A/N Sorry this one took a while! Hope ya'll feel it's worth the wait!
"Sara," she heard him whisper her name. "Sara." There it was again. It sounded so much like him, she thought. She sighed loudly and began to mumble something incoherent. "Shhh," he whispered again, "Sara you have to wake up now."
She groaned and pulled her eyebrows into a frown. Where was she? Suddenly her senses woke up and she realized how utterly freezing she was. The next sensation was from her saturated clothes, and then the hard ground she found herself to be lying on. Her body hurt - not just her battered wrist – but her legs, her stomach, her back. Her eyes flew open and she sat up, startled – breathing hard. Someone was sitting next to her – a man. She suddenly remembered Henderson and swiveled around to look at the person beside her, panicked.
It took her a second to recognize him – wet dirt streaked across his face, hair flat, untidy beard. His clothes looked like they'd come straight out of a scene from an Oliver Twist play – tattered and ripped. He looked exhausted.
"Grissom," she breathed, closing her eyes in relief. When she opened them again she surveyed their surroundings and was surprised at how out in the open they were. "Guess these bushes weren't the cover I was hoping for," she murmured quietly – noticing how silent the bush was. The rain had almost stopped, falling only softly in the blue morning light.
"How do you feel?" He asked, watching her intently.
She grimaced and twisted her mouth into a small grin, "Great," she said sarcastically. "I'm ready to get the hell out of this place though," she added more seriously.
Grissom nodded his agreement, "I think we should try and work out our bearings. Last night the sun set in that direction," he pointed to the West, "so at least we have a bit of an idea which way we're going to be going – there has to be a road around here somewhere so if we can just find it, and follow it… we might stand a chance."
Sara nodded, inwardly groaning at the thought of having to move. She began to stand up anyway, realizing how hungry she felt. "Don't have any food on you by any chance Griss?" she asked with a grin.
Grissom allowed himself a small, wry smile, "unfortunately not."
"So which way are we going?"
"I guess… North is always good?"
"North it is then," she said with a renewed determination.
~~
"No pattern at all Nicky?" Catherine half pleaded with her friend.
"I'm sorry Cath, maybe if you look at them you'll find something but as far as I can tell this guy is just going anywhere – most of the crime scenes were in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest so its possible that he's got them there but I don't even think that's going to help us," Nick said dejectedly.
"6.3 million acres," Warrick breathed out, "where do we even begin to start looking?"
"Come on guys – it's a start – Brass has half the force up in choppers and out on the roads looking for this guy's car, it's only a matter of time!"
"Yeah, time Sara and Grissom probably don't have!" Nick said angrily before sighing loudly and staring at the ceiling. The three of them stood in an uneasy silence until Catherine's phone rang, making them all jump.
Cath flipped open her phone and held it to her ear, "What have you got for me Jim?"
She could hear his distorted voice through the phone – the noise from a chopper making him yell, "We've found Grissom's car!"
Catherine's eyes almost popped out of her head, alerting Nick and Warrick to the breakthrough, "Are you kidding me? Where?"
"Abandoned about fifteen miles north of the US95/I-15 intersection – just near where the Nevada State Highway 157 runs west, looks like our Hunter's taken them to Charleston Peak! We're gonna re-fuel this thing but then we're heading back out here to do a fly by over the area. You might want to send someone out here to check out this car though, Cath," Brass shouted again.
"Yeah! I will," she shouted back, making the two guys in front of her jump again, "tell everyone to keep looking, good work Jim, one of us will be there to secure the car ASAP," she snapped her phone shut and looked, almost happily, at Warrick and Nick, "We've found Grissom's car," she announced.
~~
Both pairs of eyes widened in terror as they slowed to a stop a few meters in front of a small stream of water. Grissom glanced at Sara who was staring at him anxiously. Graham Henderson sat, propped up against a rock, next to the stream – his back to them. Grissom was frozen solid – he knew he'd make sounds if he just began sprinting, but he knew he'd make sounds even if he carefully tip-toed away too. He frowned to himself – they had definitely made sounds on their way here. He studied Henderson from the short distance while Sara glanced anxiously around – trying to think of something that would get them away from the man trying to kill them.
Grissom caught Sara's gaze and mouthed to her silently, 'I think he's asleep.'
Sara shook her head, 'It's a trap!' she mouthed back.
Grissom motioned towards the path they had just come from, 'Slowly.'
Sara began to take a step away when something caught her eye, causing her to stop, startling Grissom into bumping into her.
A muffled 'oomf' came from Sara and she glared at him after quickly checking that Henderson hadn't moved.
Grissom looked at her like she was crazy, 'what the hell are you doing?' he mouthed, slightly animatedly.
She pointed to a small bag, not three meters from Henderson, and cocked her eyebrow at Grissom. He shook his head vehemently, 'no!'
Sara studied the bag. He could have a phone in there, she thought. Some form of communication – food or water too. She looked back at Grissom who looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown, then back at the bag. Was it worth the risk? She looked at Henderson again – he still hadn't moved. With a surge of courage she didn't know she had, Sara stepped slowly towards the bag, carefully and softly placing her feet on the ground in front of her. Grissom grabbed her hand, trying to stop her from going but when she turned around and glared at him, he gave her a resigned glance and stepped forward also.
Sara tried to control her breathing as she finally came within reach of the bag. She reached out slowly – noticing how much her hand was shaking. She blinked hard and glanced at Henderson. Her hands closed around the bag just as Henderson's head turned in her direction and he let out an incoherent grunt. Sara froze, her eyes wide – but realized that he was indeed asleep, and had no idea she was there. She grabbed the bag, and – guided by Grissom – back-traced her steps until they were both out of sight.
Then they ran.