Weeks passed. Most mornings I visited Papa Olaf, and three times a week I had rehab in the afternoon. Friends visited every couple of days, so I didn't have much of a chance to get lonely. They must have had a schedule, because they never came together. They'd appear in the evening - Nick, Catherine, Sara, Warrick and Grissom, Jaquie and Archie, Doc Robbins and Dave Phillips - even David Hodges, though after the first week he insisted that I come to him. "It's your turn. Get off your lazy ass and get in the car," he'd snarled. "You know where I live." At his house we'd have dinner, play chess, Monopoly, or Clue, and we'd snipe at each other throughout the game. He gave me no quarter, was just as nasty and sarcatic as ever, but something had shifted between us, and I realized with surprise that my perceived enemy was actually a friend.
Sara's first visit alone was awkward. Once I'd left the hospital for rehab she'd always come with one of the others, usually with Nick or Catherine. She never came with Grissom, though, I guess because she didn't want to rub my nose in the fact that they were a couple. The evening she came alone she made a point of keeping things light, and I went along. She'd made a choice, after all, and I had to respect it no matter how unhappy it made me. Besides, I hadn't had any luck getting her attention when I was able-bodied; to try now would just be inviting rejection, and I didn't think I had the strength to bounce back from that at this point.
I finally got my permanant prosthetic, and in jeans I actually looked like my old two-legged self. Naked was another story, but as I looked in the mirror I actually felt hope that one day I might connect with someone who could deal with my physical changes. Other guys in my situation had managed to find someone to love, so it was entirely possible I might as well.
In another week rehab would dwindle to twice a week, and I was supposed to go back to work in eighteen days. Slowly but surely, I was reclaiming my shattered life. I was still in a lot of pain, but since I'd started having acupuncture even that was steadily improving. Papa Olaf said I was passing through one of life's dark valleys, that when I stepped out into the warm sunlight on the other side I would be a stronger, better man than I had been before my ordeal began. He told me I hadn't LOST my leg, just traded it for intangible spiritual and emotional things. I would told anyone else that I wanted to undo that deal immediately, that it was undoubtably the worst ass-fuck of a trade I'd ever heard of. I would tell them to stop mouthing empty platitudes until they spent a week strapping on a body part and buying Advil by the case, but Papa Olaf loved me, and he was a wise man, so I considered what he said.
I started back on a Monday night. I had finally broken down and shaved off the beard, but I liked the long hair, so I tied it back in a pony tail and donned jeans and a T-shirt. One advantage of working DNA was that no one particularly cared how I looked. Another was the fact that my salary would double from what it had been as a CSI.
"Cool cane, man! Where'd you get it?" Nick was grinning as he watched me set up my DNA lab.
"Got it on eBay. I'm going to be needing one for a while, so I figured I could at least have something with style."
"Well, it's definitely that. It's good to have you back."
"Good to be back. Hello, Warrick."
"Hey, how's it going?"
"Can't complain. Ah, I see you've brought me something."
"Vaginal swab from a rape vic in Henderson. Brad from swing handed it to me, asked me to bring it to you."
And so it went. Everyone from Ecklie to Archie stopped by to speak to me. Between our shift's cases and swing shift's hefty backlog I had little time to feel depressed over being stuck in the lab, so it really wasn't so bad. Little did I know things were about to get a little more complicated.
I was in the locker room at the end of shift when Nick came in and sat down beside me. "So how was your first night back?"
"Busy. The tech on swing shift is a complete slacker, so I had to deal with half of his work as well as my own. Fortunately for me, I'm so fast that wasn't a problem."
"Well, good. Listen, I just found out something I thought you'd want to know." He looked toward the doorway and dropped his voice. "Grissom and Sara aren't together any more."
I frowned. "Are you sure? How did you find this out?"
"Catherine overheard them talking. Sara told him she couldn't be in a relationship with a man who loved his roaches more than he loved her, to which he replied that she knew what kind of man he was when they got involved. It went downhill from there and from what Cath said they got pretty loud, and I do mean both of them. It ended with Sara leaving with Warrick to go to that murder in Seven Hills. Grissom's been seething ever since. I've been avoiding him as much as possible."
"Wow. Didn't see that coming. They were together, what, all of four months?"
"Something like that. You know Grissom, though - for all his scientific brilliance, he sucks at dealing with other people."
"Yeah, he's great at figuring out what's going on in your mind, but when it comes to feelings he's lost."
Nick shook his head. "All I know is that Sara dumped him. I thought you'd want to know." He stood and walked over to his locker. "You should give her a call when you get home."
I didn't say anything, just grabbed my keys and slipped out of the building. It had been an eventful night.