Another Sara ficlet. It's a one shot thing. Read, enjoy, review.
It was another long shift. Sara Sidle was exhausted when she arrived home. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and attempt to sleep. Arriving at her apartment she stopped off at her mailbox to pick up yesterdays mail. Flicking through the endless enveloped she sighed.
Junk, junk, bill, bill, junk... wait. Not another one. She cautiously opened the white envelope. Inside was another letter. Skimming through it, Sara found it to be similar to the others she received.
Dearest Sara,
I do not know if you received my other letters, as I haven't got a reply. I have tried to contact you for a while now. I have been out of prison for 6 months now and I am hoping I can see my little girl again. I know you are not a little girl anymore, but you will always be to me… blah blah blah.
Love Mom.
Sara rarely read the whole letter. It was always the same- I love you so much, I should come visit… and so on. It had scared her that her mother wanted contact with her again. Sara wanted nothing to do with her mother. After killing her father when she was only 13, Sara had vowed never to become helpless to a man or to become a woman like her mother. Her mother had been weak and she had stood up to George Sidle the only way she could, stabbing him in his sleep. True, Sara had hated her father for what he did to her mother, but she hated her mother more for taking his life.
For years Sara had pushed the memories of her past to the back of her mind. Occasionally work had made some of those memories to resurface, but having her mother back in her life was one step she was not willing to take.
Walking into her apartment, Sara threw the letter into the trash without a thought and went to bed for another restless night full of dreams of her haunted past.
The next day sitting in the break room, Sara was talking with Greg, Nick, Warrick and Catherine when Grissom walked in.
'Okay everyone. Assignments. Greg and Nick you have a B&E in..' He was interrupted by Judy the receptionist.
'Sorry to interrupt Mr Grissom, but I have a visitor at reception requesting Ms Sidle. She says its urgent.'
Once Judy had said 'visitor' and 'Ms Sidle' the whole team stared at Sara. In all the time she had worked here she had never had a visitor or a phone call. No one knew any people in Sara's life outside work or if she even had anybody.
Sara stared back with a blank look on her face. 'Visitor?' she asked Judy.
'I think its your Mom actually. She looks sort of like you, but older.' Judy replied cheerfully. No one noticed the colour fade from Sara's face.
'Your mom? We should all meet her!' Catherine shouted out merrily. Nick, Warrick and Greg all nodded their heads, smiling. Only Grissom noticed the silence from Sara. He had known about her father, but he didn't know about her relationship with her mom.
'Will I send her through?' Judy asked. Catherine was about to say 'yes' when she was silenced by Sara.
'No!' She shouted. Everyone looked at her. Quickly she stood up and muttering 'excuse me' she walked out the room to face the woman she hadn't seen for years.
Sitting in the reception area of CSI HQ, a woman with greying hair and wrinkled skin nervously looked around her. When Sara walked up to her, the woman's face lit up. Sara's face stayed expressionless.
'What do you want?' she asked gruffly.
'I came to see you. I have been sending you letters, I guess you didn't get them. Well I thought that we could catch up…,' Mary Sidle replied sadly. She was upset at how her daughter could be so callous towards her.
'I don't think so. I got your letters, I chose to ignore them. I hate you for what you did and I don't want to see you again.' She turned away and left Mary sitting speechless.
Standing not far from the scene, the team stood watching Sara reject her mother. They watched Sara walk away from her mom and leaving her with tears running down her face.
Taking a deep breath Catherine approached the woman.
'Hi. I am Catherine and a friend of Sara's. I'm sure she didn't mean that. Look, how about we get you a cup of coffee and I'll go talk to her?' Mary nodded slowly.
Sara had went back to the break room but finding it empty she went to find Grissom for her assignment. Finding the whole team in reception, minus Catherine and Grissom, Sara was greeted with cold looks.
'How could you do that to your own mother?' Nick shot at her.
'Excuse me?' Sara replied.
'We all saw what you did. Catherine took her to get a cup of coffee.'
'That is none of your business! And tell Catherine to get rid of her. I will not have her part of my life again and you know nothing about it so keep out of it.' Sara knew this was a battle she would not win without telling the team about her past, something she had not wanted to do.
Sara found Catherine outside the break room having an argument with Grissom.
'Why did you do that Catherine? It's her life. She has her reasons but you just have to interfere in her life don't you?'
'I'm doing her a favour! Whatever argument they had in the past will be forgotten and they will be a proper mother and daughter again!' Catherine screamed back.
'Stop living in a fairytale that ended way before it began! Just get rid of her mom.'
'I will not! If you want to go tell that poor woman her selfish daughter wont speak to her again be my guest!'
Grissom sighed before walking into the break room. He was sure that Mary heard their shouting match. She sat crying with her tears dripping into her lukewarm cup of coffee. Grissom took pity on the woman, but understood Sara's reasons no not see her. He could only imagine he would do the exact same thing in her position.
'Ma'am. I'm Gil Grissom. I'm afraid Sara isn't really ready to talk to you yet.' He said slowly.
'Call me Mary,' she sniffed, 'Will she ever be ready? I haven't seen her since she was 15 years old…' she was interrupted by a voice from the doorway.
'No. You haven't seen me since I was 14 years old. My 14th birthday to be exact when I came to visit you in prison. I spent the rest of my birthdays after that in a foster home, without any family or friends and only a lousy letter from you. Did you really expect me to forgive you after what you did? Did you think you could just be a part of my life again after 20 years?'
'What else could I have done? It would have been you next! You were old enough to understand what he did to me! How can you be so selfish?'
'How can I be so selfish?' Sara retorted back. 'He loved me. You know that he would never have hurt me. I was old enough to know that you could have got help. You could have left him! You could have left me with at least one parent!' She screamed back. By now, everyone in the building heard the raised voices. A small crowd had gathered by the door watching the shouting match between mother and daughter.
After a minute of silence and calming down Sara spoke once again. 'Get out and don't come back. I meant what I said, I don't want you in my life anymore.'
Mary Sidle didn't reply. She simply stood up and walked out leaving Sara with tears running down her face. The crowd at the door had scattered leaving just Nick, Catherine, Warrick, Greg and Grissom standing watching Sara. Taking a minute to wipe away the tears, she turned back to them all.
'Well. What's my assignment?' She asked smiling. Only Grissom understood. She had let a few ghosts lie.
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