Nick arrived at the hospital with food in hand for himself, Catherine, Brass and whoever else may be visiting. Catherine had let him know earlier that someone had finally reached Grissom, and that there had been no change with Sara, so he was feeling optimistic. He was surprised to see Catherine in the hall on her phone and Jim leaning heavily against a wall. His heart sank.

"What happened?"

"Sara's in surgery. There was an infection. An abscess ruptured. They're, uh, trying to repair the damage and remove the infection." Brass explained, not wanting to elaborate on the details.

"How the hell did they miss that?" Nick asked angrily.

"It's complicated." Brass answered. "From what the doc said, it wasn't something that could have been picked up easily. They didn't know." Catherine joined them after hanging up the phone.

"Grissom will be back by Friday." She said firmly. "His group coordinator has someone on their way to pick him up."

"Well, that's something." Nick said.

"What if she doesn't want him here?" Brass asked quietly. "We were all so focused on getting him back, but what if she wakes up and wants nothing to do with him?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Catherine said firmly, cutting him off. "She didn't sign the divorce papers. She didn't update her next of kin or emergency contact information. She even left him as her medical proxy. So yeah, she might be pissed at him, but obviously she wasn't ready to cut him out of her life." She wasn't willing to consider that the couple that seemed destined to be together might have actually had reason to separate.

"Catherine's right. She may be mad at him, but she still loves him." Nick said firmly.

"I hope you're right." Brass sighed.

"So what did Dr. Mark have you sign?" Catherine asked, curious.

"Oh, he needed someone to sign permission for the surgery... They, uh, they have to remove the stuff that was damaged when the abscess ruptured." Brass said hesitantly. "He called Grissom but couldn't get an answer, so I had to sign... I told them to just do what they needed to do so she'd be ok."

"Good. That was the right call then." Nick reassured him. "But how about instead of standing around in the hallway, we wait in her room?" He gestured at the door.

"It's still a bit of a mess." Catherine told him. "Let's go to the lounge area. I'll let the nurse know where she can find us. And we can eat some dinner." she pointed at the bags Nick held in his hand.

Nick and Catherine could see that Brass was distracted while they ate. He picked at his food before pushing it aside, and then began to pace. His face was pinched and he mumbled something under his breath that appeared to be a variety of creative curses for Sara's husband.

"Do you know what's got him so upset?" Nick asked Catherine quietly.

"I mean, he was there when she crashed. It probably spooked him. And then we've finally gotten ahold of Grissom and he turns and appoints Brass to make medical decisions? And Gil doesn't even answer his phone knowing Sara's here? He's got to be pissed as hell to be in this situation." Catherine mused.

"You don't think there's any more to it?" Nick asked. "I guess it's a lot of pressure on him having to sign to agree to the surgery." He tilted his head to the side a bit. "But it doesn't sound like it was an obvious decision. They didn't have a choice really. Did he say what it was exactly?"

"He didn't want to talk about it." Catherine replied. "Just that they had to remove a lot of damaged tissue." Her eyes widened. "I guess I didn't give that much thought. What organs they might need to remove. What if Sara is left with permanent damage? Losing a kidney or a spleen or a lung? Shit." None of these were scenarios that had even crossed her mind.

"I'm sure if it was that serious, he would have said something, right?" Nick questioned.

"You're right. But either way, he left the decision with the surgeons. They're the experts, and he just agreed to go with what they felt was best." Catherine sighed as Brass dropped back to the chair beside her, and poked at his burger again. "I never thought I'd see the day that Jim Brass turned down a free burger." She teased, eliciting a half smile from him.

"Not really hungry." He admitted. "Why didn't Gil pick up the damned phone?"

"Maybe he was dealing with something with the boat." Catherine suggested. "His coordinator said he was out there alone. It's got to be difficult to manage everything himself. It might just be that his hands weren't free." She tried to reassure him. "But do you really think he would have made a different call?"

"No, he would have done the same thing." Brass admitted.

"And he chose the right person." Nick spoke up. "If Sara had to choose someone other than Grissom, she would have picked you. She trusts you. And you know she won't be mad at you."

"I hope so, Nick. I really hope you're right." They sat in silence as Brass continued to pick at his food. Catherine finished up quickly and stood to throw out the garbage and then looked at her watch.

"Everyone will be getting up for work. Maybe we should call DB, update him so he can tell the team?" She suggested. Nick sighed.

"Yeah, you call DB. But I'll call Greg. He'll be pissed if he doesn't hear it straight from us."

Grissom stared at his phone, angry with himself that he had missed the doctor's call. He had finished packing quickly and then transferred all the evidence he had collected to a secure storage system to be transported back to the group's headquarters. What he had should be sufficient for the group on the fishing boats to be charged, but he knew that it was likely they would slip away unseen if someone wasn't actively tailing them. Jack had promised someone else would take over and he had to trust him... Either way, Sara was more important. Finding nothing left for him to do except wait, and pace anxiously. He replayed the phone message over and over.

"Dr. Grissom, this is Dr. Mark. Unfortunately Sara has had a setback. After Sara's miscarriage, a piece of retained tissue became infected and developed into an abscess, which ruptured 20 minutes ago. We had hoped to get your permission to perform a hysterectomy. I really don't see any other option at this point. If we don't hear from you in the next five minutes we will speak to Detective Brass and have him sign the consent forms. I promise, we're doing everything we can for her."

Grissom dropped to the ground as he held his head in his hands. The migraine he had been trying to avoid had reached a peak. Sara was still young. She had desperately wanted a child of her own. And after losing their baby, he was convinced that he was the problem. His age would have complicated things and increased the risk of abnormalities. So alone on his boat, while Sara was suffering alone in Las Vegas, he had made the decision that the only way she could be happy and have a child was with someone else. But not only had their loss been the thing that drove him away from her, it had now taken away her chance of ever having a baby. How could things have gone so terribly wrong for them, and for her? All he wanted was for her to be happy. Instead, now he was indirectly responsible for even more suffering.

He managed to drag himself to the bed, and swallow two more pills to hopefully take the edge off the migraine. He reached into the drawer beside the bed and pulled out a little ceramic bee that matched Sara's. The tiny urn appeared to be a small statuette. He kept his with him, and he knew Sara's lived on her nightstand. Each held the smallest amount of ashes, the remains of their child. He held it to his chest and cried. It was all he had left of their little Honey Bee.