24 Hours
I don't own anyone here but me! Nick, Greg, and anyone else I fancy using is from CBS's show CSI.
Romantic pairing: N and OC
Part 2
Claire sat on the bench and endured the probing. The ice pack was doing very little to alleviate much throbbing but she held it gently against the back of her head. Going from complete darkness and silence, to booming voices and a flashlight in your face, sure tortures your senses. A mighty big aspirin was being pictured in the near future. Nick's concerns were touching but they were quickly becoming annoying as Dr. Al Robbins continued his examination.
"Everything seems to be fine but I think you might have suffered a mild concussion," he gently stated. Doc was one of the first people who befriended her when she got here and he smiled at her now in reassurance. "It's nothing to worry about though. After some more tests and maybe an x-ray, they'll just tell you not go to sleep for the next 24 hours. And not to operate any heavy machinery," he added with a wink. She liked Al. He was very nice to her, but it was still a little unnerving being examined by a coroner, and in addition to that he mentioned hospitals. Bring up that building provoked an involuntary shudder out of Claire. She hated hospitals.
"Look, I feel fine. I don't need to go to the hospital for a bump on the head. If I have to stay up for 24 hours then I will, but no hospitals. Alright? Now can I get back to work?" with imploring eyes, she glanced over at Grissom.
Grissom was called in around the same time Greg went to fetch for Doc. His apprehensive gaze seemed to lighten at the sight of her eagerness, yet his parental expression was already showing through. He didn't even have to say anything. Claire could tell she wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "I think you better take the rest of the day off and tomorrow too. I tell Sara or Catherine what's happened, I'm sure one of them will stay with you to make sure you're alright. Their case has gone cold anyway. I'll page one of them now and have them take you to the hospital before taking you home."
Damn. She wasn't getting out of this one. As he pulled out his phone and began to dial the number, a thought came rushing into her head. "Wait! They can't do that their case is hot again." Grissom wasn't the only one that held a puzzled expression, as all the men in the room were now looking at her. "I had a hunch and did some investigating." Shuffling through the papers that had been stuffed back into her folder, she finally found the one she was looking for. "When I dug into their history a little further, I found out that the two of them were taking part in a fertility clinic. Mrs. Craughwell is pregnant."
"I don't see how this seems relevant," Grissom added, but he looked intrigued. He stood in front of her biting onto the ear piece of his glasses., waiting for her to continue with her theory.
"They just had tests taken. Sara and Catherine brought the results back to the lab, when they brought in the Craughwells garbage."
Seeing the photo Claire pulled out to illustrate this point, Grissom remembered seeing the crumpled piece of paper in the evidence collection. "Yes Catherine was going to look this over at the beginning of shift."
"Well actually Sara and her went out to followed up a different lead, so I looked it over. Then once I saw that this was the results of the Craughwells fertility test…" She let the sentence fall off as she handed Grissom the next photo of the evidence. Nick, Greg, and Dr. Robbins were all intently listening to the unfolding theory with great curiosity. "Mrs. Craughwell's prints were the only ones that I lifted off the results so Mr. Craughwell didn't know he was sterile. But his pregnant wife knew. And if she thought that her husband was going to force her to give up the baby once he found out…" She decided that that was enough explaining and sat back against the locker. The cool metal made her shiver a little.
Grissom's grin was board and amusing, "You did very good." He put all the bits and pieces of evidence back in the folder and tucked it under his arm. "I'll let them know what you found. Nick, you take her to the hospital and have today and tomorrow off too. Someone need to stay with her and make sure she doesn't fall asleep the next 24 hours. You look like you could use a day off anyway." Nick turned his face away slightly in a small attempt to hid his black eye. With a final grin of goodbye to Claire, Grissom strolled out of the locker room at a determined pace to track down Sara and Catherine. A moment or two later Greg and Doc followed suit. Leaving only Claire and Nick in the locker room.
"I'm sorry," Claire mumbled.
"Why? It was my fault. I should have watched where I as going. It only makes sense that I'm the one that looks out for you now. I always take responsibility for my actions," he smiled at her lightly. She could tell that it probably hurt him to do so with his black eye. He made his way over to her and took a seat on the bench in front of her.
She reached out and cupped the side of his face in her hand. With her thumb barely making contact with his skin she brushed it over purple, swollen skin. "I hope I didn't hurt you too much."
"What? This? No. You didn't give me the black eye. I got this last night," he didn't want to tell her how so he shook his head and looked away from her curious gaze. "Just handled a disagreement the wrong way."
Deciding not to pry any further, Claire stood and turned to gather her things from her locker. "I trust Doc's opinion, do we really have to go to the hospital? It's just a bump, if I stay up there wont be any problems," She implored Nick.
"Alright. But if you think you can't stay up any longer and it hasn't been 24 hours yet, I'll drag you to Desert Palms. I don't care how much you fight me."
"Deal!"