A/N: Art of Dying (band) was the music that fueled this very crappy chapter. I want to skip ahead to recovered Grissom. Plz remember while I'm Dr. i'm not that type of Dr. So I have no idea what I am talking about with medical stuff.
Chapter 15 Get Through This
Sara arrived on scene well after the bank siege had been finished. She used her ID to get through to the actual scene.
"Where are they keeping the witnesses?" Sara asked the rookie standing with the clipboard to sign into the scene.
"Over in the tent." The cop said pointing out the location.
"Thank you." Sara said knowing whatever the rookie new would be hearsay and she wanted to see with her own eyes. She said a little prayer that she would find Grissom sitting in the tent alive and well.
Rushing over to the tent, no one stopped her. Once she got to the tent she ran into her first obstacle. And FBI agent stood outside not allowing anyone inside.
"I need to get inside." Sara said trying to look over the woman's shoulder into see if she could see Grissom among the many witness that were sitting at various tables being interviewed by multiple agents.
"And you are?"
"Sara Sidle, Las Vegas CSI." Sara said showing her bade to the FBI agent.
"Shouldn't you be in the bank with the others?" The agent asked trying to understand why Sara needed to be in the tent so badly.
"I…" Sara stopped because she was going to lie and decided the truth was best, "I had a friend in the bank. Another local CSI was in the bank when…"
"He is not in the tent." The FBI agent said watching emotions flash across the woman before her face. Sadness, anger, and then back to professional in a matter of seconds.
"Is he dead?"
"He was taken to the hospital ma'am." The FBI agent decided it was not her place to notify family or friends of any condition of the injured who had been carted off to the hospital.
"Is LVPD Homicide Detective Jim Brass here?" Sara asked hoping the woman might know. She would likely need to go back to the clipboard rookie to get a definitive answer.
"No. He left with the ambulance."
"Was he injured?" Sara asked now worried about Brass as well as Grissom.
"I do not believe ma'am." The agent said shifting uncomfortably. She did not want to notify this woman, it was not her place, and she was not good at that sort of thing. That was why she was standing outside the tent.
"Ok thanks." Sara said leaving the woman alone. She grabbed her cell phone and called Catherine to see if she knew more.
Catharine answered on the second ring, "Willows"
"Is Grissom alive?"
"He is in surgery now. We are at the hospital."
"Brass is with you?"
"Yes. He was first on the scene with Grissom."
"How bad is it?" Sara asked shaking as she rushed back to her car.
"You need to get to the lab." Catherine said, "Get everyone on task."
"Bullshit. No one is going to want to work tonight." Sara said, "Grissom is injured. Eckile will understand."
"Sara." Catherine felt her patience wearing thin, "We need to work."
"We, while you stay at the hospital." Sara snapped angry that Catherine felt like she had a right to stay with Grissom more than anyone else.
Brass heard the conversation and indicated to Catherine that he wanted the phone, "Sara it's Brass."
"How bad is it Brass?" Sara asked getting behind the wheel of her car.
"It's not good kid." Brass said, "He was shot twice, arm and abdomen. The abdomen is the worse. It looked like he took a good beating too. The doctors are doing everything they can."
"I need to be there Brass." Sara said feeling tears reach her eyes, but she pushed them back. She was not going to cry, not now.
"I know." Brass said, "I'll talk with Catharine."
"Has anyone notified his mom?" Sara asked remembering Grissom mother was still very much alive.
"Not yet."
"Do you have her number?"
"No, and it's not in his phone."
"Where would he keep it?" Sara asked trying to be proactive.
"In his address book. He kept one at his house."
"I'll pick it up on my way to the hospital." Sara said making a turn to get on the road that would lead her to Grissom's place. "Has anyone told the team?"
"No. Catherine can when she goes back to the lab." Brass said seeing Catherine scowl at him.
"I should be there in twenty minutes. Let me know if anything changes before I get there." Sara said hoping that Grissom would make it that long. By the sound of Brass's voice she knew it was bad, that this could be the end of the man she had come to care about, and maybe love.
"Who put you in charge of the lab?" Catherine asked her hands on her hips angry at Brass for making a decision he had no right to make.
"Grissom was asking for Sara before they carted him off." Brass said, "If he wakes up, he will want her here. The two have been getting closer."
"I know." Catherine said, "She has had a crush on him and Grissom is too Grissom to know how to act on his feelings for her or to even recognize he has feelings for her."
"Then lets help them by having her here." Brass said, "Plus you are the best to help work the scene and do you really want to spend your time here when the lab needs you?"
"Keep me updated on him. I expect a call at least once an hour with information." Catherine said giving in to Brass's reasoning.
==================================
It was only an hour before sunrise when a doctor came to speak with Sara and Brass. Sara spent the entire time it took for the doctor to ask them to follow him to a private conference room to discuss Grissom, studying the doctor to see if she was going to give them good news or bad news. The invitation to the private conference room did not bode well. They took people who lost a loved one to private areas to give them time to recover from the shock away from everyone else.
Once inside Sara could not wait anymore, "Is he alive?"
"Yes." The doctor said, "Please take a seat."
"How is he Doc?" Brass asked happy for Sara's outburst because he had expected the worse as well.
"He is alive and in recovery right now." The doctor answered, "We had to remove his spleen. The bullet to his abdomen did a lot of internal damage, but with time he should recover. We spent the vast majority of the surgery repairing the damage from the abdomen wound. The bullet to his shoulder clipped his collar bone, and there is a lot of soft tissue damage. He should recover full motion of the shoulder with physical therapy."
"So he is going to be ok?" Sara asked not sure if that is what the doctor was saying.
"He sustained many other injuries. He was beaten. His skull was fractured. He is bleeding into his brain. The neuro team are treating him first by thickening his blood. We are concerned because he recently started blood thinners according to our records."
"He did, he was here just a few days ago with a TIA."
"We saw that in his chart. The issue with thickening his blood is that it could cause another TIA, a heart attack, and possibly a stroke depending on where the clot is formed."
"What is the probability of that happening?" Brass asked.
"WE don't know for certain. We are keeping him under close observation. We are hoping that thickening his blood will quickly stop the bleeding into the brain, and we can stop treatment."
"Is there any brain damage?" Sara asked knowing that the tissue that makes up the brain did not like blood, in fact blood would kill brain tissue.
"We won't know until he wakes up." The doctor said, "Which should be within the next hour or so we hope once the anesthesia wears off."
The doctor continued to list Grissom's injuries, "He has two broken ribs, and quite a few bruised ones. There are contusions and scratches and cuts that had to be treated. He has twenty stitches where it looked like he was pistol whipped right above his eyebrow and another fifty on the back of his head."
"Anything else?" Brass asked sarcastically, but also surprised he had not noticed these wounds on Grissom having sat next to him for what seemed forever waiting for the ambulance. Brass was trained to not let his emotions take over, but seeing his friend bleeding profusely seemed to have short circuit that training.
"Dr. Grissom is lucky to be alive." The doctor said, "He has a long recovery ahead of him."