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 figure a few of you probably have a voodoo doll with lots of pins in it for me, asI've had an aching back all week :P So, this chapter should demonstrate the full extent of my evil side... Enjoy: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 45

The number of people in the room had diminished, but the guest list was still rather large. When Carter left to go back on duty in the ER, he had taken Elizabeth to the doctors' lounge in order to let her lie down for a little while. Greg and Nick had drifted in and out all night, bringing updates to Grissom and Catherine about the cases they working over the course of the shift. Sofia had finally gone home, after Brass had offered to take her, when he left sometime following their midnight rowel with the night nurse.

Thomas never left his spot beside her bed, but Sara had wrapped the fleece throw around his shoulders as he had drifted off to sleep earlier. Stephan was leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up on the edge of the bed's footboard and his hands across his belly. Grissom was stretched out on the spouse's bench they had dragged into the room with Sara nestled under his arm and on his chest. She drifted in and out of sleep, and occasionally sat up to check in on "the boys" (as she had been referring to men assembled there most of the night).

Warrick was sitting up in the chair by the door, but he was kept from changing his position or moving in any meaningful measure by the way Catherine was wound tightly around his right arm and had rested her head upon his shoulder from the chair next to him. She was dead asleep, and he was not willing to disturb her slumber by doing anything as trivial as restoring circulation to his limbs until she woke up again.

The men had already exhausted their baseball repertoires, since none of them still had a team in the pennant race. So, they had reverted back to the age old practice of telling tall tales. Grissom had gotten the ball rolling by regaling them with his recounting of Stephanie's first baseball game, which included her informing him that no human being should ever be allowed to consume something as disgusting as a hot dog (to which Sara had agreed, wholeheartedly). That led to Thomas telling them about her first visit to his bachelor pad when they started dating, and why it was also her only visit. When he finished his tale of the kitchen from hell and the bathroom of doom, he remembered a story he had heard before, and asked Stephan about his side of the tale. "Hey, Stephan… I've heard an interesting version of your first meeting with Stephanie… How much of it was true?"

Stephan chuffed at the question, "More than probably I wish it was, I'm sure. A day I'm likely to never forget."

Grissom shifted when Sara nuzzled in closer to him, and then sighed as she settled down again. He patted her arm and moved a lock of hair away from her face when he spoke, "I'd be interested to hear that story, myself… I am quite certain I've only heard the white-washed version of that one."

Stephan chuckled with Grissom's request, and so he complied as he continued rocking back and forth on the two legs of his chair. "Well, it was the first week of the semester, and I had seen this girl go into the library. She was very attractive, and I had just gotten out of the Army (and therefore cocky as all hell), so I figured I'd give it my best shot. Turned out she was one of the librarians, and we all know the stereotype there." He paused long enough to get a few nods around the room. "I had probably spent like thirty minutes putting all my best moves on this babe." Thomas shook his head at the man's description. "I was striking out on every pitch, and then I feel this shadow fall over the place and find this Amazon chick standing next to me and she gives me this weird look. I was still trying to figure out what was going on, when she starts talking to this librarian I'm trying to score points with. Before I knew what was happening, this librarian chick is fawning all over the Amazon chick. I was just about to walk away from the whole thing, but even I had to admit it was, you know, kind of hot." Stephan put his hands behind his head with that thought and rocked a little deeper on the chair.

Warrick was unable to contain his laughter, but it only pushed the man forward to finish telling them the story. "So, the librarian walks away and the Amazon nudges me and says, 'Sorry, man… But it was just too painful watching you try to make time with a woman far more interested in what I got between my legs than what you do.' I nearly hit the floor laughing when she said that… Got us both thrown out of the library, but not before the librarian slipped her a phone number."

With everyone laughing at Stephan's story, no one noticed the extra movement in the room. Sara had stirred from her sleep and looked around the room at the men as they tried, in vain, to laugh quietly, however something caught her attention. Over by Thomas, she saw something move and she sat up on the bench and focused more closely on the movement. Grissom stifled his laughter when he felt her rise away from him. "Sara, what is it?"

She wrinkled up her nose and squinted. "This stuff is still new to me, but I think it was something about the child scoring more than the something hero."

Grissom shook his head and chuckled at her state of grogginess, "Go back to sleep… I think you're dreaming."

Sara pushed away from him and stood up to stretch, "You're the expert… Why don't you tell me?"

Grissom looked up into her face and asked, "Tell you what?"

Sara shrugged at him, "Whatever it was Steph was signing." She pointed over at the bed where Stephanie was moving her hands in a very deliberate manner. "Okay, that one I got. And there's no way I'm repeating it." Grissom and Thomas were instantly to their feet as Stephan nearly fell backwards onto the floor from his precarious position, but was caught by a still semi-groggy Sara. Warrick quickly, but gently worked to rouse Catherine.

Stephanie was still moving her hands, slowly, but with great care and purpose. The others crowded around the bed and Grissom kept shaking his head. But not with disbelief, he was trying to make out what she was attempting to tell them. He was having trouble seeing everything her hands were doing and so he asked Stephan, "Flip on the lights. I can't see what she's saying."

The younger man immediately complied with the request, and once the lights flashed on, they all had to squint away the pain from the sudden brightness. At first, Stephanie's eyes were closed, but her hands continued moving in very specific patterns. Grissom finally understood and began to nod. "Okay, it's okay… We already got that… Al and Nick found your notes." He kept nodding, but his face began to take on another quality, one of confusion, "Wait, what was that last part?" She moved her hands in the same pattern again at his request. "Right… Same family as Redwood… Antihistamines, steroids and vasodialators." His face contorted into another question as he struggled to understand what she was signing to him. "Wait… No Steph… I'm the wrong kind of doctor for this conversation." He watched as she used extremely deliberate hand gestures. "Oh right, translate for Thomas." He waited for her to ask with her hands the questions she had and then he spoke them to Thomas. "She wants to know if they gave her any…" He paused and then shook his head, showing that he was not understanding her. She began to use her fingers to spell out what she was trying to say, "Oh! Any diuretics… to reduce the fluid volume."

"Not at first, because we were worried about too much strain on the circulatory system after the epi." Thomas shook his head and looked pleadingly into her eyes when he saw the fear there, "Until they knew what the source was, it was the only way they could keep you from crashing."

She waited for a couple of breaths to cycle through the ventilator before she continued to speak with her hands again. Grissom watched as she manipulated her hands and fingers into the proper signs as she communicated to him her questions. "Um, she wants to know what… An-ti-bio-tic… What antibiotic they have her on."

Thomas shook his head and shrugged, "Ah, none… Why?"

"She says that she tore her…" Grissom shook his head and gestured that he could not understand what she was trying to say. "Stephie, I'm not getting it… Wait… What was that?" She began to spell out exactly what she was trying to relay, but it took a great deal longer. "Oh! She says she knows she tore the lining in her throat, but she thinks it might have gone deeper. She's afraid of a… an infection… because she's… very allergic… to that family of… of ferns… And all… the mucus… could get… create an infection." Grissom looked to Thomas for confirmation that he understood, but what he found was Carter standing in the doorway.

"Well, now it looks ta me like I'm being replaced 'round chere." Carter walked up to the bedside, with Warrick and Catherine having moved back to let him get in closer. Everyone in the room was finally hit with the enormity of Stephanie's revival, and the emotion was showing on each and every face. Stephanie began to sign something else, but Carter cut her off. "I figured as much… Now that she's awake, we'll never get a moment's peace until she bullies her way into a discharge." The man smiled through his jibe, as did the others in the room.

Before Carter could say another word or do anything, Stephanie signed something else to him. However, unlike everything she had previously signed, that final gesture needed no interpretation. And to signify that, the whole room began to roar with laughter: laughter and intense relief.