Lex Talionis
Chapter 21
Sara searched through the pile of magazines in the surgical waiting room for what felt like the hundredth time. True, it might have been just over a week ago since she'd last been here but surely they had to rotate these damn books every so often. She gave up and went back to her seat. She'd now been waiting for over two hours.
She hadn't arrived at the hospital until 8:30am. With Days and Swing both agreeing to lend one of their team members to Grave for the time being; Catherine had offered her the night off but Sara couldn't see the point in taking the time if she was just going to spend it alone at home. Instead, she was off tonight; Dr. Morgan had decided that trying to keep Grissom in for a second night was just asking for trouble and had promised to release him later this evening provided everything went to plan.
Sara closed her eyes and thought back over the last two days. She'd thought she'd have difficulty keeping him in bed but she needn't have worried. If it meant getting that surgery sooner, Grissom would have gone along with anything. In fact, he'd spent most of the time with the laptop on the bed beside him. She had no idea what it was he was working on; she was just grateful that it was keeping him occupied.
She hadn't worried when she left for work that he would be up and about as soon as she was out the door. The lessening of the swelling in his leg was proof enough that he never went further than the bathroom. He had the laptop and television for entertainment and she set him up with drinks and food before leaving.
With Grissom laid up in the bedroom, Sara found most of her time at home was spent in there as well. There was no point in sitting alone in one part of the townhouse when she could be sitting with him and, as a result, they had probably spoken more to each other over the past two days than they had in the past two months.
They had discussed his suspension and what may happen when he returned to the lab; although Sara had left out any mention of Ecklie's conditions. She had tentatively questioned him about his continued refusal to see anyone and he had asked how she felt about selling the townhouse and moving to a new area.
The down side of spending so much time together was that Sara had found herself developing his new sleep regime. A maximum of three hours sleep at a time may work for Grissom but it was beginning to take a toll on her. And then there were the nightmares.
It was late morning on the first day of his enforced bed rest that Sara discovered one of the reasons he was spending so much time awake.
Grissom had dozed off and, deciding to take advantage of the fact, Sara had quickly joined him. Lying on her side, head cradled in the hollow of his shoulder; they had been asleep for less than half an hour when she felt the arm he had slung around her begin to tighten and his hand gripped her wrist. Waking quickly and hearing his labored breathing, she initially thought he was in pain but when she looked up and saw that he was still asleep, his face drenched in sweat; she guessed what the problem was. Unable to break the painful grasp Grissom had on her arm, there had been no choice other than to wake him. He had shot back to consciousness with a gasp then lay still, struggling to control his breathing while Sara fetched a wet towel from the bathroom to wipe him down.
Grissom was mortified when he saw the red marks on her arm, guessing correctly where they'd come from and promising profusely that it would never happen again.
It was the one thing he refused to discuss during their talks; shutting down anytime she brought up the subject. There had been two others since but, true to his word, he had never again hurt her during the course of one.
They had both been relieved when Morgan decided to go ahead with the surgery. After spending most of the day either being examined or getting scans, Grissom probably would have exploded if it had been put off. After getting settled in a private room at 4pm, he'd demanded that Sara leave in order to get some rest before shift started. When she'd finally agreed, and backed out off the room, loathe to leave him, she realized it was probably the first time in over a week that he had looked truly happy.
Hearing the sound of people entering the waiting room she opened her eyes to find six familiar figures standing in front of her. Looking somewhat sheepish; Jim, Catherine and Al Robbins stood in front with Nick, Warrick and Nick close far behind.
"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Sara gestured to the seats around her and watched as they all sat down.
"We know Gil won't want to see us today, Sara, but none of us felt right about leaving you here to wait alone." Catherine explained to the younger woman.
"Besides," Warrick added. "If it was one of us in that operating room, Griss would be out here himself until he knew everything was alright."
"Never mind all that, my one and only patient is in there." Doc Robbins joked. "I have every right to be here." He smiled at Sara. "Any word yet?"
"No, I spoke to one of the nurses when I got here and she said they started at 7 and were expecting it to take about four hours." She looked at her watch. "It's 10:30 now so, hopefully, they shouldn't be much longer."
"Anyone want anything from the vending machine?" Greg asked as he felt in his pocket for change.
"I'd kill for a cold drink, Greg." Sara told him as she reached into her pocket for some change.
"My treat." Greg assured her. "What kind do you want?"
"Soda would be fine. Thanks." She watched him saunter down the corridor before turning to Catherine. "Did your results come back, Cath?"
"Wendy's still running them but at least we now know that both brothers bled in that room. Kevin Beck was killed with a shotgun and the injuries to Jason are consistent with being beaten, we think, probably with the same gun. There were a couple of bloodstains on the carpet and one of the walls that don't belong to either of the Beck's. We haven't had any hits in CODIS but that seems to be par for the course with these boys. Well keep trying but at least it looks like we'll have a DNA profile to compare our killer with when we get him."
"What about the van?"
"The blood, both inside and out, was Gil's. The only prints we got from the vehicle belonged to the brothers." She turned to include Brass in the conversation. "Any luck with the SUV, Jim?"
"Not yet. There are more red Pathfinders in Nevada than I expected but we'll run them all down and check them out. I've also got someone cross-checking them with the lists that George Anderson sent down. If we don't get anything, I'll move onto vehicles registered in neighboring states; I'm damn well going to find this car."
"Thanks guys, I know you're doing everything you can." Suddenly, her hand shot up to smother a yawn. "Sorry."
"Are we keeping you up, Sara?" Al asked, his amusement showing clearly on his face. They all turned to the door as Greg reentered the waiting room, crossing quickly to hand Sara an ice-cold can before sitting down.
"Thanks Greg." She opened it and took a drink before answering Robbins question.
"Do you know how hard it is to get any rest when the person sharing the bed rarely seems to sleeps and isn't allowed to get up?" Sara took another mouthful of soda. "And now when he does sleep he has nightmares."
"Well, I guess that's not surprising." Robbins told her. "I'm sure I would have them too if I went through that."
"He won't talk about them." She unconsciously tugged down the sleeve of her top. "He just says he's fine and then pretends to go back to sleep."
"You have a spare room, don't you?" Nick asked, trying to be helpful. "Or how about sleeping on the couch?"
"I don't think that wouldn't work." Sara pointed out. "I'd just lie awake and worry if I wasn't in the same room."
"Hey, it's your birthday next week isn't it?" Greg asked her, seemingly out of the blue.
"Yeah." She answered, realizing that she'd actually forgotten. "It's on Monday."
"I've been trying to come up with a way to get Grissom to see us all again and I thought that if we took you out for breakfast after shift, he'd have to come too, wouldn't he? I mean, it would be your birthday meal."
Seeing Sara doubtful expression, Catherine jumped in to champion Greg's plan.
"That's a great idea!" She exclaimed. "It would be on neutral ground so he shouldn't feel cornered and no one would pressure him about anything. What do you think, Sara?"
"I think his doctors have just come out of surgery." She stood up quickly and moved towards the door, pleased to see both surgeons smiling as they walked down the corridor towards her.
"Everything's fine, Sara." Dr. Morgan assured her. "He's back in one piece. They'll be bringing him out shortly."
Sara heard movement behind her and turned to find Al Robbins standing beside her. "Hey Gary, how's my patient?"
"He's doing great." The two men shook hands then Morgan introduces his colleague. "Al, this is Eva Kovak, she handled the eye socket reconstruction. Eva, meet Al Robbins, Las Vegas coroner and our patient's doctor." Receiving a puzzled look, Morgan clarified further. "Al was the one who diagnosed the PCS."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." She shook hands with Al before turning to speak to Sara. "Everything went smoothly; it was really a textbook zygomatic fracture. I made three small incisions, one at the side of his eye, one just in the hairline and one inside his mouth above the gumline, and then we removed the bone fragments and inserted the micro-plates. Once the stitches are out and the bruising disappears no one will ever know anything was wrong. The other sutures and staples have been removed and everything's seems to be healing perfectly."
"Eva's done a great job, Sara, first class work." Morgan told her as the other surgeon headed back towards the OR. "Can we talk here in front of your friends or would you like to go somewhere private?"
"Here's fine. They're more like family than friends anyway."
"Let's take a seat then." Morgan ushered Sara back to her seat before taking the one opposite. He waited for Al to take the seat beside Sara before starting.
"The leg is fine. It took two plates and twelve screws to put it all together but everything's as it should be. He's going to be in plaster up to the knee and he cannot put any weight on that leg for at least eight weeks. After that it will depend on how much healing has occurred. We'll get him in for x-rays in a week just to make sure everything's fine. The broken femur is looking good although I would be happier if he'd keep the fracture brace on for a couple more weeks; I don't suppose there's much hope of that happening though."
Morgan took a breath and surveyed the people around him, all listening intently.
"The MRI showed lesions on the frontal lobe of his brain." Seeing the fear his words had produced he hurried to reassure them. "It's alright. That's actually what we wanted to see; it's really nothing more than bruising. It will all disappear in time. That along with his behavior last night pretty much backs up Al's diagnosis."
"What happened?" Robbins asked.
"He was acting fairly normally to start with and, to tell you the truth, I was beginning to think you'd made a mistake. I made the decision to go ahead with the surgery so we admitted him and started running the usual tests. That's about when you left wasn't it, Sara?" At her nod, he continued. "After a while he became tired and frustrated and, pretty much, stopped cooperating. By that time both Dr. Kovak and I had finished what we wanted to do anyway so we left him alone to get some rest. Unfortunately, not long after that Dr. Sullivan came down to examine the chest burn."
"What did he do?" Sara was almost afraid to ask.
"According to the nurse who was in the room at the time, the minute Sullivan and his assistant entered and Grissom got a look at them, he got angry. He wouldn't let either of them near him and was threatening to discharge himself and leave the hospital. Eventually they called me and we managed to get him calmed down but there was moment when I thought I was going to have to get you to come back in. What I didn't know at the time was that Grissom woke up while they were performing the initial debridement, which probably explains why he went off at Sullivan in the first place. It also didn't help things when then told him that the wound is becoming infected and he had to go back on IV antibiotics."
"Does that mean you won't be discharging him this afternoon?" Sara asked, dreading the answer.
"No, he should be fine to go home." Morgan told her. "He'll be put on another course of antibiotics and there's also an antibiotic cream that we'll show both of you how to apply. Apart from that it's just a matter of changing the dressings."
"What about skin grafts?" Robbins enquired.
"Grissom is refusing to have anything more to do with the burns team. He's rejected grafts and dermabrasion and insists he just wants the wound to heal itself." Morgan shrugged his shoulders. "He won't discuss it with me at all; in fact, he's been pretty quiet ever since that happened. The nurses said he was awake every time they checked on him during the night and he barely spoke this morning before surgery. Maybe one of you will have more luck getting him to talk about it."
"I doubt it." Sara told him truthfully. "Once he shuts down that's pretty much it. I'm afraid that if we push him on something just now it will set him off."
"I can understand that." Morgan said. "I didn't want to upset him further by having Neurology examine him but I did have them check the MRI and told them what's been going on. They say it's all pretty consistent with Post-Concussion Syndrome. Grissom's already trying to control his behavior which is good, and he'll get better at that as time goes on, but they suggested that the best thing all of you can do is learn what his triggers are; frustration and fatigue are common ones. If he gets tired, frustrated or stressed it probably isn't going to take much to push him over the edge so, when you see that happening the best thing you can do is to leave him alone."
Morgan looked at the clock and stood up to leave.
"I think that's about it for now." He shook hands with Al then turned back to Sara. "I'll drop by the room in a couple of hours to see how he's doing and discuss the PCS with him but I can't see there being any reason why he can't be discharged later this afternoon. I'll go back now and make sure everything's set then they can take him back to his room."
To a chorus of thanks, the surgeon left the waiting room and returned to the OR area.
Sara sat back down and took a deep breath. "Well, at least we know for sure now."
"It'll be fine, Sara." Al tried to reassure her. "The worst is over. Now, that the surgery is done; things can begin to settle down again."
Everyone looked up as the doors to the surgical suite were pushed open and a gurney appeared. The two nurses who were guiding it pulled it to a stop just outside the waiting room door.
"Ms. Sidle?"
Sara stood and hurried towards them. Coming to the side of the gurney she could see Grissom was groggy, but awake. Reaching for his hand she was pleased to feel her grip returned. She smiled down at him.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I just got hit in the face with a baseball bat?"
Sara was pleased to see the dent below his eye was now gone. The bruising was still quite extensive but at least now everything looked relatively normal. The two incisions she could see were less than an inch long and, as promised, would hardly be noticed in a few months time.
"It looks better though." She told him. "Especially now that the other stitches and staples are gone. How about your leg?"
"I can't feel it just now. I'm just glad that metal's finally gone."
Sara heard footsteps coming down the corridor and looked up quickly to see a uniformed officer walking towards the waiting room door. She saw him gesture to Brass then watched as Jim left the waiting room to speak to him.
"We're going to take Dr. Grissom back to his room." One of the nurses told her. "Do you want to come along with us?"
"Yes, definitely." Sara told her. She turned and addressed the team. "I'll come back in about ten minutes and let you know what's happening. Is that alright?"
With everyone's agreement, Sara followed along behind the gurney. After getting a now dozing Grissom comfortably back in bed, both nurses departed, leaving Sara sitting at the side of the bed watching as he slept. A few minutes later, she hearing a quiet knock on the door, she rose to answer it, finding a worried-looking Jim Brass standing on the other side.
"Sorry Sara." Jim told her quietly. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to have to leave. Dispatch has been trying to call me for the past hour."
"What's happened?"
"One of my neighbors noticed the front door of my house was wide open and, knowing I was at work, phoned it in. When a patrol car arrived they noticed flames and called the fire department."
"God, Jim." Sara exclaimed. "Your house was on fire?"
Yeah. They managed to put it out but apparently there's a lot of damage. I'll have to go round there and see what I can save."
"Do they think it was deliberately lit?"
"The door had been forced and they could smell gas when they went in, so, yeah it was deliberate."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Sara offered.
"No, you've got enough on here. Catherine and Nick have volunteered to come with me anyway, just in case it's related to the case."
"It would be a bit of a coincidence, wouldn't it? Well, what are you going to do? You can't stay there."
"Oh, I'll get a room in a hotel somewhere for tonight. That'll do until I know what's happening with the house."
"Sara?" Both started at the unexpected voice coming from within the room. Sara turned to look at the bed.
"I thought you were asleep."
"I need you to go over to the lab and get my spare keys from my desk then give them to Jim; he's staying with us."
Brass, not wanting to enter the room fully, stuck his head around the door. "No, Gil. Thanks for the offer but you don't need me there. I'll be fine."
"Jim." Grissom's voice, though still groggy, was determined. "You're not staying at a motel. There's plenty of room at the townhouse so you're moving in with us for now."
"Are you sure? You haven't really wanted any company lately."
"I'm not discussing this any further; I need to sleep." Grissom told him firmly. "Go salvage what you can; if you need room for storage, park my car in the driveway and use the garage. I intend being home tonight and I expect to see you there."
Grissom closed his eyes, cutting off the chance for further discussion. Sara, smiling, stepped out into the corridor and closed the door.
"I guess you don't have any choice."
"I guess not." Jim said as they walked back towards the others.
"I'll give you my keys now then drive over to the lab and pick up the spare set when I know he's really asleep."
"Thanks, Sara. This means a lot."
"Don't thank me. I'm not the one that insisted you stay with us."
"Yeah, I certainly wasn't expecting him to do that."
"Neither was I, he surprised me too." She smiled across at Jim. "Maybe Doc Robbins was right; maybe the worst is over." She suddenly remembered why Jim had come to the room in the first place. "I'm sorry, Jim, I was forgetting about your house."
"Well, it needed renovating anyway and, this way, the insurance company gets to pay for it." Jim said as they neared the door to the waiting room.
"Bit of an extreme way of going about it, though." Sara pointed out.
"Perhaps, but you know what? If this is what it takes to start bringing Gil back; maybe it'll all be worth it in the end."
TBC