Disclaimer: Nothing's changed since I wrote chapter one.
Grissom, relieved to have an errand to do, was back at the nurses' station, politely asking "Who has Ms. Sidle in 3702?"
"That would be Doris, Doris," she called over the intercom, "you're wanted at the desk!"
Doris rounded the counter, looking like a sizable woman to be reckoned with, she cocked her head, and in an irritated tone, "What can I do for you?"
Gil took in a deep breath. Once glimpse of Doris, and he knew who was boss around here. "Well, the patient in 3702 is in desperate need of a bath."
"Don't worry, Mr….?"
"Grissom"
"Mr. Grissom, do you have a first name?"
"Gilbert"
"OK, Gilbert. Let me explain it this way. The man in 3754 is having what looks to be a heart attack. I'm trying to get his butt over to ICU. Heart attack trumps dirty hair any day. But, rest assured, once I get this him out of here, your honey is gonna shine brighter than a new penny!" Doris had an interesting way of expressing herself.
Grissom smiled, and retreated back to Sara's room. "I think that when they do finally clean you, you might lose a layer of skin," Grissom said with a smirk.
Catherine smiled and embraced Sara once more as she said her goodbyes. "I'm off to hold down the fort."
Gil was getting quite comfortable next to Sara when Doris flew in the room with a cart full of supplies.
"Here's how it's gonna work. Sara, can he help me get you clean?"
Looking a bit startled, "Yes, of course," as she looked to Grissom and they both shrugged.
Doris went about turning Sara up on her side. She started on her face, neck, arm, and went down the right half of her body. As Gil predicted, she was thorough, not only was no dirt left on Sara, but a bit of skin might have gone as well. Doris then stripped that half of the bed, rolling the sheets under her. She made the bed with clean sheets, and rolled them up right next to the dirty roll in the center of the bed. Then she rolled Sara's clean side over onto the clean sheets and proceeded to clean the left side. Gil had to work to keep her broken arm supported, but Doris worked around that. She was remarkably adept at avoiding the abrasions. Doris barked orders at Gil to keep the process rolling, and he complied dutifully. Throughout the process, Sara had to lose all modesty; Doris was serious about getting every inch of her clean. Doris then pulled the clean sheets across the bed, and let a clean Sara lay back on the clean sheet, wearing nothing but dressings and a cast, and definitely without so much as a spec of dirt, as she slid on a clean gown. Sara was thanking Doris profusely, unable to remember when just being clean felt so good. Grissom was taken by the efficiency of the process. Doris managed to get a whole lot of desert off of Sara all while confined to a bed. Next was the hair. Just then, the nurse's station buzzed in the room looking for Doris, "ICU's got some questions on your transfer!"
"Oh, Sugah, your hair job is gonna have to wait." Looking at Grissom, "Unless your honey here wants to tackle it," she smirked as she walked out.
Sara watched as Grissom rubbed his chin in thought, "Gil," she was shaking her head, "please, I've already had one near drowning today, can't this wait 'til she comes back?"
"She's brought in everything we need; I think I know how she's gonna do it."
"Honey, I've got a bad feeling about this!" but it was too late. Grissom was rifling through the bag for her shampoos.
"Do you have anything for the tangles?" he questioned excitedly.
"That yellow bottle should work pretty well after the shampoo." She answered nervously.
He proceeded to position the large tub on the cart filling two pitchers with warm water. He then adjusted the bed to a level just above the tub; he helped Sara position her head off the bed over the tub, which was quite a feat with the traction and the cast. He started to pour the warm water over her which produced multiple sighs of satisfaction from her. It felt so good after that filth had practically melded to her scalp. Things got touch and go when Gil got so distracted with all the stuff floating off her scalp that he almost let the tub tip over, but he quickly recovered and refocused. He repeated the process, over and over, dumping the tub and refilling the pitchers. He shampooed her hair with loving tenderness that she had hardly experienced in her troubled life. Finally, it was the yellow bottle's turn. It was the best smelling stuff, "So this is your secret scent," Gil said as he took in a deep breath. Sara just smiled as she took in the moment and savored it. After the final rinse, he toweled her off, and shuddered to think he had almost lost this treasure in his life.
Doris blew back in, "Gilbert! I was only kidding!" She looked over the scene, and the completed job, then winking at Sara, "He's a keeper, girlfriend," and left with the cart and used supplies.
Grinning wide and feeling quite proud of himself, "Do you think you can sleep?" he asked her, while absently playing with the armband on her wrist. As he twirled the ID bracelet, he glimpsed the information it contained, her name, her birth date, a hospital number, and, at the bottom, her admitting physician's name.
"I would think so, except my arm's starting to throb again, I might need a pain pill or something."
She looked up to see Grissom's face turning pale with a rare look of confusion as he glared at the ID bracelet. He just ran out of the room. I hate it when he does that! Hopefully he's getting me some medicine.
He found the nurse alright, but inquired instead about the doctor's name on Sara's bracelet, the man assigned to take care of Sara.
Doris answered, "Dr. Lurie, yes, that's her doctor, but don't worry, he's one of the best, rest assured."
"But, that's impossible….that's not who I spoke to, it was a ….Dr. , um Bradley?"
"Oh, you mean Dr. Braily, he's Dr. Lurie's chief resident. The pick of the litter, if you ask me." She looked up from the chart she was working on, "Gilbert, you don't look so good, Hon, is there something wrong?"
He shook his head, "When will Dr. Lurie be by?"
Doris shrugged, "Well, they already left orders for her overnight care, I'll bet they'll be by early to check her, and if all's well, start discontinuing some of this stuff." Trying to read him, she inquired, "Why?"
"I need to see him," he smiled a humorless smile, "that's all."
As he turned back to Sara's room, Doris called out to him, "Hey, just a minute, how's Sara's pain doing, that morphine should be long gone?"
"Oh, right, um, yes, she'd like something for that." He replied sheepishly, feeling a little ashamed he forgot about her pain.
Vincent Lurie was the prime suspect in a double murder with one victim who bore such an amazing resemblance to Sara that it was quite disturbing to Grissom. The man was the only one who had motive and skills to pull off such a passionate crime, but they couldn't find the evidence to seal the deal. Much later, in one of their heart to heart talks during the onset of their relationship, Sara confessed that she watched the interrogation of the doctor, and how it crushed her to hear Grissom's confession that his job was too important to him to risk a relationship with her. That was one of the biggest issues he had to reconcile for her before she would let him in. Even so, he wasn't sure how good a look she got of Vincent Lurie that day. He had been seated with his back to the viewing glass. He wasn't even sure Sara would recognize that name; he had tried his best to keep her out of that case. He decided to take a chance she didn't know him; she'd been through enough, he would handle this by himself in the morning.
He returned to her room, "Did you find my nurse?"
"Yes, she's bringing you something," he said as he tried to figure out how in the world they could sleep in this cold, hard, hospital room. Especially now that he knew Dr. Vincent Lurie had been at her side…and would be returning.
TBC…..