Chapter 19: One Last Chance
"Why did you do it?" Greg practically yelled in Catherine's face as soon as he entered the break room. "She loved you and you broke her heart, you hurt her and now she's going."
"What? Going where?" Cath asked as Nick and Warrick discarded their video game and moved towards them.
"She's leaving."
"Leaving?" Nick repeated slowly.
"Leaving the lab, leaving Vegas. Leaving us." Greg was starting to break down but anger was still seeping though his voice. "And it's your fault. If you hadn't hurt her…"
"That's enough Greggo." Nick said, placing a hand on Greg's arm figuring Cath didn't need this right now. However it didn't look like the blonde had heard it anyway.
"Leaving? She can't leave." She mumbled as she processed this information. Greg had calmed down a little by now so continued.
"Too late, she left a letter of resignation on Grissom's desk; she's getting a flight to Miami in about 40 minutes. She's gone." Before he had even finished Cath was at the door.
"Don't let Grissom see that letter!" She yelled, sprinting to her car.
X x x
She made it to McCarran in record time. Practically abandoning her car in front of the entrance she tore through the airport to the departure lounge when a message overhead caught her attention. "Now boarding, all passengers on flight 229 to Miami." Her heart leapt, this was her last chance.
X x x
"Sara!"
The brunette was about to hand over her tickets and passport when the voice startled her and she spun around. The last person she expected to see was stood a few feet behind her, looking like she'd just run a marathon. Stepping out of the queue Sara stood frozen while the older woman moved slowly over to her.
"You're leaving?" It was a cross between a statement and a question.
"Yeah, I had to get out of here." Her voice was level but her whole body was trembling. This was harder now.
"Why?"
"Why do you think Catherine?" Cath looked at the floor sadly.
"You don't have to go. I could change shifts, or …"
"It's too late. I'm sorry Catherine. I have to get away from here. Away from everything. From you." The last part was almost a whisper. Desolately Sara moved to the exit but Cath's voice halted her again.
"Sara wait." She turned around again and Catherine stepped right up to her "I know I have no right to ask you to stay for me, but please just do one thing for me okay?" She placed something in Sara's hand, folding her slender fingers around it. "Remember me." Tears rolled down her cheeks as she placed a soft kiss on Sara's lips. "Because I will never forget you." With nothing more to say she stepped back and watched, heartbroken, as the young woman showed her ticket and disappeared though the doors, her hand still closed in a tight fist. "Never."
X x x
Sara waited until the door clicked closed behind her before opening her hand. Sat in her palm was a tiny metal heart on a silver chain. She recognised it instantly: it was the necklace Catherine had been given on her sixteenth birthday by her mother.
She hadn't realised she was moving towards the plane until someone asked to see her ticket. She looked up at the stewardess wide-eyed, then back at the heart.
x x x x
Will she go? Won't she go? Let me know what you thought x
