Heya guys. Here's some more.
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Following their conversation, Grissom retreated back inside the lab, leaving Nick alone with his thoughts.
For the thousandth time since discovering Catherine was missing, he berated himself for not being more alert, for not pre-empting the danger she was in. He should’ve insisted she come to the beach instead of going for a run alone. He should’ve gone with her, had her back the way she’d had his during the whole situation with Kristy.
He sighed deeply, dropping his head into his hands. He heard footsteps nearby but ignored them, focussing on a piece of chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk next to his shoe. A shadow fell over his hunched body, then a hand landed softly on his shoulder.
Nick lifted his head and his eyes locked with Sarah’s. She smiled sympathetically before dropping down next to him on the bench. He watched her wordlessly as she fished around in her purse, pulling out a packet of cigarettes. She took one out and offered it to him. When he shook his head she brought it to her own lips, lighting it and inhaling deeply.
“Detective Jensen told me about Catherine. I’m sorry Nick.” Puffs of smoke sailed from her mouth as she spoke. Nick simply shrugged.
“It’s my fault you know.” he spoke after a few moments silence. Sarah looked over at him, eyebrows raised.
“How exactly?”
“I should’ve seen it coming. I should’ve known Cath was in danger here.” She pursed her lips before taking another drag on her cigarette.
“And my car shouldn’t be such a piece of crap. If it wasn’t then I would’ve been at the shop with Emma the morning she was taken.”
“You couldn’t have known you were going to break down…” Nick began, but she cut him off.
“And you couldn’t have known Natalie was going to take Catherine when she went jogging yesterday.”
He opened his mouth to protest but she placed her hand over it, silencing him.
“You can’t blame yourself Nick. And although I don’t know Catherine as well as you do, she doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would blame you either.”
Nick smiled against her palm, taking hold of her wrist and pulling it gently away from his face.
“You’re right. She’s not.” Sarah returned his smile, and was inwardly thrilled to notice he had yet to release her hand.
“What can I say? I’m good at reading people.” Her eyes widened as remembered the other reason she’d come to see him.
“When you, Catherine and Captain Brass left yesterday I started thinking about Natalie. I did a little digging on the Interweb and read up on the cases in Vegas. From what I can tell she is exceptionally organised, obviously likes to be in control and have things planned well in advance.” Nick nodded as Sarah took a breath before continuing.
“I’m guessing she’d been planning this thing at the coffee shop for weeks, possibly even months. But there were some things she would’ve been unable to plan from her prison cell. The house she’s holding Ems and Catherine in, for example. She wouldn’t of had the time to get from Vegas to here, make the miniature of the shop and go house-hunting. This makes me think that it had to have been a house she already had knowledge of.”
Nick’s eyebrows rose.
“You got all of that from reading about the cases?”
Sarah nodded. “Just the stuff the newspaper’s wrote about.”
“You’re good.” Sarah blushed slightly as they rose from the bench simultaneously, Nick releasing her hand as he did.
“I’m gonna head inside, tell the rest of the team what you told me. Thanks Sarah. This could really help us find Emma and Catherine. I’ll keep you posted.” Impulsively, Nick leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to Sarah’s cheek, before turning and heading back inside the lab.
Sarah’s blush deepened to a shade of scarlet as she gathered up her things and headed back towards her car, hear heart pounding wildly.
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There's another post to come from me, but it's written on paper so I have to type it up at some point tomorrow!
Enjoy!
CSIL3Willows
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