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: I am now in the home stretch for finishing this bad boy... Get ready for the floodgates to open up on the posting once again. :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 43
Sleep was not possible, but he had to admit that Sara was right. Just closing my eyes for a little bit did help clear my mind. When he looked at his watch, he realized that it had been nearly twelve hours since they discovered the source of Stephanie's illness, but she had yet to respond to the change in treatment. Grissom knew they were missing something, but he could not put a finger on it.
As he approached Stephanie's room, he looked into the window and was unable to see Thomas there, for the first time since the young man's arrival. He hoped that Sara or Elizabeth had convinced him to get some rest, but as he pushed open the door to the room that hope died. He found the man on his knees beside her bed and he was clutching at something and whispering to himself. Grissom moved closer to stand behind the man and was in utter shock to discover what he was actually doing.
"In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen… Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen… Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen… Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen." Thomas held tightly to his Rosary as he spoke the ancient prayers through his tortured sobs, and still Grissom was in shock at the act he witnessed.
"In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Am-"
As he began to repeat the sequence of prayers once more, Grissom was finally ripped from his disbelief, and he halted any further progress. "Have you lost your mind?" His voice was more angry than he could ever remember using with another person in a very long time, but the rage he felt at listening to Thomas' sacrificial and futile act had him seething from every pore. "What do you think you're accomplishing with that?"
"Gil, I j-…"
Grissom just shook his head with his continued disbelief. "How can you sit there giving penance for this? Do you think there's something you've done to make this happen? That she might deserve this for some perceived sin? How can you live with those thoughts? How can you follow a god that would do that to his faithful?"
Thomas began to weep as understanding swept over him. "I just-… I didn't know what else to do." He buried his head in the chair where he knelt and was overcome with sobbing.
The older man closed his eyes and tried to shut out his rage, knowing that Thomas was only reverting to a comforting practice. When he opened his eyes once more, he walked over to the younger man and put a hand on his shoulder. "Get up." Without thinking, Thomas rose from his knees and stood upright next to the man commanding him. Grissom immediately wrapped his arms around him, and let the younger man find comfort there. "We have to draw strength from each other, Thomas…" He stopped to take a breath and then added, "I cannot believe in anything that tells me Stephanie deserves this… We just have to look harder for a way to help her."
The sobs began to subside and eventually Thomas found the strength to stand on his own again. "But what are we missing? All the meds are right… The CT came back fine… Her BP has finally stabilized, even if it is still a little high… Pulse Ox is just barely below normal range since they put her on the vent… Temp is down…" Thomas listed off her status points, as though speaking them aloud would help him find the answer.
Grissom chewed on the details that Thomas listed and tried to come to his own conclusions. Before either man could put it all together, they were joined by two other minds. "Why are we spending so much energy on the medicine of the thing?" Both men regarded the older woman with a puzzled expression, and so Elizabeth elaborated further, "Healing is not always about the drugs."
"What are you proposing? Alternative medicine?" Grissom was still confused by the woman's suggestion.
"She's not saying that at all." Sara shook her head at Grissom's difficulty in understanding. "If I'm right, Elizabeth is telling us we need to treat the patient, not the problem."
He mulled that over for a moment before it finally dawned on him. "Exactly!" Thomas, however, was still dumbfounded and so he explained what the women had meant, "She has no reason to wake up… No reason to fight, if we don't show her the way."
Elizabeth smiled, because she knew her friend had finally caught on, "Thomas, how hard is it to wake her when she doesn't want to be awake?"
Understanding came over Thomas in a wave, he had finally gotten the point. "Right."
Grissom looked around the room, and put a hand on Thomas' shoulder. "What do we need to do?"
"Too quiet… She needs her music." Thomas started retracing their lives to come up with his answers. "And the lights… The fluorescent ones give her headaches." He ran the heel of his hand down his jaw as he came up with another suggestion. "And we need to get more people in here…" He pointed at her monitor and said, "I mean, just with us in here talking like this, her BP has come down a little more. She likes having people around sometimes." He shook his head as he tried to come up with something else.
"How does she like to sleep?" Grissom was trying to help the younger man to come up with ideas.
"Well, she hates having cold feet, but she doesn't like being hot." His last response brought a grin to the faces of the others in the room because of the awkward delivery of the information. "What? It's true… Half the time I wake up shivering because she's pulled the covers off me getting 'em bunched up around her feet."
