A/N: Awesome beta by Jellybean on this chapter. Thank you as always for the comments/reviews
Chapter 24
Awareness returned reluctantly. He'd found respite from the punishing pain in the sea of blackness, and he was reluctant to give it up. For the first time, too long for him to fully remember, he felt a sense of safety in the darkness.
He winced as pain pierced his head like a lightning bolt. An incessant bleeping filled the surrounding darkness. Panic and fear consumed him as unfamiliar voices added to the cacophony of sound. He felt himself unwillingly pulled towards the sound, despite his best efforts to remain in the dark. He fought it because with consciousness came pain and remembrance.
His eyes opened to see an unfamilar room. His chest tightened with anxiety. Hazy shapes loomed over him, and he flinched back despite their reassuring voices and gentle touch because his mind immediately jettisoned to his last conscious memory.
"D-Daniel!"
Grissom's voice sounded tortured with intolerable pain. Two nurses worked to restrain him as he tried to rise from the bed.
"The son-of-a-bitch, killed my son!" he screamed. He made contact with the two nurses and tried to make them understand the dire situation. "The son-of-a-bitch killed Daniel! He shot…. he shot my little boy!" he sobbed, trying to rise from the bed once more.
The heaviness of his arms and the blinding pain in his shoulder hindered much of his moment, but it confused him further why his right wrist wouldn't follow his command. When his left arm had lashed out blindly the nurses restrained him again and guided him to lay back. He never heard the two nurses get the OK to offer the patient a sedative.
"Oh, God! Daniel!" His son's name was a mantra on his lips as he willing returned to the dark void of oblivion.
Sara stared unseeingly out the window of the family waiting room of Desert View Hospital in Pahrump. Alone, she'd given up trying to read the outdated magazines on the coffee table in the center of the room. She stood because she was far too nervous to sit for too long.
Resting her forehead against the glass she closed her eyes, the background noise of the busy hospital fading. The last several hours seemed like a blur. It seemed like a lifetime since she was pushing Daniel in a swing in the park.
She knew it was a risk to even enter CSI under suspension, but it was worth the risk. Once Jacobsen had given her supervisor consent to search the GPS on Hobson's car, Karson had moved swiftly. She, Jacobsen, Karsen and Nick were huddled in the A/V lab deciphering the location. Of them, one that stood out was what seemed to be an abandoned warehouse in Pahrump.
Working with the Nye County Sheriff's Office, Karson arranged to meet up with the authorities if there was a scene to process. While neither Karson nor Nick had shown signs of understanding events pointed towards Grissom being framed, she was glad Karson didn't want Karen or another CSI on the case.
No matter who was working the warehouse, Sara knew she was in for a long wait. Despite Sara having some faith in Karson Hess, Jacobsen had not held the same conviction. Without anyone's knowledge but Sara, he had given the warehouse coordinates to Ferguson, his investigator.
He told Sara the investigator could witness the scene unfold from a distance and update the two of them. "I am just looking out for Gil's best interests," he told Sara.
All Sara looked for was finding Grissom alive.
They did find Grissom in that warehouse. He was in a bad way, unconscious in a side room of the warehouse. Beside him they'd found the shirt-less dead body of the assistant warden David Fromansky. The remains of scattered Hot Pockets, littered the floor, along with an overturned table and microwave with a broken door.
No one else from the bus was at the warehouse, dead or alive. Including Rory Dunbar.
"Mrs Grissom?" a soft voice broke into Sara's thoughts, bringing her back to the present. She pushed away from the window, to face a woman who couldn't be older than her early thirties at most.
"Yes. How is my husband?"
The doctor nodded, with a small genial smile. "I'm Dr. Erin Tanner, and looking after Mr. Grissom, while he's here. He was beaten quite badly, leaving him with several cuts and severe bruising to his face, arms and torso. His nose had been broken and was reset. There are some severe abrasions on both wrists, but fortunately no breaks. He has severely bruised ribs, and is showing signs of a possible concussion. There are over 150 lacerations on his back, but only a few required stitches. There is also evidence of several burn spots on different areas of his body. His left knee is severely swollen. A scan showed some ligment damage, but nothing that would require immediate surgery. We have drained some build-up of fluid to help reduce the swelling and to help make him a little more comfortable."
Sara's face paled as Dr Tanner listed Grissom's injuries. But she knew she had to gather her strength. It would be impossible to believe he would have escaped the past three days without harm. She wanted to be strong to support him as best as she possibly could.
"Can I see him?"
Dr. Tanner glanced at her watch. "When he regained consciousness he was quite agitated and distressed. So we had to sedate him."
"The pain was that bad?" Sara asked as she bit her lip.
"While I have no doubt he has some level of pain, he is on pain medication intravenously," the doctor said. "Actually the nurses heard him say he was extremely distressed about Daniel? Is that your son?"
"Yes. He's our son," Sara answered. When the doctor remained silent, Sara narrowed her eyes. "What about Daniel? Did he ask about him?"
Tanner watched Sara carefully, noticing that while the situation was delicate, Sara wasn't showing any great distress or emotional upset. On the contrary, if anything she showed only unease at the unexpected turn of the conversation.
Knowing there was no easy way of saying it, Tanner went with honesty, sensing that the woman before her would appreciate that more than being coddled. "Your husband had said someone hurt Daniel. Is he OK?"
"Daniel is fine," Sara stated, evenly. "He's with my mother-in-law, Gil's Mom, back in Vegas. I spoke to them both, before coming here. What exactly did Gil say?"
Tanner nodded, a feeling of relief passed over her. "Perhaps you can ask the nurses who were in the room with him. They could answer that question better, but honestly, Mrs. Grissom, his injuries combined with the pain killers he's getting intravenously could have prompted a terrible hallucination. That wouldn't be the first time a patient had had such a reaction."
Although Sara knew the doctor was trying to reassure her, Sara wasn't as convinced of such a theory, especially considering what he had gone through.
As they approached Grissom's room, an alarm sounded and two nurses left the station towards the private room. His room was easy to spot because it was the only one on the floor with an armed guard at the door.
Dr. Tanner glanced quickly at Sara, and in light of what they had just discussed, decided her presence might help rather than hinder. She gently grabbed Sara's elbow and guided her past the armed guard.
Sara stood just to the left of the doorway as the nurses milled around Grissom. On his left was an IV line and heart monitor.
"You have to find him!"
While Grissom's voice sounded weak, it still carried over even the sound of the heart monitor. When he attempted to sit up he uttered a load groan as pain seared through his arms and shoulders. " You need to find my son! He killed my son!"
Sara craned her neck to get a better look at him, and she gasped in shock given the first glimpse of her husband. Through the ghastly pallor of his skin, she could see that his face was swollen and brusied. Both eyes were black, and the skin surrounding them were a deep purple, almost black as well. Around his wrists were gauzed bandages that were soiled with blood as his movement caused his wounds to open.
He struggled and pushed against the doctor and two nurses who attempted in vain to get him to lay back down. But when Grissom caught sight of his wife standing a few feet from the foot of his bed, he froze. The heaviness in his chest increased and his panic overwhelmed him.
He mistook the look of shock on her face for something else entirely. His face crumpled under her scrutiny as tears leaked from his eyes.
"Oh God, Sara! He's gone!" he gasped, his chest rising and falling rapidly as panic held his chest in a vice grip. "H-he killed our little boy! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"
Sara stepped forward but Grissom fell back against his mattress and faced away from her. He was too ashamed to face her.
Dr. Tanner nodded her encouragement to Sara, and then she and the nurses moved towards the back of the room.
Grissom flinched as Sara gently ran her fingers through his grey curls. It was the first time she had been so close to him in more than a month. She noticed he'd both lost weight and appeared to have aged during his imprisonment. She kept her touch light and slow, working to keep the despair she felt at what he'd suffered out of her voice.
"Gil, look at me honey, please." She coaxed him with her voice soft, as her fingers still gently stroked his hair. She continued on in the same gentle reassuring tone, when he refused to look her. "Gil, sweetheart, Daniel's just fine. He's with your mom, back in Vegas."
Grissom shook his head. "It's all my fault! H-he was at d-day care! The sniper said he had a c-clear s-shot!"
"No, baby," Sara continued to soothe gently. "Daniel is safe and well with your mom. I couldn't bring him with me because he wouldn't have been allowed to see you yet. Look at me, and I can show you, baby. Daniel's fine."
Grissom moved his head only slightly, so he could see Sara with only one eye. And Sara's heart broke at the mixed expression of devastation and hope that warred on his face.
"Let me show you, hon. OK. Nothing happened to Daniel, I promise." With what she hoped was a reassuring smile, Sara lifted up her phone for Grissom to see, and dialed Betty's number. After a few rings, Betty's face filled the video screen.
Betty looked at Sara as if she was searching for answers before Sara could comprehend any questions Grissom's mother might sign. She nodded her head and swiped away a tear as Sara gave her a quick update. Then she asked Betty a question, who responded by moving away from the screen.
She returned a short moment later with Daniel in her arms. She placed him in a high chair and set the phone so his face would replace hers on the Facetime screen.
Sara beamed at her son. "Hey, Cricket! Can you say 'Hi' to Daddy?" She turned the phone to face Grissom, just as Daniel, said "Dadada!" and pointed at the screen.
Grissom's chest constricted a moment, before the vice like grip released its painful hold on his chest. Tears ran anew down his bruised face, as he gazed at his son for the first time in almost two months.
"Daniel," he whispered brokenly.
"He's just fine and with your mom," Sara said, a soft smile on her face.
Grissom took his eyes off the phone for a moment to look at Sara. He swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded to her, confirming that he believed her. Then he returned his attention to Daniel. With a smile, he moved his right hand, as though to touch his son, through the screen.
But he hissed in pain, as he arm was jerked back, and pulled on his arm and shoulders.
The joy of seeing his son was brief as he realized that his right hand was handcuffed to the railing of the bed. It seemed he'd escaped one nightmare, only to be thrust head first into another one.