Fear Itself

Chapter Twelve

Catherine was just exiting the restroom when she saw a procession of suits walk past her down the hallway.

She saw a familiar face, and her blood boiled immediately. He gave her that ugly, cocky smirk and in response, she flicked him off in her bad mood. Agent Culpepper had returned to make another fine mess. He only laughed and winked at her, picking up with his flirtations where he left off.

Little did he know that she was already taken by another man and that she was expecting that man's child.

She walked to the locker room and sat down.

She was utterly exhausted and she was very ill from the baby. The nausea kept coming in fierce waves and she felt like she had to vomit all of the time. Her face was very pale, and she tried her best to return their color to them, but to no avail.

She still did not know what to tell Warrick. She had to tell him soon, because she was getting the feeling that she might not be able to if she stalled on it any longer. Time was definitely of the essence, and she had to be honest with the man she loved.

Catherine didn't know when she was supposed to catch Warrick now that the FBI was involved with their investigation.

She sighed and rubbed her belly in despair.

"Hey," she heard his familiar deep voice greet her.

She was surprised at Warrick's entrance and she immediately removed her hand from her womb.

"Hey," she said quietly. "What are you doing in here?"

He looked at her strangely.

"Well, first of all, the locker room's a public place," he quipped. "Secondly, I saw you come in here. Is everything okay?"

Catherine sighed and looked down at her feet.

"No," she admitted. "Everything has just gotten so complicated and scary. Sara's out who knows where with a bunch of maniacs, and we're still here in the lab, talking about what to do next instead of acting on it."

Warrick sat next to her and rubbed her back as she began to weep.

"I'm so sorry that I've been ignoring you for all of these weeks," she wept. "It's just that I thought that what we had was a mistake and just something to make ourselves feel better, but I was wrong. I was so wrong. I love you Warrick. I really love you and I can't even go a day without thinking about you or the baby-"

She stopped abruptly when she realized what she said and she looked at him with wide eyes.

Warrick didn't seem all that surprised.

"So you are pregnant for sure?" Warrick asked, taking her hands in his.

She was obviously confused.

"But, how did you-"

"I just noticed the little stuff," he said. "The moodiness, your tiredness."

"I have been a real bitch over the last few weeks haven't I?" She asked in a chuckle.

"No, you just seemed…preoccupied and agitated all the time," Warrick explained.

She smiled and leaned over and hugged him.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the baby sooner," she whispered.

"How far along are you?" Warrick asked, pulling away to inspect her form.

"A little over two months," she said, smiling brightly. "You aren't upset?"

"No, of course not," he said, cupping her face in his hands. "I love you."

He kissed her lips gently and put his hands on her belly. It was still flat as a board, but he new that in the next month or so, that would change. But at the moment, he had to concentrate on keeping Catherine and his unborn child safe.

"Cathy," he started. "Why don't you go home and rest? This case is getting more dangerous every hour. I don't want anything to happen to you or the baby."

"No, I can't sit out from this!" She exclaimed. "I'm not leaving you. We're in this together."

Warrick sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"Catherine, please just go home and let me, Gris and Nick work on finding Sara," he begged of her. "You need to rest and calm yourself down for the baby's sake."

"Me and the baby will be fine," she snapped. "I'm in this as much as you are."

"I wish you wouldn't be so stubborn," he hissed at her. "You're two months pregnant and you want to go chasing after the psychos that abducted Sara? Does that sound logical to you?"

Catherine glared at him then she got up and headed out.

"I'm staying on this case," she said firmly, turning to him. "I promise I won't let anything happen to the baby."

With that, she walked out, and Warrick sighed in frustration with his pregnant girlfriend.

He followed after her, being careful not to carry on the conversation in the hallways. She purposefully walked faster, knowing that he was behind her. She was in no mood to talk about what she should and should not do. She knew how to take care of herself and the baby. Warrick was being overprotective of her as usual, and he would be on her case all day if she didn't relent. She weighed the option of either listening to Warrick and going home, or having to put up with his insistence.

She made her decision clear by entering the layout room and asking for the latest details of the case, her eyes never leaving Warrick's eyes.

VVV

"Shit!" Chris Simmons yelled. "She's gone! The girl's gone!"

He tossed various objects about the now vacant dim space in anger and stormed out.

Now their phone call to the police would have a totally different tone.

"Commander Mulligan," he began. "We have a problem sir."

VVV

The sun was beating down on her frail body, but she kept walking aimlessly. Sara had managed to escape the holding place, and now, she was wandering about the desert, disoriented and too far gone to concentrate on how she would save herself.

Sara neared a highway, and she continued walking slowly; only her body was working. Her mind had ceased to start up again and now she was only left to follow what her body was telling her.

Down the road, a state trooper was just finishing up writing a ticket for a driver who was speeding when he turned and saw Sara making her way. He dropped his ticket pad, and the driver of the outdated blue Geo Metro got out of the car and they looked on for a few moments in shock.

"You go see if she needs any help, and I'll call emergency services," the trooper said. "Now!"

The driver tentatively approached a heavy lidded Sara.

"Miss, are you alright?" He asked slowly.

She did not answer, she only continued her walking right past him until he wrapped his arms around her when she started to stumble.

The trooper came over to the stumbling pair and helped them up.

"She's almost dead on her feet," he said grimly. "Miss, can you tell us your name?"

Sara did not respond. Her eyes fell closed and she became a deadweight in the driver's arms.

"Oh God!" the panicked driver shrieked. "She's unconscious. What are we going to do?"

"The ambulance is on its way," the trooper assured the driver. "She's got no ID, and I didn't hear anything about a missing persons…yet. Just make sure that she's still breathing."

The trooper went back to his patrol cruiser and picked up his receiver.

"This is Officer Tom Morrison reporting a young woman in her thirties found walking out here in the middle of the desert," the trooper began. "Has there been a missing persons report issues over the last forty eight hours?"

"Not in the last forty eight hours, but an abduction was reported about eight hours ago," another officer responded. "She works at LVPD. The crime lab. Her name's Sara Sidle, she's thirty four years of age, about five foot nine, very frail build, brown hair, brown eyes, gap in her front teeth. She's mentally unstable, so she may not know what's going on."

"I think we've found her," Officer Morrison said.

VVV

Agent Culpepper again rubbed in the fact that he received most of the credit for the Strip Strangler case three years back. Grissom was clearly annoyed and he promptly told him to start his presentation of what to do next.

"CSI Sidle is one of your own," he started, surprisingly sympathetically. "So that's why we're going to do everything in our power to try and get her back to you as soon as possible."

He sorted out various information on the table.

"Utopia America is a very hostile group," he started again. "At the FBI they've been listed as homeland terrorists and we're trying to shut down all of their operations, funding and compounds. There are two compounds right here in Nevada. One of them the main headquarters."

Grissom looked at the photos and the maps.

"They're tough cookies because they're trained by ex cops and other law enforcement operatives," Catherine jumped in. "They're on some mission to 'purify' society and to get better representation for families of fallen officers. They're starting with Las Vegas."

"That's right Willows," Agent Culpepper said. "Where did you obtain that information?"

"Internet," she quipped.

There was a small chuckle from everyone but Culpepper, who was red with embarrassment.

Grissom noticed that there was something different about Catherine. She looked physically sick and run down, and she was slightly wobbly on her feet; her hands were gripping the table every few minutes to steady herself.

"How do you plan on infiltrating?" Warrick asked. "They've probably got security everywhere."

"As usual, you can leave the specifics up to us," Culpepper teased haughtily. "Once we've cleared out their compounds, you guys are free to step in. We've got your SWAT on standby, and the suspects should be calling soon with demands."

Then, all of the CSIs' beepers went off. Grissom's face registered shock.

"Sara's been found," he said as he rushed out of the layout room.