Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or these characters.

Chapter Eight: A Beating Heart

Carla Reese was still in her office, dictating notes from the marathon session she had just directed. When that was done, she just took a moment to bask in the success of it, and rightfully so. In one day, she got Sara Sidle to face her pregnancy and make decisions about it, inform the father and involve him, and, most importantly, understand the importance of bonding with her newborn.

She then called Adrienne Daly, "Adrienne, this is Carla."

"Carla, I take it you had a session with Sara Sidle? How'd it go?" she asked expectantly.

"You need to be sitting for this, better yet, if you have an alcoholic beverage anywhere within reach, you may want to slog it down!"

"Carla! Spill it! What happened?"

"Well, you were right about there being more to the moving story. Sara's pregnant."

Stunned, Adrienne marveled, "You got her to tell you that."

"No, she was showing ever so slightly, and I confronted her. I know, risky, but I was right."

"Oh, Carla, this is scary."

"It get's worse, she wasn't even able to tell her boyfriend."

"Oh, my God. That is a really bad sign."

"No kidding, it really got my attention; I canceled out my afternoon, and put the session in high gear. She's so unbelievably motivated we were able to make progress you might expect to take a month or more. She told her boyfriend about the pregnancy when he picked her up, and she's seeing a doctor about it tomorrow."

"Amazing. Carla, I'm thoroughly impressed. Blown away actually. You need to keep me informed on this lady."

"Don't worry, I'll keep you in the loop."

"I don't believe all this," she said, almost speaking to herself, "I had her for over a month."

Carla reassured her, "Well, you loosened the lid for me!"

Carla felt higher than a kite as they ended the conversation. She had clearly out-shined her mentor, and had the satisfaction of saving a life. She went home to savor the day.

Meanwhile, Gil had to drag himself into the lab for the first time in his life. It was all he could do not to be thoroughly preoccupied with the radical changes that had taken hold of his life in the past few days. As luck would have it, the night would be particularly hectic, pushing him into working a double.

Sara's appointment was for ten in the morning, and wild horses would not keep him from taking her to that. He had to figure a way out of the double. Catherine was the logical choice to cover for him, but that meant questions. He was never trying to get out of a double, in fact quite the opposite; usually they were trying to get him to leave.

"Catherine, I need a favor. I have a doctor's appointment at ten o'clock, and it was very hard to get, I just can't miss it. Do you think you could cover?" All true, just not the 'whole' truth.

"I dunno, what kind of doctor?"

"C'mon, Catherine. A medical doctor."

She looked a little frustrated coming up empty, but decided to acquiesce, "All right, on one condition, you confide in me if this is something serious. All kidding aside, Gil."

"Catherine, I promise, when I know everything, I'll be ready to talk about it, right now, please, keep this between us," he said with a smile, "And, don't worry about me, really."

She wasn't too sure what to make of the exchange, but willingly covered for Gil to duck out of the lab. When he arrived at home, Sara was practically sitting by the door, anxious to leave. He was so happy to see her finally accepting, and even embracing her pregnancy.

They found the new doctor's office in stark contrast to Dr. Reese's office. It was in a building connected to the hospital, complete with hustle bustle and hospital smell. The office itself was larger with a waiting room full of people. Sara went to the window to check in and received the obligatory clipboard full of papers. She rolled her eyes and took a seat by Gil while she filled it all out.

Nearly forty five minutes elapsed before her name was called. Gil was dozing in the chair, and she was beside herself with impatience. She flew out of the chair at the sound of her name, grabbed his hand, and they were lead back into the office. Judy introduced herself as Dr. Massey's nurse, her lovely smile and manner made it hard for Sara to stay angry about the wait. "Step up here for me, please," she said to Sara motioning to the scale.

"You can't be serious. I'm not about to get on that."

Gil just laughed, "I'll turn my back."

Judy smiled, "Ms. Sidle, you will get weighed at every visit; it's very important."

She frowned, kicked off her shoes and set down her purse, climbing onto the scale with a grimace. After Judy finished shifting the weights to balance the scale Sara groaned, "I've never weighed this much in my life."

Judy heard that very remark all day long. "Follow me, please."

She took Sara to an exam room, with Gil in tow. She instructed her to strip down, put on the hospital gown, and pee in the cup she was given. The doctor's visit had ceased being something she was excited about.

They waited another twenty minutes or so in the exam room. Gil was back dozing off, and Sara was working herself up. She was not cut out to wait. When Dr. Massey breezed in with Judy, he introduced himself, and promptly began to apologize for the wait, "I hope you can understand, we tried to squeeze you into an already packed morning at the request of Dr. Reese."

Sara realized she really couldn't be upset about waiting, but vowed to bring books along for the next visit, just to be safe.

The doctor went through a laundry list of questions, and gave her a thorough physical. "Everything looks to be on track, now the fun part," he said, pulling out a little black box that looked like a transistor radio with a phone cord and probe attached. He squeezed goop over Sara's lower abdomen and moved the probe around until a slow whooshing sound came over the radio. "Not yet, that's you I'm afraid," he moved the probe around some more and just then a rapid fire whoosh filled the room, "and that's your baby's heartbeat."

Gil flew out of the chair to Sara's side. He grabbed up her hand in his and planted a kiss on her forehead as tears welled up in her eyes. "Can you believe it, Gil?" She started to cry happy tears, "It's real!"

The little life inside of her was an abstract thought until that moment, too distant to really react to, except to fear the idea of it. Suddenly there was a palpable connection, and it moved her profoundly. She now had an image of this separate life taking shape inside of her; its heart beating away. It was the first time she felt connected to her baby, and thus, her journey to becoming a successful mother was now truly underway.

TBC...