Chapter 8 – The boy with the thorn in his side

The paramedics were checking on Junior. He never let go of Sara's hand. It was the only way to keep him quiet. Since they'd found him, Sara was stuck with him. Brass was marvelled with Sara and her skills with children. She was always saying that she wasn't good with kids, but the sight in front of him was another story. Sara calmed the boy quickly and was talking to him all the time, saying things to distract him from what the paramedics were doing him.

They had brought the boy to the hospital. There was a doctor examining him. The boy was dehydrated, and had little contusions on the back. He had been abused, and that made Sara angrier. She took photographs of his wounds. Every flash was a painful memory to her. She hated cases like this, she always hated them.

Sara was now outside of the room, on the phone talking to Catherine to take over from the child, but to Brass it was a lost battle. Meanwhile a psychologist was trying to speak with the boy unsuccessfully.

"Catherine, I can't take care of him! I'm at the hospital right now and I need to go to the Lab to process some evidences I found! I just can't do this!" Brass heard the exasperate tone of the brunette.

"Sara, it's only a child, for God's sake!" The blonde replied over the phone. "He won't bite you"

"You are the person with people's skills. Not me!" She tried not to be heard by the boy who was now seated on a stretcher, with his eyes lost on the floor. He didn't say much apart of his name. "I'm not good with kids! What am I suppose that I have to do with this boy, bring him to the Lab"

"Nobody is telling you to adopt him, only to take care of him until Child Services arrives" Catherine was turning angrier by the time. The conversation started about five minutes ago and she needed bring it to an end.

"You are the one with a child, you should be here, not me" She said coldly to the phone.

"Sara, you were good with Brenda Collins the first year you came. I don't see what the problem is with this kid!"

"I wasn't good with her. I didn't do anything" She replied, remembering how the little girl had trusted her. She only was there for her. Even now every week Child Services informed her about the progress on Brenda.

"Then do nothing!" Catherine said aloud.

"I…" Sara said, but she then heard a click and the communication ended "Hello?" She stared at her phone just to verify that Catherine had hung up on her. "I can't believe this! She just hung up on me!" She said in disbelief to Brass who shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Believe it or not you are good with kids, Sara. Everybody knows it. You made it with the Collins' case."

"Don't start you too." She pointed a finger to him as a warning. She was furious with Catherine and to the man who left a boy in a closet during who knows how much time. The doctors informed them that the boy was dehydrated and in a catatonic state. They gave him some medicines and with Sara's help they could change him in other clothes. Sara took his old clothes and put them into a bag to process it when she'll return to the Lab.

She stared at the boy. He was lost somewhere in his mind. She didn't know how to treat him. 'It's only a child, for god's sake!' Catherine's words echoed in her head. She only needed to stay with him for a couple of hours maybe and Child Services will take care of him. "That look…" she thought to herself "That's the same look I had. He knows that her dad is dead, in some way he knows"

She kneeled in front of the boy and took his hand in hers. He lifted his head and looked at her in the eyes. She could feel all the sadness, pain, terror and…she couldn't put a finger on it, but there was hope and pleading too. It was just a look full of sentiments.

"Come on, Carl. Seems like you're gonna be stuck with us for a while" she said with the shadow of a smile on her lips.

"You can ride with me, Sara. An officer will take care of your car" Brass said softly to the brunette. She didn't like the idea of someone else driving her car, but it was the only way to drive it back to the police station with the boy.

"Ok" She said, never leaving the eyes of the boy. They, slowly, stood up and exited the hospital entrance heading to Brass's car. She opened the back door and guide Junior in, she then entered with him, never leaving his hand.

Brass drove them to the police station. Through the rear-view mirror he contemplated the two of them. The look in their eyes was the same. It broke his heart to see them. He could remember vividly Sara's look being exactly the same at one moment and that was when Suzanne Kirwood was murdered. She was so lost, like the child who was seated next to her.

The ride was completely silent. Neither of them dared to break the silence. There were a million of thoughts crossing their minds. The first ones that crossed Sara's, was where was the boy's mother and why he was left alone in the apartment being so young.

The boy's tears were dry now and they had left cleaning lines on his cheeks. He looked through the window to the traffic of Las Vegas. He was watching the sunset with melancholy. He knew that something bad happened but he didn't know what it was. He couldn't think of anything. His mind was full of sadness. He rested his head on Sara's arm who was watching through the window as well. When she felt the weight in her arm she didn't turn her head to the boy. She wasn't mad at him. She was mad at the world in general, because this world allowed that kind of situations.

When they arrived at the station, they went directly to Brass' office. There Carl Roth's son lie on the couch that so many times the captain had used, when he didn't want to go back to an empty house. Finally the boy was sleep.

Brass and Sara watched him closely. The clothes that the paramedics gave them were too large for him. His sleep seemed calm but full of nightmares.

Sara broke the silence that was set since they had left the hospital. "We need to contact her mother"

"I checked before we left" he made a dramatic pause "She died a month ago"

"Any relatives?" Sara asked full of concern.

"No, that we know of"

A sigh full of sadness was the only response of the brunette. During the brief talk, neither of them broke the contact eye with the child. He was now an orphan, and soon Child Services would take care of him. Sara knew what it was like to be on the system, and she hoped this little boy will go to a home full of love and comprehension.

After a long silence, Sara looked at Brass and informed him that she was going to process all the evidence found in the apartment and asked him to call her if the boy woke. She didn't tell him that she was going to check the child's underwear to see if it belonged to Junior. She needed to be alone, so she went to the restroom and sat on the toilet. That's when she silently started to cry for the boy, for her father, and for all the memories that infest her mind.

TBC

The boy with the thorn in his side - The Smiths from the album "The Queen is dead" (1986)