Like Father, Like Daughter or History Repeating
Pairing: Sara and Nick
Nightmares plague Carolyn. She is finally rescued
Disclaimer: I don't own Nick, Sara or any CSI character mentioned in the story, I only own my original characters. I don't even own the song 'Turn a Whiter Shade of Pale', that's property of Procol Harem. No, I didn't collaborate with Quentin Tarantino on this story.
Nightmares and Freedom Cries
(Begin Nightmare Sequence)
(Nightmare, Version 1.0)
Washington, DC Crime Lab Autopsy Room
Dr. Fiona Watson and her assistant Kara Feinstein had a look at the new corpse in their morgue. It was the body of Carolyn Stokes ravaged by rat scratches, rat bite marks (one bleeding profusely on her neck) and a gunshot wound.
"If they only rescued her an hour or two sooner," Dr. Watson shook her head. "What a damn shame!"
"She was a good asset to the crime lab," Kara replied. "She really suffered a lot."
"It wasn't the gunshot wound to the arm that killed her," Dr. Watson said. "It was a bite to her jugular vein courtesy of a rat that proved to be fatal."
(End of Version 1.0, begin 1.1)
Dr. Watson and Kara were laughing hysterically and looking at Carolyn's body. From her neck down was like frosted cake in the shape of her torso. Her eyes were open and her lips were moving, but she couldn't see, move and talk.
"That's a very good one," Dr. Watson chuckled. "The one about the chimp going to a bar in a bad mood was the best one you've ever told! You should tell that joke at the next medical examiners' conference during amateur comics' night. Do you want to do the honors of opening Carolyn up?"
"I'd be more than honored to do so," Kara smirked. "Can I use the cake knife?"
"No, a chainsaw would more effective," Dr. Watson said. "Only her skin is made of cake. We need to cut through bone. Are you ready, my Lady of the Chainsaw? Eins!"
"Zwei!" Kara smiled.
"Drei!" the two women shouted as Kara started cut Carolyn chest open. Dr. Watson played a CD of a Procol Harem tribute band and selected a more psychedelic sounding version of 'Turn a Whiter Shade of Pale'
We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
Some of the frosting splattered and so did a few cake crumbs. Kara pulled apart Carolyn's chest so Dr. Watson could look at her insides.
"She won't need this anymore," Dr. Watson said as she removed Carolyn's pancreas and tossed it back as it hit the wall.
Las Vegas Mayoral Hopeful Sara Sidle-Stokes appeared from almost nowhere observing the autopsy of her oldest daughter.
"So, for a 1,000 dollar tax deductible contribution in Carolyn's memory to my campaign fund," Sara said with a sinister tone of voice. "What did kill her? Was it a sudden heart attack from dealing with the rat trauma?"
"No, believe it or not, she strangled herself," Dr. Watson replied. "Do you see the shape of the bruises on her neck? Those were made by her hands."
"She definitely won't need these any more," Kara said as she removed Carolyn's ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus and tossed them back hitting the window. "She can't get pregnant when she's dead."
Dr. Watson removed Carolyn's heart, it was made of gold.
"Nick and I always said she had a heart of gold," Sara sighed. "We'll arrange an open casket funeral for her in Vegas."
(End of Nightmare Sequence)
Carolyn woke from her brief nap, gasped and looked around to see if she was really lying on a metal slab in the autopsy room. She was relieved that she wasn't there, but relief turned to anxiety when she realized that she was still in the coffin with an increasing population of rats. The noises were getting progressively louder and she heard something hit the box. She recoiled hoping that it wasn't new cracks of the plexi-glass. She some faint voices, but couldn't make out if they were friends or foes. If they were friends, she hoped that they would rescue her and fast.
"I got something!" a voice sounding like Bethany's shouted.
"Hang on, Carolyn!" another voice, this time sounding like Anthony's shouted. "We'll get you out of there soon!"
"I just hope it's really her," Bethany's voice said. "According to Yvonne, she and her colleagues were in Crystal City processing Elaine's blow up. She told me that they find loose dirt in the backyard. They went on a hunch thinking that Carolyn was in there. Much to their chagrin, the find several dead chickens and a dismembered calf. She told me that she ever saw Hank Peddigrew, Jr. again, she'd throttle him herself."
"Stop your damn gossiping and bring me out of here!" Carolyn screamed.
As soon as Anthony's team finished digging they saw the dirt dusted plexi-glass coffin. Bethany cleared part of the dirt off and smiled when she saw Carolyn alive in there.
"Carolyn, I am here!" Bethany said. "You are going to be out of there soon!"
"Bethany, just get me out of the hellhole!" Carolyn shouted holding the gun to her temple.
"Listen to me and put that thing down," Bethany hissed. "I don't want to see your splattered brain in here. Calm down and you will be freed soon!"
There was a rat that crawled on Carolyn's arm and she hit it in the head hard with the barrel of the gun.
"This is a rat infested trap!" Carolyn shouted.
Suzette tried opened the coffin and saw Carolyn moving around to avoid the creatures that gave her a plethora of nightmares. She tried to calm the traumatized younger woman, but it was futile at best. Anthony's cell rang and he went toward the patio to answer it.
"Barone!" he answered.
"Anthony this is Winston," the voice on the other end said. "Did you find her?"
"Yes, we did," Anthony answered. "She is shaken up badly, but still alive!"
"The Stokes family ordered some fine champagne to be delivered to the crime lab pending Carolyn's safe return," Winston said and briefly hesitated. "Anthony, hold on. I pulled off a copy of a report from the Lexis/Nexus website about the kidnapping and live burial of Nick Stokes, Carolyn's father, back in 2005. I had worked with the trace techs to analyze some substance found in the Elaine Peddigrew crime scene. It turned out to be a substance used in the explosives Mrs. Peddigrew used to blow herself to kingdom come. We also analyzed the report and made connections between Nick and Carolyn's crises. The coffin that a Walter Gordon used to bury Mr. Stokes alive was rigged with charges. If this is a copycat crime, Carolyn is in deeper shit trouble than we thought."
"Winston, please tell me this is a joke!" Anthony protested and realized from the young man's tone it was serious. "Suzette, don't open that coffin yet! Everyone who is near Carolyn come here now. That goes for you too, Bethany. It's rigged with explosives."
"No, I won't!" Bethany shrieked as Anthony dragged her a few feet away.
"What the hell is going on right now?" Carolyn angrily demanded. "Am I going to get blown up?"
"Carolyn, we are getting you out," Suzette tried to reassure the freaked out young woman. "It will take a little while longer, but you'll be free. Vivi, calm down and pay attention!"
Why did Suzette just call me Vivi? Carolyn thought as she was thrown off guard. Only my parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Stokes ever called me that. Alright, who made like a pig and squealed?
Suzette placed her hand on the lid where Carolyn could see it and told her to place her hand where Suzette's palm was. Carolyn calmly did as she was told.
"Vivi, you are going to have to trust me," Suzette said. "We are going to tie a caribiner to your belt loop, dump about 140 pounds of dirt and gravel to balance your weight and we are going to yank you out there. Just be still or you are going to kill us all and that wouldn't be cool."
"I understand," Carolyn rasped out. "Did Anthony order this?"
"He got Gina to bark out the orders as we speak," Suzette smiled looking at the youngest CSI running around like a chicken without a head barking out orders.
"The 'little girl' of the lab grows up, eh?" Carolyn lightly chuckled. "Suzette, I don't care how you get me out, just do it without the rats."
"Glad to see this hasn't killed your sense of humor, Vivi," Suzette giggled and stopped immediately. "Now, Vivi they are coming with dirt and gravel. I am going to open the lid again and tie this through the two front belt loops. On my cue, I will have you close your eyes and cover your face with your hands. Someone will dump the stuff on you and we'll pull you out. Vivi, say 'I trust you!'."
"I trust you!" Carolyn said weakly as Suzette opened the lid and tie the caribiner around the belt loops.
Suzette moved a few feet away from the coffin, but it was enough for Carolyn to see her. She prepared Joel, Bethany, Jonathan, Anthony and Gina to prepare for a one sided tug of war.
"Vivi, close your eyes and cover your face with both hands!" she yelled at Carolyn and then to the construction worker. "Get on with it!"
In less than minute, 140 pounds of dirt and gravel was dumped over Carolyn and she was yanked out of the new mound. She came almost flying out of there and landing on her stomach just a few feet away. The coffin exploded a minute later. Dirt came flying up in the air. Carolyn was shaking like a leaf, took a breath of fresh air and started crying in relief and pain. She was alive and freed.
"Did any of the rats come with me?" she asked Suzette.
"The explosion killed them all," Suzette responded happy to see Carolyn survived the ordeal. "You have some scratches on your arms and face. It looks like you were bitten a few times in your hands."
A medivac landed and a few paramedics got out with a stretcher and first aid equipment. They calmly approached the trembling young woman, cleaned her up, inserted an IV and gingerly loaded her onto the stretcher. One paramedic went back to the chopper to get a blanket to keep her warm while another place an oxygen mask over Carolyn's mouth and nose to give her starved lungs fresh oxygen. They wheeled her into the medivac. They were followed in by Bethany and Joel whose presence would calm Carolyn a little. When the medivac took off, Carolyn looked at a bird's eye view of Rockville. She didn't care about being a few hundred feet above ground, just relieved she was no longer six feet below it.
Back on the ground
"Tony, do your criminalists want to help mine process this scene?" the chief of the Rockville Police Department asked.
"Allison, as much as we would like to help," Anthony said. "We politely decline. It's your jurisdiction and this is too personal for us."
"I understand," Allison smiled. "Maybe some other time, we could butt our heads together on a case in the future."
"I'd love that," Anthony winked at her.
TBC