Author's Note:
This is the 3rd story series in the Feasibility Study series and picks up exactly where Caving Under Pressure left off. All 8 chapters are posted. Originally FS 29-36.
"Repercussions – Part 1"
August 4, 2005 (Day 104)
Vancouver, BC
Sutton Place Hotel
Fleuri Restaurant
4:14 p.m.
Alone at a well appointed table for two, Heather, wearing a chiffon, blush-pink wrap dress, sat reading The DaVinci Code while enjoying the elegant afternoon tea service of the restaurant.
"Hello, Ms. Duvall," Jim Brass, outfitted in a sharp pair of khakis and a crisp indigo short-sleeve shirt, warmly greeted the lovely lady hiding behind a hardcover book.
"Mr. Brass," She lightly gasped as she demurely shifted her eyes to the plate of finger sandwiches in front of her. "I'm afraid I feel a little awkward after last night." Gently, she folded her book and set it on the table.
"Please, you shouldn't." He brought his right hand to his chest. "I understand why you changed your mind about having drinks in your room. We just met on a plane and you don't know anything about me."
Bashfully lifting her hazel eyes, she whispered, "I feel as though I led you on and I'm a bit embarrassed." She motioned for him to take the seat across from her and when he did, she finished her thought. "I'm quite shy and I don't know what came over me when I asked if you would come to my room for a drink." Picking up her china tea cup, she took refuge behind it. "I blame pheromones."
Relaxing in his seat, he said, "Pheromones? Are you insinuating there was an instant chemistry between us?"
"I'm afraid I just embarrassed myself again," She chuckled into her tea cup. "Because you obviously don't feel the same way."
"Maybe I'm just good at hiding what I'm feeling," He countered as he checked his watch. "Ms. Duvall, do you have dinner plans this evening? Because I'd like to take you to dinner."
"Why would you like to take me to dinner?"
"To further explore the undeniable chemistry between us." Grinning, he stood. "Six o'clock in the lobby sound good?"
"What should I wear?"
"Whatever color matches your mood." He winked. "See you at six."
"Six it is," She eagerly replied while reaching for her book. As she cracked it open she thought…damn, he is as good at this game as me! He didn't even flinch when I made my power play with 'I'm sorry I've changed my mind about drinks in my room' last night. Today he takes it back by waiting all day to find me and ask me to dinner, and then he tells me to wear whatever color matches my mood. Oh yeah…Jim Brass is a man who knows that twenty-four hours of role-play foreplay pays off big.
Boulder City Hospital
4:36 p.m.
After being wheeled in on stretchers, Grissom and Catherine were transferred to ER beds in side by side cubicles and quickly assessed by two nurses. Nine hours trapped in a sweltering cramped space with no water had left them physically drained. And now that the shock and adrenaline had worn off, the trauma finally caught up with them.
Waiting for the nurses to return, Sara and Warrick stood poised in between the patients, reacting to the sight of their loved ones looking so vulnerable and realizing once more how much worse the incident could have been.
As he stared at Catherine lying helpless, wearing her neck brace and strapped to a backboard, Warrick's thoughts quickly turned accusatory. "We never should have been in that building."
Grissom slowly turned his weary head toward the direction of the bitter voice.
Glaring at his boss, Warrick sharply reminded him, "I told you when we were walking in there it looked like it was condemned. I specifically asked you if you thought it was safe, and you joked it off asking if I was afraid of ghosts. You never even thought to check if it was secure before having us go in there. Your recklessness almost cost Catherine her life and Lindsay her mom."
"Warrick!" Catherine tried to interject but, still weak and pinned to a backboard, she wasn't very successful.
"Excuse me!" Sara ignited in defense of her man and from the gall of the one accusing him. "I can't believe what I'm hearing coming from you of all people!"
Warrick bristled, "This isn't about you, Sara."
"It's about my husband, which makes it about me! I'm not going to idly stand by while you misdirect your anger at him when he's too exhausted to defend himself." Her tone hardened. "Who are you to talk about reckless endangerment in the field? You abandoned your partner at a crime scene to gamble and she was killed. That was reckless! You wouldn't even have a career if it wasn't for Grissom putting his ass on the line for you! And this is the thanks he gets down the road? How dare you!"
"Sara…" Grissom attempted to calm her, but his voice was too hoarse to have an impact.
"Bringing up Holly…that was low," Warrick bitterly replied.
"I was just following your lead!" She snapped back.
"Hey!" Catherine finally worked up the strength to scream. "Both of you shut the hell up."
Like petulant children, Sara and Warrick averted their eyes as Catherine chastised them.
Once she silenced them, she lowered her voice. "Warrick you couldn't be more wrong. We believed the building wasn't condemned because the real-estate people were there and Vartann after them. You know it only collapsed because that woman drove her truck into it. It was a fluke accident. No different than if we were processing on the street and someone plowed into us. On top of all that…" She looked at her distressed boss when she said the next part, "…Grissom saved my life in that basement and almost lost his in the process. He'd never put me in harm's way. He wouldn't have put himself in harm's way. He just got married a week ago, do you think he would have walked in there if he thought for a moment he might die and leave Sara behind?"
Sara took the opportunity to snipe. "See, even your girlfriend agrees with me."
"Hey! I only agree with one of the things you said," Catherine snarled. "Bringing up Holly's death was a cheap shot. You know how her death devastated Warrick. I think you could have found a much better way to make your point than dredging up a painful memory from five years ago. That was an extremely bitchy thing to say!"
Nurses Connie Lewis and Tonya Bennett, both forty-something pros, bolted into the middle of the fray. "Visitors! To the waiting room right now!" Nurse Bennett demanded. "Although it's a slow afternoon, you're not the only ones in here and I won't tolerate this kind of fighting in my ER. Out!"
Reluctantly, Sara and Warrick left the patient care area, trudging out the door to the waiting area.
"Why are you guys out here?" Nick asked upon seeing their long faces. He was hanging out waiting for Ana Silva to arrive. Something he hadn't yet mentioned to Grissom and Sara. "Again…why are the two of you out here instead of in there?"
"Because Warrick was being a jerk."
"And when Sara called me on it, she got loud, not to mention nasty."
Floored by the comments, Nick postured, "A jerk about what?"
Sara was more than happy to tell him. "Warrick blamed Grissom for the accident and called him reckless! I wasn't going to stand there and let him slam my husband when it's totally unjustified!"
"Then she threw Holly's death in my face to make her point."
Nick instinctively jumped into the peacemaker role. "You're both maxed out from the tension of the day and saying things you don't mean. You know that, right?"
Sara and Warrick briefly made eye contact and then stared at the floor.
Looking first to his buddy, Nick commented, "Warrick you were upset Catherine almost died and you vented your anger at the nearest target." Then he turned to Sara, "And when he targeted Grissom, it was a natural reaction to defend him. Because you're so off-balance you said things you probably wouldn't have said under different circumstances. Think about it…you know I'm right."
Once again the two glanced at each other.
Pleased that they were maintaining eye contact, Nick smiled. "Now you aren't doing Cath and Gris any good out here so, maybe if you make up and promise to be nice, the nurse will let you back in."
Warrick was the first to budge. "Nick's right. I was upset and took it out on Grissom. I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one who needs to hear your apology," She gently informed him. "But you'll get mine for throwing Holly's death in your face. I uh…tend to fight a little dirty when I get ticked. I'm sorry."
Back in the patient care area, Catherine, unable to turn due to her brace, stared at the ceiling and remarked to Grissom "Does she fight that way with you? Launching low blows?"
He answered statistically. "We've only argued a few times, so the sample isn't big enough to determine a pattern."
"A few times? That's not healthy. I mean, Warrick and I probably get heated a little too frequently but…release of pent up animosity is good."
He wouldn't go into detail so he simply said, "Based on Sara's history, me getting upset and yelling isn't something she needs in her life, so I try my best to stay in control at all times."
"There's one way to guarantee you'll explode some day."
The nurses returning interrupted the discussion.
Nurse Lewis pulled a gown out of the supply drawer and tossed it at Grissom. "Time to get out of these filthy clothes and get you hydrated, Mr. Grissom." She yanked the curtain closed. "While you're doing that, I'll see if your wife has cooled her jets so I can let her back in here. I heard about your love story on the news, so I have a soft spot for the two of you." After patting him on the shoulder, she slipped out from the cubicle.
Gingerly, he started removing his coveralls until the nurse's comment registered. "Love story on the news?"
"You're going to hate this," Catherine warned from the other side of the curtain. "Warrick filled me in on the ambulance ride. Nick told him."
"How about telling me!"
"Apparently some news bimbo got tape of Sara having a nervous breakdown at the scene. Then she got the scoop on the two of you. She used it to up the human interest angle to the building collapse story…poor Sara Grissom, wife of only eight days, may lose her crime-fighting husband in a freak accident. It's been broadcast all over the metro area…right now you're Vegas' most popular couple."
Panic rose in his voice. "Tell me you're lying."
Through the front side of the curtain, Nick replied, "She's not lying and it gets worse."
"Worse!"
Before stepping through the curtain, Nick asked, "Are ya decent in there? I don't want to see your ass poking out of the opening in your gown."
Catherine, fueled by the pain killer that was kicking in, laughed, "I've seen his ass…good call."
Sara popped through the curtain. "When exactly did Catherine see your ass?" Immediately she took over helping him into his gown.
"Uh oh." Catherine snarked. "She's jealous."
Warrick stepped over to Catherine's side. "Should I be?"
Nick stood frozen outside the curtain.
Grissom rolled his eyes. "For all I know it will be on the six o'clock news so here's the story…I told Catherine about my surgery because I had to tell someone in case I died on the table. I couldn't tell you, Sara…you know why, and since Catherine was next in command at work, I told her. She showed up at the hospital to wish me luck." He groaned, "And she saw my ass hanging out the back of my gown. Gave me crap about it for a year."
Warrick breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he knew Catherine had been around the block many times and he didn't mind, if she had taken a spin with Grissom that would have been, as Greg would put it…squicky. "That was nice of you, Baby." He gently kissed her forehead.
Nick relaxed. "Okay, now that we have that scare out of the way, let's talk about the next one. Can I come in?"
"Yes," Grissom replied as he sat up for Sara to securely tie the back of his gown.
Nick smiled at the couple before dropping the bomb. "Here's what happened. Sara was a bit overcome with emotion and, thanks to a powerful zoom lens and a diva news reporter, KTBC ran with it. Later, this same reporter, Ana Silva, found Sara, who was blissfully uninhibited thanks to 5mgs of Valium."
"I remember talking to her," Sara commented. "But I didn't know I was on TV!" Her hands raced to her mouth. "Oh my god! I talked to her like she was some long-lost friend!"
"Yeah." Nick nodded. "Don't panic. I made a deal with her. She had already run a few sound bytes of your tape, but she agreed not to play anymore when I offered her an exclusive interview with the two of you and the surprise angle of the story…Catherine being trapped in there too."
From the other side of the curtain, Catherine squealed, "Oh, so I'm being dragged into this to save them humiliation!"
"You love media attention when you're on a court case," Nick explained. "I didn't think you would mind."
"Normally, but have you seen me!"
Nurse Lewis returned with her IV drips. "I'm going to have to ask your extra guest to leave. We have work to do here."
Nick nodded. "She's coming to the hospital and we just have to give her something for the ten o'clock news. Trust me…it's a good deal compared to letting her play Sara's Confessions of a Love Struck Lab Rat. All of Vegas already knows it took the two of you five years to get your groove on. Let's not make it more embarrassing." With that, he left to return to the waiting area.
Grissom was glad he was already lying down.
The nurse smiled at Sara, "Five years is a long time to hold out, Sweetie. Was he worth it?"
"Hell yeah." She kissed her husband's gritty, salty forehead. "Grissom is the only guy for me."
"You call your husband by his last name?" The nurse asked while she combed her patient's arm for a decent vein.
From the other side of the curtain Catherine yelled, "Sara, could you do us all a favor and start calling your husband, Gil? Because we think it's weird that you still call him Grissom."
Sara looked at her man. "Wouldn't that feel odd after all these years?"
Catherine coughed.
Taking the cue, he replied, "Uh…actually, no, I think I'd like it." After wincing from the needle's prick, he said, "It's good symmetry because I don't call you Sidle."
"Good point, Gil." Sara smiled.
The nurse finished taping the IV in place. "Okay, you're set with fluids and electrolytes. Keep drinking your water too. Next I'll get started on your cardiac work up."
"What!" Sara panicked. "Why? Is there something wrong with his heart!" Convinced the other shoe was about to drop, she clutched her husband's hand.
"Rapid pulse, blood pressure…"
"Symptoms of dehydration," Grissom quickly clarified for his nervous wife.
"Yep." Nurse Lewis continued jotting notes on her clip board. "But Doctor Ortiz insists on the work up because we live in a litigious society and he needs to cover his ass because Gil, fits the profile."
"Profile?" Sara stared at the nurse.
"That's right." Her eyes on her clipboard, the nurse droned, "Unstable vitals, pushing fifty, high pressure job, out of shape, needs to lose at least twenty pounds. Doctor's not letting your hubby out of here until he's sure he won't bust an artery walking out the door."
Grissom cringed at his description, especially since he knew it was broadcast through the curtain wall. Funny thing about emergency rooms…you're at your absolute worst and required to discuss the most personal information, but have no privacy. Normally, however, you don't know the people beyond the thin cotton wall, but today…not so lucky. "Don't worry, Sara. Remember, I was just at the doctor's a couple of months ago and…"
"For a sperm count!" She boomed. "That doesn't have any bearing on the condition of your heart!"
The nurse laughed as she gathered the necessary electrocardiogram supplies from the drawers. "Well, if he didn't keel over giving his sample, it's a good sign."
"And I didn't," He loudly replied for the benefit of anyone in earshot. "And, as you recall, my numbers were fantastic."
Finally there was a response from the next cubicle. "I accidentally saw the test results and will vouch that he's not exaggerating."
Warrick, over his earlier anxiety, joked, "Baby, you've seen his ass and his motility results, what else don't I know?"
Sara mouthed, sorry, to her husband, which triggered her memory. "Hey, Warrick, isn't there something else you were going to say?"
Through the curtain, Warrick said, "Yeah…uh…sorry for getting on your case, Gris. I was out of line and I know you'd never do anything to jeopardize Catherine."
Grissom, trying to lighten the tension and save his ass, said, "You forget everything you heard and we're even."
"Deal." Smiling, he returned to Catherine's side and asked her nurse, "When can she get the brace off?"
Nurse Bennett checked her watch. "We're waiting for transport to take her for a CT. After the doctor looks at the results, he'll be able to make treatment decisions."
While the nurse Lewis placed the first of the twelve leads on Grissom's chest, Sara felt a neurotic twinge building within. "Seeing this just…it reminds of how…what if something else happens to you before we conceive?"
"Let's not talk about this now, Honey." Grissom gave her hand a squeeze. When she kept talking he knew his message went unheard.
"When you were buried, I was devastated thinking I'd never get a chance to have our baby."
Certain that if she continued talking his EKG would show some stress, he pleaded, "Really, Honey…"
The nurse, used to ignoring conversations such as these, kept working but, when she saw how distraught Sara was getting, she said, "You're odds of conceiving are lessened if you're too tense about it."
"Thank you." Grissom was happy to have a second rational voice in the room. "I've told her that many times. Plus, we just started trying." He brought her hand to his lips for a quick kiss. "You have to relax."
As the nurse secured the last of the leads, she looked at Sara. "My sister is such a perfectionist that she went nuts after not conceiving by the third try. She's paranoid too. Was totally convinced her husband was going to get hit by a bus or take a fatal hit in the family jewels and become impotent before getting pregnant." Laughing, she said, "So she made him make a deposit at the sperm bank as insurance!"
When Grissom saw Sara's face light up he knew he was about to lose a hundred bucks.
Sara couldn't believe she hadn't thought of the option herself. "Honey…"
Resignation saturating his voice, he said, "Whatever it takes to get you to relax about this."
Through the curtains, Catherine called in her marker. "That's a hundred bucks you owe me, old man!"
In disbelief, Sara asked through the curtain, "You bet him that I would make him go to a sperm bank!"
"I knew you'd want some of the boys on ice after this mess. Oh, and Warrick and I already have money down on how fast you'll have at least twenty pounds off Gil."
Before Sara could reply she heard a young man announce, "Transport for Ms. Willows to CT." Relieved to be rid of their eavesdroppers, Sara said, "Good luck."
"If Lindsay arrives while I'm gone, make sure she knows what's going on."
"Okay."
Grissom closed his eyes and tried to take his own advice…relax.
While typing in the last of the patient information in the computer, Nurse Lewis said, "Okay, Sara, I need you to occupy yourself elsewhere for thirty minutes."
"Why can't I stay?"
Grissom, content with the suggestion, did nothing to intervene.
"My professional answer is I believe your husband will do better on this test if he's alone and quiet. Translated into layman's terms, you're making him tense, Honey." And being no dummy, she backed her request with a suggestion. "Why don't you go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat that's high in folic acid? Then get something fattening for dessert because, if you increase your body fat percentage, you'll have a better chance of conceiving. Optimally you should be at eighteen percent and you look like you're hovering around fourteen."
Grissom was ready to hire this crafty nurse to work in the field.
"Is that okay with you, Gr…Gil?" Sara sweetly asked.
"Nurse Lewis makes a good point. Plus, I doubt you've eaten much of anything today." He patted her hand. "I'll be fine."
After pecking his lips, she said, "Think relaxing thoughts. Think about bugs. I'll see you at six."
Once she was gone, Grissom breathed deep. "Thank you for that, Nurse Lewis."
"No problem and, call me Connie," She chuckled. "Okay, we're all set. If you don't nail this the first time, we'll repeat it after you're more hydrated but, for your wife's sake, let's hope the first time is a charm." Patting his shoulder, she warned, "Get in your happy place because you've got five minutes to chill before we start recording."
"Got it." He closed his eyes and let visions of Lepidoptera dance in his head.
Boulder City Hospital Cafeteria
5:31 p.m.
At Sara's request, Nick walked her to the cafeteria. "I spoke with Ana Silva and told her we would need a couple of hours," He informed her. "The hospital will let us use one of their conference rooms."
Resigned to the fact there was no way out of the deal, Sara told him, "I hate the idea of being on display, but I'm grateful you made the deal and kept the other tape off the air." Her voice filling with skepticism, she commented, "Although, I find it really hard to believe that people are interested in my life with Grissom. Why? We work for the lab at night, and by day we're boring people who rarely leave the house. Or we used to be before this different shift mess. You can't honestly tell me people want to see our story on TV? I mean I know people like those over-exaggerated crime dramas but come on." She gave a hearty laugh.
"Maybe they will make a TV show out of your life." Nick laughed with her. "Can't you see it…Grissom as this brilliant Forensic Scientist leading the team. We get to solve all these really whacked out cases. Because we work in Vegas you know they'd focus on the sex and the freaks."
"And of course, we'd neatly wrap everything up each week in an hour's time."
"Yeah," He found that particularly amusing. "And like Ana Silva would tell you, there has to be a human interest angle, not just us solving crimes. So we would need to include some character development."
"Well then they really need to base it on someone else's life." Sara rolled her eyes, "Because what audience in their right mind would want to watch Grissom and I dance around not having a relationship for five years?"
"They could always center it around Catherine's life."
"Oh, she'd love that!" Sara guffawed.
When they reached the cafeteria, suddenly Sara felt every pair of eyes focus on her. "Nick…is it just me or is everyone…"
"They're staring." He pointed at the TV in the corner of the room. "Look."
When she followed his finger, she saw her own image on the screen.
We're told more sensitive equipment has arrived which should tell us definitively if anyone is alive under that horrific pile of mortar and brick. For newlywed Sara Grissom's sake…let's hope they hear something. I'm Kent Goodman, and that tape you just watched was shot earlier today at the scene of the Harper House Tragedy. As you know, Gil Grissom was miraculously rescued ninety minutes ago. Tune in tonight at ten to see Ana Silva's exclusive interview with reunited newlyweds, Gil and Sara Grissom…two people who help fight crime in this city by night and live a beautiful love story, five years in the making, by day!
Nick shook with laughter, "Looks like they want you and Grissom to be the stars of the show after all. Poor Catherine…she won't take the news well."
