Thicker Than Water

By Bec

G/C

Disclaimer – See Chapter 1

Archive – www.graveshiftcsi.com

11

                Warrick, Nick and Sara came in after shift while Maggie was still in surgery.  Grissom and Catherine had relocated to a quiet corridor away from the ER, and once the rest of the team arrived, Grissom perked up and was busy discussing the previous nights cases almost as if nothing had happened.

                Catherine sat by them listening, but not joining in the conversation.  The last day had been mentally exhausting for her and she longed for some sleep.  Anywhere.  Even leaning up against the wall and sleeping sounded appealing.  But she was not going anywhere, not while Grissom was still suffering.  She was silently impressed with his current composure, wandering how he did it.  The rest of the group still did not know his secret.  They would have been more concerned if they had.

                Warrick spotted her barely hiding a yawn and came to sit beside her.

"How are you doing?" he asked quietly so as not to disturb the others.

"I'm tired," she sighed.  "This has been a long couple of days."

"You've got that right."

"Thank God Lindsey's been with my sister, otherwise I'd never have been able to cope."

"Cath, Grissom hasn't told us how bad Maggie is.  I'd like to know."

                Catherine glanced up at their boss, currently involved in an animated discussion with Nick and Sara.  If it had not been for his blood stained shirt where he had brushed up against Maggie in the ambulance, no one could have guessed that anything had happened at all.

"He's trying to keep it all to himself, Warrick.  Trying very hard not to deal with it at all."

"Just like Grissom," he agreed.  "So how is she?"

"We won't know anything now until she's out of surgery.  Three gunshot wounds are enough to deal with on their own, but she lost so much blood.  There were cuts all over her face, her arms.  They did that."

"There was a bloodstained knife at the scene."

"Warrick, she's got to pull through.  The doctor said she only had a thirty percent chance, but she can't die.  Not because of a pair of psychopaths, it's not right."  She paused and took a deep breath.  "It would tear Gil apart."

                "The surgeons will do everything they can, Cath," he reassured, his voice quiet and gentle.

"I know."

"We all care about her."  He looked up to find a slight smile tug at her lips.  He frowned.

"I hear she made a bee-line for you the other day."

Warrick couldn't help but smile back.  "Grissom told you."

"Of course."

"He doesn't approve, but it's not like anything's going on, I mean…"

                Catherine cut him short.  "Don't worry.  Your secret's safe with me."  She looked back over at Grissom.  This time he met her gaze and smiled sadly before returning his attention back to Sara.  "He's just very protective of her."

                "We've had the prelims back on Grace," Warrick informed her eventually.

"Go on."

"Cause of death has been attributed to two gun shot wounds to the chest."

"Death would have been more or less instantaneous," Catherine concluded.  Warrick nodded in agreement.

"Apart from a few bruises which are consistent with her restraints, there are no other injuries."

"What happened to the suspects?"

"The police found one of them cowering in the corner whilst the other seemed to do all the shooting.  The Swat teams killed him, the other's in custody."  He paused.  "Turns out they were brothers."

"Brothers?"  Catherine was shocked.  "And no one spotted this?"

"Separated at birth.  Apparently not."

                They were interrupted by Nick coming over.

"Come on Warrick.  Sara says we've got some errands to run."

"Right."  He squeezed Catherine's hand and stood.  "Keep us posted."

"You too."  She watched down the stark hospital corridor as the three CSI's left.

                Grissom came and sat down in the now empty chair beside her, allowing himself to shed his mask a little now they were on their own.  Neither spoke, but he used their close proximity to try and calm him, feeling the warmth of her body as he placed his arm around her, listened to her steady breathing as she fell asleep against him.  He had so many thoughts running through his head that he could not focus on any of them.

                Even when the surgeon came back to find them later on, he just sat quietly and listened, making sure he did not wake Catherine.  The surgery had been successful in stabilising her condition, but she was not out of the woods just yet.  They were keeping her unconscious in the ICU to allow her body to fight her injuries, and then, if she pulled through that, they could begin to fully assess the damage.  The surgeon tried to smile, himself exhausted, as he told Grissom that whenever they were ready, they could go up and see her, before he left them alone.

                Grissom stayed there a while longer.  He had been trying to stop himself from feeling anything, especially about Grace, but right now he was scared.  He could see himself standing on an edge, right between keeping his family and losing everything completely.  He had made a mistake all those years ago letting his love walk out of his life with his child, and he prayed to God that he would not lose his little girl all over again.

TBC…