Chapter 10:

"What on the hell did you think you were doing walking in here?" Grissom demanded of the stranger that had darkened their doorstep. Warrick and Greg were both starting to show some nice bruises forming on their faces, Catherine a few on her arms as well as many scratches, but Chris, sporting a bleeding lip and swollen eye, sat dignified at the commotion he had caused.

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The moment Grissom had seen him walk in he froze. Half of him could barely believe that he had showed up, knowing full well the consequences. It took a moment for the others to see him. They seemed locked into their seats for a few seconds when, surprisingly, Catherine jumped up and stormed over to him.

"Get the hell out of here you bastard!" she yelled into his face. He grabbed her arm to push her back and she lost it and started to hit and shove him. Before Grissom knew it, Warrick was pulling Catherine off Chris, wrestled on the ground when Greg decided he was going to get his share of the fight too, for what he did to Sara. Somehow Warrick ended up in the brawl as well, half trying to get Catherine out, half pummeling the bastard for hurting his friend. Grissom finally regained control when Brass walked in, stunned at the scene before him.

After a few moments to cool off, they were sitting in their chairs, nursing their injuries and staring at their unwelcome guest.

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"What do you want?" Grissom said again, staring at the man, wishing he could wipe off the smug grin on his face.

"You know I could charge you all for what you did." Brass chuckled.

"Uh huh, sure buddy. Lets get one thing straight." His face went dead serious as he walked over to the man and stared right into his cold eyes. "You think about pressing charges, we hang you out to dry for everything we can find on you, and we already have quite the record. You don't show up here anymore, and most importantly you stay away from Sara. You understand?" Brass's tactics of intimidation didn't seem to be working.

"Ah dear Sara. Who said I did anything wrong?"

"She did." Grissom responded. He grinned even more, Catherine knowing the weapon he held, praying he wouldn't use it.

"Hmm. Then why isn't she pressing charges?" Silence followed.

"That's none of your business. One last time – what do you want?"

"I came to see Sara." Warrick's already bruised hands started to ball up into fists. Obviously, he hadn't heard about her episode, and that she was still at the hospital.

"She's not available." Greg said, glaring murderously at Chris. "Just leave her alone."

"I'm free to do what I want. When you see her, let her know that I want to talk to her right away. There are a few things we need to take care of." With that he walked out the door, 5 pairs of eyes following his steps.

"What was that about?" Warrick asked half angry, half confused.

"I think the more important question is what are we going to do about him? He's not going to leave Sara alone and if he learns that she's been in the hospital and goes to see her, who knows what the effects could be on her." Greg replied, obviously worried. Grissom looked over at Catherine, who seemed rather pre-occupied by one of her new cuts on her arm.

"Everything okay Catherine?" Grissom asked, concerned at her silence.

"Yeah fine," was all she replied. Silence invaded the room, as they all watched Catherine purposefully not meet any of their gazes. Bewildered, Warrick piped up,

"Catherine – what's up? What do you think we should do?" She sighed and finally looked up, speaking rather forcefully,

"Look - here's what I think. Sara has a reason for not wanting to press charges. I think we should leave it be. Nick is going to be staying with Sara – she's hardly ever alone, and the hospital knows to be careful whom to admit to see her. When she's released in a few days, Nick will watch her during the day, and during night shift she'll either be sleeping, or knowing her, she'll somehow find a way back to work – even if its just a desk job for now. I think you all need to trust her judgment on this and let her be." With that, she got up and left. Looking emotional, they watched her as she headed down the hallway, in the direction on the woman's washrooms.

"What was that all about?" Brass asked the other men in the room, all as confused as he was.

"She's hiding something about what happened with Sara." Grissom responded quietly. "It must be for Sara's good – it's not like Catherine to be like this, unless it was really important."

"But the question is, what if this Chris guy did something worse, and the reason Sara doesn't want to press charges is because she's afraid? And Catherine understands what a fragile state she's in already, she's not willing to sacrifice Sara's mental health for it?" Warrick suggested. "I mean, ever since we found the note, we've suspected something more. I don't think we should just let it go so lightly. Who knows what this guy could do next."

"I have to say boss, I agree with Warrick…" Greg said as Grissom sat in thought.

"Agree with what?" said a voice from the doorway. Nick walked into the break room, with a small smile on his face, though slightly masked with curiosity.

"Nick!" They all greeted him warmly.

"How's Sara doing?" Brass asked immediately, as Nick took a chair.

"She's doing pretty good actually, considering. We talked about what happened. I assume you all know about Chris and what he did by now." They nodded solemnly. Grissom couldn't decide whether or not to tell Nick that Sara's ex had already paid them a little visit. Instead, he asked,

"What did the doctor's say?"

"Well, they think she should be well enough, physically to head home in about 2 days. I'm going to move into her apartment for now. No work for a while, though I'm sure she'll somehow worm her way in. I'll just keep an eye on her during the day, and at night I'm going to talk to the landlord to make sure anyone with Chris's description isn't let into the building, and see if we can't beef up the security. She's adamant about not pressing charges, but he hasn't shown his face so far, so maybe he'll just leave her alone from now on." Greg looked over at Grissom hesitantly.

"Well, make sure you don't give him a reason to show up Nick." He chuckled, though sadly.

"Don't worry Gris. Sara already made me promise not to go after the guy. Anyways, I should go. I'll be in for work tomorrow, though. Thanks for the time off…" he trailed off, realizing that he never had actually asked for any time off, but rather had taken the last couple of days unexpectedly.

"No problem, nothing big has happened anyways, and we've had someone from day shift switch over at least for the next couple of weeks to help while Sara's gone." Grissom answered. Nick looked around, and his brow furrowed,

"Where's Catherine?" he asked. Grissom knew that hiding more about Chris from Nick could end up backfiring, but he also knew that if they had any plans to search more into Chris's history, if Nick ever did find out about the letter or his visit, their chances of catching him eventually would diminish substantially.

"I'm right here." She said quietly from the doorway. Nick went over and gave his friend a quick hug, his smile still in place, but dimmed once he saw her red and teary eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Catherine glanced casually at Grissom and noticed his look. A look telling her not to say a thing about Chris to Nick, not that she was going to anyways.

"Oh nothing – just girl stuff." Warrick couldn't take his eyes off the obviously upset Catherine, who stood quietly in the doorway as Nick said his goodbyes again and left to head home, pack, shower and sleep a bit before taking some of his stuff over to Sara's.

"Well, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to head over and see Sara for a bit. Call me if anything comes up and you need my help, I just don't think she should be alone right now." Grissom nodded and she turned to leave without another word. Warrick quickly got up and followed her down the hall, meeting her alone in the locker room.

"Hey Cath! Cath!" He called as she opened up her locker to grab her things.

"What?" she asked, not looking at him.

"Come on girl – what's the matter? And don't say nothing – I know you better than that." She turned to look at him, and the concern in his eyes. The tears started to well up in her own eyes and she just sat on the bench and cried. Warrick wrapped his arm around her and just let her cry it out for a few minutes.

"Better?" She nodded.

"Thanks."

"You want to talk about it?" She sighed.

"I can't."

"Look – I figured it's about Sara. And I respect her privacy and whatever secret you need to keep for her. I don't want to know what it is, if Sara doesn't think I need to hear it, but know that we have Sara's best interests at heart, and we're all really worried about this Chris guy. The note, his visit… Sara's a really strong girl, and something must have pushed her really far to end up like this. I never thought of her as the girl who would passively take to someone hitting her." Catherine sat in silence, soaking up the words.

"I can't say anything Warrick…"

"I know – just, be there for Sara. Help her recover. Help Nick too – He's in the dark about all of this more than any of us are. He still doesn't know about the note or that Chris came this afternoon. Tell me this though – I know Grissom wants to look more into Chris's history, and more about what happened. If Sara wasn't your friend – if she was just another victim that we had to see, would you go after him and look a bit further into what happened?" She remained still for a while, until she gave a slow nod, her eyes downcast.

"I told her she should do something, but she doesn't want to. Half of me understands why. It's such a hard situation Warrick."

"I know – just, stay out of the investigation. What you don't know, you can't feel like you broke your word to Sara. Just concentrate on her for a bit okay? And take care of yourself. We don't need anything happening to you either." She gave him a small smile, and he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"Thanks Warrick."

"Anytime," he replied as he headed back out the door to talk to Grissom.