good." Sofia rose her glass. "To us."

Sara also rose her glass. "To us."

5. Girls gone wilder

"I'm so glad you are okay." Sofia pulled Sara in her arms and pulled her closer. "You have no idea how much I worried. Why are you always getting into situations like this? Do I have to stay by your side all the time only to make sure nothing happens to you?"

"Maybe it would be a good idea." Sara closed her eyes and stayed in Sofia's arms. It had been close, way too close. Again. Again she had a gun in her face, again she had been threatened to be killed by somebody from her past. Ballard, a former CSI, who she had helped to send to prison by uncovering his work was not correct.

"It certainly looks like it to me. I'm not going to give you the speech about wandering around a scene without police protection, the hotel was closed-down, there was police everywhere and officially the shooter had been shot."

"Thank you."

"But I have to consider becoming a detective again so I can be with you when you're at a scene."

"All you want is to have fun."

"We did have some fun, you're right. Every time you weren't bitchy we had fun."

"I was never bitchy."

"Hah, that's a sweet little lie." Sofia let Sara out of her arms. "So you know doctor Jane Snyder."

"Unfortunately, yes I do."

"She's a bitch in court."

"She helps to set guilty people free. It was because of her work that made Jess shoot today. I don't blame her for him shooting, he decided it himself, he pulled the trigger, but if she would have worked the way she was supposed to be, the way she had been taught, thirteen people would be alive today."

"We can't her for what he did, but she has a part of it, yes. It's like selling alcohol to people and complaining about all the drunks."

"Yeah."

"The last time you, Finn and Morgan went away Finn almost gets killed, same for you, the bullet got you, you were only lucky to survive. I don't think it's a good idea when you girls go somewhere together."

"Shall I go away with you?" Sara cocked her head. She knew Sofia was right, she, Finn and Morgan seemed to have bad luck when it came to their off work plans.

"Nothing ever happened to you when I was with you."

"We never went somewhere together."

"Maybe we should give it a try."

"What will your boyfriend say about that?"

"He has no problems when I spend a day or two with a friend. We have a very mature relationship." Sofia didn't need to ask what Grissom would say about a trip of them. She knew Sara and Grissom were separated and it didn't matter what he said or thought. Or Sara wanted to believe this herself.

"Are there any other men who might want to kill you? Have a beef with you?"

"Not that I know of."

"Good. I don't want to worry about you anymore."

"Believe me, I would rather not have guns pointed at me." Sara didn't want to be the one, who had crazy and criminal people coming after her. Unfortunately it was a side effect of her job. The bad guys remembered who helped to put them away and some of them wanted revenge.

6. The twin paradox

"We got ourselves one sick serial killer. Or worse, we got two and only one of them is arrested while the other one is a wealthy son of a bitch. And he has a personal beef with Russell." Sara sat on the small chair at the coffee house and stabbed the heart the barrister made in her cappuccino foam.

"Stabbed through the heart, he made this for you to cheer you up, to flirt a little bit. And right now you can use something nice and cheerful in your life." Sofia smiled at her latte. There were small chocolate sprinkles on top of her foam.

"I have you in my life for happiness."

"You do? Thanks for the compliment."

"You deserve it." Sara smiled lightly at Sofia.

"How is Greg?"

"Shocked. He tried to help the woman, she attacks him with an iron bar, takes his gun, points it at him and wants to shoot him. If Finn hadn't shot her, he might be dead." Sara swallowed hard. It had broken her heart to see Greg in the locker room, how he blamed himself that he couldn't save the woman and didn't care what she did to him. Or he."

"I always want to take him in my arm and tell him everything is going to be all right when something happens to him." Sofia confessed.

"Me too. We spoke for a while, he didn't want to join us, wanted to go home. I hope he is not alone."

"Morgan?"

"They are not together, they are friends. Which is a shame, I so wish for him to find somebody who makes him happy and understands the job."

"The job is a big problem, we all know this."

"Yes."

"And Finn?"

"She knows she did what she had to do. She saved Greg's life."

"What about Carrie?"

"She is in hospital, needs further treatment. He had her for six weeks, it's a miracle she is alive."

"We have no idea what she has been through."

"No. We have no evidence pointing towards Winthrope, quite contrary the evidence we found at the crime scene where Greg was attacked suggests the woman was the Gig Harbor Killer when she was a man. I don't buy it, nobody in the lap does but what are we supposed to do when we can't trust the evidence? Our whole work bases on the fact that the evidence never lies." Grissom had told them this many times.

"Unless the evidence was plant by somebody. Then you have to find evidence that your evidence is lying." Sofia said.

"This guy or these guys know how to play. And we also know the killer has a new partner. There were two sets of footsteps on the tape."

"Basically we've two serial killers in town. Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse."

"I'm afraid so." Like Sara was afraid there would be more dead young women and that the case would become even more personal for DB than it was already. Sometimes the past comes into your present and ruins your future. Sara hoped this wasn't the case for her boss.

Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates already on the 24th.

And happy holidays to everybody who has nothing to do with Christmas but still has a couple of days off.

And of course all the best to the people who are working while so many others celebrate.