A/N Jbr12476, AmbientFlames, LostNovember, you guys humble and amaze me. I was blown away when Spogy told me my story was talked about on YTDAW. Thank you. Also, to clarify something mentioned in my reviews: I do not hate Sara. I love her. If I could be a character on the show I would be Sara (hey, we already have the same name.) It's just that I love angst, and pain, and tears too.

And now, as promised, we return to the hospital.

Chapter 8

There had been no question that Grissom would be the first one to go in and see Sara. Twenty minutes after the doctor left a nurse entered the waiting room. She lead Grissom down the hallway. Standing outside the door she turned to him.

"Five minutes only, sir. Regular visiting hours begin tomorrow at ten." With that she was gone.

He slowly opened the door and silently walked into the darkened room. Upon seeing Sara a thousand clichés filled his mind. Still as death. Childlike innocence. Sleeping Beauty. As he approached her bed he reached out and ran the pads of his fingers along the side of her face, pausing when he reached her lips. Holding completely still he waited until he felt the whisper of her breath against his fingertips, needing that physical proof of her continued existence. Once... twice... three times he felt the soft air brush against him like the touch of a butterfly's wing. Only when he was assured of her continued breathing did he sit down in the chair provided for visitors. As he sat his hand moved from her lips to her shoulder, and then down her arm until he reached her hand. He wrapped his hand around hers.

"Hey, Sara. It's me. I told you that I would meet you here. Don't get mad at me, but the rest of the team is here too. I didn't call them, but you know Catherine and the guys. Hard to keep a secret from them." He half expected her to wake up right then, and yell at him. He hoped she would. Anything would be better then the unnatural stillness that pervaded the room.

"You scared me, Sara. You can't do that to me. I'm just starting to figure out what to do about 'this.' About us." He wanted to say more. Needed to tell her more, but the words wouldn't come. So he sat in silence, holding her hand, and stared at her. If she could have been healed by shear force of thought alone she would be walking out of that room by now. Minutes passed, the sound of two breaths mingling reverberating through the room.

Grissom finally left the room after fifteen minutes, not wanting to press his luck any farther. He counted himself fortunate that no one had kicked him out for staying three times longer then he was supposed to. Nick was leaning against the wall outside the room when Grissom exited. They nodded to each other as the younger man passed the older in the barren hallway.

There had been no discussion in the waiting room. By unspoken agreement Nick had simply left the room after ten minutes, everyone understanding that he would be the next one to visit Sara. He stood now at the end of the hospital bed, arms crossed. He didn't know what to say, but then Sara released a small moan. Suddenly he was able to speak.

"I am so damn mad at you, Sara. How could you do this? You send a couple of e-mails, pretend everything's fine, when really your going through all of this. I should have known something was wrong. Sara Sidle, the world's biggest workaholic, randomly decides to take six months off. It should have made warning bells go off." He was pacing now, an activity drastically restricted by the size of the room. Four steps in each direction, and he spun around to repeat the motion.

"Why, Sara? Why didn't you tell us. We would have been there for you. God damn it! This isn't right." He collapsed in the chair, anger spent. He regretted his words now, and was grateful for the first time that Sara wasn't awake. Now that the first wave of emotion had passed he was able to take in his surroundings. The sight before him filled him with dread. The Sara laying in the hospital bed was not the Sara that he knew. Her head was almost completely bald, a fine layer of brown fuzz the only hair. Her skin was so pale that the blue veins underneath were clearly visible. Another moan escaped from her lips. Damn.

Catherine stood in doorway of the hospital room, watching the two occupants of the room before her. There were times when she had seen the two of them, standing side by side looking over evidence, and think to herself that they looked like brother and sister. They certainly teased each other in the way siblings were wont to do. Today the resemblance was completely absent. Nick's healthful glow was in sharp contrast to Sara's pale sickness. Catherine blinked rapidly to push back the tears gathering in her eyes. She coughed, and Nick turned around. He gave her a forced half smile as he stood up.

"I'm going to... yeah. I'll be out there." He swiftly left the room.

Catherine took her place in the vacated chair.

"Hey, Sara. I'm going to keep this brief, because your nurse out there looks like she used to work in a prison, and when she said five minutes I think she really meant it. Grissom stayed longer, as you know, and she looked like she was about to physically remove him. Maybe ban him from coming back. Not that it would have mattered. There is no force on this earth capable of keeping that man away from you. Do you know he left a crime scene tonight to come here? First time since I've known him that he's done that. Nick said he didn't even stop to pick up hiss kit. We all know about Grissom and work, so you know right there how important you are."

As she spoke Catherine noticed how dry Sara's lips were. She rummaged through her purse until she found the Vaseline lip balm she kept in there for Lindsey. Using her index finger she spread some balm across the chapped lips.

"There, that's better. What was I saying. Oh, yeah. Grissom. He cares for you, girl. I've always known that, since the first he mentioned you. A friend, he called you. Someone he could trust. Big words, coming from him. I didn't realize until today just how much he really cares for you. The look he gave me when he said your name. Wow. It's love, pure and simple."

She marveled at the idea of Grissom in love. It wasn't something she had expected to see. He seemed to have settled into the role of work-obsessive-confirmed-bachlor. Despite everything that was going on, she was happy for him. Happy that her friend had at last raised his head out of the microscope.

"I'm going to make you a deal, Sara. I'm going to watch out for Grissom for you. Just for a little while, until your feeling better. He needs someone to look out for him. I know he thinks that he's self sufficient, but we know better. He needs someone around to remind him that there is more to life then work, bugs, and roller coasters. So I'll watch over him for now. Make sure he eats and rests. And then I'll entrust him to you. The two of you, your meant to be. Corny, I know. But he needs you. You should see him right now, Sara. I've never seen him look lost before."

She rose from the chair after glancing at her watch to confirm that her time was up.

"I'm going to take Gil home now, to make sure he sleeps. I'll bring him back to see you in the morning."

Greg was sitting in the chair now. He was wringing his hands together and tapping his feet rapidly on the tile floor His eyes fluttered around the room, never settling on one thing for too long.

"So, I was hoping you were taking this time to go on a vacation. The tropics, or maybe backpacking through Europe. I could see you, taking the train from country to country, visiting all those historical places. Do you think there is still blood splatter in the Tower of London? That would be cool. This is not what I would call a vacation. For one thing, the food here is horrible. I remember it all too well. That week I was here, I swear I would have starved if it weren't for Warrick and Nick sneaking me in hamburgers. Oops, I guess that wouldn't be good for you. We'll have to sneak you in something else. Salad, maybe? Or pasta. Papa Olaf always made pasta alfredo when we weren't feeling well."

Greg know that he was rambling, but couldn't help himself. The silence of the room was daunting, and felt the need to fill it. The hospital staff was lucky there was no boombox in the room, or he might have been tempted to blast his Sublime CD.

"You just let me know what you want to eat and I'll bring it. How about some chocolate? Everyone likes chocolate. I heard Jacqui talking in the lab the other day, saying that she thought that chocolate is better then sex. I don't think so. Speaking of sex, is there something between you and Grissom? I don't mean... I, uh, didn't mean sex. I just... he looks way more worried then if it was one of us in the hospital. Not that he wouldn't worry about any of us, but he really seems concerned. More then a boss, concerned. Never mind, none of my business. Don't tell him I asked, okay. Personal questions about Grissom probably not the best way to get on his good side."

Greg was standing now, bouncing on his feet as he talked.

"So, I think it's my turn to leave. There are a lot of people who want to see you, Sara."

He backed out of the room, taking on last look at Sara as he left and running into Warrick in the process.

"Sorry, man."

Warrick looked at the woman on the bed and felt a chill creep down his spine. Another one. It seemed like the only times he came to the hospital, outside of work, it was to sit at the bedside of strong women. First there had been his mother. He hardly remembered her. Didn't have any memories of her tucking him into bed at night, or taking him places. He did remember sitting next to her bed in a hospital and knowing that it was the last time he would see her. No one had told him. He just knew.

Years latter it was his grandmother in the hospital bed. He was a senior in college, still living at home. He had lived with her since the age of seven, and everything he was he owed the frail woman in the bed. She had battled long and hard to make him a man worthy of respect. Not the flashy and false kind of respect he he found flashing around the cash he earned as a runner or in the casinos. The real kind, like when he earned an a on a paper, or got a job interview for the LVPD crime unit a month before he even received his diploma. She was only in the hospital for days, a fact she would have been glad of. Wouldn't want to slowly waste away. Not his Grams.

Four years ago it had been Holly Gribbs in the hospital. He never had the chance to visit her; she never made it off of the hospital table. No. He had to stop thinking like that.

"Your not them," he said, as if the words alone could make it true.

"You are Sara Sidle, and you are going to leave this hospital in a car, not by way of the morgue." He watched her even breathing, and found himself wishing that he'd gone on and gotten his MD. He had thought about it, a thousand years ago. Then, it had been more about ego then about helping people. He was offered a scholarship to grad school, but turned it down. If he had taken it, maybe he wouldn't be sitting here feeling so helpless. But then again, he wouldn't be sitting here at all. He wouldn't know Sara, or Nick, Greg, Griss, Catherine. No, he wouldn't give them up for everything. The past few years had shown him how important his friends were to him.

"You are my friend, Sara. I don't know if I've ever told you that."

Brass strode into the room as if he owned the place.

"Hey, kiddo. Brass here. Now, I know you don't have a dad, so I've decided that the role of parent today will be played by yours truly. I'm not going to say anything about how royally you've messed things up. I don't believe in kicking someone when they're down. Unless were talking criminals, and then it's okay. Can even be fun. But I digress."

He was leaned back into the chair, looking to the casual observer as if he was having a casual conversation. If you looked closely, though, you could see proof of his tension. It was in the clenching of his jaw, the white around he knuckles, the sharp look in his eye.

"We're going to just assume that you understand that this whole not-telling-anyone bullshit was a mistake, and go from there. Outside this room there are a hell of a lot of people who care about you, Sidle. They're out there, pacing and whispering and worrying. So here's what is going to have to happen. You are, first of all, going to get better. You are going to get of of this hospital as soon as possible, because, quite frankly, the place gives me the creeps. We, the team, are going to help you with whatever you need, and you are going to gracefully accept said help. There will be visits and phone calls. There will also be meals, because you need more meat on your bones. It's a shame about the whole vegetarian thing, because I grill a mean T-bone. Now, do we understand each other? Good."

Brass nodded his head, glad to get that all off his chest. Such a shame she hadn't heard a word. Oh, well. He'd just have to repeat it once she woke up.

To be continued...