Insanity of Sara Sidle

For all those who sent in reviews, thank you so much, they are greatly appreciated.

This is the final chapter, I hope it doesn't disappoint.

CBS owns CSI, I just borrow the characters and have some fun with them. No characters were really harmed in the writing of this story.

Chapter 6

The shot flew high into the air, destination unknown, and Sara dropped the gun quickly, looking at it as though she'd just dropped a rattlesnake. She was shaking from the fright of what had almost happened. Her ears were deafened by the shot and the bullet had passed her by, leaving only powder burns around the side of her face and head. Her hearing on the left side abruptly ceased and she looked around at Grissom worriedly.

"Calm down Sara, let me see your face. Looks like a bad burn. Can you hear me Sara? Sara!" He gently grabbed her by the shoulders to get her attention off the gun and used sign language. "Your hearing will return shortly. You broke your leg when you fell down a mineshaft at a crime scene, you were down that shaft for ten hours, you wouldn't let anyone near you and came close to dying down there, subsequently, your mind took refuge inside itself to shield you from the agony but it caused a major problem inside your mind. Your body healed or was healing, but your mind was elsewhere."

"Oh god, I remember parts of it now, I was walking back the SUV when the ground simply disappeared, but not much after that." Her hearing was returning quickly now, but her face felt on fire.

"Damn my face hurts Gil, and my leg is killing me."

"We have to get that leg seen to, let me have a quick look first. Then we'll do something about the burns on your face."

Grissom picked up the weapon then bent to examined her leg, the pressure of her trying to run on it had made it swell, the colour didn't look good, the flexible cloth cast around it now was dirty and ragged, blood and fluids seeped out through the stitches and the cloth. The smell was that of severe infection, short of a decomp, a smell Grissom was familiar with. Grissom winced when he saw it, how she had been able to walk, let alone drive, with that leg was beyond him. A cast had been due to go on the day after Sara escaped the hospital but now they'd have to start over and operate again.

"Do you trust me Sara Sidle?"

"Gil Grissom, yes I trust you, I guess I'd better go back to the hospital, but please, stay with me…."

She didn't finish her sentence as a new wave of pain crashed over her and she passed out in Grissom's arms, the adrenaline that had kept her going finally giving way to the weaknesses in her body. Carefully he laid her on the back seat of his car.

They drove back to the hospital, Sara stretched out on the backseat, her leg elevated. Her doctor raced out with restraints and Grissom growled out his next sentence.

"Get rid of those things NOW, and never let me see them again, otherwise I'm taking her home with me now."

They had to reset her leg in surgery after cleaning the wound. They doctors cleaned her burnt face but some residue would take weeks to work its way out of the pores, the small cuts were also cleaned. They also let her have a different room, one with a nice view. She awoke to find Grissom sleeping beside her, hand in hand. He looked happier, and to her he wasn't creepy anymore. She didn't know how she'd react to anyone else though. Her mind wasn't all that ready to cope but she'd try anyway.

The door opened and in walked Catherine. Instantly Sara felt pangs of fear and anxiety and she cowered. The memory of what she had done to Lindsay creating panic in her. "Sara," said Grissom, "you know Catherine, she's your friend, she's our friend, let her sit with us here."

"No, I hurt her, I hurt Lindsay. I'm sorry Catherine, I didn't mean it, I just, well I don't know. She can't trust me, I don't trust me."

"Dammit Sidle, I feel like killing you for what you did to my daughter, but I don't want to lose my job, or a good friend," her gaze relaxed and smiled.

Catherine's initial reaction was emotional, wanted to physically kill the brunette in the bed, but seeing her cowering in fright she had switched to 'mother' mode and shushed her and held her hand, "Honey it's alright, Lindsay is just fine, shocked of course, and scared but I'll get her to come and see you to explain if that's alright with you. But I have to be with her, she's still afraid of you." Catherine was still angry with Sara, but she understood things a bit better now, Sara wasn't really at fault, she wasn't really Sara at the moment but given time the real Sara would emerge.

Sara actually smiled tentatively. "Yes I know, I'm afraid of me too and, well, your car is kinda looking like a sieve. I found the gun, killed the car, and saved two bullets, one for me and well one for him. But I simply couldn't do it, I couldn't even point it at him. Who am I Catherine? Why am I going insane?"

"You're not going insane Sara, you are coming back from insanity, but it will be slow, everything in your past crept back in on you and sent you over the edge, but Grissom caught you just in time. It's a long road back and your demons must be fought. Yes I still trust you with my life, and Lindsay's life, but it may take you longer to realize that."

Sara was comforted by that and smiled to herself as Catherine brought Lindsay in.

Lindsay stayed away from Sara at first but tried to smile. Sara was shocked to see a cast on Lindsay's arm and felt very guilty.

"I'm so sorry Linds, I hope you can forgive me in time, but you saved me. Your Mom and Uncle Grissom can explain it better than I can, but if you hadn't helped me get free, I'd be gone forever or dead."

Lindsay smiled wider and embraced Sara, who hugged her warmly until both were crying. She knew the real Sara was coming back. "Ya know Sara, that is one wicked tattoo on your face, not very imaginative though, it looks like someone…umm well, oh dear someone did didn't they. Sara?"

"I did Linds, it was an accident though, I fell over. Uncle Gil will tell you all about it some other time, I give him permission to tell you. If your Mom agrees, would you like to introduce me to the rest of the team? I seem to have frightened everyone away even them."

"Sure Sara, I'll go get them, they are happy you are safe and back again, but you'll have a hard time with Nick. He's still getting over his Sidle bites." She said as she departed, leaving Sara to wonder what she meant. 'Sidle bites? Uh oh this doesn't sound good, that means that, sheesh, I bit him? '

Nick, Warrick and Greg came in slowly and waited for Lindsay to introduce them around. Greg laughed when Nick showed Sara the bite marks which looked more like flesh flayed from bone. Nick didn't find it funny, Sara didn't either, she couldn't help but cry again and Nick offered her his shoulder to cry on. She was now having a hard time coping with these guys all in the room together. They were friendly enough, but she couldn't relate to them all at once with all the jumbled memories conflicting inside her. Greg noticed her apprehension.

"Ok Sara, I'm delegated, this will help you remember, my special blend for our special girl."

Sara sniffed the pungent liquid, Blue Hawaiian coffee, she'd recognize that smell anywhere. Pieces of the puzzle started fitting into place. Greg and his loud music and adorable coffee, Warrick who was always there for everyone, regardless of his marriage falling apart. Nick, dear Nicky, he'd saved her life in the desert, he'd found her along with Sofia. Her mind was starting to put itself back on track, everything in it's proper perspective. She started to feel more her old self, but she knew she wasn't her old self, more like a new version. Sara Sidle Mk 2, or as Archie might say, Sara Sidle Version 2.0.

Had something good come out of all of this? She never wanted to hurt anyone, but people got hurt because of her. It made her come to a serious decision, one which she had to think hard about. She told Grissom about it when he took her home from hospital.

"I think I'll either quit CSI or take a leave of absence and go back to San Francisco for a while, I can spend my days on the beach and get my life back on track properly, then maybe look for a new direction in my life," she told Grissom early one morning.

"Sara, I don't know that that is the right thing to do, I want you with me, not in another state sitting on a beach worrying if you'll get over things. At least discuss it with the shrink first before you make the decision ok?"

"Ok Gil, you could be right, I'm just not sure what is right and what might tip me over again, be it could be another DB or another maniac holding a knife at my throat."

"If you must quit, then marry me, then we can be together and I'll protect you."

She smiled. "Gil Grissom is that a proposal? If so I accept, although it may not be legal if I'm not in my right mind. I'll say yes, but I won't quit for now, see where things take us."

Time passed and Sara regained control, total control over her mind. It was now stronger and nothing could hurt her again, she had a protector and she was going to be Mrs Gil Grissom. She also remained as a CSI and moved to swing. She was happy, he had chased away her demons….for now at least.

The End.

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