"I got it!" Greg came storming into the office. "I mean, we got it..." He looked at Warrick.
"No joking now, Greg!" Grissom warned him.
"Check this out, before they came to San Francisco, the Sidles lived in Vegas!" His voice was filled with exitement.
"Okay good. Nick, get the car. Everyone come with me." He looked over at the screen and at Catherine. "Would you mind-" He started.
"Not at all...Go!" He hurried out of the office followed by the rest, exept for Catherine. She was glad she could stay here. Not that she didn't want to find Sara. She just wanted to know more about Stan's plan.
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Sara, Russ and Josh were still listening to Stan. They hadn't moved a muscle ever since he had started talking.
"So everything went so well..." Stan continued. "Matt was slowly distroing you guys, and Laura was slowly distroing herself...Soon Matt would be all mine again...But then something went wrong!" He stopped to think.
Josh knew what went wrong. He found it hard to listed to Stan. He knew he was hurting Russ and Sara with his story. He couldn't stand them being hurt. They were his best friends. He whished Stan would just stop. Be he knew he wouldn't.
"Matt wanted to stop...he said he wanted to change...he couldn't stand seeing his kids like this! I couldn't let that happen...I was losing Matt more and more...he wasn't listening to me anymore...and then it came to the point where I didn't want him anymore...he was ruining everything! I was losing him..." He closed his eyes. "And then I thought that if I couldn't have him, then I could at least hurt the ones that made me lose him...I needed to hurt you guys...I couldn't think of any other way..."
Sara felt tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe it was him all the time. She hated her parents so much for doing what the did. She couldn't believe it. She was so close to a normal life all that time. If only Stan wouldn't have been there...
"I called Laura...asked her if she still wanted to help her kids, and herself. Of course she did...I didn't expect any other answer. I told her that the only way to solve the problem, was to get rid of the problem itself. Matt needed to die!" He was holding back tears for what he had done. "She needed to kill him...I convinced her she needed to kill him...and then she did it!" He lowered his head in shame...
Sara was walking down the street. She was on her way home from her boksing training. Russ and she had just turned fourteen a
few weeks ago.
She reached the frontdoor and tried to sneak up the stairs as silent as possible. She didn't want her dad to know she was home. It was just another day and he would probably be home, drunk.
When she was upstairs she heared something. It was yelling. But this time it was not the usual yelling of her dad and her or Russ. No, this time it was her dad and Laura!
She couldn't remember the last time Laura had looked at her. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed. She had never seen her smile. For all she knew, Laura had never even spoken a word. So to hear her yelling at her dad, that was just really strange.
Something was wrong. There was this tention in the air. Not the usual tention, that surrounded her house. No, this time it was much stronger.
She ran to Russ's room, but it was empty. She was scared. Together they could do a lot. But when they were apart, they were just two small kids.
Se tried to hear where the yelling was coming from. Their dad's bedroom.
She quickly ran towards the door. She had never been in her dad's room before. She just wouldn't dare to open the door. She was always afraid that she would get caught and all hell broke lose.
She opened the door slowly. It took a while to process the immage in front of her. She thought it looked like she was in a horror movie, only this was real.
Her dad was lying against the wall and Laura stood over him with a knife in her hand. Sara blinked a few times. There was no way this was really happening!
She tried to blink as hard as she could, but unlike in the movies, the horrible immage didn't fade away into air. Instead, it settled itself deep into her head and heart.
She looked at her father. He looked scared. He had the same look they had on their faces when he came closer. She didn't see any blood on his shirt. She felt releaved, she wasn't too late!
She saw that Laura was lifing the knife above her head. She could feel a wave of panic go through her body. Within seconds Laura would have lifted the knife high enough and bringing it down with all the strength she had.
Sara thought quickly. She knew she was too far away from Laura to stop her. But she couldn't let her father be killed!
Then she saw Russ standing next to Laura. She felt releaved for a moment, but then she saw in his eyes that he wasn't going to stop her. It was too late for her, but for him it wasn't!
"Russ!" She screamed. "Russ, do something... stop her!" Panic came through her voice, but Russ didn't seem to hear her. He didn't move a muscle. She had never felt a bigger distance between them. It was like the time had stopped for him, but for her it went on in high-speed.
She saw the knife was now above Laura's head. She tried once more. This was her last chance.
"Russ, please!" She felt a tear running over her cheek, when she saw it was too late. She felt so powerless, she was so powerless.
She tried to scream when Laura stabbed her father. One, two, three, four times. Even though she hadn't given her brain the order to cound the stabbes, it did.
She opened her mouth but there was no sound coming out of it. She felt dizzy and she looked at Russ, who had fallen to the ground and was crying and skaking with his hands covering his ears. The way he always did when he was scared.
She couldn't see Laura or her dad. It was like they were disappeared into the air. Though she could feel their pressence all around her.
The time seemed to have stopped for her too, untill the police came and got them out of the house. She hadn't even noticed herself calling them. Her brain and her body weren't working together anymore.
Before she knew it her legs had carried her outside. She stood next to Russ. They weren't speaking, crying, screaming. They did nothing. It was like they were frozen.
Josh had come out of his house when he saw the police stopping at his friends' place. He didn't know what to say, he was chocked, just like Russ and Sara. They hadn't said a word since the sound of the knife, sucking the life out of their father, had gone through their ears.
Suddenly Laura came out of the house. She was handcuffed and the policemen were pushing her in the direction of the car. She looked at her children when she walked past them. Sara saw the tears in her eyes, but she didn't believe they were sad tears.
Laura opened her mouth to speak. And Sara waited for those particular words to come out: I love you. That was all she wanted. She just wanted someone to tell her she was good, that it wasn't her fault. But Laura's mouth closed before letting any words out.
Sara turned her head away from Laura, she was so disapointed. She didn't want to see her ever again!
Russ just stared at nothing in particular, with empty eyes. He was locked inside his head. He was thinking of things to say, but he couldn't think clear.
When Laura was put in the car Josh laid a hand on Sara's shoulder, who was shaking. She felt her sadness flow away and make place for anger.
"Why didn't you do anything?" Her voice was low and husky. She stood in front of Russ, with her arms crossed in front of her. She just needed to yell at someone. She usually went to the gym when she was feeling like this. But this time it was just too much to hold untill she was in the gym.
It took him a moment for Russ to aswer, because he needed to find his voice first. "I...I didn't... I didn't want to... I mean, I wanted to do something...I-" He stammered.
He was prepared himself for screaming, yelling and worse things. And unlike that night when they were ten, there was screaming, yelling and maybe even worse things.
"You were supposed to stop her! Why didn't you stop her?!" She stepped closer. He didn't back away. He couldn't back away from his sister. He knew what she was doing. She just needed someone to shout at. He wanted to be that person for her, he wanted to help her. But he didn't know if he was strong enough not to believe in all the horrible things she was about to say to him.
"Maybe you need to calm down a bit?" Josh offered, but Sara didn't even hear him. He knew he should let them alone, but he couldn't help himself.
She started crying. "Why Russ... Why?" She asked him desparately. She was shaking, not from anger this time, but from crying.
"Calm down, please. Everything is over now... it'll be much better... I promise." He could only whisper. He wanted to grab her hand, but she quickly pulled it away.
"How could you say that! You just don't understand, do you? This is just the beginning!" She made huge movements with her arms. "It'll only get worse!" She wanted him to understand. Couldn't he see that this wasn't right?
Russ opened his mouth to say something, but the first moment no sound came out of it.
"I really wanted to do something! But I just couldn't move! I was too scared, Sara. What did you expect me to do? She had a knife in her hand!" He tried to defend himself against her words. He wasn't strong enough. He wanted to be the one she could release her anger on, she could shout at. But he wasn't strong enough not to listen to her words.
"You weren't scared! You just were a coward, a chicken!" More tears streamed down her cheeks as she started hitting him on the chest with her fists. "Just...like...Laura!" With every word she hit him. Her voice was low and she tried to make her last words sound as mean as possible. She didn't want to be here any longer. It hurt too much. She needed to go, now!
Russ saw the look in her eyes. She was going to run. He tried to grab her arm, but it was too late. She was already running away from him. He had ruined it. Tears fell out of his eyes. His knees were getting weaker. And before he could colapse on the ground, Josh catched him.
"It's okay, man..." He said as he hugged his friend. "She didn't mean it... it's okay..." He rubbed Russ's back as he cried...
A tear ran down Sara's cheek. There wasn't a night that had gone past without that nightmare. The immages of that night kept playing in her head over and over when she was at home, alone. The only reason she was such a workaholic was because she was trying to escape from her past, that was haunting her. The only reason she was so angry was because of what Laura had done.
Russ saw one of her tears fall onto the floor. His own eyes were filled with them, too. He couldn't believe it was Stan all that time. If only they had known...
"I knew I had to take care of you from then... Matt was gone...Laura was gone...you were the only ones left..." No one really listened to him anymore. They were all drowning in their own memories of that night. "I figured if I just left you guys, you would just die...You were young...you couldn't take care of yourselves, I thought..." Tears ran down his cheeks as well. "I was wrong...I was so wrong to underestimate you guys like that...You were much stronger than I thought, much stronger..."
Maybe we're not as strong as you think, Sara thought as she tried to whipe her tears away.
"You were getting older and older...and I kept telling myself to wait...If I waited long enough you would die, that's what I kept telling myself. But deep in my heart I knew you weren't going to die...Maybe I just didn't want you to..." His voice faded away. He cried harder now. "And I have considered to go back, to go and kill you, so many times. But I just couldn't do it..." He was shaking.
Sara knew it was over. He wasn't going to kill them. She could feel it. Suddenly all of her fears were gone and she could move again. She slowly walked backwards untill she felt a warm hand reaching out for hers. She looked to the right and found Russ, staring into nothing.
The tears on his cheeks spoke more than all the words he had ever said. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Josh was standing next to her. He couldn't think of anything to say, so this was the best way to tell her he was sorry.
"And now you're here. Both of you, and a friend, too..." Stan looked at Josh. "And I had planned to do it...I had so many uppertunities...but I just couldn't...you're the only thing that reminds me of my brother...and...I just can't..."
Suddenly the door was unlocked, flew open and a few policemen came in. They immediately grabbed Stan, who didn't even struggle.
Russ let go of Sara's hand and looked at her. They were saved! He wanted to laugh, but he could only cry. But they were tears of joy.
He hugged her first and then Josh. Sara saw Grissom, Nick, Greg and Warrick come through the door. She knew they would find her somehow! She quickly whiped away the tears that remained on her cheek with the back of her hand.
"Are you okay?" Nick asked. The question was not specially meant for her, but for all three of them.
They nodded. Sara was the first one to find her voice. "Em...I'd like you to meet my brother, Russ..." She said as she pointed at him. "And this is Josh...em..." She looked at him before saying: "He saved my life once..." Russ and Josh laughed. And they were surprised to find Greg laughing along...
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Yes, Greg was there watching the tape when Sara and Josh argued about him having "saved" her life (just making sure you get it...). I really really hope you liked it! I had such a great time writing the story, but I'm also glad that it's over...See, the longer you write, the more time there is to ruin it! I just think it shouldn't go any further. This is a nice end for it. I'll be back writing an other story soon. I think I'm going to write one where they are in high school. I think that would be fun. I just hope you don't forget to review my last chapter...Thanks to all the people who have read the story... and also thanks to all the reviewers once again. I'm looking forward to hearing for you when I'm writing a new story. Thank you so much.
Love Lily.
It was like the time had stopped for him, but for her it went on in high-speed...