7th Hour: The Desert

There were three cars following them that were full of agents with guns who were more than ready to shoot at anything that moved in front of them that appeared even mildly threatening. No one was going to risk Marisa getting the upper hand again. One of the agents who had been shot earlier had died en route to the hospital, and everyone was ready to stake out their revenge in the almighty name of justice.

They had been driving deeper into the middle of nowhere for the last hour. Catherine was starting to get antsy. She could feel that something about their current situation seemed almost pre-planned somehow. It wasn't destiny that pushed her further into the desert, but something else much more sadistic. Her mind was running through all that had happened to her. She was trying to remember everything she had said, Sara had said, but more importantly everything Erika had said. She was running the dialogue through her mind and kept on thinking why'. Why hadn't she asked Erika more questions? Why hadn't she questioned Erika's motive? Why hadn't she done anything that she had been trained to do what seemed like forever ago?

Grissom had always said follow the evidence,' but Catherine didn't see any. She saw Erika: a woman she knew practically nothing about. She saw Marisa: a woman she hardly even remembered because every memory of her had been diluted by the drugs. Then there was Sara: a woman she thought she once knew and loved. A woman she deeply regretted ever involving herself with now that Marisa had made her a target.

When she mixed them all together .the only thing she knew they all had in common was Catherine. She started to convince herself that everything had become about her and panic slowly began to seep in. Catherine began to believe that she was to blame for the death of the innocent FBI agent and that she was to blame for Sara being kidnapped and for Marisa somehow turning into the serial killer she now was. It was all her fault.

But as the anxiety began to fully envelope her senses and the adrenaline filled her veins, somehow she managed to remember her training and experience as a CSI. She remembered that none of this was about her. It couldn't be. This was about Marisa, and the only person who had been in direct contact with woman had been Erika. Catherine remembered that Erika had said she'd been following Marisa around the country for three years.

That was a long time to follow someone around. That was a long time to just decide to drop everything in one's life and pursue someone for that long, because certainly there were other cases that Erika had been offered to work on. The FBI wouldn't have wasted a resource like Erika on one serial killer who had a hard on for killing people that were somehow related to a CSI in Las Vegas.

It didn't take expert detective work to figure out that Marisa would eventually end up in Las Vegas and on Catherine's doorstep. That could only mean that Erika stuck around for a reason. She had to have some attachment to Marisa, but Catherine had no idea what that might be.

"Erika talked to Marisa," Catherine said under her breath. "Erika knows Marisa so what does Erika want? She set everything up. She even put the tracking device on Sara's buckle."

"Excuse me, ma'am?" The agent who sat next to her asked. "I didn't hear you."

The voice snapped Catherine from her thoughts and she turned her full attention to the man sitting next to her. "What do you know about Erika?"

"Not much," the man sighed. "She comes when we call her and leaves when she's done."

The answer was right in front of her. She could sense it, but she couldn't grasp on to it.

"We've crossed the state border," the driver yelled to the backseat. "We're in Arizona now."

"Arizona?" Wasn't Lindsey supposed to be safe in Arizona?

"Yes, Ms. Willows. We're about twenty miles from the signal's location." The driver responded.

"They have Lindsey," she whispered.

"Who?" Both agents asked.

"My daughter," Catherine snapped. "They have my daughter."

"Ma'am we made sure that your daughter was safe," the driver offered. "Marisa doesn't know where your daughter is."

"Who made the arrangements for Lindsey?" Catherine asked calmly.

The two agents looked at each other quickly, and then the driver turned his complete attention to driving knowing that his answer would only point out, yet again, their failure to control the situation.

"We're going to get them all back safely," the man sitting next to her replied.

Catherine closed her eyes. "Who made the arrangements for Lindsey?" she enunciated carefully.

The agent cleared his throat. "Erika."

Catherine slammed her hand against the passenger's side seat in front of her, "Fuck!"

At the House

Sara was holding Lindsey in her arms. At least she was holding her as much as possible while being chained to the wall. She was looking around the room trying to come up with some way to get them out of this situation alive, or get Lindsey out of it alive.

So far she had come up with nothing.

The lock to the door turned and Marisa stepped inside. She walked over to the two figures on the ground and laughed.

"Catherine's on her way," she said gleefully. "That means we only need to keep one of you alive. She'll do anything we say as long as we tell her we've got one of you. Although," Marisa leaned down and ran her hand across Sara's face. "I would really like her to watch me kill you."

Sara felt Lindsey's body tense up. Whatever Lindsey was about to do, Sara knew it would be too much of a risk.. "Don't," she said carefully.

"You don't want me to let her watch?" Marisa reached behind her, but before she could grab hold of the gun she was seeking Lindsey's body sprang from its resting position and knocked Marisa's unsteady form over.

"Lindsey!" Sara started pulling against her chains again, willing her body the strength to pull herself from the wall.

Marisa threw Lindsey from her body and reached behind her again for the gun. It wasn't there. She looked frantically around the darkened room for it and soon spotted it next to the bed. She crawled to it and picked it up.

"I think the brat should die first," she said mostly to herself.

Lindsey turned to the redhead with wide eyes. She started backing up from Marisa but had soon backed into the corner.

Marisa raised the gun and was about to fire when she heard a crashing sound come from behind her. She turned around and quickly realized Sara had managed to tear the bar she was chained to out of the wall. She quickly raised her gun at the brunette, but was too late.

Sara hit Marisa across the face with the bar she was still chained to, knocking the redhead out immediately.

Sara grabbed the gun on the floor. "We have to get out of here. Erika's going to be coming."

"She won't hurt us," Lindsey protested.

"Yes she will," Sara said shortly. "Trust me."

Sara walked to the door and put the side of her head against the smooth service. She didn't hear anything.

"Stay close to me," she ordered.

Carefully she opened the door and took a quick look around. There was no sign of Erika. She waved for Lindsey to come up next to her. "No matter what, I want you to get out of this house. If something happens to me, don't stop." Lindsey nodded.

As quietly as humanly possible, Sara led Lindsey through the house until they had reached the back door. They hadn't seen Erika at all, and that made Sara very suspicious, but she wasn't going to seek the other woman out while she had Lindsey with her.

Sara opened the door and shoved Lindsey out ahead of her. She looked around and had no clue where they were. There was nothing outside, but darkness. Instinctively she chose a direction and hoped it would get them somewhere with a phone.

They had been walking for less than ten minutes when a car pulled up in front of them. Sara raised the gun in her hand, but quickly lowered it when she realized it was Catherine who was jumping out of the car.

"Mom!" Lindsey yelled as soon as she recognized the woman running towards her.

Catherine opened her arms up and grabbed hold of her daughter with all her strength. "Are you okay?" she pulled her daughter away from her so she could get a good look at Lindsey's entire body. "They didn't hurt you did they?" Catherine ran her hands over Lindsey checking for anything that seemed abnormal.

"No." Lindsey replied. "Erika took good care of me."

The name made Catherine and Sara cringe. Catherine turned her attention from Lindsey to Sara. She didn't know what to say, so instead she put her arms around Sara and hugged her just as tightly as she had her daughter.

They stayed holding each other for longer than was necessary of two friends. When they did pull apart, Catherine held up Sara's wrists and looked carefully at the marks. "You do realize you have a metal bar chained to your wrists, right?" she asked softly.

Sara shrugged. "I couldn't get rid of it."

Catherine nodded once then realized how badly her hands were shaking and dropped Sara's hands. "We should get out of here." She took a quick look around and could feel something out in the darkness watching them. "I don't think we're safe."

Sara's eyes followed Catherine's. She didn't see anything, but she did feel something. It was a feeling that she hadn't been able to escape no matter how far from the house they had gotten.

They walked back to the car, and instead of asking the driver to take them to the house, where Marisa and Erika were supposed to be apprehended, they asked to go home. They needed to be as far away from the two women as possible.