Chapter Eleven

Traffic was heavy as Sara and Greg headed back to the lab. What should have been a short drive was now bordering on ridiculous.

"Good thing we're not in a hurry," Greg said after they sat through a long red light.

"Yeah," Sara nodded, "sometimes there's not a thing you can do about it though."

"There's probably an accident somewhere," Greg sighed, "I think we're lucky if we make it back to the lab before the end of shift at this rate."

Sara laughed, hitting the brakes at the next red light, "I should hope so."

"You never…" Greg trailed off and Sara looked up just in time to see the car swerve into their lane.

The impact was hard, and it happened so fast, neither of them could really react. Their SUV was pushed into the car in the next lane. Both Sara and Greg were whipped quickly to the side upon impact. The accident happened in a split second, but it seemed like an eternity before either of them could say a word.

Greg tried to unfasten his seatbelt, but fumbled with it, "Son of a bitch."

"Greg? You okay?" Sara asked, unfastening herself.

"Seatbelt's stuck," he explained.

"Let me try," Sara reached over and found the belt to be quite stuck.

"You can't get it either?" Greg was even more frustrated now.

"I better call for help," Sara searched for her radio or cell phone.

A man knocked on the window and Sara opened her door for him, as she had shut the engine off.

"We already called 911, are you guys seriously injured?" He asked.

"Don't think so," Sara shook her head slowly.

"All right, just sit tight so you don't have to try and fight traffic across the street. They're still whipping around you on the other side, I don't even like standing here," the man explained.

"Okay," Sara said, suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness.

"Ma'am, are you sure you're all right?" the man was concerned.

"Yeah, yes. I'm okay," Sara said.

"How about your friend there?" he gestured toward Greg.

"I'm okay," Greg said, "seatbelt's just stuck."

"Help should be here soon," the man said and then retreated to the relative safety of his own car. It appeared he was just a Good Samaritan who stopped to help out.

Sara leaned shakily back into her seat. Suddenly her head was spinning and so was everything else. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the dizzying sensation. She could already hear the sound of sirens approaching.

"Sara?" Greg asked.

"Yeah?" she mumbled.

"You're not looking too good, are you really hurting somewhere?" Greg queried.

"My head, spinning," Sara's breath was growing shorter.

The last thing she heard before slipping into darkness was a muffled "Oh God" from Greg.

The sequence of events that occurred from the time Greg was cut out of his seatbelt in the SUV until he was in a bed in the hospital was a blur. He lost track of where Sara was taken and was desperate to know how she was, when Grissom came in to his room.

"Grissom! Have you heard anything about Sara yet?" Greg asked the second he spotted his supervisor.

"Yes, I just talked to her doctors," Grissom sat on the chair next to Greg's bed.

"Well…how is she?" Greg asked impatiently.

"She's going to be fine," Grissom told him, "she has a concussion from hitting her head. They're still running tests to make sure there's no bleeding or anything, but the doctors said there's absolutely no reason to believe there's serious damage. Other than that, it's mostly cuts and bruises for her. How are you doing Greg?"

"I'm okay, I guess," Greg was relieved to hear the news on Sara, "my neck hurts; I have a minor case of whiplash. And I have a huge bruise across my chest from the seatbelt locking up. I cracked a rib too."

Grissom sighed, "So what exactly happened?"

"We were sitting at a light and this car going the opposite direction swerved into us. I don't know why," Greg explained.

"So how are you holding up? I mean this was your first night back at work and you were in an accident…" Grissom trailed off.

"I'm seriously beginning to think that someone is trying to send me a message that I should not be doing this job," Greg joked.

"Are you really okay?" Grissom was serious.

Greg nodded, "Yeah I think I'm okay. The accident wasn't really related to work. It wasn't fun, but it could've happened any time."

"Unfortunately it just so happened to be your first night back at work. I guess you'll be taking some more time off now," Grissom shook his head, "and Sara too. Our shift was already so short handed."

"Have you visited Sara yet?" Greg questioned.

"Not yet, I wanted to stop in and see you first, I figured you were going nuts in here," Grissom explained, "they're usually not very helpful about giving you information."

"Thanks. You can go see her now if you'd like," Greg told him, "talk to her and see how she is."

"All right, I'll stop back by and see you later," Grissom stood to leave.

Greg leaned back into his pillow, suddenly very tired. The night's events had caught up with him. All he wanted to do now was sleep, but his mind could not stop replaying the accident.

A/N: Okay, it took me a while to get this chapter just right. I think I will have one more update coming fairly soon. I just want you all to know I appreciate those of you who have stuck with this story. You have to be patient with me now; finals are coming up in the second week of May. And I have just received a position as a color analyst on a Colorado Avalanche hockey site. So I might be a bit busy, but I promise to not just leave you hanging right here, I will work on getting a new chapter up before the end of April.