Sara's next surprise was Catherine and Lindsay. Lindsay was the same age as Emily, and was such a cheerful child. She ran over to Sara, without any understanding of the pain she was in. Sara ignored the pain to show how strong she was to Lindsay as she embraced a hug with the child. Catherine just stood in the doorway. She smiled, proud that her daughter cared so much about others, yet had an apologetic look for Sara, knowing Lindsay had most likely caused her some pain with her physical movements.
"Hey Lindsay" Sara said to the 9-year old who stood by her bed.
"I brought you something!" Lindsay smiled with excitement. She handed her a small card and a box wrapped in forest green wrapping paper and a gold ribbon settled messily on top. Typical child-like wrapping. But Lindsay had done this out of the kindness of her heart, so Sara happily accepted the beautiful gift. She sat, trying to decide which to open first. "Open the card!" Lindsay squealed in anticipation. Sara forced herself to laugh, knowing that her body was going to punish her with yet another wave of pain. But then she opened it, and found a card with a mama bird on the front holding out it's wing for a baby bird to grab and leading it back to it's nest.
She looked inside, and read "When you fall out of the nest, it's good to have one's who will take care of you until you find your way back. Get well soon." Sara smiled at Lindsay.
"Open the box!" Lindsay almost shouted.
"Shh, Lindsay, don't be too loud. We're in a hospital, remember?" Catherine told her daughter quietly. The child sighed, but obeyed her mother's command. Sara opened her box, and found cupcakes. They were chocolate, decorated with vanilla icing, and candy hearts and flowers were topping them.
"Lindsay! I love them," Sara told her. She truly did love them too. They were beautiful. "Are they good?"
Lindsay smiled. "Try one!" The patient lifted up a cupcake, carefully pulled back some of the pink wrapping. Then she stopped. She handed one to Lindsay.
"You try it with me." Sara told her. The child's smile grew wider.
"Ok!" She took the cupcake and peeled off her own paper. Then, they counted to three, and each took a big bite at the same time.
"Delicious!" Sara said, with her mouth full. Then she realized how impolite she had been, and covered her mouth with her the tips of her fingers, ignoring more of the pain. To hide this embarrassment of rudeness, she pretended there was some icing on her mouth, and "whipped the icing off" to only then "lick it off her fingers".
"So you like them?" Lindsay asked her after she swallowed, mostly knowing the answer, but wanting more recognition for her hard work.
Sara swallowed this time, before looking at her, smiling, and saying "I love them!" Then she wondered aloud, "What time is it?"
Catherine smiled. "Late" she replied. "So late, that it is in fact past this little one's bedtime. She only got to come because she went through the time and effort to make you something; I had to let her give it to you herself. But then we made a deal that as soon as we were done; she had to go to bed. So we have to get going. Come on Lindsay" She motioned her daughter to follow.
"Aw mom, can't I stay just a little bit longer?" Lindsay whined as she was finishing her cupcake.
Catherine shook her head. "No, it's a school night, hon., you know that. It's late, and I don't want to hear you telling me how tired you are tomorrow. Come on." The little girl sighed, but followed.
Then she turned around to say, "Bye Sara, I hope you feel better soon."
Sara smiled. "Bye sweetie. Thank you." She fell asleep soon again, this time dreaming of falling out of a tree, and all of her friends catching her and taking her back up to where she fell. This was the first time she had dreamed since the accident. But then she dreamed that Lindsay fell out of the tree, and she was worried about what Catherine would say. When she got down to see if Lindsay was all right, she found Lindsay dancing like a perfect ballerina in a beautiful leotard, while the girl that fell turned out to be Emily.
The CSI woke up in a cold sweat. She realized now, just how worried she was about the girl she had cared for. It was hard to sleep after this bizarre dream, but she knew she had to get some rest in order to get well. So with her mind focused on the child of the hit-and-run, she took forever to make her way back to dreamland, but she finally made it.