Chapter 12

Sara was extremely quite over dinner. The men carried the conversation on subjects like baseball, horses and of course bugs. Sara was feeling poorly but she didn't let on. After dinner was over, she excused herself to her room to rest. Everyone noticed the way Sara slowly made her way to the stairs, and then disappeared. She had her good days and bad. When the dishes were done, Jared said he was going upstairs to check on her. When he reached her doorway he saw she wasn't in her bed.

"Mom?" he said. 'Mom, where are you?"

Jared peered into the bath, and to his horror he saw her lying on the floor. "Griss…I mean ..Dad, Uncle Jim, come here, quick!" he exclaimed.

Grissom and Brass looked at each other and broke for the stairs. Grissom's heart was pounding. Flashes of words, no…not now..she can't go..not now. Both men ran furiously up the stairs and into the bathroom. They saw Jared standing over his mother with a panicked look in his eyes.

Brass dropped to his knees, he placed his hand on her forehead. "Get her medication Jared, out of the nightstand, quick."

"What is it Jim?" Grissom said as he knelt next to her.

Brass turned to Jared and took the bottle of pills from his hand. Grissom moved under her shoulders to hold Sara's head upright.

"Sara…pill…swallow", Brass coaxed her eyes open.

"Come on Mom, swallow." Jared urged.

Sara leaned into the cup of water and swallowed the pill that was offered to her. She gazed up at Grissom with endearing eyes. More pain for him, she thought. Will this send him over the edge? Sara tried to push that thought out of her mind. Grissom and Brass gently picked her up from the floor and laid her across her bed. Jared eased in beside his mother and stroked her hair. "It's ok mom, it's ok". Sara peered over to her son, "I know babe, your father is here now, it's all going to be ok…", and Sara drifted off to sleep.

Brass slipped out of the room with a quite "goodnight" to the father and son team. Jared looked at his father and slowly began to tell….the story.

"Mom was working with a mare that was havin a baby. She reached behind her to scoop up some straw to sit on. I heard her yell "ouch" and look at her hand…. We saw a brown spider run away. We didn't know what kind it was. I ran to get the bactine…you know, the stuff that doesn't sting? Anyway…. a couple hours later she got real sick. I called Mrs. Saulter down the road and she came up to take her to the doctor.Mom got a shot….the kind you get in the butt. Anyway….she's been getting sicker since then. She told me that it was something about the red blood seals (Grissom assumed he meant cells) she has swimming in her body."

Grissom was able to convert his son's dissertation to a toxin, Sphingomyelinase D which causes hemolysis, the breakdown of red blood cells. However, Loxosceles arizonica, ( Arizona brown spider) bites have been well reviewed and very rarely are systemic he thought. He would have to get more information from Sara in the morning.

"Where did you say she was when the spider bit her?" Grissom inquired.

"In the barn, that same stall that the pregnant mare is at now…why…are we going to go try and catch it?" Jared's eyes squinted just as his father's does, and a smile leaked out.

Grissom squinted back, "we probably won't find that exact spider, but if we can find one like it, I bet I can help your Mom. Run and get a jar….son".