Thanks so much for your reviews - it's always nice to know what the readers think. About the wedding, it hasn't happened yet. It the last chapter, if you look again, it mentions that Sara doesn't correct the woman who calls her Mrs. Grissom. So, she isn't yet, but she hopefully will be. Here is the next chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 22 Reaching for Your Hand

Determined to make the most of their last days together before school began, Sara made it her mission to entertain Hannah constantly. One week after Thanksgiving, she was attempting to decorate the house for the holidays when she realized that there simply weren't enough decorations, even after she had brought her own meager additions from her apartment. A trip to the hardware store and several decorating stores was apparently in order. Hannah agreed, looking forward to having an input into which ornaments they would purchase.

It was a beautiful day, warm for even a Las Vegas winter. As Sara began to unload their purchases from her vehicle, Hannah proceeded to play in the yard with the neighbor's dog, which had snuck over to visit the little girl. "Do you want to decorate outside first?" Hannah nodded, once again throwing the rubber toy that the collie had eagerly brought with him. "All right," Sara agreed. "I'll be right out. I'll just take these inside— Stay right here." Hannah nodded again, not even looking up as she continued to play with the dog. Sara was in the house for less than two minutes, just long enough to place the bags in the hallway and grab the decorations that they had purchased for decorating the yard.

As she exited the house, two bags of decorations in her hands, Sara caught sight of two cars pulling up the private drive, the leading one sporting the insignia of the LVPD. She walked slowly down the walkway to meet the two people who had parked and were stepping out of their cars. She knew the officer, Kevin, to be a rookie for the department. Although he was fairly new, he had met the two CSIs and had gained much respect for them; he knew that both Sara and Gil took their jobs seriously and always worked in the best interest of the victims and their families. The assignment he had received on arriving at work that morning was his worst yet; he had tried several times to trade with his fellow officers but no one at the department was willing to face an ambushed Sara Sidle.

"Good morning Kevin. Can I help you?"

"Hi Miss Sidle. Sorry to bother you—"

"It's no bother, we were just getting ready to decorate. What's up?"

"This is Miss Gardner, from CYS." Sara attempted not to allow her brown eyes to fall into a glare as she turned to look at the woman who had stepped out of the second car.

"We have an injunction from Hannah's paternal grandparents in Oregon. They're suing for full custody. We'll be taking her into state custody until the matter can be settled."

"You've got to be kidding me," Sara said abruptly, her voice ringing with fear.

"We have every right to place the child into protective custody until a proper hearing can be held," the woman answered evenly, not the slightest bit ruffled by Sara's dark glare and protective stance.

"You're not taking her anywhere," Sara snarled as she snatched the papers that the woman was dangling from between her bright red, perfectly manicured nails.

"Miss Sidle, I don't want to do this, but Miss Gardner has the legal right to take Hannah into the custody of CYS."

"Well, she's not going anywhere until I've at least read these papers," Sara said as calmly as possible, hoping the quick thinking would at least buy her a few minutes. Before either the police officer or the CYS caseworker could respond, Sara felt a slight tugging on her jeans. Looking down, she saw that Hannah had heard them arguing and was standing next to her, trying to reach for her hand.

"Hello Hannah," Miss Gardner said in an over-exaggerated baby voice. Hannah did not respond but instead looked at Sara, silently asking about the presence of this foolish woman.

Sara was frozen for a moment, pulled out of her panic only by the slight breeze that suddenly came along and rustled the papers that she still clasped firmly in one hand. Swinging Hannah onto her hip, Sara nodded to the two intruders and walked toward the house, not stopping her steady pace until she was inside and able to lock the door. Hannah stood helplessly in the hallway, looking to her protector and wondering what had upset the woman who was usually so calm and steadfast.

"Mama, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, sweetie," Sara lied quickly, leading the young girl into her own bedroom. "I'm going to make lunch and call Gil, alright?" She stooped down, putting herself on equal level with the small girl. "I need you to help me, okay?" Her voice was serious and Hannah sensed the tone and nodded, a sincere expression gracing her young face. "I want you to stay in your room, alright? No matter who you hear out there," Sara said, pointing in the general direction of the rest of the house, "I want you to stay right here. Until Gil or I come for you. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Promise?"

"I promise," Hannah said with a firm nod. Sara swept her up into a firm hug and then kissed her cheek.

"I love you so much," she whispered softly.

"Love you too," Hannah said with a scared smile. Sara smiled back, hoping that the young child didn't realize the gravity of their current situation. Making her way to the den, Sara picked up the cordless phone and called Grissom's cell. After reaching his voicemail four times, she realized that he was probably at a scene and unable to take her call. Dialing the next number she knew by heart, Sara prayed under her breath for an answer.

"Hey kid."

"Brass, you have to do something," she spit out in one breath.

"Slow down, Sara. What's wrong?"

"There are people here. They're trying to take Hannah. They have some sort of injunction. From a Judge Hanes in Oregon. I don't know what to do. They can't have her."

"Calm down. We can to fix this. Where's Hannah now?"

"In her room."

"Good. And the CYS rep?"

"Outside."

"Did you try Gil?"

"He's not answering. I tried all of his numbers."

"We'll find him, sweetheart. Don't worry. Do you know if Gil has an attorney?"

"Jason Briggs," Sara answered automatically, wondering momentarily how she even knew that small fact.

"Okay. Here's what I want you to do. Call Jason, get him there. Tell him Gil will be there as soon as possible. And I'll work on getting a court order from Judge Brinkman to keep Hannah with you. All you need to do is call Jason and then stay with Hannah. Alright?"

"Okay," Sara said irritably, not feeling that the situation was improving.

"You did good, Sara. You're doing great. I'll see you soon." After hanging up with Brass, Sara searched for the number for Gil's attorney and found it within minutes. The young man was extremely understanding with the frantic woman and promised to head directly to Gil's home. Once she was finished with that call, Sara fell into a sort of automatic drive. She made a quick lunch, as she had been doing for weeks, and took it into Hannah. The little girl was playing with her dollhouse, making voices for each of the wooden figures as she moved them around into miniature tableaus.

"Hey baby doll," Sara said as brightly as possible as she entered the room. Hannah looked up with a warm smile, genuinely happy to see her pseudo-mother. Just as they were finishing their meal, Sara heard the front door open and excused herself to see who had arrived. She was relieved when she saw not only Brass and Jason, but also Grissom, walk into the front hall. Her smile faded when she saw that Grissom was also inviting the woman from CYS into their living room. The woman was saying something about not being invited in earlier and Sara bristled.

"I'm sure Sara would have had better manners if she hadn't been ambushed in her own home," Grissom said, in a voice that almost begot the fact that he was insulting this other woman. The woman grumbled a bit but stopped scowling as she sat down and rudely turned down Grissom's offer of a beverage.

Sara went immediately to Grissom's side and felt her heart rate slow to its normal pace as he clasped her hand in his and then moved to reassuringly place his hand on the small of her back. As Jason began to speak, Sara allowed her guard to fall and she almost didn't listen to the young attorney; everything was going to be all right, just as long as Grissom was present.

"Well, I don't feel there's much to discuss at this juncture," Jason said bluntly to Miss. Gardner. "We have a court order to keep Hannah in her current arrangement until a proper hearing can be held. And the request for Oregon jurisdiction was already denied by Judge Brinkman as a result of Mr. Grissom's job and the minor's inability to travel."

"Since when is age a factor in ability to travel?"

"It has nothing to do with Miss Grissom's age. Her doctor, Dr. Josephine McKenna, was contacted and upon initial notification, feels that the young girl is unable to travel for long periods of time or distance."

"We will want to perform our own evaluations," Mrs. Gardner snapped.

"Of course. That can be arranged at a later time. For right now, I believe that the Grissoms have been bothered for long enough. I'm sure officer Markovich will be kind enough to show you to your car." Jason spoke quickly and firmly enough that the woman had no time to argue before she was being led out of the house by the amused and relieved police officer.

After they were gone, Jason took a few moments to explain to them what Hannah's paternal grandparents were trying to do and then left to file some paperwork. When he was gone, Sara and Grissom realized that Hannah was standing outside her door, quietly listening to the happenings in the living room. Luckily, the quickly ascertained that she had not overheard anything that might worry or upset her. She merely looked curious when they found her standing in the hallway.

"You were such a good girl today," Grissom said as he picked up the tiny girl. "You helped Sara so much."

"Why is Mama crying?"

"I'm just tired," Sara answered shakily, attempting to stop the tears that were obviously upsetting the young girl. "I'm fine." She stroked Hannah's hair lightly and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "I think I'm going to take a quick nap before dinner." Slowly, she made her way down the hallway and into her own bedroom, where Grissom found her minutes later curled up in a ball on the bed.

"It's okay now," he assured her, his hand falling reassuringly on her back.

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. Jason has it under control."

"I was so scared," she said shakily, the sobs she had been biting back all afternoon finally coming to the surface.

"You did good," he replied firmly, drawing her up into his strong embrace. "You did everything right. And Hannah is going to be just fine. She's not going anywhere. You need to settle down, honey. It's not good for you to be this upset." He had realized that she was shaking quite readily and her pulse was racing. Rubbing her back for a few minutes and whispering reassurances did not work as much as he would have liked. After half an hour of the rapid pulse and what he deemed to be a semi-irregular heartbeat, he went for his phone. Placing a quick call to someone he knew he could trust, he helped Sara into her shoes and jacket.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, we just need to get you checked out."

"No," she whined softly, attempting to pull away from him.

"Honey, your heart rate is not good," he said honestly. "I think you're having a panic attack."

"I'm fine," she said, her hands shaking wildly as she reached up to brush a lock of hair from her eyes.

"I want a professional judge of that," Grissom answered stubbornly. "Cath is on her way over to sit with Hannah. We won't be gone long." Sensing that she had no real choice in the matter, Sara gave in and allowed Grissom to carry her to the Tahoe. Catherine watched in worry as the pair drove off but managed to put on a happy smile to share with Lindsey and Hannah as she engaged them in the activity for the evening; a Disney movie marathon complete with popcorn and pizza. Hannah insisted that Sara didn't allow her to drink soda after dinner but Catherine talked her into it, saying that it was a special occasion.

At Dessert Palms, they waited for an hour simply to see the triage nurse. At that point, Grissom was cranky enough to pull rank. After discovering that they both worked for the city and were fairly high up in the pecking order, a doctor was immediately called. He was a young man, younger than both Grissom and Sara. Sara uncomfortably wondered if he was even as old as Greg.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Lucas Whitter. What seems to be the problem, Ms. Sidle?"

"Nothing. I'm fine—" Grissom ignored Sara's assertion and continued on his own, filling in the doctor on the doctor on the day's events.

"Sara's had an extremely stressful day and I'm worried about her blood pressure. Not to mention the other side effects of stress." The doctor cocked his eyebrow as he flipped through the chart and noted Sara's blood pressure as it had been taken by the nurse.

"I'd like for you to be admitted," he said immediately, causing Sara to cringe. "We'll have to start and IV drip to get this pressure under control. I see that you're expecting. An elevated blood pressure, even for a short time, is not good for the baby."

"I can't stay here," she said immediately, attempting to sit up in the bed,

"Sara—"

"No," she said forcefully, tears welling in her eyes. "I'm not staying."

"Ms. Sidle, we can't allow you to leave with such a high blood pressure."

"You can't keep me here," she said, sounding slightly childish. Grissom rubbed her shoulders reassuringly and whispered something in her ear before asking the doctor to step out into the hall. Once there, Grissom took on a serious, professional tone that was usual reserved for beaurocratic nonsense.

"Dr. Whitter, I understand your concern. Trust me, I share it. But keeping Sara here is not going to help her calm down."

"We can start her on prescription anxiety meds, but I don't feel comfortable releasing her, especially since she's expecting. If nothing else, we need to run an EKG to make sure that her palpitations aren't related to something more serious than stress."

"I know Sara. I've seen her like this before. And she's only going to become more distressed if she stays here. At least at home there's a chance she might rest."

"All right," the doctor finally agreed, realizing that he was too tired to content with the two scientists; it was probably better that they left. "But I'm documenting that this was against my recommendation. She's not leaving until after she starts the medications and has and EKG. And she should see her primary care doctor as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Grissom said with a solemn nod of his head, "Thank you." Less than two hours later, they arrived home to a much larger than expected crowd. Catherine was there with a sleeping Lindsey, but they were also accompanied by Greg, Lily, Nick, and Warrick.

Immediately mortified because all of her friends knew what was going on, Sara hid her face in Grissom's chest as she leaned against him for support. Offering an apologetic glance to his friends and coworkers, Grissom carefully picked up his fiancée and carried her down the hall and into their bedroom. Once she was tucked into bed, he offered her a glass of juice and the small sedative that the doctor had prescribed. Sara looked at it strangely, her expression indicating that she was not about to compliantly follow the doctor's orders.

"Sara, take it. You need the rest. I'll be right here. And Hannah's not going anywhere."

"I don't want to," she said, almost pathetically.

"I know you don't want to, honey. But you need to. Please take your medicine." After a moment of indecisiveness, Sara took the pill from his hand and dropped it into her mouth. Five minutes and a lake of tears later, she was sleeping soundly. Grissom closed the bedroom door and made his way back into the living room, looking for an explanation for the presence of their friends.

"We want to help," Nick said as soon as Grissom reentered the room.

Grissom was silent, overwhelmed at the unforeseen offer. He paced the living room and ended up in front of the front window, from where he could see the rain that had already begun to fall. "I don't know that you can."

"Sara will need help with Hannah until she's feeling better," Lily said quietly. "I'm free during the day."

"Thank you," Grissom said sincerely, turning to face them. "We appreciate all of you. I'll let you know. Right now, it's a just a lot to digest."

"Gil," Catherine said quietly, "you're not in this alone."

"I know that," he said with an appreciative smile. "Is Hannah asleep?"

"I doubt it," Catherine answered truthfully. "She's a perceptive kid. She's worried about you and Sara. But she and Lindsey are both in bed. Linds and I are going to stay tonight. You don't need to worry about Hannah. You just concentrate on Sara."

"Thanks Cat. All of you." He didn't look at any of them, but the tone of his voice was more than enough gratitude for them. They knew Grissom and knew that he appreciated their support; especially at a time so unpredictable.