Thank you all for the reviews on chapter 11. This chapter has been a little hard to write, so I would be very happy if you'd let me know what you think of it.

Jess, thank you so much for betaing this! This story would suck if you hadn't helped so much with it! And the ducks too of course – I still say they're ugly!

A/N: Warning: This is dark and angsty.

Chapter Twelve

The Story

"One day when Sara was at the library…" She paused. "Someone knocked on the door. I answered and before I knew it, he was inside the room and I was knocked out. When I woke up, I was… I was strapped to one of the beds… naked." She paused not wanting to continue.

"It's ok," Sara soothed. "You can do this."

"I… He talked to me constantly while… while he… raped me. Told me how much he loved me. Told me how we would spend eternity together. How I was made for him and him alone; that God had created the perfect mate for him in me. He told me how he loved it when I wore red for him; how he knew that I had been thinking of him when I chose my outfits…How it was so nice of me to get rid of my roommate so we could spend time together alone. I kept pleading for him to let me go; for him to stop – after three hours I just prayed to God that it would be over one way or another. There was nothing I could do…"

"If it would make it easier for you, you could just tell us the facts. Keep it clinical." Catherine tried to make it easier on the younger woman.

"No!" She answered strongly. "Siobhan went through this as well. You need to know what kind of bastard you are dealing with here. This is not a run of the mill criminal… He torments and… he gets off on petrifying his victim. He hurts you until you wish that you were dead; leaves you alone for a while, and then he starts all over again."

"It's ok." Sara put her hand on her arm. "Just go on with the story. We need this to get him."

Veronica offered her a weak smile.

"You ok?" She asked the brunette.

"I'm here for you, that's all that matters right now." Sara rubbed the other woman's arm in a soothing gesture.

Veronica paused for a moment before continuing.

"I prayed to God to kill me as he raped me for the fourth time… I think it was the fourth time… I lost count… I thought that He must have heard my prayers because Dunne untied me, and I was stupid enough to think that it was over…

"It wasn't. He started beating me. He said that I had to be his for eternity and that he couldn't let anybody else touch me – that I had to get used to the loving feel of his hands. That he would be my first, and last… I managed to choke out that he was not my first, and he would never be my last, and I guess that really set him off. He pulled out a knife and stabbed me in the stomach. I don't think that was supposed to happen, because he looked so surprised when he saw the blood...

"He threw me back on the bed – on my stomach – and then he slid the knife slowly… so slowly over my throat. It wasn't a deep cut, but there was still so much blood - the smell of iron filling the air. I never thought I would remember so much of it. It felt like he had been there for days, but at the same time, it felt like time flew by; it was so surreal…

"I passed out from the blood loss. The last I heard was him telling me that now we would be together forever…ordering me to wait for him in the afterlife. The last thing I felt was his warm breath on my ear and a wet kiss on my cheek."

She looked up at all of them.

"I don't remember anything after that. I was in a coma for about a week, and when I woke up…"

She looked at Sara with a pained expression on her face.

"When I woke up he had been caught." She gestured to the pictures that Nick had lain out on the table for them all to see. "The crime scene pictures and… and the pictures of what he did to my body are there."

Silence.

"How…" Nick interrupted the silence. "How was he caught?"

"He attacked me one night when…" Sara started, but was interrupted by Veronica.

"I need some air right now," She said standing up abruptly. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Fox…" Sara started.

"Alone." She cut in as she left the room.

Sara and Kimberly got up from their seats at the same time.

"I'll go after her, Sara." Kimberly said.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." Sara shot back.

"She's my wife."

"Yeah, and you've been doing so well in the married department lately."

"She's my wife." Kimberly repeated, and left the room after Veronica.

Sara made an attempt at following her, but Catherine stepped between her and the door.

"We need you here on this, Sara. Let them deal with this on their own." She said placing a comforting hand on her arm.

"But…"

"We need you here to tell the rest of the story. I need you on this."

"But…" Sara looked at the door and then at Catherine. "Ok." She sighed, defeated, and started to tell the story of what had happened when Dunne attacked her.

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Veronica had reached the lobby when Kimberly caught up with her.

"V, wait up please." She said and reached out and touched her arm.

Veronica was about to say something when she froze in place. There was a group of people going through the lobby towards them, and among them were Governor and Mrs. Lavisham.

"This way..." Kimberly tugged Veronica's arm in an attempt to get her to follow her into a nearby room.

"No," Veronica said wearily. "No, if I have to face the demons of my past, I might as well take them all on at once." She stayed where she was looking straight at her parents.

A tall man rushed past them to greet the Governor.

"Governor Lavisham, sir, I'm Conrad Ecklie, I'm in charge of this lab." He shook the other man's hand. "I assure you that we are doing everything we can to solve this case. I have my best people on it."

"I was looking for Miss Willows. I was hoping she could give me an upda…" He trailed off as he caught a pair of blue eyes, matching those of his wife, staring back at him. He paled visibly…

"An update? Yes, certainly. I will personally go get CSI Willows for you. If you would like to come this way, I will find a room where you can sit down." If there was one thing Ecklie was good at, it was politics.

"Excuse me? Oh, no we will be just fine waiting here for her." He felt his wife's arm stiffen slightly under his, and knew that she had seen their daughter as well.

"Ok, sir, I'll just get Willows." Ecklie scurried off.

"You don't have to do this now." Kimberly grabbed hold of her wife's hand in support.

"Yeah, I do." Veronica squeezed the offered hand, as her eyes locked with her father's. "I can't keep running from my past. After all, I was a daddy's girl once; I would like the chance to be that again." She broke eye contact with her father and looked back at Kim. "You've got my back?"

"Always." She kissed the smaller woman lightly on the cheek.

"Let's get you introduced to the parents then." Veronica squeezed Kim's hand once more, and led her towards the group gathered in the middle of the lobby.

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"He was sentenced to 25 to life." Sara was just about to finish the last of what she knew about the case, when Ecklie barged into the room slightly out of breath.

"Catherine, the Governor is waiting for you in the lobby." He informed the blonde.

"The Gov… What?" Sara jumped up from her seat and moved swiftly towards the door and disappeared before Catherine had a chance to react.

"Sara!" The blonde followed her outside. "Sara, don't do anything you'll regret!" She ran after the brunette.

"Catherine?" Conrad followed the two of them. "What is going on here?"