Heres the next chap. sorry it took so long, but i decided to write the rest of the story (except for the ending) before i continued. Read and Review!

Nothing is mine, as always


When he woke up, he found himself in his bed, at his townhouse, which was normal. What was not normal was the dead feeling inside of him, nor the fact that he was still in his clothes from the day before. He dragged himself out of bed, took some medicine for a migraine he knew was on the way, and had a shower. Half an hour later, he was walking out the door, when he walked into…Sara? "What are you doing here?" he asked in bewilderment.

"I came to see if you were okay"

"Aren't you meant to be at the hospital?"

"No, why would I be there? Grissom…are you okay?"

"Sara, you're meant to be…"

"Whoa there! Did you just call me Sara?" Gil shook his head, and saw not Sara standing in front of him but…

"Grissom, I think you're a bit confused" Catherine said in a soothing voice. "Lets go and sit down inside" She then steered him firmly into the house and sat him down on the couch.

"Catherine, I thought you were Sara. I'm really sorr…"

"I figured" came the dry retort, cutting him off.

"How did I get back here last night?"

"Don't you remember?" Grissom shook his head "Oh! Well, you just sat there in shock and we figured that the best place for you was at home, so I drove you back and brought you inside. You went straight to bed and I left"

"How's Sara?"

"Grissom" Catherine said in a soft voice "She's…not doing very well"

"Is she going to be okay?" Came the slightly desperate question. Catherine sighed to herself before answering.

"They're not sure. They need to wait for her to stabilise before they can say" Grissom groaned inwardly to himself, and slumped forward in his seat.

"Catherine, this is my fault. If I hadn't left her…what happened to her?" Came the suddenly sharp question. Catherine sighed again.

"We don't know. Best we can guess is the perp came back to clean up the scene, and Sara was still there, so he attacked her. We figure there was probably a struggle, and that's how she ended up coming through the window. By the time Brass got there, the ambulance was already getting her sorted."

"How come Jim didn't call me" Grissom asked with a frown.

"I think he tried. He paged you too. You were probably already on the way back to the scene when he phoned though, you only arrived five minutes after he did. He called me too, and by the time I got there you were standing at the door of the ambulance. The ambulance left only a few minutes after us. It couldn't leave straight away because they had to stabilise her condition a bit before they could move her. She was unconscious. Still is I think."

"I don't remember"

"You were in shock I think. Come on, have a coffee, and then we can go to the hospital together. That's where you were headed right?" Grissom nodded again in response.

"Okay, well drink up, and then we'll go." Unable to utter a single word, he just grunted. Catherine took that for a yes, and went to make the coffee.

Twenty minutes later, Catherine and Grissom walked into the emergency room and straight away a young woman came up to them. She wasn't smiling.

"Are you here to see Miss Sidle?"

"Yes" Catherine answered her. "How did you know?"

"A gentleman called Mr Brass was here about half an hour ago, and he said it was likely that you would be coming"

"Oh"

"You're Miss Sidle's family, I presume?" Catherine had just opened her mouth to speak when Grissom tightly nodded his head.

"Okay, if you'll follow me, then I'll take you to see Dr Newing" The three of them walked down a few corridors before stopped outside a door marked 'Dr Patricia Newing'. The nurse knocked and opened the door.

"Miss Sidle's family to see you"

"Thank you Elle, I'll see them now"

Grissom walked in to the room and shook hands with another woman. This woman wasn't smiling either.

"My name is Patricia. Please sit down" The woman said curtly, looking at Grissom. Grissom however, seemed incapable of even a single word at the moment, so Catherine extended her hand.

"Catherine Willows, and this is Gil Grissom" She said in a polite voice.

"I'll get straight to the point folks. Miss Sidle's chances are not good. Not good at all. If she doesn't stabilise within the next twelve hours then there's very little chance for her at all. I…"

"Can I see her?" A quiet voice interrupted. The woman looked at Grissom, then slowly shook her head.

"No, I'm afraid not. She is not yet stable enough. If she improves over the next twenty four hours, then you may be able to see her." At this, Grissom had had enough. He stood up, and walked out of the office. Once outside however, he slumped down on the floor and let the tears come. Catherine came out of the office and sat down next to him, knowing better than to try and calm him down. Once he finally gained control of himself, and Catherine led him out into the waiting room, where together they would spend at least the next twelve hours, maybe longer.

"Are you okay" She asked tentatively.

"Not really. Catherine, this is all my fault. If I hadn't left her then she'd still be okay. If I had waited for her to finish the evidence collection, and not been impatient, then she'd still be here with us."

"Grissom, don't beat yourself up. You had no way of knowing that the perp would come back. You didn't want to break the chain of evidence. Everything'll be okay. Anyway, there's nothing you can do about it now, you just have to be as supportive as you can, and help her get through this. If she's going to be okay, then she'll need all the support she can get. You have to focus on that now." He hung his head dejectedly.

"I know, Catherine, but I feel so guilty." Catherine put her arm around him and they settled down to wait.