Title: Welcome Home

Author: Viggorrah

Disclaimer: If I owned CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, do you seriously think I would be writing this? I would be writing screenplays, not Fan Fiction and meeting with William Petersen and the rest of the stars of the show. Who the hell do you think I am?

Summary: Catherine talks to Jim and Jim talks to Grissom's mother...

CHAPTER VII

Jim walked outside and flipped open his phone.

"Brass." He said.

"Hey, Jim. How ya doing?" Catherine's voice came through the phone. He took a deep breath.

"I'm as well as can be expected I guess. But Sara's...she's really shaken up. She's waiting for any news on Gil."

"I take it you haven't heard anything on his condition yet?"

"He's listed as Very Critical. They're prepping him for surgery right now. I was going to flag down a surgeon to ask 'im what's happening in there." He heard Catherine sigh.

"The sheriff said that Gil's probably wasn't going to make it…"

"I almost have to agree with him. He's-" Jim paused to look around and took a deep breath to stop him from crying. "You should have seen him, Cath..." He whispered into the phone. She looked out the window and closed her eyes, but a tear still slid down her cheek.

"Greg, Nick, Warrick and I just leaving the Lab. We'll be there soon." Catherine said in a wobbly voice. Once she regained her emotions under control, she changed the subject. "Have you contacted his mother?"

"Not yet. I was going to call her after we got to the hospital, but I, uh, haven't had the chance to."

"Oh, ok then. I'll let you go. I'll talk to you when we get to the hospital."

"Alright. Bye." He ended the call and wiped his somewhat wet eyes on his sleeve. He then proceeded to call Grissom's mother's cell phone. The line rang a few times and was then answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Captain Jim Brass with the Las Vegas Police Department. I work with Mrs. Grissom's son. I can only guess you're her translator?"

"Hello Mr. Brass. Yes, I am her translator, Sharon Johnson. Do you by chance know where Gil is? We were going to surprise him with a visit, but he's not at his townhouse."

'Oh great. This is even better. She's here. In Vegas. Trying to surprise Gil, too. God this is going to be harder than I thought it was going to be…' Brass thought. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Where are you guys? Are you checked into in a hotel somewhere?" He asked her.

"No, we're outside his townhouse. We've been waiting here since about three this morning. It was the only plane we could catch to be here today. She knows he works nights, so we were just going to wait here for him." She answered him.

"Ok. I'll, uh, come pick you up and bring you to him." Brass felt bad about not telling Sharon what happened, but it would be better for Mrs. Grissom. If she passed out or something, he couldn't help her and he'd feel the wrath of Grissom later.

"Oh, that would be great she says. We'll be waiting for you."

"Alright, I'll be there soon. Bye." He heard a click and he closed his phone. Once he was inside his car, he paused for a second. "Why did this have to happen? And to Gil of all people…" He said to no one in particular. He sighed. Before leaving, he texted Sara to tell what was going on:

i'm going to pick up griss' mom. rest of the team is on their way. b back soon.

He started his car and headed in the direction of Grissom's townhouse.


As Catherine got off the phone with Brass, she told the guys what he told her.

"Man. This sucks. Why did it have to be Grissom? Why couldn't it have been Ecklie…?" Greg whined.

"I'm right there with you, Greg. Grissom didn't deserve this." Nick agreed with Greg.

"It has nothing to do with 'deserving it' or not, Nick." Catherine countered.

"Arguing about it isn't going to change anything, y'know." Warrick said as he changed lanes. A solemn silence fell over the truck before Greg finally sighed.

"You're right. I'm sorry…t-this is just hard to accept." He apologized and looked down at his feet. "And what the sheriff said about Griss…that h-he wasn't going to…" He trailed off. Warrick nodded, but Catherine spoke.

"I know, Greg. We're all feeling like you are. The only thing we can do right now is be there for Sara and support her through this. All we can do for Grissom is pray for him…" She said. Another silence fell over the truck. In about fifteen minutes, they made it to the hospital. Warrick parked the midnight-blue Denali and the four CSIs entered the hospital's main lobby. They wandered over to the receptionist's desk.

"Where's the waiting room for someone in surgery?" Catherine asked her.

"Who's the person you are waiting for?" She asked.

"Gil Grissom."

"Oh. Go to the one on the second floor. It's off to your right as soon you as you get off the elevator."

"Thank you." Catherine, Warrick, Greg, and Nick made their way to the elevators and up to the second floor. When the door opened, they looked to the right and immediately saw Sara sitting by herself. They walked over to her and sat down around her.

"Where's Jim?" Nick asked her.

"He went to pick up Griss' mother." She answered while looking up at him. In was evident that she had been crying: her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. "I-I haven't seen any surgeons yet. I can only assume that means that they haven't taken him into surgery yet."

"You know what Griss would say about assuming, Sara." Greg said with a small smirk. That got a sad smile out of Sara.

"Yeah, I guess so." She said.

"Did Jim say where he was going to pick his mother up?" Warrick asked. She shook her head.

"No. He just told me what he was doing," She sniffed and paused. "Not where he was going."

"I wonder where he was going then…" Nick pondered.

TBC!