I really didn't do a lot of research, so i'm sure some of the law is off and the science takes longer than what I had it happen along with other things. Please don't hate me for it. Just go with it. I also have no betta, so all mistakes are my own :-)

Thank you to those of you who reviewed. I'd love more input. Did you like it, did you hate it? Let me know. Also do you think my chapters are too short? It seems to be easier for me to put out around 4,000 words. But i'm worried u guys don't like them so short.

Also my grandmother just passed away this weekend, so please stick with me, I promise I will continue this story until it is done.

I don't own anything except my own characters :-)

Chapter 2

After dropping the evidence off to the right people in the lab Catherine and Sara went to meet up with Brass. He said that Greg had processed all of the clothing and that Doc was about finished up with the second autopsy, so to go check in with him, then meet him back there to question everyone. With that they headed down to the morgue.

"Ok Doc tell us you have something that might help us." Catherine asked walking into the room.

"Christine was stabbed over 20 times. With multiple defensive wounds. It was brutal. From what I can tell she was alive for a while after the initial two stabs. It appears as though she was stabbed twice in the lower abdomen, they showed much further signs of clotting then the rest of the wounds. She had major internal bleeding, but the fatal blow was to her right subclavical artery. It was a bleeder, but whoever was stabbing her, kept going even after she was dead." Doc kept cleaning her up and taking pictures, momentarily lost in his own thoughts.

"And the boy?" Sara asked him bringing him out of his head and back to woman.

"First off Nathan did have gun powder residue on his right hand, and if you'll come over here" grabbing his cane he walked over to Nathans body "he had extensive bruising to his shoulders and arms." Both woman could see the horrible bruises and as Doc rolled the body they could see many more on his back and between his thighs. "I did a sexual assault kit and sent it up to the lab. And from the trauma it's been going on for a while." Taking off his glasses he rubbed his eyes before putting them back on. "No matter how many people lay on this table, seeing a child here will never get easier." He shook his head and went over to finish Christine's body, while Catherine and Sara left the morgue.

They met up with Brass, looking into the interrogation room. "So, ladies what's the evidence telling you so far."

"Well the boy shows signs of sexual assault, he had GSR on his right hand where the gun was found, so unless we find something to show us otherwise, it appears that he did kill himself. As for the mother, she was murdered, so right now, we need to focus on that. The boy had been dead for at least five hours before anyone called 911, and the mother had died shortly after the call was placed. So, their story that the boy killed his mother isn't true." Catherine glanced into the room where Patty was sitting, she had been the one with the most blood on her. "I'm going to see if they have all my photo's uploaded, and check with Greg on matching up some of the bloodied footprint's to the shoes he collected from the family."She turned to look at Sara. " Unless you'd rather do that and I can sit in on the interview's with Jim?"

Sara was taken by surprise with Catherine giving her the option of what she wanted to do. That wasn't Catherine's style, Cath gave orders and directed people. I guess she's having an off night too. "No that sounds good to me, I'll go get these started while you work with Greg, let me know if you guys find anything." Catherine nodded her head and went looking for Greg.

"Why are Patty and her kids in the room together?"Sara asked, wondering where Danielle was.

Jim took a deep breath "Patty didn't want her kids questioned without her present. So, until we find out she's lying to us about something, she has to be there when anyone talks to either of her kids. But if for some reason she's doing something that's holding her kids back we'll bring in a guardian ad litemto sit in with them. If you want I'll go in and let them know, that we know, that the boy didn't kill his mother, see if they fess up? And you can go let Danielle know what we have so far. She's been sitting in the waiting area by herself since we all got back."

Sara nodded and was on her way. She remembered she still had the girls medications in a bag, but decided to wait until later to get them. As she rounded the corner for the waiting room she stopped when she saw her. Danielle was sitting in one of those uncomfortable orange chairs. Hmm... that poor girl has been through so much. And now she's stuck in the waiting room.. She grabbed her phone from her pocket and text'd Catherine asking if it were ok for her to use her office. A few seconds later she get a 'yes'.

Sara approached the young woman slowly taking her in. Her head was down, looking into the drink she was holding. In the light she could see she had a reddish tint to her dark hair, it looked a few shades darker than auburn, it was kind of longer, the cut actually reminded her of Catherine's. Still in her own clothing, Sara could see why Greg didn't collect it, she really had no blood on her except for a smudge or two. "Danielle?" The teen raised her eyes to meet Sara's . "Hi, my name is Sara Sidle, I'm a CSI. Would you like to come with me? I've got a place more comfortable where we can talk?" The girl only nodded her head letting Sara lead her out of the waiting room and down the hall to Catherine's office.

Sara gestured towards the couch, closing the door and grabbing one of Catherine's chairs swinging it over to sit across from the girl. "I know you've already had a very long day, but is it ok if I ask you a few questions?" Sara gently asked and was once again answered with just a nod, but the girl was looking at her finally. Sara scooted her chair to be closer to the girl, knowing the questions she had to ask weren't going to be easy. Danielle wasn't to keen on people being too close to her, but didn't have the energy to move.

"Ok, can you take me through your day first, starting from when you woke up?" Sara knew she'd have to tell Danielle about her brother killing himself, but was hoping to get some details first. Danielle made real eye contact with Sara, for the first time and Sara was a bit taken back by the piercing green eyes she saw.

"I got up about 5am. If I want to get a shower in the morning that's my time slot. Then I woke Nate up after I was finished" Sara stopped her to confirm that she was talking about her brother Nathan, you just never know with the details. "While he took his shower and got ready, I went to my room to do my hair and makeup, then we both had breakfast together, while everyone else started their morning. Case, Casandra, came down right before Nate and I left for school. I had to drop him off at the rink at about 6:30, so he could practice some hockey drills before school. He seemed fine..i..i talked to him... we.. we" Sara put a hand on the girls leg to stop her and console her at the same time.

"It's ok, we'll come back to that part, what did you do after you dropped him off?" Sara probed gently sitting back in her chair.

"I had to go to morning detention, so went to school to do that, then I had school till 3:15. I usually hang out around after school for a while, even if I don't have after school detention, so I can drive Nate home after his practice, but this year Johnny said he'd take care of it, so I could enjoy my senior year. Ya know, go out with my friends, do the senior class play, not have to play 'mother'." Danielle's eyes filling with tears before they silently started rolling from both eyes.

"So, I went to rehearsal until a little after 6 before going back to my" Danielle paused for a moment, which didn't go unnoticed by Sara. "friends house... to work on homework. I left there when Case called me, telling me to come home right away. She didn't even say why, she never has to say why, so I jumped in my car and went home right away. By the time I got home there were police cars in the driveway, I saw all of them standing out side covered in blood, but... my mom,... my brother, my baby brother, they weren't out there. The police wouldn't let me go in, they just said it's too late, that they were sorry!" Danielle started to get up but Sara stopped her by grabbing her in a hug to hold the teen, sitting them both on the couch. Sara just let the girl hold on to her while she cried.

Once Danielle started to calm down a bit she removed herself from Sara and scooted away a bit, while wiping away the tears from her face. Sara got up to give the girl some room and got a box of Kleenex from Catherine's desk. "Danielle, did Patty, Casandra or Johnny say anything to you when you got there?" Sara offered her the Kleenex and sat back down in her chair.

"Please just call me Dani, and yes they told me what happened." Dani made air quotes with her fingers when she said 'what happened'. "Patty told me Nate killed mom, that they had tried to get him to stop but couldn't and that he went to his room and shot himself afterwords. But I'm telling you right now that Nate did not kill our mother. Sure she wasn't the best mom, but Nate... Nate would never hurt another person. And I'm sure you're going to say we don't always know what goes on in the minds of others, but I swear on my own life, that my brother did not kill mom."

"Dani, it's ok, we know he didn't kill her." Sara could see some relief in the teens eyes

" Would Nate of killed himself?" And just as quickly as the relief came, it went and was replaced with a look of regret.

"If you'd of asked me that question five months ago, I'd of said you were freakin crazy, but something happened to him. I don't know what, he wouldn't tell me. I asked him so many times, in so many ways, but each time he'd tell me I was nuts, or that I needed to stop mothering him, or he'd start joking with me or he'd just change the subject. I wasn't his mom, I tried to tell our mom that something was wrong with him and she'd tell me that he was just being a preteen, not to worry about it. I told her and she never freakin would listen to me!" Dani started raising her voice again.

Sara knew the up and down emotions were normal, but she couldn't help but feel bad for Dani. I've got to focus on the case. I need to finish up here and meet Cath, I need to get my crap together! "Can you tell me who might of wanted your mother dead, did she have any ex's, or was she being harassed by anyone?"

"Umm, well, not that I know of, me and mom aren't" A lone tear fell down Danielle's cheek when she realized she had used the wrong term when talking about her mom. "Weren't... we weren't close." With a change in her tone to nothing but disgust she gently said " Ask Patty, she'd know."

Sara was a bit taken back by the anger Danielle had in her voice. "Did you and Patty have problems"

"We used to, now she stays out of my way, I stay out of her's and we all get along like a nice happy family should."

"So, you weren't really a happy family?"

"Look, if you want to ask someone about our" she put her hands up adding air quotes "family" letting her hands drop again. "ask Patty."

"Ok, I'll do that. I found the medications in your room, can I ask what they are for?"

"I don't see what business it is of yours, so no. If for some reason I felt it'd help find out who killed my mom I'd tell you, but I know it doesn't, so I'd rather not tell you." Dani wasn't trying to be difficult, but she hated dealing with people once she told them what the medication was for.

Sara sat forward in her chair looking at the teen "If your pregnant you can tell me, I wont tell anyone unless I have to." She offered gently.

"Ha! You've so got to be kidding me, right?" She saw the seriousness on Sara's face before it clicked. "Let me guess Miss CSI, you saw the folic acid?" This time she saw confusion on Sara's face and it made her smile to herself. "Mm hmm, yes well there are other reasons to be put on that aside from being pregnant."

"Seriously, I'm a senior in a high school where chics get knocked up all the time. I don't want kids till I can take care of them. Plus I'm on birth control, not that I take that med for said purpose. I can guarantee you that there is no way what-so-ever that I could be remotely pregnant. But I do need to take that pill along with the others, I was suppose to take them hours ago and I don't like missing a dose, can you get them for me?" She raised her eyebrow questioning the older woman.

"I can, it will be a few minutes though, I need to go check in with some of my team members. You can stay in here if you'd like, as long as you promise not to touch anything, or you can go back to the waiting room, it's up to you?" Sara really hoped Catherine wouldn't mind her letting the girl stay in there for a few minutes while she went and checked on a few things.

"If I can't leave yet, I'd rather just stay in here... and yes, before you ask, I promise I wont touch anything.

With that Sara left, leaving the door open on her way out, hoping to deter the teen from going through Catherine's stuff.

She walked into Hodges lab, hoping he'd done what she asked earlier.

"Hey remember those medications I dropped off and asked you to find out what they were for?"

"What, no hello, how are you?... Right. Ok, well the first one the folic acid" Sara couldn't help but roll her eyes, knowing what he was going to say. "is usually used for woman who are pregnant, however, I don't think that's the case because this other one, Cyclosplorine, is used for people who have had organ transplants, and you cannot be pregnant while on this medication. Now on to the mental meds, Effexor is an anti depressant or mood stabilizer, Xanax, well we all know what Xanax is, it's a relaxer pill used for many different things, this one" He said grabbing the bottle. "Lorazapam, is just like Xanax, but a little different, I'm not sure why anyone would be on both at the same time, but Danielle is because her name is on both bottles. She also takes an anti-psychotic, Seroquel and some good old Penicillin and if you don't know what that is I'm not telling you."

"She's on some nice pain meds too. Have you talked to this girl, can she even stand up straight?" Sara just rolled her eyes motioning him to continue with the last couple. "She's on some Oxy, which I'd say is her downer, and some Hydro, which I'd say is her upper. And the last medication is Seasonal, birth control. I counted all the medications and the right amount is missing from every bottle according to when they were filled. So, is this girl crazy? Or some kind of drug seller? Did I once again solve the case for you?" Hodges said being his arrogant self. But Sara really wasn't in the mood for it tonight.

Sara was having a hard enough time on the case, as it was, without Hodges pissing her off. He made a mistake by talking badly about the girl and Sara had the words out of her mouth before she even realized what she was doing. "No, Hodges. The girl as you put it is not crazy, nor do I think she sells her meds. She did however loose both her mother and brother tonight, she has no other family and from all those meds you just told me about, I'd say she's pretty screwed. So, why don't you take that microscope of yours and stick.."

"SARA!. My Office now!" Catherine stopped Sara before she could finish telling him where to stick it, but she calmed down right away, knowing they couldn't go to her office for this little 'tiff'.

"Wait, Cath, I'm sorry." Sara got the other woman to stop and turn around to look at her. "And we can't exactly go to your office for you to yell at me, right now anyway." Sara said with the sound of each word getting softer.

"And why exactly is it that we can't go to my office?" Cath put both of her hands on her hips and tilted her head wondering what was going on.

"Well, Dani... I mean Danielle is in there waiting for me to come back with her medications, so she can take them. Don't worry I left your office door open so she wouldn't go through your stuff, I just didn't want to send her back to the waiting room again." She was pleading with Catherine, she knew she wasn't handling herself very well tonight, but they were suppose to be friends now, so hopefully Cath would actually try and understand.

Catherine wasn't going to press the issue right now, as long as Sara agreed to her terms. "Ok, Well I wasn't expecting that, if I drop this, for right now, will you agree to come to my house after shift for breakfast to talk? I'd like to see Lindsey before she heads off to school, otherwise I'd say we could just go to a diner."

"That sounds like a deal I can't pass up." Sara said smiling at Catherine. "So, what have you got on the case?" She asked while heading for Catherine's office to give Dani.. Danielle her medications.

"I've got Archie uploading all the pictures from Christine's room, he said it'll take a few hours for the 3D program to have the reenactment ready. Greg is going over the footprint's and matching them up with the families shoes. He already got finger prints from everyone, and he matched one of their prints, to one's he got off the knife..." Catherine gave Sara an amused look, knowing the pause would drive her just a little insane. " And the matching prints go too… Johnny. Now we just need to go talk to Brass and let him know then we should be able to get this case wrapped up." She stopped the conversation as they rounded the corner for her office, not wanting the girl to overhear.

"Danielle, this is Catherine, another CSI" Sara said offering the girl her medications. And the girl looked at her meds and was about to ask for water, but Sara beat her too it. "Right, water, I'll be right back." Sara moved quickly out of the room leaving Catherine and Danielle.

Catherine noticed how Sara was acting around the girl and it really puzzled her. "I heard one of our lab techs tell Sara that one of those medication's is used for people who have had an organ transplant." Danielle responded by just looking up at the woman and rolling her eyes. "Ok, so I've seen my daughter give me that same look, so I know I'm not right. Care to tell me what it is for?"

"No I wouldn't. I would like someone to tell me exactly what happened to my mother and brother though."

Sara came back through the door before Catherine could answer. "We still have to check on a few more things before we can tell you anything." Handing Dani the bottle of water she walked over to stand by Cath in front of her desk. "Do you need anything else while you wait?" Dani just shook her head as she methodically went through her meds taking out the ones she needed, placing all of them in one hand before putting all the pills in her mouth and swallowing them with the water. Sara watched the girl before heading for the door. Catherine paused at the door though, taking in the teen.

"We shouldn't be too long, You can lay down on the couch if you'd like, I can turn my lights out and close the door?" Danielle simply nodded while laying down curling on her side facing the door. She reminds me of what Sara's daughter would look and act like, if Sara had a daughter. I wonder if this girl has the demons Sara has... if she didn't she will after loosing her mom and brother.

Catherine went back in grabbing the blanket off the back of the couch before throwing it over the girl, she turned to, turn off the light and close the door when she heard a soft "thank you" whispered. Just like Sara...

Sara filled Catherine and Brass in on what Danielle had told her. When Wendy walked up to them.

"Ok, I thought they were suppose to be just two families living together, because I'm thinking there was something kinky going on. When I processed the sheets from Christine's room, I found two fluid donors, one was Christine's... the other was from another person in the house." She paused, looking up to see if she had everyone's attention and to make sure she could see the look on their faces when she told them.

"It was Patty's. So, they were doing more than just sharing a house." Wendy handed over the folder with the information in it and left them all there to digest what she just said.

"Well, that explains why Patty's room looked odd...she probably never slept in there and that might be why Dani got upset when I asked her about having a happy family." Sara said while things came together.

"But why keep it a big secret, I mean if your living together and have your kids living together, I think the cat's kind of out of the bag." Catherine looked to Brass waiting for what he had to say about this.

"Hey, don't look at me, I say to each their own. But I think Patty and her kids have some explaining to do. I'm going to split them all up. Childrens services should be here soon for Danielle, so they can sit in with the kids when we question them. I'd like to have one of you in there with me when I question Patty." Brass barely got Patty's name out before Sara jumped in.

"I'll go." Sara realized she had jumped a little too quickly to go in and looked at Catherine waiting for her to start lecturing her. Mean while Brass, escorted the two teens out of the room they were in to their own separate room.

Catherine wanted to take Sara aside, but knew they would be talking after work and was just hoping she wasn't giving her too much leeway. She gave Sara a nod and headed into the room to watch through the one way mirror.