One Of Us 15/?
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10:30 THAT NIGHT:
Grissom rubbed his eyes as he sat up and silenced the softly beeping alarm on his watch. Despite all protests, once Nick's injury had been reevaluated and the cast replaced, Gil had sent him home to rest. Then, as Catherine had done earlier, Greg's supervisor spent his day sleeping a few feet away from his young DNA tech.
His expression one of grave reflection, Grissom sighed quietly and momentarily studied Greg, reassuring himself that nothing had changed since he went to sleep. Only then did he slide his feet to the floor, stand and move into the tiny bathroom. When he emerged, marginally cleaner and more alert than when he'd entered, he found Sara sitting beside the bed, gently stroking Greg's hair off his forehead and whispering to him. Gil cleared his throat softly and Sara turned to look at him.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself. Shouldn't you be at work?"
"That's right, you've been here all day so you haven't heard. After they found out what happened, the day shift CSI's that were off or just on call had a big cell phone marathon this morning. The end result was that they decided to cover the field work for tonight and give our team some extra down time."
Grissom's eyebrow lifted.
"Ecklie'll never let it happen."
"He can't do anything about it. They went over the weasel's head and talked to the director. Once he heard they don't expect to be paid for the extra work he was happy to approve it."
"Hmmph. Interesting..."
A moment later the door opened with a small rush of cool air and Catherine, Nick and Warrick entered. "Nick, you're supposed to be home resting..." Gil began, but the other man cut him off with a light grin, raising the arm that wasn't currently suspended in a sling and producing the Boy Scout salute.
"I followed orders, I swear. I slept a good seven hours. Then Cath called and said we had the night to ourselves... an' I just had to come back. After... well, after it was over, Denson wouldn't let me back in an' then you made me go home... I had to see for myself Greg was really okay. Met these two in the lobby while I was waitin' for the elevator. I reckon we all had the same idea about how to spend our free time."
The eyebrow slid up again at Nick's uncommon use of the peculiarly Southern word. The native Texan glared mildly. "I'll tell you what I told Sara. It happens when I get stressed. Once everything's back to normal, the slang'll quit creepin' in the back door, okay?"
"I wasn't criticizing, Nick. The way you speak is a part of who you are and where you come from. To deny your idioms and speech patterns is to deny yourself. I'd never ask you to do that. Sara, would you come help me grab some extra chairs? I have a feeling we'll all be here for a while."
"Yeah, sure."
As the pair left, Nick's scowl transformed into a confused smile and a shake of the head.
"What?" Warrick asked.
"Just when I think I'm beginnin' to get a handle on the guy, he throws me a curve I can't even see, never mind make contact with. Just once I'd like to be able to slap a base hit back in his direction..."
"Wouldn't we all," Catherine responded matter-of-factly. "Wouldn't we all."
A few minutes later, Gil and Sara returned with four more chairs and the group settled around the bed in a loose semi-circle. For a little while, the room was utterly silent except for the background noise of the machine breathing for Greg and the more natural breathing of his five friends. When Sara suddenly spoke up, it startled the others, but noone interrupted to berate her, mostly because her words had temporarily knocked the wind out of the other four. The young woman had lifted Greg's slack hand and was holding it against her cheek, while she talked as if they were the only ones in the room.
"I should have told you. You or somebody... I just never had any reason to. Who needs the pity, right? Besides, it's been way too damn long. Nothin' anybody can do now. It's my issue, I'll deal with it... same way I always have. Just... now that I think about the other night... maybe if I'd said something... at least you would've known you weren't alone. I could've given you that at least..."
When her voice began to crack, she broke off and simply clutched the cool fingers against her own warmer skin. Warrick rose and moved to crouch at her side, touching her arm.
"Sara... what are you saying? What happened the other night?"
"Huh? Oh... a couple days back I came to check on Greg before I went on shift. That doctor, Denson... he was trying to examine him... see how the damage from the rape was healing. The kid... he was totally freaked. He wouldn't let anybody touch him, so I calmed him down... showed him how to get through it. I told him, you just have to send your brain on vacation 'till it's over..."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I figured he'd be embarrassed." She explained, looking around quickly and ending up locked into Nick's eyes. The recognition and compassion she saw there had her standing and backing away so abruptly that her chair toppled over. She was out of the room almost before she heard him speak.
"Sara... God, no..."
Nick rose and started to follow, but Warrick halted him.
"I'll go."
"Okay..."
"If I can get her to come back, I will."
"Don't push her. If she really fights you... let her go."
"Got it."
Nick slowly reclaimed his chair, images from a long-gone case flitting through his head. At last, moments and expressions that had confused him at the time began to make sense. He tilted his head back, laid a hand over his face and moaned quietly.
"God... I'm so stupid. I should've seen it... I knew somethin' was goin' on with her then... I just didn't know what..."
Grissom pulled Nick's hand down. Reluctantly, Nick opened his eyes and faced his boss.
"Seen what, Nick?"
"Remember the double home invasion case? The retired teacher, then the girl that got gang raped. Her parents were so scared they wouldn't let us help at first..."
"The Kirkwoods? I remember."
"There was somethin' really off about Sara through that whole case. She just wasn't... herself. When we found the girl dead... I swear, Sara Sidle is one of the strongest, most solid people I've ever known in my life, but sittin' in the back of that car she just looked ... helpless. The days after that were so crazy... I kept meanin' to sit her down and ask her what was up, but there was just never a good time. Then I guess I kinda decided leavin' it alone was better for everybody."
"Nick... you're not thinking... it can't be. Not Sara..." Catherine managed, her face gone utterly white.
"Takes a survivor to know a survivor. She didn't read about that "mind vacation" trick in any book or pysch journal. She's had to use it."
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"Sara..."
"Don't. Don't touch me, don't talk to me and don't try to calm me down... Just back off, damn it."
"Understood."
"Then do it. Turn around and walk away."
"Sorry, no."
"No? What the hell, Warrick? You don't understand English anymore?"
"I won't come any closer... but I also can't leave you by yourself. Not 'till I know you'll be alright."
"Son of a... if I promise not to slit my wrists the minute you turn your back will you go the hell away? Please?"
"Hey, ease up, girl. I never said I thought that. I'm your friend. Bein' scared for each other is what friends do."
"I don't." she replied, almost too softly for him to hear.
"Don't what?"
Instead of giving him a direct answer, she asked a question, desperately trying to get her point across.
"You ever see that movie... about the robot that gets hit by lightning?"
"And it makes him alive... "Short Circuit"
"Yeah. Remember that line about robots and feelings?"
"Kind of. Something like 'they don't get sad, they don't get happy, they just run programs'."
"I've got a really good program running right now, Warrick. It works for me. You try and screw that up... I'll never forgive you."
"Sara, c'mon... it can't be workin' that well if you're this upset."
"God... why do you have to be so freaking stubborn?! Why can't you just believe me and drop it?! Let something go for once in your life, Warrick! I am not upset!"
"Sure. You're screamin' in the middle of the hall so everybody in a two block radius knows how pissed you're not."
Sara tried to respond, but all she could do was gape in stunned disbelief that he snuck match point in on her when she wasn't looking. "No more, I swear." He stated quietly, holding up his hands. "You can go if you want to. Just try an' remember that I care about you, Sara... we all do. You ever feel like updatin' that program all you gotta do is come find one of us. Day, night... whatever."
Warrick turned and stepped back into Greg's room. When a nurse, alerted by the noise, came to see if Sara was hurt the young woman slapped away the kind hands and took off running.
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TBC......