Again I thank you all for the reviews. As always I hope that you'll review on this chapter as well.

Jess, thank you so much, you know how much I appreciate your work on this! And the ducks – they are so ugly, but I love them.

Enjoy…

Chapter Eleven

Preparations

A little while later Sara and Veronica headed inside to a small conference room. Catherine had called Sara to tell her about the change of venue. There were six people connected to this case who needed to hear about Veronica, and the interrogation room was too small for all of them. They met up with Catherine outside the room.

"Are you ready for this?" Catherine asked Veronica.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Veronica sighed.

"I read the file." Catherine paused, contemplating her next words. "I don't know if it will mean anything to you, but what happened to you was wrong and I'm very sorry."

"Thanks." Veronica looked at the older woman. "It does mean a lot to me, but I don't want the pity."

"I can't say that I pity you as much as I'm outraged by what that monster did."

"Well, thanks." Veronica smiled slightly, but they could sense the nervousness rolling off her. "We better do this then."

"Yes, would you mind if I have a quick word with Sara before we get started?"

"No problem." Veronica opened the door to the room. "I'll just wait for you." She closed the door behind her as she entered the room.

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Inside the room were the other four who would hear the story she was about to tell. She looked around and noticed that all their faces were familiar; she had seen them at the breakfast where she'd met Sara again. There was the black guy with the amazing eyes, the Texan with the charming smile, the beautiful blonde detective – and Kim. Veronica sat down at the end of the table with a strained smile plastered to her face.

"Hello, Doctor Christiansen." The Texan offered. "I'm Nick Stokes, in case you forgot."

"Hello Mr. Stokes. It's nice to see you again. And I guess since you're all about to hear my most private secrets, you might as well call me Veronica."

"Well, Veronica, I'm Warrick Brown."

"And I'm Sofia Curtis."

"Nice to see all of you again."

The room fell quiet. Veronica kept her eyes on Kimberly, but the other woman did not meet her gaze. The silence was getting to Sofia and she tried to start a conversation.

"It's been really hot out today, huh?" She asked no one in particular.

"Yeah, they say it's gonna be just as bad tomorrow." Nick offered.

"They said that you should remember to drink a lot of water." Warrick added, equally as uncomfortable in the silence.

"Water is important to stay hydrated." Sofia inwardly cringed at her attempt to keep the conversation going.

"Do you all know what I'm doing here?" Veronica interrupted, unable to stand the weather talk any longer.

"Yes they do. They're just trying to make you a little more comfortable." Kimberly answered.

"I appreciate the gesture, but I think about the only thing that would make me less uncomfortable right now would be you telling me where you have been the last hour and a half and what you are going to do about the thing I told you. But that's not going to happen, so…" She sighed deeply. "You really should drink a lot of water tomorrow if it gets really hot. I don't want to see you at the hospital because you forgot."

The silence returned and this time none of them broke it.

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"So, what do you want?" Sara asked quite rudely. "Wait, sorry," She held up both hands when she saw the look on Catherine's face. "Let me rephrase that. How can I help you, Catherine?"

"I'm not going to take you off this case, Sara." Catherine started.

"Thank you."

"I have every right to do so, but I'm going to keep you on because you know about the old case." Catherine looked Sara in the eyes. "And because you are an excellent investigator. But…"

"But…?"

"I will not tolerate you treating me like you just did. I have told you that I want us to get along. I will not fight you – not on this!"

"This is getting to me, Catherine." Sara said quietly.

"What?" To say that Catherine was surprised by this openness from her colleague was an understatement.

"You want us to be more open with each other, I'm being open. This is all very overwhelming for me."

"Do I need to take you off?" Catherine inquired in the same quiet voice Sara was using.

"No." Sara looked at her. "I can do this. I need to do this for Veronica – I need to do it for me."

"Ok." Catherine thought about it for a moment. "But if you…"

"If I can't handle it, I'll take myself off the case."

"Ok." Catherine offered a brilliant smile to Sara. "See, we can do this without the fighting – talking." She gestured between the two of them.

"Yeah, I guess we can." Sara smiled back weakly. "Just for the record, I'm sorry for the yelling and for almost loosing my temper at the house."

"Almost?"

"Yeah, almost. I could have been a lot worse." Sara smirked.

"Oh, that I know! And for the record, I'm sorry that I treated you like a rookie, but it was the fastest way for me to get you out of there."

"You know, if we aren't careful, people might think we like each other." Sara needed a little playful banter before having to go back to a part of her past she had tried to forget.

"Well, Sara, it might surprise you, but I do like you."

"Oh."

"Yeah, don't let it go to your head." Catherine pointed towards the door. "Shall we?"

"Huh?" 'She likes me? How the hell am I going to take that? Likes me how? God, when did I go back to being thirteen? She likes me! Happy mental smiley!' "Yeah, let's get this over with."

With that, they went into the conference room.

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The silence as they entered the room was palpable. Veronica was seated at one end of the table with the two chairs on her left and right vacant. The others in the room seemed uncomfortable and looking at anything but each other. Catherine raised an eyebrow in an unasked question to Warrick. He shook his head as to say that it had nothing to do with the case, and that it needn't be addressed.

Sara went straight to Veronica's left side and sat down beside her.

"Are you ok?" She asked her friend.

"Sure." Was the only reply she got.

Sara knew that Veronica was being evasive; after all, she herself was the master of evasions. But she knew how hard it had to be for her to tell this story to people – people she didn't know at that. But it had to be done, she had to tell her story for this bastard to be caught. She knew how important it was for her friend to keep the people she cared for safe. She herself had been one of those people ten years ago. She was still one of those people.

"Ok, let's get started." Catherine's voice broke through Sara's musings.

"Yeah." Veronica looked up at the people sitting around the table. "Do you have the file?"

"Yes, it's right here." Catherine held the file towards the young woman, but she didn't take it, she just shook her head.

"Would you pass the pictures around?" She asked.

"Sure." Catherine gave the photos to Nick who was sitting next to her.

"When I was 17 years old I was stalked by a man called Oscar Charles Dunne." Veronica started. "But I didn't know that he was stalking me until he attacked me in my dorm one night."

"Sorry to interrupt you, Veronica, but I need you to state your name, age and profession for the tape recorder." Catherine said gently.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Veronica shook her head slightly. "My name is Veronica Lavisham Christiansen, I'm 28 and I'm a doctor."

"Thanks." Catherine said. "Just take your time; I can imagine that this must be hard for you."

Veronica reached out and held Sara's hand, but kept her eyes on Kimberly.

"I've always been a smart kid. They called me a kid genius and told me that I have one of the highest IQs in the world. I… I always hated being put in a box, but I loved learning, so I finished high school early and went to college at 15. It was great, though I missed my brother so much. But on my first day I met a girl who became my best friend and she made it easier to be away from him. We ended up sharing a dorm room… I never knew that someone was following my every move. I never suspected anything. I was never careless when I was out alone. I never talked to strangers; I thought I was doing everything right. But one night when S… When my friend was…" She felt Sara squeezing her hand lightly.

"I was… am the friend." She interrupted.

Veronica nodded gratefully.

"One day when Sara was at the library…"