Yeah, I'm feeling nice today, so I decided to put up another charter. Hope you enjoy this one as well.
*a.l.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
"Do you want fries with that?"
"Do you, Lindsey?" Catherine asked turning to her daughter in the back of the car.
Lindsay wrinkled her nose for a second, "No. Just my cheeseburger." She girl replied.
"Nope, that's it." Catherine turned to the teenager working the drive-through window and he handed her the two bags of food. Catherine then forked over five bucks for the fast food, and began to pull away from the window.
"Oh yah, Mommy, I forgot to tell you, Sara called." Lindsey said as she took a sip of her soda and opened her bag.
"Really now. And what did Sara have to say?" Catherine asked as she caught a glimpse of Lindsey in her rearview mirror. She had already started on her hamburger and Catherine now took a sip of her soda.
"Well, she said that she wanted me to give you a message." Lindsay said through a mouth full of burger, "Sara said that she is leaving for a while, and she's not sure when she is going to come back. She said she would have told you, but she didn't want to have to deal with another plant." Catherine came to an intersection at that time, and turned around to look at her daughter. "What?" she asked, "Honey, when did Sara call?"
"Um…" Lindsey scrunched up her nose again, thinking. "About two days ago."
Catherine dropped the drink she was holding and it fell to the back of the car sending coke everywhere. "Lindsey, why didn't you tell my earlier?"
"I'm sorry mommy!" Lindsey pleaded. "I forgot!"
"Did Sara say anything else?" Catherine asked as she turned off the street towards her house and headed towards the lab.
"Um, she said 'Bye Lindsey.'" She said trying to help. "Mommy, why are you going to the lab?" Lindsey questioned, noticing the change of scenery.
"Well, Lindsey, Sara has been out of work for the last three days with a bad cold. Today is Monday, right? And Sara called you Saturday?"
"Yes." Lindsey replied, trying to make sense of the whole situation unfolding.
"This isn't going to make much sense to you, but Sara was lying about being sick. And knowing Sara, she planed this whole thing out beforehand." Catherine said mumbling the last part.
She pulled her Tahoe into a parking space and took Lindsey out of the car. The two hurried into the building, and Catherine made her way to the break room where she found Warrick and Greg playing video games.
"Hey Linds, what a pleasant surprise." Warrick said pausing the game and going over to scoop the girl up into his arms. She giggled. "Catherine, what are you doing here?" he then asked putting her down and setting her at the table with her food.
"You haven't heard from Sara, have you?" she asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "Greg, watch Lindsey. Warrick, come with me."
Catherine stormed out of the break room, and made her way down towards Grissom's office.
"Cath, what is this about?" Warrick questioned, grabbing her by the arm and turning her around to face him.
"Have you seen Sara really at all this week?" she asked, folding her hands across her chest.
Warrick shook his head. "She's been complaining about not feeling too good, and she hasn't used much of her over time this week. Didn't she go home sick Friday?"
"I can't believe this. I just can't believe this…" Catherine muttered turning away from Warrick and continuing down the hall.
"Catherine, what is wrong?" he asked walking briskly beside her.
"You really want to know? Sara's gone. She called Lindsey Saturday to say that she was leaving. Sara had Saturday off, and then she took Sunday off too. Sara could be anywhere now." Catherine said shaking her head and walking over to Grissom's door. She proceeded to bang on it until he opened it himself.
"What?" Grissom barked not moving away to let them inside.
"Sara didn't want another plant." Catherine said narrowing her eyes. "She called Lindsey Friday and told her that."
"Catherine, what are you talking about?" Grissom asked in confusion.
"Okay, I have an idea. Gris, try paging her." Catherine ordered and pushed him aside and walked over to his desk. She picked up his phone and dialed her pager number.
"Hey, what's all the commotion about? Catherine, what are you and Lindsey doing here?" Nick asked coming from down the hall and walked over and stood next to Warrick. "What's going on?"
Catherine looked at the three of them standing there, and waited a second. Then, very faintly a beeping noise went off, and they all looked down to check their pagers. "It's not ours." Catherine stated and slumped down into Grissom's chair.
"Sara?" Nick queried and turned down the hall to follow the beeping.
Nick followed the beeping past the break room and then into the locker room, but he didn't find Sara in there. Warrick came up behind him and the two of them scanned the room. "It's coming from in here," he stated. Nick continued to follow the sound. He came to a stop in front of Sara's locker. Slowly, he opened the door to find it empty, except for her pager that sat on the top shelf.
Warrick sighed. "Nick, Catherine says that's Sara's gone."
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
"Catherine, you seem to have everything figured out, you explain." Nick moaned burying his head into his hands as he slumped back on the couch. He, Catherine, Warrick, Greg and Grissom all sat in the break room trying to make heads or tails about Sara, and where she was now. Warrick had just tried calling her house and her cell phone. No answer.
"This week she's spent about half the time she normally spends here; no over time, she's not here early, and did not stay later. She had this whole thing figured out. I've got to say, she's smarter than we all think." Catherine said shaking her head in disbelief.
"But first, why? Why would she just leave?" Greg asked. Lindsay was sitting in his lap curled up in a ball trying to fall asleep. He was trying to keep his emotions down to a minimum so he wouldn't wake her, but he didn't know how long that would last.
"I don't know." Catherine whispered looking out over all of them sitting there. Nick looked heartbroken, Warrick looked confused, Greg looked worried, and Grissom? She had no idea what he was thinking.
But even though Grissom might have had a blank look on his face, it didn't mean that he wasn't thinking intently. No, something that Sara had said was playing like a broken record over and over again in his head. I want you to realize…
"Okay, so Sara slowly starts to disappear by spending less and less time here. If she did it right, we'd never notice." Catherine sighed, "and we didn't. The sad thing is that we call ourselves investigators." Catherine stated sounding defeated.
"Catherine, come on, don't blame ourselves." Warrick said trying to comfort her. He got up and walked over to stand next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's not our fault."
"Yes it is." Nick said from the couch. He looked up at the two of them standing there. "We ignored her. Last week, remember when we were all joking around about that weird case that you two had? We just walked right by her like she didn't exist. God, how many times could we have done that?"
Grissom took all of this in. …That one day I'm not going to be here…
"But Nick, Sara also brings that on her self." Warrick acknowledged, "She boxes herself in sometimes and doesn't let anyone know what's going on. How are we supposed to know when she wants to be with us and not?"
"Warrick's right." Greg said shifting Lindsay a little, but still not waking her. "I mean, she's an independent person who thrives by doing stuff herself."
"And how do you know this?" Catherine snapped.
"She told me." Greg affirmed. "She tells me lots of stuff while waiting for analysis results. I figured out that she was spending less time here, and I'm not even considered an investigator." Greg added dryly.
"Come on, we're not here to fight, we're here to find Sara." Warrick said trying to sound enthusiastic, but it didn't come off as that.
"And how do we know that she wants to be found?" Nick said softly, as if to himself.
"When something is lost it is only asking to be found, Nick. Don't worry, okay? This is Sara we are taking about. She couldn't have gone too far." Catherine said trying to reassure him.
"But how do we know that she is even lost?" Warrick chimed in. "She did this on purpose, even though she did leave without a trace."
"She's not lost, just probably misplaced. Everything adds up Warrick. I think Sara was trying to leave us subtle hints, but we failed to see them. She starts spending less time here, goes home sick, takes an extra day off, calls Lindsey and says that she's leaving…" Catherine trailed off, deep in thought about what to do next.
…and you're probably going to wonder why. We are wondering why, Sara, Grissom thought. The five of them sitting together in the break room looked pretty pathetic; There wasn't any color in any of their faces and their usually happy manners had been turned around to sulks.
"But why did she leave?" Nick asked once again.
It's because of this, Grissom...
"I know why," Grissom said speaking for the first time.
…This 'thing' that you can't deal with….
"She left because of me."
And this thing is me.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*