Chapter XXV

Terror

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. The angrier she became, the blacker her thoughts got. Before her, spread out like a third rate manuscript on an editor's desk, were the files she'd requested and gotten with no questions asked. Sara Sidle had hurt her where it hurt, her reputation. Therefore, she would strike back, where it would hurt Sara the most.

Tricia, Jessica and Lindsey walked from their Math class to the auditorium. There was supposed to be some extra special presentation thingy today. Lindsey was pretty sure she'd be more excited about dangerous and unnecessary surgery without anesthesia. It was mandatory, though, and she was already grounded and she did not need her mother to get a call at work...again.

They sat in the darkened auditorium at the back, their illegal cellphones out and ready to text. The screen that was set up behind the podium on stage flickered to life and the lights went out. Lindsey blinked, trying to make her eyes adjust. The speakers boomed and the screen was suddenly filled with rapid fire images of missiles firing, of illegal immigrant protests, and of gay couples. A strong voice echoed through the auditorium. "There are a lot of issues to deal with today and who the people vote for will be making those ground breaking decisions." A woman stepped out from behind the curtains on stage.

The presentation was aimed directly at the mindset of the gathered middle school students. Even the discussion of how elections were counted and tallied was presented in a way that captured the imagination and interest of the shortest attention span.

It didn't make Lindsey want to become a politician, but it was interesting. At least, more interesting then she figured it would be. This Madison Daniels chick was all right. Her flunkies were handing out pamphlets for them to take home to their parents. Lindsey rolled her eyes. There was the entire reason behind the hour long yak-fest - 'Get your parents to vote for me'. Sam had told her that all politicians were interested in only votes and money. And since he, of course, was interested only in money, she figured that they couldn't all be that bad. She knew her Social Studies teacher was paying attention to who was paying attention and she really needed to pull off a good grade this time round or her mother was going to kill her. So when Q&A time came around, she raised her hand.

Madison looked over the crowd. There was so much potential, and there was of course, trash mixed in too. She looked around when hands raised. There were the ever present brown nosers, the interested people and then a few others who were probably raising their hands as a joke or a desperate attempt for extra credit.

She fielded the usual questions. What did she think about the war, what was her stance on immigration, a few others. Then a blonde girl in back stood. "You um mentioned a bill going through congress right now. About um meth labs. You didn't mention anything about support staff or possible contamination of scene workers. Does the bill cover that?"

Half of the auditorium turned to look at her. Since her teacher was in that group, Lindsey decided that her effort had been worth it. There were some upsides to having a mom in law enforcement. She got to hear about things like that. There had been a scare a few weeks before. Greg had inhaled some meth at a scene. Her mother had remarked that it hadn't made him that different.

Daniels raised an eyebrow, she had never gotten that question. It was smart and it challenged her from a new angle. The girl was rather petite and had shoulder length blonde hair. Madison was intrigued.

Lindsey was heading back to her locker when someone called her name. She turned and winced. It was the principal. She cursed under her breathe and ran a hand over her blonde hair. Jessica and Tricia, great friends that they were, ducked into the girl's room.

Lindsey put on what her grandfather called the 'Willows Grin' and turned to face the principal. "Yes, Ms. Lewis?"

Then she noticed that the principal had the Senator woman with her. Lindsey did a little 'panic dance' on the inside, but held her ground. "Principal Lewis, Senator Daniels."

The blonde woman laughed, "I'm not senator yet, but you may call me Madison, young lady." Lindsey fell in step beside the two adults and Madison continued. "You had a very interesting question, Lindsey." She only shrugged, "I heard my mother talking about it."

Madison smiled; it was a bright smile full of warmth; a practiced smile that a politician would have. It was her eyes, though, that spoke her true intent. It was her eyes that Lindsey saw. Lindsey backed up a step. "Yeah, well, I've gotta head to class...English, you know." Madison grinned, "Running to your lessons? That doesn't sound like any young girl I've ever met. I'd really like to talk to you for a few minutes."

The principal nodded and her eyes telegraphed that Lindsey would talk to the politician and she would behave herself while doing so. So Lindsey harnessed one of her other Mother-given tools. She used the world famous Willows charm. "Sure. I was really interested in your ideas about Big Tobacco."

Madison smiled, "Perfect."

They continued walking, through the grassy quad and then down the hill to where the cars were. "Where are we going?"

The woman smiled, "Didn't your principal tell you? We're shooting a campaign commercial and I think you'd be perfect for it." Lindsey's fair eyebrows shot up. "Me? On TV?" Madison reached the white limo and opened the door for her. "Oh yes."

Lindsey got in, "Cool."

Catherine had the mother of all headaches. The added stress of taking up Sara's weight of the case was taking its toll on her. She rubbed her temples and decided to not think about Sara. She didn't like admitting that she felt guilty. She'd known that Sara was going off and chasing down Daniels...but she hadn't said anything. She'd let the woman twist in the wind. She didn't want to feel bad about that. Sara was a big girl, she had known going in was going against orders. Grissom couldn't help her this time. She didn't know why it bothered her so much. It wasn't like she even liked Sara all that much. Everyone thought she was so great, just because she never gave up, because she was this rock that everyone looked to.

She was Nick's little sister and Warrick's new best friend; she was Greg's mentor and Grissom's student. She was like a daughter to Brass. She had come into their lab, their lives, as a stranger and somewhere along the way, she'd become their friend. No, not everyone. Catherine could admit, to herself, that she had never been Sara's friend and last night when she'd closed her door, she'd shown that she never could be.

She was shaken from her thoughts by the school bell. Students began to pour out and she started looking for Lindsey. After five minutes she was slightly annoyed. After fifteen she was starting to get pissed. Lindsey knew they had plans this afternoon. She got out of the car and started making her way through the loitering students. "LINDSEY!" She made her way over to the teacher that was on monitor duty. "I'm looking for Lindsey Willows." The teacher, who looked fresh out of college, hardly more then a girl herself, took out a walkie talkie and asked if any of the other teachers had seen her. A full thirty minutes after school let out, the razor sharp edges of panic started to cut into Catherine's soul. She called her daughter's cell phone and got no answer. She called her mother, her father, her sister; she even called Grissom. No one had seen Lindsey. An hour had passed and Catherine was hyper-ventilating.

Fear sliced through her entire being like a fiery broadsword.

Lindsey-was-missing. Catherine couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't function. Her hands shook violently, her world swirled around her and all coherent thoughts drained from her brain.

Her-baby-was-missing. She leaned against the wall as the principal talked to her. The woman's words were only a buzz in her head. Her cell phone slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. When Brass arrived she looked at him, tears clouding her vision. She could only croak out one word, "Lindsey."

She had been kidnapped. That thought shot through theLindsey'sbrain like an electric shock. Everything had been normal. Then when they'd gotten into the limo, all the doors had locked and everything had gone very still. That look in Madison's eyes was back. Lindsey tried the door handle. The woman only smiled. "It's okay, Lindsey, we're going home." Suddenly she understood. There was a scary realization and it spilled from her lips, "You're the Doll Collector."

No matter how she fought, she couldn't break the woman's grip. She tried to pull away when they pulled in to the garage. "NO!" She pulled her down a set of stairs and pushed her by the boxes into a room. All Lindsey could think of were those news reports. Dead girls...dead girls and she was next. The door of the room shut and Lindsey pushed against it. She beat her fists against it. Tears started coming down her cheeks. She didn't want to die. She wanted her Mommy.

Author's Note: Okay, who wasn't expecting that? I dropped anvil sized hints the whole time. We all knew this was coming. Now, I would also like to point out - Look, Catherine feels guilty, I'm making her human! Comments?