CHAPTER 6:

See Part 1 for disclaimers

Previous parts may be found at fanfiction.net; grissomandsara.com/fanfic and my website: www.oocities.org/missyliannem/csi.html

And praise once again for our wonderful editor, Alison, who goes above and beyond the call of duty in this chapter. Thanks for all the work, Alison :)

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Greg laboured over the DNA machine, his chin resting on his folded hands. Silence reigned in the room, a testament to his mood. He hypnotically watched the machine spin, separating and dividing the samples into a basic thirteen individual marker sequence. It was too slow.

Many times he had given Grissom the results produced by his magical machines, taking pride when the results would prove to be a crucial piece of evidence that would break a case. Now, more than ever, he needed to produce that evidence. It wasn't about Grissom acknowledging his work. This time it was about bringing back one of his friends.

Sara had always taken his teasing and light-hearted advances with ease. She had never avoided coming into his lab, comfortably dealing with his innuendos with barbed words, designed not to hurt but to even the stakes. A tear came to his eye as he remembered how she had even taken the time to reassure him of his abilities. It had been at a time he had felt broken under the embarrassment of failure when placed in a situation outside his control and training.

Sara had only been missing for hours, yet the lab seemed hollow, without substance. An essential part of Greg's world had been taken and he knew how much rode on the results contained in the machines that he had come to take for granted. He realized that he had also come to take Sara's presence for granted. Now it was gone, he wasn't sure whether life would ever be the same for him.

Watching the machine spin around and around, his mind began to wander. The sights at the crime scene jumped forth into his thoughts, each piece of evidence further proof that the attack had been brutal. His mind actively went into overdrive, his imagination painting vivid pictures in his mind.

He shook his head, dissolving the thoughts that Sara's disappearance might be permanent. Grissom was on the case. His solve rate was the best in the state. Any further thought on the subject was given up as the machine buzzed to indicate that its spin cycle was at an end. Not long now and he'd have the low down on the suspects.

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Sara's first impression as she regained consciousness was the musty smell that assailed her nostrils. She frowned as she tried to work out where she was. The ground was cold and hard, yet the air in the room was warm. Flashes of the attack at Catherine's house flittered through her mind in random sequence. She couldn't recall at all how she had gotten here, wherever here was.

It was black. Pitch darkness. Not a spark of light broke through the suffocating, heady air. Sara frowned, her mind still foggy. She tried to keep her breathing even as she realized that her mouth was covered firmly with duct tape. Her hands were bound tightly with rope in front of her, as were her feet. The reality of being bound cleared her fogged mind quickly. The events prior to losing consciousness were not totally clear, but she remembered enough to know who had delivered the final blow. It sent a chill down her spine when she saw the deep-set anger that had put so much power in the punch. Knowing that he would be returning, Sara decided that she needed to do something to protect herself. Sara strained her eyes to see. She didn't think that her eyes were covered with anything, yet she could not see a thing. . She pulled the heavy tape from her mouth, wincing as it pulled at the soft skin of her lips.

Her head hurt as she struggled in the blackness. She brought her bound hands up to her head, her long fingers quickly locating the source of pain. Congealed blood from a laceration above her eye had left a sticky trail down the side of her face. She wiped with the back of her hands at her eyes. There was definitely nothing over her eyes and her actions cleared any possibility the blood had been causing her difficulty in seeing. There was still nothing, not even a faint glimmer of light to break through the darkness. It was then that it hit her; maybe it wasn't that the light was out, but her eyes were no longer able to see. The thought terrified her. More so than the pain in her side that made her breathing so terribly painful.

"Think, Sara. Forget your fears and think logically. What would Grissom do?" Sara muttered to herself. Now that she had forced herself to stop and consider, her training kicked in. Sara began to determine her surroundings and the situation. She struggled against the constrictive bonds holding her arms. The only result was a severe chaffing to her wrists. It was pointless.

Sara awkwardly pushed herself into a sitting position. Her ribs reminded her of the beating she had sustained at Catherine's house and it wouldn't surprise her if at least one of them was broken. Bringing her feet up as close as she could, Sara was able to release the knots on the bindings at her ankles. She let out the breath that she had been subconsciously holding and wiggled her toes, enjoying the tingling feeling that shot up her legs in response and reminded her that she was alive. Now all she had to do was make sure that it stayed that way.

Gradually crawling across the concrete floor, she found herself relying on her other senses to create a plan of her prison in her mind. The floor was smooth. Sara could feel the thin layer of dirt that time had encrusted over the surface of the concrete. She grimaced. At a crime scene, she had the benefit of gloves and protective clothes and she could see what she was about to encounter. Nonoxynol-9 would definitely be given a good work-out when she finally made it out of here.

Single sheets of newspaper littered the ground. Sara pushed them out of her way and a distinct smell permeated her senses. She was obviously sharing her quarters. All she needed to work out now was whether it was the larger or smaller version of the four legged rodent.

After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the edge of her room. Despite the crawl only being a distance she calculated of being just over five feet, she was exhausted. Sara leaned back against the wall. Her mouth was dry. Sara ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. Her desire for water increased each passing moment in the humid room.

There was a dampness seeping through the back of her thin shirt. While the air in the room was warm, the cold concrete quickly sent a chill through her body. She had no protection against the cold. Sara ran her hands lightly over its surface, trying to determine where she might be. Her left shoulder gave a twinge of pain in response. She sighed, wondering what had happened to it. She could account for all the other injuries, but not that one.

As Sara sat catching her breath, she listened intently. A heavy, consistent rumble vibrated something in the room. The sound was familiar, so common that you no longer noticed it was there. An air-conditioning system. The relief from the air-conditioner was obviously going elsewhere.

She continued her physical exploration, letting her fingers trail against the cool wall as she gingerly moved forward. Sara tried to concentrate on what her remaining four senses were detecting, formulating a detailed map of the room in her head.

Her mind wasn't being quite as cooperative. It kept returning to another room, one which had changed the direction of her life. The sounds she had heard then were mixing with what she heard now. Sara put her hands up to her face as she did those many years ago. She was surprised to find her cheeks damp from tears.

The uneven beat of feet hitting the floor outside the room she was held prisoner in quickly brought her back to the present. She found that the sound was coming from the other side of the room and sounded high above where she stood. The distance she had moved from her original position had been away from the door, not towards it. She also suspected that there was a staircase down into the room.

A wave of dizziness swept over her and Sara was tempted to sit down back where she had been left. But, her anger won through and she remained firmly rooted where she stood. Her only concession to her unsteadiness on her feet was to lean slightly against the wall to her right. The coolness of the wall permeated through her top, allowing her to focus once again. She let her tied hands rest against the cold concrete wall seeking comfort in it's cool solidity. The touch reminded her of another solid constant in her life, one that kept her grounded and focused. In the dilemma she faced on her own, she needed to be reminded that there was promise of life beyond.

The door opened, a stream of light shone down the staircase to the bottom, tapering into the darkness. Sara forgot for a moment of the precarious position she was in as she rejoiced in knowing that her lack of sight was due to darkness, not an injury. The door slammed shut, the sound echoing in the room. The sound of heavy shoes on the stairs reminded her quickly that she was about to meet the man who had put her here; a man who had told her of how she had ruined his chances of the new life he had planned. Eddie Willows was set on vengeance.

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The conference room was quickly becoming the central hub of activity. More and more information was filtering in from the various sections of the CSI labs. The white board was divided into crime scene descriptions, each listing what had been found, the results that were at hand and what they were still waiting for. While answers were coming through, there were still gaping holes. Evidence was still being processed, lab technicians working overtime to push the results through. The case was top priority.

"The deadline is nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Lindsey's okay...for now." Catherine added the last words. Her daughter's upbeat voice had taken her by surprise and allayed her fears for the moment. Catherine closed her eyes as she thought how quickly the situation could change. "Twenty thousand dollars. I don't have that sort of money at hand."

"You know that even if you gave them the money, you couldn't guarantee her safety," Brass reminded her gently. He turned away from the whiteboard to watch her pace the room, his eyes watching her reaction.

"I know, I know." Catherine reassured him. She swiveled around to face Brass, running her fingers through her hair. "But it's a bit harder to follow when it's your own child at stake."

He nodded. He knew how hard it was to be objective on a case when it was family involved from first hand experience. At least Catherine was holding back, not insisting on being on the investigative team. While it made it harder not having the extra team member, it made it easier on the team they had left to work as one, not troubled by Catherine's emotional state in dealing with the evidence.

"And Sara's not with her?" Grissom confirmed, still shocked by the recent news. It did begin to put one piece of evidence into place. His fingers rotated his pen between his middle and forefingers.

"No." Catherine shook her head, dropping one hand down by her side. "Lindsey said that she'd been left at my house."

"Catherine, we found some fingerprints at your house. They belong to Eddie." Grissom looked intently at Catherine, hoping that she would quickly process the information he was giving her.

"What? How could that be? He's never been to the house," Catherine exclaimed, her voice rising with each word. In her heart, she knew the truth even as she questioned the news.

"He was there today," Brass confirmed.

"More importantly, he was there after Sara had been injured." Grissom drove the point home, dropping the photograph Greg had taken of the fingerprint on the coffee table. "His fingerprint was found in her blood."

Grissom had always tolerated Eddie for Catherine's sake. He'd not had to keep up the pretense once she separated from him. Now that Eddie had Sara, his anger towards the man was rapidly increasing.

Catherine swore as she picked up the photograph, repeating the word over and over. Her clinical eyes surveyed the photograph, picking out the clearly defined ridges that showed up and indicted her ex-husband as a criminal. She dropped the photo on the table as she brought her hands to her face and closed her eyes. The nightmare of her daughter's abduction had just gone from bad to worse; her friend and colleague was another victim in a violent and appalling crime.

"Eddie took Sara. But why? What could he possibly gain?" Catherine shook her head as she tried to understand her ex-husband's motives. Catherine dropped into the seat as she recalled his final words to the team earlier that day. Sara would pay.... they would all pay. She remembered the dark anger that had filled his face. She had only witnessed it occasionally and she had worn bruises as a result. What would he do to Sara now that he had her alone?

"I'm not sure. All we know is that Eddie was there after Sara was injured." Grissom watched his long term colleague struggle with the news. He could see how she was trying to assimilate the evidence with her own personal knowledge of the man.

Brass added, "Lindsey and her kidnappers both have the same story that Sara was left behind. I'd say that the likelihood is that he is involved. Especially since we can't seem to locate him when we need him."

"Damn you, Eddie. What the hell are you thinking?" Catherine rubbed a hand over her mouth, tapping her finger on her lip as she thought. "Oh, Eddie, you're such an idiot," Catherine muttered under her breath. She tossed back her chair, frustrated, and resumed her pacing of the room. He was their only quick way to locate Lindsey's kidnappers and he had to go and disappear. What could he possibly gain from taking Sara? What was he planning to do to her? Would she fight back - silly question, this was Sara. Would she survive?

"What do you know about the money he owes?" Mobley asked.

"What?" Catherine broke out of her daunting thoughts and took a moment to think of the question the Sheriff had asked. "Nothing. Nothing at all. He came in last night asking for the twenty thousand dollars. He didn't say what it was for and I didn't ask. You learned not to ask with Eddie." Catherine was mad with herself for not asking him seriously what he wanted the money for. If only she hadn't been presumptuous in accusing him about the reason why he needed the money; maybe Lindsey and Sara wouldn't be in the situation they were facing.

"Detective Lockwood is getting a warrant to search his premises and car as we speak." Brass' voice broke through Catherine's thoughts.

Catherine shook her head. "I've got a set of keys to his house."

"Why?" Mobley asked, curiosity filling his round face.

"I'm his ex-wife and we share custody of our daughter," Catherine told him sarcastically. How could Mobley be concerned about why she had keys to her ex-husband's property when two people close to her had been taken.

"It'll mean less damage to the property if he doesn't answer. But we still need the warrant to make any evidence found stick," Brass pointed out.

"Dr. Grissom?"

Grissom looked towards the doorway at the woman who had interrupted them. Judy, one of the secretaries stood at the entrance to the room, hesitant to enter.

"Yes, Judy?" Grissom prompted when nothing further came from the woman's mouth.

"This letter arrived for you by courier. The courier claimed it was urgent." Judy walked over to Grissom's side.

Grissom frowned, reaching out for the yellow envelope. He scanned both the front and back of the envelope, only finding it addressed personally to him. His finger traced his lips as he analyzed the print. It had obviously been printed on an inkjet, the text smudged. He slipped his finger under the flap and removed the letter. He didn't think his heart could sink any further since Sara's disappearance, but this had just proven that it could. The letter fluttered from his hand to the table

"Grissom..." Catherine knew that it wasn't good news.

"It's a ransom - for Sara."

Everybody moved in on the offending piece of paper, all eyes firmly fixed on the thin sheet of paper that had landed face up on the table. The words were written in large, bold type, their meaning unmistakable.

"If you want to see your CSI alive, you'll have $30,000.00 left in a blue sports bag outside The Golden Nuggest at 3.00 p.m. today."

"That's only two hours away," Catherine commented.

Grissom pulled himself up in the chair. "Time in which we will process the evidence and find both Lindsey and Sara before either deadline arrives." His eyes glinted with determination.

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The air tingled with tension. Both occupants were waiting for the other to make their move. A beam of light danced around the room in a myriad of directions, searching out and seeking what it could not seem to find.

Sara realised with a smile what the problem was. The light from the staircase shone precisely on the spot where she had been trussed up like a pig awaiting a spit roast. The analogy sent her back a couple of years, her thoughts dancing over nights spent huddled under a blanket watching a pig slowly being disintegrated by natural processes. Sara had been touched by Grissom's actions, the painstaking and memorable experiment eventually leading to the Scott Shelton's arrest. She hoped that he was following the evidence right now and finding the connections. She wasn't sure that she would be able to escape Eddie Willows' anger another time.

She heard the sound of his feet coming down the stairs, slowly; warily. Sara tucked herself back into the shadows, using the darkness that had recently been her enemy as a friend. She slowed her breathing and tried to remain calm. It was difficult with her mind constantly flicking back to her last encounters with Eddie, one in which she had come off second-best.

Sara groaned, the effort of the small sound causing a sharp stabbing pain in her ribcage. She brought her arm around to gingerly touch the spot and flinched at even the slightest pressure against the area. Rolling to her side, she eased herself into a sitting position. The room swam before her eyes as if she was on a boat in a massive storm. Sara closed her eyes, her hand reaching out to hold onto the leg of the coffee table beside her. Gradually, she tried to open them again and was rewarded with a settling of the room around her.

She felt the pulsating pressure building in her head, a warning signal of a migraine. She ran a hand over her forehead, as individual snapshots of the attack flashed in her mind. Suddenly, she swore out loud as she realized that she needed to find Lindsey.

Sara had just managed to make it to her feet when there was a shout at the doorway. Eddie Willows barreled his way into the house, calling out for Catherine and Lindsey, stopping short when he saw Sara there.

"Where are they?"

Sara slowly responded, her words disjointed as she swayed on her feet. The hit to the back of her head had been hard "Who? There were some guys. They wanted something.... "

"Why didn't you do something? You're with the police. You know what to do. You're trained. Why did you let them take them?" Her halting words seemed to set off a time-bomb within Eddie. The explosion surprised her and she instinctively cringed away from his dominating presence.

Eddie moved closer to her with each verbal onslaught. He seemed to gain height and increase in size. But his last question permeated her sluggish brain. "Them? Lindsey was the only one here, no one else."

"You let them take Lindsey. She's only eight - "

"Nine. She's nine," Sara corrected.

Sara was rewarded with a fast moving backhand across her face for her effort. It dropped her to her knees and blood flowed freely from her eyebrow where his heavy ring had broken the skin. Sara struggled against the darkness beckoning to her. The last words she heard were Eddie's.

"Maybe you are the answer to all my problems."

She was able to finally see the man searching for her and not his distorted shadow. The shadow reminded Sara of the other encounter with Eddie, how his body had loomed over her.

Sara frowned, trying to gauge what had happened. Her head connected with something as movement caused the floor below her to dip. She realized that she was in a car. Worse than that, she was crammed into a tiny trunk. Every bone in her body ached as the car shuttled along, the lack of good suspension making each dip and pot-hole in the road absolute agony.

She struggled to get her thoughts together as patchy parts of the attack at Catherine's house filtered through her addled brain. Her hands and feet were not bound. She felt around the trunk, finding only an oil rag and some rather obnoxious and smelly items. She didn't even want to think what they were. There were no tools whatsoever - not even a car jack.

Sara rolled onto her side as the car suddenly pulled to a stop. She bit down on her lip as a lightning bolt of pain shot through her chest. She listened intently to the sounds around her. A car door slammed. It reverberated through her head, competing with the vice-like pain throbbing with every heartbeat. Somebody was moving around outside. Keys jangled in their hand. She didn't know who was outside. The last memory she had was of Eddie Willows. Did two plus two make four or was she jumping to conclusions?

A key slid into the lock and Sara heard the latch open. She gathered her thoughts, quickly devising a plan in her mind. The trunk opened slowly. Sara's eyes darted around, finding her kidnapper. Bright sunlight obscured her vision, making it difficult for her to see his features. As he leaned over the edge of the boot, Sara screamed and lashed out with her feet. They connected solidly with his chest. He fell backwards from the car, surprised by the sudden and ferocious attack.

Sara tried to get up out of the trunk. Adrenaline was running fast, but it failed to mask the sheer agony the swift movement brought. She cried out and stopped for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she consciously pushed past the pain and climbed out.

While Sara's initial attack had been fast, her attacker had regained his senses and quickly subdued her. Her conclusion had been correct. It was Eddie Willows holding her tightly in his arms. Sara didn't recognize the area he had brought her. It seemed to be totally deserted. Her screams had not brought a soul into the street. She fought violently against the arms which held her tightly, throwing her whole body into the fight. Her head connected with Eddie's sending stars across her vision as a prelude to the darkness which followed.

Right now, Sara vindictively hoped that he was hurting as much as she was from her injuries. The flashlight finally caught her in its beam, illuminating the paleness of her skin. Vivid bruises and streaks of blood marred her face. Blood had clotted heavily around the edges of the cut above her eye.

"So you're awake," Eddie said. His voice sounded very nasally. The last blow that she had managed to inflict on him had connected with his broken nose. Sara had been lucky that she was already unconscious or she would have suffered dearly for the second hit, even if it had not been deliberate.

"Obviously," Sara said with obvious disdain. While she was afraid of him and kept her distance, she wasn't going to let him know that he had frightened her.

"I should have done those knots a bit tighter." Eddie gave a sidelong glance at the ropes on the ground where he had left her. He didn't trust Sara not to attack him again.

"You could have saved yourself the trouble by not taking me." Sara took the chance to follow through on finding out what Eddie was up to. She didn't know if he would respond or not, but it was better than trying to second guess his actions. " What do you hope to gain, Eddie? Your daughter has been kidnapped and you go and take me... it's not going to achieve anything."

"That's where you're wrong." Eddie moved closer to her. . "Taking you was pure inspiration."

Eddie had taken on an air of arrogance and moved around the room proudly. Sara thought he reminded her of a peacock wooing its beloved mate.

"Ah, how?" Sara said it gently, not wanting to have the violent reaction at Catherine's house repeated.

"Well, I've sent a ransom for thirty thousand for you to your boss. Once I have that, I can pay back what I owe and have some left over for me to make a new start. Lindsey will be safe and everything can go back to normal."

Sara shook her head, not believing the naivete of the man. How did he possibly believe that the ransom would be paid?

Eddie had caught sight of the movement. He moved very close to her, his eyes narrowed. Sara automatically took a step back, only to find that the concrete wall prevented her moving any further. She was unable to keep the fear from her eyes as she lifted her chin defiantly.

"It won't be paid. You do realize your ransom won't be paid. It's police policy." Sara was unable to stop herself from continuing, "Eddie, you've got no chance of a new start and you've just killed any chance of getting your life back on track."

Sara saw the anger burst again. She cursed herself for not allowing Eddie the chance to gloat. She needed to get out of here right now. Lifting her knee, she connected painfully with Eddie's groin. As he bent over in pain, she shoved him violently sideways and ran towards the stairs.

She made it to the top of the stairs and twisted frantically on the door knob. It didn't turn under her hands. Her breathing was laboured and her frustration boiled over. She hit the door with her clenched fists in anger and hot tears began to fall.

"I'm not quite as stupid as you thought, am I?" Eddie's pained voice called out from the bottom of the stairs.

Sara swung around quickly to face him. He began to climb the stairs, one at a time. He was hunched over, walking slowly and painfully towards her. For all her training in weaponless defense, she was struggling to overcome Eddie. Her injuries were interfering with her abilities and Eddie's own anger made him an exigent opponent.

It was down to one last effort. Sara wasn't sure she would be able to follow through. The chance of success was slim and the likelihood of injuring herself, great.

End Chapter 6/?

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