CHAPTER 9: AND THE PLOT THICKENS!
It was morning in Las Vegas and an alarm on a cell phone went off. Sara reached over and turned it off.
7am, Sara had only fallen asleep at 3am. Her mind was racing about grisssom, the baby, the doctors app, work, telling Ecklie and the team. When she was away in San Francisco it was easier for her to think and get clarity on certain situations, now that she was back she was apprehensive about facing it all.
She was meeting grisssom at 7.50 outside her doctor's office, they were going to go for breakfast after and talk and then go to Ecklie's office together and tell him about their situation. That was a lot for Sara but she knew it had to be done at some stage so they might as well get it over with she thought.
After her daily throwing up ritual, she hit the road and got their earlier than he did. She waited in the car park and 10minutes later his Denali parked up next to her. They both got out and faced each other, "hey, I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show" Sara said smiling, although there was a lot of nervousness behind it and grisssom saw it.
"Sara, I would never do that, I'm here because I want to be. how are you? It's good to have you back"
Sara nodded taking in what he was saying to her. "I'm good, ya I suppose it was time enough to come back eh? How has everything been at the lab?"
"Sara, don't worry about work. Come on lets go in or they're gonna think were a no show as well." Grisssom said looking at his watch. She said nothing but nodded and followed him in.
After they checked in, they sat in the waiting room and Sara took out a large bottle of water from her bag. He looked at her funny as he saw her swigging it back. She noticed that he was looking at her. "they told me to drink over a litre of water before I came in. clearer picture apparently." He nodded but stayed silent.
"Sara sidle" a nurse called from a corridor. "this is it, you ready?" grisssom asked Sara nervously. "sure. Lets do this" and they both followed behind the nurse into a room down the corridor.
Sara was lying down on the examination table. "right Ms Sidle, this is going to be what we call a dating scan which dates your pregnancy and gives us an exact due date and we find out how far along you are."
Sara nodded taking it all in. "if there are any problems or feel there is anything you should know then we will let you know also" the nurse also added.
The nurse set up her equipment and asked Sara to raise up her top, a little blush crept into saras cheeks as she was very much aware of grisssom presence and his eyes on her. She looked at him and looked awkward, so awkward.
"ok Sara, this might bit a little cold" said the nurse as she poured gel over her belly. Sara had a sharp intake of breath as the cold gel touched her skin. And then, a whooshing sound that mimicked a horses gallop filled the room and they both looked up at the nurse, "yup, that's your baby's heartbeat and here is your baby"
After another 10minutes of receiving information leaflets and scheduling another appointment Sara and grisssom finally got to leave but not without taking their first baby picture with them. They found out that Sara was in fact 13weeks pregnant. They were both shocked and Sara couldn't believe that she missed earlier signs of her condition.
At the diner, they ordered breakfast and were more relaxed with one another, grisssom looked at Sara and to him she had never looked so beautiful. For the second time that morning, Sara could feel Grisssom's eyes on she decided now would be as great a time as any to get some answers out of him.
"so, how do you feel now about everything?"
Grisssom considered her question and tried to be as honest as he could
"I think that after what we just saw, everything has become so real. I'm not going to lie to you, I am nervous, we're going to responsible for a small little human 24hours a day until we die. That thought is harrowing but I have no doubt that with hard work comes joy." Grisssom had a small smile at the corner of his mouth as he looked off into the distance. But then came back to her, "and what are your thoughts?"
"similar to yours, I'm nervous excited. Terrified about the end of the pregnancy. I feel so tired now, what way am I gonna feel in 6months time?"
"I dunno Sara, we can only take it one day at time"
At this statement she looked up and met his eyes "we?"
He saw what she was getting at and wanted to reassure her, "yes Sara, we. I know that the last few weeks have been up and down for us and maybe we both did and said things we didn't necessarily mean but I want to make this right, I want to do this right, I want us to be together again and be a family"
Sara looked deep into his eyes as he said all the things that she had been wanting to hear since the day she met him. But there was resentment and mistrust in Saras heart.
"I don't think its such a good idea if we just jump back into something. I mean a couple of weeks ago you bought me here to break up with me, you were ready to discard me like a used tissue, do you have any idea what that felt like? I have been miserable everyday since and I wont let you do that to me again. "
Grisssom knew what she was saying was right, he had hurt her, he'd hurt her bad. He couldn't help but feel guilty but he was also hurt too at the fact that maybe she wasn't willing to give him a second chance.
"I'm sorry" was all that he could offer. And he meant it.
" I know you are grisssom, and maybe with time I will learn to trust you again, but for the meantime I think we should concentrate and getting through the next couple of weeks, they're not going to be easy."
Grissom nodded understandingly "come on, lets go see Ecklie"
They both turned up at the lab and went to Ecklie's office. Ecklie was shocked and explained that grisssom could no longer evaluate saras progress and that he would come up with a suitable system of chain of command and they would be notified as soon as.
Ecklie explained to Sara that she would have to be risk assessed and put on lighter duties when he saw fit. Surprisingly to both Sara and grisssom, he was surprisingly understanding. They came out of his office 45minutes after they went in.
They looked at each other "that could have been a lot worse" grisssom said. "you still ok with telling the guys tonight?"
She considered it, "ya, why stop now, lets get it over with. Ill see ya tonight"
"sure" said grisssom and then they both parted ways.
They didn't get a chance to meet up at the lab before shift as all staff got the same message to their phones, "shooting on the strip, 4 fatalities 2 in critical condition all hands on deck. "
They all arrived separately within 10minutes of each other and the scene was one of chaos and despair. Grisssom went into delegation mode as he knew the ramifications of evidence being left to long and the quicker they were at processing and interpreting what happened then the quicker they would catch the suspects.
"Catherine and robbie I want ye to process the bodies. Nick and Sara I need ye to process the road, sidewalk, collect bullet casings, tyre treads, prints, belongings. Greg I want you to start with the witnesses, what they saw, who they saw and if anyone caught anything on their phones. Jim I need to pull all footage of the adjoining casinos, restaurants and hotels. I want no stone unturned tonight"
And with that everyone busied themselves with the task at hand. They made great progress in the first hour collecting what evidence they found. Nick and Sara spread themselves out along road collect over a hundred bullets and following the path of destruction that was left in their wake.
One of the bullet casings had landed on the cuff of the pant leg of one of the dead bodies lying near by, Sara went nearer the body to see if she could collect it.
"don't even think about it." Came the voice of CSI Lemmur standing quite intimately over a crouched down Sara. Sara looked up at him and decided to ignore his brashness " one of my bullet casings has landed on this Vic, have you taken photos yet coz I was going to collect"
Lemmur put himself between Sara and the body, "well, that's my business isn't it, grisssom assigned me to the bodies and anything I find on them is my jurisdiction isn't it? If there's nothing else, I have a job to do" and turned his back to her.
"Jurisdiction? Lemmur, we are all on the same team and we all work together to get the same outcome, there are no brownie points to be had out here now move aside and let me collect the casing"
He refused to answer her and kept working. Sara was under too much of a time constraint to stand there and argue so she carried on processing without the bullet casing.
Brass and grisssom got a lead off of a casino surveillance tape and so the police had a description of a vehicle and with that, the scene was cleared of most of its cops in hot pursuit of the suspects.
After another hour or so, everyone rapped up the scene and headed back to the lab. All evidence that could be collected was collected and brought back to the lab.
Back at the lab, everyone was still busy sorting out and logging in their evidence. Sara took a few minutes to find Lemmur and sort out whatever this bad blood was between them. She could find him anywhere so decide to sit down and take a break. As she sat down with her sandwich and ginger tea she realised that this was the first night that she hadn't felt nauseous or thrown up, she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
2minutes into her sandwich, Lemmur walked in, "oh nice for some" he remarked towards Sara ever so sarcastically.
Sara couldn't believe the cheek of this guy. "eh, excuse me?" when he again didn't respond, she stood up and walked over to him boxing him into the kitchenette in the break room so that he could run away again without addressing her.
"ok Lemmur, what the hell is your problem with me? You have had an attitude with me from day one. I'm trying to help you and you could not be more of an ass."
Lemmur faced her at this, "oh I'm sorry Sara, have upset you? God forbid we upset the great Sara sidle, you're right maybe I haven't been so forthcoming with you and you wanna know why, I don't like you, you think you know everything which you don't and fawn over everyone else to get them to do your work for them. I heard about you and I know people like you. This game is more than just a pretty face sweetheart and your about to be phased out."
He bumped off her shoulder as he quickly left without giving her time to retort.
