Chapter 6

Has a little bit more cussing, but thought it fit with the emotion of this chapter

Sara could swear she heard the theme music from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" as the three men stood there and stared at her. She was, she thought, caught in what one could only term as the proverbial Mexican standoff. Only she wasn't Clint Eastwood and they weren't Mexican.

Mark broke the tension, "Are you a cop, are you a fucking cop!" he yelled.

"No," Sara said firmly.

Mark walked over to her and before she knew what was happening he hauled off and smacked her across her right cheek.

"You bitch! You're lying! They just said you were a cop!"

Sara shook off the stinging pain in her jaw. "No, they said I was a CSI. Crime Scene Investigator. That means I collect evidence. Nothing more, nothing less."

Mark reared back to hit here again. Moose caught his arm in mid-air and spun him around to face him.

"Don't touch her again." he said quietly.

Well I'll be damned, Sara thought. It speaks. And what do you know, he just saved my ass because I saw that one coming and guns or no guns there was no way in hell I was going to let him hit me again. He was getting ready to find out what a pissed off Sara Sidle looked like up close and personal.

Mark tore his arm out of Moose's grasp. "What the hell! You better back off man. They've been playing us the whole time," he said as he pointed outside.

Johnny came up and stood between the two men, "Calm down Mark. They had no way of knowing she was in here until we sent her out to get the food. This might not be as bad as it seems."

Mark just stared at him like he was crazy. "Not as bad as it seems?! What the hell you been smoking? There not gonna let us get anywhere with her."

"Or," Johnny said smugly looking at Sara, "They'll do everything they can to keep her safe. I think things just turned in our favor boys. Now let's finish eating and think of how we can use this to our advantage."

Great, Sara thought, a thinker. He had sense enough to know he could use her. Just then Moose leaned down to her.

"Are you okay?" Sara shook her head yes. "Here," he said handing her a napkin. She looked at him confused. He pointed to the side of her lip that had started to bleed.

"Thank you," she mouthed to him. He nodded and stood back up. She hadn't even noticed that her lip was bleeding.

Outside in the van you could hear a pin drop. Everyone inside stopped breathing the moment Sara's picture showed on the TV set. This is not good Brass thought. "Shit," he mumbled when he saw all three suspects turn and focus on Sara.

"Brass," Warrick said, "tell me this isn't happening."

Grissom on the other hand felt like he had turned to stone. He couldn't move. He was scared that if he did then the connection he had with Sara would somehow snap in two. If he just stood still, didn't breath, didn't blink, then he could somehow freeze time and the inevitable wouldn't happen. I must have moved, because now one of the suspects was yelling and moving towards Sara.

None were prepared for the sight they were about to witness as they saw the suspects arm swing back and slap Sara across the face. At that moment, it seemed like someone had turned the volume up and all three men visibly flinched at the sound of it.

This woke Brass up. He started yelling commands, "Get the SWAT leader in here and tell him to be prepared to move on my signal. Vega, make sure we have all available personnel ready to go and that rescue is no more than one block away just in case this goes south."

Warrick wasn't paying attention to Brass. His focus was solely on Grissom. He'd been watching him since he saw the suspect move towards Sara. At first, he was sure he was in shock, but that quickly changed after seeing her struck by that bastard. The look on his face was down right scary. He was sure that if Grissom could, he would kill that man with his bare hands and not think twice about it.

Grissom knew for sure in that moment that he was capable of murder. Never once in all his years of being a CSI had he ever imagined killing someone. He always thought murdering someone was beyond evil and that he couldn't possibly be forced to a point where he would ever hurt another human being. Until now. When he saw that man slap Sara, all rational thought left his mind and emotion took over. His fists were clenched by his side and he wanted to tear that man apart piece by tiny little piece. His Sara. Bleeding. Unacceptable. He turned to walk out of the van when Warrick stopped him.

"Hey, where you going?"

Grissom said through clenched teeth, "Get out of my way."

"Calm down, Griss. What are you going to do? Storm into the bank? Let Brass get it under control."

"Move," Grissom said with quiet rage.

"No." Warrick shook his head.

"Either you move or I'll move you."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I know that right now you're not thinking straight but the best way to get Sara out alive is to use the wait and see approach. You've got to trust these people to do what's best for her and the other hostages and keep them safe."

"He.Hurt.Her." Grissom said violently.

"I know, I saw it. And don't think for one minute that I'm not entertaining the same thoughts you are, but this has to be done right." Warrick knew that he had to get him out of there. "Come on, let's go get some air."

"I'm not leaving her."

"Not asking you to, but I think some fresh air would do us both good."

Brass caught the tail end of this conversation, "Hey guys, we printed off some still photos of the three suspects from the bank cameras. Why don't you run these back to the lab and see if we get any hits off the database?" Brass was hoping Grissom would go to cool off. He was worried about his friend but right now he needed to focus on the task at hand.

"Warrick, take these and have Greg run them. Tell him this takes top priority and put aside anything else he has. Anyone has a problem you tell them to call me. Got it. Call us with any results." Both Brass and Warrick looked at each other. "I promise you I won't do anything stupid and that I'll stay out of your way."

Grissom said to Brass.

Warrick nodded and ran to the Tahoe to go back to the lab with the pictures. With any luck these guys would be in the system. Brass went back to strategizing with the SWAT leader and Grissom went back to watching what was going on in the bank.

Sara's lip had stopped throbbing. But that did nothing to help improve her mood. Son of a bitch. She hated when a suspect got the upper hand and these guys had just discovered their ace in the hole. Her. Son of a bitch. The phone started ringing, which in turn caused Sara to jump, making her put too much pressure on her lip, causing it to start throbbing again. Son of a bitch.

Johnny smiled at the other two. "Let's get the show on the road. Why captain how nice of you to call. How are you?"

"I'm fine, I take it the food was to your liking?" Brass asked.

"It wasn't four star dining, but hey you take what you can get. And now captain to show you what a stand up guy I am and how appreciative I am of all of your hard work. I'm gonna release to you 4 hostages."

This stunned everyone and you could feel the nervous energy bouncing off the hostages. They were all hoping and praying that they would be one of the four to be released. All except one. Sara knew she wasn't going anywhere.

Oh this is just freaking great

TBC