Summary Natalie Davis created miniatures, committed murders and ultimately abducted Sara. The question is why? Rated M for adult content, this story will get dark following Natalie's journey. Spoilers for Season 7 are included so please, you have been warned about the spoilers and darkness.

Author's Note This is my first attempt at a fan fic, so please read and review as suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated. I have tried to keep as honest to the CSI timeline as possible, however, since it is a little fuzzy, so am I. As you read, you will question Ernie's relationship with Natalie. Is Natalie seeing things that aren't there?

This is written with Natalie's perspective in mind…remember that. In this chapter, Penny Garden stresses Natalie, another mini is created and Natalie is continuing to… evolve.

Also, I apologize for the long delay in updating. I am in the process of interviewing for new jobs and trying to pack my house up to sell and move across country. Sorry. I promise to try and do better.

Disclaimer I did not create nor do I own neither the characters nor anything to do with CSI. I am merely a fan. That is it.

Chapter 6

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

To say that Natalie was pissed would be an understatement. She had planned Penny Garden's demise down to the very last second, to the very last detail. She had mapped the old woman's movements and habits and took every detail into account. Her miniature of Penny's house was perfect. She had done her research, completed her task and everything perfect. Perfect.

And then the old woman had to destroy her plan. She should have died where she sat but instead, she started to get up and convulse and Natalie had to physically finish the job. Natalie had panicked and then did the only thing she could. She tossed the old woman into the window.

x x x x x

Natalie was shaken to the core. Her plan had almost failed. It was far too close to failure for her liking. She vowed to herself that it would be different next time… if it were necessary for a next time.

By the time Natalie got back to her apartment she was shaking and soaked in a cold, clammy sweat. Sure, it was Vegas and it was hot, but this was the sweat that you feel only when anxiety courses through your veins at such a speed that it gives your entire body a work out.

As soon as she was able to finally calm herself and start breathing again, Natalie carefully unpacked the miniature and started to carefully take it apart. She first took the front windows out and meticulously cut each one to match the current state of Penny's house. She then reset the tiny Penny doll to match the new scene. She had to unglue the Penny doll from its wicker chair and then place her, headfirst, twisting the head to face the left, jutting out the newly "broken" window. She was careful to carve the little cuts and gashes into Penny's face and neck from her memory. She had to rearrange all of the little coupons, carefully placing one on top of the others, $1.39 for a gallon of bleach.

Natalie was incensed that the miniature was not going to be perfect now. She didn't have any of Penny's blood from the scene to add to the miniature so she had to make due with red paint. It took her over an hour to mix the proper shade of red to make it perfectly match what flowed out of Penny's neck and into the tiny bushes below.

When Natalie found her working stride, she started to hum sweetly to herself and twist her head about, back and forth, as if she were listening to a voice that only she could hear as she adjusted the miniature scene. As she worked on the miniature, she thought to herself about ways to make sure that nothing like this could ever happen again. She had to prove to everyone that she was worth something, that she could do something right, that she was the sister to be remembered. Not her. Not the other one.

Natalie worked all through the night and into the next day to complete Penny's house. Now, all she had to do was to get it back to the scene. To Natalie, the miniature not being there was like a painful open sore that she couldn't stop picking at. She had to finish it and get it back to the house. The problem was that she knew that she couldn't go herself. There were too many uncontrollable variables at play. What if someone saw her at the house or worse, what if her nephew Henry had seen her? Or what about the drug dealing neighbors to the left? She was sure she was careful, but what if she missed something? There were too many things that could go wring at this point. Someone else would have to do it for her. It had to be someone that she trusted.

x x x x x

"Ernie, please…" she sobbed, "You have to drop this off for me. I was working on a project for her, it was a gift for her granddaughter, and…and… she was so mean and … I can't see her again." Natalie couldn't risk going back. In her mind, it would be OK for Ernie. He could just drop it off. She couldn't risk any kind of scene. Besides, Ernie did tell her to get another job and it was his and Trevor's fault that she even had to deal with the woman.

"You told me to get another job!" she continued, yelling " I did… I tried it and it didn't work out…she…she…fired me…because of the bleach!" Natalie trailed off.

" You need to do this for me!" She was starting to rage again at this point, quickly pacing throughout Ernie's living room, from one end of the room to the other. "I was trying to finish my commitment! That is what you tell me! I promised her I would finish a project for her, but I can't go back now! Not after the way that she treated me! Not after what she wanted me to do," Natalie was both lying and screaming now.

She knew that under no uncertain terms would Ernie be thrilled with her stress management techniques. She knew he was happy about the two of them making the miniatures together, but he would stop her from completing the projects. He just didn't fully understand her. Ernie was happy and content with just creating the miniature scenes of mayhem and he was finished. That was his outlet. She, on the other hand, needed to complete the task. If the scene did not come true, she felt like something was missing. It was like walking along through your day with the nagging feeling that you forgot something, but had no idea if it was your curling iron that you left on or if you left your doors unlocked in a crime ridden neighborhood. It was like a hole that needed filled. For Natalie, both worlds needed to match. Perfectly.

x x x x x

It was against Ernie's better judgment to drop off the package to the old woman's house for Natalie. What he really wanted to do was have words with her. She had made his special little girl so upset and sent her into such a tailspin, that he wanted to give her some of the grief that she had inflicted back. The woman seemed like a sinful bitch that needed to be put in her place. But Natalie needed him and he was not going to fail her. This was the least he could do for her. Although he was very curious to see what she had worked on for the old woman.

Natalie was painfully explicit and exact in her request. She just wanted him to drop off the package, at night, between 10 pm and 11 pm on the front porch and then immediately leave. She told him that she was worried about some violent drug addicted nephew of the old woman, so he was touched that she was concerned about him, so he did as she asked.

At 10:15 pm, Ernie walked up to the front porch and dropped off the box. As he was walking away, he noticed that the old woman had done some work on the front of the house…it looked like she just got new windows. Must be nice he thought to himself.

His bigger concern was her new job working with him at the plant.

x x x x x

Trevor and Ernie had finally decided that it might be best for everyone if Natalie worked closer to Ernie. He had hoped that he would be able to keep a closer eye on her and help keep her on track. She was veering off course quickly, more so than usual, and he wanted to know why and what he could do to help her. Ernie was doing the best that he knew how to take care of and watch over Natalie. He didn't want a replay of what had happened in Kansas with Raymond.

Raymond was one of Ernie's many foster children, and one of the few that he was close to after his wife died. In fact, up until two years ago, Natalie was living in Rapid City, Kansas with Raymond. Things were going well for a few months, but one night they got into a terrible fight and Natalie abruptly moved to Las Vegas a few days later. He never did get the complete story about their fight.

It always made Ernie sad that they were never able to make amends. A week after their blow up, while he was working at his constriction site, Raymond was accidentally crushed by his own backhoe in a freak accident. There was some problem with the hydraulic pistons in the stabilizer legs of his backhoe, locking them in the raised position. When Raymond jumped down to fix the problem, the legs crushed into the earth below with their full force, as Raymond was sprawled out directly underneath them.

x x x x x

Ernie knew that it wouldn't take much more for Natalie to completely break beyond repair. The difficult thing was that he knew deep down that she was going to have to start fending for herself soon. He wasn't going to be around forever. He just wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet, ready to be alone. So he had gotten her a job on the cleaning crew with him at Mannleigh Chickens, where he worked.

Unfortunately, they were only able to work a few shifts together before she was put on the night crew. Natalie preferred to work at night, but he was leery of her being alone, without his protection. The night crew was full of misfits like Raymundo Suarez. Raymundo was not exactly the type that he wanted his little girl associating with. He was a whoremonger and had other questionable predilections. But, Ernie tried to just do his job and ignore him, but only after having a heated argument with him warning him to stay away from Natalie.

"Hey, who is that new piece that started today?" Raymundo had asked no one in particular in the break room as he clocked in for the day.

Ernie just stared at Raymundo, trying to pierce through him with his gaze before stepping up to him. "That young woman, is my daughter and you better damn well not even look at her!" Ernie said through his gritted teeth. Raymundo was much younger and stronger than Ernie, but he didn't care. At this moment he was trying to protect the honor of his family.

"Don't you worry old man. I will take care of your little girl for you. Don't you worry about a thing," Raymundo mocked as he slapped Ernie on the shoulder as he chuckled on his way out to the slaughter floor.

Raymundo was a disgusting sort. He was vulgar and foul in every sense of the words. He was regularly having sex with the owner's wife while at work in the plant. They especially enjoyed screwing up against the chicken coops, with the birds clucking and flitting about. He particularly relished the event, as an added bonus, if it would happen in front of Natalie. He would pick the area that he knew she was supposed to clean or work in. He loved seeing her become uncomfortable and squirm and try to look away, as he banged away at the whore. He was slowly finding out what her buttons were and he was taking pleasure in the opportunity to press every one of them.

He, on a regular basis, hit on Natalie, making an assortment of inappropriate comments, mostly to get a rise out of her, and much to his amusement, she did not disappoint him. She would stutter and stammer, as he would back her in a dark corner. He loved it when he would try to touch her and she would either freak out completely and try to slap him or, even better, when she would freeze like a statue. That was actually his favorite reaction, because he could do whatever he wanted. She would hold completely still as he touched her. That became his new favorite game.

Raymundo would come at Natalie like a cat stalking a frightened, defenseless little mouse. When he would come at her, the more he smelled like bleach, the stronger her reaction. Sometimes she would fight him, but other times she would almost blackout, it was like she wasn't even there anymore. She could smell the bleach, the stench bringing the bile bubbling up from her stomach, but she would be frozen, stuck in her own mind. Trapped. By the time she would come blinking back into reality, Raymundo would be touching her, roughly running his hands all over her. She would push him away with all of her strength and he would just sneer at her, laughing.

x x x x x

Almost immediately after starting to work at the factory, Natalie had started another miniature. She hated working there more than anywhere else that she had ever been. The entire factory reeked. Not only did it reek of "death" as Ernie used to tell her, the stench of freshly killed birds, but more importantly and more painfully, of bleach. The bleach was in huge 50-gallon drums strategically placed all over the work floor. She could not avoid it. They were supposed to use it in all of their cleaning because of its disinfectant properties, but she just couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to touch it. She would sweep and mop with plain water or another cleaning concoction that she would bring from home, but she could not, she would not, use the bleach.

It was horrible for her. When she came home at night, she would immediately strip down and shower for over an hour. She had to scrub not only the smell of the chickens off of her, but the bleach as well. It permeated into everything; it was as if the contact with the bleach in the air soaked through her clothes and into her very pores. She could barely stand the smell of her work clothes in her apartment just to undress, let alone over night, so she had to wash them every night.

The thing that she hated more than the bleach, if that was possible, was Raymundo and what he was doing to her, and for that he had to pay.

x x x x x

On her last day at the factory, Natalie waited until there was only 2 hours left in her shift before she came up behind Raymundo. He was checking the controls for the chicken stun bath, when Natalie gave him a shove into the water. At first, he started to laugh at her, thinking about what he was going to her for getting him all wet. And then he realized what she was doing; by then it was too late.

Natalie flipped the lever, turning the electricity on, effectively killing Raymundo. When she was sure he was dead, she turned the electricity off and shoved him all the way in, with his face down in a few inches of water. With a spring in her step and a smile on her lips she put out her miniature of the slaughter floor next to the stun bath and started to walk away. She turned around back to Raymundo and moved his right leg closer to the left.

Perfect.

x x x x x

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