Disclaimer: Don't own them.
Thicker than Blood: Part Two
Author: PaintedShadow
Bare with me on this one, I don't think that they ever mentioned the names of CSIs from Day Shift, so I created some.
I am sooooo sorry that this is soo late. I've been swapped with schoolwork and alpine ski racing so I haven't had time to write. I'm posting this one, I know I left it at a weird place, but I am going to write more today since I got dismissed at noon due to the storm. -LL
"Mel you are going to be late for school!" Sara yelled walking down the hall to go to the kitchen.
"Sara give her a break, she has switched schools and doesn't know anyone here. She's been uprooted from her life, let her adjust." Grissom reasoned while massaging Sara's shoulders trying to get her to calm down.
"Sit down and eat breakfast with me!" Maria exclaimed from the dining room table.
"Ok, I'm going to get some sleep, I'll pick up Maria when school is done, Mel told me she is going to take the bus home." Grissom reviewed to Sara.
"Great, that helps me a lot, now I can work through my lunch break. I have to get use to not working with our team anymore." Sara said walking back towards the bathroom. "Mel, seriously, you need to finish in there." Sara paused, "Other people need to get in th–" before she could finish the sentence, Mel opened the door and wrapped her arms around Sara.
"Hey, what's wrong, you've been crying." Sara questioned looking down at Mel's pale face genuinely concerned.
"I'm just not use to–" Mel tried to explain,
"Take your time Mel, but for now, can you grab a bagel from the counter and eat it in the car so that you and Maria aren't late for your first day of school here?"
"Ok."
Sara walked into the bedroom, to see Grissom reading a book in bed.
"Ok, we are off." Sara said sitting next to him.
"Have a great first day as Day Shift Supervisor." Grissom said with a smirk.
"Thanks." She said, then kissed him goodbye.
After getting Mel and Maria to their schools and getting everything settled with the paperwork, Sara made it to her new office. Three days prior to this day she had rearranged the office to her liking and organized everything so she wouldn't be overwhelmed her first day.
She grabbed the assignment slips and walked into the break room where her new team was. She handed out the 3 slips that were in her hand, a 419 in Henderson to Kevin and Jason, another 419 on the strip to Cory, and a B&E to Parker. After they got their assignments, they all left the break room. She went back to her office to work on some paperwork that she had to have in to Ecklie before the end of shift.
Grissom woke up to find the other side of the bed cold.
Where is Sara? Grissom thought. Oh… yeah. Damn, this is going to be hard to get use to.
Grissom got ready and got in the car to pick up Maria from kindergarten.
"How was school?" Grissom asked her when walking back towards the car.
"It was awesome!" Maria exclaimed jumping up and down.
"Did you make any new friends?"
"Yup," Maria answered as Grissom picked her up to put in the booster seat.
"How many?"
"Two. Jackie and Heather."
"How would you like to go get some lunch?" Grissom asked looking back in his rear-view mirror.
"Can we go eat with Sara?" Maria asked gazing out the side window.
"Sure."
"Sidle." Sara answered her phone after two rings.
"Hey honey, there is someone here eager to have lunch with you."
"Oh, is that so?"
"Yes it is." Grissom answered knowing that this would make her day.
"Met me at the diner in 15 minutes?" Sara questioned, smiling.
"I think that would be great!"
Sara finished up the paperwork that was in front of her and then went to the diner.
"Sara!" Maria screamed from halfway across the diner, waving frantically at her.
"Hi," picking Maria off of the seat to wrap her in a hug, "how was your first day of school?"
"Great!"
Glancing over at Grissom who was studying the menu, "And how was your morning? Did you sleep well?" Sara moved her face closer to his, and gave him a sweet welcoming kiss.
"Yes, I did, but I woke up and you weren't there." He frowned.
"Yeah, it's going to take some getting used to, isn't it?" Sara said, amused by the situation.
"Yeah, it is." Grissom turned to look at Maria, who is sitting across the table from him and Sara. "What you would like to eat?"
"Hmmmmm, chicken tenders, with fries and ketchup."
"And what about a drink?" Sara asked not even glancing up from her menu.
"Water."
The waiter came and they placed their orders, and then left.
"So how was your first day as a Supervisor?" Grissom asked curiously.
"One word…Paperwork!" Sara breathed out.
"Yes, well there are days like that, there isn't anything you can do about it."
"I could be like you and procrastinate doing it and just leave it on my desk to pile up, Ecklie would love that!" Sara said with joy in her eyes.
Grissom looked over at Maria, avoiding looking back at Sara's eyes, so she could see the hurt, from what she just said.
"Sara, look what I made you." Maria said holding up the paper placemat.
"Thanks, Maria, I love it." Sara said with a tear gathering around her eye waiting to unleash.
Sara was still gazing at the picture when the waiter arrived with their food. They ate in silence for the whole time. Maria finished first, and fell asleep on the seat. When Sara finished she took Maria's plate and put it on top of hers and pushed them aside.
Turning to look at Grissom, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said that, even if I meant it jokingly." Sara cast her eyes down to her lap.
Grissom lifted her chin in his hand and moved his head closer to give her a kiss. Once their lips touch, she wrapped her arm around him and deepened the kiss.
"Ewwwww, Gross!" Maria said.
Sara and Grissom broke away from each other. Sara started laughing as Grissom's face got a faint shade of red.
"Come on, let's go. I need to get back to work; Ecklie wants that paperwork finished before the end of shift."
Grissom paid the bill, and picked Maria up from the seat. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder.
"Sara, looks like someone is exhausted." Grissom said looking down at Maria. "I'm going to take her home and let her sleep."
"Ok, Mel should be home around 2:30, and I'll be home around 4:15." Sara responded kissing him on the cheek.
"I'm back!" Mel shouted into what seemed like an empty house.
"Hello Mel, how was school?" Grissom asked appearing from his office.
"Like normal, honor classes, stuck up preps, and the dumbass jocks." Mel paused "I'm going to go work on my homework, how was Maria today?"
"She was very well behaved. She was extremely tired after we went to lunch with Sara. She slept for over an hour."
"Not really that surprised. She rarely slept at night because she was afraid of what he'd do when she was asleep. She's very advanced Grissom, but she has trouble facing reality sometimes. This is probably the best thing that has happened to her."
Mel walked to the room she shared with her sister. Dropping down her messenger bag, she flung herself onto her bed.
"Sara!" Maria ran up to Sara and gave her a giant hug.
"Hey girl, how was your day?"
"We played Candyland, and I watched cartoons." Maria stated excitedly.
Looking at Grissom, "You played CandyLand?" Sara asked trying so hard not to laugh.
"Yes, I did." Grissom paused, "What would you all like for dinner?"
"I'll go ask Mel." Sara said as she moved to walk down the hallway.
"Hey Mel," Sara said as she opened the door, "How was school today?"
"Good, just finishing homework."
"What would you like for dinner, we were thinking pizza."
"That sounds fine."Mel agreed, leaving Sara completely aware that she wasn't up for talking.
When the pizzas arrived, they all gathered at the table to eat.
"She asleep?" Grissom asked as Sara walked into the bedroom.
"They both are." Sara said sounding amazed.
"Well Mel told me something today," Grissom paused to pull Sara onto the bed, "she said that Maria barely sleeps at night because she is afraid of what might happen, or what did happen."
"Yeah, I'm actually not surprised." Sara paused and turned away from Grissom, "I had many nights were I never slept because of what happened, or thinking of what would happen the next day."
"Sara," Grissom touched her arm and she flinched.
When she turned to look at him, his face was etched with worry. "I'm sorry Gil, I didn't mean–"
"Sara, don't be sorry, I understand, but you know I would never hit you, right?"
"Yes, I was just remembering…"
They embraced each other and sat there in silence. They fell asleep like that until the ringing of Grissom's cell awoke him.
"Grissom."
"We have a body."
"Where? Who?"
"In a car on Industrial. We found his license, even though it wasn't needed to recognize him. It's Jeffrey Belmont." Brass explained further.
"Be there in a few." Grissom said looking at his watch. Nine O'clock. He thought.
They'd only been asleep for an hour. Getting off the bed so he wouldn't wake Sara, he heard her phone go off.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sara said drowsily.
"They found Jeffrey Belmont's body. I'm heading in early, you're phone was going off." Grissom replied walking back over to the bed.
Walking over to her purse, Sara fished out her cell phone. "Ecklie, go figure."
"Are you going to call him back?"
"What's the point?" Sara asked in an icy tone.
"It could be important, Sara." Grissom was going to try to reason with her when his phone started ringing again.
"Grissom."
"Sara there by any chance?"
"Yes, hold on." Grissom said, handing Sara the phone.
"Hello."
"Sara, it's Ecklie, why weren't you answering your phone?"
"Sorry I was sleeping, you got me now, what's up?"
"Since we have a body now, sheriff is making this the only case we work on, Day shift and Graveyard are going to be working together to process, collect evidence and so on. Swing shift is going to be taking care of the rest of the cases that come through. You okay with that?"
"I'm fine with that, but what about the fact that it's my niece involved."
"We've already worked that out, you'll be supervising, but you won't be allowed to handle evidence until it is processed. You can't do any lab work but you can oversee all the work that is being done."
"So I'm practically babysitting?"
"Sara, we are doing it this way so that the evidence doesn't get dismissed in court."
"Ok."
"Will you come in?"
"Yes."
Later at the lab, Greg, Nick, Cory and Parker were already at in the break room when Sara and Grissom walked in.
"Ok, so we are all here." Ecklie said walking through the door.
"Wait, I thought you said that we were all working on this, half of our teams are missing." Sara said looking at Cory and then at Parker, who smiled back at her.
"Yes, I know, but we didn't realize that you had your whole team out working on cases this morning." Ecklie said shooting her an evil look.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Sara said with a smirk.
"Well Kevin and Jason are going to be finishing the work on the cases that came in this morning, and will join in to help later. Warrick and Catherine are helping covering swing so that they have enough people for incoming cases." Ecklie reasoned. "Nick, Cory, and Parker, you all are going to go out to process the car. Grissom, go and supervise. Sara and Greg go through and find out how and why Maria was at the Belmont's. We know that Angela Belmont died in a fatal car accident, but Maria didn't have any alleles in common with the Belmont's. So we need to know who is lying, the Belmont's or your brother."
With a nod, Ecklie walked out of the room without anyone saying a word.
"So looks like you can't keep away from me!" the cheerful Greg said as he glided over to where Sara was.
"Greg, I'm not in the mood."
"Jeez, you must be late on your weekly sleep." Greg said as he walked out of the room.
Sara had found newspaper articles and images of the Belmont's, a few that Angela was in, and a few that she weren't. That didn't prove anything though and she knew it. Sara went to the break room to get some coffee, on her way back she thought of something. Searching the medical history of Angela Belmont, and what she came across was so much better than anything.
Running quickly through the halls of the lab, almost taking out Ecklie and then Grissom, Sara found Greg in the break room. Trying to catch her breath, she handed the piece of paper to Greg instead of trying to tell him. After reading the paper, Greg jumped out of his chair spilling coffee all over the table and himself, but they ran to Ecklie to show him what they got.
"Ecklie!" Sara yelled at the top of her lungs, running closer to him.
"Jeez Sidle, do you have to be so loud?" Ecklie asked turning his attention from Grissom to Sara.
"We found the connection between," Sara paused to catch her breath.
"The Belmont's and Angela." Greg finished her sentence, showing the paper to Ecklie.
Grissom looked back at Sara who was still bent over catching her breath.
"Sara, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just need to catch my breath–" When Sara completely stood up; she landed on the ground faster than a bolt of lightning.
"Sara!" Grissom and Greg said in unison, Grissom rushing to get to her side. Greg stood there in a state of shock.
"Somebody call 911." Ecklie shouted.
"Sara, come on Sara!" Grissom said, tears building up.
"Grissom! She's bleeding!" Greg practically screamed. When Grissom looked at the blood, his face went paler.
"They are on their way. They should be here in about 10 minutes or less." Judy told Ecklie.
"They are here." Judy said moving against the wall so they can get by.
"What happened?" one of the EMT's questioned.
"She ran over here, and was trying to catch her breath when she collapsed, she hasn't responded and she lost a good amount blood." Grissom said trying not to cry.
"Sir, I'm going to need to know her name, age, any allergies–" the EMT started.
"Sara Sidle, 34, not allergic to any medicines."
Grissom looked up at the semi-familiar voice but Greg reacted faster.
"Hank," Greg seethed.
"I'm just doing my job. I'll leave once she's at the hospital." Hank reasoned with Greg, turning to look at Grissom, noting the sadness in his eyes, "Mr. Grissom, will you be coming in the ambulance?"
Trying to figure out what the hell is going on; he looks up half dazed, "Yes."
Greg's head snapped up when he heard Grissom's answer.
Arriving at the hospital, Grissom was left to fill out paperwork while Sara was being examined by a doctor. By the time he completed all the paperwork, the doctor came out.
"Mr. Grissom, I'm Dr. Jenkins."
Shaking the hand that the doctor presented and jumping into action, "What's going on? Is she ok?"
"Are you aware that she was pregnant?"
Inhaling sharply, Grissom finally answered, "No, I didn't." Grissom said, thinking through what the doctor had just told him. When it suddenly occurred to him, "Wait, you said was, not is."
"Yes, Mr. Grissom, Ms. Sidle had a miscarriage, that's why she was bleeding. According to the hospital log, she was admitted into the hospital recently for alcohol poisoning." He paused briefly. "That was went she originally lost the fetus, but daily work and stress, along with the stress from the short sprint she did caused her to bleed out. The amount of blood she lost caused her to faint, which is why she was unresponsive. We have stabilized her but we want to keep her in here for a night for observation."
"Ok."
"Would you like you see her? She's awake."
"Yes, of course." Grissom said starting to walk to her room. Without even turning around he asked, "Does she know?"
"We told her about what happened. I don't think she even knew that she was pregnant."
Arriving at her room, unsure about what to say, walking in to see the tear stains on her cheeks.
"Sara…" getting her attention, and moving closer to her bed. "How are you holding up?"
"How do you think I am holding up Gil?" Sara snapped at him.
"I know why you are crying, but I don't understand why you are angry with me." Grissom paused, taking hold of her hand. "Sara, did you know that you were pregnant?"
She cast her eyes away from his face before responding, "No." not willing to elaborate on the subject.
Sitting on the side of her bed, Grissom reached over and took her body in his arms, embracing her.
Breaking into sobs, she leaned into his embrace, welcoming the warmth his body brought to her.
The ringing of Grissom's cell phone cut through not only the silence but also the embrace.
"Grissom."
"Hi Gil, it's Mel, Sara left a post-it note on my forehead saying that you two were called into work and that she wanted me to call."
"Oh ok, hold on, she is right here." Coving the mouth piece and glaring at Sara, "You put a post-it note on Mel's forehead?"
"Yeah, I did," smiling when she saw his curious facial expression. Taking the phone from his hands, "Hi Mel, what are you doing up in the middle of the night?"
"I went to bed around, what 8?"
"Yeah you did."
"You really thought that I was going to sleep the whole night?"
"No I didn't. Ok, here's the deal, we are stuck at work on this case, so I am putting you in charge. We have no idea when we are going to get home." Sara paused, thinking if she should say anything to Mel about being in the hospital, dismissing the thought the moment it came to her. "So I am going to need you to get up in the morning and get Maria ready for school. Is that ok, or do you want me or Gil to come home to get her ready?"
"I can handle it. It's not any different from when I did it when we lived with our father."
"Ok, can you call Gil if you have any problems; I think I left my cell phone in the car." Sara lied. She knew she left it at the lab. She just didn't want to worry Mel.
"Ok, I'm going to read, Maria is still asleep, she'll probably sleep through the whole night."
"Ok, have fun, and thank you." Sara said and then hung up the phone. Looking back at Grissom, "What?"
"You didn't tell Mel that you were in the hospital, why?" Grissom wondered.
"Griss, I don't want to worry her and Maria, they're just getting use to our routine, if I throw this in then it's going to hit hard. I don't want them to worry. If Maria is anything like Mel, then she won't go to school if she knew that I was here." Gesturing to the room she is in. "I will be out of here tomorrow, so there shouldn't be a problem. When I get back home, I will tell both of them. Ok?" Sara said, putting her hands on his face. But he was the one to lean in and capture her lips.
"Ecklie, it all makes sense now, Angela had been adopted by the Belmont's when she was six years old. That is why Maria didn't have any alleles in common with the samples that Mr. and Mrs. Belmont had provided us years ago at a case in a casino."
"Good work Greg, keep up the good work." Ecklie commented walking away.
"Sara was the one that found it, I just connected the dots. She did too."
"Greg, take a compliment." Ecklie paused turning around, "After your break can you go help the guys with the car?"
"Sure, why not?" Greg responded rolling his eyes.
"Grissom."
"It's Ecklie, is Sara okay?"
"Yeah, she going to be in the hospital overnight, but they are going to release her tomorrow."
"Ok, well can you come in a work, I need someone to help process the car. We need as many hands on deck today that we can. A fresh set of eyes might do the guys some good."
"Ecklie, we can't have everyone in there processing, there isn't enough room." Grissom explained.
"Yes, well that's why I am thinking of allowing one CSI to go home if you come back. And after 2 hours, that CSI comes back, and a different one goes home to rest. That way we have fresh set of eyes every two hours."
"Ecklie, for once, you have a good idea, and for the first time, I am agreeing with you."
"So you'll come in?"
"Yes, I'll be there within the hour." And with that Grissom hung up his phone, and walked back into Sara's room.
"Hey."
"You're awake." Grissom stated sounding surprised.
"Yeah, your cell phone woke me."
"Oh, I thought I got it in time before it woke you, I guess not."
"You have to go back to the lab don't you?" Sara asked, casting her eyes down to the bottom of her bed.
"Yeah, it's only fair to give the guys so time to rest."
"True." Sara still sounded sad, and it broke Grissom's heart to know that he was causing the sadness in her.
Moving closer to her, Grissom took her hand, "Sara look at me," Sara obeyed, "I'll be back here in the morning to pick you up, and I'll stay with you at home until I have to get back to the lab. I'm putting you on medical leave for 3 days, which means no working from home either. I want you well rested for when you come back to work."