I know there's only three characters in this chapter, but fear not because the rest of the team will be back in the next one :)

x x x x

To her surprise, Sara's only response was the gradual widening of her dark eyes. Catherine could almost see the words swirling around the brunette's mind, like sand caught up in the tide, before finally settling across her features.

"Why?" The pitiful voice was utterly heartbreaking and it made Catherine's whole body feel cold at the thought that she had been the one to cause that pain.

"Someone killed him." She attempted to clear her throat, but it still felt as dry as the Gobi desert. "We think they were trying to frame you."

"Why?" Sara repeated. The sad bewilderment was evocative of when Lindsey used to ask that same question about every little thing.

Why do people hurt each other?

Why did Catherine leave her every night to go to work?

Why was her daddy dead?

So many questions that she couldn't answer; questions that she herself still desired the answers to.

Why did someone try to frame Sara?

Why did Sara try to kill herself?

Why couldn't they stop this from happening? Why didn't they notice what was going on before it was too late?

Realising that Sara was still waiting for an answer, Catherine internally shook away the intruding thoughts.

"We think it was Ronald Basderic." She intuitively tightened her grip on Sara's arms at the mention of his name, but thankfully the girl made no attempt to shrug her off.

"Bas… Edie's Basderic?" She stuttered helplessly. "He … he killed Jack?" It was clear from the confusion in her eyes that none of this was really sinking in yet, so Catherine decided it was best not to push the issue right now. After all, Sara was still on a high dose of morphine and her current thoughts were probably incoherent, at best.

"We're dealing with it, okay." She promised softly. "We're going to catch him. You just have to trust us."

Sara nodded numbly, not even contesting the plea.

"How am I going to tell my mom?" She hiccupped, more to herself than to Catherine.

"We can do that if you like?"

"No, no it should come from me." Sara shook her head, silent tears spilling down her bruised cheeks unnoticed. "He, I … he was getting his life together. He wanted to make things right."

"I know, baby." Cath sighed, carefully coaxing her into a hug. She felt Sara's tears fall onto her neck and held her tighter, rubbing comforting circles on her back. Through the paper-thin hospital gown, she could feel every shuddering breath and every inch of hot skin, blazing beneath her touch.

It was probably the most physical contact they had ever shared and at any other time she would have been fighting the surge of lust coursing through her system right now; but with her breathless sobs and trembling body, it was impossible to feel anything more than compassion for her distraught friend at this moment.

X x x

"I don't know about this?" Nick shuffled his feet across the doormat, twisting his hands anxiously as he sloped in behind her.

"What?" Cath shrugged, tapping in the alarm code and sashaying into the room as if she had lived here all her life. "Grissom gave me the keys, it's not like we're breaking and entering. Besides, I thought you guys had already searched the place once."

"We did." Nick agreed uncomfortably. "But that was looking for evidence to help her. This feels … intrusive."

"Look." Cath dropped her bag at her feet and swung around to face him, placing her hands on her hips. "We all agreed that Sara shouldn't be on her own right now. You guys are all working full time, Grissom's gone. So, I'm the only one who can stay with her while she recuperates." She pointed out. "There's enough room here and it'll save me living out of a hotel room for the next few weeks."

"So why do I have to be here?" He scowled, glancing around the home as if someone was going to appear from nowhere and demand an explanation for their uninvited presence.

"You're going to help me clean this place up before Sara gets out." She smiled brightly. "Since you guys ransacked the place last time you were here."

Having made her case, she picked up her bag and made her way through to the bedroom. Sara would be coming out of hospital tomorrow, so she wanted to get situated before then. The younger woman was thus far unaware of this arrangement; but given her state when Cath left her, she would probably be glad of the company.

"So, you're planning on staying for a while then." Nick hummed, attempting to sound blasé. However, the act fell flat. Catherine's head popped around the doorframe, one eyebrow raised.

"You trying to get rid of me already, Stokes?"

"No, of course not." He chuckled, ambling towards the bedroom where she had vanished once again. "It's just that you don't have to. You know, if you wanted to get back to work, we can take care of Sara."

"Like you took care of her last time I left her in your charge?" She was joking, clearly, but there was a touch of venom in her voice that he couldn't fail to pick up on.

He acknowledged her comment with a despondent sigh and dropped his gaze to the floor in shame.

"Look, Nicky, I know that Sara's going to be okay." Catherine discarded her bag on the bed for the time being and moved past him towards the kitchen; where she helped herself to a bottle of water from the fridge and twisted the cap off, taking a long swig to sooth her throat. "I just … I feel like I abandoned her once already. I don't want to do it again."

"Yeah, I know how that feels." He nodded glumly, sliding onto a stool at the breakfast bar and dropping his head onto his folded arms. "I wish I'd noticed what she'd been going through earlier. Her marriage, her brother … her mom. She's had a lot to deal with and we just … we missed it."

Catherine rested her elbows on the counter opposite him, passing the bottle between her hands idly as she spoke.

"I suppose we ought to start planning for Jack's funeral. Sara's not going to be able to do it on her own, not in her condition."

"Yeah, yeah Greg and I can look into that." Nick straightened up and cleared his throat, glad to have a practical task to focus on. "You know, it still scares me how close we came to losing her." He swallowed hard around the lump that had appeared in her throat. "It could be her … her funeral we need to plan."

Putting her drink aside, Cat reached across the counter to grip his hands firmly.

"She's okay, Nicky." She promised, softening her voice. "We slipped up, but we got her back. We can protect her from now on."

The words sounded eerily familiar. They were the same comforting words of hope she had uttered to him as they watched the helicopter carry Sara to the hospital after her ordeal in the desert.

"Yeah, I know." He sighed, taking a deep, calming breath. "You know what else has been bothering me about this whole thing, with her family? Why didn't we ever know about it?" He paused, eyeing Catherine suspiciously from beneath his lashes. "Why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Tell you what? That Sara was in care?" She choked out an unexpectedly harsh laugh. "Why the hell should I? It wasn't my place to discuss it. It still isn't!"

"How many cases did we work involving foster care? And she never mentioned it, not once?"

"She's a private person." Cat shrugged, resuming her previous fidgeting with the water bottle. "She doesn't like to talk about these things."

"Yeah, but we're her family. She should be able to trust us with stuff like this."

"You don't like to talk about what happened to you as a child." She pointed out gently. "You only told me because I pushed you to."

"Yeah, but…"

"But what?" She challenged. "Nick, Sara's childhood is nothing more than a bad memory to her. She doesn't bring it up because she doesn't like to think about it. And given when she did recently, that's probably for the best."

"What do you mean?" He frowned, leaning forward with intrigue. He had to admit, it was surprising just how well Catherine seemed able to read Sara. He had always been under the impression that the Californian CSI was as much as mystery to everyone else as she was to him.

"Her brother coming back into her life, it's obviously stirred up a lot of ghosts." Catherine shrugged as if it was obvious. "We already know that he abused girls when he was a teenager; how do we know he didn't do the same to Sara when she was a kid?"

Nick's face paled, indicating that that thought hadn't even crossed his mind until now.

"She was trying to help him. And he hurt her." The blonde continued, lowering her voice. "She told me that when she went home that morning, she had a nightmare. That's why she went outside, that's how she ended up on the roof."

"So, she jumped because of a nightmare?"

"She doesn't remember." Cath pursed her lips. "But it wouldn't surprise me. She'd just been through an awful ordeal, she was freaked out. She didn't feel like she could turn to anyone in her life. She was drugged out of her mind on zolpidem … maybe she just wanted it all to stop."

Nick fell quiet for a few minutes, turning Catherine's theory over in his head. He hated to admit it, but it made sense.

After he was abused by his babysitter, he went through a stage of nightmares too. And sometimes he wanted nothing more than to just run away. To outrun all of the bad thoughts until they were nothing more than a fading memory.

Letting his eyes drift closed for a moment, he found himself stood outside CSI, staring up at the roof the night of Sara's accident. It was that brief time of morning when the sky was a mix of every colour of the rainbow and the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. He could picture it now, as crisp as the wind had been that fateful day. The imposing structure of the lab overshadowing the parking lot, the thick clouds lined by the fluorescent lights of The Strip.

And the sight of Sara, running towards the edge of the roof and tumbling over the side. For one impossible moment she appeared to be floating, suspended in mid-air, as if some angel was holding her in place. Then the fell, like a stone dropped by a sky-bird, with a deafening crack that he could still hear in his darkest moments.

Maybe Catherine was right. Maybe Sara had simply been trying to outrun her memories, like he had tried and failed in doing so many times.

Only she did outrun them, straight off the edge of a building.