Disclaimer: I wish I was more clever with these things, but, I just want to borrow these incredible characters for a visit in between episodes. I don't own nuthin'.
When she was gone, they were actually alone in the room. The menagerie of personnel had miraculously disbanded and taken their wild cacophony of sounds with the exception of the lonely blip from the monitor with every one of Sara's heart beats. Gil moved his chair around to her side and positioned his face right in front of her cupping her cheek in one hand, and reaching for her hand with the other. For the longest time, neither spoke, but just took in the moment. Finally Grissom muttered, "All this time waiting to talk to you, and," shaking his head, "I'm without words right now."
"Not even a quotation to fit the moment?" she softly spoke in reply.
His lip quivering, "God knows, I was a mess wondering what you were going through, worrying about you." He gently kissed her lips, "I love you, Sara, I love you. I've never known love before, it's so…" He paused, searching for the right word, "powerful." His eyes scanned her battered face, the evidence of her ordeal so glaring it continued to stir his raw emotions which were normally so neatly contained.
"It's the only thing I'm truly afraid of," he said with a sheepish grin and wet eyes.
Sara was overwhelmed with his expression of love. It was all she could do not to cry, but she was losing the battle, as she opened her mouth in reply, words didn't come right away, a few whimpers, then, "I love you, more."
They tried to embrace, but it was awkward and difficult around everything they had attached to her. In their attempt they managed to do little more than to set of some awful alarms, but fortunately they were so offending that help was there promptly to reset them. A young nurse smiled, and then quickly let them be.
"Sara," Grissom started in slowly, "did you know that was Natalie?"
"Yes," she swallowed hard, and then continued, "I just guessed it was her, and then in the car I tried to talk to her. That's when I knew for sure."
"You know what? We got her the night you went missing."
Sara's face showed her shock, "What! Is that how you found me?"
"No, she was on the verge of psychotic break, she couldn't tell us what color the sky was, much less anything useful." He took a deep breath and continued, "Do you know why she did this to you?"
"I think so, why, what do you know about it?"
"I believe she was trying to exact a measure of revenge on me for taking away Ernie Dell. That's what made this even more unbearable, knowing what you were going through, and that it was all because of me."
"You have to stop thinking that!" Sara was now trying to sit up, but she became dizzy and gave up. "You did not cause this to happen. Natalie is the most broken, messed up, evil girl on the planet. What she did, she did on her own."
He nodded unconvinced. There was a silence in the air while they both pondered the motive. Finally, he had to know, "what did she say to you?"
Struggling with what to tell him, she shuddered, and finally spoke, "the creepiest thing I've ever heard, 'Grissom could never love you as much as Ernie loved me.'"
Grissom was frozen in stunned disbelief. "Did you actually get a miniature?" Sara continued.
All he could do was nod, and try to caress her. Words failed him once again in the wake of Sara's quote of Natalie's twisted logic. Meanwhile, Ms. Bursen blew back in with a cart full of supplies ready to get to work.
Everything the salty old nurse had told him had been right on the mark, so he tried to prepare himself for what was likely to be a painful ordeal for Sara, and therefore incredibly hard for him to watch. As the morphine took hold, Dr. Rigby swooped back in, manipulated the fracture, causing Sara to wince and groan, and Grissom's stomach to lurch in that now familiar fashion. Quickly casting it, then gone again, Ms. Bursen started in with sterile brushes, sponges, gauze, and even tweezers to get all the embedded crud out of Sara's abrasions. Then she went over all of them with disinfectant solution and more gauze. All Grissom could do was try to distract her, and try like all hell not to puke again seeing his loved one's pain.
Once it was over, everyone was wrung out. Even the experienced RN was taking a deep sigh and shaking her head, relieved to be finished. "I don't think there's anything here Dr. Rigby needs to put stitches in. I think we can steri-strip that cheek laceration. I'm going to find a clean gown for her, but you really need to go get refreshed and get her things. You can be waiting in her room after the X-Rays are done. I suggest some fresh flowers in your hand," she smiled and patted his sagging shoulder.
Sara looked up through eyes gone bleary with exhaustion and morphine, "Gil?"
"I don't want to leave you, but this woman has been remarkably accurate in telling me what's going to happen," he looked down, "she even told me I would puke or pass out in here."
"She predicted that. Wow, maybe you should listen to her," Sara admonished as her voice trailed off and her eyelids sagged.
"She'll be fine, honey, now don't you forget my steak dinner!" and she left him to say good-bye.
Grissom's good bye was mostly non-verbal, but it said everything. It was all he could do to leave, but he knew it would be best to be waiting just as Ms. Bursen recommended when Sara got to her hospital room.
Emerging out of the ER, taking in the evening air, it dawned on him; he rode in on a helicopter, now what?
Pulling out his cell phone and dialing, "Catherine, it's Gil."
"Gil! What the heck is happening, we've been waiting for your call! All Ecklie would say is that Sara woke up, but that you took over and we'd have to get updates from you."
"Ecklie? What are you talking about?"
"Ecklie was at the hospital registering Sara and waiting for the chopper to arrive to report back on her condition, but he didn't stay long and did a lousy job it you ask me."
Grissom was stunned.
"Are you telling me you didn't even see him?"
The other end of the line was silent, "Gil!"
Grissom stomach was already in knots, now he was having trouble just breathing. What did he see, where was he?
Finally, he softly replied "Catherine, I never saw him at the hospital, but I'll bet he saw Sara and me together. He must know, and I'll bet he's pissed."
"Gil, don't beat yourself up about it now, gossip was working its way around the lab pretty fast, everyone was suspicious, he was bound to find out. By the way, where are you?"
"Ah, yes, I'm at the hospital, but I need a ride, I'll update you on Sara's condition if you can come and get me."
"I'm actually already on the way, but in the meantime, call one of the guys with an update, we were all going crazy worrying about her!"
Meanwhile, at the nurses station, Ms. Bursen was checking the surgeon's call rotation, and began to dial the phone, "Hello, This is Deana Bursen in Desert Palms ER. I have a consult for Dr. Lurie from Dr. Rigby. The patient's name is Sara Sidle, she's currently in the ER, but will be going to room 3702 after radiology. The consult reads, 'for management of dehydration, shock, heat stroke, and fractured ulna/radius following multiple trauma, possible occult injury, and concussion."
"Thank you, we'll forward this to Dr. Lurie, he's at the hospital rounding with his team now, so he'll get by tonight."
"Great, Thank you."
TBC...
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews!