I'm Back

Later that day they moved Catherine and Sara to a semi-private room that would enable them to share a room. Julie went with them because in a short amount of time these two women had grown on her. As she was getting ready to leave the room she looked at both of them and laughed. "You two were made for each other. You probably won't have to stay in the hospital much longer but I'm sure you will manage to make life interesting for the staff here too."

"Hey I didn't ask this guy to try to kill me in your ICU. By the way, Brass told me what you did to alert him and I want to thank you. You took a risk, it paid off but it was a risk none the less and thank you. It probably saved our lives."

"Just make sure I don't have to do it again. What you guys do is too nerve wracking, I prefer the sedate atmosphere of the ICU where all we deal with are life and death emergencies like Catherine and her heart attack. Those situations I can deal with, you can keep the knife wielding maniacs to yourself thank you. You two take care of yourselves and each other. I hope the next time I see either of you it is because you are here in a work capacity. Take care."

"See ya Julie.

Soon after she left another nurse walked in. "My name is Susan and I am the nurse in charge of the day shift and I had a very interesting conversation with Julie and she mentioned heart attacks, knife wielding maniacs dressed as a priest and a cop. What's next a fireman?

"If one does show up, don't let him in." Sara replied in a slightly slurred voice.

"So which one of you is he after?"

"At this point I think we pissed him off enough so that he wants both of us. Me because I can identify him and Sara because…well because he thinks he's her soul mate. He's getting sloppy but he's also getting desperate." As she said this Captain Brass walked in the room. "Jim this is Susan she's the nurse in charge, Susan this is Captain Jim Brass and he's taken it upon himself to personally make sure this guy is caught and brought to justice."

"Ah just the woman I needed to see. Here are some pictures I want you and your staff to keep. Those are the only guards that will be on and they know who will be allowed to visit. Sara does not have any brothers, or sisters." He turned to Sara and saw she was smiling, he knew some of her background but not all. "So Sara are there any aunt, uncles old grannies or any other relatives that might come out of the woodwork to visit you after all these years?" She laughed and shook her head. Brass turned back to Susan. "So if anyone comes here claiming to be family, call me immediately and try to keep them here. She has not requested a priest, rabbi, monk, nun, shaman, faith healer or a medicine man." He turned to Catherine and Sara who sat with huge grins on their faces. "Did I miss anybody?" The both shook their heads. "Clear any hospital personnel to make sure they really work here. This guy is tricky. If he's smart he will have given up on getting them here at the hospital but so far he hasn't shown that he's particularly intelligent. The girls have managed to thwart this guy at every turn. I like that word thwart." he turned and smiled at Sara and Catherine.

"Jim you seem to be enjoying this far too much. Do you know when the boys will be able to visit?"

"Well Catherine, let me finish with Susan and then we can talk." He turned to Susan. "Make sure everyone wears ID badges at all times because my guys outside the door will be checking them and verifying them against the hospital employee list they have. Anything else I may have missed?" He turned to the two women behind him.

Sara looked at Catherine and they both turned back to him and Sara could hardly keep a straight face as she answered. "Nope that just about covers it."

"You heard the lady, if you need anything or have any questions give me a call, here's my card. Thank you for being so understanding and patient Susan."

"Oh don't thank me yet Captain Brass, if these girls give me any trouble I will call you personally and have you deal with them." She smiled and turned and left.

"Now ladies let's talk shop. Grissom has been a complete bear and I may have made things worse. I told him to get his head out of his ass after he more or less told me I was incompetent because I let you get beat up. Nice bruises by the way."

"Thank you I'm rather pleased with them myself. I think that the guys will love them don't you? Do you like my boo boo?" She pointed to her neck. "That's what Lindsey called it. And she kissed it better.

Brass turned to Catherine and she was laughing so hard she was crying. "Isn't she cute? They gave her a shot earlier. Payback is a bitch baby. I am so going to like this."

"Yup I'm your baby aren't I? How long you going to stay over there in that bed? Come over here." She patted the bed beside her and grinned at Catherine.

"Sara Jim is here behave!"

"Oh yeah Jim is here. Hey Jim I got a boo boo, oops I already told you that didn't I?" She giggled and laid her head back. "Hey look. Jim you got a pencil?"

"Why would you need a pencil?" He looked at her and all he could do is smile.

"See those holes up in the ceiling? I bet I can show you how they got there."

"Jim do not give her a pencil, she's going to throw it up there and try to make it stick in the ceiling. She does it at the office all the time when we are stuck doing paperwork and she's bored. That's what you were going to do isn't it?"

Sara pouted and looked at Catherine. "Spoil sport. How did you know I do that?'

Catherine couldn't believe how cute she was when she pouted. She'd never seen this side of Sara and she probably never would again. "Because I saw one sticking in the ceiling the last time you did paperwork."

"I know, I couldn't reach that one so I decided to leave it there. Come on Jim just one time, I can stand on the bed and get it down later or maybe we can leave it there to see how long it takes for someone to notice it. Come on." She turned her pout on him and it was too hard for him to resist.

"Just one and if it doesn't stick the first time that's it." He reached in his pocket and gave her a pencil.

"I can't believe you are encouraging her Jim. I also can't believe you carry a pencil in your pocket these days. Who carries a regular pencil in their pocket anymore? Well, besides you that is."

She was laughing at the look of concentration on Sara's face, her tongue peeking out from the corner of her mouth. "I can do this with my eyes closed. Ha see?" She laid back with a satisfied grin on her face as she looked up at the pencil now stuck in the soft ceiling. "Told you I could do it." She uncovered herself and started to stand up on the bed, Brass looked to Catherine.

"Sara what are you doing?"

"I'm going to get it down now so I can do it again when the guys get here."

"Lay back down right now before you hurt yourself! I bet you couldn't even stand up on the solid floor without falling over let alone on a soft bed."

"How much you want to bet sweet cheeks?" She said as she flopped back down on her bed.

"Did you just call me sweet cheeks? I can't believe you called me sweet cheeks." Catherine was laughing so hard she had to lay back down on the bed. "God you are so adorable, I could just kiss you all over."

"Hey I'm still in the room here, so don't go starting something. Maybe I should just leave the two of you alone and head back to the office and let the boys know they can visit."

"Sorry Jim, why don't you call them and tell them to get their butts over here so they can see her like this. She'll never live it down." She looked over and Sara was still staring at the pencil but she had started humming. "Hurry Jim this will only last about an hour. The guys have to see this."

"Catherine Willows you are an evil woman." But he was laughing and dialing the phone as he said it. "Hey Greg, round up Nick and Warrick and head over to Desert Palms." He listened to what he was saying. "Yeah they moved them this morning. Room 212. Ok see you in about 10 minutes."

"Cat I think we need the nurse, my side is bleeding." Brass moved over to the right side of the bed and Catherine was frantically pushing the call button.

"Are you in pain?" Catherine was getting out of her bed as she asked.

"You just want them to give me another shot so I'm high when the guys get here. Bet you didn't think I heard did ya? It does hurt a little though." As she said this the nurse came in the room.

"What seems to be the problem ladies? My name is James and I'll be your nurse for the next 7 hours."

"Her side is bleeding." Catherine was standing by her side holding her hand. "And she says it hurts."

"So what have you been doing to start it bleeding? You haven't been doing anything you shouldn't be doing have you? I saw that blush Sara, what did you do?" She pointed up and James looked up and burst out laughing. "Oh you are too much. Now unless you were standing on your head when you tossed it up there that wouldn't be strenuous enough to start the bleeding. Oh no you didn't, you did not try to get it down did you? Tell me you did not stand on the bed and try to get it down." James removed the bandage from her side and saw that one of the stitches had been pulled out.

"I tried but they wouldn't let me." She complained.

"Ok this is the deal, no more of that ok? I'm going to give you just a little more of the same thing they gave you earlier. I shouldn't, just to teach you a lesson but I'm sure that the lovely Catherine would tackle me and give you the shot herself. Once the shot kicks in I will stitch this up, you have to promise to behave. How does that sound?" He could tell from the look on Sara's face that the shot was starting to kick in.

"Sounds like a plan Stan. I know your name is James but it doesn't rhyme with plan and people always say Stan. No offense James but I can't think of how to use your name like that. Give me time I might come up with something. But James is a tough one to rhyme."

"Is she always this talkative?" He asked Catherine.

"Apparently only when she's high. She's usually kind of sullen but I like her like this, can I take some of that stuff home with us? Just slip it to her every once in awhile."

"She's is kind of cute like this isn't she?"

"I'm always this cute, can't change how a person looks whenever you please you know? Oh you didn't mean physically cute you meant…the word slips my mind right now but I know what you mean. Ouch I can still feel that."

"Sara I finished 3 minutes ago, I'm not even touching you."

"Oops must be in my head then. Sorry. Hey look who's here? It's the cavalry. Are you going to break us out of here? This is James he's our nurse and he just gave me some really gooood drugs. James can you give them some so I'm not the only one making a fool of myself. Guess not. See ya James catch ya later. Thank you for all your help. Bye bye." James was laughing as he left the room.

"Did she just say bye bye and giggle? I don't think I've ever seen Sara giggle even when she was drunk."

"She does that a lot on these drugs Greg."

"Hey guys look what I did." She giggled again and pointed up to the ceiling. "I did it in one try and Brass didn't think I could do it."

"She's so proud of herself, you'd think she won a medal or something." Brass said as he watched her.

"Oh man this is too much. Sara Sidle on drugs, I would have paid to watch this." Greg said as he pulled up a chair and turned to Catherine. "Are you guys ok?"

"She was lucky, it could have been much worse. She was able to knock over some equipment that alerted the guard, he came in and grabbed the guy. I heard the guard got cut pretty badly himself. Is he ok?"

"How can you be worried about him? If he had done his job you two would probably be on your way home right now instead of her having to get stitched up again. Why did she need more stitches now?"

"Come on Nicky relax. Jim already laid into him in the hallway and again while they were stitching up a nasty gash on his cheek. I almost feel sorry for him. As to why Sara needed more stitches, you can blame it on that." She pointed up to the pencil. "She was trying to stand up on the bed to get it down. I think that's when she ripped out one of her stitches and it started to bleed."

"Hellooo I'm still in the room. Did you forget me? Hey Greggo did ya miss me? What ya guys been doin'?" Sara pouted because she thought they were ignoring her.

"Oh isn't she cute? Look at that pout." Warrick couldn't believe this was the same woman who avoided contact with people in the office and was usually so serious.

"I think she learned it from Lindsey earlier today."

"Lindsey wants me to be her other Mommy. Oops I don't think I was supposed to say that was I Cat, sorry I let the cat out of the bag." She fell back on the bed and started laughing at her own joke. "Let the cat out of the bag, that's a good one hey Cat?"

"What's this about Sara being called Mommy? Grissom is going to go ballistic when he hears this. Does this mean it's serious between the two of you?" Warrick looked to Catherine and waited for her answer. "It's ok Catherine we already know how you two feel."

"You do? I guess if Brass figured it out it wouldn't be hard for you guys." She turned and smiled at Brass.

"Yeah because they have that CSI thing going on ya know?" Sara said to know one in particular and she was just staring up at the pencil in the ceiling.

"Yeah but we had to spell it out to our cowboy over there. He was totally clueless."

"Always the gentleman hey Nicky?" Catherine smiled as Nick blushed.

"Yeah Nicky is our gentle cowboy. Hey Nicky be a gentleman and get my pencil down I want to try it again. We could have a contest, anybody got any pencils?"

"Don't you dare give her another pencil, do not encourage her like Brass did." She looked over and saw Sara yawn. "Sara why don't you close your eyes and rest, the guys can come back later or maybe they'll just hang out and we can talk."

"You just want me to fall asleep so you can talk about me don't ya?" Her voice was starting to slur.

"We don't have to wait for you to sleep for that." Nick went to Sara's beside and took her hand. "We'll be back later ok sweetie?" He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I've been getting lots of kisses lately, I like it." She was asleep as soon as she finished speaking.

"How are you two doing? Are you ok?"

"Yeah Rick we're doing ok. She was doing really well until she tried to stand up on her bed." She looked pointedly towards Brass. "We should be out of here in a day or so. Then we will head to my place for hopefully a week or two. I plan on taking some vacation time to take care of Sara if they try to send me back to work early."

"So have you two been dating behind our backs or is this something new?" Warrick watched Catherine as she stroked Sara's hair absentmindedly. He was happy for his friend that she had finally admitted to both herself and Sara how she felt.

"This is something new so when she sobers up go easy on her or she might go back into her shell. Let's feel this out and see how she's going to react to some light teasing ok? I don't want to scare her away before we even start anything. Please guys this is too important to screw it up."

"Ok but if you hurt her I will be the first person in line to kick your butt." Greg smiled to take the bite out of his statement but Catherine could still tell he was somewhat serious.

"Well Greg I don't plan on hurting her so you can rest easy and put your ass kicking boots away."

"You better not hurt her or he will have to fight me for a place in line." They all turned to see Grissom standing in the doorway.