I do not own CSI...nor have I ever.
Rated T
Trista and Jules had been friends for years...
And they were both known to get themselves in to trouble in their day...
But, while Jules had her fair share of crazy...
It had always been Trista who was the one to push the envelope the farthest.
Trista didn't always have the street smarts Jules did to get her out of bad situations so they made a good team...
Trista pushed and Jules got them out of it.
But this time... Sadly...
Jules wasn't there.
Death was so final.
It was the end…the finish line.
She hadn't imagined crossing it this early in her life but there it was…
Over…
Done.
And darkness consumed her.
She couldn't see anything but blackness around her.
Trista wondered when she would see the light to follow, but when she still didn't see one she knew...
There would be no light. There was no halo for her. She was not worthy of Heaven so she needed to get used to this sad darkness.
"Why would there be a light for you, Trista? You were grinding on the dance floor with men you didn't know…you were getting it on with a stranger in the alley…you trusted a man who took pleasure in choking you to death…you wasted your precious life because of your indiscretions. You made your bed, girlfriend, now lie in it," she heard her own voice telling her the cold hard facts.
Trista felt so bad.
She felt sorry for all the things she said and did. She especially felt guilty for putting herself in a position that ultimately led to her doom.
She knew it would be the LVPD Crime Scene Investigators that would come take pictures of her lifeless body that lay in the alley. She knew who those investigators would be too…and that horrified her.
She felt terribly ashamed that Nick would see her looking like a tramp. It made her sick to think of Nick and Warrick's co-workers seeing her this way. And Warrick… it made her sad to think about Warrick's face when he looked over her. She knew how he would react. She knew he would crumble. Both he and Nick would both crumble, not only for their loss, but because of the void she just left in Emma's and Jules' life.
How will they tell Jules and Emma? What will they say? The mere thought hurt.
Trista now knew the feeling of torment that death had just bestowed upon her. She was submerged in nothing but darkness, regret, and guilt.
She wished she had the chance to tell Jules and Nick, and Emma and Warrick, just how sorry she was for being so stupid and reckless.
But, all she could hear in her darkness was the sound of her own voice echoing only these two words…
…"I'm sorry."
Warrick wondered if maybe he should go into the woman's bathroom.
"You wanna get thrown outta here before you even find her, man?" he grumbled to himself knowing the answer.
He leaned against the wall and waited to see if she would come out. As he waited, he began scanning the room.
Warrick studied every seat in the room and looked at every occupied stool at the bar.
He looked up to see if there was another floor to the bar even though he knew damn well there wasn't.
He continued to search the crowd with his eyes.
And then, he stared at each of the exit doors.
Warrick's eyes went to each one located on every wall...he stared at them. He felt drawn to them.
He squinted his eyes and chewed the inside of his cheek. Warrick began to think about the three women he, Sarah, and Nick had to process in an alley down on the Strip just last month. He knew alleyways were ideal for bad things to happen…quiet, concealed, easy to slip out of…
His head whipped to the left and he frowned at that particular exit door, which was on the same side of the wall that he was leaning against. He knew that that would be the door that headed into the alley behind the building and he suddenly he got a sinking feeling about it. He wasn't sure why, but his gut was screaming even louder than the blaring music surrounding him.
Warrick turned and walked to that exit door.
"Excuse me, sorry….excuse me…" he yelled over the music to people as he pushed his way to the door.
His heart was pounding.
His instincts were screaming…they were telling him she was out there in that alley.
He could feel it. He knew it before he even got to the door.
He also had a bad feeling about what was on the other side of it.
It was as if his heart was telling him to get to her but his brain was telling him it was too late.
"Stop thinking like that, man, just stop thinking she is…she is...," he couldn't finish that thought.
Instead he took a deep breath and pushed his way through the crowd and toward the back exit door.
All the while stuffing away that horrible fear that he may be too late after all.
All the while screaming silently inside himself to...
..."Just please find her!"