EPILOGUE

Three weeks later…

Catherine looked through the glass door at Sara, who stood by the flowers in Grissom’s lawn, touching and smelling the roses as if she’d never seen one before. Grissom stood beside her, gazing out. Sara had spent the last seven days in a prison cell, awaiting an extended bail hearing that had ended three hours earlier. Persuading the judge that Sara wasn’t a flight risk was a simple matter; convincing him that Sara wasn’t a threat to society wasn’t. But somehow Sara’s attorney had managed.

The press had slaughtered Sara that first day, but as the details of her childhood leaked out over the next week, their tenor had changed—Nick had seen to that. They’d held a news conference and revealed her past in all of its horrifying detail. Sara was simply role-playing as only a child who’d been severely traumatized and fractured could role-play.

Was she insane? No, but she couldn’t tell them that yet. The courts would put her through the wringer, and legal insanity was her only defense. In many ways she had been legally insane, but she seemed to have emerged from the entire ordeal with a full grasp of herself, perhaps for the first time in her life. Patients who suffered from dissociative identity disorder typically required years of therapy to pull themselves free of the alternate personalities.

The good news was that Sara could hardly be better. She would need help, but Catherine had never seen such a sudden shift.

“Gil,” Catherine asked. “Did you guys ever figure out what caused Natalie to resurface?”

“We’re not sure, but whatever it was happened nearly two years ago.”

“So, all this time…it was Sara?” She sighed. “This is way too complicated.”

Grissom ran his fingers over his bearded chin. “Maybe so. Do you rely on your intuition very often, Catherine?”

“Well, yeah. All the time. Intuition leads to evidence, which leads to answers. It’s what makes us ask the right questions.”

“Hmm. And what does your intuition tell you about Sara?”

She thought about it for a moment. “That she’s innocent either way. That she’s a good person. That she’s nothing like Natalie.”

“The good that I would, that I do not, but that which I would not, that I do.”

Catherine looked up at him, a puzzled expression on her face.

“She’s a walking, living personification of man’s dual nature.”

“After hearing about what happened when I disappeared, I’m not even going to argue with you, Gil.” She nodded at Sara. “You think she’s…okay?”

“Okay?” Grissom’s right eyebrow went up. He smiled. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you, if that’s what you mean.”

Catherine felt exposed. He could see more than she meant for him to see, couldn’t he?

“Take your time. I have a few phone calls to make.” He walked back to join the others in the living room, who were laughing at something on the TV.

She crossed her arms and looked back out at Sara, who was staring at a cloud formation now.

Though the two women were teammates, they hadn’t exactly been the best of friends. They had never really spoken to each other outside of work, much less hung out. They were two very different women, their experiences miles apart. But as Catherine watched Sara that day, her perceptions of her changed. She could see the yearning in the younger woman’s eyes. She needed support in her search for strength and a new start. She needed a friend.

From the corner of her eye, she caught Nick coming out of the kitchen balancing a stack of soda cans in his hands. He gave her a smile as he passed.

“Nick.”

He turned back. “Yeah?”

“Thank you. She…we…We owe our lives to you.”

“Hey, that’s what friends do. We look out for each other.” He grinned deliberately and walked away.

Catherine waited until the boys were distracted by Warrick and Greg, who were wrestling each other for the remote. She slid the glass door open and stepped onto the patio. “Hello, Sara.”

She turned, eyes bright. “Catherine! I didn’t know you were here.”

“I had some time.” As much as she tried to ignore the fact, there was a unique bond between them. Whether it was because they’d worked together for years or her own generous spirit or more, she didn’t know. Time would tell.

Sara glanced back at the roses. Her eyes couldn’t hold Catherine’s unwaveringly as they had before—she’d lost a certain innocence. But Catherine preferred her that way.

“I’m taking some time off,” she said.

“You are?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“What for?”

“Well, seeing as you’re gonna be going through a lot these next few months, I thought you might like some help.”

“You’d do that, for me?” Sara said quietly. She couldn’t help but glance down at Catherine’s hands, which were still marred with cuts and bruises. “I don’t deserve it…not after what I put you through.”

Catherine smiled wryly. “Hey, it’s no big deal. Here I am, fine and healthy. I’m okay, really. And now all I wanna do is make sure you’re okay. I hate seeing you hurt the way you are. And I want you to know even though we don’t always get along, you have someone who cares about you and wants to be your friend. I’ll always be here for you, Sara, because you’re my ‘sister.’”

“Wow…” A lump formed in Sara’s throat, feeling her chest tighten. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

Catherine took two steps forward and pulled her into a hug. “You don’t have to say anything.”

Sara stood there in Catherine’s warm embrace, her face screwed up against the overwhelming flood of emotions that had begun to surface. She’d never felt this kind of love before. This kind of forgiveness. A tear trickled down her cheeks, followed by another and another. And she hugged Catherine back just as tightly. For the first time, in a long time, she understood where she belonged.

After a moment, the two women pulled apart and realized that they had both been crying. They shared a laugh, drying their eyes. Then Catherine put her arm around Sara’s shoulders, escorting her back inside.

“It’s not gonna be easy, but I’ll be there every step of the way. I promise.”