A myriad of sounds invaded the dark silence. Footsteps, voices, electronic devices. They started out as an incoherent concoction, but slowly defined themselves. The soft rubber soles of a nurse padding across the hard floor, the steady beep of a heart monitor, the swift typing on a keyboard, a doctor assuring a man that he would live to see his new son.
Sara slowly opened her eyes, the bright lights blinding her at first. But the room around her slowly came into focus, and she took a moment to take in her new surroundings.
She was in a hospital room. It wasn't Grissom's, but it was very similar. The same bland, white walls, the same antiseptic smell, and the same harsh lights. She sat up slowly, well aware of the dull throbbing pain in her head. She looked down at her feet, seeing that while they had put her in a room, they hadn't bothered to put her under the blanket or remove her clothing in exchange for a hospital gown. For this, she was glad. Obviously, they didn't figure that she would be there for long, and that her fainting spell had been due to stress or something of that nature.
Putting her hands to her temples, she swung her feet over the side of the bed. Just then, a young man in scrubs walked in, studying a chart. He looked up and, seeing that she was awake, smiled at her. "Feeling a little better, Ms. Sidle?" he asked.
Sara nodded slightly, studying the hall behind him. For a moment however, she couldn't comprehend why it was that she was here. Why had she fainted? All she remembered was darkness…
The man pulled up a chair next to Sara's bed, pulling out a stethoscope. "I just have to check your blood pressure and heart rate, okay? Just to make sure that everything's ticking the way it should." He smiled, putting the end of the stethoscope into his hands and blowing hot air onto it. "These things are always freezing," he explained, before placing it below Sara's collarbone, listening intently.
Evidently, he liked what he heard, and nodded. "Good. Heart rate is pretty much back to normal." He checked her blood pressure as well, pleased with those results. He stood up from his chair, scribbling some notes on the clipboard. "Well, aside from being a little pale and shaky, I'd say you were in perfect health."
Sara nodded, her mind a whirl as she tried to remember what had happened. Everything was so fuzzy…She remembered talking to Grissom, going to her car, coming back…Her eyes widened as the memories flooded back. The doctor's rushing into Grissom's room, the wail of the monitors, Grissom's deathly pale face…
She grasped the man's hand as he began to step out. "Grissom!" she blurted out. "What about Grissom? Is he alright?"
He frowned. "Who?"
"Gil Grissom," she said slowly.
"Oh! Yes, Mr. Grissom." He glanced down at her chart, as if Grissom's vital information would just magically appear on it. "I'm not sure; I wasn't involved with him. But I can check for you if you like."
Sara shook her head, standing up on shaky legs. "Forget that." She began to walk towards the door, pushing past the man. "I want to see him. I need to see if he's okay!"
The man stood still for a moment, staring at the clipboard with a blank expression. Finally he sighed. "Let me get you to talk to one of the nurses. They'll know your situation better than I." He gave Sara one last, worried, glance before practically running into the hall, shouting for someone named 'Susan'.
Sara, her head suddenly spinning, managed to find a chair to sink into. She buried her face in her hands, and was still in that position when a short woman in scrubs stepped inside.
"Ms. Sidle? Jerry said that you were wanting some information on a patient."
Sara nodded, standing up from the chair. "Yes. Gil Grissom. What's happened to him? It he alright?"
The woman held out her hands, nodding gently. "Calm down, Ms. Sidle. Mr. Grissom is alive, and resting peacefully."
"What happened to him?" Sara asked, the relief evident in her voice. She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Grissom was alive, and that, for the moment, was all that mattered in the world.
"The doctors found a chemical in Mr. Grissom's IV bag. We've sent it to your crime lab for identification, but it seems to be some type of heavy sedative. Basically, Mr. Grissom's body just began to shut down. Luckily, some of the monitors went off before too much damage was done and doctors were able to repair the damage and remove the chemical."
"Can I see him?" Sara asked in a small voice. She needed to see him. To rid herself of the last image she had of him, deathly pale surrounded by doctors.
The woman hesitated, knowing that Sara was a suspect in what had happened to the man. But when she saw the pain in Sara's eyes, her heart melted, and she silently formed the opinion that this woman could never had done what she was suspected of doing.
"Yes. He's been moved to ICU for observation, so it'll have to be brief. Follow me," the woman commanded, stepping out of the room and heading down the hall.
The nurse led Sara through the hospital to a more hectic area. Doctors rushed back and forth, patients shouted in pain or anger, while heart-wrenching sobs could be heard now and then.
Grissom had been placed into a room with four other beds, two of which were full. One was an old man, who looked ready to let go any second, while the other was occupied by a heavily bandaged teen-age girl.
Sara pulled up a chair next to Grissom's bed, hating the fact that he was once again connected to a jumbled of cords and tubes. She also was well aware of the fact that the nurse stayed in the doorway, watching her carefully. No doubt the hospital employees had been told to keep an eye on her.
She shook her head, putting a gentle hand on his face. "Grissom," she whispered, letting her fingers run down his face. He was still pale, and his breathing was shallow, but steady. The heart monitor also beat steadily, with the beep becoming stronger as the minutes went by. She moved her hand from his face to grasp his hand, noting that it was cold.
She rubbed the back of it for a moment with her thumb, gazing at his face. Then she turned to the nurse. "How long until he wakes up?"
The nurse shrugged. "Don't know, hon. Could be a few minutes, hours, days. We don't know how much damage was done. He may not even wake up at all."
Sara nodded slowly, closing her eyes as a tear escaped. Then she looked back at Grissom, putting her hand back on his face. "I'm sorry, Gil. It's not fair." And indeed, it was not fair in Sara's mind. He'd been shot in his own house, left for dead, and just as he was recovering from that, this happened.
The nurse, Sara suddenly thought, the image of the small, nervous woman entering Grissom's room as she had left filling her mind. "The nurse did it."
"Excuse me?"
Sara looked up, not realizing at first that she'd spoken aloud. Her eyes were wide as the realization set in. "I need to go. I've just realized something that may help!" she said excitedly. She did remember to kiss Grissom's cheek before rushing out, grabbing her jacket from the room she'd woken up in.
She drove sixty the whole way to the Las Vegas Crime Lab. It was only a miracle in her mind that she wasn't pulled over and arrested. She parked her SUV haphazardly before rushing into the building, heading straight for the break room.
She entered, out of breath, and saw Warrick and Catherine sitting at the table. They looked at her with worried expressions. Catherine was the first to speak.
"Grissom?" she asked, having heard of the latest attempt on the supervisor's life. What they hadn't heard, however, was if Grissom had pulled through this time or not.
Sara nodded, sinking into a chair. She felt completely exhausted. "He's alive. They've got him in Intensive Care right now; to keep an eye on him." She looked from Warrick to Catherine. "You guys identified that substance in the IV yet?"
Catherine shook her head. "Not our case. According to protocol, we can't touch it. We were too close to both Grissom and…" she stopped, unsure of how to put the next part.
"Me," Sara supplied knowingly. "You're too close to both the victim and the suspect."
Warrick sighed, setting his coffee cup down. "It's Ecklie's case. He got the first attack, so it makes sense that he would get to work this attack." He looked up at her. "He'll find whoever did this," he told her, though he didn't half-believe it himself.
Sara scoffed. "Ecklie couldn't find a pinecone if it was shoved up his ass." She shook her head. "I need to talk to whoever is in charge, so I guess that's Ecklie."
This heightened Catherine's interest. "Why? Do you know something?"
Sara nodded. "I was leaving Grissom's room, going to my car. And as I was going out, a nurse came in. It was after that that I came back inside –forgot my keys- and Grissom was having problems."
"So…you think that nurse did something to him?" Warrick asked, moving as if to rise from his seat. Sara nodded in reply, and Warrick shot out of his seat. "We need to find Ecklie. You have to tell him, Sara. He can check security cameras to find whoever that nurse was. Then they can find her," Warrick rambled, well aware that both Sara and Catherine knew this.
But Catherine just nodded, standing up as well. "C'mon, Sara. If you don't hurry, that woman could get away. Do it for Gris…"
Sara nodded. As much as she hated Ecklie and knew that he would try to turn this against her, she had to go to him. She had to tell him what she saw, and maybe he could bring in a suspect for her to identify. "Alright."
* * * * * *
He was drowning. He could feel it. The darkness, closing around him, threatening to cut off his contact with life. It was dark, and he was afraid. As a young child, he had been afraid of the dark, but had long grown out of it. But he was scared now. This darkness seemed heavy, like it was trying to choke him.
He saw her. Sara…she was leaving. Then…there was the other. The other woman. She smiled at him, but the smile did not reach her eyes. Instead, her eyes were filled with hatred and pain. She stared at him for a moment, until he asked her what was wrong. Was there some complications with his recovery, he had wondered.
She said nothing was wrong; that she was going to fix everything. She checked the monitors first, then moved over to the IV bag. Pulling a syringe out of her scrub pocket, she said he needed some pain medication. That it would only help him. She tapped the syringe, then inserted it into the IV fluids, sending the brown liquid flowing into the bag, turning the fluids a sickly light brown.
Then she smiled again, and he knew something was wrong. This woman seemed out of place. It was when she adjusted the drip on the IV to its maximum that he fully realized something was wrong. He tried to shout, but it felt as if his lungs had suddenly constricted, causing it to come out as a weak gasp.
She grinned. "Touché, Mr. Grissom."
That voice. Her voice…
"You'll pay for what you did…" The voice…It rang in his memory, haunted his dreams. It was her! He tried to call for help again, but air was becoming scarce. Groping blindly, his hands found the sensors on his chest, to monitor his heart. He pulled them off painfully, barely hearing the shrill wail of the alarms as a heartbeat no longer registered.
His world was pain, and darkness was closing in.
Then nothing. He felt nothing, saw nothing. It was as if he were floating in a black void. He remembered the pain, but there was none now. And the darkness was still choking him.
Sara…
Her name found its way into his thoughts, a bright light slicing through the darkness of his unconsciousness. In her, he saw hope. He knew he must pull through, if only for her. She needed to know. She had to know how he felt. He couldn't let go without her knowing…He had to tell her…
Calvin Rodger's mind was filled with thoughts of eight o'clock, when he could go home and curl up on his couch with the latest movie. He'd been working since seven that morning, with only a rushed break for lunch. Such was the life of an intern; work your ass off all day, crash at home, then get up and do it all over again.
He glanced casually into the rooms as he passed, each filled with patients of varies ailments. He glanced into one room, remembering that he supposed to check one of the patients hourly. Supposed to report any change in their condition.
Sighing at the fact that the clock seemed to only be moving slower, he made his way to the side of the bed. Then he frowned and checked the log. The last time he had checked the pulse, it had been at 60. Now it had jumped up to 85.
The light was getting closer, and he felt as if the darkness were pulling away from him. He could breathe…he was free…
Bright light suddenly invaded Grissom's vision, a drastic change from the unending darkness that he had become accustomed to. Slowly, shapes began to form from the light as his eyes suddenly adjusted. One of those shapes, was Calvin Rodger's head, who was staring at Grissom with wide eyes.
Grissom breathed deeply, feeling the cool air as it entered his tired lungs. He vaguely heard Rodger's shouting for a doctor. When Rodgers turned back to him, he grasped his arm. "Sara…" he managed to choke out.
Rodgers nodded. "It'll be alright, sir. We'll get a doctor in here to check you out. Then we'll let you see…Sara. I promise."
Grissom sighed, leaning his head against the pillow. Everything's going to be ok, he thought. Everything is going to be ok.