22

He was out of breath when he reached the back of the boat. He wanted to yell her name, but all he could manage was a whisper, "Sara! God, Sara! No!" His nightmare had come true. God! Why had he ever let her leave? This was all his fault. The tears were burning his eyes and he felt like he could throw up any second. He fell to his hands and knees and continued saying her name, "Sara! Sara!"

"Sir, are you all right?"

Grissom looked up and through his tears, he managed, "Uh…I…don't…know."

"Do you need a doctor?" Without waiting for an answer, the man started yelling, "We need a doctor! Somebody get a doctor!"

"No. No. I…"

"Shhh. It's gonna be all right, Sir. Just relax."

There was a group of people surrounding him, now. One woman said, "Hey! That's the guy everybody thought was the best-looking couple at the party tonight. Where's his wife? Has somebody gone to find her?"

Grissom tried to stop them, "No. I just…" But she and a few other people moved away to go look for Sara. A few seconds later, a man pushed through the crowd saying he was the cruise's doctor. Grissom tried to protest, but was too weak to argue. At that point, he didn't even know if he cared.

After checking his eyes, pulse, temperature and blood pressure, the doctor said he looked fine. "Sir, what happened?"

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Sara was walking toward their suite when a man grabbed her by the arm, "Miss, come quick. It's your husband!"

She got the same sinking feeling as the night Nick had showed up at her door. "What?"

"Just come with me. The doctor should be with him, now."

"Oh, God! Grissom!" She followed the man as he tugged her along by her wrist. When they got to the back of this ship, she could see through the crowd that Grissom was lying on the deck. She pushed through the crowd and fell to her knees beside him. His eyes were closed. "Grissom!"

When his eyes opened, she threw herself on his chest. "Sara?"

"Oh, Grissom! God, you scared me half to death."

He sat up and gathered her onto his lap and started to cry again. "Sara. I'm fine. I thought you…I mean…the couple…they said…and I thought…but…"

"I love you, Grissom."

"I love you, too, Honey."

"Uh…sorry to interrupt, but are you all right now, Sir? Can you tell me what happened?"

Grissom looked up at the doctor, forgetting that everyone was still standing around them. "Uh…yes, I'm fine. It's, uh, kind of a long story. Could, uh, we have a few minutes, please?"

"Sure. Do you know where the medical office is?"

"Yes."

"Okay. If you'd just come there when you're finished, I have to get you to fill out a couple forms."

"Fine."

"Okay, let's go people. Everything's fine here. Go back to what you were doing."

After everyone had finally moved away, he spoke, "I'm sorry I scared you. I just…well…that couple, they came by to tell me you were crying and you were by the railing. Then when I got back here, you weren't here. I thought…"

"Oh, God, Grissom. You thought I'd fallen overboard."

"Yes."

"I'd gone back to find you. I told the couple we weren't married and then I felt bad. I wanted to find you and apologize."

"You don't have to apologize for telling the truth."

"No, I mean apologize for the argument."

"Oh."

"I guess we both got a scare tonight. I thought you'd had a heart attack or something."

"I believe that's what everyone else thought, also. But I'm fine. I just thought I'd lost you."

"Grissom? Let's never do this again."

"Everyone argues, Sara. It's normal."

"I know, but…"

"I know, from now on, we just need to be able to talk to each other. We've talked through everything so far, and look how far we've gotten. We just have to talk this thing through."

"Okay."

"How about we go to the doc's, fill out the paperwork, go back to our suite and order some room service. Then we'll have a nice, long talk." He felt her shake her head against his chest. "Uh, as much as I'd like to pretend I'm a stud, here, there's no way I can stand up like this and bring you with me."