Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been and never will be.

A/N: I have finished rewriting the last chapter today, so hopefully I will able to post it sometime this week or maybe next week, but not much later. I'm not promising though since I have a problem sticking to my promises. There are lots of things I want to say about this story, but I feel that when I would do that I would give away too much, so I won't do it.

Fade to Black

Brass

He still hasn't come near her and I silently pray the situation will remain the same.

I have heard Nick's words through Sofia's mouth. I have heard them and they make me sad. Sad because it makes the distance between myself and every other person working at the LVPD even bigger.

I'm probably the only one here who actually thinks Sara would be a great mother, will be a great mother. I have seen her with the kids of victims and the kids that are the victims themselves. She always cares, sometimes she doesn't know how to express it, but it is clear she cares and the children know she does. That's probably why they always take to her. Once we had an argument about a little girl who had witnessed her whole family being slaughtered, a sick family, but still her family and Sara didn't want to take care of the girl. She went as far as telling me this in front of the girl. I think Grissom put her in charge of the girl because he needed a woman to take of her and because Catherine wouldn't be able to deal with it being a mother herself. He probably thought Sara would be able to stay detached and professional. How wrong was he. He doesn't know how she asked me a couple of months after this particular case to find out where the girl was placed. He doesn't know and neither should I, but I do, because I want to make sure the cases she works will not break her down, that she still visits the girl in her foster care family, just like she still visits the parents of the girl who was killed because she was afraid to write down a name during line up. Sara will be a natural at being a mother, but I'm sure she doesn't believe that herself.

I'm exhausted. I wouldn't be able to tell which day it is. Ever since we started to work this case the days have slowly started to blend into one big nightmare. Normally the rush of adrenaline would keep me awake. A rush of adrenaline caused by my determination to solve this case. This time it is different though. Fear is keeping me awake. I close my eyes for a second. I tell myself this will make me think better.

I can hear people yelling around me. I open my eyes and for a second I think I still have them closed, because the screen is pitch black.

Warrick

It's like everything is happening in slow motion. I can see Nick running towards the building. I can see Catherine is telling me something, but I can't hear her. I just watch her mouth open and close until she shakes me and tells me we should go after Nick. In any other situation the FBI agents would have stopped us, but it seems like they have been surprised themselves and are in a state of shock and confusion. Brass is following us at a short distance, followed by a SWAT team.

The prayer my mother has taught me when I was little is repeating itself in my brain like a mantra. There are some things in life you never forget, just like I never forgot how much I care about Sara, even though I was expected to forget.

We enter the building, we run up the stairs and I realize we have no idea where we are going. I pull out my gun as I watch Catherine do the same. We do not wait until the SWAT team clears the rooms.

And then we find them. Nick is cradling Sara in his arms and they are so quiet and a part of me dies that minute.

TBC