So I was thinking... gosh there just hasn't been enough drama. What this story really needs is some more pain and suffering. So here we are. I'll apologize now for the medical inaccuracies (I think I mentioned my lack of medical knowledge earlier. I hope the mistakes aren't blaring.) Thank you to everyone who keeps sending me the awesome reviews. I adore them all, and the fact that I got reviewed by Teenwitch and Jillyree, both who write such fabulous fanfic, leaves me speechless (but fortunately I retained the ability to type.)

Chapter 6

He almost didn't answer the phone when it rang. He and Nick were at the home of a missing person who happened to be related to the mayor. Every hour for the entire shift the sheriff had called, pestering him for updates on the case, so the urge to ignore the ringing was strong. Fortunately he answered anyway.

"Grissom." He knew the irritation was clear in his voice, but he didn't care.

"Griss." The voice was so soft it was barely a whisper, but he recognized her immediately.

"Sara?" Nick looked over at the sound of her name. So far as he knew Sara hadn't talked to anyone at CSI in the almost three months since she left.

"Sara, what's wrong?" He wasn't sure, but he thought he could hear muffled sobs coming from the other end of the call. "Are you at home? I'm coming over right now." Her lack of response was starting to scare him. He turned away from Nick and started to pack up his kit with one hand while still holding his phone in the other.

"The ambulance is already on its way." Her words made him freeze. Ambulance. Oh God. Forget packing his kit. As soon as Grissom regained the ability to move he left the room and headed out of the house, a stunned Nick standing in his wake.

"Griss, I'm... oh, shit. I'm scared. I don't know what to do."

Grissom could hear the panic in her voice, and it broke his heart. Pulling out of the residential street and onto the main street he did something he had never done before. He reached down and turned on the red and blue flashing lights his Tahoe was equipped with.

"Sara, honey, it'll be okay. Paramedics are on the way, and I'll meet you at the hospital. Probably beat you there." He was surprised at how calm he was able to keep his voice. "Can you tell me what happened."

"I was taking a nap. You know how tired I get sometimes. I got this cramp in my stomach, strong enough that it woke me up. It went away after a few minutes, but then it came back, worse then before. Oh shit, it hurts. I can't catch my breath." Sara was gasping, no longer able to talk. It was hard enough just getting enough air to breath.

"It's okay, honey. Just listen to my voice. Breath in slowly. Count to three. Breath again. Close your eyes. Think about something you like. Watching movies, solving a hard case, beating me in Scrabble." Her breathing slowed a little as he talked to her. He continued talking in a slow soothing voice until he heard the muffled pounding of someone at Sara's door.

"Answer the door. I'll be at the hospital waiting." I love you, he wanted to say, but she had already hung up the phone.

Sara winced as she pulled herself up from the couch and shuffled to the door. She had to stop halfway there as another wave of pain overwhelmed her. Finally she reached the door and pulled it open, only to faint before she could say anything.

Grissom did indeed beat the ambulance to the hospital. He was waiting just inside the sliding doors when it pulled up, sirens blazing. Two paramedics jumped out of the back wheeling a stretcher between them. Sara. She looked so pale. Grissom ran alongside as they entered the hospital. He was barely able to grasp her hand a squeeze it before he was pushed aside by the swarm of medical personnel he desperately hoped would be able to help her. Briefly one of the nurses turned from her duties and directed him to the waiting room.

"Someone will be out when there's something to tell."

Grissom waited patently for thirty minutes. Or at least as patiently as he was able to. He was the only person in the lounge, and took advantage of the fact to pace the entire length of the room repeatedly. As he walked his hands constantly clenched and unclenched. Waiting was something he was long used to. Waiting for lab results, for clues, for a suspect to confess. He was not used to this lack of activity. Every atom he possessed was screaming to do something.

He accosted the first uniformed person to walk into the room.

"Sara Siddle. What can you tell me? How is she?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm not familiar with that case. Let me find out for you."

In an instant she was gone, and it was a full twenty minutes before she returned.

"Miss. Siddle has been taken up to surgery."

"What's wrong? What kind of surgery." Grissom sat down fast. It was only luck that there happened to be a chair behind him.

"Are you her next of kin?"

"If I say yes will you tell me what's going on?" If he had been thinking clearer he might have been able to come up with a plausible lie. I'm her cousin, her uncle... her husband. "I'm her friend, and her boss."

"I'm sorry. I'm only allowed to give information regarding patients to their family and their doctors." Grissom reached for his cell phone as she turned to leave. She noticed his movement, and pointed to a small sigh posted on the wall. 'No cell phone use inside the hospital.' He repocketed the phone and headed to the bank of pay phones in the corner of room. Thirty-five cents later he was listening to ringing.

"Las Vegas morgue, David speaking."

"David, is Al there?"

"Dr. Grissom?"

"Is he there?" He knew he was terse, but couldn't spare the energy to care.

"Yes, sir." A moment latter the phone changed hands.

"Robbins here."

"Al, I need your help."

"What's up? I thought you were working a missing person. Not much call for my services... unless the missing turn up dead?" His voice was light, and Grissom felt faintly relieved. The news of his leaving the crime scene the way he did hadn't made it to the lab yet.

"It's Sara." Two words, but they changed Doc Robbins's demeanor in an instant.

"What do you need?"

"I'm at the hospital. Sara's in surgery, but they won't tell me what for. I'm not family. They'll talk to her doctor, though, and I thought..."

"I'll be right there."

Grissom leaned back in the chair, relief seeping through him.

"Thanks. We're at Desert Palms."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Grissom was staring into a paper cup filled with coffee he didn't really want when a voice caught his attention. Demanded it, rather.

"What the hell is going on, Gil. You've been acting weird for weeks, and now you leave a crime scene in the middle of a case." Catherine strode into the room, full of riotous indignation. She had been astonished when Nick had returned earlier to report that Grissom had left the scene after a phone call, not even stopping to explain anything. She had been bewildered when she had walked into the morgue thirty minutes ago to catch the tale end of a conversation obviously not meant to be heard. During the twenty minute drive to the hospital (which followed the five minute 'discussion' with Dr. Robbins on why it would be easier to just tell her what the phone call was about) she had worked her way up to righteous indignation. She knew that Grissom was a private person, but she thought that they were friends. What could possibly be going on that had to be such a secret?

She was prepared to yell, lecture, and in general raise hell. All of her plans fell through once she got a good look at Grissom.

"Oh, Gil. I'm sorry. What's wrong?" She sat down in the chair next to him and reached out to wrap and arm around his shoulder in a kind of awkward hug. It was an alien gesture, and she never would have done it except that the expression he gave her was a mix of fear and melancholy. He looked like a lost child, and the mother in her reacted.

"Catherine?" He shook his head as if awakening from a dream, aware for the first time that she was actually there. "What are you doing here?"

He looked around the room, still empty except for the two of them.

"Where's Doc Robbins? I called him. He should be here"

Grissom look almost panicked as he looked around him, scanning the length of the room again and again as if the elusive physician was hiding in a corner. Catherine grew even more concerned as she witnessed her friend's unusual behavior. He was not always the unemotional man she and others had accused him of being in the past. She had seen him excited, seen him angry. But never had she observed the unchecked emotion that was playing across his face now. Fear, despair, worry, and frustration flickered in his eyes.

"Robbins went over to the desk to talk to another doctor. Grissom, what's going on? Why are you at the hospital?" She lowered her hand from his shoulder as she spoke, wrapping it instead around his forearm. She tugged at the fabric of his sleeve to get his attention. "Griss?"

"I can't say anything. I made a promise."

Before Catherine could ask anymore questions a familiar figure limped into the room. Grissom rose from his chair to meet Robbins in the middle of the room.

"Al, you have to tell me. What's going on?"

"You already know that she's in surgery." Grissom nodded. Catherine looked at him in confusion. Who's in surgery? All she had been able to get out of the doctor on their ride over was that Grissom needed his medical expertise, and mo, it didn't pertain to an active case.

"The doctors found internal bleeding, probably caused by a tear in the uterine wall. They should be able to repair it. Gil, they had to do an emergency hysterectomy. I don't know how much she's talked to you about any of this, don't know if it's an issue for Sara, but it couldn't be avoided."

Grissom turned at the soft gasp uttered beside him.

"Sara?" Catherine asked. It never crossed her mind until Robbins said her name that Sara could be a factor in whatever was going on. "Sara's in surgery? Sara's here, in Vegas?"

Catherine looked to her friend for an explanation. Her eyes widened in shock when, instead of answering her, he silently collapsed to the ground.

To be continued... (oh, I'm so mean.)