Chapter 15 – The Note

"Sara I want you to look after yourself. Warrick said he is going to go visit Catherine so you don't have to stay. I want you to find out where Lindsay is and go and pick her up once Warrick gets there. Tell her Catherine is in the hospital but try not to scare her," Grissom told her.

"Ok," Sara said nervously and hung up. Lindsay had never met Sara before and knew it might take awhile to get her to go with her. She went back into Catherine's room and sat down with her until Warrick got there.

He arrived about 20 minutes later and burst into the room, hugging Catherine as soon as he got there. Catherine had told Sara where Lindsay was so she headed out as soon as Warrick got there. She followed Catherine's directions and pulled up to the house 20 minutes later. Catherine has called Natalie's mom and told her that Sara would be picking Lindsay up. When she got there, like Sara had suspected, she was reluctant to go with her, but Sara told her she would take her straight to her mom and they were off.

Lindsay asked a lot of questions on the way to the hospital, but Sara tried not to tell her too much, in fear of scaring her. She was very anxious to see her mom and Sara tried to drive as fast as she could to fulfill that wish.

When they got to the hospital, Lindsay held Sara's hand all the way to Catherine's room. When she got there she burst into tears and ran to her mother. She jumped up onto the bed and hugged her mom for a long time, not wanting to let go.

"Thanks for picking her up," Catherine whispered when Sara sat down beside her again. Sara just smiled her answer. She knew if she spoke she would cry again.

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Sara stayed a little while longer. Sara offered to take Lindsay in for the next few days because she had to stay in the hospital. Catherine was reluctant to impose at first, but Sara insisted. She took Lindsay to Catherine's place first to pack up a few things then drove her to her place.

Sara was quiet for most of the drive. She couldn't help but think, what if it was her? What if they had gotten to her first? What if Charlotte was left without a mom and a dad? The thought alone made her shudder.

Sara had told Lindsay about Charlotte and that Lindsay could sleep in her room if she wanted. Lindsay was excited to meet Charlotte, but when she got to Sara's house; both she and Charlotte acted shy.

Jeff greeted her with a kiss that Sara was still trying to avoid. She had tried her best not to think about last night, but Jeff seemed to think he had made it exceptional for her. Sara was a little relieved when he said he had to leave. Sara brought Lindsay and Charlotte into the playroom to play some games. Within about 15 minutes the girls were best friends and Sara left them alone to make some lunch.

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Catherine's S.A.E. kit went into the lab and was tested by the time Sara got into the lab that night. It turned out she hadn't been raped and everyone was very relieved at that. Sara had already given her statement that there had been two men which stumped everyone. Sara was sure there had only been one guy for all the others, so having two with Catherine was definatly puzzling.

Catherine had also given her statement of what she remembered. Sara had been there for it and there was no way she would ever forget it. Catherine had been attacked from behind and another man had come around and hit her in the face. She had kicked the one behind her and punched the one in front of her before running into her house and locking the door. She was going to run out the back door but one of the men went to the door and had tried to break in that way. She had run up the stairs and had hid in the closet, and called Sara. She had stayed there and then the man had smashed the window and gotten in. It had only taken them a few minutes to find her in the closet and throw her on the bed. They had ripped off her clothes and taken a knife to cut her. One had held her down while the other cut her stomach enough to cause pain, but not enough to let her bleed out. By that time they had punched her again and she was having problems staying conscious and that when she heard Sara come into the room.

"You saved my life," she had whispered when she got to that part in the story. Sara didn't say anything. Just squeezed her hand and gave her a small smile.

Nick was very concerned, not only about Catherine, but about Sara. She was very spaced out ever since she had found Catherine and he was worried that she was too stressed.

"I'm fine," was the only thing she would give him. Of coarse he never believed it, but he always let it go. For awhile anyway.

Lindsay didn't really know what was going on, but she was happy when her mom got out of the hospital. Her and Charlotte had had a blast having three sleepovers in a row and they were really becoming good friends. Lindsay and Charlotte went to the same school so it was easy for Sara to get them to school and back for the three days Catherine was in the hospital.

There weren't really any new leads in the case until the first day Catherine came back to work. Everyone was working double and triple shifts to get this guy (or guys) behind bars and they were all coming up with nothing. But the day Catherine came in again, an envelope arrived at the lab for her. She opened it in the break room before shift started, only to scream and jump back.

"What?" Sara, Nick, and Warrick all asked at the same time.

"It…its f-from him," she whispered, stepping back and pressing her back against the wall, as far away from the letter as she could get. Warrick picked up two pens and used them to open the letter. Sara and Nick read it with him.

'How dare you interrupt me?! Soon. It's coming soon. I will get her. I will get you back for this, and now the price is higher. And you will have to pay.'

Sara looked at Nick. They looked back at Catherine. She had her back pressed against the wall and her hands wrung in front of her chest. She looked like she might cry.

"I'll get this to QD," Nick said after a moment. He snapped on a latex glove and left as Warrick went over to her to comfort Catherine. He wrapped his arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. Sara looked at the pair. Again she thought, "what if it was me?" She couldn't bear to think about it. She couldn't even imagine the pain Catherine was going through. She walked over and put a hand on her back, trying to comfort her. As she did Catherine's strong exterior melted and she broke down in Warrick's arms and cried.