Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the characters that I create.
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Sara kept her glaze on the gun hoping Natalie wouldn't fire it.
"You ready to die, dolly?" Natalie asks with a tilt of her head. Sara raises her hands in front of her.
"You don't want… to kill me." Sara says. Her voice breaks a little.
"Dolly's wrong."
"I would be dead already." Sara regrets the words as they slip out of her mouth.
Antagonizing a psycho killer was not a very smart thing to do, but if she was an inch from death anyway…why not, huh?
"Look you don't have to do this. I…I…can help you. Just drop the gun and let me help you. You won't go to prison just somewhere they can take care of you. It won't be so bad." Sara says gaining more confidence and hope seeing the gun waver in Natalie's hands. She was getting through to her.
"I know how hard it is growing up in foster homes." Sara says remembering the many files on Dell's foster kids. "Everyone judging you, making fun of you…hurting you."
Natalie's eyes narrow at the last part of Sara's words.
"No one hurt me…I hurt them." Natalie falls into some sort of trance while mumbling words to an eerie song.
Sara takes the opportunity to reach for the gun in Natalie's hands. Natalie snaps out of it just as Sara gets her hands on the gun.
Two separate shots ring into the air causing Grissom to run fast in the direction of the shots.
Flashback"Are you kidding me? Defense training." Sara asks staring at the flyer Grissom had given her. Grissom had called Sara into his office a few hours before shift was over.
"I would feel safer if you knew how to defend yourself if anything should happen while I'm not home."
Sara hands him back the flyer. "I already know how to defend myself." Sara continues, "Plus, it's not like we live in a dangerous neighborhood."
"Many of our cases have been in nice neighborhoods." Grissom points out. Sara lets out a sigh.
"Fine, but my boss will have to let me leave ten minutes early if I want to catch the late class." Sara says with a smile.
"Thank you."
End of flashback
The struggle continues. Sara rams her elbow in Natalie's stomach causing Natalie to lose her grip on the gun. A second blow, this time to the face, sends Natalie to the floor in pain.
"Sara!!"
The sound of someone shouting her name causes Sara to make the mistake of taking her eyes off her abductor. Everything turns black before Sara has a chance to say anything in return.
Natalie looks down at Sara's unconscious form and smiles.
"We're not done yet."
The sound of shouts alerts Natalie to the possibility of getting caught again if she doesn't hurry.
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Grissom gets to the side of the road just as the truck carrying Sara speeds away. He runs after it for a few feet before Brass stops him and ushers him into the passenger seat of the car.
"Suspect is heading down Moore Road. She is considered armed and dangerous. Proceed with caution. The suspect still has CSI Sidle. Repeat. The suspect still has CSI Sidle." Brass says into the police radio.
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The frequent bumps on the road cause Sara to come out of unconsciousness. Her hands and feet are tightly tied. She tugs at them only serving to make the ropes even tighter around her skin.
The car comes to a sudden stop. Her head hits the back of the truck bed hard. She shakes of the dizziness that came with the hit and readies herself for Natalie's appearance. Sara would not come quietly …not if she could help it.
Natalie anticipates Sara's onslaught and walks over to the back of the truck carrying a rifle, poised ready to shoot.
'Where did that gun come from' Sara thinks to herself.
All plans of attacking are suddenly dashed …well maybe postponed…as Natalie motions to somebody outside of Sara's view. Heavy footsteps relay the message of a second party.
A heavyset man walks over to the back and stands beside Natalie. A single scar runs across the left side of his face and Sara briefly wonders if she's seen him somewhere before.
The man waste no time in pull at the binds on her legs causing Sara's head and back to slam down on the truck bed effectively knocking her out in the process.
"Don't break the dolly."
The guy mumbles something under his breath before tossing Sara carelessly over his shoulder and following Natalie to a small desert bunker.
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"No luck?" Liz says from the doorway. Greg looks up with a sad, hopeless look in his eyes.
"She took off with Sara again."
"I wish there was something I could do."
"Believe me, you've done more than enough."
"Still it hasn't helped find out where that psycho took Sara." Liz walks over to coffee pot and pour a cup of coffee for Greg. She hands it to him.
"Thanks." Greg says taking the cup.
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"Wake up, girl."
Sara opens her eyes slowly and sees a man looming over her. She instinctively backs away from the large man.
"Whoa easy there."
Natalie walks over and stands beside the man.
"What now, Nat?"
"Lights out, C.J." Natalie says pointing a gun at him and firing two shots to the man's temple. CJ falls to the floor. Natalie turns the gun on Sara and holds on her for a few seconds before lowering the gun.
"I don't want you dead…not yet."
Sara doesn't say anything.
"You said you knew what it was like…or was that a lie, too?"
'Too?' Sara thinks to herself.
"You've been lying to everyone, lately. Haven't you?"
"What are you…talking about?" Sara says between breaths.
"Your relationship with Mr. Grissom. But that doesn't matter anymore."
"Why if that was the reason I'm here?"
"Dolly's gonna die soon."
"I'm not afraid."
"You should be I gave you enough Oleander to kill you. Its pretty, huh?" Natalie says picking up the plant from a table nearby and looking at it with childish fascination.
Flashback"Slow day, huh?" Sara says walking into Liz's lab. Liz looks up from a botany book she was reading.
"When I have time to read this all the way through three times. I say 'yes' it's a slow day."
"Is that all you do in your free time?"
Liz puts the book down.
"I would ask you the same question but I already know better." Sara smiles. "Can you hand me that?" Liz says pointing to the jar next to Sara.
"Besides Brass, you're the only other person that knows about me and Grissom." Sara hands her the jar filled with some kind of herbs.
"It's not like you told me I just happened to walk into my lab at the wrong time."
"Yeah sorry about that." Sara looks curiously as Liz grabs a bowel and places the herbs in it.
"I'm just glad that I didn't walk in on anything…uh…more intimate."
"Are you making a potion?" Liz laughs.
"No. Its for a cold case dayshift is working on. I kind of forgot until now. And since I'm the only botantist in the lab it gets dumped on me."
"Well now you got something to do." Sara says with a smile.
"Are you ever going to tell them?"
"Not yet." Sara says looking at the many plants in the room. "You sure like plants."
"Yeah." Liz pours water on the plants in front of her.
"Aren't these Greg's?" Sara says holding up some CDs. Liz turns around.
"Yeah they were. He gave them to me. Thought I could use them."
"Most of them are on DNA analysis. Unless you're planning a new career move…" Sara says with a smirk. Liz walks over and grabs the CDs.
"No career move…just curious."
"About DNA analysis or Greg." Liz's cheeks turn a bright shade of red before she turns away.
"DNA"
Sara smiles and continues to look at the plants. Liz's back wall is adorned with photos of several plants under the title 'Poisonous Plants'.
"Didn't know Oleanders were poisonous."
"Neither did Dr. Grissom until I told him…you should thank me by the way."
Sara laughs. "Thanks."
"Although it is possible to have them and not get poisoned. It doesn't exactly send the right message. Unless an instant death is the whole point."
"You'd be surprised at what people do."
"I learned that six minutes into the job." Sara smiles at Liz's statement.
End of flashback
"You're the one who is lying."
Natalie looks at Sara with confusion written all over her face.
"I don't lie."
"I'm sorry. You just kill innocent people." Sara's voice is laced with sarcasm.
"They weren't innocent!!" Natalie slaps Sara with the gun. Blood trickles down Sara's mouth.
"What next, Natalie? Killing me? What I know so far is that all your attempts have failed even that so-called deadly dose you gave me."
"You don't know that."
"I have a friend who does."
"Her name is Liz, right. Saw you talk to her a few times. She lives in a nice house. Doesn't go out much."
"You've been following her." Sara tries to keep talking even through the exhaustion and dizziness as she secretly struggles against the rope binds around her wrists.
"I've been following you."
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"There's nothing out here but dirt and more dirt!" Warrick says out loud.
"Brass said she went down Moore." Nick says from the driver's seat.
"Yeah, but that was hours ago, man."
"Its daylight now. We might have better luck finding…"
"Look! Over there!" Nick points to a vehicle parked a few yards up the road. "Isn't that the truck?"
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Natalie paces around the room unsure of what to do. She had measured everything perfectly. Sara should have been dead a long time ago. But she wasn't and that made Natalie nervous. She could not leave and sacrifice the revenge she had waited months for.
She broke out of her thoughts in time to see Sara break out of the restraints. Natalie unconsciously pulls the trigger of the handgun. Sara immediately falls to the floor with a thud.
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That's it for now. Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger like that. I'll update when I get the chance. Let me know what you think about the chapter. Please review.
Until Next Time,
Ancient 85