They pulled into a parking space along the road and they walked towards the house with their guns drawn. They were in the suburbs, which was surprising due to the nature of the crimes he had committed.

Nick reached the door first, and he reached for the handle. To the surprise of everyone, it was unlocked. So they went in and split up.

Catherine and Nick split to the right and left on the ground floor. Warrick went down into the basement, and Greg and Grissom started up the stairs.

On their way up the staircase, one of the steps creaked. They both nearly jumped because the sound had broken the silence. At the top, Grissom went to the left, and Greg went to the right.

Each of them opened doors and looked around, but they were unable to find her. Then Grissom opened up the door of the room where Sara was. The man had his gun and he shot at Grissom. Grissom shot back at the same time. The man missed Grissom, but Grissom managed to shoot the man in his arm.

Then he took off running out the balcony doors and down the backstairs. Greg came into the room and chased after the man.

Shaking due to adrenaline and fear, Grissom went over to Sara and he cut the cords off of her wrists and ankles with the torture knife. Catherine entered the room at that point, and she decided to get towels from the bathroom.

They wrapped the towels, which were rather big, around Sara's wounds. Sara cried out from the pain of having the cloth touch her open cuts. Using five towels they managed to cover her body and the bleeding was slowed.

Nick and Warrick arrived in the room a few moments later, and they couldn't believe how bad Sara was, but they were both glad that she was alive. Warrick called 911 and they said that an ambulance would be there right away. At the same time Nick turned off the music which was very disturbing to all of them.

Grissom picked up Sara, and then he sat down with her on the bed so that her body was resting against his. She looked into his eyes. She was terrified and she just started sobbing. He started rocking her as if she was a child, and he whispered soothingly to her.

Grissom had only seen her cry one other time, but the others hadn't; it broke their hearts to see their usually strong friend so broken.

Greg returned to the room out of breath. They looked at him expectantly, but he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but he got away. There were police officers going after him as well, but we couldn't get him."

With that Sara started sobbing louder, so Catherine motioned for the guys to leave. She put an arm around Greg's shoulder and told him that it was ok, then the four of them left the room. They slumped down onto the floor of the hallway and they leaned against the wall, each let out a sigh of relief.

Sara was relieved that they had saved her, but the fact that he had escaped terrified her. Her body throbbed with pain, but having Grissom hold her made it not feel so bad. She was relaxed by his presence.

"Sara," Grissom whispered.

"What?" She said weakly.

"I'm sorry."

She looked up into his tear-filled eyes, not quite understanding what he meant. "It's not your fault…"

"No, that's not what I meant. I love you Sara. I've loved you for years and then... I could have lost you today and you never would have known."

She started to cry, but he wiped away her tears.

"When did you start to love me?"

"I loved you the first time we said goodbye."

She managed to laugh. "But that was the day we met, I was a student at the conference for new CSI's, you were a speaker…"

"I know, and I've spent the past eight years not knowing what to do about this. And now I do, I never want us to be separated again."

She started to cry again, but this time from being both happy and emotionally spent. He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. It was all too much for Sara to handle anymore, and she fell asleep in his arms.

Before an hour had passed, the medics had arrived and she was carried down to the ambulance on a stretcher. Grissom went with her in the ambulance, but first he tossed his car keys to Catherine. Then the rest of them began to collect evidence from the scene.

In the ambulance Sara was put on an IV, and the doctors worked on making sure that she was ok. Grissom did his best to stay out of the medics' way. He waited in the waiting room while she was taken care of, and finally he went to see her when she was placed in her room.

She was sleeping, and she had been bandaged almost everywhere, but to Grissom, she was the most beautiful creature in the world, even though she was bruised and battered. He decided to stay with her, and he fell asleep with his head resting by her hand.

TBC..

Thanks for the reviews guys! they were great! CSI Kennedy, Goldie, nick55, drakien, Iamyourangelofmusic, GSBS4L, Marbs, Sidle Chick, csifreak04