Chapter 6

Everyone was in the break room waiting on Grissom for assignments. Sara had just walked down a hallway of staring people and quiet chatter, making her feel even more uncomfortable than she already felt.

Sitting down as far from the group as she could, she settled on the couch while Nick and Warrick drank coffee and talked to Greg about a case.

Grissom entered the room in a rush, carrying a box and a file under his arm. "Sorry I'm late. I had a meeting with the Sheriff this afternoon." He planted the items he was carrying onto the table with a thump. "Right." He looked around the table and frowned. "Where is Sara?"

"Here." Sara answered immediately.

He looked to his left and noticed her sitting in the corner. "Ready for some grunt work?"

Sara smiled slightly and shrugged. "Guess so. What do you have?"

Grissom pried the lid off the box and pulled out a bag. "We have money and jewellery, plus body parts with Doc Robbins in Autopsy."

"Great." She shuddered, standing to inspect the box.

Grissom turned his attention to the others sitting around the table. "Greggo, DNA is calling your name my friend."

"Oh, that's what that noise was." Greg chirped, jumping up from his seat.

"You'll be a busy boy in about two hours Greg, so get through what you can." Grissom advised as he handed Warrick a file and assignment slip. "You lead."

Warrick nodded and flipped the file open. "Woo, Road Trip!"

Nick grabbed at the file and grinned. "Tonopah. Isn't that north west of here, on 95?"

Warrick stood and gathered his belongings. "Sure is. Catch you later guys."

"Most likely two days. Don't rush it. Be thorough." Grissom told them as he spied both over the top of his glasses. "Get a Tahoe with a full tank of gas and get your kits sorted before you leave."

"Done." Nick acknowledged.

Grissom turned back to Sara. "Ready to get your hands dirty?"

Sara looked less than pleased with that question and more nervous, but nodded and followed her boss.

Cataloguing while Grissom organised and labelled, Sara continued to keep focused on what she was doing, dragging her mind from her worry's and conflicts that came with recovering from an accident, injury and loss of a friend. The whole lab was still in a morbid mood. Understandably.

"Finished?" Grissom's voice broke through her thoughts, startling her slightly.

Sara dragged her eyes up to his, pushing a wall of professionalism onto her face. "Yeah. Autopsy next, right?"

He nodded as he stood and pulled off his gloves. "You'll love this." He said suddenly with a burst of enthusiasm that was way out of character for Grissom, especially after losing his girlfriend. "Flesh and bones." His smile faded a little as he looked at her to find her head down and her eyes focused on something else. His eyes seemed to lose its sparkle. "A true human puzzle." He finished quietly.

Sara nodded and noted his change in behaviour. She pulled on a small smile and looked up, it was that or cry, and she'd done plenty of that at home. She sure wasn't going to do it at the lab, and Grissom's behaviour was worrying. He was closest to Catherine and he was obviously still mourning her death. His behaviour towards her was worrying.

"We better get down there before something else comes in. I'm sure Doc Robbins can give us a hand." Grissom suggested as he headed for the door.

"I'll follow in a minute." She told him absently, uncertainly, as she stretched her left hand and fingers. She's been learning to write with her left since she started physio and though she'd been able to make her handwriting a little more presentable, she was still worried about using her right. Though, her left hand handwriting seemed much better than her right handed chicken scratch. Go figure. She smirked just a little.

Doctor Albert Robbins was working on another body when Grissom arrived. "Damn." He sighed with a tampered smirk. "I was hoping you'd be up for this John Doe. More hands the better."

Albert chuckled. "This chap has me busy as it is. I'm trying to locate the bullet, but it seems to have fragmented." He shifted his weight and leaned over the body once more, one hand inside the open cavity and his other leaning onto his single crutch. "I think it's somewhere in the blood stream."

Grissom raised a curious eyebrow. "How'd you come to that conclusion?"

"X-rays." The coroner huffed. "But I lost the damn thing in his abdominal area. Probably now lodge in the wall close by."

"Have fun, I'm going to get started." Grissom informed, pulling on a gown and gloves.

"Someone helping you?" Al asked as he dug into his corpses open chest cavity again.

Grissom pushed on protective goggles over his glasses as he peered at the metal table with his John Doe. "Sara will be here shortly."

"How is our girl today?" Al inquired, looking up, but still continuing his search.

"She's fine." Grissom answered distractedly as he picked up a foot and examined it.

Al looked over at his long time friend and colleague with a frown. "Gil?" When he had his attention, he continued carefully. "She's just been through a terrible accident. I doubt she's fine."

Grissom stared at the foot a moment. "She say's she's fine, so, she's fine." He shrugged.

"So she says." Al sighed. "Gil, listen. When I lost my legs, I was always saying 'I'm fine' to get people off my back, or to just not accept the fact that I lost a part of myself." Al paused and looked back into the open cavity with a pair of tweezers in his hand. "She's not fine." He finished with a slow smile creeping onto his face when he spotted the bullet fragment. "Ah, Gotcha."

Standing for a while in silence, Grissom watched the coroner move on his crutch towards the trolley and drop the fragment into a tray. His mind was suddenly running wild with thoughts of concern for Sara. Images of her hand in his after the lab explosion, flashed before his eyes.

It had been so long since he really thought about the lab explosion and to hear Albert point it out was almost unsettling. He hadn't really noticed her after she'd asked him out, but that was because he had his hearing to be concerned about and when Catherine had turned up at the hospital, he'd forgotten Sara was even involved in the blast.

The thought of Sara being blown up made him shudder as if he'd only just realised that she was lucky to be alive. "Albert?" Grissom called quietly, getting the coroners attention. "You know that Sara got burned in the fire, right?"

Al nodded. "It's normal in gas explosions of that magnitude, Gil."

Grissom tilted his head in thought. "Would that be why she's reluctant to let anyone near her?" He'd noticed that he couldn't get close enough, though he hadn't tried too hard.

Al frowned. "Is she seeing a psychiatrist? It's normal after accidents. I would have thought her doctor might suggest it."

"I'm not sure, I don't think so." Grissom seemed panic stricken, his face was white. "I know she goes to the clinic every week, but I didn't think about her mental health."

"You've been preoccupied Gil. Catherine's death, the funeral, not to mention Lindsey." Al reminded.

Grissom sighed, standing rigidly. "I guess I've not been able to think clearly since Catherine died. I try to push the thoughts away, but it's difficult, you know?" He looked up at Al. "You think I should ask her about the psychiatrist?"

Al shrugged. "It's up to you, but it's also up to Sara if she wants to talk to a stranger, or talk to a friend." He looked meaningful at Grissom with raised eyebrows. "Just keep an eye on her Gil. She's probably feeling very self conscious right now. Don't push and don't expect the Sara you knew before the explosion. Things like that change a person. I should know."

Grissom nodded slightly, thinking about Sara more than he had in a long time. He hadn't noticed that much about her mental health or her physical state. And that was what disturbed him. What sort of friend wouldn't know those things?