Greg groggily answered his phone when it woke him from his sleep. Before he was fully awake, before he remembered everything that had happened in the past few days, he felt peaceful but irritated to be woken. The sound of Nick's voice made reality hit him like a brick wall.

"Sara's ok." Nick reassured Greg, not wanting him to immediately panic. "But she's had a rough few hours. She's back in her room now but she had a 'cardiac event' earlier and was taken in for surgery. Doctors said there was an abscess that burst, and they needed to remove the infection. But they think she's doing ok now, Greg, and they're optimistic she should improve quickly now." He tried to be brief but still give Greg the information he needed.

"Infection? I thought it was just malnutrition." Greg questioned. "How did they miss that? Shouldn't it have been obvious if she had an abscess?"

"I'm not a doctor, Greg. They said it wasn't something they'd normally look for. But she's ok now. She's back in her room, her heart is fine now. OK?"

"Yeah. I guess. I need to see her, I'm coming in. Just let me get dressed."

"You've got work in less than two hours, Greg. DB really needs you there. By the time you get here, and then to the lab, you'd be late." Greg groaned in frustration and tried not to yell or throw something. "I know you want to be here, but I need you to stay with her tomorrow while I'm at work. I'm here with her now, so are Brass and Catherine. You can come by in the morning to see her. OK?"

"Fine. But you're sure she's doing better?" He asked, anxious because he couldn't see her himself.

"I'm sure. She's even looking a bit better now, too. Do you want me to send you a picture of the heart monitor thing?"

"Yes!" Greg answered quickly.

"Um, ok. If it will make you feel better, I'll do it. Oh! And Catherine finally got someone to track down Grissom. He's on his way back, too."

"Well that's something. How soon will he be back?"

"I don't know. He's somewhere in the middle of the ocean so it won't be today. But hopefully soon. And he was able to talk to the doctor, and he gave permission for them to update us properly now, too."

"Good. And you promise you'll call me if anything else changes? You won't wait until after my shift ends?"

"No, I won't wait Greg. We'll call you if anything at all changes. Now go get ready for work."

"Wait, Nick, put your phone up to her ear for me!" Greg asked, waiting for a moment as he heard the phone move. "Hey Sara, I have to work tonight, so don't do anything exciting while I'm gone, ok? I'll see you in the morning. And it would be really great if you would wake up for me then, ok? Have a good night!" He told her, and then hung up. Checking his texts, he saw that Nick had indeed sent him a picture of the heart monitor and he smiled. He (and Sara) had great friends.

When shift started, Morgan, Greg and Finn were already well into their work. They had all come in early knowing that being short staffed meant extra work and they were hoping to get on top of it quickly. Greg and Finn had managed to process four scenes before finally heading back to the lab, fortunately all seemed to be straightforward cases. Finn took great delight in telling Morgan about their third scene, a break and enter, where the thief was found in the bathroom after calling 911 because he sliced his hand on a piece of broken glass. Their first and second scenes had both been at the same hotel and it was quickly evident that a faulty pipe had resulted in carbon monoxide poisoning of 6 people. All were taken to hospital and released shortly afterwards. Their final scene was a bloody mess - literally - which ended up being the results of two cats and an angry raccoon. Not one drop of the blood was human, but testing it all took hours.

Morgan related her night spent following what seemed like a never ending trail of garbage across a golf course that finally lead to her victim. It had taken the entire shift to collect the evidence and she was exhausted.

DB had spent several hours at the scene of a car accident before both involved parties woke up in hospital and gave their account of what happened. When the evidence found seemed to corroborate their stories, he returned to the lab and the case was given low priority. No one had died, both drivers had admitted to minor infractions, and there would be no need to pursue it any further. He spent the remainder of the evening holed up in his office battling the never ending paperwork.

They held their breaths as the end of shift rolled around, and were relieved when the next call that came in was exactly 29 seconds after they were to clock off. Greg nearly ran out of the building the second he was finished and headed to the hospital, with Finn saying she would stop by to see Sara later. Morgan offered to visit in the evening before work instead, deciding she needed to go home to bed.

Brass had stayed with Nick for a few hours after Catherine left, before Nick put his foot down and insisted Brass go home to bed. After much grumbling, he finally agreed, but made sure Nick had his number in case he or the doctors needed to reach him. He drove home on autopilot, but when he walked through his front door the exhaustion he had been fighting off overwhelmed him, and he didn't even remember making it to bed. Like Sara had just a few days ago, he fell asleep on top of the covers. Six hours later he woke up and called Nick. Reassured that Sara was still fine and nothing had changed, he allowed himself to go back to sleep properly for a few more hours. It was two hours after that when he got a call from Nick and woke up with a jolt.

"Hey Brass, don't worry, she's fine. Just thought you'd want to know that she moved her hand a few minutes ago. The nurse said it may be nothing, but I promised I'd call you if anything happened. You can go back to sleep." Nick told him, the smile on his face evident in his voice.

"I'll be there soon." Brass told him, already up and out of bed. "Keep talking to her."