He had received a call when he was at home, telling him to go in to the hospital; afterwards remembering he was listed as her emergency contact number.
As he walked down the long sterile corridor he suddenly had an overwhelming sense of fear; was she alive? Was she gone? Had he missed his chance? Everything he could imagine possible he was questioning.
Turning the corner he saw them; his workmates. Warrick was there trying to be strong for everyone like he used to be, Nick was there too trying to convince himself that she would be okay and listening to Warrick, Catherine was there she was silently shaken and upset about what had happened but was unsuccessfully hiding her emotions, and then there was Greg, usually he was winding people up, pulling out unsuccessful joke after unsuccessful joke, but today he noted how serious he looked.
He made his way over to where they waited, hoping against hope that he wouldn't breakdown in front of them; although he wanted to care he didn't want them to find out just how much he cared and how much of a broken man he had been left as.
"Gil, good you're here" said Catherine standing up and giving him a hug "You okay?"
"Yes I'm fine" he said, and these again were the only words he was able to part with before the doctor came to address him
O
"Dr Grissom?" a serious looking man asked him "I'm Dr Martin"
"How's she doing?" asked Nick standing up as he asked
"She's okay we managed to remove the bullet, she's sleeping at the moment" he said calmly
"Can… Can I see her?" he asked with an air of relief
"Only for a short time, she needs her rest"
"Can the rest of us see her too doc?" asked Warrick
"Not right now, maybe tomorrow." He turned to Grissom "Dr Grissom if you'd like to go in now"
He nodded and headed for the door to where she lay. He paused and took a breath, before walking in to the room.
O
She was lying on the bed with an IV in her arm, her hair spread across the pillow "Sleeping beauty" he whispered as he approached the bed.
Pulling the seat closer to her, he took her hand in his and he held it tight.
Then he put his head on to her hand and kissed it softly, and then he wept.