Note: I am so, so, so, soooo sorry for the delay. I have had no spare time these past few days. Forgive me?

Thanks to everyone for reviewing!

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.

Chapter 7:

Sara was awakened by a sudden, powerful headache.

Her eyes were still closed, but she knew she was in a hospital.

The smell of bleach assaulted her nose, and the brightness of the white walls was visible through her eyelids; and if that hadn't been enough of an indicator, she could hear a machine making beeping noises at her side. She let out a sigh of relief; they were finally safe.

Then it hit her.

Lindsey!

Where was she?

Was she okay?

What happened?

The last thing she remembered was the door swinging open, getting smacked with the gun, and hearing a gunshot…

Oh no…

Had Lindsey been shot?…Was she…?

Oh God…please, no

"Lindsey…" She said in a voice just over a whisper.

"Sara?"

Her eyes shot open, but quickly shut themselves. The bright lights of the room were to much to handle at such a fast pace. She started to panic, who was in the room with her? Well, whoever it was, she felt them reach out and hold her hand, saying "easy now, Sara."

Her fear washed away, she knew who it was.

"Gil." She whispered as she slowly opening her eyes.

"Its me, honey." He smiled, rubbing her cheek with his thumb, careful not to disturb any of her wounds.

Tears burned in her eyes as she leaned up to hug him, but she quickly fell back onto her pillows from the pain that shot through her. He cupped her face with his hand again while the other held her hand tightly.

"I missed you so much." She cried into his hand.

"I missed you too, Sara." He replied, tears forming in his eyes to.

All she wanted to do know was have him hold her and forget about everything that had happened over the past few days, but she needed to know if Lindsey was safe. She pulled away from him, looking him in the eyes.

"Gil," She paused, she wasn't sure if she could handle the answer, "w-where's Lindsey?" she finally asked.

When he didn't answer immediately, she panicked. "Please, please tell me she's okay." She said, tears sliding down her cheeks cried.

Grissom smiled and rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs again. "She's fine, Sara. Bruised up, but fine. Catherine's with her now."

"Thank goodness." Sara cried, covering her hands with her face as Grissom wrapped an arm around her, and ran his fingers through her hair with his free hand.

XX

No words could begin to express the emotions Catherine had felt in the past twenty-four hours.

First there had been fear, and nothing but heart stopping fear.

The fear that she'd never get to see her daughter or friend again, the fear that they'd be to late.

She thought back to the moment at the cabin, when Jacob Collins had shot himself. The bullet had exited his chest and went flying into the closet. The panic she'd felt when she realized Lindsey was hiding there was almost enough to knock her to the floor. There had only been a tiny bit of relief when she saw the bullet hole in the closet wall, a good foot above Lindsey's head.

Then there had been impatience.

The forever lasting ride to the hospital, the hours it seemed to take the doctors to tend to Lindsey and Sara, and the plain annoyance of watching a Swing shift CSI process her daughter (which she was sure Grissom had done when the same one processed Sara). All she wanted to do was hold her, make sure she was okay, but the Swing CSI had strictly said that it would contaminate evidence from Lindsey's body.

To hell with the evidence Catherine had thought, they already had enough to charge them with kidnapping, murder, and god knows what else.

After that came guilt.

It might not have been her fault for getting Lindsey in this (she knew they'd go for her whether she was alone or not), but it was her fault for getting Sara in it. No matter what Grissom, Nick, or anyone else said to her, she felt that this was her fault. It was her fault for asking Sara to watch Lindsey. She wouldn't blame Sara if she wanted to leave the CSI team again. Even if she stayed, she wouldn't be surprised if Sara never spoke to her again.

Now, sitting in the small, white hospital room, watching her daughter's sleeping form, Catherine Willows felt helpless.

She'd done everything within her power to find and rescue her daughter and friend, but now all she could do was wait. All she wanted to do was hold her, but she knew that Lindsey had had little to no sleep in the past few days. She sat for hours, until, finally, Lindsey began to stir. Shortly after, she opened her eyes.

XX

Her eyes may have been closed, but Lindsey was wide awake now. At first, she didn't want to open her eyes; that was the best sleep she'd had in days, and she didn't want it to end. But she didn't know where she was. All she knew was that she was no longer in that dirty old cabin.

After feeling around, she knew for a fact that she was in a bed; not her bed at home, but a bed. She could also smell bleach, and a lot of it. It was also very bright; even with her eyes closed. After listening for a moment, she heard a light beeping from the side of the bed. Was she in a hospital?

Wait, where was Sara? She felt the presence of someone else in the room. She slowly opened her eyes, and she could make out a blurry figure at the side of her bed.

"Sara?" She asked.

"No, Lindsey." A familiar voice responded.

"Mom?" She blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the brightness of the room. After a moment, she could make out the figure next to her. When her eyes adjusted, she saw that it was her mother.

Not Sara. Where was Sara?

Her mind went back to the cabin. The last time she saw Sara was when she was smacked unconscious with by Jacob's gun, and held at gunpoint. Then out of nowhere, Jacob shot himself, and fell to the ground. The rest was blurry, but she recalled the three of them being loaded into an ambulance, and that was it.

"Sshh, it's me, baby." Catherine whispered, running her hand through her daughter's hair. Lindsey didn't respond, she just stared past her mother. All she could think of was Sara, and where she might be.

"Lindsey?" She asked, shaking her slightly, "what's wrong, honey?"

"Where's Sara?" Lindsey asked in a panicky voice.

"Calm down, honey," Catherine said, holding Lindsey's face with her hands, "she's fine, Grissom is with her. She's safe."

Lindsey let out a much needed sigh of relief, and leaned into her mothers welcoming embrace. Mother and daughter held each other tightly, allowing the other to cry for what seemed like an eternity. Lindsey fell asleep in Catherine's arms after some time past. Catherine continued to hold her daughter for a while. But eventually, she too fell asleep.

For the first time in a long time, Catherine felt relieved.

XX

Monday, 7:53 p.m.

It had been hours sense the first time Sara awoke in the hospital. Both she and Grissom had dosed off numerous times, but now, both sat in the hospital room, wide awake.

"Brass is waiting outside," Grissom began, holding his wife's hand, "are you ready to give him a statement?"

She nodded, "I best get it out while it's fresh, y'know?" She forced out a laugh.

"I'll be right back." Grissom rose and walked out the door. She could hear him having a conversation with someone; she assumed Brass, before re-entering, this time with the old, fatherly detective in toe.

"Hey, Sara," he said with a smile, reaching over to hug her as gently as possible.

"Hey, Jim." she smiled back, leaning into his hug.

He paused for a moment, not sure what to say next. How are you feeling? seemed like a dumb question.

So instead, he went with "Are you sure you're ready for this, Sara? If it gets to hard, I'll-"

"Jim, it's fine. I want to get it over with." She assured him.

"Okay.." He sighed. No point in arguing with her now.

"Where do you want me to start?" She asked him.

He pulled out his pin and notepad. "Start back at Catherine's. When did things go wrong? Don't leave out anything."

"Well, Cath had been gone for about an hour when I heard a noise from the back door."

"What kind of noise?"

"A bang." He nodded for her to continue.

"I told Lindsey to go back to her room; she did. I went and grabbed the gun-"

"Gun?" Brass asked.

"Yeah, Catherine showed me where it was before she left." He could detect a just in case in her voice.

"Anyway, I grabbed it, looked around the corner and saw the man running towards me. I went up to Lindsey's room and told her to hide in the closet. I locked the door, and was trying to call it in when…" She trailed off for a moment, "when he kicked the door in."

"Good," Brass said in an encouraging voice, scribbling on his notepad. "What happened next?"

"He made me shut off the phone, and he grabbed by hair and kept asking 'where's the kid?'. When I played dumb, he kicked me in the ribs." She felt Grissom tighten his grip on her hand.

"He asked me again, and when I still didn't tell, he pinned me against the wall and-" The look on Grissom and Brass's faces stopped her cold. She could see mixture anger, surprise, and fear etching it's way onto their faces.

"He tried to strangle me," She said, almost in a reassuring tone. She knew very well what they thought he did to her.

"What next?" Brass sighed.

"Lindsey came running out of the closet and jumped on him. She ripped the mask off his face, and… he rammed her into the wall, then kicked her in her stomach" She watched Brass write on his notepad, then waved his hand for her to go on.

"He got distracted by a noise, and I jumped on him. I smashed his head into the wall and reached for the gun, but someone else put a gun to my head. He took the gun from me. I asked him what he wanted, and he said 'justice'."

"Justice?" Grissom and Brass asked in unison.

"I didn't expect that either." She admitted. "Anyway, before I could respond, he hit me with the gun and I was out." She said, putting a hand on the now bandaged wound on her forehead. "I woke up in the trunk of a car, and Lindsey was beside me. We were both bound. I wasn't awake for long before we stopped. Two guys pulled us out, and when I tried to fight, one said it was useless because we were out in the middle of nowhere. They put us in the corner of a room, then blindfolded us. I heard him say 'say cheese' and heard the camera go off. He walked out of the room and we just sat their until I dosed off..." She said, a hint of guilt in her voice for falling asleep.

"You're doing great, Sara." Grissom assured her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"I woke up and Lindsey was digging her nails into my arm," she pulled up her sleeve and revealed five small cuts. "One of the men; I think his name is Jacob, had unbound both of us and was now trying to pull Lindsey away from me. I kicked him in the face and grabbed Lindsey. He grabbed my hair, but I kicked him in the groin. That stopped him for a while, when he tried to come back a few minutes later, I threatened to do it again, which sent him out of the room. I overheard him and his brother yelling, saying someone put out a broad cast, and then I came up with an idea to try and get us out."

"I explained it to Lindsey-"

"Wait, what was you're plan?"

"Shove anything down the toilet and hope that they were dumb enough to take us to that convenient store they talked about." She said rather plainly.

"Oh," Bras replied in a didn't see that coming tone.

"Well, fortunately, they were. Once we got their we went to the restroom, then, once they began to pay for their items, we looked at the camera by the register. The cashier recognized us and tried to swing hit bat at them, but…" She trailed off.

"It's okay Sara," Brass said, putting a hand on hers; the one Grissom wasn't squeezing, "I saw the tape, tell us what happened once you left."

"They through us in the car, and once we got back to the cabin… they just… went absolutely crazy!" She growled, tears starting to form in her eyes. "They beat the Hell out of us, I tried to protect Lindsey, but," She paused as single tear made it's way down her face, "they were to strong. I felt so horrible."

"It's alright, honey." Grissom whispered as he wiped her tears from her face.

"I can come back later if you'd like," Brass suggested.

"No, I want to get this over with." She took a deep breath before continuing. "We just sat their for the rest of the day, crying ourselves to sleep after a while. Nothing else really happened the rest of the day. But early the next morning Lindsey woke me up and we saw one of them leaving in the car. I knew something was up, but we were both drained and fell back asleep. I woke up later after hearing a loud crash, and what sounded like sirens in the distance. I woke up Lindsey, but then one of them came back in the room, bound us, and through us in the closet. I guess you know the rest." She finished with a long sigh; it felt good to get all that out of her system.

"That was excellent, Sara." Bras smiled after finishing what he was writing on the notepad. He stood and hugged her again. "I'm gonna get Lindsey's statement, and I'll be right back, ok?"

Sara nodded with a small smile. "Wait, Brass!" She called as he opened the door. He turned to face her.

"Tell her I said hi."

TBC!