Disclaimer: I don't own any of them.

A/N: Thanks to Cybro for the great beta job. Also thanks for hanging in there with this fic. I have so much going on I'm finding it hard to get time to sit down to write.

Chapter Three: Breaking Up is Hard to Do

They all stood outside the door while Sara was being tended to by the paramedics. Nick just gave a death glare to Grissom. He couldn't believe that man. What gave him the right to hurt Sara one minute and the next act like nothing had happened? He knew if he didn't get away from him, his anger would boil over. "I'm going to work on that rape case. Maybe I can be useful there." He walked off before he anyone could say anything to stop him.

"I'll talk to him." Warrick announced as he moved past Catherine, and went on the search for Nick.

"What's his problem?" Grissom asked as he shrugged off Nick's reaction.

Catherine couldn't believe what he had just asked. She wondered if someone had been spiking his coffee or something. "You're joking right?" She could see from the look on his face he was really that clueless. "Let's see, the minute Sara and Nick open up on their relationship; you pull her into your office and fire her over it. Yet you don't punish Nick, not at all." She was really angry by this point. "Gil, you cannot fire her for holding his hand in the break room. It's not like they were making out, or having sex. Even if they were, both would be at fault. Both would've been reprimanded, not just Sara." She couldn't believe he was just standing there. "Well Gil, do you have anything to say for yourself? I want to hear why you thought it would be a good idea to do this."

Before Grissom could explain they brought Sara out on a gurney. He went to follow the paramedics, but Catherine stopped him. "Where the hell do you think you are going?"

"I'm going with Sara, where else?" Grissom shot back.

"Oh, I don't think so. I think you've done enough. I will go." Catherine started to walk away. "Fix this Gil, fix it or I will." She caught up with the paramedics and followed them out.

Once in the ambulance Catherine took Sara's hand and held it. "How you feeling, Sar?" She was honestly concerned for her. She knew they both hadn't been the best of friends, and she secretly blamed herself for that.

"I'm fine, have a headache from hell." Sara rubbed her head.

"I'm not surprised, you hit it pretty hard." Catherine laughed a bit.

"You do know they'll more than likely keep you over night to make sure everything is fine. Also they'll run tests to see why you passed out and why you have a bit of a memory loss." The paramedic spoke up as she checked Sara's vitals one more time.

"Is Nick…wait, memory loss? I don't have memory loss." Sara looked back and forth between the paramedic and Catherine. "Why did you think that?"

"Sara, when you woke up, you asked Nick if you knew him." Catherine explained to her.

"Is that why he isn't here?" A tear slipped down her check when Catherine gave her a nod. "You have to call him and tell him I didn't mean it. Please Cath." She was scared he would be angry with her. She couldn't bear losing her job and Nick in the same day.

"I will, I promise, but let the doctors check you out first. We both don't want him to rush down here." Catherine touched Sara's shoulder, in hopes it would comfort her.

"Sara, in the locker room we asked you questions, you said you didn't know what happened. Since your memory loss seems to be short lived, do you have an answer for that?" the paramedic asked.

"No, I told you that. One minute I was talking to Catherine, the next you two were in the locker room." Sara explained to the man.

They arrived at the hospital a short time after. Catherine went with Sara, and sat and waited for the doctor to come in and look at her.

Meanwhile, Warrick had found Nick in the layout room going over photos of Eli. He could tell his mind wasn't in the case. He didn't know how to comfort his heart broken friend. Hey was all he said as he entered the room, going over and looking at the photos himself.

"I don't want to talk about it man." Nick truly didn't want to speak about it. Cause if he did, he knew he would cry. Right now that is the last thing he wanted.

"Nick, don't be angry with her. She did hit her head quite hard. Give her time." Warrick wanted to reason with him, to make him see that he had to take this all not as hard.

"She forgot me 'Rick. I thought she loved me, and she forgot me."

Warrick knew it was hard on Nick; it would be hard on anyone. He also knew it had to be hard on Sara. Having part of ones life erased in a moment. How scary that would be. "You said that she loves you…"

"Loved, Warrick, loved. She can't even remember me, how will she love me?"

"One, we don't know the memory loss is permanent. Two, what happens when she gets it back, and realizes you turned you back on her when she needed you? God Nick, this is so not like you. Three, you still haven't answered my question."

Nick stopped what he was doing. Warrick was right, he should stand behind Sara. "What question is that?"

"Do you love her?"

"Of course I love her 'Rick. What's not to love?"

"Well?" Warrick went and took the photo out of Nick's hand.

"Well what?"

"What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be next to Sara?" Warrick watched as Nick headed out the door.

Nick turned around and smiled at Warrick who was already taking care of the photos. "Hey 'Rick, thanks." He disappeared before he could reply.

Catherine sat next to Sara as the doctor looked into her eyes. He couldn't see anything seriously wrong with her, though he was concerned about the reason she had passed out in the first place. "Well Miss Sidle, how are you feeling now? Are you dizzy, feeling sick?"

"No, none of that, just a headache."

The doctor wrote something down in his notes, flipped a few pages and looked at what was written. "Your MRI came back normal, but your blood results have yet to come back." He closed his notes the looked down at her. "I would like you to stay here for a few hours while we wait for the results to come in."

Before Sara could comment Catherine spoke up. "That's fine doctor, thank you."

The doctor nodded at the two women, "I'll be back. Try to get some sleep, Miss Sidle." He walked out leaving the two women alone to talk.

"Cath, why isn't Nick here, yet?" Sara looked at her with eyes so sad. "Is he that upset with me?"

Catherine moved so she sat on the edge of the bed. "Sara, Nick…" She took her hand. She wondered if Sara forgot what she told her earlier, but she knew she should tell her. She knew this was going to be hard on her, but she took a deep breath and continued. "After you woke up from passing out, Sara, you asked Nick if you knew him." She watched as the color drained from her face.

"I know that, you told me, but I thought he would've been here by now." Sara sat there for a few moments unable to speak. All she could think of was how bad she must've hurt Nick. No wonder why he wasn't here, why would he want to be. A single tear slipped down her cheek. She couldn't stay there; she had to go talk to him. She took the blankets off and went to get out of bed.

"Where do you think you are going?" Catherine stopped Sara from getting out of bed. "You heard the doctor, you need to rest. Don't make me call him back in here, 'cause I will, if you pull that again." She pulled the covers back on her and pushed her softly back.

"Cath, I need to talk to Nick, I need to tell him I didn't mean it." Sara went to sit up again but was stopped by Catherine once more.

"Warrick is talking to him, and if I know Warrick…and I do know Warrick… then Nick will be here in a few minutes." Catherine was able to calm Sara down. She moved and sat back in the chair. She watched as she started to drift off to sleep.

Nick walked through the door shortly after. He walked over to bed and sat next to Sara. He softly ran his hands down her hair. "How long has she been sleep?" He didn't even turn to Catherine as he asked.

"She just fell asleep." Catherine stood and walked over to and touched Nick's shoulder. "I will go and let you be alone with her." She gave him a quick rub on the back and exited the room.

Sara moaned a bit as she moved her head. Her eyes fluttered open and looked straight at Nick. She smiled up at him as he touched her cheek. She was so happy to see him she didn't want to speak. All she wanted to do was look at him.

"Sara…It's me Nick, look I know you don't remember me right now, but…"

"Nick…"

"Let me finish okay…" Nick interrupted her. "I just want to let you know I love you. I will always be here if you need me. I want to be with you, always, but honey I can't be with you on the same level."

"But…"

"Shhh," Nick said as he placed a finger on her lips. "I just don't want you to feel because we are together…were together." He corrected himself. "I just don't want you to have to continue to be with someone you don't love." Nick kissed her on the cheek.

Sara wrapped her arms around Nick's neck. "Please, don't go." She moved back and looked into his eyes. "Please…don't." She moved to kiss him.

Nick moved away and took a hold of her hands. "I'm sorry." He looked at the door, and then back at Sara. "I should go." He kissed her hands, before walking away.

As soon as Nick was gone, Sara curled up in a ball and cried. She wanted to jump out of bed and run to him, to make him understand that she did remember him. She remembered the way he would walk up behind her and wrap his arms around her. She cuddled the pillow tight to muffle her broken hearted screams.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Grissom sat in his office looking at the disciplinary sheet he had filled out on Sara. He knew Catherine was right. He had little grounds to suspend Sara, let alone fire her. He was just so hurt when he saw her with Nick. He was mad she had meant that one day he could be too late. He didn't want it to be to late. He took the paper to the shredder and slid it through. After it was all shredded he headed to the hospital to apologize.

Nick sat in his car, head against the steering wheel as he cried. He felt like doing nothing more than going back into Sara's room and holding her. He hadn't meant to break up with her, but he looked at her and realized he should. He didn't want to push her, to make her feel like she had to love him. He prayed, more than anything, she would understand when and if her memory ever returned.

His cell phone's shrill brought him out of his misery. "Stokes."

"Nick, we have another rape. Same as before, Nick. She says it happened to her last week." Brass explained

"Is she at the station?"

"Yes, and Nick…she says there are more."

"I'm on my way." Nick hung up and he was about to drive off when Catherine flagged him down.

"Thanks for the ride back." Catherine turned to look at Nick, who was like a zombie. "Alright, what did you do? Please, don't say you broke up with her." She knew something was wrong when she tried to talk to a crying Sara.

"Okay, I won't." That was the only thing he could say. He knew if he tried to explain he would start to cry again. He felt Catherine open her mouth to say something. "I don't want to talk about it Catherine, just mind your own business."

"Fine, whatever you say Nick."

Sara had her back turned to the door as Grissom walked in. He quietly made his way to the chair next to her bed and sat down. He sat and watched as she laid there. He didn't want to say anything in case she was sleeping.

"Leave." She knew who was there without even having to turn around, and she didn't want to speak to him.

"Sara, I just want to talk." He stood up and walked over so he could see her face. "Please talk to me."

"Talk about what?" Her tears started to fall once again. She could see all he could do was open his mouth. "Come on, what do you want to talk to me about? Maybe the minute I move on with my life, you screw it up. In one day I went from being happy and having a great guy, to not having a job and being alone." She whipped her tears away. "He broke up with me."

"But that's a good thing." Grissom knew he just said something stupid the minute it came out of his mouth. He couldn't understand why when he could manage speak around her he always said the wrong thing. "Sorry that came out wrong. Look Sara, you still have your job. I was wrong to fire you. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Great!" Sara closed her eyes in hopes her pain would subside just a little.

"There is no record, so when you feel up to coming back you can." Grissom slid his hands into hers.

Sara pulled her hands back. "Fine, then can I take a couple weeks of my vacation time I have built up.?"

Grissom left soon after agreeing to her request for vacation time. A request he would soon regret.