DISCLAIMER:Don't own it... No money made... Just for fun and enjoyment.
SUMMARY: Sequel to Displacement. The CSI team and their recently hired coroner Stephanie are back to work solving cases, sharing companionship and generally making their way through the dire world of criminal investigation with humor and friendship... This one will show the development of the relationship between Grissom and Sara and there should be some other surprises down the road as well. Romance/Drama/Angst/Mature Situations
RATING: M for Mature - I'm starting this one out at "M", since we won't be waiting quite so long for the smut this time out ;) Also, there is a sprinkling of language throughout the story.
A/N: Okay... I'm not being quite so vague with the subplot in this chapter :D
REVIEWS: I am always looking for ways to improve my writing, and your reviews let me know if I am hitting my mark. Thank you in advance for the time you take to read & review this story.
Chapter 42
She needed some air and some space. After nearly twelve hours cooped up in that family room with everyone, Catherine needed something else. What she really needed was a good stiff drink, but she did not think her system would even be able to handle it anymore. She had been through an emotional wringer over the last twenty four hours, and she was not sure she could deal anything else. She could not bear to look at the pain in the faces of those people in the family room any longer, so she had to get out there.
As she stood on the roof of the hospital building, her arms were wrapped around her tightly as the evening breezes started to blow. Her mind kept going back to the pained and broken face of Thomas, as he sat at Stephanie's bedside. He looked so lost, with his hand beside hers on the bed. Catherine had watched him from the other side of the glass, as he waited. They had been waiting for more than eight hours to see any improvement to her condition, but the only thing they had gained from the change in treatment was to have successfully removed her from the epinephrine, which surely would have killed her.
Technically, she was stabilized, but she was still reacting to the agent, and they still had to treat her with the steroids and the other drugs to keep her stable. The longer she was on the medications, the worse her chances for recovery became. Catherine shivered with that thought, and she could not shake the dread which had been threatening to overtake her all day.
She was running on pure fear and caffeine by that time. It was after six o'clock in the evening and she had been up since some time in the afternoon the day before. She had spent the day with her daughter, and in that moment, standing atop the hospital, she was eternally grateful for the gifts she had been given. She was not sure she would have exhibited the same grace under pressure Stephanie's mother had shown down in the family room. Catherine was quite certain she would have been falling apart if anything like that ever happened to Lindsey.
The shivers had suddenly returned, and before she knew it, she lost her tightly held grip on her emotions and the shivers quickly turned into wracked sobs. Her hands went to the ledge of the building as she tried to brace herself from the complete collapse of her façade. And just as she began to lose her ability to stand, she felt another pair of arms as they wrapped themselves around her, holding her up from falling to her knees. At any other time, she would have fought the implication that she was not capable of standing on her own two feet, but after everything she had been through that day, she needed any support she could get.
After a while, she was able to comprehend that she did not actually know to whom those arms belonged. Before she could gather her wits together well enough to form a question, the person belonging to the arms spoke, "I brought your jacket… Do you want it now?" She nodded at Warrick's question, and he removed his arms from around her. He pulled back and then she felt her jacket being held behind her. She looked back, but kept her gaze low, and put her arms into the sleeves. He pulled it up onto her shoulders and wrapped her up. When he was done, he rested his hands on her shoulders and spoke again, "Better?" She nodded, almost afraid to speak. "I had a feeling you were out here."
"Why?" Her voice sounded timid in her own ears.
He squeezed her shoulders a little tighter as he answered, "You always get a little claustrophobic when things get too intense." She shivered again, hearing his words, and he rubbed his hands up and down her arms as he tried to warm her up. "Still cold?"
"No, not really… Just thinking." He removed his hands from her arms and moved to stand beside her at the ledge. She watched as he blew out a sharp breath, and then leaned down onto the ledge with his elbows. "How're you holding up?"
He sighed and she watched his shoulders sink with the effort. "I was doin' okay until I got a look at Thomas in that room with her… It was just too much."
Without thinking, Catherine put a hand in the center of Warrick's back. "As hard as this is for us… I can't even imagine what he's going through right now."
She felt him tense before the next words left his mouth, "It's my fault." She did not know why, but she picked her hand up and held it in the air a moment, watching him exhale sharply. "I never should have left her last night."
Catherine put her hand on his shoulder that time and squeezed, "You couldn't have known what was going to happen. This isn't something you ca-…"
"I knew something was wrong." His head shook with his frustration. "I could have done…something." It was her turn to offer comfort to him. She could tell he had been bearing that burden since they discovered the girl on the floor of the morgue.
Catherine reached her arms around his back and leaned down to hold onto his shoulders. "Warrick, that's not doing anyone any good… Even if you had tried, do you really think she would have let you?" If there was one thing she knew about the young woman in that hospital bed, it was that she would not do anything she did not want to do. No matter what he might have thought, there was no way Warrick would have been able to tear Stephanie away from her work.
The man lowered his head in defeat and said, "But I didn't even try, Cath… How can I feel good about that?"
She laid her head down on his shoulder and said, "Nothing about this feels good, Warrick… We just have to pray it all works out."
"Yeah…" He exhaled sharply once more and then stood up slowly from the wall. "Well, I better get back down there…" He turned towards the door and then looked back at her. "You comin'?"
Catherine drew in a deep breath, held it, bit down on her lower lip and expelled the breath in a rush. "Yeah… I'm ready now."
