The sound ripped through her like a sword and, for a second, the whole world seemed to slow down.
What started as a relatively straightforward domestic murder had turned into a scene of chaos.
Catherine couldn't remember what was said after hearing the gunshot. She couldn't remember running around the side of the house, or drawing her weapon. She couldn't even remember whether she saw the gunman.
All she remembered was the sight of Sara on the ground, blood pooling beneath her head, her skin rapidly turning from white to blue.
Brass was already barking instructions at the officers to search the perimeter and identify where the shot had been fired from. An ambulance was summoned. Catherine had fallen at Sara's side, Warrick quickly materialising beside her; and together they carefully rolled her onto her side.
Sara's eyes were closed, her light skin spattered with deep red stains. It wasn't possible to see how bad the injury to her temple was, due to the waves of blood pulsing out of it.
"She's still breathing!" Warrick yelled, tearing his shirt off and pressing it firmly to her wound.
"Oh, God." Cath gasped, clutching her stricken friend's hand tightly between both her own. "Don't you dare, girl! Don't you dare do this to me!"
"Cath," Brass lightly gripped her shoulders and attempted to move her out of the way, but she stuck like a limpet. "Cath, the EMTs are here."
Suddenly she found herself dragged away, and the paramedics swarmed around her stricken friend.
"Oh God, Jim." She sobbed, gripping the detective's arm. "I can't lose her! I can't lose her..."
"Catherine!" Nick's breathless holler drew her attention from the closed hospital door and she rose to greet the Texan. "How bad it is?"
"I don't know, they haven't said anything yet." She slipped easily into his arms, allowing him to hold her up for just a second. "There was so much blood."
"I just spoke to Warrick, he's still at the scene." Nick mumbled against her hair. "He said there's still no sign of the gunman, but he found the bullet – it was shot from inside the house."
"Inside?" She echoed, pulling away to regard him curiously. "That's not possible, the scene was cleared."
Nick shrugged, a silent response for a question he couldn't answer.
Catherine sank back onto her seat, pulling him down with her.
"God Nick, what's going to happen to her?"
"Hey, she's going to be fine!" He assured her. "Sara's a tough girl, she's going to get through this!"
"She was shot in the head!"
"No, actually, she wasn't." A glib voice interrupted, and Catherine was back on her feet before Nick had even registered where the sound came from.
"Nancy!" Cath twisted her hands anxiously in front of her. "Is she going to be alright?"
"The bullet grazed her temple. She's still unconscious, so we won't know the full extent of the head injury until she wakes up, but she's survived the worst of it. We're just moving her to recovery now."
"So, she's going to be okay?" Nick clarified, ignoring the medical babble and honing in on specific words.
Nancy snapped Sara's file closed and offered a tight smile.
"She's a very lucky girl." She answered cryptically, slipping back into the operating theatre; careful not to let the criminalists catch a glance of the patient within.
Catherine exhaled deeply, lowering herself back into her chair.
"She's alive." She whispered, to herself more than anyone else. She just had to hear the words out loud, needed to feel them on her tongue. She's alive.
"See, I told you." Nick beamed, crouching down in front of her. "It'll take more than a bullet to keep her down for long!"
Catherine laughed softly, but it quickly turned into a choked sob.
"Hey, hey." Nick frowned, pulling the woman into a hug. "She's okay. She's alright."
He felt Catherine nod against his shoulder, her nails clawing frantically at his back through the thin fabric of his shirt.
With her unable to see his face, Nick sucked in a breath and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling in an attempt to stop his building tears from spilling down his flushed cheeks.
She was going to be okay. She had to be.
Warrick snapped the phone shut and clipped it back onto his belt.
"Hey Jim," he called out, waiting for the aging detective to jog over to him. "That was Nick. Sara's in recovery, they think she's going to be alright."
"Thank God for that." Brass breathed out a low, deep breath and wiped the back of his hand across his sweat-drenched forehead. "You know, I thought we were going to have to prise Catherine off her with the Jaws of Life earlier."
Warrick laughed, revelling the feeling of being able to relax again.
"Yeah, she likes to play it tough, but that maternal streak always takes over – even with Sara."
"Recently it seems to have been dominating with Sara." Brass noted curiously.
"What do you mean?" The dark-skinned man asked, his features forming into a frown.
"Oh, nothing." Jim shook his head and plastered a smile on his face. "I'm just relieved she's going to be alright."
Warrick nodded in agreement and swiped his damp curls away from his forehead, before snapping on a fresh pair of gloves and returning to his work.
Brass watched the lithe CSI for a moment, before eventually ambling over to the fence and leaning pensively against it. There was a dark stain drying into the flagstones in front of him. Furiously blinking back tears, he looked away, unable to stare at her blood any longer.
"Oh man," he exhaled, his voice wavering. "Why do you do this to us, girl?"