I know it was pretty cruel to leave it at a cliffhanger. So I'll make up for it with this swift update.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the characters that I create.

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Sara opens her eyes again to see Natalie staring down at her with a quizzical glaze. Her left shoulder and arm burned with an intensity she had not felt in a long time.

"Your lucky I missed." Natalie blurts out.

"If I was lucky I wouldn't be here." Sara says grabbing her wounded arm. The bullet left behind a deep abrasion. A few more inches and it would have been a different story.

Sara rips a strip of her already tattered clothing to tie around the wound in order to stop the bleeding.

"That's not the first time I used a gun." Natalie says stating the obvious.

"Not the first time I've been hit by a bullet." Natalie looks at her quizzically.

Sara's mind is suddenly flooded with memories of her childhood and the one gun incident involving her older brother. He had been playing with their father's gun. It accidentally fired hitting Sara in the foot. It was the day before her whole life changed. The day before her mother killed her father.

She often wondered if that was the reason behind the deadly argument.

"I'm not sorry." Natalie admits sending Sara out of her thoughts.

"Didn't think you were."

"Killing those people. I'm not sorry. They deserved what they got."

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"It's empty!" Nick says. He slams his fist on the truck.

"Easy Nick. Its evidence." Catherine says coming up behind him. She had arrived with Greg a few minutes after Nick and Warrick.

"You sit here and look for evidence. I'm going to find Sara." Nick takes off. He only goes walks a couple feet when he notices a bunker.

"I think she's in there." He points to the bunker.

"Ok wait, let me call back up." Catherine grabs her phone.

"I can't wait." Nick heads to the bunker at full speed with Greg and Warrick running after him.

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They had been combing the desert for hours and Brass was starting worry about Grissom. He hadn't eaten nor slept since Sara disappeared.

Grissom was taking her disappearance pretty hard. He saw the desperation in Grissom's eyes as he frantically searched for her. Anyone with two eyes could tell how much he cared about her.

Brass heard the faint ringing of his cell phone and makes a beeline for his car.

"Brass"

"It's Catherine. We think she may have found her."

"Where?"

"A few miles ahead of you and Grissom. Look for a bunker."

"I'm calling back up. We'll be there. Don't go in."

"Nick took off. Warrick and Greg went after him."

Brass shakes his head as he hangs up the phone.

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"I think he forgot about you."

Sara pulls herself up off the floor still grabbing her injured arm.

"I don't believe that."

"You should. It will be easier to accept your death."

"Killing me won't solve anything, Natalie." The burning in Sara's arm stops and is replaced with complete numbness in her entire arm.

Either her entire arm had gone numb because of the bullet or she was still experiencing the effects of the poison.

"You're wrong! It will. Mr. Grissom will hurt inside and blame himself." Natalie says shaking the gun at Sara. "I want him to hurt. Like he forced Ernie to hurt himself."

"Ernie Dell made his decision. The wrong one." Natalie glares at Sara.

"Shut up! You don't know that!"

"He thought you were going to stop killing people. He tried to protect you." Sara slowly walks towards her feeling a little lightheaded due to the amount of blood she has already lost. Natalie backs away from Sara, shaking her head. She drops the gun carelessly to the floor in the process.

"Stop saying that!"

"You know it. I …know it." Sara briefly closes her eyes as a blast of pain hits her side. The cause of the pain seemed to be her ribs. Possibly broken or at the very least bruised. When she opens her eyes again she is confronted by the image of her father coming towards her.

Natalie studies the look of shock and fear in Sara's eyes.

Natalie inches toward her causing Sara to be the one to immediately back away.

"Get away!"

Natalie looks at her clearly confused by Sara's sudden change in demeanor. The confused gaze turns into a knowing evil smirk.

"See something scary, Sara?"

Sara reaches behind her for anything she can use as a weapon.

"I read your file before. I studied everything about you, even your past. I wanted to know what Mr. Grissom saw in you. You weren't lying when you said you knew what foster homes were like."

Sara's hands come across a lead pipe, which she readily grabs and prepares to use if the image of her father comes any closer.

"It makes me happy to know your childhood was worse than mine." Natalie says with an eerie smile. Sara only hears the words her father used to repeat every time he was in one of his rage-filled moods.

'You will learn even if have beat it out of you'

Natalie walks forward and receives a blow to the head courtesy of the lead pipe in Sara's hands. Due to Sara's weakened state, there was not enough force behind the blow to knock Natalie completely only enough to put Natalie in a temporary daze.

Sara runs for the door, but is tackled to the floor by Natalie.

"Bad dolly."

Sara kicks her off with all the energy she has left. Natalie recovers and slams Sara against the dirt wall before she can get far. Her hands immediately go to Sara's neck in a chokehold.

"I can finish what your father started."

Sara struggles against Natalie's hands trying to loosen Natalie's grip on her.

"No one will hear you now."

With newfound anger, Sara rakes her fingers across the other woman's eyes causing Natalie to stumble backwards. Sara grabs the gun from the floor and aims it at her attacker.

The gun is shaky in Sara's hands. Her arm continues to bleed and soak the makeshift bandaged Sara fashioned from her clothes. Sara's vision grew even more blurry giving Natalie the opportunity she needed to make a grab for the gun.

The poison had not completely left Sara's system thwarting her reaction time. Natalie already had her hands on the gun before Sara had the chance to move or fire.

The gun accidentally goes off in the struggle. Followed by another shot.

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"The shots came from over there."

Hearing the first gunshot temporarily stopped the men in their tracks before they reach the door.

"Wait here." Brass says pulling out his gun. Sophia does the same and signals Brass that she's ready with a nod of her head.

They bust threw the door and immediately see Natalie's still form surrounded by a small pool of blood.

"Sara?"

The walk further into the bunker and find Sara's unconscious form with the gun held loosely in her hands.

Brass checks her pulse and finds a steady pulse.

"I've got a pulse… Sara?"

Sara jerks at the sound of her name.

"Is he…gone?" Sara asks not fully realizing whom she is talking to. Her voice comes at a bit raspy.

"Its just us." Brass responds a bit confused. He looks at Sophia for a moment before he turns back to Sara. "Let's get you out of this place."

As if on cue, Grissom bursts threw the entrance practically running to Sara's side. Sara looks at Grissom for a moment. Great concern etched in Grissom's features.

She snaps out of her hallucinogenic daze at the sight of Grissom. She touches the side of Grissom's face to make certain that what she sees is real.

A small smile creeps to Sara's face.

"I knew you wouldn't forget about me."

"Not even if I tried."

Sara looks at her surroundings unsure of where she is, forgetting momentarily what had happen between her and who she thought was her father.

The name Natalie Davis came to her.

"Where's Natalie?"

The other people in the room glance at each other unsure of what to say to her.

Images of the struggle run through Sara's mind. The first shot… then the other.

A glance at her blood stained clothes and Natalie's still form several feet away confirms her fears.

"No…No!"

"Its okay, Sara. Its over now." Grissom reassures her pulling her into a hug. Sara flinches in his grasp alerting the others to Sara's wounded arm.

"We have to get her to a hospital. She's been shot."

Brass grabs his phone to call for an ambulance.

The rest of the gang rush in to see Sara for themselves. Relief showers their faces then is replaced with worry when they hear the tail end of Grissom's statement. She's been shot.

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The bitter smell of the Desert Palms Hospital brought Sara out of her slumber. She passed out some time between transport and one of Greg's stories about his adventures in an effort to get Sara's mind off of what happened.

If she hadn't made it out of all this alive that was one of the things she'd miss…Greg's attempts to make her feel better. He never failed to make her laugh.

Nick. She would have defiantly missed the playful banter between the two of them. He had always been there for her. Even when she made it seems as though she rather be alone.

Warrick. He was something else. He oozed a sense of serenity and poise she always wanted to exist within herself. Loyalty seemed to be second nature to him. She could always count on his support. She would have definitely missed that.

Catherine. Their relationship was rocky at first, but Sara had grown to respect her, simply for surpassing her past. Her confidence rolled off her in waves. The thing Sara would have missed most about her was that confidence that seemed to follow Catherine wherever she went.

Every one of them held qualities that she wished she had. Greg's boundless humor, Nick's welcoming demeanor, Warrick's serenity, and Catherine's immeasurable confidence.

Then there was Jim Brass. Sara had come to regard him as her surrogate father. He would always offer his advice…even if she didn't ask for it. His not so subtle hints about what he knew existed between her and Grissom always left her guessing as to how much Grissom had told him about their 'secret' relationship. He was everything her own father wasn't and for that simple reason she would have missed him.

Her thoughts came back to Grissom, as they always do. More so lately since his complete immersion into the mini crime scene murders.

Now she was a part of that. The last victim of the mini crime scene killer.

Last

The word hit her.

Natalie was dead. No more victims. No more murders.

Because of her.

Sara had done the one thing she promised herself she would never do.

She took a life.

Her mother had.

Now she had too.

"I'm not my mother." Her voice bounces off the walls of her hospital room. The words startle the sleeping person in the chair next to her bed.

"Are you okay? Do you need something?" Grissom asks worried.

"Just you right now." Sara grabs his hands. Grissom notices her avoidance of his first question. 'That is to be expected' The doctor's words ring in his ears.

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"I'm glad you're okay." Sara looks up to see Liz in the doorway.

"Thanks in part to you." Sara answers. Grissom left a few hours earlier at the request of Sara to get some sleep.

"My dad was in the army. I used his contacts to call in a favor."

"Still you didn't have to."

"Are you really…"

"Okay?" Sara finishes. "I don't really know. Some day maybe, not now."

"Ecklie and some guys from dayshift came to see you earlier, probably to question you. I gave them the wrong room number."

Sara smiles for a moment then her face grows serious.

"What was it?"

"You mean the poison?"

Sara nods her head.

"Soda apple Nightshade. It wasn't a lethal dose. You were lucky."

"I must be. I have all of you." Sara says looking up at the new occupants entering the room. Nick, Brass, Greg, Catherine, Warrick, and Grissom walk over to her bed. Even some of the lab techs were there to wish Sara a swift recovery.

"You must be."

The End

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Hoped you liked the story. I liked to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have reviewed this story. I'm really glad you have enjoyed reading just as much as I enjoyed writing it. Much of this chapter was inspired by Amanda Clemens' song I Don't Want To Be Me and Kate Bush's This Woman's Work. The song 'This Woman's Work' actually comes out in one of the season 8 promo clips. I was watching it as I was writing this chapter. Check out those songs, they're great. Oh and check out my other stories. Some of them are in need of reviews. Don't forget to review this one either. Have a nice day!

Until Next Time,

Ancient 85