Disclaimer: I would love to own CSI and these characters, but it's quite obvious that I don't!
The shift had been manageable, but hard none the less with Sara and Grissom out, and following the demanding triple they worked trying to rescue Sara. But, when the call from Grissom came, no one thought twice about not coming up. Greg was the first one there, bringing his famous coffee to the couple.
Greg was Sara's closest friend in the lab, and the two had even flirted with a romantic relationship, more from his side than hers, but had ultimately settled on true friendship. Greg had noticed the lingering touches between them, the subtle looks. He saw that she was happy. He just knew. But, he never confronted her with it; he was more content to think maybe it wasn't reallytrue. Walking into her hospital room, he was hit with the new reality. Sara reached up for a hug; however, he froze and instead looked over to Grissom.
"Greg, don't look at him, I need a hug!" He nervously complied, but Sara realized how different this would be from now on. Grissom just shook his head.
Nick and Warrick came right behind him, doughnuts and muffins in hand. They arrived together and clearly felt uncomfortable with this new dynamic. Their greetings were forced and awkward. Nick was unusually quiet; contemplating his boss with his coworker and friend as lovers produced a shudder. It was a feeling not unlike a kid gets finally acknowledging that his parents actually have sex. This was going to take some getting used to. He glanced over at Greg who was plastered against the far wall. He's not handling this much better than me!
The conversation was mostly superficial, questions about how Sara was feeling from them, and questions about how they ran the search from her. Nobody could go too deep.
Brass blew in with flowers in hand, and wasted no time in planting a kiss on Sara's forehead, "Thank God, Sara, you even had me mighty scared, girl!" The guys shared a quick glance; they all noticed the ease with which he approached Sara, especially with Grissom watching. He already knew about those two! Brass immediately began quizzing Sara on her ordeal, looking on with a sympathetic, fatherly face. He was open about the angst in the lab while she was missing. The conversation gradually opened up.
Nick and Warrick described how it was processing Natalie's apartment, without too much detail of Sara's pictures obsessively placed throughout. Warrick quizzed Sara on her escape from the trunk, "That's my girl, Uh, huh! I told ya'll!" he gushed, as he made the raise the roof move with his hands. She smiled; the camaraderie they shared was slowly coming back.
Sara wanted to hear details of how she had been found, and really tried to keep the conversation going back to that. She was not enjoying describing her ordeal. In fact, each telling of it was starting to haunt her a bit. Their natural penchant for details meant they had lots of questions for her, however.
Catherine finally finished the shift up and headed over. She made time to pick up some fine body lotion for Sara knowing what the desert does to skin. The minute she entered the room she picked up on some of the tension present within the team and suggested that Gil go take a break since they were all there.
"I'm not leaving until she does," he answered firmly. Eyebrows went up around the room.
She took a deep breath and asked him to step outside with her. He reluctantly complied with a nod of approval from Sara.
"So, guys," Sara heaved a heavy sigh, "Was there really a miniature of me under the car?"
"Whew," Nick blew out.
"It was totally creepy," Warrick added.
"The only thing that didn't completely devastate us all was the little doll's hand was moving, telling us you were alive," said Greg.
"Gil's been a little evasive about it all," she mused, "I guess it hit a little too close to home."
They looked at each other again, not used to hearing Sara refer to Grissom as "Gil."
"It was rough in more ways than one, girl," Warrick shook his head, "you better never leave that man, I'm not sure we could handle it." And they all laughed.
Brass added, "I've never seen him so lost, but somehow he still managed to work to find you. Thinking about it now, having that to focus on probably got him through it."
"Seriously, Sar, he's got it for you bad! He told us so when we were studying the miniature, I don't even think he knew what he was saying or who he was saying it to," Nick declared, "Anyway, when did all that happen, and right under our noses?"
Sara opened her mouth to answer, but couldn't figure out how to. She finally grinned and shook her head.
"And if we didn't see it, how did that nutcase in janitorial pick up on it?" added Warrick.
Sara smiled, "We made a conscious effort to keep our relationship in the lab strictly professional, but outside of it, well, if you were a stalker….which I'm pretty sure none of you is…..then it wouldn't be hard to see," she shrugged.
Nick shuddered with the thought of being stalked, "Well, I'm just glad it wasn't your day, you know?" Taking her hand, he fought back tears, and she just nodded in understanding. The ice was thawing, and the team was returning to their comfort zone, aided by Grissom's exit, of course.
Meanwhile in the hallway, Catherine chided Grissom, "Gil, this knight in shining armor routine is not really necessary, Sara's rescued now, ya know, Natalie's locked up."
Grissom just shook his head and softly responded, "Lurie's her doctor, I can't risk leaving her alone here."
"Wait a minute, that doctor that we suspected killed the young nurse that dumped him, and then chopped up the new boyfriend?"
"Yes, the nurse that looked like a clone of Sara. The DA never filed charges, he didn't feel we had enough on him."
"Gil, how did this happen?"
"Supposedly a coincidence."
"OK, well now I understand why you don't want to leave," she sighed.
"This morning I was able to confront him, and I insisted he transfer off her case, but I don't know….I just don't trust him."
"You still need a break, I promise I'll stay, and at least one of the guys, you can trust us with that," she reassured him with a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll run it past her, make sure she's comfortable with it," he complied. "Do me a favor, don't mention this to the others, especially Brass, we might end up with an armed militia at her door."
"Oh, and Gil," Catherine added, "When you're at the lab, you probably want to avoid Ecklie. He's been on quite a tear over you two."
Rolling his eyes, "Thanks, for the warning, but mostly thanks for sparing me the details." Hearing how Ecklie was on a fishing expedition for dirt on him and Sara was not what he wanted to hear about just now, but he would heed the warning and avoid the man.
Meanwhile, in another area of the hospital, Vincent Lurie breezed into Radiology between surgeries, "Where is Dr. Harris, he paged me?"
"He's in his office, sir, reading films, just around that corner," replied the receptionist.
Ever polite, "Thank you, I know where it is."
"So, Tom, what's so urgent you wanted to go over films with me in person?"
"Hey, Vince, thanks for stopping in. This is one of those potentially sticky issues, and I didn't want to risk this report slipping through the cracks," the radiologist replied.
"OK, what ya got?"
"Your patient, the police woman…."
"Actually, she's a CSI, and soon to be off my service, but continue."
"Whatever, well anyway, she apparently went through a horrific ordeal with an abduction, right? Are you sure that's when she sustained this left arm fracture?"
"Well, um, up to this point we've had no reason to question it."
"OK, well, the ER ordered X-rays of practically every bruise on her body looking for occult injuries."
"So you found something?"
"Nothing acute, but check this out," Dr. Harris said as he flipped several switches illuminating multiple films. "These are all films on your patient, Sara Sidle."
"Jesus, Tom, somebody really went over this gal," he said grimacing.
"Yep, now they are all old fractures, completely healed, I can't pinpoint the age, but the location and number, along with an acute fracture, well, they are highly suspicious for physical abuse. There is almost no way this happened with a single event, car wreck for example. Nope, this is much more ominous. You know the law now; you have to at least get social services to look into it, if not LVPD."
"Whew, no kidding when you said potentially sticky."
"What's her social history?"
"She dates her boss in the crime lab, who is a very domineering, controlling type," he said shaking his head. "He might just end up being a problem, but, don't worry, I'm calling social services personally, we'll get rolling on it, Thanks for the heads up!"
Lurie practically skipped out of the radiology department he was so elated. Trying to settle down, he had to think. He had to present this information to a social worker in such a way to at least cast suspicion on Grissom. It might take some spin, but with his normally slick delivery he was more than capable. Let him feel what it's like to be the accused. It was certainly possible. While there was no doubt Sara had been abducted and left for dead in the desert, there had been no proof that she broke her arm during the ordeal. And the old fractures must have happened over a period of years, but surely they had been together that long; the power of attorney thing, the same address. This might just work! And, I've got the law on my side. Just then Lurie got an even brighter gleam in his eye. What if Grissom really did this? The doorway into Sara's life just opened a tiny bit, but he was going to try with all his might to keep it from closing.
TBC……