First Sara could smell something that didn't belong into the hospital. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw long blonde hair.
"Did I sleep again a whole night?"
"No, it's evening."
"Oh, good…I think."
"I brought you something." Sofia placed a small bag on Sara nightstand. A bigger bag Sara recognized as her travel bag for short trips Sofia placed in front of the bed. Some fresh clothes for Sara.
"It smells good…"
"A vegetarian burrito. I blackmailed my cousin and smuggled it in. I know you don't like the food here and I thought before you don't eat at all I'll get you something you like."
"Sofia?"
"Mhm?"
"I love you." Sara sighed.
"Thanks." Sofia grinned. That was a nice way to hear a thank you.
"You bring me decent food. How did I manage to survive hospital before?"
"Not good that why you came up to us."
"Yeah."
"Did you work too much to come back to us?"
"It's a nice side-effect if it works out, isn't it?"
"No. You can hurt yourself seriously." Sofia stroke some hair out of Sara's face.
"My stubborn head is solid."
"Your stubbornness is more than solid."
"It's called character."
"You can see the world through rose-colored glasses."
"Yes." Sara bit in her burrito. That was good, that was real food. "Did you leave the boys with your mother?"
"Yes. It's not an official visitor time so I asked if it's alright if I come along and leave them with her. With that I used the last favor my cousin owed me. So please don't do something like this again. There won't be another burrito."
"I don't think I'll stay here tomorrow night. They can have their checks tonight I'll leave tomorrow."
"Do you think that's smart?"
"Six nights are more than enough."
"You were unconscious for four nights."
"I wasn't awake for long times, I woke up."
"So short that you can't remember it. You thought it's still the same day you had your accident."
"Did he tell you everything?"
"No."
"And what accident?"
"You fell asleep in your car in front of a red traffic light. Somehow you started your car and bumped into the car in front of you. That's when you hit your head."
"My car is…"
"You'll need a new one."
"Shit. Ecklie will kill me." She had taken the CSI car.
"He won't come close to you as long as you're here."
"Are you trying to make me stay longer? I can lock the door and he has to stay outside."
"I worry about you."
"If you worry that much you can stay with me. You and the boys. This way there'll be three people looking after me, making sure I'll stay in bed and whatever else your cousin will tell me to do or not to do. I assume I'm not allowed to work this week anymore."
"At least one week."
"After I crashed the car I might not even have a job anymore."
"I don't think he'll be that mad."
"It's Ecklie."
"Yeah…" Sofia stopped.
"What?" Sara felt her friend wanted to say something more.
"Nothing."
"Talk Sofia. I can see you want to ask or say something."
"I thought Grissom would be here. I know they called him, left a message for him. It's the third time, you were unconscious for four days…"
"He won't come, we both know it. He doesn't care that's why I sent the ring bach."
"You filed a petition for divorce?"
"Kind of. I wrote him a letter, I don't want to be married to somebody who isn't interested in me, who doesn't care for me. If I am more important for him than his job he should show it fast or it's better when we go separate ways. Knowing Grissom and knowing he won't leave his job behind you can say, I filed a petition for divorce, yes."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sofia took Sara's hand.
"No need to be sorry. It's better. He proved the last months I'm not important for him. He prefers to spend time with his work and not with me, he doesn't call when I'm in hospital. The only time he called was to ask me where I am because he expected me in France. He didn't sound sad or disappointed that I wasn't there, only annoyed.
And I thought about my life a lot in the last months. I don't want to be old and sit alone in my apartment while my husband is somewhere working and hadn't been back home for weeks or month. I spent enough time in my life alone, I don't want that anymore. Grissom can't give me what I want, he can't change himself and I doubt he would be happy if he tried to."
"What did he say when you sent him the ring back?"
"He didn't say anything. I doubt he called my home number, he knows I'm here. According to your cousin nobody called for me. Did you call for me?"
"No he called me and I told him I'll come down right away."
"What's with the farm?"
"They'll be fine. I took the boys with me so the three will be fine. We've only five guests this week, Cat's friends are staying there, they don't need me."
"They always need you, Sofia."
"They can cope."
"When will you fly back?"
"I haven't booked a flight back, I wanted to see first how you are, if you need help. I'll look for flights later."
"Don't let them work too hard because of me. They'll hate me for that."
"If there had been the chance the whole family would be here, Sara. They miss you. Jamie counts the days until he's here and Cat is working on a huge paint of Fortuna and Lucky. And Jon…he misses you most."
"Huh?" Sara had bet that Jamie missed her most.
"Are you surprised?"
"A bit. I thought Jamie would miss me more."
"He misses you a lot, he looks forward to see you again and everything but Jon…you know how sad Kieran was when you left?"
"He cried." It still broke Sara's heart when she saw the tears and the sad face of the boy. How sad he was that she left and he had to stay.
"Jon suffered more. He suffers. He misses you, Sara. He never said a word, never will but I know him and I know, he misses you. Whatever you did to my oldest son, when you left us, you took a piece of him with you."
"I didn't know it got so much to him."
"It does."
"Do you think I should call him?"
"Did you talk to him at all?"
"No." Sara felt even more guilty. She had talked to Sofia most times, sent a few text messages to Jamie and Cat, one or two to Jon. Somehow she couldn't write or talk to him.
"I should do that."
"Being his mother I should tell you to stay away from my son, not to hurt him anymore. I know you don't want to hurt him, I know you don't want him sad and it might help if the two of you talk."
"I'll talk to him. I could tell you I was busy and had barely time to do anything…well I had a break down again, it's obvious I was busy and you know how tired I was when we were on the phone…but I won't use that as an excuse."
"He misses you." Sofia didn't feel good when she thought of that. Her son wasn't supposed to miss Sara that much. She didn't want that.
"I'll call him."
"Good."
"Do you want me back on the ranch for Christmas?"
"Of course."
"Sofia, I can see you don't like the idea that Jon misses me so much."
"I think he has a crush on you."
"I can't see that but you're his mother. If you want me not to call him, to stay away, it's alright. I want what is best for him."
"I want him happy and you with us at Christmas would make him happy. Beside, if you won't be there Christmas you'll break Kieran's heart and make three other children very sad. The life on the ranch isn't the same since you've been gone."
"I miss the time with you guys every day. Did you find some help?"
"No. We had two men there who wanted a job but they didn't fit to us. It looks like we'll have to do it alone."
"Shit."
"Yeah. To employ the wrong person would be worse."
"True. Ask Ecklie. He employed me and will regret it now."
"He doesn't regret it. You had an accident because you worked too much, who makes you work so much? He. It's his fault. If he would send you home after ten hours, makes you take your two days off a week this accident would have never happened. You can sue him for breach of duty of supervision."
"He'll tell me I could have taken a cap to court."
"That doesn't change anything of the fact that you work too much."
"We can't stop working after eight hours every day, can we?" Sara smiled. She knew Sofia never had an eight hours day, the blonde worked also over twelve hours. Her advantage was, she was her own boss and could make a break whenever she felt like it.
"We can try not to kill ourselves."
"I never tried to commit suicide."
"You'll work yourself to death one day."
"No I'll end up here and your cousin will send me back to you."
"I wish he would send you back to us right away."
"Sounds good to me. To be realistic I think I'll be back on duty next week."
"Do you want that?"
"Any other choice?"
"You've all choices in the world, Sara. You can do whatever you want to do, there's no law that says you've to stay in Vegas and work here. You can go anywhere else, every city will be more than happy to have you as a CSI."