a/n: I want to thank everyone for reviewing, I don't write for the reviews but they do motivate one. As always thanks to willowaus for the beta read. Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Distractions & Complications

"I guess that cat is out of the bag," Greg said bluntly as the team watched Grissom kiss Sara gently.

Catherine couldn't decide if she was stunned that her friend finally gave in to his suppressed feelings or relieved that she no longer had to run interference between the two.

Warrick laughed under his breath, and Nick smacked the younger man's chest.

Greg looked over in response. "What? I totally saw that coming," he explained.

"Sure Greg," Nick returned.

"No. I figured it out. The electronic nose…and the rock climbing…" he trailed off, seeing the disbelief on the faces of his colleagues. Looking back to the pair in question he watched their interaction. "I figured it out before the rest of you," he said under his breath. "Scope and freesia."

--/--

Sara desperately wanted to change positions. She was pinned in a semi-prone configuration, and her right arm was starting to tingle. Testing her surroundings, she pushed up slightly. A moan of pain she was unable to suppress escaped her.

"Stop! Stop, everyone stop!" Grissom shouted.

The crew around them all froze in their spots. Matt looked at the older man with concern and confusion. "We haven't started yet," he explained, moving toward the pair. "What happened?" he asked kneeling next to Sara.

Still trying to recover from the sudden stab of pain, Sara was unable to make out any of the voices she around her. It sounded like she was underwater.

"Talk to me Sara. No one's moved anything yet," Mackenzie demanded gently.

She blinked rapidly, finally able to focus, but finding herself confused, "What?"

Grissom looked with concern from Matt to Sara. "Sara, what just happened? You cried out in pain," he told her, his concern for her growing.

Craning her neck, she looked around her. Several firefighters were standing around her, she saw a flash of blonde hair and knew Catherine was close by, the other blurry figures next to her had to be the rest of the night shift CSIs, and finally feeling a soft touch on her cheek she scanned her focus past Matt to Grissom. "I…my, um, my arm. It fell asleep. I tried to move," she explained slightly embarrassed.

"Where's that surgeon?" Mackenzie yelled.

Slightly annoyed, Sara exhaled softly. "I don't need a surgeon, I just moved wrong," she protested, but realized no one was listening to her.

"Find the doctor or the paramedics!" Grissom yelled after seeing Catherine.

"Griss, I'm ok now, I won't move again. I promise," she attempted again, but was interrupted by a young petite blond.

"I'm Dr. Allison Roarke," she introduced herself, looking down at her patient. "You need me?"

A choir of yes's drown out the one dissenting opinion.

"She's pinned by something, and before they could begin freeing her, she felt some pain," Grissom explained again.

The doctor surveyed the pile of debris still trapping Sara.

"It's her left hip," Matt supplied helpfully, missing the dirty look.

"I don't need a surgeon," Sara told the doctor. "I need less holes in my body not more."

Offering a polite smile at the joke, the physician continued her preliminary exam snapping on a pair of latex gloves. "I'm just going to see if I can feel what you're caught on. If there's pain let me know," she explained slipping her hand carefully down Sara's side.

"Gah!" Sara exclaimed loudly.

"Pain?" Grissom asked squeezing her hand.

"Pain, yes. There's pain," she said in frustration. "In my ass and my arm! My arm fell asleep."

Smiling finally, Gil looked up briefly. "And the pain in your ass is…"

"You!" Sara finished for him.

"Ah," he offered her his best 'I see' expression.

"Yes, 'ah'. Now can you all please get back to getting me out of here," she demanded.

"No," Dr. Roarke told her, as she slipped her hand out from the rubble revealing a blood soaked glove.

"Sara," Grissom breathed out.

Fear suddenly hit her. She knew her hip was hurt, but she wasn't ready to admit it was serious until she saw the blood. "I didn't think…" she started to explain but didn't know what else to say.

"How bad?" Matt asked.

"It feels like there's a 3 cm diameter piece of metal logged in her anterior pelvic bone. I'm concerned that it may be close to her external iliac artery," she explained seriously. "The metal feels like it's attached to this beam," she continued pointing to the prominent piece of wood.

"Ok I understand about half of that," Matt told her, "And it sounds bad."

"We need to get her out of here, and in an OR, but you have to be very careful with the extraction. That metal can't move a millimeter or she may bleed out," the doctor warned.

Grissom stopped listening and looked down at the woman he loved. She was staring at him, clearly afraid. Realizing she needed him more than he needed to be part of her rescue, he attempted to get lower to be closer to her. "No more moving Sidle. You're gonna need to suck up that pain in your arm," he told her lightly.

"Yeah," she agreed.

--/--

Nick looked on with concern. They had been holding their collective breath the moment Grissom yelled for medical help.

They had all seen the blood on the doctor's hand, and now the area was alive with activity. One of the rescue crew ran past them with a hand saw.

"Nick?" Greg asked with a slight tremor in his voice.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, he nodded, "It's going to be okay Greggo."

The sound of the saw's motor assaulted their ears.

Catherine looked toward the one person she always looked to for impartiality and detachment at a crime scene. He was currently appeared anything but impartial and detached, and the blonde was suddenly extremely concerned about her boss.

--/--

"You're doing great Sara. They're almost done," Grissom offered encouragement.

"Grissom, I'm not doing anything, I'm just lying here, and I'm not four," she told him, and jerked slightly when a sudden noise started behind her. She tried to look at what they were doing, but was stopped by Grissom's words.

"Sara, just focus on me," he begged.

"Ok, but actually talk to me like you know me. I'm not a victim," her words held no animosity.

It was a request Grissom understood. "It looks like you're going to cancel the rock climbing trip this time," he teased her. Glancing up, he saw Mackenzie stabilizing the beam before they began cutting it. He nodded in approval toward the man, and felt slightly relieved that he was the one making sure it didn't move. Whatever jealousy he originally felt had disappeared without his knowledge, and was glad there was an individual on the team that seemed to care deeply for Sara.

"It's ok. I just wanted an excuse to look at your ass," she told him.

Smiling he brought her hand up to his mouth to kiss it. "I didn't know that was a perk of the sport."

She was about to answer when her hand tightened in his.

"What? What is it?" he asked looking at her and then up to the surgeon, who was lying on her stomach watching the shrapnel.

"It hasn't moved as far as I can tell," she returned, and placed her hand near Sara's hip.

Sara was silent, her eyes squeezed tight, trying to focus on anything but the horrible sound of the hand saw.

"It's the vibration, she can feel the vibration of the saw through the metal and wood," Dr. Roarke finally concluded. She was clearly unsure if the problem was one she should be concerned with. Glancing up she noted the left side of the beam was almost detached.

A spark of anger flared within Grissom. He had no idea who it was directed toward. She had survived an abusive father, an unstable mother, countless foster homes, a lab explosion, a house collapsing in on her, and now it appeared as if a 3 cm piece of metal was going to stump the rescue workers.

"Why did I study bugs?" he asked himself quietly wishing he had chosen explosive search and rescue and carpentry. He would have gladly given everything he considered successful in his life if he just knew the answer to this one situation.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, think of the bugs, they didn't have a choice," Sara's voice answered his rhetorical question.

"Are you ok?" he asked ignoring her humor, relieved she was talking again.

Nodding slightly, she took a shallow breath. "It was vibrating my entire bone. It felt strange. Like when you hit your funny bone."

"Only throughout your entire body?" he asked trying to take her lead on the humor, hoping to keep her mind off of everything but him.

"Exactly," she supplied.

"It's almost there!" Matt yelled.

Grissom watched the care everyone took at making sure nothing moved once the saw broke through the opposite side of the beam. He almost wanted to look away, expecting someone to get their hand cut or worse. They were all confident in their colleague's ability to know where everyone was.

In a very anticlimactic moment the saw stopped, and the wood was lifted easily out of sight.

Dr. Roarke stood, and stepped over Sara to get a better look at the situation. Her expression was grim. "We need to remove it completely from the wood," she explained.

"We have a blow torch," a voice supplied.

"How quickly can you melt through it? It's going to heat up the entire thing," she asked.

Sara shivered slightly at the thought.

Grissom quickly shifted so he was lying on his chest, and eye level with her. Matching her posture, he rested his head on his hand shielding his skin from the sharp debris.

"You cut your hand," she observed the blood, now dried, on his hand.

"Yeah, I started digging without gloves," he explained.

She nodded understanding the panic she would have felt if their roles had been reversed. "How's your head?" she asked, her eyes remaining locked on his.

"I'm ok Sara," he told her.

Silenced descended on the pair for a moment.

"You want to give up bugs," she finally asked.

"No I want to keep you," he confessed honestly. "I want to have the knowledge needed to save you."

A small grunt escaped her lips, and she started to look down to where the pain emanating, but Grissom stopped her. "Keep your eyes on me, this is going to be over soon," he told her.

"When did you get so positive Grissom?" she asked, with a small smile.

He returned her smile. "Since I fell in love with you," he told her, his voice carrying the emotional truth.

Her brow creased with pain. "It's hot," she told him.

"They're almost done," he promised again.

"Got it!" someone shouted as Sara felt a weight suddenly leave her.

"Ok, get that stretcher over here, no one move her," the doctor ordered confidently.

Activity continued around them, but Grissom refused to let her think about what was going on. "You're about to get a free vacation," he announced.

"Hmm, to beautiful Desert Springs Hospital. I'm not staying there," she told him.

"Let's argue about that once they've removed all foreign objects from your body," he explained.

"Deal," was her only answer before she felt people working on her.

Grissom finally stole a glance behind him, and was shocked to see the large amount of blood that had pooled beneath her. The paramedics were securing rolled towel along the length of her legs, and were tying them together so they would move as one unit, and not dislodge the twisted metal that was screaming at him.

Sara saw the terror flash over his face, and knew it was bad. "Grissom?" she asked quietly.

Looking back, he regretted looking away. She had sensed his concern. "It's ok. I was just upset that you ripped these pants. They cost me a lot of money," he told her.

"I told you, you have to pay for quality," she explained.

"No I didn't," he told her and leaned over to kiss her again. After he pulled away, he saw the backboard being placed behind her, and a c-collar moving toward her neck. "I'm going to get out of the way, but I'll be close," he promised, stood, and moved back a foot, allowing the paramedics just enough room to work.

Sensing he wasn't alone, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the rest of his team behind him. "Hey guys, she's going to be ok," he explained.

"There's a lot of blood," Greg noted, his eyes had been drawn to the pool of red.

They all heard a small moan laced with pain, and were drawn to Sara, as they rolled her onto the back board. Once she was strapped in, they quickly lifted her onto the stretcher.

"Pulse is thready, she's in hypovoleamic shock," one of the EMTs said.

Grissom looked toward Dr. Roarke, and followed her as the group pushed past him, "Doctor?"

"We need to stop the bleeding. She needs blood and fluids, both of which I can give in the ambulance on the way to Desert Springs," she informed him before jumping into the rescue squad. "I'm sorry but there's no room for you in here. We need to work. Meet us there," the doors closed before Gil could respond.

He was forced to watch the rig drive off, and he wondered if he was ever going to hold Sara again. "I need to go…I need a ride," he mumbled unable to remember where his vehicle was, or how to get to the hospital.

"Come on. We're all heading that way," Nick explained motioning his boss toward their SUVs.

TBC…