Sara walked into her apartment and placed her keys down and turned to lock her door behind her. After tonight's shift, she was exhausted, not only physically, but mentally as well. She only had a few hours to sleep before she had to prepare a meal for Grissom. Yes! Grissom was coming over to her house to talk, was this a mistake? She had to talk about taking a bit of time off, but she hadn't yet decided if she would completely tell him why. She stripped the clothes off her tired worn body, slipped into her worn T-Shirt and shorts and curled up into her welcoming bed and succumbed to sleep.
"Sara, go get that for your father, like he asked!"
"I told you he is not my father!"
There was a loud crack and Laura's hand had completely Came Square with Sara's jaw landing Sara onto the floor. "You see, you ungrateful little bitch, this is what you make me do to you when you don't listen!" With that Laura got up and passed the unopened can of beer to the big man sitting on the couch. Sara got up, gained her composure and retreated for her bedroom, if that is what you call it.
Sara's bedroom was no bigger than a closet, it was nothing more than a blanket and a pillow on the floor, no window, no comfort, nothing, but to Sara it was home. It was her sanctuary, where she went to collect her thoughts, she did that a lot, and where she went to get away. She sat in her "room" with her little lamp and studied her ass off; she knew it was the only way she would ever get away from this place. She knew her marks had to be exceptional to qualify for scholarships, because without scholarships, she was going to be stuck in Modesto California for the rest of her life.
Sara sat there rocking herself to sleep through the screaming and yelling and the sounds of things breaking. She knew why they lived in this slum of a neighborhood, no one around them cared what went on, unlike the last place they lived. Sara lost track of the millions of times the police had showed up at the door with a complaint of a domestic dispute and Sara had to make up some half cocked story about fighting with her brother and it getting a little out of hand. She knew they didn't believe her, but they never bothered to send Social Services to investigate, that just fuelled the fact that they didn't even care.
Sara's mind flashed to July 1984, they were in the living room of her house. Her mother was passed out on the couch, strung out on some drug, her step father was drunk sitting in the chair staring aimlessly at the television screen, Sara's brother was not at home, he was Seventeen, nearly eighteen and he was out with his friends, Sara felt completely alone. She left the living room and retreated to her room to try and study a bit before bed, she snapped the dim light on and opened the textbook to read when she was interrupted by a drunk slurring his words at her.
"What are you doing you little bitch?"
"What does it look like I am doing, I am studying you Moron!"
HE bent down and slapped her across the face, "That will teach you to disrespect me!"
Sara quickly placed her hand on her cheek that was stinging from the pain and choked back the tears.
"What do you think you are gonna do, grow up to be better than us or something?"
"Damn right!"
HE backhanded Sara and sent her flying across the tiny room. The force was good enough that it sent her unconscious. She woke up on the bed in the bedroom he shared with her mother, stripped off all her clothe, gagged and tied to the bed.
The images came rushing back to Sara as she woke up screaming. She looked over at the clock, it was only shortly after ten, she knew this wasn't enough sleep, but she knew she couldn't go back to sleep right now either. She got up and decided to take a nice ht shower to hopefully wash away the images burnt into her head and eventually be able to take a nap before her scheduled dinner with Grissom.
TBC