A/N: Thanks for your enthusiastic reviews. Your points of view are welcome, as they help shape the development of the storyline. Hope you will continue to read and review!

I had not expected to finish this chapter until the weekend, but these two just will not get off my shoulder until I finished this section. As long as it's done, might as well share and ask you to review. Hope it doesn't disappoint!

Chapter 4

She sat smugly in the shadows of the break room. With some time before shift would begin, the area was deserted. Sofia sipped her English Breakfast Tea, relaxed against the leather-grained sofa cushions, crossed her long legs, and fought to contain a satisfied smirk.

Her plan was brilliant in its simplicity. Sofia had been remarkably successful in eliminating any competition, personal or work-related, through a three-step process she honed to perfection through years of thoughtful plotting: Remove, Restrain, Replace.

She always found a way to remove the "offending object" from their normal work environment, paving the way for her to come to the rescue. Through sometimes ingenious means, she would then see that the "offender" was restrained from doing their job – usually by some authoritative edict imposing a mandatory layoff or compulsory vacation leave. Finally, Sofia would replace the person on a temporary basis, wielding her charms to insure she became permanent in her desired position.

Today, she had just finished setting the stage for the first part of The Plan to commence. She chuckled at the memory of Ecklie's sympathetic response to her "concern" about Sara Sidle. Wrapped him right around my…she smirked as she swirled her pinky in the air. Didn't take much to spin him up about Sara. Poor girl. By the time I'm done with her, they'll lock her up in some psychiatric suite and throw away the key. At this, Sofia sighed. Then…she'd have the full attention of Grissom, and any other men in this lab who could help her climb the administrative ladder. Thinking about Grissom made her blush slightly. No reason I shouldn't enjoy my work while I'm at it. She grinned wickedly. Watch out, Gil Grissom, you will be mine!

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The couple sat silently, having both awakened to the sounds of the early evening hour. It wasn't until Sara groaned softly that Gil instantly pulled himself up to assess her condition.

"Honey, you need to take some of the painkillers Doc left for you," he said worriedly.

"I'm fine…"

"NO!" he barked, startling her. Tears formed on the rims of her worried eyes.

"Sweetheart, you are NOT fine! Please, let me help you. Please!" he said emphatically, wrapping his arms around her carefully so as not to injure her further.

Sara gulped back the knot in her throat. "Okay," she said softly. His concern should have been heartwarming, but Sara had incurred enough abuse in her life to make her wary of anyone who exhibited that violent of a response when she disagreed with them. It always started with verbal abuse…

He pushed his forehead towards hers and momentarily felt her retreat before changing her mind to meet him halfway.

"Look, Sara…I'm sorry…I never meant to raise my voice…I…I just don't know how to do this…to make you understand." He raised his head and waited for her to meet his gaze before he continued.

"I am telling you…to your face…that I am worried about you. I don't like to see you in pain. I love you. I want to help you. But you also have to know that you, Sara Sidle, are the most important thing in my life. I will never knowingly do anything to hurt you, and that includes going against your wishes. That is my promise." Sara let out the breath she did not realize she had been holding.

"Let's start this conversation again, ok?" he smiled. Her face softened and she smiled back.

"Honey, Doc left some painkillers for you. I am worried because you look like you are in pain. Please, will you take them to ease my mind?"

Sara took a deep breath. "Okay," she said with more assurance than before. "It's just that painkillers make me feel out of control." This explanation should have sufficed, but she surprised them both when she found herself continuing.

"I need to stay in control …or else I may have no choice but to submit to doing what someone else wants me to do…or do to me…even when I don't want to..." Her voice increased in volume as she spoke. "I need to stay in control! I won't let myself be a victim again! I won't!" she said emphatically, only to wince and bring her arm defensively over her bruised ribs.

He reached for her again to calm her. "Look at me, Sara." When their eyes met, "I promise."

He left to gather the pills and some milk to wash them down. Sara lay silently, amazed that for the second time she had revealed a part of her inmost feelings to him. What was it about him, she wondered. For years, she'd done the dance, refused to let anyone in. With him, it was like she couldn't help herself. Was she really willing to trust him that much?

Please, don't betray my trust.

She took the pills but could not be persuaded to eat anything. Gil offered to make several choices of breakfast foods, but between the pills and her aching face she begged to put off eating until later. Replacing the pill bottle on the bed stand reminded him about his meeting with Doc.

He was loath to leave her, but needed to find out what their friend found so important that required a face-to-face meeting. Upon telling Sara he needed to go to the lab for a while, her defensive posture was set in place. He's going…to leave me. I'll be fine. Who can blame him?

His sixth sense kicking in, he leaned over to peer into her eyes for what seemed like eternity. "You want me to bring back something special to eat, or should I surprise you?"

Sara just plunged into the icy blue depths of his eyes as she answered slowly, "You already have."

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Doc Robbins was trying to busy himself, to no avail. His eyes wandered frequently to the clock on his office wall, each notice bringing a prolonged sigh. He would give Grissom another half hour before he began a search for his colleague.

Just then, the coroner's impatient wait ended when the morgue doors opened and an anxious-looking Grissom approached with a hurried stride.

"How is she tonight?"

"Resting comfortably. She just took some of the pain medication you left her, downing it with a glass of milk. I'll be bringing take out back when we finish here."

Doc Robbins sighed as he leaned back in his high-backed office chair. "Close the door, Gil."

Grissom's apprehension heightened somewhat as he watched the doctor speak to the front desk asking her to hold all calls. When finished, he swiveled in his chair and brought himself face-to-face with his friend.

"Gil…I'm worried about Sara."

Grissom leaned forward giving their friend his total attention.

"I get the feeling this is not related to the accident."

Doc sighed. "Not directly. Listen, how much attention have you paid to Sara's overall well-being in the last month or so?"

It was Grissom's turn to sigh. "You know it hasn't been much. It isn't that I have been avoiding her, actually…"

"Well what EXACTLY WOULD you call it, Gil?" The heat of the coroner's interruption left them both temporarily speechless.

Silence lay between them as the doctor fought to calm his rising fury. Finally, he began again:

"Sara talked to me that night. She described her accident, which I truly believe was an unfortunate turn of events. But then, well, it was like she couldn't keep things dammed up anymore. Like if she couldn't tell someone about her torment, she would most likely…"

He needed a break, unable to speak the worry that was consuming him. He tried again:

"Gil…she's on overload. That business with Hank, losing the nod for the promotion to Nick, and…other emotional matters…" He looked into Gil's eyes to see if he was getting the point across.

"Guilty," was Grissom's response.

"Well, anyway, in the aftermath of this upheaval, Sara seems…lost. Going over the timesheets when I returned to the lab after the accident, I was appalled at the number of consecutive hours Sara put in during a one-week period alone. She was burying herself in her work trying to bury her pain…it wasn't working."

Grissom was silent. How had he missed that? They were always short staffed; they had always worked crazy hours. How had he not noticed Sara pulling doubles and triples without a day off?

Doc continued. "That night, when I did a more in-depth physical exam…" he had to pause to allow the memory to fade, lessening his discomfort, "Gil…she is in danger…"

At this, Grissom almost stood as he approached the desk to lean into Doc's personal space.

"Al?...tell me…all of it."

During the next half hour the two exchanged information about the issues of Sara's weight loss, her body mass depletion bordering on anorexia, her penchant to overwork, her almost compulsive need to drive herself to exhaustion.

Doc felt he had adequately conveyed his concerns to Grissom. He was, however, NOT prepared for Gil to relate his own worry about Sara's brush with a DUI just a short fortnight ago.

This disturbed the medical examiner greatly.

"Gil, the addition of binge drinking into the equation is more than a little troubling. If these facts were presented to me without a name and a history to attach them to, my off-the-cuff diagnosis would be…severe depression."

Gil swallowed hard. Not Sara. She had been through so much in her lifetime. Surely she had always shown herself strong enough to handle whatever evil life threw at her. She was a survivor.

But was she strong enough to survive the quicksand he had personally led her through these past five years?

Doc's intensity brought Gil out of his musings.

"Sara needs our support, Gil. I worry that, with provocation, this situation could worsen quickly. Patients presenting with these symptoms often…well, let's just say things can escalate quickly."

Grissom blinked hard and stared into the troubled eyes of a man who was trying to make a statement, but was unable – or unwilling – to put it into words.

"Doc…just lay it on the line."

For the first time in memory, Gil saw an emotion-charged glare emitted from the coroner as he whispered harshly,

"Suicide watch."