Nearly there…..Thankyou again to all the people who sent through a review. They are all very much appreciated.

Catherine and Grissom followed Nick's surgeon through the entry door to the intensive care unit. It was a large central work area with individual rooms leading from it all separated from the main area with giant perspex walls.

They headed towards a corner room with a large number 8 stencilled on the outside wall.

"Just a few minutes, alright?"

Both nodded in agreement and moved to stand at the foot of the bed while the surgeon went to the work desk at the side of the room, sorted through several charts, then took one and went back out to the main work area.

Grissom remained at the foot of the bed and sighed as Catherine made her way to the side of the bed and reached out to take one of Nick's limp hands.

There was no response as she squeezed his hand and so she reached out to stroke his hair gently instead. He looked almost as if he were in a peaceful sleep - except for the oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, the central venous catheter sitting alongside his neck which fed intravenous fluids, blood, and antibiotics into his body, drain tubes funnelling bloody fluid from his abdomen, and monitoring equipment attached to his chest, arm and fingers.

Catherine glanced up at Grissom.

"I hope Sara isn't going to protect her brother now." she said bitterly. "Because, I tell you, Gil, if I get to him first I'll kill him."

Sara got the phone call that she had expected but dreaded from Jim Brass an hour after Nick had been stabbed.

Officers had apprehended Alex several blocks from the police station. He was in custody and had been asking to see his sister - and had been denied from Brass himself.

The slight hesitation in Sara's voice was enough to trouble Brass,

"Sara, listen to me." he reinforced - the tone of his voice calm and full of authority. "You are not to come and see him. You understand me."

Sara rubbed a hand across her face - conflicting emotions raging inside her head.

"It's OK, Jim." she said quietly. "It's over. He's all yours."

"Are you OK?" Jim asked tentatively.

There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line before Sara finally replied in a quiet but measured tone.

"No." she said simply. "No, I'm not. But I will be."

Brass ended the call with a knot of concern still deep within his gut. He had known Sara for many years and had been a silent bystander throughout many of her ordeals. He had watched her internalise many cases, had seen her struggle to overcome a growing dependency on alcohol, and had witnessed her self destruct after her abduction and near death experience at the hands of Natalie Davis. He had been relieved, and more than a little surprised, to learn that Grissom and Sara had eventually realised that they were a perfect fit for each other and had thought that, finally, her life had evened out and stabilised. He would be damned if he was going to let some little punk come in and make life hard for her again.

Nick crashed back into consciousness driven forward by his last memory before passing out - that of a white hot pain in his belly and the panicky realisation that he could be dying.

The pain wasn't quite as intense but still kicked at him as he struggled to sit up.

"Nick?"

Catherine's soft voice flittered across the edge of his awareness.

"Sweetie, you need to lie still. Nicky!"

He heard sudden movement next to him and felt a strong hand take his arm and hold it down as he struggled against whatever it was that was stopping him from sitting up.

Then he felt two soft hands cradling his face and heard Catherine's voice again, almost a whisper in his ear.

"Sweetie, open your eyes. It's OK….just open your eyes."

He frowned - partly at the realisation that his eyes were still closed, and partly at the amount of energy it took to force them open. But, finally, his body started responding to his brain and his eyes cracked apart. Blurry images wavered before him and made him feel queasy, before slowly coalescing into the image of Catherine's face - a tight smile of concern pulling at her lips.

"Welcome back." she said softly. "You've had us worried."

Nick blinked several times and was rewarded with a little more focus. He ran his tongue around his dry lips and opened his mouth to speak - frowning again when no words came out.

Catherine moved her right hand a little to stroke his hair gently against his forehead.

"It's OK." she repeated again, "Don't try to talk. You're alright. You're in hospital. But, sweetie, you're hooked up to some lines and some equipment. And you can't pull at them, OK? You'll hurt yourself if you pull at them….you understand me?"

Nick watched Catherine's lips move and could hear her voice - but they didn't match up. He felt dizzy and sick. Closing his eyes tightly against another wave of nausea, he heard Catherine's voice continue.

"Nicky, don't pull at the tubes, OK? Just lie still."

Still with eyes closed, he nodded almost imperceptibly. He took a few steadying breaths and felt the nausea ease off again. The pain in his belly had eased off almost completely and he felt himself relax.

Grissom stood at the edge of the bed, his hand still pinning Nick's arm down at his side. He had reacted quickly as Nick's hand had reached out to grab at the drain tube in his side. He had watched the younger man become increasingly agitated as he got closer to consciousness, pulling at his oxygen mask and tugging at the sheet below him, but it had been the hand grabbing at the drain that had sent him from his plastic seat to his colleagues side in a heartbeat.

Catherine turned her head from Nick, her smile having lost some of it's initial tension, and nodded her head towards Grissom's hand.

"You can let go now. He's out again."

Grissom glanced down as he released his grip. Red finger marks remained.

Sighing, he went back to his hard, plastic seat and sat down heavily. He was starting to feel the effects of no sleep and marvelled at the fact that he had spent so many years living on permanent night duty. He doubted he would have the stamina to go back to that lifestyle.

He watched as Catherine stretched out her back muscles before returning to her seat as well.

It was nothing short of miraculous - and Catherine's ability to convince almost anyone of anything - that they were both still able to sit with him. She had spoken with the medical team about the parental nature of their relationship and how Alex was, at that point, still at large. With the promise of keeping out of the way and not hindering the medical teams in their treatment of their patient, they were allowed to stay.

A nurse appeared and checked over Nick's drains and tubes before recording his blood pressure, pulse and respiration rates on his charts. "He woke up for a minute." Catherine said.

The nurse nodded as she charted his results.

"I saw." she replied as she nodded towards the central work station. "I was caught up on the phone with his surgeon. Was he still groggy?"Catherine nodded.

"He wasn't able to speak, but I think he understood we were here. He settled quickly."

The nurse nodded and leant over to check the plastic dressing across Nick's abdomen.

"Mr Hargraves will be up to review him this evening." The nurse continued. "He's doing pretty well, all things considered. Provided he keeps improving we should be able to get him out of bed tomorrow and probably to a general ward in a couple of days."

Catherine looked slightly stunned by the news.

"That soon?" she asked, shooting a slightly dubious look in Nick's direction.

The nurse smiled back at her.

"Once he wakes up properly from the anaesthetic we can assess his pain relief requirements and wean down the morphine infusion. He should pick up pretty quickly once he gets the drains out and starts moving around."

Catherine and Grissom thanked the nurse as she left the room and both settled back into a companionable silence. A silence which was broken several moments later when Grissom's cell phone ringing. Glancing at the caller id he glanced up at Catherine and excused himself before heading out of the cubicle. Catherine watched him leave and heard him murmur a quick 'Hi." in a manner that made her assume it was Sara on the other end of the line.

Glancing back at her younger colleague, she pulled her seat closer to the bed and took one of his hands. She had the same feeling of déjà vu as she had experienced in the waiting room.

She sincerely hoped that this would be the last time they would find themselves in this position. There had already been too many hospital stints for both of them.

Grissom headed out of the intensive care unit and back into the waiting room where he had more privacy.

"How is Nick doing?" Sara asked without preamble, voice full of concern.

Grissom detailed Nick's injuries and prognosis. He glanced out of the hospital window as he spoke and did a double take as he realised how high the sun was. Checking his watch, he yawned inadvertently when he saw it was past midday.

"Any news on Alex?" he asked, trying to get his mind away from his tiredness.

Sara filled him in on Alex's arrest and on his request to see her. And she talked to him about her desire to cut herself off from her brother once and for all but also of her crushing guilt that she was absolving herself from all the responsibility of the only family she had left - even after he had so very nearly killed her close friend.

"Sara…"

"Gil, I know. I know what you're going to say and I would love to be able to tell you that I don't care….but a part of me still does and I don't know how to stop caring. He's still my family. He's the only family I've got." she said, emotion cracking her voice.

"Sara." Grissom replied - his voice strained by a combination of exhaustion and frustration, "I'm your family now too. When we entered the commitment of marriage we started our own family. It's what we both wanted. It's what I still want…..but you need to choose."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Sweetheart…." his voice was little more than a whisper. He hadn't meant for it to come out like that - hadn't meant for it to sound so confronting - and he now sincerely wished that they weren't having this conversation over the phone.

"Sara…..talk to me, please."

"Gil. You know I love you. I've always loved you…..and I always will. You are my life…my future. I just need to get my head together…just a day or two. OK?"

Grissom dropped his head down.

"Sara, don't do this….please." he almost whispered. "Don't lock me out like this.""Just a day or two…I just need to be by myself. I love you."Grissom opened his mouth to reply but the connection was terminated before he could say anything. Snapping his phone shut in frustration he took a couple of steadying breaths.

It took a great deal to fluster Gil Grissom, but the Sidle family had managed it.

Shoving his cell back into his jacket pocket he turned and headed back into Nick's room.

Catherine looked up as he entered and raised her eyebrows in question when he dropped heavily down into his chair.

"Everything OK?" she asked tentatively.

Grissom sighed and rubbed a weary hand across his face.

"Yeah. Everything's fine" he replied, although the tone of his voice belied his words. "They found Alex and have him in custody at the station."

Catherine shrugged.

"Well, that's good news." she replied. "How's Sara doing?"

Grissom groaned and dropped his head into his hands. It was unlike him to be so outwardly expressive and Catherine raised her eyebrows once more. Maybe marriage had been good for him in more ways than one, she thought.

Finally, Gil Grissom had to stop being an emotional island.

Thanks for reading and many thanks again to the people who have taken the time to review the last chapter. It was greatly appreciated. I would love to hear your feedback on this chapter too so please consider hitting the review button now….