"I want my guys back."
It was the way he said it. Sara glanced at Gil, wondering if she'd heard him right. Suddenly, everything she held together for so long, shattered into million pieces inside her body, and the release of her feelings has been so strong, that her heart could barely take it.
She turned away from Grissom and slowly walked towards the Tahoe, standing nearby.
Closing her eyes, she rested her forehead against the cool glass and exhaled deeply. She felt her hands shivering, only partly from the cold, and her whole body drained with exhaustion.
Sara felther lip tremble, and she quickly got into the car before the tears threatened to fall.
They found Nick in time. He was going to be ok. Everything was going to be ok.
Her eyes darted to where Grissom was still standing, talking to Ecklie. She felt something inside her crack.
He was still here. And so was she.
And they needed to talk.
---
"But he's gonna be fine, right?"
Catherine nodded, her smile contagious. Just for a moment, all she wanted was simply to revel in the feeling that Nick was going to be fine. Nothing else mattered, and for those few moments when the doctor saw them and told them the good news, all she wanted was to forget the horror and uncertainty, surrounding this incident.
"You can go and see him, Sara."
She squeezed Catherine's hand and nodded.
"Thanks."
"Oh, and Cath?" Sara called after her. "Have you seen Grissom?"
Catherine and Warrick, who just came out of Nick's room, exchanged glances.
"He... um... rang earlier, asking how Nick was" Catherine awkwardly explained. "He's in the lab with Archie analysing the tape."
"Oh... right." Sara tried not to sound disappointed.
"I'll see you guys later, ok?" She forced a small smile, before watching Cath and Warrick disappearing down the corridor, noticing how close they seemed and wondering whether something else, she didn't know about, was going on.
She shook her head and turned the knob on the door to Nick's room.
"Hey you", she managed to choke, before bursting into tears and enveloping her friend in warm embrace.
---
Grissom was sitting in his office, staring at the file on Gordon's daughter. He wasn't sure what he intended to find in there, but he looked nonetheless.
He hasn't realised he's been staring at the same page for God knows how long, when he heard familiar voice at his doorway.
"Gil?"
He looked up to see Catherine eyeing him carefully.
"What are you doing?"
She caught him off guard and she knew it. He wasn't reading the file, and his thoughts were elsewhere altogether.
"How's Nick?"
Cath sank into a chair in front of him, sighing wearily.
"He'll be fine. Thank God."
"You should go and see him" she added.
"What I need to do is to focus on the evidence we've got to find out who's done this to him!"
Grissom didn't mean to yell, but the frustration over the whole situation, mixed with his exhaustion and roller coaster of emotions he's been on, finally caught up with him.
He hid his face in his hands, barely keeping his composure. His body shook with tremor, as Catherine watched him, at a loss what to do. She's rarely seen him lose his cool, and when he did, it was rather upsetting sight.
"Grissom... " she attempted.
"You should go home, you know. Get some rest."
"Catherine..." he said in warning tone.
"I don't want to go home. I can't go home."
Catherine got up and walked over to his chair.
"Gil. Don't argue with me. All of us have been through so much in the last 24 hours, and you of all people should know, that in order to process the evidence properly, you need a clear head. And we do need to look at it objectively."
Grissom shot her a look, but knew she was right.
Suddenly his lab office was suffocating him. He knew he had to get out of there. He would go and see Nick, ask what he remembered.
And the he'd go and see Sara.
He hasn't seen her since she went to the hospital. They didn't even had the chance to talk yet. He wanted to see her so badly. He couldn't begin to imagine what she was going through.
Earlier he saw how much she struggled to keep her act together. Sara was a strong person, but he knew her well enough to know when she needed help. He'd seen her working many complicated cases, professionalism being her middle name. She'd collect evidence, and piece it together like a puzzle, making no sense in the beginning, until the pieces would fall in its place and the picture would start to appear.
Kind of like the two of them.
Only, was the picture complete? Were the pieces slowly falling into place or was this so carefully built relationship falling into pieces?
Grissom knew one thing. He couldn't afford to lose any more time to find out.
"Thanks Catherine."
He almost ran out of the office, stopping only to tell Archie to call him as soon as he got anything.
Stepping out of the elevator in the parking garage, he quickly made his way to his car. As he reached for his keys, he heard muffled sobs, coming from behind the black car, that was parked few metres away from his.
Cautiously and as quietly as he could, he approached the car, only to find someone sitting on the ground, knees huddled close to the chest, and sobbing uncontrollably.
She heard footsteps and lifted her tear-strained face to look straight into his eyes, her heart-wrenching gaze almost stopping his own heartbeat.
He knelt down next to her and cupped her face in his hands, wiping away the tears.
"Sara..."