Here's the next chappie! Thanks for al the great reviews so far! Luv you all!
Over the next week and a half, Grissom visited Sara every day. She was still improving. Since yesterday, she was starting to get her speech back. Looking back, Grissom remembered the very last part of his visit yesterday, smiling.
"Well I have to go now, but I'll be back to see you again tomorrow, okay?" In response, Sara smiled and waved. She knew what was coming. Every time he came to see her, he would say the same thing, just as he was leaving the room. "Sara?" She looked at him. "I love you." She smiled again. He'd said it eight times now, but every time it sent a shiver up her spine, just as much as the time before.
"Grissom?" She said tentatively. He paused, then spun around so fast he was in danger of knocking himself out. She could understand it, this was the first time she'd spoken since the accident.
"Yes?"
"I love you too."
He'd had something else to tell her, but he decided to wait until she was better. Those last words had been such a shock, and he hadn't stopped smiling all night. Actually, thinking back, he had, Catherine had had something to say that knocked that smile right into oblivion.
"We still have no evidence of anyone at the crime scene but you Grissom. We have one more print, it doesn't belong to the victim or you that we found at the crime scene, but AFIS didn't know whose it was." She said hesitantly. "I know it wasn't you, I believe you, really I do, it's just that we need someone else to convict. If no one else shows up, I'm gonna have to arrest you."
"Look Catherine," He said in a defeated voice. "I don't know. It wasn't me, but I have no alibi and you have no other suspect. Looks like it's gonna be me huh?"
"Grissom, we will prove your innocence, but it's just taking a little longer than I expected. I can't even tell you about the case in case we've missed something, because you're the main suspect." Then suddenly, something occurred to him.
"Catherine, is there a chance that Sara saw her attacker?"
"Yes, but Grissom, we can't be sure it was the same person, and we have no way to communicate with her, she can't tal…" But just then she was distracted by Grissom, who was shaking his head so violently she was worried that he'd dislocate it.
"No Catherine, yesterday when I was with her, she spoke! She talked to me. We can communicate with her now."
"GRISSOM!" Catherine exclaimed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" she yelled at him in an exasperated voice. He shrugged.
"I forgot. Sorry." But his apology was unheard as Catherine was already running towards her car. Grissom hurried to catch up. "Catherine, what exactly are you gonna do?"
"Clear your name!"
"But we have no proof that they were the same person!"
"Yes, but if we can nail this guy on abuse to Sara, then we can get his prints, and if they match the one found at the scene of the crime, then we have enough to get a warrant!"
"That's a long shot Catherine."
"Yeah, but it might pay off."
Ten minutes later, Grissom and Catherine were walking into the hospital. The receptionist mentioned straight away for Grissom to go upstairs without even asking what he wanted. He nodded, and led Catherine straight to the elevator.
"Care to explain?"
"I've been coming here every day since I was discharged. The receptionist knows who I am, and who I'm here to see."
"God Grissom, every day?"
"Yes Catherine. Every day."
"Wow!"
"Thankyou. Ah, here we are" And with that he confidently led Catherine straight through the maze of wards until they were standing outside the room that Sara was in. "Shall I go in first?" Catherine nodded.
"Just tell her I'm here. I'll go in when you're done." With a nod, Grissom opened the door and slipped quietly in to the room.
As soon as he walked in to the room, he could sense that something was wrong. He couldn't feel pain this time, but something inside of him told him that Sara was, once again, in trouble. He strode over to the bed. She wasn't breathing. Quickly, he pressed the call button for the nurse three times to signal an emergency, then ran to the door and yanked it open. Catherine was waiting outside. Upon seeing his face, she didn't ask questions, just ran inside the room. The next thing he knew, he and Catherine were being shepherded outside the room, and the door banged shut behind them. Suddenly, everything was quiet, of course there was noise coming from inside the room, but it seemed silent compared to the panic of thirty seconds ago. Catherine led Grissom over to a bench, where he promptly leant against her and shook. She didn't let him go all night.
They were once again seated inside Dr Newing's office, and once again she was telling them how bad Sara's chances were.
"She was doing well, but that was a relapse, which is not good. She's gone into a coma, and we are trying as hard as we can to bring her out of it. She's once again completely dependant on life support, and whilst ever she's in her current state, we have little hope for her at all. I am obliged to tell you that the most likely outcome of this is death, but it's likely that if she doesn't die, she'll be permanently incapacitated. If this happens she'll be completely dependant on others, and the life support. She'll be alive, but in this coma for the rest of her natural life. Of course, she would have named a person in her medical records, that, should this happen, can make the decision to turn the life support off. I'll have to check, but for most people, it's their next of kin." Grissom looked horrified, but nodded.
"Sara has a brother." Catherine gently took his hand, and led him out of the office. When he woke up that afternoon, that was all he could remember.
The next morning, when Grissom woke up, it took him a minute to remember why he was so worried and depressed. Then the events of the last day washed over him, and as soon as they did, he wished they hadn't. It wasn't unusual now for him to get sudden flashes of pain or emotion that weren't his. He got them at least twice a day now. After that day at the hospital, it didn't take a genius to figure out that those moments of pain and emotion were moments he shared with Sara. It didn't matter where he was, everything would suddenly blur, and he would think "God, not again."
Then it would hit. Usually it was emotion, and those he could deal with. But the pain…the pain was unbearable. It felt like millions of red hot knives were piercing his body, and he would just crumple to the ground in pain. Dimly, he knew that for Sara, the pain must be worse, because he could only feel a tiny percentage of what she could feel, but the pain he got was bad enough. Then the pain would suddenly stop, and he'd pull himself together, shaking. Then he'd take a minute to feel sympathy for Sara, because he knew how bad it must be for her. He also had a feeling that he could feel these things when they were particularly strong. The emotions didn't happen as often now, after her relapse, but the pain was happening more and more often. Now it was getting up to four times a day. Either his link with Sara was getting stronger, or she was dying. Personally, though he yearned for it to be otherwise, he thought it was most likely the latter. That afternoon he was in the break room, giving a briefing, when another of these flashes of pain hit him, this one particularly bad. When he recovered later, he found himself on the floor under the table. He quickly straightened up, and fell back into his chair. He was shivering violently. The next thing he knew, Catherine was kneeling next to him.
"Grissom, are you okay?"
"I will be in a minute Catherine." He replied, smiling weakly. He was still shivering. She looked at him sceptically. "Catherine, I'll be fine. This happens all the time. Just give me a minute." Then he realised, this had never happened at work before. No one except for him knew what had just happened, and they were probably scared. He looked around. They all had identical faces. Faces of fear. "Guys, I'm fine. This is nothing new for me. That was just…particularly painful." He looked up at them. Now they looked confused, so he continued. "It's Sara. When she's in particularly sharp pain I can feel it. We share it. We have…a connection I suppose. Anyway, she was just in a hell of a lot of pain, so I felt it, but on a smaller scale. It's nothing, I'll be fine." Nick was gaping at him.
"So you guys have some sort of strange, telepathic connection thing?" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, I suppose you could call it." He stopped and thought, his eyes glazing over. Suddenly, they snapped back into focus. "She's okay now, in case anyone's worried." He murmured, getting more and more embarrassed by the minute.
"How the hell do you know that?" Catherine demanded. He shrugged.
"I can sense it. She's okay. Can we get back business please?"
The doctors said she couldn't hear it, but he always said it anyway.
"I love you Sara." He said softly, before closing the door slowly and quietly behind him. Out in the hallway however, he was swiftly intercepted by Elle, and chauffeured into Dr Newing's study. For the third time, he sat down in front of that big mahogany desk, and faced a very grave looking woman.
"Dr Grissom…"
"Grissom." He interrupted, with a smoothness he didn't feel.
"Grissom," She started again. "I have some bad news for you. I have just received the test results, and it is clear that Ms Sidle is fast heading into dangerous territory. If she does not begin to improve within the next 24 hours then she'll become permanently incapacitated. Basically, that means that with time, she'll be able to understand us again, but she won't be able to move or talk. She will depend on the life support machines. Her brain will work much slower, and eventually, it will shut down completely, leaving her life in our hands. So long as she's hooked up to life support, she'll still be alive, but brain-dead. This could happen next week, it could happen in 50 years time. The point is that it WILL happen, and when it does, one person will make the decision to switch off the life support. In Sara's case, this person isn't someone in her family. It's you."
For the next 24 hours, Grissom didn't leave the hospital. He called into work and spoke to Catherine.
"I can't come in tonight Catherine."
"Sara?"
"Yes."
"Okay Grissom, I'll cover for you."
"Thankyou Catherine."
"No problem." After that, Grissom sat down to wait. 24 hours came and went, and by the 36th hour, Grissom was losing hope. He spent another few hours in the waiting room, then went to see Dr Newing. One look at the woman's face when he saw her was conformation enough. Without a word being exchanged, he turned around and walked out the door again.
The next month, Grissom went to see Sara every day. The doctors told him that they didn't think Sara could hear him, but he knew differently. He trusted the flashes of Sara's thoughts better than any doctor, and they confirmed that she could hear him, and was beginning to understand. He knew she knew who he was, and for the moment, that was enough. Once he even got a flash of Sara's thoughts while he was with her. He saw himself, exactly as he was. That was the conformation he needed. He knew than that these WERE Sara's thoughts, and they showed him that mentally, she was improving. Only slightly, and she was almost at the best she could hope to get, but she was improving. Grissom now knew that she could understand most of the things he said to her, and was connecting some things with others. For someone who was permanently incapacitated, she was doing well. She'd never be okay, he knew that now, but she was managing. At the end of the visit a month later, Grissom said the same thing that he always said. "I love you Sara." With that he closed the door. He was getting into his car when he had another of those flashes of Sara's emotions. This was stronger than anything he'd ever felt before, even the pain. As soon as he saw it he knew what it was. He jumped out of the car and sprinted back inside the building, without even locking it. He ran faster than he'd ever run in his life, up 6 flights of stairs, until he was outside Sara's room. At the door however, something told him he should stop and listen. He pressed his ear against the door and heard a male voice that he couldn't place. He thought he'd heard it somewhere before, years ago, it was vaguely familiar, but he had no idea where.
Now,I have a proposition! Obviously Sara is in big trouble, the question is, will she live ordie? Thats up to you guys. Review and tell me whatyou want, and i'll go with the majority. This does, of course, mean that the next chap will take a while to be up, cause iv'e gotta gve you all time to review!Please tell me what you want written! Love you all, Dip.
