Chapter 12
Sara was having a nightmare. She was falling. She could hear herself scream as she kept falling. She was screaming his name and could hear him calling her back but she couldn't see him.
"Sara" it started off low at first and then he got louder.
She was getting closer to him, she could tell, but she still couldn't see him.
Louder "Sara" and then she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the beautiful blue of his eyes and then she thought of the baby, "the baby" she said as she motioned to sit up.
He held her back, "is fine" and he leaned over and turned up the monitor. The room was filled once more with the reassuring rhythmic heartbeat of the baby. She relaxed against the pillows behind her, "what happened?"
She asked the question so softly he almost didn't hear her.
"You passed out in the field. I was so worried about you. When was the last time you ate?"
In answer to his question her stomach began to rumble. She gave him a guilty look, " I had a bagel while I was in the field, but all the smells around me were making me feel so sick, and I was getting really tired, I'm sorry I wasn't thinking. I could have really hurt myself or the baby."
She stopped speaking because her voice began to hitch. He gently stroked one of his hands against her cheek, the look in his eyes softened.
"You know I can't let you back in the field, professionally or personally right."
She looked despondent, "I know, but isn't there anything I can do to help?"
He cheered her up a little, "I tell you what, when they release you, you can come back to the lab and process evidence, as long as you promise to take regular breaks and eat."
He gave her a stern but loving look.
"Agreed," she said.
She was willing to settle for anything at this point and knew she couldn't ask to go back out into the field. She suddenly realized she had passed out on Nick.
"Does Nick know…" he cut her off before she could finish the thought.
"No one knows about the baby yet, but we are going to have to tell them soon, you are going to start showing soon."
"I know; I'm just worried."
He took her hand and gave it a squeeze, "I know. So am I."
Just then a huge commotion began in the room next to them and the two of them heard little snippets of conversation as nurses and doctors filed past Sara's cubical in the ER. Words like plane crash and only survivor were among them.
Grissom and Sara looked at each other with shocked expressions on their faces. Sara's hand flew to her mouth, "Grissom, I thought there were no survivors?"
The expression on his face mirrored that of hers, "I didn't think there was either. I'll go check it out. Will you be alright?"
"I'll be fine, I'm just as curious as you are, go."
With this Grissom got up and walked out of the room. It seemed like ages before he got back and when he did he just sat down next to Sara with a sad look and didn't say a word.
Sara assumed whomever the victim was must have died when Grissom finally began to speak.
"It is a…" he paused, not knowing how to go on.
Sara placed a hand on his arm and he looked in her eyes, she gently whispered "sweetie it's what?"
He looked down at her hand and covered it with his own, finding the strength to go on.
"Sara, it's a little girl, not more than 5 years old. She was almost untouched. They found her in a section of the wreckage of the smaller plane. They say the only reason she lived was because her mother…" he couldn't finish saying it.
The body of the mother was found wrapped around that of the child. The mother took the brunt of the blow, saving her daughter through the loss of her own life.
Grissom looked back up at Sara and saw a tear escape, "Don't cry honey, the little girl is alright, she was spared. She is going to live."
She took in a deep breath, "I know, but what will she have, her mother is gone."
He did not have a response to that, he was thinking the same thing but didn't want to admit it. They sat in silence for a minute before Grissom's phone began to ring. It was Catherine wanting to know if everything was alright with Sara and to see if he was going to be coming back to work.
"Sara is fine; I'll be there in about a half an hour."
He looked over at Sara, "I have to go back to work, are you sure you're going to be fine?"
"I'll be fine, you said it yourself, and I'm in good hands. Besides I'll call you if I need anything."
She gave him one of her gap toothed smiles to help reassure him, "ok, I'll call when I get a break; they said they were going to keep you over night for observation. I will stop by when my shift is over with."
He gave her a kiss on the forehead and then a deeper one on the lips and looked in her eyes, "see you later, I love you."
She gave him one last kiss, "I love you too, now go back to work and don't worry."
He got up and walked out of the door and Sara quickly fell asleep. She didn't realize she was that tired until they woke her up to take her to her room.
Sara took advantage of being in the hospital and asked the nurse taking care of her, "I was one of the criminalists working on the plane crash, can you tell me how the little girl who was brought in earlier is."
"She is stable but still in shock" The nurse took Sara's blood pressure and disconnected the instruments on her stomach before helping her into the wheelchair she brought into the room.
The nurse started to wheel Sara out of the room when she stopped her, "can I see the little girl?"
The nurse seemed to think on it for a minute before answering, "I don't know, you said you were an investigator on that plane crash right?" the nurse took on a mischievous smile and turned the chair the head for the child.
Sara smiled, "thank you."
They rounded the corner between Sara's room and the one next to it and Sara spotted the little girl in the bed.
"She is so small, have they identified her yet?"