Ok, I am so sorry for the delay. Term has just started at Uni so I have been really busy and I didn't have internet for two weeks in my new house (blame stupid student accommodation and lazy internet men!) Anyway, please, please, please review.
Fragility
Chapter 4
Between the two of them, Catherine and the nurse managed to manoeuvre Grissom into a nearby chair. He took a couple of deep breaths, watching his hands shake. "What are you doing? How are you treating her?"
"She is being treated with aggressive antibiotics to kill the bacteria and we're giving her steroids to reduce the swelling in her brain. She is on a ventilator to assist with her breathing and we're giving her fluids. All we can do at the moment is treat the symptoms and support her body to give it a chance to recover."
Grissom opened his mouth to ask about the prognosis but didn't think he could stand to hear the answer, sometimes ignorance really was bliss.
"Can I go back in and sit with her?"
The nurse nodded. "Of course."
Grissom stood, his legs still shaking slightly, and walked back into the room, resuming his place beside her.
Catherine took out her cell phone to contact Doc Robbins. "You can't use that in here." The nurse said with an apologetic look on her face. "There's a phone on the desk just down the corridor, you can use that."
"Thanks." Catherine said as she turned quickly to leave.
"Doc, I'm sorry did I wake you?" Catherine asked as soon as he answered.
"It's ok. Has something happened?"
"Sara has got worse. She had another seizure. They've got her on a ventilator, said that she had 'significant swelling' in her brain."
There was silence for a second while he digested this information. "I'm coming to Desert Palms now. I won't be long."
Catherine closed her eyes. "Thanks Al."
She returned to wait outside the room, watching as Grissom held Sara's hand tenderly, his eyes never leaving her face.
Catherine heard Al's voice down the corridor thirty minutes later. She followed the sound, until she saw him talking to the doctor.
He turned to her as the doctor walked away.
"It's bad, isn't it?" She asked in an unusually small voice.
"It's serious, yes." He replied nodding slightly. "Catherine, you might want to call the team in, let them know that she's deteriorated. I think they'd want to be here, don't you?"
She nodded trying not to think about the implications of what he was saying. She couldn't stand the thought that the team might need to be here to say goodbye to their friend.
She returned to the phone she had used previously while Doc Robbins quietly opened the door to Sara's room.
She dialled Brass's number first.
"Brass."
"Jim, it's Catherine."
"Is Sara ok?" Catherine had told him that she was planning on returning to the hospital as soon as she had taken Lindsey to school.
"No. She's worse. Al Robbins is here, he thinks that the team need to come in."
"Shit. Do you want me to call everyone else?"
"Please, Jim. Get here as soon as possible."
Catherine hung up the phone and returned to stand outside Sara's room. She watched Grissom and Al talk, unable to hear their words.
Al appeared to be talking while Grissom watched Sara's chest rise and fall.
---
"Tell me the truth Al. What's going to happen?"
"One of three things is going to happen, Gil. She might recover completely. She might recover with some permanent damage or disability. Or she might not recover at all."
Grissom closed his eyes, feeling the tears pooling beneath his eyelids, he had never been this close to breaking down before.
"What are the chances?"
"That's not something that I can say. There are too many factors involved."
Grissom sighed. He was a scientist, he was used to having the answers.
"Catherine's contacting the rest of the team. I think they should be here."
Grissom nodded. "Yeah," he said closing his eyes again, "they should be here."
"Look Gil, don't give up hope. Sara's strong."
---
Brass called the rest of the team in turn, waking each up from restless sleep for the news they least wanted to hear.
Nick arrived first, he lived closest to the hospital and so had a shorter distance to travel. "Cath," he called down the corridor when he saw her, "what's going on? Brass didn't say much on the phone."
"She's got worse Nicky." Catherine said, standing up and walking towards him.
"She's going to be ok though, isn't she." He couldn't even think about the alternative.
Catherine said nothing but that was all the answer he needed.
"Can we see her?"
Catherine shook her head. "Grissom and Doc Robbins are in with her at the moment. I don't think that they'll let us it, meningitis is contagious."
"I don't care, I want to see her. I don't give a stuff if I catch it." He said aggressively.
"I know Nicky but I can't force them to let us in."
"But they've let Grissom in."
"Yeah but I think they're might be more going on between Grissom and Sara than any of us realised."
It took a moment for Catherine's meaning to settle in. "Oh. You mean they're..."
"I think it's safe to say that Grissom is probably Sara's emergency contact."
"Oh." Nick said again, unable to believe that he could have missed something so big.
Greg came hurrying down the corridor seconds later, his hair was sticking up and it was obvious that he hadn't stopped to look in the mirror before leaving for the hospital. "How is she?"
"She's deteriorated." Catherine said to Greg gently.
"But they can treat meningitis, I know they can, I watched a documentary about it."
"They are treating her, they're giving her antibiotics, but it is serious Greg."
"Can we see her?" He asked, repeating Nick's question from only moments ago.
"Grissom is in with her at the moment."
"What about when he's done?"
"I'm not sure, meningitis is contagious, I don't think they'll let us in."
"But we've already been exposed to it working with her, another few minutes isn't going to do us any harm."
"Yeah, I suppose so. We'll ask later."
Brass and Warrick came down the corridor together.
"Has there been any change?" Jim asked Catherine.
"Not since I called you."
"How's Grissom?" Warrick asked, maintaining a calmer attitude than Nick and Greg managed.
"Scared." Catherine answered honestly.
Nick moved past Catherine to look through the window in the door to Sara's room.
He watched Grissom as he held Sara's hand gently in his own. He could see Al talking to Grissom but he didn't seem to be listening. Then he refocused his gaze on Sara, lying pale and lifeless in the bed. He realised then the seriousness of Sara's condition and the possibility that she really could die.