I'm Back
Chapter 6
Sara I can't just sit here and wait for you to die, I want to take a chance and start driving ok? She must have driven about an hour when she stopped the truck. "I guess the GPS is worthless if there are no roads for it to direct us to."
"Sure it will Cat. Turn left at next sand dune then right after the 3rd cactus. Works for me all the time."
"Ha ha funny one Sidle. Do you have any suggestions? Concrete suggestions that may get us out of here."
"Have you checked phone reception? My phone is in my bag under the seat."
Catherine felt under the seat until she found Sara's purse. She pulled the phone out and was not surprised when it said there was no service. "No service. Maybe we should tell Ma Bell that they need to erect some towers out here in the middle of nowhere so we can get service out here. I'm sure if we told them of our plight when we get back they'll listen to us."
"Cat, sarcasm does not become you. What time is it?"
"It's about 6:00 p.m. why?"
"Well I usually go into work at about this time and Greg will show up in about an hour so maybe he'll get worried and try to find us. He'll see your car in the parking lot and know something is wrong because you never come into work early." Her voice was fading by the time she finished talking and she was getting tired.
"Sara, hey, wake up, come on sweetie wake up for me. Come on baby open those beautiful brown eyes for me. Come on Sara get mad and fight for your damn life."
Sara just barely opened her eyes. "So you think I have beautiful eyes huh?"
"Yes Sara you have beautiful eyes and I want you to keep them open."
"What do I get if I do? Can I have a kiss?" Catherine watched as Sara passed out. All she could do is watch as the woman she loved lay there.
"Alright Sara, I guess you are going to be useless in helping me get us out of here. Adorable but useless so what are we going to do about it?" She thought she heard something in the distance so she gently moved Sara's head from her lap and got out of the truck. She shaded her eyes so she could look in the direction the sound was coming from and almost started crying when she saw a helicopter heading in their direction. When she saw it land about 50 yards away she did start crying. She knelt down at the back door of the Denali. "Sara come on baby, help is here. Sweetie wake up." She checked the bandage and was surprised to see blood seeping through the bandage. "Damn Sara come on wake up. Don't you dare die on me. I don't want to live without you." Tears were streaming down her face when she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see Gil standing there with a confused look on his face. Catherine realized from his look that he must have heard what she had just said and was trying to figure out what she meant by it.
Grissom looked over Catherine's shoulder and saw Sara unconscious on the back seat and almost pushed Catherine out of the way to get to here. "Sara honey are you ok?"
Catherine pushed her anger aside so she could do what was best for Sara. "Gil we need to get her to the helicopter and get her to the hospital. She's been cut pretty bad."
"Sara, wake up." By that time Jim Brass and the helicopter pilot were at the car and Brass gently moved the hair away from Catherine's face and took a look at the cut on her forehead.
"Catherine that looks pretty nasty, are you ok?"
"I probably have a concussion but I'm more worried about Sara, she's got a deep gash in her side and she's bleeding pretty badly, we have to get her out of here." She went around to the other back door and opened it so she could be close to Sara.
Brass watched Catherine closely and was kind of surprised by her reaction, then he smiled and sly smile. So that's the way the wind blows huh, he thought she would definitely give Grissom a run for his money but my money is on Catherine. He turned to the pilot. "We need the basket and some blankets and we need them now. When we get in the air we will alert Desert Palm we are on the way."
"Sara sweetie wake up." Grissom started to shake Sara.
"Gil what the hell are you doing? She's injured, she's doesn't need you shaking her. Let her rest."
"She wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for you. She went looking for you. Why she would do that I have no idea."
Catherine felt she had been slapped in the face and by her best friend no less. She knew he was hurting but that was uncalled for. "Unlike you Grissom, she feels for her coworkers and she was worried, and it turns out she was right. Her stalker is the one who did this."
She was getting ready to stand up and leave when Sara spoke. "Cat don't leave me. Please stay with me."
"Baby, I'll be right back, I need to tell Brass about the mobile home so he can get someone out there right away. I'll be right back."
"Promise?" Sara looked scared.
"With all my heart." Sara smiled and relaxed.
As soon as Catherine stood up Sara turned to Grissom. "Grissom, I'm sorry, but it's Catherine that I want beside me right now. Be nice, she's hurting right now too."
"But Sara I always thought there was something there." He almost pleaded with her.
"At one time there may have been but not anymore."
"What's changed?"
"I'm too tired and sore to talk about it. Just believe that it never would have worked."
"But Sara…"
"Gil will you give her a break, can't you see she's close to passing out again?" Catherine said from behind Grissom. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.`
"You can't have her Catherine." He was almost in her face as he said this. Catherine could never remember him speaking to her with such malice in his voice.
"I'm not sure what you are talking about Gil but I think you should step back. I realize you are emotional right now, so just step away before you say something you may regret later. Sara is the issue right now, we need to get her some medical attention and we need to do it fast. Stop being selfish and think about what is best for Sara right now."
"I'm what's best for her not you. You just love 'em and leave 'em. Sara needs stability."
"I can't believe you are going on about this while Sara is fighting for her life. Let it go for now Gil." Catherine turned away from him and headed to the helicopter where they were loading Sara. She climbed in and took hold of Sara's hand and sat down and strapped herself in.
Sara weakly turned her head towards Catherine. "Took you long enough. Don't leave me again ok?"
Catherine turned and saw the pained expression on Grissom's face but knew she couldn't worry about him right now. She turned back to Sara and gave her hand and squeeze. "You think a little thing like getting kidnapped and knocked out is going to keep me away. No way, I'm in this for the long haul after all of this. Just rest ok sweetie?" Catherine smiled at Sara and Sara smiled one of her rare full blown gapped toothed smile and passed out.
They landed at the hospital and were greeted by the hospital staff. Catherine still had a hold of Sara's hand as they transferred her to a gurney to be wheeled into the hospital. They tried to stop her from following into the emergency area until Brass told them she had been injured too and needed attention. Grissom was livid but there was nothing he could do but find a chair to sit down.
Shortly after he sat down the rest of the team came running down the hallway. They stopped when they got to Brass and Grissom. "How are they doing? Have you heard anything?
Brass stood up. "Hold on guys, slow down. Why don't you grab a seat so I can let you know what's going on. Why don't we wait for Catherine's sister so I only have to go over it once. Ah there she is now."
"Captain Brass, thank you for calling me, have you heard anything?"
"Just that Sara is in surgery to repair a nasty cut in her side. They were worried about whether there may have been some internal damage or not so we have to wait and see about that. Catherine has a bad cut on her forehead but we haven't heard anything about her. We are just in the hurry up and wait stage." As he finished speaking he phone rang he looked at the caller ID and motioned to Nancy. "I'm sorry but I have to take this call. I'll be back soon." He answered the phone as he was walking down the hall.
"Hey guys I'm glad you're all here. Cath and Sara will be glad to know you're here."
Warrick stood up and embraced Nancy. "Nancy we all love Cath and Sara and we're here for you too. Does Lindsey know what happened?"
"She know Cath's been hurt and I promised I would call as soon as I knew something. I dropped her off at our Mom's house. What the hell happened?"
"She was careless and didn't follow protocol and got Sra hurt." Grissom almost spit it out.
The whole team and Nancy turned to him with confused looks on their faces. "Gris, don't go down that road." Warrick turned on him. "Sara was worried about her because they had had a fight before Catherine left for her crime scene. When Catherine hadn't called or returned before end of shift you, as her supervisor, should have checked on her but you were so engrossed in your bugs you couldn't take the time. You know it's not like Catherine to not check in, Sara also knows this so she went to check on her."
"Sara came into my office asking me about Catherine and while we were talking her phone rang and she said it was Catherine and she left to take the call. I just assumed when Sara didn't return that the call went satisfactorily and Catherine was ok."
"But you didn't check did you? You didn't follow up to make sure she was ok?" Nick finally spoke up.
"Are you saying this is my fault?" He almost yelled. "If it's anyone's fault it's Catherine's for not calling in."
"Gris has it occurred to you that she may have been forced to make the call to lure Sara out to the site so her stalker could take her?" Greg asked none too gently. He couldn't believe that Grissom was blaming Catherine for this. Even while she was behind the emergency room doors herself and no one knew how she was.
They all looked up when Brass walked back into the room and they noticed the worried look on his face. "The guys found the mobile home just where we saw it when we flew over it. The inside was just as Catherine had described it. The only problem is that when the guys got there the place was empty."
Warrick voiced what they all were wondering. "Are you saying Sara's stalker got away?"