Thanks for the replies.
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The girl from the Gas N' Go quickly unlocked the door as a stream of police cars, trucks and SUVs blazed into the parking lot, lights flashing.
She noticed a brown haired man jump out of the passenger side of one of the SUVs before it had even completely stopped. She opened the door to introduce herself, but the man was quick.
"Nick Stokes, CSI," he flashed his ID card. "What exactly happened?"
Quickly the rest of the team, along with Brass and Sophia, as well as a few other officers, piled into the Gas N' Go waiting to hear what had happened, first hand.
She picked up the CSI card with the bloodied print. "She left this. She made sure that I saw her when she put it under this box," she wandered down the candy aisle. "The guy she was with was preoccupied with finding some munchies."
"What did he say? Did she say anything?"
"I got the feeling that she couldn't. He wouldn't leave her alone. The only time that they were apart was when she was in the bathroom. I heard her throwing up and assumed that maybe she needed some help. He was standing right outside the bathroom door, like he was standing guard. Said it was morning sickness that lasted all day. She was pretty pale."
Sophia went to the rest stop bathroom and glanced inside looking for anything that Sara may have left behind, but came up empty.
Nick clenched his fists at the idea of him discussing Sara like she were pregnant -- with his child. It was bad enough that he'd raped her once, but the idea that he could do it again . . . no words could describe how horrible the thought was. But at least rape was about violence. Expecting a child . . . to Nick, that signified intimacy. And love.
"She's sick, probably the flu," Catherine said to the girl, placing a hand on Nick's arm to calm him as best she could.
"Other than that, they said that they were a couple. Well, he said, anyway. Mentioned getting hitched in Vegas. They weren't wearing rings, and when I had mentioned it, he seemed to get really nervous and I thought he was going to explode. A little vein on the side of his neck started throbbing. She jumped in and said that they couldn't afford rings. All they had was each other. And their baby. She didn't really speak like she was happy, or mad, or anything. Just kind of like she was indifferent."
Warrick glanced at Grissom. "Probably threatening to hurt her. Or someone else."
"He seemed almost relieve that she'd jumped in," she shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, then they left. Headed north."
"What were they driving?"
"An old Chevy. I don't know the year."
The sound of a large, detailed road map was heard as Greg unfolded the paper and spread it across the counter. "We're here," he pointed to the X he'd marked on the map while on the drive. If they headed North, there are no other roads for 80 miles."
"Have you seen any traffic headed south, back towards Vegas, since they left?"
"Only big rigs," she shook her head.
Ecklie stepped into the building. Even though he was the Supervisor of the department now, Sara was one of his employees. He needed to be there. If for no other reason than to say that the department did everything they could to save one of their own.
"Let's go," Nick said as he headed for the door.
"Nick, they've had a huge head start -"
"She's out there!" he shouted at the team. "She's out there, alone with a guy whose already hurt her once, and he'll do it again."
"We understand," Jim said, trying to stay calm. The professional part of him wanted to follow protocol. But the personal side of him wanted to damn it all to hell and go out there, guns blazing -- just to bring Sara back. "But he's had a massive head start, Nick. And it doesn't take long to drive 80 miles per hour when you're speeding. There are tons of access roads up North. They could've taken any of them. We could just end up getting farther away."
"Well, as it stands, they're getting farther away from us, and Sara is getting closer and closer to only God knows what this guy has planned for her!"
"Nick, I know that you and Sara are close, but -"
"Close?" his face contorted and his eye brows furrowed. He looked Grissom square in the eye. It was then that he realized he was letting his emotions get the best of him. He knew that if he had any chance at all of getting Sara back, unharmed, he had to think logically. As logically as his heart and brain would allow. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I'm going after her. If you feel that you have to stay here to get her back, you do that. But I'm going to follow my heart. And it's telling me that if I don't go after her now, she's never coming home."
Grissom nodded his head in understanding.
"Must I remind you that it is against department policy?" Ecklie said, stone faced. "If any one of you take this matter into your own hands, it'll go before the review board. And chances are, you'll loose your jobs."
"Sara's life is worth loosing my job for," Nick said as he walked briskly through the door towards the Denali.
"Mine too," Warrick responded, sprinting after Nick. He was in no condition to be driving.
Greg nodded his head curtly at Ecklie as he moved towards the door.
Ecklie looked at Gil and Catherine. "I sure hope the two of you know better. You've spent years getting to where you are now. Are you willing to risk loosing your jobs?"
Catherine nodded her head, as did Grissom. "If the review board wants to fire us all for insubordination, that's fine. But I highly doubt they'll take action when an entire team tries to rescue one of their own. Besides, there is a reason that the Las Vegas lab is number two in the country. And you're watching the team that gave the lab that status walk out of that door."
Grissom smirked. It was all he could do as the look of shock washed across the department managers features. He glanced at Catherine. "We're wasting time standing here."
She nodded her head and the two of them were off, jumping into the Denali that they'd driven up in.
"Can you believe that?" he asked stunned, turning to watch the Denali tail lights disappear as they sped down the paved road that the State called a Highway.
Sophia smirked at her one time supervisor. He may have hated Grissom, but he always shared one major thing in common with the man who loved bugs: His inability to see the human condition when it comes to those one cares about. Sara was one of them. She was a CSI, she was a person who upheld the law. She was a woman who'd forged friendships and created a family with her co-workers. Willing to live and die by the breath the other took.
Ecklie turned to her and Brass. "We at least the two of you have the God given sense to-"
"I think we have a lead to follow," Brass interrupted him.
"No time to waste," she agreed, quickly following Brass to the newly issued Dodge Charger.
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Nick sat in the passenger side of the Denali as Warrick sped north on the paved Highway. "Come on!" he urged under his breath. He knew that Warrick was pushing the Denali's limits and if they went any faster, they ran the risk of the motor blowing. And that was just a problem that could not happen.
"We're going to get there in time, man," Warrick encouraged him, though he knew his voice sounded more confident than he felt.
"Sara's strong," Greg continued. "She's going to fight with everything that she has. She's going to be fine."
"She has to be," Nick's voice wavered a little as a stray tear trailed down his cheek. "She just has to be."
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40 miles up the road
Sara was groggy when she heard sounds of shattering glass. She whimpered in pain, trying to move her arm, but it was really sore. The more she tried to move it, the worse it hurt. She tried to move her other hand up to her forehead where she felt some warm blood trickling, but she felt her body being yanked out of a small space . . . the shards of glass that she'd heard shattered piercing the thin cotton that covered her body making irregular scratches. Some of the glass embedding itself into her skin, drawing more blood.
She glanced up at Kevin, her mind barely registering what had happened. But she was able to figure out that the truck at rolled, finally stopping in the ditch on its roof. The sound of the glass breaking had been Kevin breaking the passenger side window in because the door was jammed. He'd yanked her out of the vehicle by her hair through the small, freshly broken window.
"GOD DAMMIT!" he cursed, yanking her to her feet.
Sara could smell the scent of gasoline and noticed a spark threatening to ignite a fire. "It's gonna blow," she whispered, taking a few steps away from the wreckage.
"Nah, uh," he spat angrily. "You aren't going anywhere." He roughly pulled against him, and then grabbed the knife that was still firmly embedded in his pocket.
"Wh . . . what are you dong?" she breathed, starting down at the blade, the moonlight catching the metal.
"What I've been waiting 16 years for," he grinned, his eyes once again dead.
Suddenly, Sara remembered back to the day that she'd had her meeting with the financial planner. The guy at the diner. The one who was creeping her out and telling her to sit on his lap since they'd get along so well . . . Nick had come up and saved her, inviting her to join him and his family . . . but the guy . . . it had been Kevin.
"You don't want to do this," she shook her head, cursing herself when a tear fell from her eye. Then another.
"Oh? And why not?"
"You said yourself that you don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison."
"Once I'm done with you, you won't be talking," he smiled even larger now.
"But you don't have any way of getting out of here. The truck is going to explode. You can do whatever you want to me, but you'll leave trace evidence everywhere when you try to get away. And they'll find it. I know they will. And that's assuming that no one comes along and see's you . . . and me. What would you do then?"
His lips formed a rigidly straight line as he contemplated what she was saying.
"I know that you carefully thought things through before," she said, "but if you do this here, now, without a plan, you'll mess up and they'll get you."
BOOM The truck exploded, and the force of gas igniting and the truck going up caused a back draft that threw Kevin and Sara to the ground.
"See, now you're totally stuck," Sara shook her head. She knew that if he wanted, he could rape and murder her right there in the ditch and then walk into the bushes and disappear, but she didn't have any other option.
"SHUT UP!" he commanded, quickly regaining control of the situation as he rolled on top of her, pawing at the tank top she was wearing, ripping one shoulder, exposing a portion of her sports bra. He was trying to make quick work of the draw string pants, but she fought back, kneeing him in the groin.
"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" he yelled, grabbing an ankle as she tried to crawl away from him, dragging him back under her. He started to pummel her when he saw the lights of a vehicle approaching. "FUCK!" he looked up to see a single Mazda 3 coming to a stop.
"OH MY GOD!" the girl shrieked. "Are you two OK?!" she jumped down into the ditch to try and help
"FINE!" He yelled, motioning for her to stay up there, but she didn't listen.
"Oh, Jesus!" the girl gasped.
Sara looked up into the framiliar eyes of Lindsay Willows. She blinked back the tears and managed to shake her head to Lindsay, silently hoping and praying that she wouldn't give away the fact that they knew each other.
Kevin yanked Sara to her feet once again. "Looks like I have two victims, now," he laughed. He held Sara against his chest, his arm around her throat as his other hand reached out to graze Lindsay's cheek with the blade of the knife. "Not really my taste, but what the hell? Maybe I've been missing something all these years . . . do blonds really have more fun?" he asked.
"Let her go," Sara weazed. "She's just a . . . kid."
"I think I may have found our getaway car," he sneered. Now his plan wasn't shot to hell after all. He managed to get them all out of the ditch and onto the road, he and Sara nearing the Mazda.
"Get in the car," he motioned for Lindsay to get in the back seat. But the girl stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do.
Suddenly, Sara found some strength and stomped on his foot, taking his gaze away from Lindsay.
"RUN!" she yelled to Lindsay. The girl had become like a little sister to Sara and she was willing to do whatever it took to get Lindsay out of harms way.
Without hesitation, the young girl took off for the brush, throwing a glance over her shoulder at Sara as she struggled with the strange man that held the knife.
Lindsay ran into the brush and crouched down to look back at what was going on when she was a safe distance away, sure that if she needed, she could run and keep a safe distance between her the dangerous man. She watched, flinching as he pummeled Sara's body time and again, slapping and punching, twisting her obviously sore arm, her heart breaking each time she heard Sara cry out in pain . . . Then he pushed her into the now open trunk of the car, slamming the lid behind her.
The man turned to look towards the brush and Lindsay dropped her head as far down as she could, so not to be seen.
"I'll worry about that little bitch later," he murmured, heading towards the drivers seat. "Dumb, too," he smirked, "doesn't she know that if she leave the keys in the ignition someone can drive away with her car?"
He quickly turned the car around so they would continue to head north, but purposefully steered the car roughly so that Sara's small body which was already wedged in the trunk tightly, would jar with the movements.
"Shit," she cried, in complete darkness, grabbing at wires in the trunk and furiously pulling at them. She knew that if anyone saw a car without break lights, it might raise some red flags. Once the wires were successfully yanked from their place, she started feeling around for anything to use to save herself with . . . .
"God, please let Lindsay be OK," she cried . . . .
TBC . . . .
A/N: Suddenly, Sara remembered back to the day that she'd had her meeting with the financial planner. The guy at the diner. The one who was creeping her out and telling her to sit on his lap since they'd get along so well . . . Nick had come up and saved her, inviting her to join him and his family . . . but the guy . . . it had been Kevin. This is happened in chapter 1.
