Meanwhile, upstairs in room 1223…
Bobby watched in wonder as the doctors and nurses buzzed around the room, a flurry of activity. It wasn't often that he was on the outside looking in when a hospital emergency took place. At his age, it was usually him on the table, being shocked, being prodded, being medicated. But this time it was not, it was someone much younger than his 99 years of age. After a short while he saw the doctors take off down the hall, pushing the gurney that held their patient at an urgent speed. It was only when the last of the nurses had also left that he spoke.
"Goodness, I don't know if my heart can take such surprises anymore. That doctor was the picture of health, who knew she would collapse like that?" mused Bobby.
"Was she one of my doctors?" asked Grissom weakly.
"Yes, but don't worry, she wasn't one of the better ones. She was rather rude much of the time. Maybe seeing the patient side of the emergency room will soften her up a little bit." Bobby turned and looked across the room at the man whom he had heard so much about over the course of the last few weeks. His bed was set at an incline so that he was almost sitting, and he could look around the room that he had occupied for the duration of his coma.
"How long have I been here?" asked Grissom.
"A few weeks. You were here before me, I just came in last week and met you and your friend, Sara."
"Sara?"
"Yes. She hasn't left your bedside since the accident."
"Where is she?"
"The doctor that you just saw hauled off on a gurney kicked her out so you could rest. She would have given the doctor a black eye, or perhaps simply chained herself to the bed, but I promised I would keep an eye on you until you got back. That woman has quite a bit of spirit."
Grissom smiled. He was well acquainted with Sara's spirit. He remembered having to pull her off of a suspect who had murdered his wife after years of abuse. He also had many memories of her pulling triple and quadruple shifts, sitting in front of a computer monitor for hours on end with a determination unlike any he had encountered in other people. Yeah, she had spirit all right. Bobby's voice interrupted Grissom's thoughts.
"She is one special lady."
"Yes, she is," said Grissom. "She's my best CSI."
"You're lucky she's not here to hear you say that."
Grissom looked at Bobby, eyebrows raised. "Meaning?"
Bobby shook his head. "You really are as clueless as she said. I wouldn't have believed it."
Grissom looked confused. 'Sara says I am clueless?' he thought. 'About what?'
"Sara sat here for two weeks, arguing with doctors, and helping the short staffed nurses take care of you. She talked to you, read to you, and held your hand. She barely slept for the entire first week. For God's sake, she lived off hospital food; no healthy human being should have to do that. But she did, for you. Do you think she did that because she was being a good CSI? Or because you are such a great boss? Not a chance. And if she heard that the only comment that you could come up with after all that she has done for you was "she's my best CSI," she would be incredibly hurt. She loves you, you know."
Grissom sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what Bobby had said. "She doesn't love me, she is infatuated with me. Why, who knows? We are coworkers, nothing more. That is the way it has been, the way it is, and the way it always will be."
Bobby laughed. "Maybe if you say that enough times you could actually convince yourself."
"I don't need to convince myself of anything, the truth is evident. Feelings are passing, they change like the wind. We are two very different people. I am nearing fifty, she is just past thirty. She is still so young, she will find someone else. Me? I'm on my way out, it doesn't matter…"
"Now hold on one minute. 'Nearly fifty' is not exactly 'on the way out.' Age is just a number; take that from one who knows. I'm ninety-nine years old, and if a woman like that would give me a second chance at life and love, I'd take it in a moment. One moment of happiness would be worth it. True happiness, true love, they work like magic. They melt away years. Make everyone equal." Bobby looked over at Grissom, who was listening silently to his monologue. It looked like he had tears in his eyes.
"Do you really believe that?" he asked.
"I KNOW that. Happiness and love cure sickness, ease pain, make you feel young and alive again…a miracle," said Bobby. Then he added, "You should tell her you love her, she deserves to know."
Grissom nodded. He knew. Sara deserved to know everything.
And down in the elevator shaft….
Sara was still sitting on the floor of the elevator, her head resting on Warrick's shoulder. Both had been silent for a long while now. Sara was tired of talking; Warrick no longer knew what to say. There really was nothing that he could say to help her. It was not his words that she needed to hear.
A loud thump on the roof of the elevator startled them both out of their trance. The trap door on the top of the elevator cab opened, revealing a man in blue scrubs and a white lab coat.
"Good afternoon," he said, smiling into the elevator. "My name is Dr. Robinson, and today I am also an elevator technician." Sara and Warrick exchanged a worried look. "Don't worry, you two are only a few feet below the third floor, if you can get to the roof of the cab, you can climb out quite easily."
Sara jumped to her feet. "Give me a boost, Warrick?"
Warrick laced his fingers together to boost Sara to the top of the cab. Once she was safely up, he reached up and pulled himself through the trapdoor and onto the top of the elevator, and he followed Sara out the doors and into the hallway. He looked at Sara, unsure what to do.
"Go down and find the others, let them know we are ok, I'm going back up there, I have to talk to him." Warrick nodded, and gave Sara a quick hug before she ran to the stairs and started her long climb up to room 1223.