They say you only really realize how much you need something once you've lost it.

Sara sat next to her sleeping husband and even a day later he was still impossibly pale. She had realized just how much she still loved Grissom when there had been a possibility of him leaving her permanently. It was different when she wanted to divorce him. He was still there, physically he was still there, there would be a chance of seeing him again, of getting answers of hearing his voice again, but if he had died, there would have been nothing on this Earth left of Gilbert Grissom. He'd be gone, permanently, no chance of hearing his voice again, no chance of ever seeing him again. The weight of this realization hit Sara like a ton of bricks. She broke down crying, her body leaning forward, her head coming to rest on the edge of the hospital bed, the sounds of her broken sobs echoing through the quiet room.

CSI LV

The swim back to consciousness was a hard and painful one for Grissom. It felt like his mind had turned into a muddy pulp and the pain in his shoulder was making itself known before his consciousness was even restored. Getting closer to the waking world, he heard a sound that he's only heard once or twice before in almost 20 years. It was a horrible sound, a sound no man should ever hear. It was the sound of crying, no, sobbing. His muddy mind supplied the explanation slowly, it could only be Sara, his Sara was sobbing and he had to act.

Without thinking, he sat up, ignoring the stabbing pain that momentarily stole his breath, the monitors screaming as they were ripped off his chest, the stinging in his eyes brought by the harsh lights, none of it mattered; he had to get to Sara. He just had to get to his wife, to find out why she was crying, to find a way to comfort and soothe her. He saw her then, sitting at his bedside, her beautiful face was tear-stained and red, and her brown eyes were wide and bloodshot as she stared at him. His sudden movements were unexpected and startled her into silence.

Grissom tried frantically to get to her, his mind set on her, forgetting about his own problems.

CSI LV

"Grissom!" Sara cried as she saw him trying to get off the bed, she moved towards him and placed her hands on his shoulders, trying to get him to lie down again. She frowned as she felt the heat radiating from his shoulder.

Grissom's normally clear blue eyes were bloodshot and pain filled. Suddenly his eyes started sweeping the room, going from side to side, looking for something only he could see.

"Sara? Sara, where are you?" Grissom's voice was hoarse from disuse.

"Griss, I'm right here. Sweetheart, you need to calm down," Sara was still trying to get Grissom to settle back into the bed.

"What's going on?" a nurse asked. Sara looked at her over her shoulder. 'Where did she come from?' she thought.

"I don't know," Sara said. "He was sleeping and then he just jumped up and started trying to get up, he's not listening to me."

"Ok, just keep talking to him, maybe you'll get through to him," the nurse turned to one of her colleagues and said, "Go page Doctor Berndt, he should still be here." The younger nurse nodded and rushed out the door while the one that spoke to Sara stayed and took readings of the monitors. Sara was just thankful that she turned off the alarms, they were driving her mad. She turned her focus back to her husband who had finally ran out of strength and stopped trying to get out of bed.

"Sara? You can't leave me. Please don't leave me," Grissom said, and to Sara's horror, tears started rolling down his cheeks.

"Shh, I'm here, Gil, I'm right here, look at me, please," Sara tried to soothe her frantic husband, with tears running down her cheeks as well.

"What's going on, Daisy?" a new voice spoke from the door. Doctor Berndt moved straight to his patient as his eyes picked up on the frantic scene on the bed. Sara tuned the nurse and doctor out while her attention was on Grissom. The last time she had seen him this helpless, was when Nick was buried and the kidnapper blew himself up without giving Grissom the location.

"Mrs. Grissom, your husband has a very high fever, we're going to try and use ice packs to bring it down before it gets too high. I'm going to need you to give us some room to work. Take a break and go to the waiting room. There is a little group of people that I'm sure will appreciate an update," the doctor spoke softly, taking Sara by the elbow and gently moving her toward the door. "We are also going to run some tests to see where this fever came from and how we're going to fight it."

"I thought he was on antibiotics," Sara said, trying to understand what was happening, her eyes still trained on her husband, who was still calling out to her.

"Yes, he was and that is why we have to figure out where this infection came from. The antibiotic he was on clearly isn't strong enough," Doctor Berndt said.

"You'll come find me when you know something?" Sara asked her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Yes, I will, I promise, but now though you have to give us some room, okay?"

"Okay, thank you and please take care of him," Sara asked.

"I will. I have to get to your husband now, the minute I know something, I'll come find you," and with that he turned back to help the nurses with his patient.

Sara took one last look at her husband, and made her way back to the waiting room, her heart heavy and her mind exhausted. What turned out to be the beginnings of a dream come true was turning into a nightmare.

CSI LV

Sara walked into the waiting room looking as exhausted as Jim felt. He immediately stood up and pulled her into a hug. To his surprised and to those of the small group of people waiting for news, Sara just collapsed into his arms, clinging onto him as if the world depended on it.

Jim met Al's eyes over her head and the fear in the other man's eyes reflected his own. Something must have happened, something bad.

"Sara? What's wrong?" Greg was the first to break the silence as he moved closer to his friend.

"Griss…Grissom's got an infection. They're still trying to figure out where it came from, but his fever spiked a couple of minutes ago. They're gonna try and bring it down," Sara said, still clutching onto Jim for dear life. Jim just hugged her back.

"It's okay, Sara, calm down. Grissom is a fighter, he came back for you and he is not going to leave you now," Brass said, trying to get through to the woman in his arms.

"We still haven't talked; I have to tell him that I love him, that I don't want to give up. I want to give him another chance, Jim, he can't leave me now," Sara said and started crying again.

"Sara, listen to me, Gil loves you, more than his bugs and after today, you can know that he loves you more than his own life. If he can get out of his shell long enough to fight for you, then he will not let some pesky infection take him from you," Al spoke up, he had moved over to Jim and Sara and put his hand on her arm. She turned her tear filled gaze to the older man and looked for some sign that he was just saying things to make her feel better, but she just saw sincerity there. For the first time she noticed that Nick and Greg were there too.

"Doc is right, Sara," Nick spoke up and Greg nodded his agreement.

"Listen to the boys and the grandpa, Sara," Brass said, trying to get Sara to calm down and his trick worked, as a small smile appeared on her face.

"Ok, now that we have that cleared up, Sara, take a seat," Al said. "The boys will get us some coffee while Brass phones Russell to get some news on the two jackasses that shot your man." The rest of the team nodded their agreement as they moved to follow Al's orders. Sara sat down on the uncomfortable waiting room chairs and Al sat down next to her.

"So, my boy came back for his prize?" Al asked and Sara had to laugh at Al's phrase.

"Yeah, he did," Sara said looking down at her hands.

"And?" Al asked, not caring if he was nosey.

"And the minute he is lucid enough, I will kick his ass for getting himself shot and then I will kiss him so hard there will be no more doubt in his mind that I love him," Sara said.

"Good, and when you're through, it's my turn to kick his ass for letting you go," Al said with a smile.

"And when you two are done, I'll kick his ass for not telling me that he's back in town," Jim's voice came from the door.

"Any news?" Nick asked as he came back into the room with the coffee and started handing them out.

"Yeah, Russell said that they found the two little punks. They were found about three blocks away sitting in an alley and crying their eyes out," Brass said with an eye roll.

"You're kidding me right?" Greg asked.

"Nope, apparently they found the old gun in their late grandfather's attic and decided that getting a summer job was too much work, so they'd rather go and steal some cash," Brass answered.

And with that the conversation turned to some of the more stupid cases the team worked on. No one mentioned the time, but everyone was aware of the minutes as they turned into hours. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the waiting room doors opened to reveal a very tired looking Doctor Berndt.

"Sara, I've got some results for you," his face was expressionless, but his voice betrayed the fact that the news was not good at all.

And there we go. It took me almost a year to get my muse back and get into writing again, but it seems like my muse is back with a few more chapters and a new story or two on the horizon. I wanted to end the story with this chapter, but halfway through writing it, I got an idea and why not extend it a little more. I really hope that there are still some readers out there that enjoy this and I hope that you will let me know what you think of this chapter.

The recognizable characters don't belong to me, only the plot bunny does.

Thanks to my amazing beta, who has been a saint and extremely patient….so I was thinking, instead of an island, what do you think of having a planet being named after you? C. Nicole, you rock.

Till next time,

Flea