Chapter 4:

Nick immediately took Sara's hand. He could feel her weakly squeeze his hand back, but her eyes continued to reject him. They were void and lifeless, staring off into a distant place that held her mind captive. Nick felt the words that he was dying to say catch in his throat. He looked up at Grissom and noticed a look on his face, one he had never seen before. The lines on his face softened, he looked tormented, as tormented as Nick felt inside.

Grissom had never seen Sara look so vulnerable. He remembered walking into the police station when he had been called after her DUI. She had looked defeated, even embarrassed. The ride home had been silent, she could barely meet his eyes for days, but she recovered, she regained her old stubbornness back, something he had come to admire in her. But now, now she looked claimed - taken by something he couldn't name. He saw it in her eyes, the eyes that betrayed her.

"Excuse me, but I need to check Miss. Sidle's blood pressure and pulse. I'll only be a moment." Grissom went to stand up and leave but she stopped him. "No worries, I'll only be a few minutes. You can stay. Has she spoken at all?" Grissom shook his head.

"Has she been speaking at all?" he asked, concernedly. The nurse smiled kindly,

"Only once, but I know the doctor expects a full recovery. Sometimes, in these cases, the victim withdraws but I almost always see them come back. Talk to her, let her know your there. 90 of cases, the patients can still hear you." She smiled again and left.

"Victim?" Nick whispered, as if he didn't want Sara to hear. "Victim of what?"

"I don't know Nick, but we'll find out." He took Sara's other hand and gently held it in his, careful not to disrupt her IV. "Hey Sara. It's Grissom. Nick and I are both here. Just let us know when you want to talk and we'll listen." Nick didn't know what to say. It was hard to imagine her responding, it was like talking to a wall.

"Hey Sara, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere okay? I'm sorry I pushed you to talk when you didn't want to. I just wanted to help." Her eyes stayed blank as Nick fought back the tears of frustration and guilt.

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Nick slowly opened his eyes and quickly glanced at Sara. Her eyes were closed peacefully. He glanced over to the other side of the bed, where Catherine was fast asleep; still clinging to Sara's other hand. Grissom had left a few hours previous – there were things he still needed to do at work and he claimed that there was things he needed to figure out about what happened with Sara. Nick refused to leave Sara's side, even to get some sleep or figure out what was wrong in the first place, so Grissom and the rest of the team decided to pull shifts with Nick. Catherine had come a few minutes after Dr. Ferguson had left, checking up on his patient. He had even more information for the CSI's.

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"How are you holding up Sara?" Dr. Ferguson asked as he strode into the room. Her mouth didn't move, her eyes didn't even shift from the position they had held for the last 2 hours that Nick and Grissom had been sitting there. "That bad eh?" he responded with a smile as he tried to lighten the dark mood cast in the hospital room. "How are you two doing? You both look dead on your feet."

"We're fine thank you doctor." Grissom responded. Nick cut in quickly,

"She hasn't changed at all in the last 2 hours – is that normal?" Dr. Ferguson nodded.

"Please, call me Kyle. As I said, it comes and goes in these cases. Hey, just a quick question, but does Miss. Sidle get a lot of injuries at work? Bruises and such?" Grissom looked at him, wondering what he meant.

"Not really? I mean you get your occasional bumps and scrapes but…" Dr. Kyle sent him a meaningful look, and Grissom said no more.

"Oh okay, just wondering. Well, I'm hoping that she'll wake out of her current state sometime soon. Just talk to her, pretend like she'll answer. It will do wonders. Other than her unresponsiveness, she's doing better. She's much better nourished and hydrated than when she came in. We'll keep running the IV, but hopefully, physically she'll be on the mend and out of here in a few days." Nick nodded, his eyes flitting back to Sara, as if she would disappear if he didn't look at her.

"Are you her husband?" The doctor asked, with a frown. Nick almost choked and Grissom noticed the momentary look of panic and confusion on his face as he tried to explain.

"No, I'm just…just a friend and co-worker." He finally managed to sputter out. Grissom just raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He was a bit of an idiot when it came to relationships, but you had to be blind not to see how much Nick cared for Sara. The doctor turned again to Grissom.

"Is she seeing anyone? Do you know who her last boyfriend was?" he asked. Again, Grissom looked at him searchingly, wondering what he was trying to say.

"As far as I know she's not seeing anyone right now. Her last boyfriend was, about 3 weeks ago. Didn't really know him that well – all we know about the relationship was that he left her." The doctor didn't look that surprised, like he already knew all this information.

"Okay, well thanks. Take care; make sure you both get sleep too. Have you contacted her family?" Nick answered softly,

"We're her only family." The doctor smiled and said goodbye, telling them he would be back in a few hours to check on her again.

Grissom sat, deep in thought about the conversation with the doctor. It was obvious he was trying to get them to pick up on something, without directly saying anything. He looked at Nick, whose eyes were locked on Sara's. Clearly, he hadn't picked up on the doctor's attempts to explain her condition, being more overwhelmed with Sara than with what the doctor had to say. Instead, once Catherine arrived, they filled her in on Sara's condition, and Grissom hurried off to the lab to start trying to figure out all the clues as to what really happened to Sara.