"Sara..." Catherine said. "What...what happened?" she asked.

"Cath...please...just please help me," Sara said, lifting a hand out to her. Catherine slowly took it.

"Okay...I need to get you inside," Catherine told her. Sara slowly nodded as Catherine helped her inside. The brunette swayed back and forth as she was led inside and finally collapsed on the couch, leaning her head back against the head-rest. "I'll get you some ice," Catherine said, walking into the kitchen and opening the freezer.

Now something was definetly not right. Sara looked like she had just went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. And lost. Badly. Possible scenarios were racing through Catherine's mind as she walked back into the living room and handed Sara a bag of ice.

"Thanks.." Sara said, wincing as she put the ice against her face.

"Sara...what happened to you?" Catherine asked, sitting down on the couch next to her.

Sara sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "You of all people have noticed the way I've been acting in the lab. I could tell. I knew you were always watching me. So you knew something was up.."

Catherine just responded with a weak nod.

"You know...how I've been getting a bunch of phone calls?"

Catherine nodded.

"And how I've been wearing my jacket all the time?"

"Yeah..."

Sara stood up and set the ice pack down, unzipping her jacket and sliding it off of her shoulders. The sight Catherine saw would make anyone want to get sick. The pale skinned- arms of the brunette in front of Catherine were covered in purple and black bruises. They were almost completely covered, it was hard to tell what her arms may have looked like before.

"Oh honey..." Catherine said, looking up at Sara. "What happened?"

"This...guy," Sara said. "He...knows me...and...I know him, he...was my foster brother," Sara said quietly, looking down at the floor. "He had been living in California, I didn't know why he would come to Vegas," Sara whispered, bringing her knees up to chest and holding onto them tightly. "Until I got a phone call one day."

"Phone call?" Catherine asked. "What...did he say?" she asked, even though there were millions of other questions racing through her mind.

"He...told me that he was back...that...he was back to finish...finish what he..started," Sara said, looking up at Catherine wide, fear-filled eyes.

"Finish...what he started?" Catherine asked. "What...did that mean?"

Sara sighed, lowering her head and burying her face in her knees. "Catherine...you and I have not always been on the best of terms...I know it and you know it," Sara told her. "There's a lot you don't know about me. A lot no one knows about me. Grissom knows the most about me...I told him something about my childhood, but...I never told him the second part."

Catherine nodded a little. She was right, she didn't know that much about Sara, but if she opened up and allowed Catherine inside of her mind for even a second, that would change everything. "And...the first part was...?" she asked, not quite wanting to get to the second part yet, as it seemed to bring back more painful memories.

Sara sighed, closing her eyes. "You know that case a while back...with the Meltons?" Sara asked.

Catherine nodded. "Yeah..."

"You don't know why that affected me so much, do you?" she asked.

Catherine shook her head.

Sara sighed. "It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood, of...my parents. My father used to...he was a drunk, Catherine...and...he used to hit my mother. I tried to make them stop but all that got me was a few bruises of my own. My brother moved away when he turned 18, and from then on things only got worse.." Sara whispered.

Catherine's eyes widened. She was from an abusive environment. Now she understood why that case had affected her so much.

"One night...she...killed him. She..got a butcher knife and stabbed him to death. I saw the whole thing," Sara said, once again burying her face in her knees to hide the tears in her eyes.

"Oh my god..." Catherine whispered, moving a little closer to her. "I'm so sorry, Sara...I had no idea..."

Sara looked up at her. "I went into foster care..." Sara continued. "My foster parents were nice..." she said with a little laugh. "They were great people...they always kept me laughing," she said with a weak smile. "Everything was going great for a while...I had a best friend...he was like the big brother I really never had.." she said. "But then...this guy came into the family. He was my new foster brother. My friend was afraid...he kept warning me about him. He didn't think he was good for me to be around," Sara said.

Catherine just nodded slowly. She didn't like where this was going. Not one bit. She now knew that she came from an abusive family and that her mother had killed her own father, but now she was telling her a second half of the story...hadn't she been through enough as it was?

"I didn't believe him. I had only known my foster brother for a day and I already put my trust in him...the next day my foster parents had to go somewhere. They were going to leave us alone for a while, they thought we would be okay. We always kept the doors locked and we had a baseball bat in the closet...but...I didn't feel safe around my foster brother...I didn't know why, it was just something about him...he rubbed me the wrong way...and the thought of being alone with him for so long was just...making me uneasy," she told her.

Catherine put a friendly hand on her shoulder and scooted closer to her, getting into the same position as Sara.

Sara took a deep breath as she continued. "In a way, I deserved it. I didn't listen to my friend. I was stupid. I didn't stop to think what the big deal was about a 17-year-old boy living with a 13-year-old...or staying alone with one for a few days..." she said, staring down at the floor. "He had asked me if I could come into his room. I was hesitant, but I finally said I would. I remember walking down the hallway...it seemed like the longest walk of my life. I stepped inside his room, only to fnd him nowhere in sight.." Sara whispered, squeezing her knees tightly.

"Where...was he?" Catherine asked quietly.

"He...was there...I just didn't see him. He was...he was behind his door, he had...hidden from me. And...this was not a game of hide-and-seek," she said.

"Then...what..was it?" Catherine whispered.

"He...had planned it. He hid behind his door and waited for me to come in...because..he was going to.." Sara's voice began to break. 20 years of keeping it bottled up inside had really caughten up with her and taken its toll. The tears began to fall now, and she buried her face in her knees once again as she began to sob.

Catherine put a hand on her back as she pulled Sara to her in a gentle embrace. Rubbing her back softly, she tried to calm her down. "Shh...Sara, it's okay," Catherine told her. "It's okay."

Sara's body continued to shake violently with each new series of sobs. "He...he raped me, Catherine!" she yelled, burying herself in the older woman's arms.

Catherine's eyes went wide with shock. She pulled Sara closer to her as she heard those words, a hand still on her back, rubbing it softly. "Oh, Sara..." Catherine whispered.

"I trusted him, Catherine!" Sara sobbed. "I trusted him!"

"I know, honey," Catherine told her.

"How could he have done that?" Sara asked in between sobs.

"He's sick," Catherine said. "You know that...he's just a sick person." And then something hit Catherine. This guy had raped her when she was younger. And Sara mentioned that he wanted to come back and finish what he had started...and Catherine saw Sara's injuries. Did that mean...that...he had..done it again?

"Hey Sara," Catherine said quickly. "Um...you know how you told me about the phone call you got from him?" Catherine asked. Sara responded with a weak nod. "Did...he..do..anything when he came to see you again?" Catherine asked, not liking to have to ask this question, but she needed to be sure.

Sara froze. She looked up at Catherine with a dog-caught-in-the-headlights look. She knew what Catherine meant by that. Changing the subject, she broke away from the gentle embrace and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her arms softly. "Can I take a bath?" Sara asked quietly.

Catherine knew what she should have said. The CSI part of her was screaming at her to process her friend and get her to a hospital, but the friend part of her was screaming for her to let her take a bath and get some rest. And the friend part of her won. "Sure," Catherine said. "I'll start it for you..I have some clothes you can sleep in, I'll go get them too," Catherine said, standing up and walking off.

Catherine walked into the bathroom and turned the faucets on in the bathtub. Waiting for the bathtub to fill up, she got a towel and washcloth for her, which she set on the counter in the bathroom. Walking out of the bathroom, she headed into her bedroom and picked out a comfortable outfit for Sara to wear to sleep. She walked back into the bathroom and set the clothes down next to the towel and washcloth and turned the faucets off.

Catherine walked out of the bathroom and over to Sara, who sat still on the couch. She looked up at Catherine as she walked over to her. "Your bath is ready," Catherine told her. "I put a pair of clothes in there for you to sleep in," she told her. "I'll make a place here for you to sleep," Catherine said as Sara stood up and made her way to the bathroom.

"Thank you Catherine," Sara told her, looking back at her and wiping a tear away from her face.

Catherine just shot her a small smile. "Don't mention it. If you need anything just let me know," Catherine told her. Sara nodded and closed the door of the bathroom.