AN: Thank you for the reviews. Here is the next chapter.


Chapter 55: Reassurance

After leaving the hospital for a few hours to re-join the team so he could help them close out the case, he walked back into the building. Only this time he wasn't going to Vince's room, he went to a different one with Brass and Sara following him.

When they stepped into the room he grabs a chair, moved it close to the bed side and sat down with no intention on leaving until he talks to the young man who put fear in everybody in that bar and had changed the lives of two families, the Lewis's and the other man who ended up dying on the operating table. Grissom had watched the doctor interact with the man's wife, and as he watched her cry and collapse against the doctor with deep sobs it hurt his own heart witnessing that scene.

He shakes his head from that thought when he heard the 20-year-old groaning, then watches him move his arm but couldn't move it very far because he was handcuffed to the railing of his bed, upon Grissom's request.

Grissom stands up, walks to the head of the bed and stands there waiting for the short brown-haired man to open his eyes.

When he opened his hazel eyes he was looking to the left, so Grissom cleared his throat and said. "If you think you're dead, think again."

The young man turned his head and looked up at Grissom, and at first he looked a little surprised that he was still alive, then in mere seconds his face changed to a complete lack of emotion.

Grissom speaks again. "Sorry about your younger brother not making it, it looks like you'll be in the cell alone."

He was a little upset that they lost one, but after going over the boy's possessions in their apartment the 18-year-old seemed to be just the follower, and plus they felt that if the older brother had to live out the rest of his life without the younger one it would make him suffer more. However, for Grissom that thinking went right out the window when he noticed the young man's face didn't even flinch after hearing about his brother.

Grissom shakes his head, a little surprised as his continued lack of emotions, then speaks again. "What I don't understand is that you were the older sibling, you were all he had left and he looked up to you, so why drag him down the same disastrous path you did? Why go down it to begin with?" When he still didn't answer, Grissom narrowed his eyes and continued. "Ok, you don't really have to answer any of my questions because we have everything on you. Including a testimony from your driver, who by the way, wasted no time taking the deal they offered him and told us everything we needed to know, you really should've picked a better friend to help you out."

Grissom turned away from the bed, wanting to get out of there, but stopped, turned back to him and said. "I do have one more question for you Mr. Marks." The young man turned his eyes to him, and Grissom asked. "Why did you shoot up the bar?"

They didn't find any evidence that suggested they were targeting anybody specific, so it made him curious to know that answer. Even though the important thing to him was finding the who not the why, but this one was really bugging him. However, he was not prepared for Mr. Mark's answer and in some ways he wished he had never asked.

Then the young man did something Grissom was not expecting, he smiled for a second, then said with a straight face. "I was board."

Grissom's anger just spiked as he balled his left hand into a fist and yelled. "You were Board!?" He was thinking about walking up to him again, not really sure what he would have done when he got there, but Sara was already behind him and had put her hand on his shoulder to halt any movement from him so he didn't do anything stupid, even though she would have liked a piece of him too.

Grissom took a breath to try and calm his emotions, but he was still steamed as he continued. "You could have done anything else, something productive even. But no, you shoot up on drugs then you shoot up a bar, endangering people I care about and changing two families because you were board!?" He shakes his head, not understanding this guy. "Well have fun Mr. Marks because you'll be board for a very long time now."

Grissom turns to look at Brass and said. "Cuff him Jim."

Brass smiled and replied. "My Pleasure." Grissom shakes his head again as he walked past Sara and Brass, feeling very disgusted right now.

When he got to the door, he opens it with anger still coursing through him, then walked out of the room as he heard Brass started saying the Miranda rights to the young man.

Grissom didn't stop walking till he made it outside, but even than he started pacing back and forth, trying to calm his pulse down. He didn't know how long he was doing that, but when he turned his head toward the door he saw Sara standing off to the side so she was out-of-the-way. When he finally stopped pacing, she walked up to him immediately and cups his check with her hand to calm him down or least tried to.

Grissom does a deep sighed and said. "He was board? I can't believe what kids will do these days just to relieve their broadness, it's wrong and disgusting. I don't like it."

"I completely agree and I wish we could change every one of their feelings so they don't commit stupid crimes, or crimes in general, but that's never going happen, no matter how much we want it. We can only do the best we can and get as many of those people off the streets, which we did that on this one.
He will be locked up for a very long time." She sighed before continuing. "And as sad and wrong as it sounds you just need to shake this off now and..."

He cuts her off. "Move on to the next one?"

She gives him a sad smile and said. "Yeah, unfortunately." She runs her thumb up and down his cheek and continued. "I'm just reminding you that you shouldn't dwell on something you can't change, that's what you told me."

He just looks into her brown eyes, sighed again, but this one was more of a relief. "What would I do without you?"

She moves closer to him, wraps her arm around his neck and replied. "You'll never have to find out."

Sadness flickered in his eyes and he spoke softly. "I could have lost you." He brings her in his arms, runs his hand up and down her back as he continued. "When those shots came into the bar I was so scared."

He heard her sniffle, and when he was going to pull back she kept him to her and replied. "Me too, even more so when I found out you were hit." He kissed her head and reassured her he was alright.

After a few minutes they pull back and looked into each other's eyes, then when they remembered they were in the middle of the walk way to the hospital entrance they both looked down a little embarrassed that they showed the world that side of them.

They looked back at each other a few seconds later, then she holds out her hand and said. "Let's go see Vince for a little bit and tell him the news." He nodded as he slipped his hand in hers and they walked back in the hospital.

He was still very upset on the reasoning of the crime, but Sara was right he can't change what happened, he can only move forward and be grateful about the end result on this one.


June 5, 2005

About a week later

After that day Vince stayed in the hospital another two days just for observation, then they ended up staying longer then they had planned, and watched Mr. Marks's sentence, which he was put away for a very long time.

The rest of their stay was a little tense for Vince because he was getting use to being in a wheelchair and was having a tough time accepting help, but with Lauren's support he didn't make it too unbearable for everybody.

Now the whole team was standing on the deck at the Grissom house to finally celebrate Greg's promotion before the Lewis's had to go to the airport.

As they raised their glasses Grissom said. "Well we are finally celebrating Greg's success. So without further ado, Congratulations Greg on being a CSI level one." Greg showed a small smile as they clinked glass, but he just looked at his drink as the rest of them took a sip of theirs.

Grissom was about to talk, knowing something was wrong with him, but Vince speaks before he could. "Greg, me being in this wheelchair isn't your fault.
I don't blame you, so don't think that I ever would." Greg looked at Vince and he continued. "Does it suck? Hell Yes, big time. But this is life and it can throw people some very wicked curve balls sometimes and I just happen to be the one hit with it this time. But I'll continue to work it out and hopefully I'll walk again." They all saw Lauren put her hand on his shoulder for the support and he puts his free hand on top of hers, looks up at her and they smile at each other, then he looked at Greg again and asked. "Will you be ok?"

Greg cleared his throat, nodded and replied. "Yeah, thanks man."

"No problem and if you ever need to talk my phone is always on."

Greg smiled with another nod, then Grissom pats him on the shoulder and said. "Now take a sip of your champagne, you deserve it."

Greg smiled a little bigger, raised his glass up and took a sip as they all clapped, cheered, and Nick whistled.

After he lowered the glass they all started talking and a few laughs were heard here and there, until it was time to go to the airport.


When the Lewis's and Grissom's got to the airport and they were at the gate, the kids said goodbye first, which Paige reminded her uncle that he needed to show his mother the new sign language she showed him. They all laughed and Grissom promised he would. After she gave him and Sara a kiss the kids stepped back so the grown ups could say goodbye.

While Lauren was saying goodbye to Sara, Grissom looked down at Vince and Vince speaks. "You know what I told Greg about not blaming himself, I meant that for you too." Grissom was about to speak, but Vince puts his hands up and continued. "Don't deny it, I know after the case was closed you had more time to think about what happened, and you thought about how I came here upon your request and that we went the night that you requested. This wasn't your fault either, we were just in the right place at the wrong time."

Grissom sighed and replied. "It's almost a little scary you know me as much as Sara does." He had been feeling that way after they closed the case, and like he just told Vince it was almost scary that he knew that.

Vince smiled and said a little loud so Sara could hear him since his wife and her weren't standing close to them. "Just remember I was his first Sara." Lauren laughed, understanding what her husband meant, but Sara looks at him with a raised eyebrow, and the people who heard that had stopped to stare at him strangely before they continued walking.

Vince looks back at Grissom and said with a smirk. "They just don't understand." Grissom smiled with the shake of his head, and Vince continued. "There is that smile I was waiting for. Don't dwell on what you can't change."

Grissom shakes his head again with another smile as he said. "Do you guys record everything I say?" He remembers accusing Sara of the same thing a long time ago.

Vince just shook his head with a small chuckle, then asked. "So are we good?" He also holds out his hand.

As they were shaking hands Grissom responded. "We are fine, call if you need anything."

They release hands, Vince nods and replied. "I will."

Grissom nodded back, then Lauren and Vince changed goodbye partners.

Lauren brings Grissom into her arms. "Thank you for everything you've done for us this past week."

"You're welcome. Take care of him and don't let his stubbornness get the better of you, he needs you more than he will ever let on."

She pulls back from his arms and replied looking into his eyes. "No matter how hard he tries to push me away I'll never walk away from him, and I can be equally stubborn."

He smiled and replied. "I always knew you were his perfect match."

Lauren smiled with a nod, then she looks down at Vince when he rolled back over to her, and asked. "Ready babe?" He nods, then they look back at Sara and Grissom and they all said goodbye one more time, which the couple nodded and said it back.

After they turned, the family started moving as Grissom turned to his wife and puts his forehead against the side of her head.

Their moment was interrupted when Vince had rolled back to them and said. "Gil." Grissom removes his forehead from his wife's head and looked down as Vince continued. "I don't mean to make this too awkward and I mean this in the most platonic way possible, but I feel that I have to tell you that I love you and I'm glad you came into my life."

Grissom cleared his throat to get the emotion out and said. "I love you too Vince and I am thankful to have you in my life."

Vince smiled, looked at Sara and said. "Take care of him."

She nodded with tears in her eyes as she slipped her fingers through her husband's, then said. "I will." Vince nodded one more time, then after another round of goodbyes he turns and rolls back to his family, while Grissom and Sara watched until they couldn't see them anymore.

After a few minutes of just standing there Grissom sighed, looked at Sara and said. "What do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

She smiled. "How about getting Hank and going to the park? He hasn't had our full attention in a while."

He kissed her forehead and replied. "Sounds like a plan." He pulls back and continued. "I love you too, you know."

Sara chuckles and replied. "I should hope so or else I would've had to ask if you had something to tell me."

He chuckles, lifts her hand up, kissed her knuckles before he responded. "Believe me two different kinds of love."

She uses her free hand to put it on his cheek. "I know and for the record, I love you too."

They peck each other on the lips, then walked out of the airport hand in hand to enjoy the rest of the day together.


AN: Hope it was ok. Next Chapter: Grissom is going through something and Sara has an offer he can't refuse, or will he? What is it? What happens next? Please review.