Catherine was just entering the hospital on her way back from a late lunch, when she got the text she had been waiting for.
"Finally!" she exclaimed as she entered Sara's room, accidentally waking Brass.
"You won the lottery?" Brass asked sarcastically as he rolled to his back and sat up.
"Better. We found Gil." She said triumphantly.
"I don't even want to know what you did, do I?" he asked. "When is he coming back?"
"Not sure. Maybe found isn't the right word. But Heather spoke to him a few minutes ago and he's supposed to be calling Sara's doctor now."
"Good. You hear that Sara? Miss fancy pants FBI over here managed to track down your missing husband." Brass spoke to Sara and squeezed her hand. "Hopefully he can tell those doctors of yours to talk to us."
"Hello. This is Dr. Mark." A young sounding voice said.
"Hello. Dr. Mark, this is Gil Grissom. I was told to call you about my wife, Sara."
"Dr. Grissom, thank you for calling! We've had a hard time tracking you down. I understand you're out of the country at the moment, but we need to talk to you about Sara. She's been here for a few days now and while she's definitely improving, she hasn't regained consciousness yet. We were hoping to ask your approval before placing her NG tube but when we couldn't reach you we had to go ahead with it. Now Sara is suffering from some pretty severe malnutrition. We don't typically see cases like this here unless it's our patients with anorexia nervosa, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I've spoken to her physician, and it looks like this started a few months ago. Have you spoken to your wife recently?"
"No, we, uh... well I guess you're aware of her health issues a few months ago." Grissom stumbled over his words, feeling the pain from those months come back. "She was pretty sick, and then, well, we thought things would improve."
"Yes, normally things would, but it looks like that didn't happen in Sara's case. Her friends have reported she wasn't eating well and didn't appear to be sleeping. I'm wondering if maybe somehow there were complications that were missed. She had lost a significant amount of weight which is what lead to her problems that brought her to us. When she came in she was having a great deal of trouble with her liver, kidneys and heart, but 48 hours of IV fluids and electrolytes seem to have helped stabilise things a bit. Her heart and liver function still aren't where we would like them to be but I think her kidneys were almost back to normal with the last round of blood tests we did. We also did a CT scan to rule out any head injury, and ran other tests to check for signs of an infection. Fortunately there don't seem to be any neurological problems, but the nervous system can be a tricky thing, and we may not know until she wakes up."
"If she's improving, when do you expect that to be?"
"Honestly we don't know. Right now, there is no obvious explanation for why she hasn't woken up yet. But the human brain and nervous system are far more complicated than we understand and there could be many things preventing her from waking up. While there is no physical sign of any brain trauma or damage, it is possible there is something we aren't seeing. It's also possible that she's just simply exhausted and will sleep until her body is ready to wake up." He explained gently. "While I don't know the details of your work or your location, I do think it might be a good idea to see if you can come home. If not, we will try to reach you at this number when decisions need to be made, or you can appoint someone else to act as her proxy in your absence."
"I... I don't know how quickly I can get back. Do you know who has been with her?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch everyone's names. I believe there's a lady called Catherine who is frequently present and taking charge. She described herself as like a sister to Sara, and mentioned two friends like brothers and another like a father."
"Detective Jim Brass. If I can't be there and you can't reach me to make decisions, then he can make decisions for her. She trusts him." Grissom said, feeling like his heart had been pierced by a knife. Perhaps this was the best option, to quietly slip away and leave things in Brass's capable hands.
"OK, I'll speak to him when he comes in next." Dr. Mark said. "Would you like me to call you when we have updates on her condition?"
"Yes, please." Grissom said quietly.
"I'll do that then. And please, feel free to call me any time. If I don't answer, I'll call you back as soon as I can."
"Thank you."
Dr. Mark entered the room with a smile on his face.
"Good morning Sara. Catherine. Jim Brass?" he checked, nodding to the man holding Sara's hand.
"Yeah, that'd be me." He said. "Did Grissom call you?"
"He did, I'm pleased I was able to speak to him. And he gave me permission to speak to the two of you about Sara." He said with a smile. "Now, Detective Brass"
"Jim. It's Jim."
"OK, Jim, he also designated you as Sara's medical proxy should we be unable to reach him." he explained, and noticed as their faces fell.
"Damnit!" Catherine nearly yelled. "Does that mean he's not coming back?"
"I'm not sure, but he did indicate that he wished to be kept up to date, and we've promised to try to reach him should anything change." he said gently, relieved when Catherine quickly calmed down. "Now, could you two excuse me for a few minutes while I examine Mrs. Sidle?" both nodded and quietly left the room.
"I've got a few calls to make." Catherine said to Brass as they waited. "I'll just be outside, be back in a few minutes."
Shortly after she left, Dr. Mark gestured for Brass to come back in. As he re-entered the room, an alarm sounded and the brief calm he felt was shattered as he was pushed aside and several nurses came running into the room.