CSI: A New Beginning

Chapter 2: The Journey

Elizabeth ~ July 2010

"You know you don't have to do this right?" aunt Alice asserted, for the thousandth time, as I was stuffing clothes into my suitcase. She'd been trying to convince me to stay for days.

"I want to do this. I promised her I would go and find my father. Even if I don't find him, I'm still going to get a job at the crime lab." I'd been saying this for days too, trying to convince her that I had to go.

"Okay. You know you always have a place at my house, so if you ever need to come back you know where to find me." Again she was implying for me to stay, even if she wasn't saying it. I loved her so much. I knew she just wanted the best for me, but I just needed to go my own way.

"You have no idea how much that means to me," I said as I gave her a huge hug and she kissed me on the cheek. I stepped away. "I love you aunt Alice! I'm gonna miss you SO much," I whimpered as I grabbed my suitcase and handbag. We were walking out of the room when Davey came out of no where and grabbed me around waist.

"Bye Lizzy!" he sobbed.

"Oh! Bye Davey! I'll miss you too!" I was almost in tears as well.

"Do you promise to write to me? And Skype?And call everyday?" he asked.

"Oh, Davey I'll try! I have to go say goodbye to uncle Max now," I told him, and he took my hand as he walked me into the kitchen where my uncle Max was making breakfast.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat before you leave? Its about 5 hours from here to Las Vegas," uncle Max insisted. Breakfast sure was smelling good right now. I didn't need any of them trying to convince me to stay. I was afraid they would convince me, and that couldn't happen. I made a promise to my mother.

"No, that's alright. I'll just grab something on the way. Besides, I still need to find my place when I get there," I declared.

"Alright-y then. But you know I make the best chocolate chip pancakes ever!" he said jokingly. I did love those chocolate chip pancakes.

"I think I can live without them. I think I need to lose a little weight anyways," I laughed, patting my flat stomach. I really wasn't that heavy, only 120 pounds and even that was mostly muscle. I suppose I'm kind of health conscious.

"Are you crazy?! You look like you're going to wither away! Come on!" he chuckled.

"I can assure you I'll be fine," I snickered. We enjoyed that moment of happiness because we knew we wouldn't get many more. I had to leave soon.

It had been a year since my mother died. I felt horrible for leaving my aunt. It was probably making it even harder on her to have to deal with the pain of the loss while I was walking away from it. But I felt like I was living off of her for a while, not having a job to pay the bills, other than working at the restaurant I'd been working at during my years at college.

As they walked me out the door to my car, I gave them all a hug. Waving goodbye was probably the hardest part of leaving them. I cherished the moment because I knew I wouldn't see them in a long time. It was weird how I kept feeling this way, knowing that I wouldn't be able to see them.

Well, time to hit the road, I thought as I turned the key and backed out of the driveway. My car wasn't the greatest, but it could get me to where I needed to go. Even if that meant five hours of driving. I turned the radio on and the perfect song was on. "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. I ended up humming along to it and eventually singing it. I was definitely in a better mood after that.

I only stopped once after a long time to get pancakes at IHOP. And yes, I had some amazing chocolate chip pancakes there. My uncle's were still better though. It took a little more than five hours, but I finally got there.

When I did finally get there, I had to search for the apartment I'd rented earlier in the month. I found a nice one that was kind of close to the lab but I would still have to drive. They had this cool thing on their site that allowed the viewer to have a 3-D view of the apartments that were available. I found a good priced one on the eighth floor of an eleven story building that I could afford. It was about 5 o'clock when I checked in with the landlord and he gave me the apartment key. I drove my car to the ajacent parking garage and started unloading. A woman that was just getting out of her car was courtious enough to come over and help. She was very tall and lean with short dark brown hair and very dark brown eyes. She smiled as she approached the car.

"Need some help?" she inquired.

"Yes, thank you," I replied as I started handing her some things.

"Did you just move in here?"

"Yep," I said as I closed my trunk and we made our way to the elevator.

"Well, I'm Sara. Sara Sidle," she stated, holding out her free hand.

"I'm Elizabeth Mitchel," I said as I shook her hand. We were in the elevator now.

"What floor are you?" she asked kindly.

"Eighth. You?"

"Ninth," she said as she pressed the number eight on the control panel.

We stood in silence as the elevator ascended.

"Well, thank you for helping me. It's strange. I'm not used to random people asking to help me," I muttered just as the elevator door opened.

"No problem. Though you should be careful about who you let grab your bags," she warned me as we walked down the hall. 

I looked up at her and raised my eyebrows, realizing how stupid of me it was to trust her outright. "Oh..."

That made her laugh a little. "You're lucky it was me. Anybody could've offered help and ran, though. So just watch yourself." 

"Thanks," I replied a bit sheepishly as we reached the door to my apartment.

"You're welcome. You know, for some reason you look very familiar. I just can't place it," she observed, her eyes scanning my face.

"Well, I don't think I've ever met you before. Not until now," I chuckled uneasily.

"Hm, never mind. That's impossible. It was nice meeting you."

"You too," I muttered. I wondered briefly what she meant by 'impossible'. I opened the door to my apartment and... Well, needless to say it looked much better in the 3-D view.

The walls that seemed white in the virtual tour were actually tinted yellow. The floor was worn and the furniture that came with it was... Well it was OK. The sofa and the Laz-e-Boy looked fine but they weren't very soft. That' was where I would be sleeping until I got a bed, because I sure as hell was not sleeping in the one it came with. It just looked disgusting. What a waste of money. Well, not a total waste, it had a flat screen.

Well, I knew what kind of shopping I was going to be doing...

As I was trying to sleep that night, I thought of my mother and my possible father. I wonder what he's like, I thought. I wonder if he actually looks like me. All these thoughts ran through my head so frequently that I couldn't fall asleep. Eventually I had to turn on my iPod and listen to some Frank Sinatra to ease my mind to sleep. My mother always thought it was weird that I liked music that was too old for my time. I always told her that it didn't matter when it was from, just that I liked it. That thought comforted me, andI felt myself drift off into sleep.

And that was when my alarm went off.