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Chapter 3: The Aftermath

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The next hour was a blur as the scene bustled with activity. People rushed around trying to look like they weren't completely incompetent, no one wanting to take responsibility for leaving a colleague there to die. Brandon, the new assistant coroner, was getting a good verbal smack in the face from Brass, who could probably be heard a mile away. Police officers scurried here and there trying everything in their power to get any information they could to help the case. Catherine tried to bring Grissom to his senses, but he refused to leave Sara's side, even when the paramedics braved this side of the crime tape to bring her to the ambulance.

After two hours of agonizing worry, Grissom now sat in the waiting room of Desert Palm Hospital, desperate to hear any news of Sara's condition. Catherine sat beside him, partly awaiting her chance to collect any evidence relevant to the case, but mostly just to be sure that Grissom didn't self-destruct. It wasn't too long before Brass was at their side, clearly worn out from the exhausting efforts of restoring the scene to some kind of order.

"Well," he sighed as he dropped into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, "the scene has been cleared once more, the dumbass coroner has been reprimanded, and the boys have been sworn to secrecy as to the identity of our victim under threat of early retirement and/or castration by Catherine."

"Who's going to work the scene?" Grissom asked. "We need to get everything we can from there as soon as possible…"

"Hey, give me a little credit! I did run CSI for a while, you know," Brass defended himself. "I got Nick and Warrick over there. Their cases were transferred to swing shift, and don't worry, they won't know anything about Sara."

"Good," said Catherine. "They don't need to know. She'll be under enough stress as it is."

At that moment, the doctor walked toward them, a clipboard in his hands.

"Mr. Grissom?"

Grissom's head snapped up, and seeing the doctor standing there, he rose to meet him. "How is she?"

"As you know, Ms. Sidle suffered two deep stab wounds to the back. Unfortunately, her lung was punctured, and by the time she arrived here, it had almost collapsed. She was lucky you got her here when you did… We were able to stop the internal bleeding, but we're not going to be able to repair her kneecap. It was shattered from the gunshot… The best we can do is to replace it with a plastic model or put in a steel plate. Either way, she'll be in a wheelchair until we figure out what would be best."

Grissom hung his head. If only he hadn't pushed her to take the time off… How could it have come to this? Who would do such a thing? Of course, that was something that Sara frequently asked herself, he knew. But suddenly, he was brought out of his thoughts as he realized that the doctor wasn't quite finished.

"We went ahead and did a rape kit…"

'Oh no,' he pleaded silently. 'God, please no.'

"… and unfortunately, it came back positive. I can't tell you much, but there was severe bruising. If I had to guess, there was probably object rape, though there was seminal fluid in the mount as well. A swab was taken and is waiting for you in the kit."

Catherine looked at Grissom as he seemed to collapse into himself. She could see him close off to the rest of the world, entering into his own universe of guilt and feigned indifference. Looking at the doctor, she thanked him for all his help.

"Can we go in to see her?"

The doctor nodded. "She's unconscious at the moment, but I don't see why not. If you'll excuse me…" With that, he turned to attend to another patient.

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As the door opened, the lonely familiar music of a hospital room filled their ears. A heart monitor sang its lonely song in one corner while an IV drip plodded out a rhythm. Catherine and Grissom even added their own harmonies when they saw the respirator hooked up to their silent and disheveled friend.

Grissom immediately found the chair beside the bed and collapsed in it. Looking up at Sara, he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, as he had at the scene, and held it there as he began to weep.

Catherine could see the toll this was taking on his conscience. Walking over to him, she set a hand on his shoulder. "Gil, look… I know how much it hurts, but it's not your fault. You-"

"You're the primary on this case," he interrupted her. "I'm staying here."

She stared at the defeated man before her. She looked to Brass, but he simply shrugged from his place by the door. Not thinking of anything else to say, she sighed. "All right. I'll get the kit and anything else from the doc after I scrape her fingers."

She came toward Sara's bed, but he stopped her.

"I'll do it."

But as he reached for the tools from Catherine's kit, there was a creak from the bed as Sara tried to readjust herself. The heart monitor's song quickened its pace. Grissom's head snapped up, his eyes wide with concern and hope.

"Sara?" He held her hand as she moaned. "Sara? Can you hear me?"

Without warning, she sat straight up in the bed, her breathing labored and her eyes wide with fear as she looked around the room wildly in a panic. The heart monitor beeped in a wild rhythm, threatening to deafen those in the small room. Brass came forward, and Catherine joined Grissom at her side, putting a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"Sara, it's just us…"

She jumped at the touch, jerking away in terror before turning to face her colleagues. After a moment, she began to realize who exactly was beside her, and her panic began to subside, dissolving instead into sheer relief and despair. She leaned forward and pulled Grissom into a hug, sobbing into his chest.

"Shhh, mo múirnín, shhh." He held her gently, stroking herhair in an attempt to let her feel comforted without overbearing her. She held tight to him, finding relief and safety in his arms. Soon, without letting go of him, one of her hands found Catherine's and squeezed tight in a gesture of thanks. Each of her visitors looked at the other, realizing just how hard a blow this ordeal had been.

When she was finished, Sara sat up and sheepishly looked at her colleagues, self-consciously swiping at the wetness on her face. "How long have I been here?" she asked.

"A few hours," answered Catherine, dragging another chair toward the bed from the other side of the room and sitting. "We were worried about you…"

"Do the others know?" Sara continued, as if she hadn't heard her.

"I secured the scene, and I've got Nick and Warrick working it right now, but they don't know," Brass assured her.

"Greg?"

"No, no one else knows. Th-The police at the scene were sworn to secrecy," Catherine stumbled. "Sara, what happened?"

She looked at her hands. "Please don't tell them… It would kill them to see me like this…"

Grissom sighed. It was apparent that she wasn't going to say anything with all these people in the room; she was embarrassed enough as it was. Looking at the others, he nodded to the door, silently asking them to leave. Brass and Catherine looked at each other, and then nodded to Grissom. Making their excuses and wishing Sara well, they walked to the door and left.

Grissom took her hand again. "Sara, what happened?"

Her only response was to blink away a tear.

He squeezed her hand. "Why won't you talk to me?" he pleaded.

She turned to him, fear in her eyes and exasperation in her voice. "He warned me what would happen if I told anyone... I ran, and look what happened. After that, I tend to believe him."

"But you want him to get caught, don't you? We can put him away, Sara, so he can't hurt anyone else. You know that..." He realized that he was pushing the envelope, but justice was the only thing that would fully heal Sara Sidle, and he knew it.

She took a deep breath, determined to get over this and push it down with the rest of her past. But when she saw the concern in his usually unreadable eyes, her heart melted a bit. Taking strength from his touch, she sighed.

"The last case was hard on everyone, and, well… when I left CSI, Ineeded some time just to regroup. I was sitting at the diner that we go to for breakfasts, and ran into someone I knew in high school." As she spoke, Grissom could hear her breathing quicken. She was getting nervous. "I didn't like him then, and I didn't like the look of him now either, so I told him I had to go… but he followed me. Later, we were in this warehouse or something. I was tied to a bed, and-" Her voice cracked as she tried to collect herself enough to continue. "And he… he…"

He stroked his thumb over her skin. "It's alright, múirnín. You don't have to say anything else."

She brushed at the unbidden tears that came, and stared at him for a moment. When she felt that she could talk without shaking again, she asked him, "What does that word mean? You've used it before…"

He was caught off guard. "Oh… I hadn't realized… It's Irish Gaelic. It means... 'my darling one'."

"You speak Irish Gaelic? Since when?"

"Since college. Everyone else was taking Spanish or French, and I wanted to study something different, something unique."

She smiled a bit. "You mean other than bugs?"

Before he could defend himself, Grissom was paged. It was Catherine. "I need to go… The lab needs me." He got up from his spot and picked up his kit, ready to leave, but she stopped him.

"Grissom? Aren't you forgetting something?"

He spun around. "What?"

"My fingernails…"

Setting down his kit, he pulled out a bindle and a scraping tool. Taking the chair by the bed once more, he gently scraped her fingernails for epithelials and any other evidence. Smiling as he put the tools away, he found the labels and the evidence tape and finished his work. Saying a soft goodbye and promising he'd be back soon to visit, he walked to the door and closed it behind him.

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A/N: Okay, okay, stop yelling! I'm sorry it took so long to update! You wouldn't believe all the childishness that goes on in a college... But I finally finished Chapter 3. I hope it's not too dry... While I know that it's improbable that Sara would be scared into silence, I tried not to leave her completely out of character. I wanted the effect to be known. As I've said before, Sara's a strong woman, but she's not invincible, as much as she'd argue to the contrary. If it rattles her, then you know it's gotta be something important.

Gryffindor-Wannabe16 - Thank you so much for your kind words. It's great to know that I'm not straying too far from the show... I wouldn't want to kill any reality that my fic may have.

Mochaccino Love - It is an honor to know that you approve of my work. I so very much loved reading yours. Keep up the good work, and please know that I'm glad you found me too.

Wiccamage - The teaser is a tool. After the first chapter, I relaized that I had nothing to keep my readers coming back. There was no cliffhanger... so I tagged on a teaser. Looks like it did the trick! After I posted the first chapter though, it seemed kinda lacking if I didn't put another for the second, and so a tradition was born! For this story, at least.

Thanks again, guys. Your comments mean the world to me! On that note, PLEASE REVIEW! It's good to know what I'm doing right, and what I need to fix... It keeps me sane in an otherwise insane world!

Teaser: "What the hell is goin on, Cath? There's at least four of us working this case, so it's gotta be big, and yet here we are pushing papers and collecting evidence with no idea of what we're looking for!"

"Warrick, I-"

"No, you know what?" Nick interrupted. "It's alright. Here, we ran all your evidence for you... Oh, but don't worry, I didn't put it in CODIS, so I still don't know anything." With that, both he and Warrick stormed out of the layout room and toward the break room, leaving Catherine in a state of divided loyalty...