16. Last woman standing

"We have a new Sheriff."

"Yes, the Sheriff is dead, long live the Sheriff. I mean, not dead like dead." Sara corrected herself. It's just what the saying was. The king is dead, long live the king. Although, in those cases, the king was dead like dead.

"I know what you mean. What do you think about Sheriff Ecklie?" Sofia gave the bartender a sign that she wanted a beer too.

"Well, I hope Sheriff Ecklie is a better Sheriff than supervisor Ecklie was a supervisor. When I look at the last months, he has changed and with Morgan around, I'm sure he won't change back to the old weasel he was years ago."

"Let's hope so, by goodness. How are you holding up?"

"Good. The guys are pretty caring, the first thing Nick asked me when I arrived at the scene, was if I was fine."

"They take care of you, good to know. I'm having an eye on Basderic, if there are news or changes, I let you know first. In exchange, you promise me to stay away from him."

"Sofia, I've got no intentions of getting close to him. He's in prison, as long as he stays there, I'm happy." There was no better place for him to be, he was where he belonged.

"Good. Let's hope he stays there for the rest of his life." Sofia was sure, if this man ever came out, he'd try to get Sara again. He was the kind of man, who wanted revenge. Sofia wasn't that let going to happen.

"Did you know you can kill a person with a play card? It sounded so unreal when Hodges came up with this."

"I knew playing cards could kill you, that it could literally kill you was new to me. Then again, Katy knew how to throw them, she had a pretty good coach."

"Yes, plus she had access to the murder weapons. The card, the ax, how handy to use the ax of somebody else. You offer the police a suspect and Jimmy did not do anything to make us believe, he's innocent"

"She had a lot of anger and hate inside. These people ruined not only the life of her father, they also took away her father." Sofia smiled at the bartender when she got her beer.

"They cheated, yes, but they didn't kill him. He killed himself, it was his decision."

"True. How is Morgan doing?" The blonde changed the topic. "It was the first time she had to shoot somebody."

"She's shaken up, but Ecklie will take care of that. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to work as a CSI and never use your weapon. Killing a person is nothing you can put aside, no matter if it was the first time you killed somebody or the tenth. At least I can't say that firing at people leaves me cold."

"No, it doesn't. As a cop I shot a few people, it always makes you feel like a killer. That's what separates us from them, our conscience."

"You send the department shrink to her?"

"It's kind of procedure. Talk to him, let him write his report, go back to work." Sofia knew they all hated the department shrink, hated to talk to him, but it was part of the procedure and sometimes it did help.

"You know this conversations suck?"

"I know, I had a few myself."

"Can't you change these rules?"

"No, I can't. They're there for a reason. We have to play by the rules because the last case showed us, what happens, if you don't. It gets you killed eventually. And sometimes they do help, those shrinks. They are pretty good listeners and it might be exactly what you need."

"When they only listen and don't come up with strange meaning for whatever you said, they're bearable, yes." Sara agreed. Yet, she felt strange whenever she had to deal with a shrink. Who said they couldn't read your mind and knew all your hidden secrets?