Five:

"You want me to stay?" Sara asked uncertainly, confused by Catherine's actions. She had been certain that as soon as anything dangerous came remotely close to Catherine's home or daughter, she would have been kicked to the curb without a second thought.

On the other hand, she wouldn't have ever expected Catherine would have invited her to stay in the first place or be as gentle and caring as she had been over the last 24 hours. This wasn't how their relationship worked, and it was all very confusing to her.

Catherine, seeing Sara's hesitation, covered Sara's hand with her own, "Please, don't leave. If something happened to you, I don't know what I'd do."

"I feel the same way." Sara replied softly, her voice thick with emotion. She wasn't sure what she was exactly feeling as Catherine stepped closer to her, but whatever it was, it wasn't allowing her to say no like her head knew she should. "If you want me to stay, I'll stay."

Catherine pulled her in for a hug, and Sara felt like she was going to melt in the older woman's embrace. It had been a very, very long time since someone had cared this much about her. Reluctantly pulling away, Sara drew a deep breath, trying to clear her head and focus on the situation.

"We need to call Brass and tell him about Lindsey's dog. If we can prove it is Laura, we can use that to build up her case, it was a clear threat, we can extend the restraining order to both you and Lindsey, just as a precaution." Sara said softly, "There's no doubt in my mind that it was Laura. I hate that she's dragging you two into this. She's do anything to get to me."

Catherine glanced down at her watch, nodding, "I agree. I'll call the station and see who's on. I'll also tell Lindsey to be very careful playing outside and remind her not to talk to strangers and such. It's the normal speech, but sometimes a reminder doesn't hurt."

"She must be so upset about her dog." Sara said sadly, "Let me buy her a new one."

Catherine smiled at Sara's sincerity, following the brunette out of the room, "She's pretty upset about Jasmine, that's her puppy's name, but she's confident the two of us will 'catch the killer'. She's always bounced back rather quickly. You don't have to buy her another, though, we got the puppy from my sister, and I'm sure her dog will have puppies again."

They walked into the living room and Lindsey jumped up, running to the two women, "Are you going to look for clues to find out who hurt Jasmine?"

"Of course we are." Sara replied before Catherine could open her mouth, "Your Mom and I are on the case."

Lindsey wrapped her arms around Sara, surprising both adults, and squeezed her tightly, "I know you can do it. You and Mom always put away the bad guys."

Sara and Catherine shared a smile, and Lindsey flopped onto the couch, covering with a throw blanket and motioning for the two adults to be silent, "My show's back on."

"What are you watching, Lindsey?" Sara asked, taking a seat on the other end of the couch, "Scooby Doo? I love Scooby Doo."

Catherine took a seat, looking at Sara with a teasing smile, "I'm sure you were always trying to figure out who did it before the gang did. I can just picture you, 7 years old, taking notes and following the evidence."

"Of course. I used to idealize Velma. I even had a sweater and skirt to match hers." Sara admitted with a light blush, "Who didn't love Scooby Doo?"

Catherine shook her head, "I was never a big Scooby Doo fan. I always liked Mickey Mouse and Disney cartoons. You never really had to think about them. Besides, my sister was always scared of the villians on Scooby Doo, and it wasn't worth listening to her ask a million times whether ghosts really existed."

Lindsey laughed, her attention diverted from her cartoon, "Aunt Nancy was scared of Scooby Doo? That's so silly, it's just a cartoon."

"Well, we all know how silly your Aunt Nancy is." Catherine joked, "We all know who got the brains in the family."

"Yeah, me." Lindsey retorted, laughing as Catherine threw a pillow at her, "Mom, is Sara staying for dinner?"

Catherine nodded, "She'll be staying with us for a few days. Why don't the two of you start co-conspiring about what's for dinner while I go finish up the laundry. I wouldn't have to go to work naked."

"I'm sure the boys would love that." Sara replied with a grin, "May even get you a raise."

Catherine shook her head, "Not worth it. The lab couldn't pay me that kind of money."

Sara laughed as Catherine walked out of the room, turning her attention towards Lindsey and the TV, "What's happened so far?"

Lindsey, still focused on the TV, answered, "They went into the haunted house, interviewed the caretaker, and there's a phantom stealing family heirlooms. I think it's the caretaker, but Shaggy and Scooby think it's the ghost of the man who owned the house."

"Nah, the caretaker is too obvious. Have they mentioned anyone else?" Sara asked, watching as everyone's favorite cartoon dog managed to, once again, veer from the gang's plan.

The two were interrupted by Sara's cell phone's shrill ring. Flipping it open, she answered, "Sidle."

"Sara." She knew by the way that Nick said her name that something was seriously wrong. She waited with baited breath for him to continue. "Sara, are you sitting down?"

"What happened?" Sara asked, dread filling her body as she waited to hear words she had hoped she'd never hear.

Nick's voice cracked with emotion as he spoke, "There was an accident. Grissom and I were called in early to work a B&E, day shift is backed up with a homicide. The suspect came back...Grissom was shot."

"No." Sara gasped, fear constricting her chest, "Where are you?"

Nick's voice was strained as he spoke, "We're at Desert Palm, he's in pretty bad shape, the doctors aren't sure if he'll make it through the night. 3rd floor waiting room." He paused before asking, "Are you okay?"

"Catherine and I will be right there." Sara replied, her hands shaking as she tried to close her phone. She slid the phone back into her belt, her heart racing as she tried in vain to calm her nerves. She stood, but immediately fell back onto the couch as her shaking legs couldn't support her.

"What's wrong?" Lindsey asked, worried by Sara's reaction. She scooted closer to the brunette, "Sara?"

Sara opened her mouth to speak, but instead was overcome by tears. She covered her face, not wanting to allow the child to see her crying, not wanting to worry her, but was unable to control herself. Grissom was one of her best friends, although they may not always get along. He had been her mentor, he was the reason she was sitting in Catherine's living room instead of a cramped apartment in San Francisco. And now, he may die.

Lindsey had rushed away to find Catherine, worried by Sara's small breakdown, and a few moments later, Catherine followed her daughter back into the living room, sitting beside Sara and pulling her into an embrace, "What's wrong, Sara?"

Sara sobbed for a few moments before she was able to compose herself enough to answer Catherine's question, "Cath, there was an incident at a scene. Grissom's been hurt. He's at Desert Palm, Nick says he may not make it."

Catherine's face paled, and she drew in a shaky breath, trying to keep her composure and remain strong. He may not make it, but then again, he may pull through just fine. At times like this, the best thing to do was remain optimistic. She fought tears and squeezed Sara's hand, "Let me call my sister and see if she can watch Lindsey, and we'll head down to the hospital."

"Aunt Nancy is out of town, she went with Jeremy on a field trip. I can go with you. I like Uncle Gil, I want to see him." Lindsey pleaded, "Let me go with you."

"Linds, I don't think that's a good idea. Uncle Gil won't be able to have visitors, and we'll probably be there a long time. You'll be bored." Catherine said gently, squeezing Lindsey's hand, "I'll see if I can get your Grandma to come over."

Catherine picked up the cordless phone, dialing her mother's number. After 4 rings, the answering machine picked up and Catherine hung up with a sigh, "Go put your shoes on, hurry up."

Lindsey ran to her room, leaving Sara and Catherine sitting on the couch in silence, both in shock over what had happened. In a soft voice, almost too frightened to be Sara's, the brunette whispered, "Do you think it was her?"

"Laura?" Catherine asked with teary eyes, "I don't know, but I'd definitely put her on the suspect list."

"He can't die." Sara murmured, her hands starting to tremble once more, "I don't know what I'll do if he does."

"Me too." Catherine replied, wiping away the tears that fell onto her cheeks, "We're going to catch whoever did this. If it's Laura, I'll personally make sure she pays."

They arrived at the hospital in record time, and it didn't take long to find the waiting area that CSI had inhabited. Nick was standing by the window, obviously distraught by the night's events. Even from across the room, it was clear that he was fighting tears. Warrick sat in the coroner, his eyes bright and bloodshot with unshed tears. His clothes were rumpled, as if he had been awakened by the phone call and hadn't bothered to get dressed before heading out. Greg was standing by the coffee pot, absentmindedly stirring the sludge in his Styrofoam cup. Sara walked over to Nick, leaving Catherine to sit beside Warrick, wrapping an arm around him and giving him a reassuring squeeze. Lindsey sat beside them, sorrow evident on her young face as she watched the adults fight an inner battle with their emotions.

"This is never supposed to happen to him." Warrick whispered, "He's supposed to be indestructible."

"He's only human." Catherine replied, "All humans are fallible. We can all be hurt, we can all be taken."

Warrick shook his head sadly, motioning towards Nick, "He's really torn up."

"It's hard to watch someone suffer and not be able to help them." Catherine replied, her voice stopped, "Grissom was a mentor to all of us, he made us who we are. We owe it to him to keep it together until he's well."

"If he has a chance to recover." Warrick said dryly, shaking his head, "This is unreal."

Across the room, Nick had just said the exact same thing, "This is unreal. One minute we were processing the scene, the next thing I know he's falling to the ground and taking me down with him. I hardly had time to decipher what was going on. She came in, aimed straight for him, and then disappeared. I couldn't do anything, he wouldn't stop bleeding, he didn't even regain consciousness."

"It's not your fault. Accidents happen to CSIs, it's a risk we are all willing to take. Grissom's strong, he's a fighter, he'll make it through this. Try to think positive, Gris wouldn't give up without a fight." Sara said softly, squeezing Nick's hand, "You did the best you could, that's all any of us could have asked for."

All occupants of the waiting room froze as the doctor walked in, his scrubs covered in blood, "Gil Grissom?"

"How is he?" Nick asked, walking quickly towards the doctor.

The doctor sighed, surveying the occupants of the room, "There is extensive damage to his spinal cord. We are working on removing the bullet, but there's a lot of swelling, which is making it hard to maneuver. We won't know the extent of the damage until the swelling goes down. There's a long road ahead of him, but if he makes it through surgery and through the night without any additional complications, he should make it. I'll keep you updated on his surgery."

The doctor walked away, and Sara turned away from Nick, wiping tears away from her cheeks. Nick sighed heavily, "It was so strange. Before I heard the shot, I heard her tell us that we should consider this a warning. I've never seen her before in my entire life, yet she looked so familiar. I just can't figure out what kind of warning shooting someone is? I can't make sense of it. Gris didn't seem to recognize her, so why would she shoot him and not me? It just doesn't make sense."

Sara's face had rapidly paled as Nick recounted the events of the shooting. There was no doubt about it, it was Laura. This shooting was her fault, Grissom may die because of her. Could things get any worse?