Grissom sat on the edge of the bed, taking Sara's hand in his. She had a mask providing oxygen, and monitors keeping track of her vital signs, but otherwise appeared unharmed.

"The bullet didn't hit anything major," said Beth quietly, as she checked the machines. "We fished it out and gave it to Detective Curtis. Recovery wise she'll need to stay off the leg for a few days and then take it easy while it heals. It looks like she's trying to wake up so remember that you need to keep her calm." Grissom nodded and Beth left.

He reached out to touch her, tucking back rampant strands of hair that curled defiantly across her face. She sighed and turned her head sideways into his touch.

"What's that noise?" she mumbled, the bleeping and humming of machines filtering into her consciousness.

"Hospital," he choked out, unable to form any other words as the haze of the last few hours began to lift and the harsh reality of events pressed down on him, like the heavy breathlessness of an asthma attack, or the blinding fear of true panic. She opened her eyes and stared up at him; he could see it in her eyes as she began to put the pieces together, trying to work around the holes in her memory.

"What happened to everyone?" she asked, fear inflecting each syllable.

"Mom is upstairs with Kati; they're sitting with Sophie. She's sedated- she had glass in her arm- but she'll be fine." Sara blinked, feeling woozy, and tugged on the front of his coveralls. He slid onto the bed beside her, avoiding her wounded leg, and, after raising the top so they were semi-sitting, tucked her against his chest and wrapped an arm around her, holding her fast to his torso.

Sara breathed slowly, concentrating on her efforts as her head cleared and their conversation began to make more sense.

"What else?" she mumbled, her speech slurred as she fought the last of the anaesthetics.

"Kaia is in surgery," he said softly, his cheek pressed against her hair. He closed his eyes as a tear slipped away, running over his cheek before dropping onto his lip, where its saltiness stung the flesh he had worried between his teeth while waiting for news. He drew a deep breath, clinging to the shredded remains of his normal calm exterior.

"The bullet hit her shoulder and they told me she's stable, but it's been hours and I've heard nothing more." His voice wavered and he paused, concentrating on holding it together. "Greg is… Greg is going to be fine; he's full of morphine and proposing to the nurses." He stopped, lost for words.

"Where's Syd?" Sara asked warily, as the entire picture came together. His grip tightened, and she could feel his choked breathing. "Gil, where is Sydney?" she asked, feeling terror clawing at her.

"I don't know," he finally gasped. "Jim and Warrick are looking, Cath and Nick went back to the lab, there's an Amber Alert…" he trailed off as a wave of nausea washed over him. Had he managed to continue, it wouldn't have mattered. Hearing the words 'Amber Alert' Sara's senses shut down; she heard, saw and felt nothing beyond the sanctuary of her mind, where a war was erupting. Caught between blind panic, terrified breathlessness and a surreal rational calm, she sat frozen and trapped in the centre of a violent storm as her mind tried to catch up and restore order.

Sara had always been good in a crisis; while others panicked and created yet more disorder, her mind stayed eerily calm and allowed her to think quickly under extreme pressure. Now, feeling the pain of Gil's iron grip on her arm, she felt that ability kick in.

Prying his fingers loose, she took them in hers and idly used her thumb to massage his hand, whilst briskly jabbing a staccato beat on the call button with her other hand. She could feel Gil relaxing and kept up her ministrations; during college she had taken a massage and reflexology course, which had come in handy over the years when it came time to get overactive children into bed. Now it was helping abate panic and distress. The man was incredible really, he could handle danger on the job with the utmost calm and control, but whenever his children were threatened, he had a tendency to lose all the scientific rational and clear thinking.

When a nurse bustled into the room, Sara fixed her with a calm but firm expression.

"Mrs Grissom, you need to relax," said the woman, "it's critical to your health, and your baby's, that you stay calm."

"And I will do just that," agreed Sara evenly, "just as soon as someone gets me an update on Kaia Sidle-Grissom."

"You need to be patient," began the nurse. Sara sighed and looked at her nametag.

"Meredith? I have four children, and I solve riddles for a living; I have infinite amounts of patience at my disposal. At this particular moment however, I do not feel like using it. One of my daughters is missing, and two are injured. I would appreciate an update with the utmost urgency."

"I understand your concern," said Meredith, "but you really must relax and stay calm, it is imperative that,"

Sara clenched her teeth to stop from grinding them together. This was getting her nowhere. She glanced at the monitors and the leads attached to her body, then selected one and gave it a hard yank. It popped free of its anchor and she smiled with grim satisfaction as the squealing alarm shattered the quiet atmosphere. Meredith whirled in panic, and Gil started, jerked out of his dread.

A hoard of people thundered through the door, a doctor included, dashing up to the bed as questions and instructions tumbled from their lips. When they saw Sara sitting up and staring at them, they all paused at once.

"What's going on?" asked the man in the white lab coat.

"I have no idea," spluttered Meredith, still in a flap.

"I do," said another nurse, holding up the end of the cable. She plugged it back into the wall and reset the alarm.

"How did that happen?" asked the doctor.

"I don't know," wailed Meredith, "everything was fine, and I was telling Mrs Grissom to relax and then chaos."

"I pulled it out," said Sara calmly.

"Why?" asked the doctor, eyebrows rising.

"The nurse here was being most unhelpful."

"What are you talking about?" snapped Meredith, waving her arms in punctuation. "I was just"

"Meredith, get out," snapped Kelly, the nurse who had stopped the alarm. Meredith gaped for a moment, and then spun on her heal and stalked out, others following. Kelly and the doctor remained.

"What seems to be the problem?" asked the doctor kindly. Finding his voice, Gil explained about Kaia.

"I'll find someone," promised Kelly, vanishing out the door. The doctor watched her leave and then turned to Sara, consideration in his warm, hazel eyed face.

"I'm Doctor Williams," he said, his voice a warm and soothing baritone. "I'm sorry about the all of this; what can I do to help you?"

"Can you move me to the same room as my daughter Sophie?" asked Sara immediately.

"I don't see why not," agreed Dr Williams, assessing the monitors. "It would save the police from guarding multiple rooms. You do understand though, that your health is paramount to your unborn child's survival? You must remain as calm as possible."

"I am calm," said Sara flatly, "if I wasn't, you would know about it."

"Very true," agreed Gil, watching the doctor hopefully. He thought he saw a hint of a smile at the edge of Williams' lips.

"Understood. Do you have any other questions?"

"What happened to me? Why am I in a hospital bed?" Sara wanted to know; having pieced together the rest of the story, she failed to remember her own injuries.

"You were shot in the leg," replied Williams. "The bullet missed the bone and major ligaments and blood vessels. You will need rest and then to walk with assistance for a few days, but it will heal just fine. The reason for all the monitoring is because you started to develop symptoms of shock. We gave you a sedative and local anaesthetic to make you sleep while we cleaned up your leg. We also had to stitch the wounds in your neck; when you arrived the glue had failed and cuts were bleeding again."

"And the baby?" she demanded.

"Remarkably stable at present," Williams pointed to one of the monitors. "You see these numbers here? They are very strong and consistent. Your little one is doing well at the moment."

"Good." Sara leant back against Gil, resting her head on his chest. "How soon can I be moved in with Sophie?" Doctor Williams smiled at her tenacity.

"I'll organize it right now," he said.

"Thank you," sighed Sara. She waited until he left the room, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to steady her nerves.

Grissom kissed her temple, staggered by her resilience and bravery.

"I love you," he said softly. "We'll fix this."

…

"Lisa," said Doctor Daniels, looking up from his patient. "Call and see if there's an orthopaedist available to scrub up and look at this shoulder; I could really use some help. Nia, we're going to fix this lung issue with video assistance. You said she's an elite athlete; well I would like to see her back in the gym and I really don't think opening the chest cavity is going to do here any favours there."

"Thank you," replied Nia. "It's so worth it." Doctor Daniels grinned at her.

"You know I like a challenge." He turned to the anaesthesiologist. "Lucas is the extra time going to be a problem?"

"No, I don't think so. She's been nicely stable since the bleeding stopped and I'm sure she'll appreciate it later on. My sister did gymnastics through high school; she wasn't great at it, but she and her friends absolutely lived to be in the gym."

"It's addictive," smiled Nia, remembering fondly. "The feeling when you're flying through the air… I used to think superhero's had nothing on it. I still don't."

…

Orderlies settled Sara next to Sophie and then left, but not before Sara had commandeered Leah's cell phone and dialled Jim.

"Brass."

"What can you tell me?" she said without preamble.

"Sara, you're ok?"

"Far from it; what can you tell me about Syd?"

"Hodges has a lot of dirt to look at, the weapons were stolen from LA police, and we're waiting for DNA to identify the bodies from your driveway."

"Is that it?" she demanded angrily. "What about suspects with grievances? Recently released felons?"

"Sara, we've got this," he said gently. She let out a growl of anger, and Grissom snatched the phone from her hand, stepping out of her reach.

"Talk to me Jim," he said, listening intently to the same speech his wife had just received.

"You need me there to help," he sighed, his eyes roaming over Sophie, Sara and Kati, who had crawled up onto her mother's bed and snuggled against her chest.

"No no no no no," replied Brass instantly. "You're team is here, they know what they're doing. You need to stay there with your family."

"One of them isn't here," he snapped.

"I know," Brass was patient. "But you can't come in, you're not allowed."

"I'm what?" he was dumbstruck. Brass winced, wishing he could take that one back.

"Ecklie banned you from the lab for the duration of the case," he sighed. "Look Gil, you trained these guys, you know what they can do. Have a little faith that they're doing their absolute best for you. In the meantime, focus on helping Sara and your girls. They need you more than we do."

"Jim," started Gil.

"I'm sorry; this sucks I know, but I can't change his mind." Incensed, Grissom pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it, as though he'd never seen one before in his life.

Abruptly, he pressed the end button, hanging up on Jim and dialling Warrick, who had little more to tell him. Dropping the phone on the bed, he stared at Sara, fuming.

'Gil, what's going on?' asked his mother.

'I'm banned from the lab,' he signed forcefully.

'Good,' she replied. 'You're needed here.' He glowered at her, search for something to say. 'Gilbert, listen to me,' she said firmly. 'You hired these people; you personally selected the very best. Do you imagine that for one moment they are not going to go above and beyond to find Sydney?'

He was spared a response when there was a knock at the door and the nurse Kelly walked in.

"Did you find someone?" asked Sara immediately.

"I spoke to the assisting nurse in the operating room," replied Kelly. She perched on the end of Sara's bed and offered paper and crayons to Kati, who smiled shyly and took them with a mumbled thank you.

"She stressed the point that Kaia is doing well; she's stable and all her vital signs are holding nice and steady."

"But?" asked Sara. Kelly motioned for Grissom to come closer and asked permission to touch him. He nodded and she placed a finger on his uninjured shoulder.

"This is where the bullet impacted," she said, before tracing a large circle across the shoulder. "It ricocheted around inside the shoulder, inflicting a lot of damage. It then tore through the top of the lung here," she moved her hand across his chest, "and lodged in the bronchus on the right side." She gestured one last time and then let her hands rest in her lap.

"Doctor Daniels is using video technology to assist in repairing the lung damage and extracting the bullet. It's time consuming and difficult, which is partly why the surgery is taking so long, but he feels in Kaia's case that it's the superior option to opening the chest cavity. The recovery is less complicated and the pain management should be easier."

"And her shoulder?" asked Grissom.

"That's the other reason she's still in there," said Kelly. "Lisa, the nurse I spoke to, said the shoulder damage is complicated, and Doctor Daniels has asked for an orthopaedic specialist to scrub up and take over. Doctor Harris will be joining them in a few minutes."

"So it's going to be a while?" he said, running a hand through his hair and sighing. Kelly smiled sympathetically.

"Yes! I'm sorry that's the case, but she's in the best hands and Lisa is going to keep the nurses' station on this ward informed; someone will come and tell you every time there's an update."

…

Brass gathered the team in the break room. He had sent a deputy for coffee, sandwiches and other assorted lunch items as the sun disappeared from the sky.

"Ok people, eat, refuel, do whatever to keep your bodies going," he ordered, taking a deep drink from his coffee mug. "So far we have nothing on previously convicted criminals or recently released prisoners related to Grissom or Sara. The same goes for their mail; no threats, or even the occasional thank you for the last few months. We're still looking, but I doubt we'll find anything."

"I've been checking into Sydney's life," said Catherine, rubbing her eyes and twisting her neck from side to side. "Until a couple of weeks ago she was a student at UNLV; she withdrew from her course and registered a change in major effective at the beginning of next semester. There are no flags in her records, and the guidance counsellor said she's a model student.

"She worked two nights a week at a magazine as a freelance photojournalist; that's where she broke her leg and she hasn't been there since. I called the editor, she said Syd was only allowed to work two four hour shifts, but she was rarely in the offices anyway, she mostly emailed her stuff in. I sent techs over there, but they came up with nothing."

Her stomach growled loudly and Catherine reached for a sandwich, taking a bite and swallowing before continuing.

"I've looked into the Las Vegas Orchestra and the Las Vegas Youth Ensemble, both of which are on winter hiatus right now. That leaves me with the band next."

"I've got tire treads from seventeen different vehicles," said Warrick, "plant matter and dirt from the van with Hodges, spare zip ties, blankets and halothane all of which are clean, and what looks like a custom made cigarette lighter, which I'm working on tracing back to the manufacturer. The last trip the van took, excluding the distance from Griss and Sara's house to where it crashed, was 87 miles."

"That's four states," said Mandy, horrified. Warrick nodded and passed Brass a map to pin up on the boards he had dragged in so they could create a visual reference.

"The dirt says it was from south of here, not north, so we can exclude Utah," said Hodges, taking a pen and shading an area on the map. He felt his stomach churn as he flashed back a year to the last time he had used soil to eliminate areas someone he knew was being held. "Also, it's forest dirt, not desert." He put the pen down.

"I can also tell you the hair Warrick got from the van is from alpacas; specifically, living ones. I found specimens from eight different animals, so my guess is it's someone with a farm. The halothane rag had epithelials on it and the mystery substance in the boot print is tree sap."

"DNA's still running," said Wendy apologetically.

"Can you tell us what type of tree Hodges?" asked Brass.

"I'm working on it," promised the tech.

Doc Robbins stuck three pictures to the whiteboard.

"Number One, unidentified male, late thirties, manual labourer of Hispanic origin, but with mixed parentage, including Caucasian. Head trauma caused by a crutch, and a single gunshot to the neck, severing the carotid. According to Bobbie, the round is consistent with your weapon Brass." Robbins moved on to the next picture.

"Number Two, Nathaniel Logan, the registered owner of the van. Broken collar bone from a blow with a cylindrical object, death caused by three gunshot wounds to the chest, any of which would have been fatal. Thirty-five years old, has spent the last twenty in and out of prison, has the scars and tattoos to prove it. Interestingly, he had a congenital heart condition that would have killed him sometime within the next year. I've requested his medical records, but I doubt he knew about it. Bullets consistent with Warrick's service weapon." He jabbed his crutch at the third photo.

"Number Three; driver of the van, found dead at the second scene. Bullet to the temple from an estimated one to two hundred feet. Brandon Taylor, age twenty-nine, cousin of Nathanial Logan."

There was a tap at the door and Ronnie from QD walked in.

"Warrick that mush you gave me from the van cup holder? It's a receipt for coffee at seven am this morning from a gas station."

"What's the address?" asked Nick, typing it into the laptop he had been using to help Archie with traffic camera footage in hopes of catching a glimpse of Sydney or her abductors.

"That's 82 miles from Grissom's place," he said when the search engine spit out its information.

"Who's coming with me?" demanded Brass. Warrick nodded.

"Count me in; I'm done with the van."

"Good, I'll have a deputy drive; we can catch naps on the way there." Brass surveyed the room. "Catherine, work out some kind of sleep rotation; we can't work if we're unconscious and we need our minds sharp. Keep me posted!"

...

...

Thanks for all the kind reviews; new challenge fic up featuring the Ethereal family in a zoo...

Happy reading, please keep R&Ring

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