Sara did not like being poked and prodded at, even when she wasn't in pain. But it took all her restraint not to scream now when the emergency room doctor squeezed her wound experimentally. Instead, her good hand shot out and she clutched Grissom's arm. He winced. It felt like she was drawing blood, he thought, but unlike some people, he knew how to take care of his body so he didn't end up with a matching infection.
In the end, it took Dr. LaBianca only fifteen minutes to determine that Sara's hand was affected by cellulitis and that the offending organism was Streptococcus.
"You're very lucky, young lady," the man admonished her. "Cellulitis can cause serious disability of the affected area if it's left alone too long, and you are right on the borderline. Leaving a strep infection unchecked for eight days . . . well, all I can say is that you are amazingly lucky, and that you should be glad that your husband forced you to come in now."
He completely missed the bewildered looks that Sara and Grissom exchanged at hearing Grissom called her husband, and barreled on. "Now, you're going to stay here for at least 24 hours so that I can make sure that your IV antibiotics are working and that you're not allergic to them." He frowned and looked down at the mostly blank information sheet Grissom had tried to fill out for her. "Do you know if you're allergic to any antibiotics, Ms. Sidle?"
Sara shook her head. "No . . . I'm never sick. I haven't taken antibiotics for years and years. But I don't want to stay here. I'm fine, really. Can't you just give me some pills?
"Certainly not. I would be disgustingly irresponsible if I allowed you to leave now with an eight-day-old case of cellulitis, even with a husband who looks like he'd like to go hand-to-hand with the bacteria. I'm sorry, but you're stuck with me for at least the next day. Now, since you don't know if you're allergic, we'll start you on Penicillin with close observation. After a few hours you can be alone with Mr. Grissom again."
Sara sighed and said under her breath, just loud enough for Grissom to hear, "I'm gonna get you for this." Grissom chuckled and shook his head, knowing that no matter what he had done, she would have said the same thing.
As the doctor was preparing to speak again, Grissom's cell phone rang. "Please, Mr. Grissom!" LaBianca exclaimed, his mustache quivering in indignation. "You should know better than to have a cellular phone turned on in here. Please take that outside immediately!"
Grissom flushed and muttered his assent. "I'll be right back, Sara, ok?" Sara didn't want to let go of his arm – what if the doctor squeezed again? – but, having no choice, she did.
When Grissom was gone, the doctor turned back to Sara. "Tell me the truth, young lady – would you have ever come here if you hadn't been dragged by someone who cares mightily about you?"
"He's just worried that I might have to take time off of work and then he'd be one CSI short. He's not my husband, you know. He's my boss, and he doesn't even like me."
The doctor shook his head laughingly. "Miss, I've been working in this hospital for twenty-five years, and I've seldom seen a someone as frightened for one of my patients as that man was. But I digress. You didn't answer my question: would you be here if it weren't for him?"
"No," she muttered.
"I thought so. Miss Sidle – may I call you Sara? – Sara, you need to start taking better care of yourself. You seem to be in superb athletic shape, but the fact that you were in pain and let this infection go unchecked for more than a week tells me that you hate to acknowledge weakness that you can't fix. You'll get yourself killed one day if you don't start taking responsibility for your own health, instead of leaving that up to Mr. Grissom."
"I'm not his responsibility."
"Well now, that's not my area of specialty, Sara. I'm just offering you what advice I can, and you can take it or leave it."
Just as the doctor finished speaking, Grissom pushed through the curtain and re-entered Sara's bed area. "That was, uh, Nick. Greg told him I took you to the hospital, and he wanted to come see you. I told him we'd let him know when you were settled in a room. Is that, um, ok?"
Sara nodded. "Yeah, Gris. I don't care right now. To tell the truth, I just want to go to sleep."
"We'll get you set up, then," said the doctor. "Mr. Grissom, would you like to wait down here, or would you like to come with us while we settle Sara?"
Grissom looked at Sara for her approval, but her eyes were closed. "I'll come with you," he said quickly, hesitant to let her out of his sight now.
The doctor only smiled mysteriously.
By the time they had Sara settled in a room, she was beyond exhaustion. A friendly nurse set up an IV for her – Grissom was surprised when Sara didn't even flinch – and told Sara that Dr. LaBianca would be in to check on her in about two hours to make sure she was doing well. Sara nodded almost imperceptibly at the nurse and then, to Grissom's horror, her head lolled to the side.
"She's fine, Mr. Grissom," the nurse said quietly, anticipating his reaction. "She's asleep, and the poor girl deserves all the sleep she can get."
Grissom nodded his thanks and settled back in an uncomfortable chair. The stress of the night had taken its toll on him also, but he was too worried about Sara to allow himself to sleep. He should call Nick, he thought. But then, Sara was asleep. Having him visit while Sara slept would be pointless. Grissom knew he was rationalizing, but decided that he didn't care if it was selfish; he wanted Sara to himself for a while. He kept vigil over the sleeping woman for the rest of the night and early morning, nodding occasionally to the nurses who came to check on Sara.
Around 9AM, Grissom finally roused himself from the chair. He felt like his body had taken on the shape of the hard plastic he'd spent the last five hours in, and decided Sara would be fine while he went to get a cup of coffee.
When he walked back to her room, he paused just to the side of the doorway, surprised to hear Sara's voice, then Nick's laugh. An irrational anger surged through him. "Did you wake Sara up, Nicky?" he asked in a deceptively friendly voice as he walked in.
"She was awake. Mostly."
"It's okay, Gris," Sara said softly. "I slept longer last night than I've slept in weeks, anyway."
Grissom was not appeased. "Sara has a serious infection. I don't appreciate your waking her up when what she needs is rest, and I suspect that Dr. LaBianca wouldn't approve either."
Nick held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, it's ok. I told the doc I was family. He asked me if I was 'Miss Grissom's brother' – funny look on the man's face when he said that, but I went along with it. Did you say you were her father? Anyway, he told me it was fine to wake her up for a little while."
"I'm fine, Gris," Sara attempted to reassure him again.
"Listen, Stokes . . ." Grissom began, but was cut off when Warrick entered the room.
"And I'm her brother," the black man said with a grin. "Come on, Gris. Let's go . . . do something other than sit in here." Grissom protested, but Warrick dragged him out of the room.
"It is possible to have too much of a good thing, Gris," he said when they were in the lounge. "I'm glad you're here with Sara . . . though you look pretty scruffy, if you ask me . . .but if you try to keep Nick from talking to her, they'll both get mad."
"Nick doesn't know how to handle her, Warrick."
"Of course he does. He just has a different technique. Now chill out. You obviously got hit by the wood, huh?"
Grissom blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, sorry. Back in my neighborhood, when you got hit by a sudden revelation, we called it 'getting hit by the 2x4 of' whatever you were thinking about. In this case, you were hit by the two-by-four of love."
Grissom laughed. "That makes no sense, Warrick!"
"Ah, but it does. Think about it – didn't you feel like you got smacked hard with something when you realized it?"
"Uh . . . realized what?"
"Man!" Warrick laughed. "You are buried so deep in denial! Realized that you really do want Sara, even though you've been telling all of us, including her, the opposite. Maybe even realized that you love her?"
Grissom stood up stiffly and made no response to Warrick's comment. "I think it's time I went back to check on her."
"Hey, whatever, boss. I'll be here with my coffee."
When Grissom approached the room again, he heard Dr. LaBianca's voice. "Mr. Stokes, I know you're concerned, but I can only allow one family member to stay with her, and her husband has already laid claim to the only chair. I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Visiting hours are every morning 9 to 10 and every evening from 7 to 8, so feel free to come back during those times."
"Husband??" Nick spluttered. "But he's . . ." He stopped himself before saying it, realizing that if he blew Grissom's cover, Nick's own would be blown, and then neither man would be allowed to stay with her. "Yeah. Her husband. Gil gets overprotective, though. Try to keep him out of the room as much as possible."
Dr. LaBianca leveled a hard gaze at Nick. "I'll do no such thing, young man. I'm sure you think you know what is best for your sister, but as I told you, Mr. Grissom has been with her all through this and I haven't seen any problems in his behavior. Miss Grissom seems to be much calmer when he is in the room, so I'm allowing him to stay for as long as Sara wants him there."
"Fine," Nick said angrily, then stomped off to find Warrick to complain to.
Warrick, of course, was just enjoying the show. "Chill out, Nick. If you start going possessive on her now, you know she'll drop you as fast as she can."
Nick growled.
"Grissom," Sara was saying in her room, "please don't fight with Nick. I know you're concerned and all, but honestly, you can go home now that he's here. You have better places to be than in a hospital," she said with a crooked grin.
"No, I really don't," Grissom said, trying to sound casual. "Listen, Sara, it's my fault that your stitches broke, so I feel that it's my responsibility to stay with you."
"I don't want to be your responsibility, Grissom! Just . . . send Nick in here."
"He left."
"What?!"
"Nick left. Visiting hours are over, and the doctor made Nick and Warrick leave."
"Then why are you still here?"
"As your friendly neighborhood doctor put it, Sara, I laid claim to the only chair before Nick got here. That means I get precedence."
"That's the stupidest thing I've every heard!" Sara raged.
"Ok, ok, calm down," Grissom cautioned her. "It's not healthy for you to raise your blood pressure right now. I'll be good, I promise."
Sara gave him a dirty look, but subsided. "Try sleeping, honey," Grissom told her. "Your body needs to recharge so it can kill the infection." He reached for her hand and began stroking it gently. Within minutes, Sara had slipped into a contented sleep, still holding Grissom's hand.