Sorry it's been a while for an update. I went home over Christmas (back to England) and was supposed to be back in Lousiana by now. Instead, I end up in hospital having surgery. I'm fine now, but my flight has had to be delayed - by nearly a month sob>. The good news(!), is, being in hospital has given me far too much time and I have ended up writing... a lot.

In the space of only a few seconds, Cheryl had learnt a lot about her colleagues, including that they were prepared to shoot her. And in Calleigh's case, she actually had. Calleigh had shot her. Albeit through her arm, and not a major artery, but nevertheless, she had shot her. There were going to be words had when she could get her brain to register anything over than pain.

She clutched at her arm. She could feel her warm blood trickling through her fingers. She rolled over on to her side, spitting sand out of her mouth, as the CSIs ran over to her. Horatio was there first, scooping her up, so her heads was in his lap. 'Cheryl!'

Cheryl shut her eyes, trying to regain control over the pain she was feeling. But apparently, she wasn't allowed to do that: 'Cheryl, keep you eyes open,' cried Tim, shaking her gently.

'I'm fine,' she grumbled, glaring at him. She was not happy about being shot at. 'I just hurt a bit.' She was vaguely aware of Calleigh on her phone calling the EMS. They would be here soon. But it would be too late. 'It'll be too late,' she mumbled, trying to push herself to a sitting position.

'Too late for what?' Horatio asked her, trying to get her to lay back down.

'For Michael.'

Speeds expression clouded over, 'Michael?'

'I know where he is,' Cheryl said. She got to her feet, her pain temporarily forgotten about, grabbed a gun from Calleigh, and ran towards the water.

'What the hell are you doing?' Speed shouted after her, as she bounded into the water.

'Cheryl, get back here!' Horatio tried.

It was no use; her head was already under the surf. She swam out to the end of the pier and looked around in the direction of where Pete had been pointing a while ago. She could just make out the top of a head bobbing up and down in the waves. She headed over to it, ignoring the exhaustion that was slowly overcoming her, ignoring the pain she was feeling – from every single one of her muscles, which were telling her to go to the gym a bit more – to the bullet wounds that were, well, the phrase 'rubbing salt in the wound,' had sprung to mind, asthe sea water was having the same effect and it hurt like hell.

Finally, just as the waves completely submerged the head, she reached the last pier leg. Taking a deep breath, she dived under. He was still alive, blinking rapidly at her, as though trying to send a message. Clamping her mouth on his, she breathed out, giving him a couple of minute's oxygen, whilst she resurfaced, took another breath for herself, before diving back under. This time, she focused her attention to the knot which was tying Michael's ands to the other side of the post. She fired the gun at the knot. It got off one shot, fraying the knot slightly, before it stopped working. Cheryl threw it aside and resurfaced to get more air for Michael.

After getting some air for herself, she returned her attention to the knot, yanking and pulling at it until the fraying rope began to give way. She had no idea how long it took. But eventually, the rope broke free. Grabbing the body which was starting to sink, she pulled them both up to the surface and back to the shore.

Just as she couldn't find any more energy, two pairs of strong arms were helping. One set grabbing Michael off her, and pulling him onto the beach, beginning CPR on the unconscious body. The other was pulling her up from the shoulders, and half carrying her, half helping her walk up next to the others.

Cheryl collapsed onto the beach. She couldn't say anything, she was far too exhausted. She was vaguely aware of a blanket being wrapped around her, hearing sirens in the distance, and of the shouting she could hear on the beach. And then she wasn't.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cheryl awoke some hours later, in a bright light. She groaned, and pulled herself into a sitting position, regretting it as she did, because she realized that every muscle was still aching and hurting. 'Hey, welcome back to the land of the living.'

Cheryl ignored the voice and gingerly opened her eyes. She was in hospital, as she suspected. She glanced down her arms, looking for any kind of needle. Somehow, there were none.

'Yeah,' chuckled the voice, 'H came in and told the doctors that unless you were about to die, they weren't supposed to put any needle in you, of any kind. Mentioned something about not needing the extra paper work either.'

Cheryl glanced over at her companion. 'How did I end up sharing a room with you? I thought the hospital had a policy whereby you couldn't share rooms with the opposite sex, or something.'

Eric grinned at her, 'blame H, again.'

'For someone who has been in a car wreck, you're awfully dapper.'

'Dapper?'

'Perky, happy. Far too happy,' she explained.

'Ah, that's because I get some much needed time off.'

'I give it a week, and you'll be bored, asking Horatio to come back to work early.'

Eric smiled, 'nah,' I'm going to spend it relaxing.'

Cheryl shook her head, 'what happened?' She asked, changing the subject.

'Some idiot in a Hummer ran me off the road.'

'No, I mean, with the kidnapping.'

'Oh, I don't really know. Calleigh started to tell me, but she got dragged off by IAB.'

'IAB?'

'Yeah,' said Eric, 'apparently, Calleigh shot you.'

Cheryl looked down at her bandaged shoulder. 'Apparently?'

'Yeah,' repeated Eric, 'apparently. It seems that the bullet was lost at sea. So was the gun. And as they don't have the best underwater recovery diver fully operational, they couldn't find it.'

'Oh, really?'

'But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?'

Cheryl grinned, 'What are you implying?'

Eric grinned back, 'I thought as much.'

'Are we interrupting anything?' Horatio was stood in the doorway with Speed.

'No, we were just discussing the merits of you having temporarily having lost two CSIs.

'Oh, you mean, my diver?' He smiled, 'yes, I can see the merits of that.'

'IAB are still going to want to talk to you.' Said Speed as he sat down next to Cheryl.

Cheryl shrugged. 'I've got nothing to hide. Except perhaps a phone bill, because I think I destroyed my third one, now. It's becoming pretty tiresome.' She sighed, 'so how's Michael?'

'Alive and well, thanks to you. The mayor is going to want to see you soon, to thank you himself.' Horatio told her.

'Oh, so now he thinks I'm capable of doing my job.'

'Hey, H,' said Delko, 'how long am I going to have off?'

'For you,' said Horatio, 'for you, it will be too long.'

'Why is it you all think I don't want this time off?'

'Oh, it seems nice now, but you'll be bored.' Said Speed.

'I will not get bored!'

'You will.' Argued Speed, 'It's in your system to be doing something. That's why you're a CSI. It's why we're all CSIs.'

Cheryl laughed, 'that is so corny.'

'But it's also true,' said Horatio.

'Hey, Eric,' said Cheryl, turning to face him, 'are you sure they're got the right people in here?'

'I'm not sure,' replied Eric, 'because it seems like we weren't the only one who hit our heads.'

Thank you for continuing to read. I'll be posting my next story, hopefully tomorrow - but dont hold me to that! Um, I think I called it Fame. I don't know... I just know I got carried away with writing.

Anyhoos, yeah, make my day - remember, I've been in hospital (sympathy vote, there!) and let me know what you think!