It took a few seconds for him to realise that he was not, in fact, in his own bed at home and when he did, an instinctive panic immediately took over.
"Hey, it's okay." A warm, familiar voice to his right attempted to sooth him and he felt a soft hand on his cheek.
"Catherine?" He mumbled, reaching out blindly towards her as his eyes adjusted to the sterile light.
"Yeah, I'm here." She smiled, perching on the edge of the bed so he could see her better. "How're you feeling?"
"Sore." He grumbled, attempting to sit up and stopping short when a sharp pain rocketed through his skull. "What happened?"
"Well," she cleared her throat, making herself more comfortable. There wasn't a short answer to that and she anticipated that she could be there a while. "That's why I'm here. What do you remember, exactly?"
"Not much." He frowned, trying hard to think. "I remember being at the lab, in the parking lot. I was waiting for a message from Sara. I got to my car, and then..."
When he trailed off, throwing a helpless hand out to the side, Catherine nodded in understanding.
"You were attacked." She explained, lightly touching his forehead with her fingertips. "Someone hit you."
"Why?" He asked weakly, attempting to draw to mind any recent cases he had which may have warranted a retaliation assault, and coming up blank.
Catherine licked her lips, squeezing his hand where it lay beside her on the bed.
"Greg ... what exactly do you know about Sara and Belinda Bell?"
x X x
Sara shifted in her seat, her eyes flicking distractedly around the room. Her nerves were so frayed, she visibly flinched at the sound of the door clicking closed behind her.
"Relax." Sofia said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder as she walked around to the spare seat beside her and sank into it.
Upon being presented with this request, the CSI-turned-detective had considered several options, but decided that the lab would be preferable to the police station – after all, Sara was a victim, not a suspect. When Catherine kindly volunteered her office, she was quick to accept the offer. She had assumed that Sara would feel more comfortable here than anywhere else, but her colleague's anxious twitching appeared to be proving her wrong.
"You sure you don't want anything?" She asked before they began. "Water, coffee..."
"No, I'm fine." Sara cleared her throat. "Thank you."
"Okay then." Sofia sat back, crossed her legs and placed her notebook on her lap. "So, why don't you just start wherever feels right?"
She watched Sara take a deep breath and felt a pang of sympathy for the brunette. It was true, they had never been particularly close, but that was entirely on Sara's part. Sofia had never had an issue with the girl; in fact she even quite liked her, in spite of her distrustful nature and hardened defences.
Which was precisely why she had agreed to take her statement regarding the PEAP counsellor's abuse. She knew just how hard it must have been for Sara to open up to this woman, so the idea of Belinda using her position to take advantage of her ... that was something that Sofia simply couldn't stand for. It would be bad enough against anyone seeking therapy, of course; but against someone as hard to reach as Sara Sidle just seemed to make it worse somehow.
Once Sara had suitably composed herself, she finally started talking. To Sofia's surprise, her voice was unexpectedly steady.
"Things hadn't been going very well for me for a while." She began, her gaze never shifting from the bracelet she was idly spinning around her wrist. "One morning, Nick, Warrick and I had been out for a drink after shift and I guess I had a little more than I thought. I got pulled over just off the Strip..."
x X x
"I don't care how many people you have to put on it," Brass growled, already mid-sentence as he thundered into the room. "I want that woman behind bars!"
Hanging up without waiting for a response, he slammed his cell phone onto the bench.
"No sign of Bell at her apartment and her car is still parked at the hospital. They've got security keeping an eye out for her in case she turns up there."
The gathered group shared a collective sigh at his update. It certainly wasn't what they wanted to hear, but it wasn't altogether surprising.
"She must know by now that she's wanted for questioning." Catherine surmised. "She'll have gone to ground."
"Well she can't stay there forever." Jim huffed, his lower lip turning up into a snarl.
"Okay, forget Belinda Bell for a moment." Ecklie waved a hand at them. "How's Sara doing?"
"She's rattled." Cath shook her head sadly. "She really didn't want everybody to find out about this."
"Well, unfortunately I don't think we can avoid that at this point." Sheriff Atwater declared, pushing himself off the back wall where he had been loitering and ambling up to the bench. "So, how do you want to handle this?"
The question was directed at Grissom, but he wasn't listening, too absorbed in his own thoughts as he drummed his fingers idly on the table.
"Gil?" Ecklie pushed, snapping him out of his trance. "How do you want to deal with telling the rest of the team?"
His only response was to shoot a despairing look at Catherine, indicating that he really didn't know how to deal with it.
"I think we need to tell them sooner, rather than later." Cath breathed, taking the heat off him. "We certainly don't need them finding out from someone else."
"The guys were pretty worked up over what happened to Greg." Ecklie pointed out. "It might be better to get Belinda neutralised first. The last thing we need right now is Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown going off half-cocked on some vendetta."
"I agree." Atwater hummed absently, checking his watch. "Get Belinda Bell in custody, see what she has to say for herself. If it turns out she was responsible for the assault on Greg, then we'll tell them."
Although Catherine didn't really agree, and Grissom's narrowed eyes suggested he probably didn't either, they both realised that the decision had already been made – asking their opinion had merely been a courtesy, one which was being ignored.
Satisfied that they were not going to argue, he rocked back on his heels and strode towards the door.
"If you'll excuse me," he declared. "I'm late for a press conference at the court house."
"I'm going to chase up on that BOLO." Jim offered, following him out. "The sooner we get her in a cell, the better."
"Well," Grissom hummed once they had departed, fixing Ecklie with a scathing look . "I hope you're happy with yourself?"
"Excuse me?" The Lab Director scowled defensively.
"Belinda went to see you about Sara and you immediately started looking for a reason to fire her." Gil explained bitterly. "You never stopped to think that something might be wrong, that maybe Belinda could have been the problem? You automatically assumed Sara was the issue and tried to get rid of her – and you tried to use me to do it."
Conrad stared blankly at Grissom for a few seconds, apparently stunned into silence, until he suddenly appeared to wane under an invisible weight and sank onto a nearby stool.
"I knew that you wouldn't put her on leave just because I asked." He confessed, wiping a hand over his mouth. "But I also knew that just by mentioning it to you, I was putting the wheels in motion."
"Yeah," well you certainly did that." Grissom declared, sulkily slamming closed the folder sitting in front of him. "If you'd had your way, she'd have lost her job because of this and we would have lost a damn good CSI."
"Hey, come on." Ecklie protested. "You think I don't feel bad enough about this? If I knew what she was doing to Sara, of course I'd have intervened. I had no reason to doubt her at the time."
Grissom and Catherine exchanged a sceptical look, one that he easily caught.
"Guys, please." He raised his hands sincerely. "I know that Sara and I have had a few cross words in the past, but I certainly never wanted something like this to happen. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it right, for her sake and for the sake of the lab."
Cath raised a questioning eyebrow at him, not entirely convinced by this show of repentance.
"I hope you mean that, Conrad." She said sternly. "Because I assure you, it'll take more than a few kind sentiments to fix things with Sara."