"I'm sorry," Grissom whispered, hearing Sara wince every time he stumbled over a rock.
"S'okay," she mumbled, afraid that she would soon pass out from the pain in her leg.
They'd been stumbling around aimlessly for a while now, with no indication from Henderson as to whether he was close or not.
Sara sucked in a sharp breath and let out a whimper. The blood from her leg had begun to seep out the sides of the duct-tape and she began to realize just how isolated they were from any help.
"Okay," Grissom said, coming to a stop. He sighed, "It's gonna be faster if I just carry you now Sara."
Sara closed her eyes, "It'll be a lot faster if you just leave me here and…"
"Don't be stupid Sara!" Grissom whispered ferociously, causing her to jump with surprise. It made perfect sense to her for him to leave – his chances of getting away from Henderson would increase dramatically. But the angry look on his face told her he didn't agree with her one bit, making her sigh out another shaky breath.
"Come on," Grissom said more gently, bending down in front of her, "lean over."
In any other situation Sara probably would have laughed at the thought of being slung over Grissom's shoulder, but right now the only emotions she was feeling were negative. Still, she leaned over his right shoulder and tried to get comfortable. Grissom grabbed her right leg to steady her, mindful of her left thigh and hoisted her up. Then he stood up, grunting a little from the newly acquired weight, and looked around.
"This way I suppose."
~~
"So there was nothing at the guy's house?" Brass yelled to Catherine over the noise of the helicopter.
She shook her head, "Complete waste of time!"
Brass sighed, "We'll keep looking as long as we can, it'll be night soon and those storm clouds don't look as though they want to go away."
"We can't give up Jim!" Catherine said forcefully.
"We wont!"
~~
"Grissom, please. We have to stop, I – I need to sit," Sara pleaded, hanging limply over Grissom's shoulder. As much as this was quicker, the pain in her thigh had not lessened – if anything it had become worse with all the jerking going on underneath her.
"Just a little further Sara, I promise, I just want to get us to the other side of this stream," he panted; secretly glad at the request for rest.
They paused momentarily while Grissom came to the edge of the stream and assessed the best path across it. It wasn't running extremely quickly, but with his lack of sleep and major exhaustion, Grissom didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
"Okay," he breathed out, stepping carefully into the water.
On the other side, Grissom gently let Sara down and rested her against a tree. Her eyes were closed and for a moment in which Grissom's heart almost jumped out of his chest, he thought that she was dead. Then she groaned in pain and he let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding. She opened her tear-laced eyes to find Grissom kneeling in front of her.
"You should go, Grissom, I'm only slowing you down," she whispered.
He shook his head at her, "Go where? I have no idea where I am going Sara. It may be selfish of me but I don't particularly want to be walking around out here alone. We will get out of here together, you hear me?" he added, a hint of determination still apparent in his voice.
"I don't think I can…"
"Yes you can Sara, don't think that," he reached up and held her face so that she was looking into his eyes, "you can do this."
She tried to move her face away from his gaze but his hand stilled her there. She closed her eyes instead.
"Sara," he whispered, "please."
She opened her eyes, and seeing the desperation in his, reached up instinctively to touch his face.
After a moment, Grissom broke the intense silence and dropped his hand to rest in between her neck and shoulder. "You want some water?" he whispered. She nodded and tried to smile. He stood up, causing her hand to slip from his bearded face and into her own lap.
"Okay, I'm going to come right back and get you some water but right now I…er, right now I – uh I really need to pee," he apologetically, causing a grin to form on Sara's face.
She cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at him. He swatted her good knee gently and smiled, "I'll be right back."
She sighed and looked over at the stream, this place would be quite pretty under different circumstances, she thought. She drummed her fingers restlessly on her good leg and looked around the forest. It was so big, if Brass and Catherine had even gotten the messages from Grissom how would they even begin to try and find them? Well, she thought to herself logically, they'd probably go to Henderson's house and there would have to have been some clues there – maybe some maps on where his favorite places to hunt are marked – that would be good, yes that's what they would have done. She nodded her head absent-mindedly, deciding that it was really only a matter of time before Catherine and the gang came bounding along up to them with medical supplies and comfy blankets that she could just crawl on into. Or, thought the pessimistic side of her, they might not have even realized she and Grissom were missing. Or they do know and they didn't get any leads and they're running aimlessly around the bush with no idea at all where to find them. Sara sighed. For some reason the last idea seemed the most plausible of the lot. If Henderson was smart enough to get away with murder before, she doubted he'd have anything lying around his house to give him away. She remembered seeing some other bags at Henderson's campsite – he probably brought everything along with him. She bit her lip and tried to stop thinking. Then again, all this thinking was diverting her attention from the searing pain in her thigh. They're coming, she thought. Nicky and Warrick and Cath and Brass, they're all coming – they'll find them, her and Grissom will get out of here. Grissom. Where was he? She realized she'd been sitting there for some time now having arguments with herself about how long it would take her friends to find them, Grissom should be back by now.
She glanced around her more nervously, afraid to call out his name in case enHHenderson was close and would hear her. Her heart began to beat faster, he wouldn't have left her there would he? If he was going to leave why did he tell her so adamantly he wasn't going to? More tears began to prickle her eyes as her breathing became faster. He wouldn't, she thought angrily to herself. Would he?
Just then she felt the cold metal from the barrel of a gun come to rest against her neck. Oh God. She froze and tried to control her breathing.
"Where is he?" an evil whisper hissed into her ear.
Sara shuddered and tried to turn around, but the barrel of the gun pressed more firmly into her neck, causing her to instinctively snap her eyes straight ahead.
"I… I don't know," she croaked out, "he left me here some time ago."
"Bullshit!" Henderson hissed again, "he's around here somewhere," he paused and Sara swore she could hear him sniffing her. "I'll find him…"
She heard the click of a gun, signaling that it had been cocked and was ready to fire and closed her eyes. They flew open again when she heard his voice.
"Don't move."
This time she was able to swivel around, relief coursing throughout her whole body when she saw Grissom standing over Henderson with a gun pointed at the psycho's head. She quickly registered that it was in fact Grissom's gun that had been cocked and breathed a wavering sigh of relief.
Henderson began to laugh quietly, looking joyously at Grissom, "I knew you would be different Mr. Grissom - all the others, oh it was so quick, sometimes all it took was a couple of hours!" He sounded almost exasperated at the memories. "I mean animals – they don't think, all they do is run. They're predictable! People, on the other hand, people are completely unpredictable. I was getting frustrated – the others were so disappointing," Henderson had turned to completely face Grissom now – Sara was seemingly forgotten.
"Put the gun down, Graham," Grissom said, masking the fear in his voice with an even monotone.
Henderson laughed again, "put the gun down? Yeah…" He swung quickly, knocking the gun swiftly out of Grissom's hand and into the stream.
Grissom grabbed Henderson's wrist, trying to grab his gun but Henderson resisted – it fired loudly in the air.
Sara's eyes were wide with fear, she was completely paralyzed – not from fear or shock, but because the pain in her leg had just become even greater. She tried to drag herself away from the scuffle, wishing that there was something she could do but knowing she was helpless.
She looked frantically around trying to find something – anything – that she could use to help Grissom subdue the guy until some movement in the trees finally caught her eye.
Was that a person running towards them? Wait, more than one person? She blinked through her bleary eyes, "Nicky?" she croaked out unbelievingly. She must be hallucinating, she decided. If that really loud noise would just quit filling her head with unnecessary information, she'd be able to think straight and know what to do to help Grissom. What was that noise anyway? It sounded like a helicopter. Definitely delusional, she thought again. She looked over towards Grissom and Henderson again and winced in empathy as Henderson brought a heavy fist down and into Grissom's temple.
"Don't move don't move!" the mirage that looked like Nick screamed over the loud beating of the rotor blades. He rushed towards Henderson and Grissom, gun drawn and aimed. "Put the gun down now!" He ordered to Henderson.
Then another figment of her imagination came running by her – this time it looked strangely like Warrick. He had a gun drawn too. Someone she didn't recognize ran past her next, followed by another person she didn't know.
She looked over towards Grissom again, who was now crawling towards her on the ground.
"I thought you left me," she said when he arrived.
He grabbed her hand in his own and shook his head, "Never, Sara – never," he breathed out, before turning towards the group of people and shouting, "we need medical help over here now!"