Here is a new chapter for y'all, it's a long one and I hope you will like it. It was my plan to make this the last chapter, but it just didn't seem to finish the story, so there will be one more just to give it a finishing touch. Or at least that is my excuse to write a little bit of smut in the last chapter. (and now I'm hoping that smut means what I think it means, suddenly I'm not sure…). And I hope you want a sequel because it is my plan to write one.

Thank you all for the feedback/reviews on chapter 34, I am totally a feedback/review junkie, so please let me know what you think of this chapter as well.

Jess, thank you so much for all your work on this story, you have made it so much better. Thank you, I've said it before, but I'll say it again: You're the best!

Chapter Thirty Five

Aftermath

Sara moved carefully into the room, afraid of what she would see in there. She saw Kimberly being held back by police officers as she was trying to get to somebody lying on the floor. She felt as if time was moving in slow motion and hardly recognized her own voice when she started speaking.

"It's ok, guys. She's a LVPD detective. It's her wife." She showed her CSI badge to the nearest of them and he signalled to the others to let Kimberly go.

"Veronica!" Kimberly threw herself down beside the beaten woman. "V can you hear me?" She touched the petite woman's face softly, careful not to cause her any more pain. "We need paramedics in here now!" She shouted out, before turning back to the bleeding woman. "V, hon, please stay with me. It's all over now, he's dead. He can't hurt you anymore."

Sara moved slowly to the other side of Veronica. This was all too familiar, yet unbelievable. The last time Veronica had been lying on the bed, this time she was lying next to it. The last time Sara had been alone when finding her and Dunne was long gone, this time a force of police officers and CSIs had found her and Dunne was dead on the floor. She knelt down next to her friend, careful not to touch or move her in any way and looked over her injuries. She was bleeding from the mouth, which could indicate the she had either bitten her tongue quite badly or she had internal bleeding, most likely from a punctured lung. Her left arm was angled in a wrong way, but as far as Sara could judge it was a clean fracture. Other than that she had been beaten very badly and, judging by the lack of clothes, she had been sexually molested as well.

Sara grabbed a blanket from the bed next to her, even though she knew it would be destroying evidence, and gently covered up Veronica's body with it. Locking eyes with Kimberly she got back up. "I'll go see what's keeping the paramedics." She told her, before leaving the room in a hurry.

Kimberly nodded absentmindedly and kept caressing the cheek of the injured woman gently while speaking softly to her.

"God V, I love you so much. I can't live without you. Please make it through this. I need you. We need you. Julie and I need you and love you so much. Please don't give up, hon. Please don't give up!"

After a minute or two Sara came rushing back in, bringing the paramedics who roughly pushed Kimberly aside and started working on Veronica. Kimberly stumbled to her feet and clung to Sara for support.

"God Sara, she looks so…" She whispered.

"She's been through this before, Kim. She's strong, she'll make it this time as well." Sara held on to the other woman, trying to keep her hopes up as well as her own. "She has so much more to live for this time."

"Out of the way, please." One of the paramedics yelled.

They realized that they were standing between the gurney and the door and quickly moved to the side so they could rush Veronica past them. They followed them outside and up to the ambulance. Sara looked around and found Catherine standing off to the side comforting Julie and hiding the sight of her mother on the gurney from her.

"Go!" She told Kimberly who was already halfway inside the ambulance. "I'll get Julie and meet you at the hospital." She closed the doors once Kimberly had nodded and hit it twice signalling for the driver to get going.

She stood for a minute, watching the ambulance disappearing down the road before turning towards Catherine. She walked up to her and the little girl and embraced both of them.

"How is she?" Catherine asked.

"She'll pull through." Sara said, determinedly. "I should go inform their brothers and sister."

"Are you sure you're up for that?" The blonde asked worriedly, placing her free hand on Sara's shoulder.

"No," Sara said with a small smile, "but I have to do it."

"I could…" Catherine started.

"It's ok." The brunette started walking towards the Lavisham siblings. "Please just keep Julie here while I talk to them."

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Everything after that happened in a blur. The Lavishams had been both happy that Bridget was safe and unharmed, but distraught that Veronica was badly injured. They had rushed to the hospital bringing both Sara and Julie and were now sat in the waiting room, waiting for news on Veronica.

Sara looked around at the others. Bridget was sat between Matthew and Anita looking lost. They were trying to comfort her to the best of their abilities, but nothing seemed to be working. Sara felt sorry for the girl, she had been through a nightmare and would probably need therapy for years to come.

Her eyes moved to Benjamin. He was sitting on his own, his body slumped over and hiding his head in his hands. He seemed lost in space and he looked like hell to be honest. But nothing else could be expected when his twin sister and probably best friend was in surgery fighting for her life.

Finally her gaze fell on Kimberly. She was cuddling Julie close to her, whispering words to her, trying to get her to fall asleep. All the while Sara could tell that she was trying to hold back her own tears and the brunette's heart was breaking for the both of them. She hoped and prayed that they would have their wife and mother safely home with them again soon.

Sara was sitting by her self as well. Catherine had wanted to come with her, but she had to stay on the scene and have it processed. They needed to clear the shooter, a young member of the SWAT team that Sara didn't know, but would be eternally indebted to. On top of that they had to get all the evidence from the warehouse so they could build a solid case against Burns so that a thing like this wouldn't happen to these people again. Deep down she was very sorry that Burns hadn't been shot as well, but at least the worst of them was gone.

Governor Lavisham and his wife arrived a little later, taking over caring for Bridget. They both looked older and more tired than they had just a couple of days before. They had both tried to support Kimberly but neither of them knew how to, so they settled on staying close to Bridget.

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They had been sitting and waiting for hours when Catherine and another blonde joined them. Catherine stopped and crouched next to Kimberly checking on her before heading straight for Sara. She sat down next to her and pulled her into an embrace.

"Are you ok?" She whispered.

"I'm tired of waiting, what is taking them so long?" She whispered back.

"I don't know, sweetie." The blonde hugged her a little tighter before easing out of the embrace. Sara leaned in against her shoulder and she held one of the brunette's hands in her own.

"Who's the blonde?" Sara asked, nodding towards the blonde who had entered with Catherine earlier. She was sitting next to Benjamin, trying to comfort him a little.

"That's my sister Nancy." Catherine informed her with a smile.

"Oh." Sara sat up straight and let go of the blonde's hand.

"Sara." Catherine took her hand again. "I have told Nancy about you."

"Oh." Sara relaxed a little but still kept her distance.

"And although she's a bit apprehensive about us because of our earlier relationship, she's supportive."

"Oh." Sara allowed herself to relax against Catherine again, but shot straight back up as the doctor entered the room.

They all looked up at him expectantly.

"Kimberly Shaw?" He asked looking at them.

"That's me." Kimberly gently handed the now sleeping Julie to Catherine. Sara and Benjamin had both gotten up and now stood on either side of Kimberly. "How is Veronica?" The detective asked.

"I'm Doctor Follows and I operated on Dr Christiansen. She had severe internal injuries – a punctured lung along with a ruptured spleen." The doctor started. "It was touch and go for a long while, but as we all know Veronica is a fighter and she will fight her way through this as well. She's in recovery right now and will have to spend some time in ICU, but she should make a full recovery." He finished with a smile.

"Thank you!" Kimberly burst into tears. "Thank you so much!" She shook the doctor's hand. "When can I see her?"

"You can come in and see her now, but only for a short time and only two of you at a time."

"You two go." Sara told Benjamin and Kimberly. "We'll look after Julie while you're gone."

"No." Benjamin looked over at his youngest sister. "Bridget you go with Kimberly and I'll wait here and go in with Sara when you get back."

"Ok, right this way." The doctor showed them out the door.

They returned ten minutes later, telling Benjamin and Sara that they could go visit her.

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As they entered the hospital room Benjamin started crying silently. "God, she looks so fragile lying there." He whispered. "I never realized how tiny she really is. She's always been larger than life to me." He kissed her softly on the forehead and held her hand gently.

"I know." Sara was whispering as well. "She's probably fighting hard at waking up just so she can yell at you for calling her fragile." She smiled to Benjamin as she held Veronica's other hand.

"We love you, big sis. We all want you to wake up soon."

"Yeah, we do." Sara agreed. "Besides, I need some advise on the whole Catherine situation. You know how much I don't want to mess this up, and you also know that I probably will without a little help from my Foxy." For a moment she didn't care that Benjamin was listening to what she was saying, she just wanted to tell her friend that she loved her in her own way.

The nurse came in to tell them that they had to leave and they both placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I love you." Sara whispered before she left her side.

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Outside the room, Catherine and Nancy were waiting for them.

"You ok?" Catherine asked as she took Sara's hand.

"She looks like shit." Sara told them. "All the bruising and cuts and…" She stopped talking so she could keep herself from crying.

"But she's alive." Benjamin took over and put his arm around Nancy's shoulder.

"Yeah, she's alive," Sara smiled sadly, "but she looks…" She stopped herself before saying that Veronica looked worse than the first time Dunne had gotten to her, that was not something her family needed to know.

"I made Kimberly get Julie home to her parents," Catherine changed the subject, "and we're here to get you two home to get some sleep." She smiled. "Oh and Sara, this is my sister Nancy, Nancy this is Sara."

"Hi." Nancy held out her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, I just wish it was under better circumstances." She smiled, and Sara noticed how much she looked like Catherine.

"Nice to meet you too." Sara smiled a little and shook her hand before turning her attention back to Catherine. "But I should really stay here and…"

"The doctor told us that it would take a few hours before she wakes up and even longer before she will know what's happening around her." Catherine countered. "You have time to get home to get a couple of hours of sleep and then you can come back."

"But…" Sara started again.

"Get your butt home in bed, Sidle, that's an order."

"Is she always this bossy?" Sara asked Nancy, who just chuckled.

"You don't know that by now?" She asked the brunette.

"Oh, she knows it and she's loving every minute of it." Catherine told them. before ushering Sara towards the elevators. "We'll talk to you guys later."

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In the elevator Catherine pushed the button for the lobby.

"You do know that I'm not actually enjoying it, right?" Sara asked her, as the elevator started moving.

"Right…" Catherine drew out the word.

"Ok, maybe I'm enjoying it a little bit once in a while, but not all the time."

"Sure." Catherine smiled smugly.

They stepped out of the elevator as they reached the lobby and walked towards the parking lot. Sara suddenly stopped abruptly and Catherine looked back at her questioningly.

"I don't have my car here."

"I know, I'm driving you home."

"But how am I going to get to the lab tomorrow?" Sara had tears in her eyes.

Catherine stepped closer, knowing that it was a late reaction to the night's events.

"It's ok, sweetie. I'll come by and pick you up tomorrow night." She said soothingly. "Come on, let's get you home in bed."

"Ok." Sara willed herself once again to not let the tears fall. She just really wanted to get to work on time tomorrow night.

The ride was quiet because both women were tired from the long shifts they had had in the last days, and finally Catherine parked in front of Sara's building. She turned the key in the ignition and got out of the car. Sara looked at her confused, as she went around the car and opened her door for her.

"Let's go." She took the brunette's hand and guided her out of the car.

"What are you doing, Catherine?" Sara asked.

"I'm making sure that you get into bed." Catherine said matter-of-factly.

"You don't have to do that."

"I know, but I want to." Catherine let her up the stairs. "Where are you keys?" She asked as they reached Sara's door.

"Here." Sara fished the keys out of her pocket and handed them over.

"Now where's your bedroom?" Catherine asked as they got inside. Sara pointed towards the bedroom door, but stayed where she was when Catherine walked towards the room.

"Sara, you need to sleep." Catherine turned towards her and held out her hand.

"I don't think I can." Sara admitted.

"Why?"

Sara was silent a moment, considering if she should tell Catherine the real reason or make up a believable excuse. "Because…" She hesitated looking over at the blonde. "Because I get nightmares when I'm as upset as I am right now." She finally admitted, looking down, ashamed of herself.

"Oh." Catherine stepped closer to her. "I'm sorry, sweetie." She paused, thinking. "Do you…"

"Could you stay?" Sara spoke quickly interrupting her. "I won't… It's just… Could you just stay with me for a while, please?"

Catherine smiled. "Of course." She held out her hand once more. "Come on."

Sara took her hand and they walked to the bedroom. She found something for Catherine to wear to bed, before going to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. She found a fresh toothbrush for Catherine to use and sat down on the bed waiting for the blonde to change.

When Catherine returned from the bathroom, she gently tucked Sara in and kissed her chastely on the lips before lying down next to her. She felt Sara shifting and placing an arm around her and she shifted into a more comfortable position where she had her head placed on the brunette's shoulder and an arm thrown possessively and protectively around her stomach.

"Goodnight." Sara said out in the darkened room.

"Goodnight." Catherine couldn't help but chuckle.

"What?" Sara asked looking down at her.

"Well," Catherine turned her head and smiled into her neck. "It's just that this wasn't how I imagined us in bed together for the first time."

"Oh." Sara shifted a little, but stopped as Catherine tightened her grip on her torso and threw a leg over her for good measure.

"It's ok." She told her. "It's more than ok actually. It's a nice change. I've never just slept with someone I'm involved with the first time I was in bed with them. I kinda like it."

"Me too." Sara smiled. The silence stretched between them, and just as Catherine thought Sara had fallen asleep, she started speaking again. "So, you've imagined us in bed together, huh?"

"Smartass." Catherine laughed, snuggling closer to her.

"You know you love it." Sara laughed as well.

They both chuckled and silence fell over them again.

"Thank you, Catherine." Sara whispered, just before she fell asleep.

Catherine's only reaction was to hold on tighter to the brunette, before snuggling closer to her and falling asleep as well.